By Chris Fuchs
She was clearly the oldest criminal sitting in the courtroom. She was sitting on one of those tarnished, scratched-up wooden pews next to her husband, who is also old. She was waiting patiently for the clerk to call her name and soon he did — Diana Skolnick.
Skolnick, 77, of Fresh Meadows, rose unsteadily from her seat, maneuvering past her husband to meet her attorney. Together, they stepped into the well of the courtroom where she was to be sentenced Feb. 7 by Justice Doris Chin-Brandt of State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens, for stealing $203,901.78 over an eight-year period from her longtime employer, the Electchester housing complex.
More than two months after she pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny, Skolnick was given a conditional discharge and was sentenced last week to three years probation in exchange for paying back the money she stole as a bookkeeper at Electchester. To keep the sentence, Chin-Brandt told her that she had to “stay out of trouble for three years.”
Skolnick could have received up to 15 years in prison, having been charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of forged instruments, falsifying business records and scheming to defraud.
“She admitted to a series of acts and took responsibility for it,” said Skolnick’s attorney, Robert Sparrow, in an interview last week. “I don’t say she deserves a medal, but she’s been embarrassed.”
As a bookkeeper at Electchester for more than 20 years, it was Skolnick’s charge to return security deposits to tenants who were moving out of their apartments. And since 1992, she performed those duties in at least 25 instances, writing checks to fictitious people and then cashing them herself, said the Queens district attorney, Richard Brown.
Skolnick would cut the checks, usually for amounts ranging from $3,000 to $6,000, and then bring them, along with necessary paperwork, to her supervisors for approval, Brown said. Then, instead of mailing them out, Skolnick would deposit the checks into an account that she established under the name of Diana Cohen, he said. That account had the same address and the same Social Security number as Skolnick’s.
The irregularity was eventually brought to the attention of officials at the Electchester housing complex after a bank teller noticed an unusual number of double endorsements on those checks, Brown said.
When asked why Skolnick stole the funds from her employer, Sparrow, her attorney, said, “I’m not going to comment on that.” He did say that Skolnick had paid her restitution in full, securing the money through her own personal funds.
Reach reporter Chris Fuchs by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
