Oregon psychic's daughter admits elaborate con
Porscha Lee, 25, got involved in the scheme through her mother, a psychic who met the victim in 2004
Associated Press/January 7, 2015
By Steven Dubois
A self-proclaimed psychic who fled the state more than 20 years ago after police raided her home and business is back in Cincinnati to face charges against her.
She is accused of stealing from and and conning at least 11 people in Greater Cincinnati out of as much as $1 million in her fortune-telling parlor from 1989 to 1992.
Known to her clients -- or victims, as authorities allege -- as "Miss Ann," Sonia Marks was indicted in 1994 on charges of conspiracy, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, grand theft and theft.
But she was never arrested. She essentially disappeared in 1992 after Cincinnati police raided her home and business at 901 North Bend Road in College Hill.
That changed in November, when authorities arrested the now 50-year-old woman in Oklahoma City and extradited her to Hamilton County, according to court documents.
Police began investigating Marks in the '90s after a Springfield Township man complained he gave her $3,000 to cure back and leg pains. The 69-year-old man was never cured.
According to Enquirer records, police said Marks typically told people to bring money to her parlor and then told them their bills were full of evil spirits causing their troubles.
Several people told police she promised to extract the spirits and return the money, but never did. At least one person told police she cost him his life savings with false claims to cure ailments and emotional turmoil.
Marks pleaded not guilty in court last month to those charges and is out on $100,000 bond with the condition she wears an electronic-monitoring device and stays in Hamilton County until the case is completed.
Her lawyer, Cornelius "Carl" Lewis, is asking the court to throw out the charges because of the amount of time that's passed.
"The record is void, for 14 years, of any efforts by the state to effectuate the warrant or prosecute the indictment of Mrs. Marks," Lewis wrote in a motion to dismiss the indictment.
Marks has been a law-abiding citizen for 14 years, Lewis writes in the motion.
"She is married with two adult children and (living) a full and active life in Oklahoma," according to the motion. "It would be an injustice to hold her and prosecute her for alleged activity that occurred more than 14 years ago."
Lewis argues authorities are legally prohibited by the statute of limitations from prosecuting her. Marks is scheduled to appear in court later this month for a hearing about the motion to dismiss her charges.
To see more documents/articles regarding this group/organization/subject click here.
