Rockland lawyer faked residency to qualify as an Orange County judge: feds

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A Rockland County lawyer serving as a Monroe justice has been charged by federal prosecutors with lying and filing false documents about buying a home in Monroe so she could establish residency and legally serve on the bench in the Orange County town.

Lurlyn Winchester, 58, is accused of creating a fake rental lease for her New City home and presenting false rent and security deposit checks meant to fool a loan-issuer into thinking she had rented out her New City home, federal officials said in a criminal complaint.

She needed to prove Monroe residency to serve as justice but she continued to live in New City, prosecutors said. She also is accused of lying to the FBI, which questioned her about a mortgage loan for a house in Monroe that included false documents.

COMPLAINT: Lurlyn Winchester faces federal charges

FBI agents arrested Winchester Wednesday at her New City home on charges of obstruction and making false statements to the FBI about living in Monroe, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.

“As alleged, Lurlyn Winchester, a municipal court judge for the Town of Monroe, lied and provided fake documents to secure a mortgage on a Monroe condominium in an attempt to falsely satisfy the judicial residency requirement," Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said in a news release.

"We should expect and demand integrity in our government," Kim said.

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said judges are expected to know better.

"If anyone should have respect for the rule of law, it should most certainly be those entrusted to uphold it," Sweeney said in a press release.

Winchester and her husband bought a home in the Clarkstown hamlet of New City in 1997, prosecutors said. In November 2013. Winchester won election as a Monroe town justice, providing a Monroe address to satisfy the residency requirements, prosecutors said.

She is accused of claiming she moved from New City to Monroe, Sweeney said. She provided an address in Monroe as her residence, and about Oct. 7, 2013, she registered to vote in Monroe.

Winchester is accused of obtaining a loan that she said would be used to buy a home in Monroe, but prosecutors and the FBI contend she never used that home as her primary residence.

"She allegedly provided false information to her mortgage company, claiming her New City property was being rented to a prospective tenant, and later lied to federal agents who interviewed her about her claims," Sweeney said.

Winchester faces one count of making false statements to a mortgage lending business, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

She also is charged with falsifying records in a federal investigation with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of a federal department or agency. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

If she is convicted, a judge would determine a prison sentence.

READ: Federal complaint against Lurlyn Winchester

Twitter: @lohudlegal and @mattspillane