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Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today charges
against six women for lying to the City Clerk while applying for a marriage
license. Each woman claimed to have never been married before when in
fact they had been married repeatedly. One woman had 27 marriage applications
on file with the City Clerk's Office dating back to 1984. Altogether the
six women had applied for 43 marriage licenses.
To marry in the City of New York, people are required to fill out and
sign an "affidavit and application for a license to marry."
One of the questions asked in the application requires that the bride
and groom list all prior marriages. Applicants must swear or affirm that
the information is true. The completed application is filed with the City
Clerk's Office and becomes part of its business records. Only once did
any of the six women admit to having married before and the spouse she
named was not one of the many city marriages where she had been a bride.
· DEZERRIE A. CORTES, 40, is charged with Perjury in the Second
Degree and three counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing on each
of the three marriage applications she made at the City Clerk's Office
between January 29, 2000 and March 26, 2002. She is also charged with
one count of Falsifying Business Records in the Second Degree for her
marriage application in 2002. Cortes applied for 27 licenses between 1984
and 2002 and married men from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Pakistan
and other countries.
· MARIA DAVIS, 26, is charged with Perjury in the Second Degree
and Offering a False Instrument for Filing on each of the marriage applications
she filed at the City Clerk's Office between October 2, 1998 and July
19, 1999. Her husbands came from Trinidad and St. Lucia.
· MONIQUE FIGUEROA, 26, is charged with Perjury in the Second Degree
and Offering a False Instrument for Filing on each of the three marriage
applications she made at the City Clerk's Office between September 14,
1999 and July 17, 2002. She is also charged with Falsifying Business Records
in the Second Degree on the application she made in 2002. The defendant
married men from the Dominican Republic, India and Pakistan.
The three other brides, two of whom are still being sought, each falsely
filed one application in 2002 for a marriage license saying that that
they had never been married before although the City Clerk's Office had
records on file documenting previous marriages. CHERA LARKINS, 32, applied
for a marriage license in January 2002 without mentioning husbands from
"Africa" and Nigeria. She is charged with Perjury in the Second
Degree, Offering a False Instrument for Filing, and Falsifying Business
Records in the Second Degree.
In another case from the City Clerk's Office, an employee at the City
Clerk's Office is being sought for taking a bribe to change the bride's
name in the computer. The bride scheduled to appear did not show up and
the would-be groom and his friend wanted her name removed from the office
records so another woman could be substituted and the wedding could go
on that day. He will be charged with Bribe Receiving in the Third Degree.
Perjury in the Second Degree and Offering a False Instrument for Filing
in the First Degree are E Felonies punishable by up to 4 years in prison.
Falsifying Business Records in the Second Degree is an A Misdemeanor punishable
by up to one year in jail. Bribe Receiving in the Third Degree is a Class
D Felony punishable by up to 7 years in prison.
Mr. Morgenthau would like to thank the New York City Clerk's Office and
the Eastern District of the United States Attorney's Office and the Vice
Enforcement Division of the New York Police Department.
Assistant District Attorney Louis O'Neill of the District Attorney's Special
Prosecutions Bureau, is in charge of the case, under the supervision of
Leroy Frazer Jr., Bureau Chief. The District Attorney's Detective Squad
and Carrie Maylor of the Special Prosecutions Bureau participated in the
investigation.
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DEFENDANT INFORMATION:
Maria Davis
1990 Lexington Avenue 6B
NY, NY 10035
DOB: 8/25/1976
Monique Omorra Figueroa
116-17 91 Ave Apt B1
Richmond Hill, NY 11418
DOB: 9/21/1976
Chera Yvette Larkins
260 Convent Avenue, Apartment 46
New York, NY 10031
DOB: 9/20/71
Dezerrie Anne Cortes (a/k/a "Guzman," a/k/a "Hernandez")
1990 Lexington Avenue, 16A
New York, NY 10035
DOB: 4/10/63
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