Upper Gwynedd woman’s guilty plea to charges she played role in husband’s COVID fraud scheme remains intact

NORRISTOWN — An Upper Gwynedd Township woman has withdrawn her request to take back her previous guilty plea to charges she was involved in a fraud scheme with her husband, a former member of the Montgomery County Prison Board who allegedly stole more than $94,000 in COVID emergency rental assistance funds.

At what was supposed to be a hearing this week before Judge Thomas M. DelRicci on Mary Ann Steed’s request to withdraw her Jan. 24 guilty plea, Steed, through her lawyer, Andrew Levin, indicated she plans to keep her guilty plea intact.

Levin explained that Steed’s decision was “on the condition that the commonwealth would not call her as a witness in their case in chief against her husband.”

As a result, Steed’s guilty plea to felony charges of dealing in proceeds of illegal acts, theft by deception, forgery and conspiracy to dealing in unlawful proceeds in connection with incidents that occurred between April and September 2021 will remain intact and she will be sentenced on the charges later this year.

In her earlier request to withdraw her guilty plea, Steed, through a former lawyer, contended she had become aware of “collateral consequences” of her guilty plea of which she was not aware when she entered the plea.

Assistant District Attorney Gwendolyn Kull had been prepared to challenge Steed’s request to withdraw her guilty plea.

Steed, 50, of the 1400 block of Oxford Circle, remains free on bail pending sentencing. Her open plea means Steed has no deals with prosecutors regarding her potential sentence, which could include prison time.

In a court filing, prosecutors indicated bail conditions have permitted Steed and her alleged co-conspirator husband, Vernon, to have contact and prosecutors believe they “remain married and living in the same household.”

Steed’s husband, Vernon, 56, who previously spent 32 years in prison for his role in a Philadelphia homicide as a juvenile before being paroled and who later was a member of the Montgomery County Prison Board of Inspectors, is still awaiting court action on similar theft-related charges in connection with the COVID fraud scheme.

Vernon Steed, who remains free on $97,077 bail he posted through a bonding company, faces a March 24 hearing on the charges in county court.

With the charges against Vernon Steed, county detectives alleged he submitted fraudulent claims, using the identities of others, including that of his wife’s dead sister, and forged documents to apply for rental assistance under the pretext that the applicants were not only residing in the listed rental properties but also were in arrears with their rent payments.

During the pandemic, Your Way Home, as the Montgomery County oversight agency for COVID relief funds, was responsible for dispersing relief funds to various county social service agencies that received and reviewed assistance applications for tenants facing eviction due to COVID-related financial hardship. The funds, once approved, were provided to listed landlords of the properties for tenants who were unable to pay rent due to COVID-19.

Detectives said providers of the funds within Montgomery County increased their vigilance in reviewing applications submitted for consideration. Your Way Home officials provided documentation to county detectives regarding payments that were issued in the name of Vernon Steed’s deceased sister-in-law as “landlord,” according to court documents.

One man whose identity was used by Steed on a rental assistance application for a property on North Evans Street in Pottstown told detectives he was unaware of the application and that Steed previously had paid him $800 for his personal identification information and told him to “keep it quiet,” according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective James Reape. A total of $12,800 was paid in relation to that rental assistance application.

Several of the people whose identities allegedly were used by Vernon Steed to file the fraudulent claims met Steed through ministry efforts he conducted, including at a recovery house in Pottstown where he provided mentorship and motivational speeches as a forensic advocate for Hopeworx Inc., after his release from prison in 2018, according to court papers.

Court documents list fraudulent rental assistance applications that were filed for properties in Pottstown, Lower Providence, Souderton and Collegeville.

Detectives alleged the fraud scheme netted a total theft of $94,875.

Detectives alleged the monies from the fraudulent applications were deposited into a bank account opened in the name of Steed’s deceased sister-in-law and investigators obtained bank surveillance footage that depicted Steed and his wife making deposits and withdrawals from that account.

When detectives confronted Steed with the allegations during an audio recorded interview on April 11 and showed him photographs from the bank surveillance he allegedly asked detectives to pause the audio recording so he could speak off the record, according to the arrest affidavit.

“During the period when the recording was paused, Steed asked about the possibility of just paying back the money to avoid arrest while still claiming he knew nothing of the fraudulent applications or money,” Reape alleged in the criminal complaint. “Steed went on to claim there are people who want to see him fail and go back to jail.”

When detectives advised Steed that the evidence revealed he and his wife were involved in the fraud scheme, and that others who had their personal information used on the applications confirmed they gave the information to Steed and that Steed paid them money or gift cards for the use of their personal information, “Steed did not wish to continue the audio statement any longer,” according to court documents.

According to court records, in July 1988, Vernon Steed and a co-defendant were convicted of first-degree murder in connection with a Sept. 8, 1985, fatal shooting of a woman, an innocent bystander, during an incident in Philadelphia. Steed was 17 at the time and was sentenced to a mandatory term of life imprisonment.

However, Steed later appealed his life sentence in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juveniles.

Steed successfully argued his life sentence was illegal and he was granted a re-sentencing hearing after which he was sentenced to 31 years to life, given credit for time served, and set free on parole in 2018, according to court records.

In June 2022, Steed was appointed to a volunteer post on the county Prison Board of Inspectors by former county commissioners Dr. Valerie Arkoosh and Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr., both Democrats, for a term to expire June 2, 2025. Former Republican Commissioner Joseph Gale opposed Steed’s appointment.

Steed resigned from the prison board effective April 21, 2023.

Court records indicate the theft charges were lodged against Steed on April 24.