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Gonzalez and two other men entered the S&M Quality Laundry on Jamaica Avenue with a hand truck and forcibly removed the ATM at that location.
By Forum Staff
A 47-year-old Miami man has been sentenced to consecutive terms totaling 3 2/3 years to 11 years in prison after being convicted of forcibly removing automatic teller machines (“ATMs”) from a Woodhaven laundromat and a Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, fast food restaurant on separate occasions in June-July 2015, in addition to lying to the grand jury investigating the matter.
District Attorney Brown said, “The sentence imposed by the court is a just resolution of the matter that took into account both the audacious manner in which the defendant stole from the businesses and his arrogance in perjuring himself before the grand jury and trial jury,” said DA Brown.
Identified as Kenny Gonzalez, 47, of Miami, Florida, the defendant faced a grand jury for 8 days earlier this month. He was convicted of three counts of third-degree grand larceny, two counts of possession of burglar’s tools, one count of criminal mischief and one count of first-degree perjury.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder, who presided at trial, noted at sentencing how unusual it was to have a first-degree perjury charge on the indictment with the substantive crimes and how bold and brazen were the crimes but more importantly how “bold and brazen the perjury” was not only in the grand jury but before the trial jury. “The oath of a witness is sacred and should be viewed as such,” he added.
According to trial testimony, Gonzalez and another man walked into the Checkers restaurant at 1146 Liberty Avenue (which is on the Queens/Brooklyn border) around 10:22 p.m. on June 30, 2015, and used a hand truck to forcibly remove an ATM machine containing approximately $5,000 in cash from the location. Similarly, Gonzalez and two other men entered the S&M Quality Laundry located at 74-36 Jamaica Avenue in Queens at approximately 9:05 p.m. with a hand truck and forcibly removed the ATM at that location.
