Photo Courtesy of Google
Nonprofit group Hospital Audiences, Inc., also known as the Healing Arts Initiative, used to operate out of this Skillman Avenue building in Long Island City.
By Forum Staff
A former accountant and her accomplice plead guilty to assault in ther 2015 acid attack on a woman and the scheme to defraud a non-profit agency for three-quarters of a million dollars.
The 49-year-old accountant and her 35-year-old associate pleaded guilty to first-degree assault for the acid attack of a woman, who was the director of a non-profit and had been investigating the more than $750,000 stolen from the company between 2013 and 2015.
District Attorney Brown said, “In pleading guilty, the former employee now admits to stealing from an organization that used its funds to help those in need. The two defendants together plotted to take grave steps to conceal this crime. The duo jointly conspired to inflict bodily harm to an innocent woman, the organization’s director, who was looking into the missing funds. As a result of the acid attack, the victim suffered pain and disfiguring injuries to her face and body.”
The District Attorney identified the defendants as accountant Kim Williams, 49, of the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx and Jerry Mohammed, 35, of Troy, New York. Both plead guilty to first-degree assault before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ira Margulis,who indicated he would sentence the pair to 17 years in prison on January 17, 2019.
According to the charges, between 2013 and 2015, Williams worked as an accountant for Hospital Audiences Inc., in Long Island City. During that time, Williams embezzled $750,000 from the agency that provided access to the arts to disabled individuals. Williams pocketed $600,000 of the funds and doled out the remaining $150,000 to a close friend. On the evening of August 19, 2015, Williams enlisted the help of Mohammed to attack Rev. D. Alexandra Dyer, the organization’s executive director, in an effort to thwart her from looking deeper into the embezzlement scheme. Shortly after Rev. Dyer exited the office building, Mohammed threw a caustic substance on her, causing severe burns to her face and on other parts of her body. The victim had to undergo multiple surgeries as a result of the extensive burns.
