Photo Courtesy of Healing Arts Initiative
Victim Rev. D. Alexandra Dyer
By Forum Staff
A former bookkeeper who stole more than $750,000 in funds from a nonprofit between 2013 and 2015 and splashed the organization’s director with acid to cover up the theft has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said on Thursday.
“The defendant used her position to steal thousands of dollars in funding from a non-profit that helped society’s most vulnerable individuals,” Brown said.“Working with another individual, the defendants inflicted serious bodily harm to an unsuspecting woman, and in doing so, left the victim with life-altering injuries to her face and body. The lengthy sentence imposed by the court is appropriate given the heinous nature of the crime.”
In December, Kim Williams, 49, of the Bronx, and her co-defendant, Jerry Mohammed, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault.She was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison to be followed by five years’ post-release supervision.
Mohammed is set to receive the same sentence on Feb. 20.
According to the charges,while working as a bookkeeper between 2013 and 2015, Williams stole more than of $750,000 from Hospital Audiences Inc., a Long Island City-based nonprofit dedicated to providing arts programs to individuals with special needs. Williams kept $600,000 and gave the remaining $150,000 to a close friend.
Williams plotted the attack on the center’s executive director, Rev. D. Alexandra Dyer, who started asking questions about the whereabouts of the stolen funds. On Aug. 19, 2015, at Williams’ direction, Mohammed waited outside of the center’s Skillman Avenue location and when the victim exited the building, Mohammed threw a caustic liquid substance on the woman, severely burning her face and other extremities. Dyer had to undergo numerous surgeries.
