A 23-year-old Pahoa woman wanted on a bench warrant for missing a court date in a burglary case is facing another burglary charge — and a number of identity theft-related charges.
According to court documents filed by police, on the afternoon of April 10, Courtney Joseph entered an apartment at the Keaau Elderly Housing Complex and stole a debit MasterCard from a bedridden 67-year-old woman whom she and her mother assisted with chores, while the woman was napping.
Joseph is charged with first-degree burglary, theft of a credit card, unauthorized possession of confidential personal information, third-degree theft, four counts of third-degree identity theft and five counts of fraudulent use of a credit card.
The woman told police that at about 3:30 p.m. that day, she was awakened by someone knocking on her front door, but she didn’t get up because she assumed the person knocking would go away if she didn’t answer the door.
The woman reportedly told police she heard someone enter the house through the locked door and saw Joseph sitting on a chair next to the bed, go into the bathroom and leave shortly afterwards, as the woman drifted in and out of sleep.
According to documents, the woman said she woke up at about 5:30 p.m., checked her purse and found her debit card missing. She said she called her financial institution, Big Island Federal Credit Union, to cancel the card, but was told there had already been four unauthorized transactions, all for cash, with a combined total of more than $500. The woman reportedly told police Joseph had her personal identification number for the card because Joseph helped her with grocery shopping.
At Joseph’s initial court appearance Thursday, her court-appointed attorney, William Heflin, requested Joseph be granted court-supervised release without cash bail — the release status Joseph is alleged to have violated when she didn’t appear in court July 1 on her previous first-degree burglary charge.
Hilo District Judge Kanani Laubach denied Heflin’s motion, confirmed Joseph’s bail at $105,000, and ordered her to return at 2 p.m. Monday for a preliminary hearing.
Joseph also appeared before Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto concerning the missed court date. Nakamoto set bail in that case at $5,000 and ordered Joseph to return at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 29 to set trial or for further proceedings on a motion to revoke her supervised release.
First-degree burglary is a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment upon conviction. All the other charges Joseph faces are Class C felonies that carry a potential five year prison term except for third-degree theft, which is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
