It seems fitting as we prepare to celebrate out independence that two stories in the news involve people doing just the opposite.
Jocelyn Kirsch is actually celebrating her first day behind bars today. You probably know her better as “Bonnie.” She’s half of the jet-setting young Philly duo dubbed “Bonnie & Clyde” after they became the focus of an upscale ID theft ring.
Today “Bonnie” is likely not so bonny.
Yesterday she turned herself in to U.S. Marshals, trying to get a head start on the jail time that’s coming her way on the charges that she ripped off friends and acquaintances to fuel her high-profile lifestyle, along with her beau, Edward Anderton. Their images, in particular hers, in an array of bikinis and designer dresses and in a variety of exotic locales, have been splashed all over the papers incessantly.
She looked a little different yesterday as she hustled into the federal courthouse in a pair of black sweatpants and gray hoodie, with her hair pulled up in a beehive on top of her head. Nowhere in sight were the luxurious hair extensions, worth thousands, authorities say she purchased with a stolen credit card.
He’s already entered a guilty plea in the case. She is likely to do likewise.
While the media gushed over the daring duo and slapped the “Bonnie & Clyde” moniker on them, U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan was calling them something else. He referred to them as “the poster children for identity theft.”
Not far away in the same federal courthouse, a big crowd showed up for a bail hearing.
Most of the time these are fairly routine matters. But this is not a routine case.
This hearing was for Sean O’Neill Sr., the former owner of Maggie O’Neill’s Irish Pub in Drexel Hill. He’s been in federal detention since last Friday, when the feds raided his sprawling Edgmont estate and charged him with immigration and weapons offenses.
The feds also are alleging O’Neill has ties to the Irish Republican Army, and that he lied about his membership in an Irish youth group with ties to the IRA when he applied for a green card in the U.S.
The feds had their shot when they filed the charges. Yesterday, it was O’Neill’s supporters’ turn. They painted a much different picture.
Friends and relatives offered support for O’Neill, whose lawyer pointed out to the judge that his client was a successful builder and very active in the community. All of this was being used as a basis to sway the judge to set bail for O’Neill, to indicate he was not a threat to flee. The judge didn’t see it that way, and declined to issue bail. O’Neill will remain in federal custody.
Among those in the courtroom was O’Neill’s son, Sean Jr. He is enjoying his first bit of freedom himself, having just last week won his release from a juvenile facility in western Pennsylvania where he was doing time in connection with the shooting death of his friend. The two, both students at Cardinal O’Hara at the time, had spent a day of drinking and carousing back in 2006. When they all wound up back at the O’Neill estate, the younger O’Neill pointed a gun at his pal and it went off, killing him.
There obviously will be split feelings among the O’Neill clan this holiday. They will be celebrating freedom for Sean Jr., while lamenting the same is not true for his father, who remains in jail.
Jocelyn Kirsch is actually celebrating her first day behind bars today. You probably know her better as “Bonnie.” She’s half of the jet-setting young Philly duo dubbed “Bonnie & Clyde” after they became the focus of an upscale ID theft ring.
Today “Bonnie” is likely not so bonny.
Yesterday she turned herself in to U.S. Marshals, trying to get a head start on the jail time that’s coming her way on the charges that she ripped off friends and acquaintances to fuel her high-profile lifestyle, along with her beau, Edward Anderton. Their images, in particular hers, in an array of bikinis and designer dresses and in a variety of exotic locales, have been splashed all over the papers incessantly.
She looked a little different yesterday as she hustled into the federal courthouse in a pair of black sweatpants and gray hoodie, with her hair pulled up in a beehive on top of her head. Nowhere in sight were the luxurious hair extensions, worth thousands, authorities say she purchased with a stolen credit card.
He’s already entered a guilty plea in the case. She is likely to do likewise.
While the media gushed over the daring duo and slapped the “Bonnie & Clyde” moniker on them, U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan was calling them something else. He referred to them as “the poster children for identity theft.”
Not far away in the same federal courthouse, a big crowd showed up for a bail hearing.
Most of the time these are fairly routine matters. But this is not a routine case.
This hearing was for Sean O’Neill Sr., the former owner of Maggie O’Neill’s Irish Pub in Drexel Hill. He’s been in federal detention since last Friday, when the feds raided his sprawling Edgmont estate and charged him with immigration and weapons offenses.
The feds also are alleging O’Neill has ties to the Irish Republican Army, and that he lied about his membership in an Irish youth group with ties to the IRA when he applied for a green card in the U.S.
The feds had their shot when they filed the charges. Yesterday, it was O’Neill’s supporters’ turn. They painted a much different picture.
Friends and relatives offered support for O’Neill, whose lawyer pointed out to the judge that his client was a successful builder and very active in the community. All of this was being used as a basis to sway the judge to set bail for O’Neill, to indicate he was not a threat to flee. The judge didn’t see it that way, and declined to issue bail. O’Neill will remain in federal custody.
Among those in the courtroom was O’Neill’s son, Sean Jr. He is enjoying his first bit of freedom himself, having just last week won his release from a juvenile facility in western Pennsylvania where he was doing time in connection with the shooting death of his friend. The two, both students at Cardinal O’Hara at the time, had spent a day of drinking and carousing back in 2006. When they all wound up back at the O’Neill estate, the younger O’Neill pointed a gun at his pal and it went off, killing him.
There obviously will be split feelings among the O’Neill clan this holiday. They will be celebrating freedom for Sean Jr., while lamenting the same is not true for his father, who remains in jail.
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