US:A NEW York judge has thrown out the charges against two men caught wheeling a body down the street in an alleged attempt to cash the deceased's social security cheque. James O'Hare and David Daloia were arrested earlier this year by an off-duty detective who noticed their friend's stiff body outside a cheque-cashing business.
The pair, described by neighbours and police as ne'er-do-wells with a history of drug use and arrests, were trying to cash a $355 social security cheque made out to their friend and roommate, Virgilio Cintron, police said. The men, both 65, were charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument, improper disposal of a body and other crimes. They claimed that they didn't notice that Cintron was dead.
But after a Manhattan prosecutor on Monday told Manhattan Criminal Court judge Evelyn LaPorte that the autopsy failed to determine exactly when the 66-year-old Cintron expired, raising the possibility he was alive during the ride down the street, the judge threw out the charges.
The autopsy concluded that Cintron died of natural causes and had been dead for less than 24 hours before he was discovered in a red office chair, officials said.
O'Hare and Daloia told police that they routinely assisted the infirm Cintron to the cheque-cashing business so he could help pay for shared expenses and wheeled their friend around in his office chair. - ( LA Times-Washington Post service )