Police widow charged with stealing from charity for officers' families

But prosecutors say a desire to help others was not her only motivation. They have accused Shanley of stealing about $410,000 over a seven-year period for her personal expenses, from dental work and landscaping to tickets to see Barbra Streisand in concert. She even pilfered the charity’s coffers to pay for her son’s criminal defense, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Shanley, 68, of Staten Island, was arrested on Thursday after she surrendered at the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office in Lower Manhattan, a stone’s throw from Police Headquarters. She was charged with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, and was released on a $100,000 bond after a brief appearance in U.S. District Court.

She shook her head and declined to speak to reporters as she left the courtroom. If convicted, she faces up to 30 years in prison.

Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement that Shanley “capitalized on tragedy and monetized people’s generosity.”

Shanley’s husband died of a heart attack while on duty in 1986. Survivors of the Shield was established in 1989 by police widows to support families like their own, according to its board president.

Police charities are a powerful force in the city, where they play a pivotal role in funding pilot programs and placing detectives overseas, as well as supporting fallen officers’ families. Some charities have faced scrutiny over their finances and donors, and others have been exposed as frauds. But having one be the victim of theft by a police widow seems unusual.

Shanley used her access to the charity’s bank account and credit card to pay about $63,000 in legal expenses for her son, Thomas Shanley, 40, who is in prison for the 2014 hit-and-run death of a Detroit human rights activist, Charity Hicks, the complaint said.

Hicks was waiting for a bus in Midtown Manhattan when Thomas Shanley, who was on parole for a drug possession conviction, drove an SUV into a pole that fell on top of her. He fled on foot, and evaded the authorities for two months.

As treasurer, the complaint said, Lorraine Shanley was authorized to use the charity’s bank account and credit card to pay for operating expenses. But she also forged another official’s signature on $45,000 in checks she wrote to herself and her family members.

The complaint said Lorraine Shanley spent $29,000 for her grandchild’s private school tuition, paid $32,000 for dental expenses and splurged on $25,000 for landscaping. Lastly, she spent $8,000 on tickets to events, including $1,400 for tickets to the Barbra Streisand concert.

Kathleen Vigiano, the charity’s board president and a retired city police officer, said officials discovered discrepancies in the organization’s tax forms in 2017. Unable to find records to explain the differences, the charity hired a lawyer and reached out to the Department of Justice. She said she did not know Shanley personally.

“She betrayed the trust of the organization,” said Vigiano, whose husband was a detective who died rescuing people from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, said.

She added, “That money could have gone to the kids’ educations, the special needs kids, the college kids.”

The charity appointed a new board last summer, but it has not spent any donations while the investigation was pending, Vigiano said.

The charity worked with Gov. Mario M. Cuomo to pass legislation that granted police pensions to slain officers’ spouses and partners and created a scholarship program for the children of public safety officers, according to its website. Ninety-nine percent of its donations come from Police Department employees, about 5,500 of whom donate each year, according to the criminal complaint.

Shanley represented the charity as a member of the New York City Police Museum, but the board chairman, David M. Gildea, said she was no longer a member. She has a brother, a niece and a nephew who are city police officers, according to posts on her Twitter profile.