Woman in jail charged with witness harassment

A North Carolina woman awaiting trial in an identity theft case also is charged with harassing a witness from inside the Lake County jail.

Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Christen Bishop said Aretha Antoine, 32, faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of harassment of a witness.

In March, Antoine was charged with using the financial information of four Lincolnshire residents to steal more than $100,000.

Bishop said Antoine, who uses several names and addresses, was living in an apartment in Fayetteville, N.C., at the time of her arrest on the Lincolnshire charges. The aliases she has used include Germaine Aretha Eelcok and Yvonne Williams, officials said.

Police searched Antoine's apartment for evidence in the case at the time of her arrest and left instructions with her landlord to call them if anything else turned up.

Bishop said the landlord found a computer disc as she was moving Antoine's belongings out of the apartment and gave the disc to police.

In August, Antoine found out about the disc and placed several collect calls to her former landlord from the jail, where she is held on $100,000 bond.

The landlord would not accept those calls, Bishop said, so Antoine placed a call to the offices of her former attorney in New York.

A person at that office arranged for a three-way call to Antoine's former landlord, Bishop said, and the landlord accepted that call not knowing Antoine was on the line.

Bishop said Antoine harshly criticized the landlord for giving the disc to police. The call was a violation of a judge's order barring her from any contact with the witnesses against her.

In the identity theft case, Antoine is accused of using the telephone and Internet to get elderly people to disclose their financial information to her.

Police said she then set up false credit card accounts, looted victims' bank accounts and retirement funds and arranged for wire transfers of cash to her home.

Antoine faces a mandatory prison sentence of up to 30 years if convicted in that case.

She is due to appear in court Sept. 24.