A former juvenile lifer is back behind bars after stealing $95K in COVID rental-assistance funds, Montco DA says

A former juvenile lifer who was released from prison five years ago because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that called such imprisonment unjust is now back in prison, accused of overseeing a scheme to siphon funds meant to help tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vernon Steed, 55, has been charged with identity theft, forgery and related crimes after prosecutors in Montgomery County say he stole nearly $95,000 in public-assistance funds by filing phony paperwork using the names of his friends and relatives.

He remains in custody on $99,077 bail. His lawyer, Denise Marone, did not return a request for comment.

His wife, Mary Ann Steed, 49, faces similar charges for her role in assisting with the fraud, prosecutors said. She was released on $50,000 unsecured bail. Her lawyer, R. Emmett Madden, did not return a request for comment.

Vernon Steed had served as a member of the Montgomery County Board of Prison Inspectors — a citizen’s oversight board for the county jail — since June 2022, when he was appointed by the county commissioners. A county spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that Steed resigned April 21, three days before the charges were filed against him.

But decades before that, he was a 17-year-old wielding a gun on the streets of North Philadelphia. Steed shot at a rival drug dealer one night in September 1985 and accidentally struck Serena Gibson, killing her. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. But a 2018 Supreme Court ruling made such sentences for juveniles illegal, and Steed was released.

His latest crime, prosecutors say, unfolded over the course of five months in 2021. During that time, landlords could apply for rental-assistance funds through county agencies if their tenants could not pay rent due to the pandemic.

As county officials scrutinized some of these applications, they noticed inconsistencies with 10 that came from the same landlord, Wendy Cushman, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Steed’s arrest.

Investigators learned that none of the tenants lived at the addresses listed in Cushman’s application. Nor did Cushman own any of the properties.

Investigators later learned that Cushman had died in 2019. And she was survived by a sister, Mary Ann Steed.

One of the tenants listed in the COVID relief paperwork told detectives in an interview that Vernon Steed had made a deal with him at Another Clean Day, a halfway house in Pottstown where Steed did counseling and ministry work. For $800, Steed “bought” the man’s identity, and promised to get him some money from the government. Steed urged him to “keep it quiet,” he said.

Detectives found two other men who made similar arrangements with Steed at the halfway house. Other names listed in the fund applications were relatives of Steed’s, including Cushman’s son.

Surveillance footage from different banks in the region showed Steed and his wife depositing money into a bank account associated with the fraud, according to the affidavit.

When detectives confronted Steed with this information, he balked, saying he had no idea what the detectives were talking about, according the affidavit. Yet, as he was presented with more evidence — including the bank surveillance images — he asked to speak with them “off the record.”

Steed changed his tone, the detectives said, asking whether he could just pay back the money, though he still denied being involved with any fraud.

He told detectives that “there are people who want to see him fail and go back to jail.”