A housekeeper, already indicted on charges of stealing valuables from her celebrity employers, was jailed on $50,000 bail Friday on a new indictment that charges her with stealing the identity of a 13-year-old girl.
Lucyna Turyk-Wawrynowicz, 35, of Queens, pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court on forgery and identity theft charges. She faces up to seven years in prison on each charge if convicted.
Handcuffed and weeping, Turyk-Wawrynowicz was led out of court after Justice Brenda Soloff told her she could post the $50,000 bail as cash or bond. Her next court date was set for Oct. 11.
The housekeeper, who worked for several of the city’s rich and famous, was indicted in June on 27 counts related to alleged thefts from employers who included Robert De Niro, Candice Bergen, Isabella Rossellini and Renee Rockefeller. She pleaded not guilty to those charges and was released on $75,000 bail.
Assistant District Attorney Anne Schwartz said Turyk-Wawrynowicz was indicted anew after the prosecutor looked over the housekeeper’s job applications in connection with the June indictment. Schwartz said the housekeeper was using two Social Security numbers and two resident alien work card numbers.
Schwartz said she learned that one Social Security number used by Turyk-Wawrynowicz, a Polish native who entered this country illegally, belonged to a 13-year-old girl. Schwartz said she also learned the housekeeper had been using the child’s Social Security number since 2000, when the child was 8.
“She created this house of cards of identity theft and fraudulent documents,” Schwartz told Soloff.
Frank Mainiero, the defendant’s lawyer, called the new case against his client a “vendetta” because of the celebrities involved. He asked the judge to release Turyk-Wawrynowicz without additional bail.