Manhattan prosecutors have thrown the book at a pretty Greenwich Village fortune teller, charging her in a 16-count indictment with scheming to steal $150,000 from two customers.
Brunette beauty Sylvia Mitchell, 38, turned heads in a trimly-tailored black cocktail dress as she pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to scheme to defraud and grand larceny.
“This defendant masquerades as a fortune teller, swindling people out of tens of thousands of dollars,” prosecutor James Bergamo told the judge of Mitchell, who works out of the “Zena Clairvoyant” shop on Seventh Avenue.
Mitchell is accused of stealing more than $120,000 from one customer, Singapore-native Lee Choong, 40, by taking her money in exchange for “cleansing” the woman of “bad spirits.” The second victim allegedly lost some $28,000.
Even in Central Booking after her arrest this month, Mitchell couldn’t help engaging in a little pro-bono clairvoyance, according to police statements released by officials following today’s brief court appearance.
“Do you have kids?” she asked one cop. “I knew you had too boys,” she added, knowingly.
Defense lawyer Joseph Murray told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro that he will seek to try the two cases separately.
“This indictment is not worth the paper it is printed on and I look forward to defending my client against this smear campaign being perpetrated against her by the NYPD, and the Manhattan DA’s office,” the lawyer told The Post after court.
Investigators took “desperate efforts to convince previously happy and satisfied clients of Ms. Mitchell that they are really not happy and are actually crime victims,” he complained.
Mitchell remains free on no bail and is due back in court in May.