Los Angeles- A former porn star who skipped her sentencing for scamming banks in Bergen County is now facing similar charges in Los Angeles, authorities said this week.
Joy Marquart, 30, was supposed to be sentenced two weeks ago in Hackensack for using fake identification and bogus checks to swipe more than $48,000 from banks in six Bergen towns. When she failed to show, a judge issued a warrant for her arrest.
Weeks before the sentencing, she had been arrested and then freed on bail on charges of forging credit cards and identification in Chatworth, Calif. Marquart also was charged with methamphetamine possession in the Jan. 10 arrest, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Marquart’s bail had been set at $70,000, though she was likely released on a lower amount, said Deputy District Attorney Larry Diamond.
As in the New Jersey case, Marquart skipped her court date and a judge in California issued an arrest warrant, Diamond said. She was turned in to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, likely by her California bail bondsman, Diamond said.
Marquart was to be arraigned today in Los Angeles. Bergen County authorities will then have the option of extraditing her back to New Jersey, Diamond said.
Once a successful adult film actress, Marquart made as many as 100 movies under the stage name “Farrah” in the late 1990s.
When she was arrested in New Jersey in May, authorities said she had been a disarming front woman for a New York-based ring specializing in identity theft.
Using fake IDs and checks with the names of real customers, Marquart chatted with tellers while withdrawing amounts ranging from $500 to $5,600 from banks in Emerson, Fair Lawn, Hackensack, Oradell, Ridgewood and Westwood.
Last month in California, Marquart was arrested with two other men who appeared to be running a similar operation, authorities said.
Peter Julius Joseph and George Martinez Grafil were found in a Chatsworth hotel room with a computer containing financial information and credit-card forging equipment, Diamond said.
Marquart had fake identification, with her photo on it, matching the stolen information, Diamond said.
Marquart’s plea deal in New Jersey called for a reduction in her maximum sentence of three years in prison if she could make restitution of at least $10,000. Her attorney, Vinnie Basile, said Marquart, who had been living in the Bronx, had been struggling to raise money from friends and family.
Diamond said he’s surprised she was offered such a deal.
“Where do they think they’re getting their restitution?” he said. “Don’t ask for restitution from forgers.”
If convicted of the recent charges, Marquart could face about 16 months in a California state prison, which could be served concurrently if she is sentenced to prison time in New Jersey, Diamond said.