East Windsor Woman Pleads Guilty to Committing Multiple Crimes after Sentencing for Prior Offense

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that ALIYAH THERESA JULIATE DAVIS, also known as Theresa Juliate Sutherland, 36, of East Windsor, waived her right to indictment and pleaded guilty today in New Haven federal court to multiple offenses that she committed while awaiting incarceration after a prior federal conviction.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on December 17, 2014, DAVIS, who was then known as Theresa Sutherland, was sentenced in Hartford federal court to 51 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for engaging in a fraud and identity theft scheme at an insurance company where she was employed.  As part of her sentence, DAVIS was ordered to pay total restitution of $400,000 to the victim insurance company and three previous employers that she defrauded.

Beginning in January 2015, DAVIS, through her attorney, made five separate motions to postpone her prison report date based on her claims of a diagnosis of terminal cancer and heart conditions.  In association with her court motions, DAVIS submitted letters from various medical professionals detailing her claimed medical conditions.  DAVIS created the letters and forged the medical professionals’ signatures.  DAVIS’s prison report dates were continued based on these fraudulent submissions.

In March 2015, DAVIS changed her name from Theresa Juliate Sutherland to ALIYAH THERESA JULIATE DAVIS.  DAVIS subsequently received a new Social Security number and Connecticut driver’s license under her new identity.

On April 19, 2016, DAVIS submitted an application for a U.S. passport at the U.S. Postal Service facility on Weston Street in Hartford.  On the application where it states “Have you ever applied for or been issued a U.S. Passport Book or Passport Card?” DAVIS marked an “X” in the “No” box.  In 2007, DAVIS applied for and received a U.S. passport when she was known as Theresa Juliate Sutherland.

At various times between December 2014 and September 2016, DAVIS was employed at a local insurance company and local hospitals.  From May 28, 2016 to September 10, 2016, while she was employed at an insurance company and then a hospital under her new identity, DAVIS received $9,808 in unemployment compensation from the State of Connecticut under her previous identity. 

DAVIS pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years; one count of knowingly making a false statement on a passport application, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years; one count of making a false statement, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years, and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year term of imprisonment.  She is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton on March 17, 2017.

DAVIS has been detained since her arrest on September 17, 2016.

This matter is being investigated by the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, Office of the Chief State’s Attorney, Connecticut Department of Labor and East Windsor Police Department.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas P. Morabito.