Jaycee Wasso coached Lin Halfon into cheating Richard Rappaport out of his money, prosecutors said. (Image from Law&Crime Network)
A psychic coached a 20-something woman into cheating an 80-year-old businessman out of his money.
“Do not question,” defendant Jaycee Wasso, 25, allegedly wrote Lin Helena Halfon, 29, in July 2018. “Just listen to me. That way, we get this done.”
Authorities said that Halfon tried to process a $1 million cashier’s check for money belonging to her then-husband Richard Rappaport. That plan failed, and she ended up on the radar of Florida law enforcement, thanks to suspicious employees at an Amscot.
That ended in Wasso, Halfon, and a third person, John Grancer, 50, being charged in the fraud case. Prosecutors claim Wasso was the mastermind. The psychic met Halfon in 2017.
Halfon, working at a mall kiosk in Massachusetts the year before meeting Rappaport, had been having a bad day and crying. Wasso approached her, prosecutor Paul Dontenville Jr. said in opening statements on Tuesday.
“I’m Jaycee,” Wasso allegedly said. “What’s your name?”
Halfon said she was just very upset. Wasso allegedly said she could feel “darkness” from her, that a curse was going through generations of Halfon’s family. This allegedly began an emotional and psychologically manipulative relationship. The prosecution claimed that Halfon gave Wasso money, but Halfon believed the psychic would use it to break spells and ward off evil spirits.
“Lin, the spirits want me to tell you what’s going on,” Wasso allegedly said. “Your mother is going to die. You’re going to lose everything. You’re going to be sent away. You are going into darkness. Darkness is going to possess you.”
“I was scared,” Halfon testified on Tuesday regarding Wasso telling her that evil spirits could take her and do bad things to her.
She said she did not believe in spirits.
It was in the middle of 2018 that Halfon met Rappaport, who fell head over heels for her, the prosecution said. Dontenville described this as a “very good friendship” that resulted in Rappaport marrying the Israel-born Halfon so she could stay in the United States.
But defense lawyer Glen Lansky painted Halfon as the manipulator, bilking Rappaport for money.
Downplaying the mastermind allegation, he pointed out that his client was younger than Halfon. Wasso had no education, never went to school, and was told she had a “gift,” he said.
The prosecutor told jurors that evidence would show when Wasso kept pushing when Halfon expressed second thoughts about manipulating Rappaport.
“It offends me that you want to go against all the work I’ve done,” the psychic allegedly wrote in July 2018. “I know what I’m doing, Lin.”
From December 2018, when Wasso threatened to stop “working,” prosecutors said:
HALFON: “No, I don’t want you to do that.”
WASSO: “And watch what happens when I stop.”
HALFON: “The work comes first.”
Other texts allegedly included Wasso in August 2018 asking for the husband’s personal and businessman “so I can block a person from getting between the two of you.”
“Richard Rappaport,” Halfon wrote back. “Panther Medical.”
In August 2018, Wasso allegedly wrote, “Lin, give it your all. Act like he is your soulmate.”
The following month, she allegedly wrote, “Lin, as long as you listen to me, everything will be okay. We can’t lose him.”
In July 2018, she allegedly wrote, “Lin, make sure you kiss him today. Be flirty. Look good. Tell him how much he means. Make him dinner.”
In December 2018, she allegedly wrote, “Lin, yes, kiss him. We need money from him soon. Kiss him on the lips. But not fast. Longer.”
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