Crime & Safety

Linny Fowler $1M Scam Goes to Court

Shawnta E. Carmon and Hassan Rahman Carmon, accused of stealing more than $1 million from heiress, waive preliminary hearings, hope for plea agreement.

A man and a woman accused of scamming late Bethlehem heiress Marlene “Linny” Fowler out of more than $1 million waived their scheduled preliminary hearings on Monday.

Attorneys for Shawnta E. Carmon and Hassan Rahman Carmon, both of Allentown, indicated they are hoping to negotiate guilty pleas for their clients, who appeared at District Judge Roy Manwaring’s courtroom in prison jumpsuits and handcuffs.

“We will hopefully negotiate some kind of a favorable disposition or an acceptable disposition,” attorney Brian Monahan, who represents Shawnta Carmon, told Manwaring.

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The married, but separated couple are being represented by different attorneys.

Technically, the hearing waiver means that the Carmons agree that prosecutors have enough evidence to bring them to trial, Manwaring explained.

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The couple were arrested in February—each charged with four felony theft and conspiracy counts—following a Northampton County grand jury probe.

Shawnta Carmon took more than $1.15 million from Fowler during a four-and-a-half-year period that started in January 2008 and ended a year ago, according to the nine-page grand jury presentment.

Hassan Carmon started taking money from Fowler in April 2010, receiving more than $117,000 from Fowler over the next two years, the court papers say.

Together and separately, they concocted a variety of stories to convince Fowler to give them cash -- for example, necessary dental treatment for Shawnta, college tuition for her niece and a heart transplant for her daughter, according to the record.

But all of those stories turned out to be false, the grand jury alleged. Instead, the money was used on “expensive clothing, expensive jewelry, limousine transportation, travel” and gambling, both privately and in casinos in Pennsylvania, Atlantic City and Las Vegas.

Fowler’s widower, Beall Fowler, was among the observers in the courtroom as the attorneys, defendants and judge discussed the hearing waiver.

Fowler, who died on Feb. 4, left a legacy of philanthropy and has numerous buildings and rooms named after her in the Lehigh Valley, including the Fowler Family South Side Center of Northampton Community College and the Fowler Blast Furnace Room at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks.


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