A Georgia tenant thought months of rent had already been taken care of. Instead, she ended up outside her apartment while caring for a newborn.
Kayla Sherrod told WSB-TV that her mother had paid several months ahead at Fulton Pointe Apartments in East Point. When Sherrod was evicted in April, she said she initially could not understand why the complex was treating that rent as unpaid.
Then the paperwork added another turn. Sherrod showed the station documents from her eviction that listed Destiny Dorsey as the plaintiff.
Dorsey is now one of three family members accused in an alleged scheme involving more than $65,000 in rent payments intended for the apartment complex.
Paper Trail
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WSB-TV reported that arrest warrants accuse Destiny Dorsey, Christia Smith, and Cynthia Dorsey of intercepting rent checks and money orders over a period of several months. The warrants describe more than $65,000 taken from at least 60 victims, according to the station.
The three women each face six fraud-related charges, WSB-TV reported. The allegations have not been proven in court.
Sherrod said her mother had paid rent covering roughly December through May. Yet when the eviction came, Sherrod said the payments apparently had not been received where they were supposed to go.
She also remembered other residents disappearing from the complex.
People downstairs were put out first, Sherrod told the station. Then, residents across the hall and elsewhere in the apartments were evicted, too.
“Why is everybody getting put out?” she remembered wondering.
Another Tenant
WSB-TV’s video report also featured former tenant Jasmine Davis, a mother of seven who said she left Fulton Pointe after dealing with water leaks and bugs in her apartment.
Davis said she later learned that money orders she had used to pay rent had gone elsewhere. She also said a $1,500 deposit was not returned.
The station reported that Davis traced one of the money orders to a personal bank account. GH has not independently obtained the money-order record or the arrest warrants.
Property managers declined to comment when WSB-TV asked about the alleged stolen payments and conditions at the complex.
All Three Held
Destiny Dorsey and Christia Smith had already been arrested when WSB-TV first reported on the case.
Cynthia Dorsey was taken into custody on Thursday. In the station’s later video report, reporter Tyisha Fernandes said Dorsey saw the earlier television report that she was wanted, came outside with her hands up and surrendered.
That update superseded a stale line that still appeared in WSB-TV’s article asking the public for information about her whereabouts.
The case may extend beyond Fulton Pointe. WSB-TV reported that police believe the women may have engaged in similar conduct at other apartment complexes, and the investigation is ongoing.