GRANBURY, Texas — A retired FBI agent was sentenced to federal prison after being convicted of conning a North Texas woman out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by convincing her she was on "secret probation," according to officials.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said 65-year-old William Roy Stone, Jr. will go to prison for 87 months in the case.
According to evidence presented at trial, Stone convinced his victim, a Granbury woman, that she was under “secret probation” for federal drug crimes in “Judge Anderson’s court in Austin, Texas,” DOJ officials said in a release.
The release said Stone and his co-conspirator, 64-year-old Joseph Eventino DeLeon, told the woman that the fictitious federal judge had appointed the two of them to administer the conditions of her six-year “secret probation.” Stone and DeLeon required her to text them written reports of her daily activities, and to compensate them for their supervisory services, as well as any expenses they incurred, DOJ officials said.
Copies of multiple six-figure checks were presented at Stone's trial as evidence. In 11 months, the woman had given Stone more than $700,000 and DeLeon more than $50,000, according to the evidence presented at trial. Stone and DeLeon insisted that the woman was prohibited from "disclosing her probation status to anyone, and would risk imprisonment and loss of her children if she did not comply with the terms of her probation," the DOJ said.
When the woman began to question the situation, Stone assured her everything he’d done was “legit.” DOJ officials said that in order to further convince her the probation was real, Stone and DeLeon monitored her cell phone communications, conducted physical surveillance of her, stated they had discussed the woman's probation with a psychiatrist, enlisted another person to impersonate the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration “Intelligence Center” in a message inquiring about the woman, and even placed spoof calls between Stone, the woman, and the fictitious "Judge Anderson."
The DOJ said they urged her to distance herself from her family, claiming her family members wanted to take her inheritance away from her, and persuaded her to transfer her inherited assets out of a trust and into an account under her own name. They later claimed Judge Anderson would discharge the woman's probation if she agreed to marry Stone.
After serving his prison sentence, Stone will be put under three years of supervised release, according to the DOJ.
DeLeon was also convicted at trial of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. DeLeon's sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 5.
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