IN MIDLAND, 54—year-old former federal fugitive Judy Kay Fryar pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with a wire fraud scheme that caused an estimated $140,000 loss to her employer and for obstructing justice announced United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr., FBI Special Agent in Charge Douglas E. Lindquist, El Paso Division, United States Marshal Robert Almonte and Midland Police Chief Price Robinson.

Appearing before United States Magistrate Judge David Counts this afternoon, Fryar pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. By pleading guilty, Fryar admitted that from October 2009 to June 2011, she devised a scheme to embezzle money including monthly lease payments owed to her employer, SKP Holdings in California. According to court records, Fryar, as the former onsite property manager for the West Park Apartments in Midland, repeatedly accepted cash payments from tenants and used those monies for her own personal benefit. According to court records, Fryar altered various tenant lease payments in the company’s online property management records in an attempt to conceal her scheme. Fryar’s scheme was revealed in 2011 when an owner who was conducting an on-site visit encountered a West Park Apartment tenant attempting to make a rental payment with cash.

According to the factual basis filed in this case, Fryar obstructed justice by falsely fabricating a medical condition to obtain favor, sympathy and ten consecutive continuances between January 2013 and July 2015 for jury selection and trial on the above mentioned wire fraud charge. The Court reset jury selection and trial dates based on materially false representations that Fryar had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer and was undergoing extensive radiation, chemotherapy and other experimental treatments. According to Fryar, her alleged cancer progressed to the point that she no longer had sufficient mental and physical abilities to effectively participate in a trial. During this time, Fryar forged two letters and medical records from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to support her materially false representations. Prior to the filing of her first of ten continuance motions, on August 30, 2012, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center notified Fryar that she was negative for carcinoma, melanoma and sarcoma, thus, Fryar did not require cancer treatment and/or any other related services at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

On July 21, 2015, Fryar was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force at her family’s lake house in Coke County following the issuance of a bench warrant after she failed to appear in court for a pre-trial hearing earlier in the month.

Fryar faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment on the wire fraud charge and up to ten years’ imprisonment for the obstruction charge. She remains in federal custody pending sentencing before United States District Judge Robert A. Junell. Sentencing is scheduled for February 25, 2016..

This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Midland Police Department Fraud Unit and the United States Marshals Service. Assistant United States Attorneys Yvonne Gonzalez and Stanley Serwatka are prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government.