Mike Perlstein / Eyewitness News
A noted Garden District romance novelist was sentenced to just over three years in federal prison for defrauding FEMA and the Road Home Program of nearly half a million dollars.
Ruth Leslie Goodman, who has written more than 20 books under the pen name Meagan McKinney, was sentenced to 37 months behind bars Thursday and ordered to pay $476,000 in restitution.
In November, Goodman confessed to defrauding FEMA, the Road Home program and the Small Business Administration. She pleaded guilty to mail fraud, theft, making false statements and passport fraud.
Federal prosecutors laid out a complex scheme in which Goodman falsified documents to make it appear she owned 10 rental properties that actually belonged to her father. Goodman then submitted doctored pre-Katrina work receipts and inflated rental amounts to make it appear the properties were damaged in the storm.
Goodman also admitted falsifying documents to obtain a Canadian passport.
Goodman was charged twice before in bold schemes, but neither case was prosecuted. In 2004, she was accused of insurance fraud for claiming flood damage to antiques and fine art that turned out to be undamaged modern replicas.
And in 2005, Goodman was charged after she made an insurance claim for Swiss diamond bracelets worth $1.8 million that she said were stolen during a visit to Oakwood Center mall. She later admitted she never owned the jewelry. Federal prosecutors said Goodman ran her Katrina scams from her an historic Garden District home known as 'Nevermore.'
On the dust jackets of her books, Goodman describes herself as an avid equestrian, caretaker of stray animals and mother of two sons. Originally from Washington, D.C., she holds a degree in biology from Columbia University in New York and fell in love with New Orleans during a stint as a visiting student at Tulane's Newcomb College.
Her first book, 'My Wicked Enchantress,' was a finalist for the Romance Writers of America Gold Medallion.
