AH HOPE DEM A NUH JAMAICAN!

Stripper commits $24,000 food stamp fraud and buys $10,000 of plastic surgery, a pricy stereo system and a custom pink paint job for her car
Brenda Charlestain, 28, sentenced to 1 1/2 years in federal prison
Welfare payments were collected while she was making over $85,000 a year in tips from her job as an exotic dancer
By NINA GOLGOWSKI

Guilty: Brenda Charlestain has been sentenced to a year and a half in a federal prison after committing food stamp fraud totalling nearly $24,000
A former exotic dancer and paralegal accused of spending nearly $24,000 worth of federal aid on plastic surgery, a car stereo system and a pink paint job for her car has been jailed for food stamp fraud.
Appearing in Florida courtroom, Brenda Charlestain, 28, testified to being homeless and unemployed when she applied for the aid to help her and her five children. Thanks to her later work dancing, however, she made over $85,000 a year in tips.
Charlestain argued that of the accused total a large portion were gifts from male customers at various adult entertainment clubs in Southern Florida, the Sun Sentinel reports.
She said $9,187 was gifted to her for cosmetic enhancements and $1,100 for a sound system for her 2008 Dodge Charger – made a bright pink with government money according to prosecutors.
Between March of 2010 and June of 2012, court records show she was provided $900 to $1,100 in government aid every month.
She said out of her aid and tips she paid $1,200 a month in rent and $326 in monthly car payments.
Having pleaded guilty to the federal fraud charges earlier this year, as well as in providing a firearm to a convicted felon, her husband, on Thursday she was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in a federal prison.
Begging for leniency from the judge, Charlestain asked for a downgraded sentence to house arrest while stressing various obstacles she has overcome in life, starting with her father’s death when she was 10 and becoming pregnant at the age of 14.

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She said that despite her rough childhood she went on to become a paralegal, though it was a job she said she lost this week with her criminal charges.
Two days after her firing she said she obtained a new one working as a receptionist at a medical office.
Her attorney earlier this year also fought for her rights to get back to work dancing during her trial, while wearing an ankle monitor if needed.

Well spent? Of the accused government aid, a portion was used to paint her 2008 Dodge Charger a bright pink, and several thousand for cosmetic enhancements and her car’s sound system (file photo)

Dancing denied: Charlestain allegedly attacked another dancer with a high heel at the Sugar Daddy’s Cabaret in West Palm Beach preventing her from continuing dancing during her trial

Voodoo: Last week Charlestain was accused of making a threat over her husband Josny Charlestain’s arrest, pictured, which was ruled to be only an attempt to block Voodoo
‘Even with an electronic [ankle] monitor the defendant will be able to work and earn income as an adult entertainment dancer sufficient to support herself and her five children, attorney Jack Fleischman wrote, according to the Sentinel.
According to prosecutors though, they said that the environment was no place for her having previously struck another dancer on the head with ‘the heel of a heavy high-heeled shoe’ while at Sugardaddy’s Adult Cabaret.
Staying in the spotlight, Charlestain made news last week as well after a prosecutor accused her of threatening a federal employee in a phone call.

Charlestain said she was only warding off a Voodoo attack her priest had suspected had been placed on her now mutually jailed husband Josny Charlestain, 28, by one of his ex-girlfriends.
Charlestain said prosecutors had misunderstood her in the court’s admitted confusing call that captured her using expletives.
In the end, the judge ruled on her Voodoo alibi.
‘I think her version makes more sense, based on what I heard,’ Judge Lurana Snow said according to the Sentinel. ‘If you don’t believe in Voodoo, this conversation makes no sense; if you do, it makes perfect sense.’
Read more:
Food stamp fraud convict had plastic surgery and souped-up car
Voodoo vs. Uncle Sam? Voodoo wins.