We will look at a legend trickster. Yes, she is a legendary trickster. We will tell you about this NYC special -ed teacher who collected 3 months of sick pay from prison. Yes from prison. Unbelievable right? but it is true.

Who is this legendary trickster that took three months of paid sick leave from prison?

Her name is Marina Golfo. She is a 49 year old teacher.

Marina Golfo is a Speech therapist and subjected her bosses to her therapy or kept them in a situation that made them look like they needed therapy.

How did Marina Golfo pulled this through. The 49 year old teacher was able to trick her bosses at the “city Department of Education into giving her three months of paid sick leave”.

This was during the time the speech therapist was in a federal prison, guess for what offense: “defrauding taxpayers and stiffing students”.

How was she able to receive paid sick leave while in prison?

The fact of the matter is that she was sentenced to a three months jail term for offenses that we will soon tell you about.

The 49 year old was still in her employer’s payroll for those three months and this is what she did.

Weeks after been jailed, she applied through online to the Department of Education for a paid sick leave.

She attached to her application a doctor’s note which explained that she “was too ill to come into the office and should remain at home”.

She did not stop there, but also made a request to the prison as well as the court officials for a “compassionate release”.

She added that her request  for a compassionate release was due to “health risks she faced from COVID-19, along with her elderly parents” who needed caretaker.

Her request to the prison and courts was rejected and the judge, Kiyo A. Matsumoto added that her health condition  and that of her parents did not warrant a reduced sentenced.

However, her bosses at the education department without checking granted her paid sick leave.

She collected $24,367 which is a quarter of her $97,469 annual salary while she was in prison.

The brave teacher also asked for an extension of her paid sick leave on Nov1,2021 through to December1, 2021.

This was two days after the  end of her prison term.

The Department of Education are said to have been aware of her criminal cases which were said to have been announced in 2018.

What crimes sent Marina Golfo to prison in the first place?

Golfo crimes that sent her to prison was an accusation of “bilking taxpayers of $156,000 over the prior three years by submitting fake treatment notes and invoices for more than 1,500 therapy sessions she never provided”.

You can say she is an expert in faking things.

Her response to her taking payment for sick leave while in prison was that she did not know that  it was a violation of the law. She also added that she did not know that location mattered in one’s application for a paid sick leave.

Marina Golfo said,she actually suffered complications from shingles and that they prevented her from going to the Education office.

But, you will asked, was she going to go to the Department of Education from prison?