Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas)BYLINE: DAWN SHURMAITIS, Special to the Star-Telegram
\nLENGTH: 1083 words<\/p>\n
GRAND PRAIRIE – She’s bright, educated – and duped.<\/p>\n
Diana Lopez – college graduate and kindergarten teacher – claims
\nthat a conniving Arlington tarot card reader used the fear of evil
\nspirits to drain her of more than $ 100,000, her home and her good
\ncredit rating.<\/p>\n
“I can’t believe I did it,” Lopez, 43, said yesterday. “I really
\ncan’t. She needs to be stopped. “<\/p>\n
The state attorney general’s office began investigating Lopez’s
\nstory after receiving a complaint on her behalf from the League of
\nUnited Latin American Citizens’ civil-rights committee.<\/p>\n
The chances of Lopez getting justice – or her money back – are
\nslim, said a spokesman for the attorney general’s office. Lopez said
\nthat she also talked to detectives from Arlington but that police
\ntold her there was little they could do.<\/p>\n
Arlington police could not be reached for comment yesterday.<\/p>\n
The Arlington woman accused of stealing from Lopez is not being
\nnamed because no charges have been filed.<\/p>\n
LULAC member David Cruz said he encouraged Lopez to tell her story
\nin the hopes of protecting others from fake curanderos , or faith
\nhealers. Lopez also related the tale yesterday for the Spanish
\nlanguage Channel 23.<\/p>\n
From 1985 until 1991, a psychic who called herself Nicole
\npersuaded Lopez, then a young widow, to hand over everything she
\nowned, including the deed to her Grand Prairie home, Lopez said. In
\nexchange, Nicole promised to protect Lopez’s son, Jesse, from certain
\nharm, Lopez said.<\/p>\n
“She told me wrong had been done to my husband and it was going to
\nbe carried over to my son,” Lopez recalled yesterday. “She asked me
\nabout insurance money, about my property. She asked me if I was
\nwilling to give up a lot of things to protect my son.<\/p>\n
“I said yes. I will do whatever it takes. ”<\/p>\n
LULAC member David Cruz is helping Lopez make her concerns public.<\/p>\n
Cruz met Lopez in November after he aired a KESS\/1270-AM radio
\nprogram on scams carried out against Hispanics.<\/p>\n
“Hers is not the only case. But it’s the largest case I’ve ever
\nheard of,” Cruz said yesterday. “In North Texas, the idea of going to
\na healer is like going to church. ”<\/p>\n
Cruz said LULAC has helped 175 victims of consumer fraud in the
\npast 18 months, sometimes with the aid of Dallas attorney and
\npersonal injury lawyer Luis Avila.<\/p>\n
Although he is not handling Lopez’s case, Avila said any lawyer
\nwould be hard-pressed to win a judgment on her behalf. The tarot card
\nreader promised her nothing tangible, such as a vacation or a
\nproduct, Avila said.<\/p>\n
Instead, she promised her hope.<\/p>\n
“She might actually believe she could help. Who are we to say? ”
\nAvila said. “It’s incredible because it seems so obvious. But at the
\nsame time, it’s so deceitful. ”<\/p>\n
In February, Cruz lodged a complaint on Lopez’s behalf with the
\nattorney general’s Bureau of Consumer Fraud. Spokesman Ron Dusek said
\nLopez’s case will be investigated, but he said he doubts that
\nanything can be done.<\/p>\n
“This person was not buying a product or a vacation package. This
\nperson was trying to buy peace of mind. The come-on here was fear,”
\nDusek said. “Obviously, certain people are very susceptible and
\nvulnerable to those types of come-ons. Those, we can do very little
\nabout. ”<\/p>\n
Cruz agrees.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think she’ll ever see a penny,” he acknowledged. “I think
\nshe accepts that. But this, telling her story, is part of the healing
\nprocess. ”<\/p>\n
Here is the story as told by Lopez:<\/p>\n
In 1981 when Jesse was just a child, Lopez’s husband, a postal
\nworker, became ill. The doctors didn’t discover the cancer in his
\nstomach, liver and pancreas until they opened his belly.<\/p>\n
By then, it was too late. Jesse Lopez Sr. died at age 29 on April
\n21, 1982, leaving his widow with a $ 100,000 life insurance policy.<\/p>\n
“My whole world turned upside down. I got very depressed and began
\nquestioning God,” Lopez said.<\/p>\n
Lopez was obsessively possessive of her child when she met Nicole,
\n“the psychic lady,” during a chance, first-time tarot card reading at
\nan Arlington flea market.<\/p>\n
When two of Nicole’s predictions came true, Lopez returned to the
\npsychic.<\/p>\n
Nicole convinced Lopez that her husband had died so young and so
\nhorribly because he had sold his soul to the devil. To break a curse
\ncertain to be passed along to their son, Nicole told Lopez she would
\nhave to follow her instructions and do her bidding.<\/p>\n
It would take money, she said.<\/p>\n
Lopez spent it willingly, starting with $ 9,000 for special herbs
\n“to raise the evil spirits. ” At Nicole’s instruction, Lopez also
\nperformed rituals: kneeling in a bathtub at midnight and saying the
\nLord’s Prayer; laying a white T-shirt and underwear on her husband’s
\nside of the bed and sleeping beside them for three nights.<\/p>\n
Lopez did as she was told, out of love for her son.<\/p>\n
“She told me he would become a gang member and do drugs. She said
\nI wouldn’t even recognize him,” Lopez said. “I thought I was going to
\nsave his soul. ”<\/p>\n
The most elaborate part of the scam took place in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Nicole told Lopez that the insurance money was evil and that
\nanything purchased with it was evil. Lopez withdrew the $ 50,000 she
\nhad left, sold her late husband’s truck, emptied her savings account,
\ncashed her last paycheck and headed to Vegas, where Nicole told her
\nthe devil did his work.<\/p>\n
Within 24 hours, Nicole had the cash. Lopez had three brown magic
\ncandles – and she had faith.<\/p>\n
“I just believed everything she said,” Lopez said, her head in her
\nhands, her eyes filling with tears. “She said I wouldn’t have any
\nmore bad dreams. I thought, \u2018Thank you, Lord, you finally sent me
\nsomeone who can help. \u2018 ”<\/p>\n
In 1991, Lopez married John Carrillo and told him everything.<\/p>\n
“I understand why she did it. She was down and lonely and her son
\nwas the only thing she had left,” said Carrillo, a printer with Texas
\nPoly Inc. in Euless.<\/p>\n
“She was vulnerable and did what any mother would do. ”<\/p>\n
Carrillo called the FBI, the first of many frustrating phone calls
\nhe would make over the next five years.<\/p>\n
Lopez and Carrillo contacted two lawyers. Each one advised the
\ncouple that because Lopez had handed over her money and property
\nwillingly, there was little legal recourse.<\/p>\n
Further, Lopez had no proof. Lopez said Nicole asked her to turn
\nover all credit card receipts, bills and bank statements.<\/p>\n
Lopez and Carrillo are still paying for Lopez’s faith, making
\nmonthly credit card payments of $ 152, chipping away at the massive
\ndebt.<\/p>\n
“I can’t believe I did it. I really can’t,” Lopez said. “I just
\ndidn’t want anything to happen to my son. \u2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas)BYLINE: DAWN SHURMAITIS, Special to the Star-Telegram LENGTH: 1083 words GRAND PRAIRIE – She’s bright, educated – and duped. Diana Lopez – college graduate and kindergarten teacher – claims that a conniving Arlington tarot card reader used the fear of evil spirits to drain her of more than $ 100,000, her home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}