SALEM – A woman previously branded a “common and notorious thief” by a court based on a nearly 30-page record of theft and fraud allegations is in trouble again.
Joanna Marie Snyder, 59, formerly of Aberdeen Avenue in Peabody, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Montana earlier this month on counts of bank fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, mail theft, forgery and writing counterfeit checks.
According to court records, the allegations date back to the fall of 2019, when Snyder was on the run from justice in a Peabody drug case.
She was found guilty of heroin distribution and sentenced to 4½ years in state prison in 2012.
Snyder, a judge found, fled Massachusetts, where she had been ordered to enter a drug treatment program after being released from prison in 2015. At that point, an arrest warrant was issued.
She only surfaced in 2018 when local authorities in Flathead County, Montana arrested her for credit card fraud.
They discovered the Massachusetts warrant. But Snyder would not give up a transfer to Massachusetts. When officials here applied for a warrant from the governor, she spent 104 days in detention and was then released in March 2019. The governor’s warrant was signed the following month, but Snyder could not be located.
During this time, federal prosecutors alleged that she was involved in the new crimes.
She was found and arrested again in November 2019. Investigators in Montana also found five printer/scanners, 15 hard drives, four cell phones, two computers, multiple gift cards, two credit card readers, and $1,116 in cash, some “mangled.” ‘ by bleach, according to the indictment.
Snyder was brought back to Massachusetts, where in January 2020 a Salem Superior Court judge revoked her probation and sentenced her to two years in prison.
The indictment was delivered Nov. 3 by a federal grand jury in Montana.
Snyder made his first appearance in the case in US District Court in Boston on November 10.
Snyder, who recently served a sentence for violating her probation in a Peabody drug case, is now in federal custody. She initially agreed to remain in detention pending extradition to Montana, but has now requested a hearing scheduled for Monday in the US District Court in Boston to propose terms of release while charges against Montana are pending are.
Prior to the 2012 heroin case, Snyder faced numerous state and federal fraud and theft allegations.
Just two years earlier, in 2010, she had convinced a judge to spare her jail time on an identity fraud charge, claiming her bipolar disorder had only recently been properly diagnosed and treated.
However, she had made the same claim six years earlier, in 2004, after walking away from a transitional home in a fraud case while on federal probation.
Court reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, email [email protected] or on Twitter @SNJulieManganis.