Montgomery Property Manager Pocketed Rents, Forged Leases: Prosecutor

MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP, NJ - A Montgomery Township property manager was charged Tuesday in connection with an alleged scheme that saw her pocketing rent and security deposits for apartments she rented out on her own from 2019 to 2022, authorities said.

Yessica Gonzalez, 44, of Ewing, was charged with theft (over $75,000) by deception and forgery, Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald, Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Chief of County Detectives John W. Fodor and Montgomery Township Police Captain/Director Silvio Bet said in a joint statement.

Gonzalez was lodged in the Somerset County Jail pending a detention hearing in this matter.

The charges stem from a tip to the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigations Unit alleging suspected theft by deception on the part of the property manager of an apartment complex located in Montgomery Township, McDonald said.

A subsequent investigation found that, for over a two-year period, Gonzalez had been renting out apartments in the complex on her own and kept rent and security deposits from tenants for herself, according to McDonald. Gonzalez also reportedly forged the owner of the apartment complex’s name on lease documents without the owner’s knowledge.

McDonald, Fodor and Bet request anyone with information relating to the incident to contact the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office Special Investigations Unit at (908) 231-7100 or the Montgomery Township Police Department at (908) 359-3222 or via the STOPit app.

Information can also be provided through the Somerset County Crime Stoppers’ Tip Line at 1-888-577-TIPS (8477). All anonymous STOPit reports and Crime Stopper tips will be kept confidential.