Two homes were returned to their rightful owners in Queens Village and Kew Gardens Hills late last month after a judge voided fraudulent deeds for the properties.
The homes were stolen as part of a deed fraud scheme and the defendants then sold the properties to third parties. Four people were ultimately convicted for their roles in the scheme, including a John Doe defendant whose identity remains unknown. The Queens District Attorney’s office initiated proceedings under New York State Criminal Procedure Law 420.45 to void the deeds after the defendants were convicted. It was the 11th time the DA’s office — which was the first in the state to employ this statute in 2023 — has utilized the law to return homes after a conviction in a deed theft case.
“We will not stand by and let property owners lose their homes to fraudsters,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “Prosecuting those who steal people’s homes is only part of our work — we are just as committed to returning those homes to their rightful owners.”
Her office last year indicted four individuals and three companies on charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, conspiracy and other crimes for allegedly stealing three homes from their rightful owners in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens Village and Jamaica Estates.
Defendant Torey Guice pleaded guilty on Oct. 7, 2025, for falsifying business records in the second degree and was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and had to consent to void the fraudulent deed for which he was charged.
Codefendant Autumn Valeri pleaded guilty the next day to three counts of grand larceny in the second degree. Valeri was sentenced to five years of probation and was required to surrender her real estate license and consent to the deeds of the stolen property being voided.
Codefendant Lawrence Ray pleaded guilty on Oct. 16, 2025, to scheme to defraud in the first degree and was sentenced to five years of probation and forfeiture of $403,829.22. He was also required to consent to the deeds of the stolen properties being voided.
A fourth defendant, a John Doe who has used multiple aliases and whose pedigree information is unverified, pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the first degree and two counts of grand larceny in the second degree. He was sentenced to 4 ½ to nine years in prison on the first-degree count and to four to eight years on the second-degree counts to run concurrently. He was also sentenced to a concurrent term of 3 1/2 to seven years for identity theft for stealing the identity of Carl Avinger, a Tennessee resident.
Three corporations associated with the defendants also pleaded guilty in the scheme.
At the time of Doe’s and Valeri’s pleas, Queens Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng signed an order to void the fraudulent deed on one of the three properties. The two other properties had already been transferred to third parties, necessitating the use of New York State Criminal Procedure Law 420,45.
“The decisive legal action taken by my Housing and Worker Protection Bureau spares the victimized families from having to go to civil court in an attempt to reclaim the deeds to their properties,” Katz said. “My office has already secured convictions for four defendants involved in this deed theft scheme and the victims now have been made whole with this court order.”
Since it was formed in 2020, the DA’s Housing and Worker Protection Bureau has returned 23 homes to their rightful owners, including 11 utilizing the new state statute.
