The headmaster of Manhattan’s elite Trinity School — which counts Eric Tru𝓰mp and John McEnroe among its alums — took the highly unusual step of appearing in court Tuesday to give a victim-impact statement against a fraudster former school secret♔ary.
Noting that Trinity is the oldest Episcopal school in the country, chief John Allman said gold-loving ex-administrative assistanও⭕t Kirsten Olsen deserved a significant punishment for “exploiting her position of responsibility.”
Olsen copped to one count of grand larceny as part of a plea deal for 𓆉buying over $400,000 in luxury goods on a school credit card, including $150ꦬ,000 in gold bullion and hunꦐdreds of thousands in jewelry and fancy clothes.
Trinity “was founded in 1709 to serve the impoverished of New York City,” Allman said in Manhattan Supreme Court, adding that while his school charges nearly $50,000 a year in tuition, it provides financial aid to 25 percent of its students.
He said the s🦄chool valued Olsen and had given her important duties in its development office, where she worked under the head of 🌠school fundraising.
“She abused that trust by stealing over half a million dollars,” he said, “by🐠 lying, forging documents, shuffling money through fake invoices in a shrewd, calculating and increasingly brazen way.”
He said her crimes damaged the school’s reput💝ation “eroding our community’s trust in me and those with whom I work each day.”
Pr🥂osecutor Peter Rienꦺzi sought two to six years behind bars for Olsen.
“The peoꦓple feel this crime involved quite a bit of calculation and deliberation as opposed to impulse,” he said.
But Olsen’s lawyer, David Cohen, argued that she suffered from mental illness and substance-abuse issues that contributed to her conduct.
Since her arrest, Olsen sought therapy, which swaye💃d Justice Ellen Biben to give her a more lenient sentence of one to three years in prison. The judge also signed a restitution order for the stolen amount.
Rienzi said the Queens con artist disguised her three-year looting spree that began in 2013 with doctored records — including hiding 🐎her gold-buying bing𒀰es as printing expenses.
The scheme unraveled when a supervisor confronted her about a suspicious payment and she tried to cover it up with forged paperwork, ac🐽cording to prosecutors.