HONESDALE, PA — Wayne County District Attorney A.G. Howell on March 1 announced the arrest of Devis Mathews, 44, originally from Waymart, Wayne County, PA. Mathews was charged with one count of Theft By Unlawful Taking, graded as a felony of the third degree.

According to the Criminal Complaint Affidavit of Probable Cause filed by the Wayne County Detectives, this investigation started in August 2020 when the Wayne County Detectives were contacted by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Task Force regarding an investigation involving the cashing of disability checks by an unauthorized person. The victim in this case had worked for a corporation and injured his back and was subsequently placed on disability. He began receiving workman’s compensation checks for $400 per week. At some point, he moved to Waymart Borough and began receiving checks for $800 at that residence every two weeks.

During early 2019, both the insurance company handling the claim and the victim’s attorneys attempted numerous times to contact the victim to no avail. On April 10, 2019, an investigator from the insurance company went to the victim’s residence and met with a white male who answered the door. The white male was confrontational. The investigator asked if the victim was home and the white male asked “why?” The investigator advised why he was there and the white male stated that the victim was not available.

On May 13, 2019, an investigator from the insurance company went to the victim’s residence but no one answered the door and the residence appeared vacant. The investigator checked the neighborhood, but none of the neighbors could verify if the residence was vacant. On May 26, 2019, an investigator from the insurance company went to the victim’s residence but no one answered the door and the residence appeared vacant. The investigator checked the neighborhood, and the neighbors confirmed that the residence had been vacant for some time.

On March 10, 2020, the insurance company discovered that the victim had died on July 18, 2018. The executor of the victim’s estate/estate administrator was listed as Devis Mathews from Brooklyn, NY. The insurance company advised the estate attorneys that an overpayment was owed to the insurance company due to benefit payments being issued until November 4, 2019. The estate attorneys advised that Mathews was handling the estate and they would contact him to advise of the over payment. Attempts made by the insurance company and the estate attorneys to contact Mathews by phone were unsuccessful, and he did not return any of the calls back. The insurance company also attempted to contact Mathews by mail, but never heard back from him.

The insurance company was able to determine that between July 9, 2018, and November 4, 2019, checks for $800.00 each were issued to the victim every two weeks after he died. All of those checks but two were cashed or deposited. The insurance company was able to determine that the total overpayment, including fees, was $25,485.71. Based on the information found on the back of the cashed checks, detectives were able to determine that the checks were deposited by Mathews.

Detectives were initially unable to locate Mathews. However, recently it was discovered that he was incarcerated in New York for an unrelated crime and was brought back to Pennsylvania. He was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Bates and was remanded to the Wayne County Correctional Facility. His next court appearance is scheduled for March 6, 2024 at 9 a.m.

The filing of criminal charges is not evidence of guilt but simply a description of the charge made by the Commonwealth against a defendant. A charged Defendant is presumed innocent until a jury returns a unanimous finding that the Commonwealth has proven the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt or until the defendant enters a guilty plea to the charges.