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One of the defendants in a so-called "hit-and-run" credit card scam is being held in state custody without the opportunity for bail.
Falysha Pierre-Lys, 22, was extradited to Honolulu from New York last week to face theft and identity theft charges.
At her arraignment in Circuit Court on Thursday, Judge Richard Perkins revoked Pierre-Lys’ bail because he determined that she poses a serious risk of fleeing the jurisdiction. Her bail had been $500,000.
Her lawyer James Lewis called the bail revocation preposterous. He said Pierre-Lys has no criminal record and does not have the ability to post the $500,000 bail.
The state says Pierre-Lys was arrested in Miami in April 2011 and in New York in December 2011 and June 2012 on similar charges.
Lewis said the New York charges were dismissed.
Prosecutor Scott Bell told Perkins that authorities in Westchester County, N.Y., dismissed the charges to allow the Hawaii case to proceed. He said the New York charges will be reinstated at the conclusion of the Hawaii case. The attorneys did not say what happened after her arrest in Miami.
An Oahu grand jury in November returned a secret indictment against Pierre-Lys, along with Isatta Bassie, 19; Shawnese Adams, 24; Sean Khani, 24; and Tamel Vaughn, 24. They were charged with running up charges on phony credit cards at high-end retail stores on Oahu during a five-day period in April. The cards were encoded with information stolen from legitimate credit cards.
Deputy U.S. marshals in New York arrested Khani and Vaughn last week.
Bassie and Adams are in custody in Aruba on unrelated charges.
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