Jury says an Arlington IRS agent is not guilty of stealing her mother’s identity
A Tarrant County jury declared an Arlington woman not guilty after hearing testimony accusing her of stealing her mother’s identity and charging thousands of dollars to five fraudulently obtained credit cards.
Phong Moore, the victim in the alleged elder fraud case in which her daughter was accused of identity theft, left the courtroom shortly before closing arguments in the trial began Wednesday morning.
Brenda Soulas, 45, of Arlington, was suspected of stealing Phong Moore’s Social Security number and then using the information to obtain the credit cards, which she allegedly used to purchase outings to the WinStar Casino in Oklahoma, lunch, baseball training camps and fast-food meals.
Soulas works for the IRS with the business tax group and remains employed there.
Her trial on five counts of fraud started Monday in a Tarrant County courtroom. The total amounts charged on the credit cards was estimated at about $14,000. The jury began deliberations in the case shortly before noon Wednesday.
Attorneys representing the defendant argued that prosecutors presented no evidence that proved Soulas did anything, and asked the jury to find her not guilty.
Prosecutors asked that the jury fill the gap between probable cause and beyond a reasonable doubt, said Matt Peacock, one of the attorneys defending Soulas.
Peacock said the jury should fill that gap by using their common sense and come back with a not guilty verdict.
Had Soulas been convicted, she could have been sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count.
Moore, 74, left the courtroom because she could not stop coughing, but it is doubtful she would have understood much of what was said had she stayed. Moore immigrated to the United States from Thailand in 1973, pregnant and with no formal education.
Moore, who was called by the state on Tuesday to testify against her daughter, has little understanding of the English language. She was easy to take advantage of, according to Arshad Majid, Tarrant County prosecutor.
“You saw how easy it might be for someone to confuse her,” Majid said during his closing.
As Phong Moore left to sit outside of the courtroom, she asked officials with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office not to worry about her. Moore said she did not want her coughing spells to interrupt the proceedings.
Peacock said during his cross-examination on Tuesday that Phong Moore tried to change or clarify answers she had given him during a deposition.
“I don’t want to hurt my kids,” Phong Moore can be heard saying during a recording of the deposition that was played outside the presence of the jury.
In the deposition, Phong Moore said all her children had to do was ask and she would give them whatever she had, that she did not care if she had nothing.
During her testimony on Tuesday, what Phong Moore said she meant was that: “I wanted them to be happy, not that I wanted nothing.”
During the deposition, Phong Moore also called her son Dalton Moore the number one liar. But during the trial Phong Moore clarified that point, testifying that she said that because he likes to joke around a lot.
Soulas’ brother, Dalton Moore, turned in his sister to police.
Dalton Moore had a legal responsibility to manage his mother’s business affairs and after seeing credit card charges from credit cards not in her possession, he called the police, according to prosecutors.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 4:36 PM.
