Ruby Corado (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
A federal judge on Oct. 14 ordered Ruby Corado, the founder and former executive director of the now closed D.C. LGBTQ community services organization Casa Ruby, held in jail while she awaits sentencing on a charge of wire fraud to which she pleaded guilty in July 2024.
U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden postponed the sentencing hearing, which had been scheduled for the next day on Oct. 15, after Corado’s court appointed public defender attorney withdrew her representation of Corado.
The attorney, Elizabeth Mullin, stated in a court motion that her reason for withdrawing from the case was an “irreconcilable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship.”
After calling Corado and Mullin to speak with him at the judge’s bench in a private conversation, McFadden told Corado he was revoking her release status while she awaited sentencing because he was concerned she would not return to court for her sentencing.
Corado disputed the judge’s concern, saying she has always returned to court for previous hearings and would return to court for the sentencing. McFadden refused to reverse his order that she be held until sentencing.
He said he would postpone the Oct. 15 sentencing to give Corado time to retain another lawyer. Corado told the Washington Blade prior to the Oct. 14 hearing outside the courtroom that she planned to retain her own attorney rather than use another court appointed attorney. She said she disputes the charge to which she pleaded guilty but declined to discuss the matter on grounds that she was restricted from publicly discussing her case
The judge’s postponement of the sentencing, which he did not reschedule, marked the seventh time Corado’s sentencing hearing has been postponed. Court records show the previous postponements came mostly at the request of Corado’s attorneys, with one caused by a medical issue faced by Corado.
The charge to which she pleaded guilty is based on the allegation that she diverted at least $180,000 “in taxpayer backed emergency COVID relief funds to private offshore bank accounts for her personal use,” according to an earlier statement released by prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C.
Court records show that FBI agents arrested Corado on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Md., shortly after she returned to the U.S. from El Salvador, where authorities said she moved in 2022. Prosecutors have said in charging documents that she allegedly “fled” to El Salvador after “financial irregularities at Casa Ruby became public,” and the LGBTQ organization ceased operating.
Shortly after her arrest, another judge agreed to release Corado into the custody of her niece in Rockville, Md., under a home detention order until the time of her trial.
As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, additional charges filed against her at the time of her arrest, including bank fraud, laundering monetary instruments, monetary transactions in criminally delivered proceeds, and failure to file a report of foreign bank accounts, were dropped at the time she pleaded guilty.
Under the federal wire fraud law Corado could be sentenced to a possible maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. But in a 16-page sentencing memorandum filed in court on Oct. 8, Assistant U.S. Attorney John W. Borchert, the lead prosecutor in the case, called for a sentence of 33 months of incarceration.
“The defendant and Casa Ruby received no less than $1.2 million in taxpayer-backed funds during the COVID-19 global health crisis,” the sentencing memo states. “But rather than use those funds to support Casa Ruby’s mission as the defendant promised, the defendant further contributed to its demise by unlawfully transferring no less than $180,000 of those federal emergency relief funds into her own private offshore bank accounts,” it says.
“Then when media reports suggested the defendant would be prosecuted for squandering Casa Ruby’s government funding, she sold her house and fled the country,” the memo says. “Meanwhile, the people who she had promised to pay with taxpayer-backed funds – her employees, landlord, and vendors – were left behind flat broke.”
In an Oct. 10 interview with WUSA-9 news, Corado disputed the claims that she used the funds she took from Casa Ruby to El Salvador for personal use. WUSA reports that Corado said she was working on a project to establish a Casa Ruby in El Salvador to help LGBTQ migrants avoid a “dangerous journey” to the U.S.
“At the time there was a huge crisis with immigration,” Corado said in an on-air interview. “We helped them. That was my mission,“ she said. When asked by WUSA if she left the U.S. as Casa Ruby folded, she replied, “There was a famous tweet that said it appears she has left the country. No, I was on and off.”
She added, “The first thing I want to say to people, mainly clients, I am sorry. I am sorry that I have not been there to support you the way I always have. That is something that is part of my healing.”
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
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