Houston con man sentenced to 75 years in prison for stealing Identities of Hurricane Harvey victims

Todd Parker Neuwirth is a convicted​ felon residing in Houston, Texas​. In May 2018 he was sentenced to 75 years in prison​ for stealing the identities of Hurricane Harvey​​ victims. [2]​ [3]​ [5]​

Todd Neuwirth has been a drug addict for more than 20 years. He has a teenage daughter. [6]​​

On Friday, May 25, 2018 Todd Neuwirth was sentenced to 75 years in prison for​ stealing identities from victims of Hurricane Harvey. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office first announced the sentence to the public in a news release​ on Thursday, May 31, 2018. [3]​ [5]​

Federal officials said that Todd Parker Neuwirth, 41, was found guilty of fraudulent possession of identifying information and tampering with a government document and sentenced to two concurrent sentences of 75 years in prison, according to a news release from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. [3]

Montgomery County Jail record of Todd Neuwirth [7]

Prosecutor​ Sara Corradi said that Neuwirth, which has also been spelled Neurwirth, “took advantage of and stole the identities from numerous innocent victims who were simply trying to repair their lives after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey last year.” [3]

Police in Splendora, Texas​ outside Houston made the discovery during a routine traffic stop​ in September 2017. [3]

Authorities said that Neuwirth, who had been pulled over for speeding​ and failure to maintain a lane, was “extremely nervous and evasive with his answers,” according to the statement from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. The police officer then searched Neuwirth’s vehicle and discovered blank checks, credit cards​, employment applications​ and other documents containing identifying information — mostly from flood victims. The officer also found a scale contaminated with methamphetamine​, the prosecutors said. [3]

Splendora Police Department spokesman Police Sergeant​ Troy Teller told The Washington Post​ that an initial investigation showed Neuwirth had been collecting identifying information, such as driver's license​ and Social Security numbers​, from trash cans​ belonging to flood victims and then forging personal checks​ and IDs for his own use. It’s unclear whether Neuwirth was raiding garbage himself or buying the information. [3]

Neuwirth, who was on parole​ for another federal crime, was arrested and charged with fraudulent use or possession of identifying information and tampering with governmental record, Teller said. [3]

Following Neuwirth’s recent conviction in the Hurricane Harvey case, Teller, with the Splendora Police Department, said that the two concurrent 75-year sentences “definitely send a message.” [3]

“We’re not going to play around here in Montgomery County,” Teller said about the case. “We’re going to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.” [3]

Mugshot of Todd Neuwirth from a 2013 drug charges arrest in Cleveland [9]

At trial, prosecutors showed that Neuwirth had at least a dozen prior felony convictions, including a case in 2010 in which he was convicted and sentenced in a $171,000 check-cashing scam. [3]​

In that case, Neuwirth pleaded guilty to conspiring to create phony military spouse IDs to defraud banks in Texas and surrounding states. He pleaded guilty to the federal bank fraud​ offense along with co-defendant Amber Schneider in October 2009. The judge sentenced him to three and a half years for defrauding banks of $171,600 and ordered the pair to pay that full amount in restitution​. [6]​

After serving about a year and a half at a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas​, Neuwirth was released to a halfway house​. He escaped that facility five months later in 2012. That escape charge was still pending before another federal judge, and was included as part of the judge's sentence. [6]​

Before he made it back to deal with the original federal conviction or the escape charge, Neuwirth was convicted in state court for a 2013 drug case and was sentenced to serve two and a half years in a state prison. [6]​

In the 2013 drug case, Todd Neuwirth was arrested by the United States Marshals Service​ after they received a tip that a wanted fugitive​ was staying at a Super 8 Motel​​ in Cleveland, Ohio​. During the arrest officers noted that Neuwirth had abnormal strength while resisting arrest and seemed to be under the influence of methamphetamine​. [9]​

After searching the motel room, officers reportedly discovered crystal methamphetamine, Xanax​ pills, marijuana​ and a digital scale. In addition to the drugs, officers reportedly found several computers​, printers, a laminate machine, numerous credit cards with various names; notebooks​/flash drives ​with citizens’ identifying information, fake paper license plates, gift cards​, prepaid credit cards and a fictitious US Navy​ ID with Neuwirth’s photo. A check of the parking lot area found a four-door truck that had been reported stolen out of Polk County, Texas. The vehicle had fake paper license plates. [9]​

Nuewirth was charged with Resisting Arrest​ (Misdemeanor​ A), Possession of Marijuana (Misdemeanor B), Possession of a Controlled Substance Penalty Group 3 (Misdemeanor A), Possession of a Controlled Substance Penalty Group 1 (Felony 3), in addition to the federal warrant for his arrest. [9]​

In 2013, he also racked up a total of seven violations of his supervised federal release in 2013, including testing positive for amphetamines​, giving a fake address and failing to follow instructions. [6]​

In April 2016, Neuwirth violated parole in two separate cases and was sentenced to serve six more months in federal prison, followed by six months as an inpatient at a drug treatment clinic​. [6]​