A woman charged with pretending to be a lawyer and submitting false immigration documents has now been charged with threatening one of her alleged victims.
Melva Washington, 60, was charged with two counts of first-degree forgery, four counts of false statements and writings and three counts of unauthorized practice of a law profession on March 28. Now Washington and her daughter Elizabeth Cannon-Washington are both charged with a count of terroristic threats and a count of influencing witnesses.
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Cannon-Washington contacted a witness in her mother’s case after her mother’s arrest, Gwinnett County police said. Cannon-Washington threatened him to not speak to the police or provide testimony in the case, the witness told police. Washington had told her daughter to “place fear in the witness” and demand him to pay $10,000 towards her bond, according to police.
Cannon-Washington turned herself in to police Thursday afternoon.
Washington’s initial arrest came after multiple alleged victims told police that Washington had acted as an immigration lawyer on their behalf, scamming them out of money and submitting forged documents to the government.
Gwinnett County police ask anyone who may have been a victim of Washington to contact the department at 770-513-5300.
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