The Buckhead therapist who was charged with theft after she allegedly fled town with $275,000 of her friend's and clients' money was locked up Monday and denied bail.
Colleen Higgins was indicted in May on 11 counts of theft by taking.
She disappeared last year and police finally caught her in April. She was arrested in Iowa while completing a job application at a motel. She was extradited June 9, and showed up for a bond hearing in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday.
"She came in free and clear, reading a book or something, and she went out in handcuffs," Alessandro Salvo, one of her alleged victims, told the AJC. "It was great."
Salvo said he loaned Higgins $15,000 he earned while working for a concrete contractor. He said he gave her the money because she was his therapist and he trusted her.
Clients have complained that she plied them with stories of cash flow woe. She told some that she needed money because her mother was facing eviction from a nursing home, and told others that she needed money for legal fees in a lawsuit that was to result in a big payoff.
Higgins was booked into the Fulton County Jail after the hearing, and was being held there without bond on the 11 theft charges, according to the Fulton County Sheriff's Department.
The office of District Attorney Paul Howard asserted Tuesday that Higgins stole $275,000 from eight friends and patients using "criminal deception, fraud and manipulation."
Prosecutors sought the bond revocation because, they said, she was mistakenly released without bond after her June 9 extradition. She also "showed a clear pattern of deception and avoidance of law enforcement" and no longer had local ties, Howard's office said.
Prosecutors had no comment about a request from Salvo. He said he asked the prosecutor working the case to recommend an unusual punishment: Force Higgins to work on a concrete crew until she pays back his money.
"She'd make good money shoveling concrete," Salvo said. "It's hard work though."
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