N.Y. Probes Fund-Raising Solicitations by Woman Posing as Nun

New York State officials are investigating reports that a woman with links to a once-notorious unaccredited church has been posing as a nun to solicit donations in New York City, the Associated Press writes.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office has issued subpoenas in the case of Mindy LeGrand, 54, who was pictured in the New York Post earlier this month panhandling in Manhattan. According to the Post Ms. LeGrand identified herself to potential donors as an Episcopal nun, telling some she was collecting for the homeless and others that she was raising funds for an orphanage.

The Episcopal Church has no record of Ms. LeGrand. She is reportedly the daughter-in-law of Devernon LeGrand, the founder of an unofficial church known in the 1970s as St. John’s Pentecostal Church of Our Lord. Mr. LeGrand, a convicted murderer and rapist, died in prison in 2006.