Greene County woman to lose farm after 51 years and convoluted tale

Tour of a con artist's home reveals a complex narrative as eviction draws ever closer

Christine Owad has lived on the 135-acre family farm that hugs the Batavia Kill Creek near the confluence with the Schoharie Creek in the Catskills since 1966, when she was 18 years old.

[...] 68, the retired state worker is left all alone with a tumbledown white farmhouse that is unfit for habitation, crammed with the detritus of her late parents and grandparents.

The house's swayback front door, which remains ajar, is adorned with a National Rifle Association sticker, a private property sign and a placard that reads: "These Premises Protected by Video Surveillance."

After sitting with Owad for an hour on the cluttered front porch, a portrait of contradiction emerged from the honey-voiced woman in a bright red dress, matching lipstick, pearl necklace and black and purple running sneakers.

Later, inside the ramshackle mess, she claimed to have three master's degrees and fluency in four languages as she picked through derelict upstairs bedrooms overflowing with books.

At one point, her bottom lip quivered and she brushed back tears as she recounted what she passed off as an American Gothic tale.

A judge's ruling fined her $105,000 and ordered her to make $198,000 in restitution payments to Irish victims for her fraudulent acts and empty promises of green cards and citizenship.

Last year, Owad was charged with grand larceny and welfare fraud by Greene County, for whom she once worked.

The long-running legal saga snarled multiple agencies of city, county and state government and kept a half-dozen lawyers busy.

The case seemed to reach its denouement after Owad refused to vacate the premises that the state legally owns and she was served on July 9 with a notice by the state Attorney General's office that she had exactly 30 days to get off the farm.

The eviction notice was extended until Oct. 15 as she managed to win one final