Momma's Boy

Irene Prusik has been dead for six years. But in April, someone showed up at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Brooklyn to renew her driver's license. Her son, in drag!

Thomas Parkin (49) was charged Wednesday in the plot to impersonate his deceased mother so he could collect $117,000 in government benefits. He and his accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo (sweet gay gigolo name), pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, criminal impersonation and other charges, which do not include playing bridge, attending high tea services, or enjoying hard candies.

Both men were ordered held on $1 million bail. District Attorney Charles Hynes said the scam was "unparalleled in its scope and brazenness." Apparently, he'd never seen Weekend At Bernie's or Psycho. Authorities claim that following his arrest, Parkin told them that because he held Prusik when she breathed her last breath, "I am my mother". Damn, that's a bad ass quote, considering the guy is wearing his mother's pantyhose!

Parkin, who lived with his mother (no surprise there), was accused of hatching the scheme after she passed away in 2003 at age 73. He concealed the death by falsifying her death certificate, then collected $52,000 from her $700-a-month Social Security checks over the next six years, prosecutors said. Authorities say Parkin also got another $65,000 in rent subsidies by falsely claiming he had a disability and that his mother was still alive and was his landlord. Parkin used his friend (that should be in quotes...the gay kind) Rimolo to pose as the mother's nephew when going to cash checks and do other business, prosecutors said. A security camera photo being used in the case from the DMV office shows a faggy frail-looking Parkin in a wig and dark glasses, Rimolo by his side, as he fills out paperwork.

The ruse began to unravel amid a dispute over the mother's home, which was sold at foreclosure in 2003. Six years? That's a pretty slow unravel. Parkin challenged the purchase by suing the new owner on his mother's behalf so he wouldn't be evicted. As the property dispute dragged out, both sides eventually contacted the district attorney to accuse each other of fraud. By the time investigators arranged a meeting with the family in May, they already had proof Prusik was dead: a photo of her tombstone in a local cemetery. Oops. Maybe she should have been keep in the freezer.

The investigators played along as Parkin showed up for the interview "wearing a red cardigan, lipstick, manicured nails and breathing through an oxygen tank," prosecutors said. Wow, he must have thought he had them fooled at that point. It's really sad though...if you can fit into your mother's clothes, I mean.