A longtime con artist and identity thief within the GLBT community was sentenced Dec. 19 to 16 months in state prison for forging her employer’s checks and stealing a 2006 Monte Carlo from a car dealership with her employer’s money.

Bettie Lois Cain, 61, of Normal Heights, was fined $400 by San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Walsh, who said he would retain jurisdiction over the case for determining how much restitution Cain should pay to her victims. The 20 forged checks from a real estate office where she worked total $26,377.50, according to her probation report.

Cain pleaded guilty Oct. 11 to forgery and auto theft. In a plea agreement, Walsh dismissed 54 other charges including forgery, grand theft, identity theft from an elder, burglary, and petty theft. She received credit for spending 224 days in jail before sentencing.

Her employer, Kenneth Harring, 76, hired her to be a loan officer in August, 2006. Harring said she didn’t have authority to sign checks in his office and she started doing it when he went on vacation. She went to City Chevrolet and made a $16,000 payment from her employer for a 2006 Monte Carlo, which was valued at $30,977. The car was totaled in an accident and couldn’t be returned, according to court records.

Cain is most remembered for starting coffee houses and not paying her employees or distributors. In 2002, Cain operated “Just a Cup of Coffee” next door to Shooters in North Park. She hired a number of workers within the GLBT community, but many quit after she had trouble making payroll. Cain hired new employees, who also didn’t get paid.

KGTV (Channel 10) interviewed three former workers at Shooters about how they had not been paid. A Channel 10 reporter interviewed Cain, who claimed she had never heard of those workers. When the reporter offered to bring one of them inside her coffeehouse, Cain said the person wasn’t allowed on the premises and she told the reporter on camera to leave.

Cain defaulted on rent and the shop closed suddenly. Some artists who had their paintings on display on a consignment basis lost their work.

Cain used her checks from the coffeehouse to purchase computers and art work to try and start another coffeehouse. She was charged in 2002 with identity theft, forgery, and illegally acquiring access to other people’s credit cards.

Cain pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery, and two counts of false personation, and she was sentenced to five years in prison on April 21, 2003, by San Diego Superior Court Judge William Mudd. The judge also ordered her to pay restitution of $44,388.53, according to court records.

She was paroled in May 2005.

Cain’s first conviction was in 1971 for false pretenses, and she was convicted in 10 other cases that ranged from investor fraud, identity theft, writing bad checks, to fighting in public, according to her probation report.

In her latest case, Cain told officials she had full authority over her employer’s business account to write checks, and Harring had agreed to buy the car for her. However, she didn’t cash any of the checks at Harring’s bank; she and instead cashed them at a check cashing business and a Hispanic market, according to court records.

The probation officer asked her if she would be willing to pay Harring restitution. “If I have to,” Cain replied.

Cain did not make any other payments to City Chevrolet besides the $16,000 paid from Harring’s account. The car dealership attempted to repossess the car, but Cain loaned it to a friend, and it was totaled in an accident.

Harring told officials he knew Cain had been convicted of forgery before, but he thought “she had turned her life around,” according to the report. Harring attempted to get his bank to pay for the forged checks, but bank officials refused; they told him he should not have hired someone whom he knew had been convicted of forgery.

A probation officer asked Cain what her future plans would be.

Cain said she wanted to learn computer skills in prison, and after she is paroled, she would like to start another coffeehouse and perhaps live in Paris.

Earlier this year, Cain filled out a prayer request at the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), which published it in its church bulletin. Cain requested prayers for “housing and prosperity.” MCC spokespreson Lee Bowman said Cain is not a member of the church and he had never heard of her.

Cain’s prayer for housing came true several weeks later when she was arrested for fraud and placed in the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility in Santee.