Charity scammers' plea deals collapse

Plea deals for a husband-and-wife team who had previously admitted to concocting a phony breast cancer charity to fund their extravagant lifestyle fell apart Friday morning, after a Nassau judge recommended that the wife, as well as the husband, serve time in jail.

In August, David Winston, 55, pleaded guilty to using money from the bogus charity, Coalition for Breast Cancer Cures Inc., to run up tabs at pricey Manhattan restaurants and pay his daughter's sorority bills at the University of Michigan, among other things. District Court Judge Francis Ricigliano told him that he would be sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison.

His wife, Mindy Winston, also 55, pleaded guilty to falsifying business records to create a bank account for the charity, and the judge promised her a sentence of 5 years probation.

But on Friday, Ricigliano said in court that he had changed his mind about sparing Mindy Winston jail time after reading her probation report.

"This sentence, in my mind, should include jail," he said. He was not more specific about what the probation report said.

Under the terms of Mindy Winston's plea deal, she was allowed to withdraw the plea because the judge reconsidered the sentence he had initially promised her.

After Mindy Winston withdrew her plea, David Winston asked to withdraw his, as well. Stephanie Swenton, a prosecutor for the state attorney general's office, asked Ricigliano for time to respond to the motion, which he granted.

The couple, formerly of Great Neck, is due back in court Oct. 31.

Both left court without commenting.