Arrested Woman Claims Government Ties

By COLIN POITRAS

July 14, 2000 Web posted at: 2:03 PM EDT (1803 GMT)

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (The Hartford Courant) -- A woman who faked her way into Yale University now says she is an FBI informant.

Tonica Jenkins insisted she was a paid informant for the government when U.S. Customs agents arrested her and her mother in Tampa, Fla., Monday. The pair tried to buy 10 kilograms of cocaine for $70,000 cash, authorities said.

Jenkins, 25, and her mother, Tonica Clement-Jenkins, 51, remained in federal custody Thursday in lieu of $100,000 bail each.

Jenkins' claim that she supplied information to the FBI in Cleveland came out during a detention hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tampa.

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FBI officials in Cleveland could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

Sources close to the case said Thursday that Jenkins may have provided information to the FBI in the past. But a spokesman for the U.S. Customs Office Service said the pair definitely were not working for the FBI on the day of their arrest.

It would not be the first time Jenkins has made up a story to avoid getting into trouble.

While facing criminal charges for the Yale incident in 1998, Jenkins missed a court appearance and was found the following day at her home in Ohio. She said she had been abducted from a New Haven parking lot the day before, raped and forced into the trunk of her car. Jenkins said she escaped only after the assailant abandoned her car in Pennsylvania.

The judge did not believe her story and sent her to jail.

In 1999, Jenkins surprised court officials when her lawyer, Norman A. Pattis of New Haven, submitted an anonymous letter he received stating Jenkins was abused by Yale officials and was the victim of ``outright racial hatred.''

The letter was accompanied by photos of Jenkins bound and gagged. Yale officials dismissed the letter as a fabrication.

Jenkins made national headlines in December of 1997 when she was arrested for forging letters and transcripts in order to get admitted to a neuroscience graduate program at Yale.

Jenkins' glowing recommendations from Cuyahoga Community College and Central State University, both in Ohio, helped her win a $16,000 scholarship.

She attended the community college but did not earn a degree. She never attended the other school. Jenkins' ploy was uncovered when school officials became suspicious because she was repeatedly making excuses to miss exams.

Jenkins pleaded guilty to larceny and forgery charges last year in New Haven Superior Court. At her sentencing last April, she received a five-year suspended prison sentence and was placed on probation for three years. She was also ordered to repay the $16,000 in scholarship money and undergo psychological counseling.

Jenkins and her mother had allegedly gone to Florida Monday to buy 10 kilograms of cocaine for $140,000. They brought $70,000 in cash as an initial down payment, according to an affidavit on file in Florida federal court.

Both woman have been charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

Connecticut authorities were surprised to learn Thursday that Jenkins had been arrested in Florida and some were skeptical about Jenkins' alleged involvement with the FBI.

Jenkins, who lists her current address as 1787 Dalmont Ave., East Cleveland, is on probation in Connecticut and is not supposed to leave Connecticut without contacting her probation officer, authorities said.

Probation officials said Thursday that they are preparing an arrest warrant for Jenkins charging her with violating her probation.

Jenkins faces the possibility of five years in prison if she is convicted of that violation.

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