What to Know
- Mark D'Amico mostly refused to answer questions outside the Burlington County Courthouse.
- But he did issue a very brief response when asked if everything would become known: "Crystal clear."
- D'Amico's recent court appearance comes on the heels of a heated legal battle with homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt Jr.
Wearing a backwards baseball cap and black hoodie, the New Jersey man accused of misusing a homeless good Samaritan's donation funds appeared in court Tuesday morning for a traffic violation.
Mark D'Amico refused to answer questions outside the Burlington County Courthouse, but did issue a very short response when a reporter asked: "When you can talk, will it be clear as to what happened?"
"Crystal clear," he confirmed before getting in a car driven by a woman and leaving the courthouse.
His attorney, Ernest Badway, declined to comment further.
D'Amico was arrested last week in Burlington County on a $500 warrant for an October 2017 traffic stop, according to officials. At the time, he was driving on a suspended license and also had a broken tail light. He also failed to appear in court on two separate occassions, according to court records.
NBC10 obtained exclusive footage of the 2017 traffic stop, which you can watch in the video embedded above.
D'Amico's recent court appearance comes on the heels of a heated legal battle with homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt Jr. D'Amico and his girlfriend, Katelynn McClure, are accused of dipping into some of the $400,000 in online donations they raised for Bobbitt, who gave McClure his last $20 when she ran out of gas on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia.
Badway, who is representing D'Amico and McClure in a civil case, said in a letter that one or both could be indicted by the Burlington County prosecutor for taking Bobbitt's donation funds.
The civil case is on hold until December. The couple has not been criminally charged.
Earlier this month, investigators seized a BMW and other items from the couple's Florence, New Jersey, property. Badway said in his letter that all the couple's personal and business financial statements, along with jewelry and cash were seized in the raid.
D'Amico and McClure have earlier denied wrongdoing or misusing the cash, which was raised on GoFundMe from 14,000 contributors.
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Bobbitt sued the couple over mismanagement of the funds and a judge ordered sworn statements to determine what happened to the cash, which Bobbitt's attorney said is all gone.
GoFundMe and the law firm representing Bobbitt issued a joint statement last week saying he would receive all the money raised for him. Chris Fallon, Bobbitt's attorney, earlier said he had gotten about $75,000 of the cash.
Badway said Bobbitt got about $200,000 and D'Amico said Bobbitt spent $25,000 in less than two weeks on drugs, as well as paying for overdue legal bills and sending money to family.
The couple also bought Bobbitt a camper with some of the cash and parked it on land McClure's family owns in New Jersey. But Bobbitt became homeless again after D'Amico told him in June he had to leave.
Bobbitt's attorney said Bobbitt was entering a residential program for drug treatment.
