The previous New Jersey GOP aide who allegedly paid a fetish artist to chop her up in a pretend, politically motivated assault is a glamorous, Maserati-driving ex-law faculty pupil with small-town roots, sources stated Friday.
Natalie Greene, 26 — who’s accused of staging a horrific ambush through which assailants supposedly scrawled “Trump Whore” on her abdomen — started Rutgers legislation faculty final 12 months however is not enrolled there, a spokesperson for the school advised The Publish.
The previous congressional aide to Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) additionally drives a dear Maserati SUV, through which police allegedly discovered zip ties — one clue that she had faked the assault, in response to prosecutors.
Earlier than her arrest Wednesday, Greene posted photographs of herself dressed to the nines in a trendy sequined crimson costume with a Gucci clutch on Fb — however her social media pages had been shortly scrubbed after her alleged hoax made nationwide information.
Greene hails from the small Jersey Shore city of Ocean Metropolis and is the daughter of Becky Greene, who works in human assets on the city’s public library. Her dad, Tim Greene, works at an indication firm.
She labored for Van Drew’s workplace whereas additionally attending faculty on the time of the alleged hoax assault.
“On the age of 26, my consumer served her neighborhood working full time to help the constituents of the Congressman with loyalty and constancy. She did that whereas being a full time pupil,” her lawyer, Louis Barbone, stated in a press release Friday.
“Underneath the legislation she is presumed harmless and reserves all of her defenses for presentation in a courtroom of legislation.”
Greene was arrested Wednesday and charged with hatching the bogus ambush at Egg Harbor Township Nature Reserve on July 23, the US Legal professional’s Workplace for New Jersey stated.
Two days earlier than the alleged phony assault, Greene drove to Pennsylvania and paid a physique modification artist she discovered on Instagram $500 to intentionally carve grotesque wounds into her face, neck, chest, again, and shoulders with a scalpel, the courtroom paperwork alleged.
The alleged fraudster claimed three gun-wielding males approached her on a path, hog-tied her with black zip ties, and held her down whereas slashing her face and physique.
She additionally claimed that “TRUMP WHORE” and “Van Drew is a racist” had been scrawled on her physique with black marker.
Prosecutors stated Greene was taken to a hospital, the place she and her confederate gave police conflicting accounts of what occurred and supplied defective descriptions of the phantom assailants.
“Whereas Natalie is not related to the congressman’s authorities workplace, our ideas and prayers are along with her and hope she’s getting the care she wants,” Van Drew’s workplace advised the outlet.
Greene was charged with conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and making false statements to federal legislation enforcement.
Locals referred to as the staged ambush mind-boggling and disturbing.
“As a conservative, it makes me unhappy, however extra as a human being, as a result of these photos with all of the cuts, they flip my abdomen,” Fiona Tierney, 49, stated Thursday.
“I really feel for this woman, I actually do … As a result of on the finish of the day, we’re speaking a couple of 25-year-old woman, a stupendous woman, whose politics aren’t supposed to succeed in that stage of utmost. Now she’s obtained to spend the remainder of her life with these scars to remind her of what she did.”
Tom Lillis, 54, stated Greene had probably ruined her life with the hoax.
“It’s simply so laborious to wrap my head round it. What was she considering? And to do it with that stage of intent, to the place you’d journey to Philly and also you’d spend all this cash and undergo all this ache and hassle,” he stated of her alleged journey to a physique modification specialist.
“Clearly she’s not effectively within the head if she thought this was a good suggestion,” he stated. “It’s heartbreaking — a stupendous, idealistic woman who threw her life away within the stupidest, craziest method attainable.”
