https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/vexatious-litigant-accused-of-leaving-dead-ferret-in-man-s-freezer-1.6946125
Althea Reyes facing numerous charges including fraud, personation, forging documents
A woman known for using multiple aliases and being a vexatious litigant is accused of leaving a dead ferret in the freezer of a man who thought he was offering short-term accommodation to her brother, who may not actually exist.
Althea Reyes was designated a vexatious litigant in 2017 for repeatedly launching civil proceedings against people and businesses. The judge at the time said Reyes would "harass her foes" by using civil courts.
Reyes, 56, was arrested in early August and faced charges on 20 criminal offences including fraud over $5,000, personation and uttering a forged document.
When Ottawa police announced the initial charges, they said they were still investigating and more charges could follow.
That happened last week: Reyes is now accused of a combined total of 37 criminal and provincial offences in relation to alleged fraudulent activity.
CBC News has learned of other alleged victims who say they've gone to police about Reyes.
Woman called 'out of the blue'
Mark Gallant said he was golfing when he met a woman named Rhose Mohaned. He mentioned to her he occasionally loaned his place out to people while he was travelling. The two got along well that day and exchanged numbers.
Gallant said he didn't hear from her until a few months later in February, when she called "out of the blue."
The woman, Gallant said, was looking for a place where her brother and his family could stay temporarily while they waited for their own home to be ready. Gallant said he was travelling at the time and thought it would be a nice way to help a new acquaintance.
"She moved in with their dogs and all her belongings here right from the get-go," he said. "I knew there was something up at that point, but we didn't realize the extent of what was going on."
Gallant alleged Mohaned failed to make payments despite an informal agreement between the two, and said their emails and exchanges soon took a turn "that just didn't seem to be right."
"The short-term accommodation was for three weeks, maybe three and a half, four weeks until the house was ready for a brother," Gallant said. "But after a week or two, I kind of got the impression that there was something fishy about the arrangement."
Gallant said Mohaned started requesting to stay in the house for as long as seven months, but he wasn't prepared to accommodate her because it was his own residence and that wasn't their agreement.
Using an alias
Gallant said he returned to the house about two weeks after Mohaned moved in and told her the arrangement wasn't working.
"I basically changed the locks and locked her out, and thank God I did that because after that, at that moment is when I kind of found out who she really was," he said.
Gallant learned the person he knew as Rose Mohaned was likely Althea Reyes, who was banned from initiating court action without prior approval from a judge, and who was the subject of a 2021 CBC exposé.
Subsequently, Gallant began to doubt if she even had a brother or sister-in-law, and said no evidence of their existence was ever provided to him. CBC News has also been unable to confirm the existence of Reyes's relatives.
CBC's story examined a woman going by the name Maxine Adwella who was known as the head of the National Collaboration for Youth Mental Health (NCYMH). According to its website, the organization spent more than 20 years advocating for racially and culturally specific mental health services for young people.
But a 2020 court judgment found that a woman named Maxine Adwella is actually an alias used by Reyes.
Following that story, a lawsuit was launched against CBC by a Kamala Tiwari, but a Superior Court judge ruled in 2022 that any notion that the person behind the litigation could be anyone but Reyes "defies belief." The lawsuit was tossed.
A grisly discovery
Gallant said he was shocked when he learned of Reyes's history, but he was even more surprised after she had moved out and he opened his freezer to find a dead ferret inside.
"We have it on ice," he told CBC. "[Reyes] claims [it] is being used for taxidermy, but it's been six months sitting in here."
Gallant has held onto the ferret, as well as some of Reyes's other belongings.
He did so because a Rhose MacDonald — a name later changed on the documents to Ziyan MacDonald — unsuccessfully tried taking him to Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board. Gallant said he waited for the case, and a subsequent appeal, to be dismissed.
No Rhose or Ziyan MacDonald ever showed at the hearings and the board tossed the case. Gallant said he has never met anyone with those names.
Gallant said he hasn't seen Reyes since March, and has been in contact with police about his experiences with her.
Suspicious encounter with neighbour
CBC News has spoken with another person who contacted police after an interaction with a woman he believed to be Reyes.
James Cybulsi first met the woman when she rented an apartment in the same Ottawa building he lives in, sometime around the summer of 2020.
He said he knew her as Maxine Adwella, and the two first interacted in February 2021 when she came to his apartment asking to use his phone to contact her sister.
"I gave her my phone and instead of using it to make a phone call she scrolled and used the keyboard," Cybulski says. "And then I took it away from her."
He said he was upset in the moment but took no further action at the time. A few months later he was scrolling through his phone and noticed that his Google account had been used to give the National Collaboration for Youth Mental Health, the organization connected to Reyes in CBC's 2021 story, a five-star review.
The NCYMH maintains an online presence but it is not registered as a charity with the Canada Revenue Agency. Its status was revoked in 2022 for a failure to file, and a 24-hour help line associated with it does not appear to be in service.
Another attempted lawsuit
The NCYMH is a registered not-for-profit, but a broker representing the building listed as its registered office address said the group has never used the premises. Neither Reyes nor any of her known aliases is included on the group's list of directors.
Cybulsi believed Adwella was actually Reyes, and raised his concerns to the building manager. In March, Reyes tried suing Cybulski, the building's manager and its owner.
The civil claim was initiated in the name of Social Justice Network, but the court determined it was actually Reyes and tossed the case.
Superior Court Justice Heather Williams determined the Social Justice Network lacked the capacity to start a legal action, and concluded the lawsuit was "another in a series of actions started by Althea Reyes to harass people or organizations she is unhappy with."
"Once again, Ms. Reyes has used a name other than her own to start an action without seeking leave of the court, as her status as a vexatious litigant requires her to do," the decision said.
During the proceedings, a person claiming to be Rhose Mohaned briefly appeared on behalf of the Social Justice Network.
Speaking out to warn others
Cybulski and Gallant say they're speaking out to warn others about Reyes.
"We want the attorney general to take some sort of action to make sure that Althea Reyes doesn't do this again, like her criminal activities and her vexatious litigations," Cybulski said, noting that Reyes's designation as a vexatious litigant hasn't stopped her from continuing to use courts and tribunals.
Given her history, Gallant is also concerned for others who may have crossed paths with Reyes and are unaware of her history.
"People that aren't as lucky as myself to have people that have been helping out, in terms of the connections," he said, referring to those who helped him delve into her past.
Reyes was first arrested Aug. 1, and is currently out on bail. None of the allegations against her has been proven in court. A lawyer representing Reyes declined to comment to CBC for this story.
Reyes told CBC earlier this week she is innocent of the charges against her and would be happy to grant an interview once her trial is complete.
