Psychic Didn’t Foresee Trial On Theft Charges

One thing fortune-teller Susie Evans probably didn’t foresee was being brought to trial on theft charges.

Evans, 42, deceived a 59-year-old woman into paying $14,000 to get her boyfriend back and a 43-year-old woman into paying $10,000 for a promise of financial security, prosecutors said.

The West Seattle psychic failed to deliver on those and other pledges and both women told police they had been tricked, deputy prosecutor Scott Peterson said Monday at the outset of Evans’ trial in King County Superior Court on two counts of first-degree theft. If convicted she could receive six months in jail.

In all, Evans used deception to steal $92,000 from the women, the prosecution alleged.

Her lawyer, Robert Leen, said Evans was being targeted unjustly.

“Being a psychic or fortuneteller or tarot card reader or practitioner of some other supernatural acts is perfectly legal in Washington,” Leen said, “and the prosecution’s position is not that what my client did was illegal but that she charged too much.

“If she had charged $250, that would’ve been fine.”

Peterson said Evans was charged not because of her fees but because of the way she induced the women to pay them.