Weekend at Bernie's Spinoff Results in Charges Being Dropped

You may remember a while back a story about two guys wheeling their dead friend down the street to go cash his Social Security check. Well, the prosecutor has dropped the charges.

Two men accused of wheeling their dead buddy's corpse down a busy street and trying to cash his Social Security check are no longer charged in the caper.

One reason: The prosecutor admits he can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt when the man died. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Evelyn LaPorte agreed and dismissed the charges Tuesday.

James O'Hare and David J. Daloia say their roommate, Virgilio Cintron, 66, was alive when they left home bound for a check-cashing store Jan. 8, and that they had standing permission to cash each other's checks when pooling household expenses.

They had been charged with forgery, criminal possession of a forged instrument, attempted petit larceny and improper disposal of a body.

Their stunt attracted massive attention and plentiful comparisons to the movie "Weekend at Bernie's."

Weekend at Bernie's, Manhattan Style

These two sure showed compassion for their fellow man.

Good grief, what the hell is wrong with people?

Manhattan roommate, pal accused of bid to cash dead man's check

Two men were arrested Tuesday after wheeling a dead man through the streets in an office chair to a check-cashing store and trying to cash his Social Security check, police said.

David J. Dalaia and James O'Hare pushed Virgilio Cintron's body from the Manhattan apartment O'Hare and Cintron shared about a block away to Pay-O-Matic, spokesman Paul Browne said witnesses told police.

"The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up and keeping him from flopping from side to side," Browne said.

The men left Cintron's body outside the store, went inside and tried to cash his $355 check, Browne said. The store's clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O'Hare told the clerk they would go and get him, Browne said.

A police detective who was having lunch at a restaurant next to the check-cashing store noticed a crowd forming around Cintron's body and "it's immediately apparent to him that Cintron is dead," Browne said.

The detective called uniformed New York Police Department officers at a nearby precinct. Emergency Medical Services technicians arrived as O'Hare and Dalaia were preparing to wheel Cintron's body into the check-cashing store, Browne said. Police arrested Dalaia and O'Hare at the store, he said.

Cintron's body was taken to a hospital morgue. The medical examiner's office told police it appeared Cintron, 66, died from natural causes within the previous 24 hours, Browne said.

"He was deceased in the apartment when he was removed by these two," Browne said.