MOUNT HOLLY —The man at the center of a national GoFundMe scandal has been released from jail as he awaits trial in New Jersey.

Superior Court Judge Mark Tarantino ruled that Johnny Bobbitt Jr. may return to his apartment in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia but must give the court a copy of his lease. Bobbitt must avoid contact with the two other people with whom he is accused of scheming to defraud thousands of people out of $400,000 in donations. He also must attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings three times per week.

Bobbitt, Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico were charged with creating a fake story about Bobbitt helping McClure after she ran out of gas in  South Philadelphia in November 2017. They created a GoFundMe account that collected $400,000 in donations that were meant to help Bobbitt, who has a history of homelessness, get back on his feet. But prosecutors said the three were to split the proceeds.

Bobbitt went public in August with accusations that the couple had kept the funds for themselves. That's when their story started to fall apart and prosecutors began snooping.

Johnny Bobbitt in Burlington County Superior Court during his detention hearing
Johnny Bobbitt in Burlington County Superior Court during his detention hearing (David Swanson, Philadelphia Inquirer (POOL))
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McClure and D'Amico were briefly detained following their arrest in November but Bobbitt was held in a Philadelphia jail pending his extradition to New Jersey.

D'Amico has been involved with a legal battle with his grandmother who claimed he was supposed to move out of the home she owned in Florence. McClure was suspended from her job with the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

GoFundMe has reimbursed donors.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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