To friends and neighbors on the Upper East Side, Jessica Joyner and Jennifer Jones were big-city gals with solid jobs, yoga lessons, a spot at the bar at Elaine’s and a taste for fine clothes.
But that facade has been shattered by allegations the two pals also were secretly sticky-fingered thieves who brazenly swiped thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry, handbags and other items during open-house showings of pricey Manhattan apartments.
“It’s totally textbook,” said a 25-year-old woman who lives below Jones at 210 E. 75th St. “You have everything, but you try to make waves to create drama.”
Jones, a 33-year-old brunette, and Joyner, a 39-year-old blonde, were busted Saturday for four burglaries – three committed during Upper East Side open houses on Oct. 28, and the other committed Nov. 11 during an Upper West Side apartment showing.
Prosecutors said their technique was simple: Wearing wigs, the women would visit an open house, and one would distract the real-estate agent while the other looted drawers and closets of items including Louis Vuitton handbags, Tiffany bracelets, Veuve Clicquot champagne, a fur coat and diamond wedding rings.
They were nabbed after a doorman noted the license plate of a Jaguar they drove away in following one theft.
Both women have confessed, a prosecutor said.
Yesterday, authorities revealed that the women also are wanted by Upper Saddle River, NJ, police for two heists committed during showings of $1 million homes on Nov. 11.
A Manhattan Criminal Court judge ordered them held in lieu of $40,000 bail on grand larceny and other charges. Even if they were to post that, they would remain in custody because of the New Jersey case.
“These people are not accustomed to the criminal-justice system, they’re terrified,” said Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for the women, who appeared disheveled in court while wearing expensive-looking jackets. “They’re not accustomed to the spotlight and being on the other side of the criminal-justice system.”
Jennifer Pearlman, 41, who lost $75,000 worth of jewelry and handbags when Joyner and Jones visited her Upper Saddle River home, said, “It gives me relief that they’ve been arrested.”
Pearlman spent Sunday at the 19th Precinct station house identifying her items while the women were in custody there.
“One of them was wearing my jewelry. The other one gave my diamond bracelet to her mother. Do you believe that?” Pearlman said. “They were so arrogant. One of them kept saying, ‘I gotta get out of here, these people are all just lying to get our stuff.’ And she’s saying this while wearing my jewelry! They were so brazen, sitting there lying and wearing my stuff!”
Joyner, a twice-divorced woman who lives with her 13-year-old daughter on East 94th Street, comes from a wealthy family near Washington, DC, and is known for hanging out at Elaine’s, the famed Upper East Side watering hole.
Joyner – using the name Jessica Cannon – has claimed to be the vice president of marketing and sales of an outfit called Information Technology Global Marketing Group, and also claims to have served on the boards of several nonprofit groups.
She also is listed as being a national manager for the Federation of International Trade Associations, a Virginia-based import-export organization headed by her father.
Joyner was convicted in New Jersey of drug possession seven years ago, according to her lawyer, Karen Newirth, who told a judge that “Joyner has medical and psychiatric issues.”
Records reveal a slew of civil judgments against Joyner for unpaid or uncollected bills totaling nearly $30,000 in Virginia and New York.
Both Joyner and Jones were clients of the Some Like it Hot Yoga salon on East 63rd Street, whose owner said Jones claimed to be the head of a financial firm, even as she tried to hawk a line of “energy juices” to staff there.
Jones was arrested in Brooklyn for robbery in September 1989, and busted again a month later for drug possession and sale a month and a half later, records show. She spent nearly four months in jail, but the outcome of those cases was not known yesterday.
Her lawyer, Newirth, said Jones “is active in the recovery community” and “has medical issues and severe pain” caused by a neurological condition.
Roni Chase, a neighbor of Jones’, called her “overly friendly” and inquisitive about Chase’s own Louis Vuitton handbag, asking, “Is it real?”
“Jones seemed like a real airhead,” Chase said. “Seemed really ditzy, and seemed really immature for her age.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li, Leonard Greene, Jamie Schram and Murray Weiss.