Woman bound over in sweetheart swindler case

Thursday, April 16, 1998 | noon

Justice of the Peace Steve McMorris on Wednesday found there was enough evidence to hold Margaret Venus Loeo for trial on a felony charge of obtaining money under false pretenses.

McMorris also rejected a request by defense attorney William Routsis to lower Loeo's bail, now set at $150,000. She faces a Douglas County District Court appearance Monday in Minden.

Investigators allege Anthony Brusca, 82, was the victim of a "sweetheart swindle" perpetrated by Loeo and other members of a San Francisco Bay area American Gypsy clan.

Warrants were issued Feb. 3 for Loeo, also known as Venus Milo; Bazil Willious, also known as Steve Milo; and Doris Milo, also known as Diana Yonko or Diana Wayne. Loeo was arrested in Hayward, Calif., and the other two suspects are still at large.

During a preliminary hearing, Brusca testified he gave away his life savings and investments thinking he was helping Loeo get started in business and pay for lifesaving operations to remove tumors.

"I believed what she told me," Brusca said. "I come from an era when we believed each other."

Other witnesses included Sgt. Detective Tim Minister, who said Loeo admitted she never had any surgery and that she cooperated with Doris and Steve Milo to get Brusca's money.

Minister said Loeo also blamed her husband, Dino Demetro, saying, "She said if she didn't go along with the program that the Demetros would take her children away and whip her."

Ana Loeo, the defendant's mother, said outside the courtroom that her daughter has been victimized by the Demetro family for years.

The mother added that ever since she and her daughter were featured in a November 1997 television segment on sweetheart scams her family and home has been targeted.