Former Queens Defenders head stops short of guilty plea in federal court

Lori Zeno, the former executive director of Queens Defenders, had her plea change hearing postponed this week.  Photo via Queens Defenders/X

By Jacob Kaye

Lori Zeno, the former executive director of Queens Defenders, appeared prepared on Tuesday to plead guilty to federal fraud charges – until she suddenly wasn’t.

Zeno, who was arrested in June 2025 for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the organization she founded, made it most of the way through her previously scheduled change-of-plea hearing until she asked the judge if they could take a break.

Half an hour later, Zeno and her attorney, Steven Legon, returned and requested that they resume the hearing another time. The judge agreed, and ordered the former boss of the Queens public defense group to return to the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Feb. 3.

Zeno did not give a reason for the request for the postponement and declined to speak to reporters after the hour-long hearing.

For now, Zeno’s plea of not guilty remains on the books. But the 65-year-old attorney plans to soon enter a guilty plea to a single count of wire fraud. After pleading guilty, Zeno will likely face between four years and three months to five years and three months in prison.

Prosecutors claim that Zeno and her husband, Rashad Ruhani, stole over $460,000 from Queens Defenders, which is largely funded through contracts with New York City.

The couple, who were not legally married but instead wed in a religious ceremony in the months before the alleged fraud began, used a Queens Defenders credit card to make a number of personal purchases, according to federal prosecutors. They allegedly used it to fund their $10,000 honeymoon in Bali, and to buy designer clothes. They also allegedly submitted fake reimbursement claims to the nonprofit organization, claiming that they needed money to pay the rent on their penthouse apartment in Astoria because it was being used for work.

Prosecutors said during the Tuesday hearing that they had bank records, Queens Defenders’ accounting documents, witness testimony and texts between the couple that would prove Zeno and Ruhani knowingly worked together to defraud the organization Zeno helped found around three decades ago.

Ruhani, who, unlike Zeno, has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest last summer, also initially pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges brought against him. Ruhani also faces obstruction of justice, concealment of evidence and false statement charges after he allegedly hid his cell phone from law enforcement officers – media personality Kimberly Osorio was also arrested and charged with helping Ruhani hide the phone.

Ruhani has given no indication that he intends to switch his plea.