Former DHS Employee Avoids Jail Time

A former Department of Human Services employee received a three-year probation for two Tulsa County offenses of financially exploiting vulnerable adults.

Debra Roberts, 51, pleaded guilty Oct. 5 to two felony exploitation counts.

She had no agreement with prosecutors to govern her punishment.

District Judge Kurt Glassco made a finding of guilt, giving Roberts a felony conviction in each of the cases.

Glassco imposed a three-year suspended sentence that does not require her to serve any jail or prison time.

Roberts was free on bond while awaiting sentencing in the cases, which were filed in 2008.

Roberts was a DHS Adult Protective Services specialist. She was charged in one case with taking nearly $4,500 from an 84-year-old man.

She had been a temporary guardian for the man after a court decided that he lacked the mental capacity to consent to necessary protective services. As his guardian, Roberts had the authority to use his money to pay for residential care and daily living expenses, an investigator’s affidavit states.

Prosecutors maintained that his nursing home bills went unpaid and that checks signed by Roberts on the man’s guardian account were written for cash.

In the other case, Roberts was charged with financially exploiting a 74-year-old mentally disabled man by converting about $5,900 of his money to her own use. She had been his temporary guardian.

Defense lawyer Jack Gordon said Roberts made restitution covering both cases. No restitution requirement was imposed as part of sentencing.

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Former DHS Employee Avoids Jail Time in Exploitation