Two women employed by the state to protect a vulnerable elderly woman instead preyed on her, stealing about $20,000 from her bank accounts while she was hospitalized for dementia.
Police said both women were adult protective investigators with the Florida Department of Children and Families. One went so far as to wait in 85-year-old Jane Janssen's Cocoanut Row apartment and pose as Janssen in case the banks called to verify transactions, according to arrest affidavits made public Wednesday.
This week, Palm Beach Police detective Nicholas Caristo week arrested Mindi Marie Berry, 33, her DCF supervisor, Greta Laverne Lambert, 41, and a third woman, an employee of an escort service who told police she was hired to cash stolen checks.
Police on Wednesday were getting a warrant to arrest a fourth woman in the alleged scheme, which came to light after Janssen's son, Christopher Janssen, complained last month, police said. Berry and Lambert were fired in November after DCF learned of the police investigation, an agency spokesman said.
Described in police records as the scheme's ``mastermind,'' Lambert worked for DCF for several years and had risen to the rank of supervisor.
Berry was taken into custody in November, soon after Christopher Janssen's complaint. After a month-long investigation, Caristo arrested Lambert and Alexis White, 19.
The women face charges of organizing a scheme to defraud, grand theft from an elderly person, credit card fraud and identity theft. Their attorneys couldn't be reached.
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Palm Beach Police Arrest 2 State Employees for Stealing From Patient
5 comments:
State workers? More and more of these stories are coming to the surface. Remember them the next time you hear the "pros" pointing at family thieves.
How long had the stealing ben going on and who was watching these workers?
The bigger question, "does anybody watch?"
When governmental workers are involved in criminal activicty, they should receive the strictest punishment possible, plus restitution.
FINANCIAL PREDATORS working for the state, guess what, this is not an isolated incident. Elderly are sitting ducks for these perps. I hope they get years of hard time in their cages.
You can't just blame the thieves; the state is responsible for lack of monitoring and oversight.
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