A nurse and a part-time kindergarten teacher have been charged with the theft of more than $700,000 from a 94-year-old North Side man.Deborah Johnson, 53, of Columbus, the nurse, and Anita Esquibel, 68, of Columbus, the teacher, are accused by Columbus police of stealing more than $700,000 from Peter Svaldi.
The two met him at an apartment building near Graceland Shopping Center, said Kevin Craine, attorney for Svaldi's newly appointed guardian. The women were the property managers, said the guardian, Lorelei Lanier. The women gained Svaldi's trust, then bought real estate, a car and jewelry with money they took from his accounts after gaining power of attorney, Craine said.
"I think this stuff happens a lot more than anybody knows, through power of attorney," Craine said. "I don't know the circumstances how he gave them power of attorney, but he definitely gave it to them. In the wrong hands, it can become a license to steal.
Svaldi is "definitely incapacitated," Craine said. "That's how this happened. He's aware of what happened, but it took him a while to process that. It's one of the more heinous cases I've seen, and we do a lot of this kind of work, unfortunately."
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2 Women Accused in Rip-Off of Senior
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After perusing this report, I called the Dispatch in order to share with it leads to an Ohio story related to this one that is waiting to be reported. These leads relate to the observations of two attorneys, Kevin Craine and Lorelei Lanier, who are quoted in this report.
In particular, Craine, attorney for Svaldi's newly appointed guardian Lanier, is reported to have observed
"I don't know the circumstances how he gave them power of attorney"
"I think this stuff happens a lot more than anybody knows, through power of attorney,"
Svaldi is "definitely incapacitated"
And Lanier is reported to have observed that she was skeptical of the women's intentions when they visited her about two years ago to change paperwork for his estate, which Lanier had prepared for Svaldi several years earlier.
Did Lanier report her suspicions two years earlier? If not, why not? By Ohio law, isn’t she a mandatory reporter? In other words, didn’t Ohio law require her to report her suspicions? If she did report her suspicions, to whom did she report them? Is there a record of her reporting her suspicions? What was the response to her report?
If Lanier had reported her suspicions, and if those suspicions had been responded to needed and as proposed here in Ohio, Craine and others would probably have a better idea of not only how Svaldi’s abusers obtained their power of attorney but also how often this stuff happens.
For more information about what has been proposed, please e-mail tvfields@oh.rr.com
A nurse and a pt teacher? Geez, this surely doesn't fit the mold. We are constantly being told that family are the big thieves.
And here's a case of a couple of "professional" people - people who have violated the public trust.
Do you wonder if Kevin Craine does a lot of work for families that their loved ones and estates have been stolen by court appointed guardians and fiduciaries too?
I can assure you it's a huge problem and we all need to become aware of the failed court system for protection to the vulnerable!
Good point tv... I'm interested in knowing their answer
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