Sunday, February 19, 2012

Caretaker Sentenced For Ripping Off 91-Year Old Client

When we first met Leonard Onesty last October he was still reeling from the betrayal of the woman he had trusted with his care and his money for the past two years.

"Disgusted and busted, that's all I can tell you," he said at the time.

Now 91, this World War 2 vet was mentally sharp, but having just lost a leg, he was mostly bedridden and dependent on Sherry Crawford.

She kept him, he said, isolated from friends and family. When people would call to check on him, she'd tell them he was sleeping or hint he had dementia.

She disconnected the phones in his Sun Valley home and, he says, never left him alone when they left the house, at last until the day she dropped him off for an appointment at the V-A Hospital and disappeared.

She told him she was going for a walk while he saw the doctor. Three hours later he was still waiting for her.

"She didn't show up and I started to worry about it and said, 'what is this?'"

He was about to find out. Checking with his bank later that day he would learn he had all of $60 dollars left, along with a pile of bills she had told him she'd paid.

Investigators would later put his total loss at $119-thousand dollars.

Full Article and Source:
Caretaker Sentenced For Ripping Off 91-Year Old Client

2 comments:

Betty said...

Jail time I hope!

Anonymous said...

In Colorado Spings, Colorado we are watching a similar situation unfold. Janice Eder was appointed the Conservator in a case; it appears she is part of what is being described as a "pack" that get themselves appointed and then put their associates/friends in place and bill (attorneys, nurses... for various seniors.

Similar to this case, this group or "pack" is ripping off seniors. Some of the people / businesses in this group has been sued before for things such as breeching fiduciary duty.

In the case we are watching the "pack" spent $280,000 in 3 months (the yearly amount is absurd) and the judge finally cut the group off until an upcoming hearing to justify the amount of spending they have created. We are working on getting a total for the year which appears to be a very large sum of money.

Should be an interesting case as this group is the ones the seniors need to be protected from.