Trail date set for woman charged with financially exploiting elderly man

Attorney Andrew Maier & Mary Williams

PRINCETON — A trial date was set Monday for a Lerona woman who has been charged with financially exploiting an elderly Mercer County man she had been hired to care for.

Mary H. Williams, 75, came before Circuit Court Judge Derek Swope for a pretrial hearing. Williams was scheduled on July 28 to be sentenced in a best interest plea on a charge of financially exploiting an elderly person. Swope rejected the plea after Williams spoke during the sentencing hearing and said she did nothing wrong.

Swope then stated that he had no choice but to send the case to trial. Williams had entered the best interest plea, which carried a possible sentence of one to 10 years plus restitution, in April. The case involved a Princeton resident, the late Harold DeWeese.

Williams was hired by DeWeese’s family to care for him and his wife when he was 88 years old.

DeWeese’s wife was eventually placed in an assisted living facility and during that time she noticed that money was missing from the couple’s account, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kelli Harshbarger said during the July hearing. Evidence would show that DeWeese divorced his wife and received approximately $400,000 from the division of martial assets. It was thought that DeWeese may have been suffering from dementia.

DeWeese died in 2013, and Harshbarger said at the July hearing that the state’s evidence would show that he died and was buried on Williams’ property without his family’s knowledge, and he was listed as having no assets.

An investigation was started more than two years ago by State Police Sgt. Mark Haynes. Williams was indicted in October 2015.

“The focus of the investigation was on a bank account that had over $160,000,” Harshbarger said.

“From that they were able to trace the purchase of a doublewide” that was placed on Williams’ property.”

Swope set a trial date for Feb. 7, 2017. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Dec. 20.

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Trail date set for woman charged with financially exploiting elderly man