Woman allegedly stole $78,000 from great aunt with dementia

Deanna Attinello

A Bethlehem Township woman charged with being the legal guardian for a great aunt with dementia is accused of stealing $78,000 from the woman.

Deanna Attinello, 23, was charged Thursday with second-degree misapplication of entrusted property and theft by failure to make a required disposition of property, following an indictment handed up last week by a state grand jury in Trenton.

"We allege that the defendant shamelessly exploited her position as her aunt's trusted guardian to raid the woman's bank account for own her personal use," New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a news release.

Attinello was appointed her 86-year-old great aunt's legal guardian in January 2017, four months after the elderly woman was diagnosed with dementia and admitted to a long-term residential care facility in Warren County, prosecutors said.

Within days of being appointed, Attinello changed a PNC Bank account belonging to her great aunt to a guardianship account in both their names, and combined the aunt's five other accounts into the guardianship account.

With a balance of about $229,000, Attinello began withdrawing large amounts of cash from the elderly woman's account, investigators said.

About $125,000 was taken for the great aunt's expenses, including her residential case, healthcare costs, legal fees, and property taxes and repair, prosecutors said.

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Woman allegedly stole $78,000 from great aunt with dementia