- WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
- Karyn Turk, 47, was sentenced this month to jail time and house arrest after she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of Social Security Insurance fraud
- Turk was Mrs. Florida in 2016 and works as a conservative commentator having rubbed elbows with the likes of Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani
- She confessed to taking the money from her dying, bed-ridden mother's Social Security but tells DailyMailTV it was to pay for a private full-time aide
- 'I made mistakes,' she said. 'Legally, I should have automatically forwarded the checks to the nursing home. I just didn't like how they were treating her'
- She claims the West Palm Beach nursing home is responsible for her 83-year-old mother's death and says the staff neglected her
- Turk provided photos to DailyMailTV of horrifying bed sores her mother had and other wounds which she says 'speaks for themselves'
- She is expected to report to prison on March 2 in Florida and then serve five months on house arrest and serve 100 hours of community service
Mrs. Florida
is headed to prison for stealing her dying, bed-ridden mother's Social
Security checks - crushing her dream of becoming a Real Housewife.
It's
a sexy headline, says ex-beauty queen Karyn Turk, mom-of-four and
socialite wife of a well-known lawyer, but she tells DailyMailTV that
her upcoming sentence doesn't reflect what really happened.
Turk, 47, who along with being Mrs. Florida 2016 is also a conservative political commentator who rubs elbows with the likes of Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, tells DailyMailTV that she only stole the checks to pay for her mother's private full time aide.
Turk
pleaded guilty in September to stealing $17,320 worth of Social
Security checks from her mother. Turk paid back $46,000 and is expected
to spend most of the month of March in a prison camp located in the
swampy Everglades.
The checks should
have been going to the Finnish-American Village, a nursing home in the
West Palm Beach suburb of Lake Worth, where Turk's mom, retired New
Jersey housewife Ilse Schafer, spent four years until her death June 10,
2019 at the age of 83. In December, Finnish-America filed a lawsuit
against Turk that claims she still owes them $220,000 for her mother's
care.
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| Former Mrs. Florida Karyn Turk, 47, was sentenced this month to jail time and house arrest after she pleaded guilty to Social Security Insurance fraud for stealing from her mother |
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| Turk is seen with her adoptive mother, Ilse Schafer, who died in June at the age of 83 |
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| Turk is seen with her adoptive mother, Ilse Schafer, who died in June at the age of 83 |
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| Turk was Mrs. Florida in 2016 and works as a conservative commentator having rubbed elbows with the likes of Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani |
In an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV
in her Boca Raton dockside condo, Turk said there's a back story to her
descent from conservative talk-show personality and potential reality
TV star to bottom-of-the-barrel nickel-and-dime thief.
And at times, that story makes her sound like her political hero, President Donald Trump.
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| Turk is a conservative commentator who is often pictured with Republican figures in Palm Beach, such as this 2018 photo with President Donald Trump |
'It's a conspiracy and a witch hunt,' she
says. 'The story on how I could end up in prison – I just filed my
appeal, by the way – started when I complained about my mother's
treatment in her nursing home.
'The
nursing home administrators knew my mother's death was going to be a
problem, so they figured they'd discredit me and create a false
narrative to save themselves from scrutiny.'
A
court-appointed guardian accused Turk of using her mother's Social
Security checks to promote her dream of appearing on 'The Real
Housewives of Palm Beach' and to garner publicity.
The guardian accused Turk of using the money to rent large homes and buying tables at fancy equestrian events.
At
83, Turk's adoptive mother Ilse Schafer suffered from a series of
ailments, including respiratory problems and dementia, and she was
bed-ridden.
But degenerative diseases that couldn't be blamed on anyone, Turk says, is just a part of what killed her.
'What killed her is neglect,' Turk says, 'Neglect that caused nine bed sores on her back and legs.
'One of the bed sores on her back got so bad that you could see the vertebrae from her spine through a gaping hole in her flesh.
'They were gaping holes that the nursing home staff just filled with cotton.
'My
mom was in excruciating pain when she died, and folks at the nursing
home didn't lift a finger. They actually tried to hide it by attempting
to have her cremated. But I managed to get the body and an autopsy by a
private doctor.'
Turk provided photos to DailyMailTV of her
mother's wounds taken about a month before she died, saying 'they speak
for themselves.'
According to the
private autopsy that Turk paid for, Schafer died of respiratory failure
caused by pneumonia and bronchitis. The report also mentions 'infected
decubitus ulcers (bed sores) and dementia' were 'contributing causes.'
Turk
filed a lawsuit against the nursing home in early September, according
to Palm Beach County court records, alleging that the staff failed to
monitor her mother's health properly and neglected her care as bed sore
developed into open wounds that made her body more vulnerable to
infections.
Bed sores, according to Florida health regulators, can be 'very painful' and 'extremely difficult to heal.'
They're usually caused by breakdowns in the skin that touches bed sheets in the same way for long periods of time.
They're
also avoidable, and the number of patients with such injuries is used
by regulators to judge the level of care in a nursing home.
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| Turk claims the West Palm Beach nursing home is responsible for her 83-year-old mother's death and says the staff neglected her. Sheprovided pictures showing her mother with a mark on her head and deep bed sores |
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| Turk claims the West Palm Beach nursing home is responsible for her 83-year-old mother's death and says the staff neglected her. Sheprovided pictures showing her mother with a mark on her head and deep bed sores |
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| 'My mom was in excruciating pain when she died, and folks at the nursing home didn't lift a finger,' Turk said. She provided this photo of her mother at the nursing home hunched over |
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| 'I made mistakes,' she said. 'Legally, I should have automatically forwarded the checks to the nursing home. I just didn't like how they were treating her' She provided this photo of her and mother from childhood |
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| Turk claims the Finnish-American Village, a nursing home in the West Palm Beach suburb of Lake Worth, neglected her mother who lived there for four years |
Finnish American was on the state's nursing home watch list since July
2017, according to the Agency of Health Care Administration, because, in
some instances, it didn't meet the minimum standards of elderly care,
according to the agency's website.
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| She is expected to report to prison on March 2 in Florida and then serve five months on house arrest and serve 100 hours of community service |
Records show 'pressure ulcers,' or bed
sores, were found on a randomly checked resident. State regulators fined
Finnish-American $2,500 and placed the home on administrative
probation.
State inspectors gave the
nursing home a one-star overall rating, out of a possible five stars.
They gave one star for its quality of care, two for quality of life and
one star for 'pressure ulcers.'
'It's false,' said Daniel Benson, the
facility's executive director and chief financial officer, when asked
about the low ratings and probation. 'We're not commenting on anything
that has to do with Karyn Turk.'
Later,
Benson emailed a statement that read: 'The 2017 citation was for an
isolated incident which has no bearing on this case, but unfortunately
still affects our star rating. Mrs. Turk is again attempting to redirect
attention from the crime she committed. Due to ongoing litigation, we
cannot comment any further.'
The
nursing home, by the way, received five stars for the nutrition and
hydration of its 45 residents, and five stars for the residents'
dignity.
As bad blood festered between
Turk and the nursing home's administration, she said Benson even took to
writing a letter about her to local U.S. Congresswoman Lois Frankel.
His
email to Democrat Frankel obtained exclusively by DailyMailTV shows
Benson asking for further investigations into Turk after she copped the
plea to a misdemeanor.
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| Daniel Benson, the facility's executive director sent an email to Democrat Frankel obtained exclusively by DailyMailTV that shows Benson asking for further investigations into Turk after she copped the plea to a misdemeanor |
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| DailyMailTV obtained court documents filed in September by Turk against the nursing home which she says neglected her mother |
Benson wrote he worried that Turk
benefited from her Republican connections and that 'the sentence will
not equate to the magnitude of the crime.'
According to news reports, six employees of the nursing home attended Turk's sentencing on January 10.
'They were actually lobbying the federal government to discredit me when I was already down,' she said.
Turk, meanwhile, doesn't dispute the facts that are likely to land her in prison camp despite her lack of a criminal record.
She is also scheduled to serve five months on house arrest and serve 100 hours of community service.
'I
made mistakes,' she said. 'I was using my mother's checks to pay for a
private full-time aide to be with my mom at the nursing home. That stuff
is expensive.
'Legally, I should have automatically forwarded the checks to the nursing home. I just didn't like how they were treating her.'
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| Turk and Don Trump Jr strike a pose in 2018. She was accused of her mother's Social Security checks to promote her dream of appearing on 'The Real Housewives of Palm Beach' |
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| Turk and Roger Stone are seen at an October 2018 event. She is a staunch supporter of the former Trump campaign advisor, who awaits sentencing on federal convictions |
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| Turk poses with Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani at an event last February |
She said she's paying for the crime in more ways than her sentence.
In December, Finnish-America filed a lawsuit against Turk that claims she still owes them $220,000 for the care of her mother.
Her social standing that made her a regular at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's private club, is now in question.
Several reality TV opportunities have since vanished.
And people who recognize her from the media coverage of her sentencing look at her with a hint of disgust.
'In
my neighborhood and my condo building, I can see little old ladies
looking at me sideways,' Turk said. 'One even clutches her purse when I
walk by.
Full Article & Source:
EXCLUSIVE: Former Mrs. Florida, sentenced to jail for stealing her mother's Social Security checks, blames the nursing home for her mom's death saying she spent the money on private care because the center 'neglected' her
I understand the feeling of rage and helpless at the same time. She shouldn't have taken her mother's SS money, though. Two wrongs don't make a right.
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