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| Mrs. Florida Karyn Turk 2016. |
By Jane Musgrave
The conservative media darling is also
ordered to spend 100 hours of community service at a nursing home to
remind her of the time she never spent with her mother.
A
conservative media commentator
who was crowned Mrs. Florida 2016 is headed to prison after a federal
judge on Thursday said he wanted to send a message that if you steal
from the U.S. government, you’re going to jail.
Unless Karyn Turk
can convince an appeals court that she doesn’t deserve to spend a month
behind bars for stealing her elderly mother’s Social Security checks
instead of using the money to pay for nursing home care, the Highland
Beach resident must report to prison on March 2.
Turk’s looming
jail sentence — to be followed by five months of house arrest — was
ordered by U.S. Magistrate Bruce Reinhart after a contentious hearing.
He
also ordered Turk to perform 100 hours of community service at a
nursing home — a reminder of the time she never spent with her own
mother who spent three years in a Lake Worth facility, ravaged by
Alzheimer’s disease.
While Turk didn’t show any reaction to
Reinhart’s decision, she and her lawyers sought to convince him that she
has suffered enough and didn’t deserve house arrest, much less prison
time.
Since pleading guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge
of Social Security fraud, she has been attacked on social media, said
her attorney David Tarras.
Turk, who last year was named champion
of the year by Best Buddies, a teen mentoring group, has lost her
position on various philanthropic groups, he said.
The damage to her reputation and her status in political, business and social circles has been enormous, he said.
Without
the ability to hob-nob in the community, travel to interview
celebrities for YouTube broadcasts and to host fundraisers, like those
she held for now convicted political operative Roger Stone, her career
is dead, he said.
“Her livelihood is based on networking and being a social media commentator,” Tarras said.
Besides,
he argued, she came to court with a check for $46,000 to reimburse the
government for the money she stole. That, he said, should be enough.
Reinhart
disagreed. While noting that Turk had lived an otherwise law-abiding
life and done good works, he said her crime was a serious one. She
shouldn’t be able to “buy her way out of jail” by simply writing a
check, he said.
“Choices in life have consequences, I’m sorry to
tell you,” Reinhart said. “If you steal from the government, you’re not
going to have a reputation as an honest person.”
As a social media
commentator with a large following, he said she was well-placed to send
an important message to others who might follow in her footsteps.
“The message I’m sending is: You can’t steal from the government and not go to jail,” Reinhart said.
His
decision was welcomed by roughly a half-dozen employees of the Finnish
American Rest Home who cared for Turk’s elderly mother until she died in
July at age 83. While they said nothing during the hearing, outside the
courtroom, they said they were relieved.
“Resident exploitation is a serious crime and I’m glad he
recognized that,” said Daniel Benson, executive director of the 45-bed
nursing home.
Instead of using her mother’s Social Security, Veterans
Administration and pension checks to cover $219,000 in nursing home
bills, Turk used the money to pay for shopping sprees, dinners out and
for a nanny to watch her children, according to Palm Beach County
sheriff’s Detective Vaughn Mitchell.
The loss over three years
hurt, Benson said. “We rely on the money for staff raises, to update
equipment, for our operations,” he said. “It’s a significant amount for a
small nonprofit.”
Some of her mother’s expenses would have been
covered by Medicare if Turk had filled out the necessary paperwork. But,
despite constant requests, Turk refused, said Assistant U.S. Attorney
Adrienne Rabinowitz.
The nursing home even went to court to try to
force Turk to pay up. While a Palm Beach County circuit judge in August
2018 ordered Turk to pay $250 a month to defray the mounting bill, Turk
still didn’t do it, Rabinowitz said.
Sadly, she said, the circuit judge also ordered Turk to buy clothes for her mother instead of leaving it to the nursing home.
“I think it says a lot about who this person is when you have to be ordered to buy your mother clothes,” Rabinowitz said.
Attorney Guy Fronstin, who also represents Turk, said he plans
to appeal. He said he will ask that she not be required to report to
prison until the appeal is decided.
While Turk faced a maximum
year-long sentence, he questioned whether Reinhart could send Turk to
prison for a month to “send a message.”
Reinhart said one of the
biggest mysteries is why Turk, who is married to an attorney and touts
an upscale lifestyle, stole the money.
Tarras said Turk couldn’t
explain her actions because of ongoing litigation with the nursing home
and her legal battle to retain control of her mother’s estate.
She
is suing the nursing home, claiming its negligence led to her mother’s
death. It is suing her and her mother’s estate to recover the money it
claims it is owed.
Meanwhile, a judge last week gave her late
mother’s court-appointed guardian the go-ahead to try and remove Turk as
personal representative of the estate. Turk’s criminal conviction
figured prominently in that decision.
While emphasizing that a
circuit judge should decide if Turk retains control of her mother’s
estate, Reinhart barred her from having control over anyone’s money.
For her part, Turk initially tried to downplay her misdeeds. Later, she acknowledged that she broke the law.
“I’m doing everything I can to redeem myself and move forward as a good citizen,” she said.
This story originally published to
palmbeachpost.com, and was shared to other Florida newspapers in the new Gannett Media network.
Full Article & Source:
Former Mrs. Florida headed to prison for stealing elderly mom’s SSI checks
