By Jeff Lehr
Dale W. Richardson, 39, pleaded guilty Tuesday in McDonald County Circuit Court to a count of financial exploitation of a disabled person and to three counts of child endangerment that had been filed on him previously in connection with the care of two children.
Court records show that under terms of his plea deal with the McDonald County prosecutor’s office, Richardson received suspended sentences of six years on each count and was placed on supervised probation for five years.
Probable-cause affidavits filed with the court earlier this year alleged that Richardson and Patty S. Martinez, 45, of rural Goodman, deprived a 21-year-old woman of wages she was suppose to be receiving for working as a caregiver to Martinez. They also purportedly had her Social Security payments deposited into an account they controlled.
The extent of the alleged thefts of wages and Social Security payments totaled $15,109,09, according to affidavits filed by an investigator with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The victim — described in the affidavit as pregnant and functioning mentally at a third or fourth grade level — had been hired in 2019 by My Destiny Home Care to provide care to Martinez and received paychecks that were being deposited into the account controlled by the defendants.
The affidavit further alleged that a portion of the wages earned by the woman during her employment were fraudulently obtained by Richardson clocking her in as working for several weeks last year when she was not on the job.
The investigator purportedly found that the victim was not able to access any of the money she was earning, that she had only hand-me-down clothes to wear, and that Martinez and Richardson made her sleep on the floor in their bedroom. She told the investigator that the defendants spent all her money on drugs and made her panhandle outside a local Walmart store and give them the proceeds.
Martinez has not yet had a preliminary hearing on the charge of financial exploitation that she faces with respect to their alleged treatment of the disabled woman. She pleaded guilty earlier this year to endangerment of the children involved and received the same suspended sentences that Richardson received this week.
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