By Mary Jane Epling
Donna Sue Glass, 52, of Argillite, the former owner and operator of Glass Family Care Home was indicted in December 2022 on seven counts of wire fraud after the United States alleged she swindled three patients out of nearly $100,000.
According to a sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court, Glass became the guardian over two of her residences — giving her full access to their finances and later a third after she became a signor on their bank account.
Glass’s actions, according to a U.S. attorney, constitute a 26-month incarceration. “Elder financial exploitation is the type of cynical, insidious crime that must be met with a serious sentence of incarceration,” the document reads.
According to plea agreement documents from April, Glass admitted to operating with the intent to deceive.
Per case documents, Glass became a co-signor on an elderly resident’s account when a physical ailment left him unable to sign his own checks.
Court records indicate Glass depleted the man’s account and spent $73,251 “to which she was not entitled,” between April 2014 and April 2019.
The U.S. also alleged Glass charged the man $1,500 per month in rent for a shared 16-by-20-foot room, with no access to a private toilet, while using the patient’s additional funds for vacation, mortgage payments and monthly subscriptions to Sun Tan City.
“She housed more residents than state statute permitted. ... She squeezed residents into housing conditions that were inadequate at best — not providing a wall for a bathroom is humiliating,” Assistant United States Attorney Kathryn M. Dieruf wrote in reference to Glass’s actions.
Glass became guardian to a second patient in October 2014. She is accused of depleting the woman’s account by “unlawfully (stealing)” $14,299.
In the case of the second patient, Glass is accused of collecting rent from other residents, “commingling funds to the point of inextricability.”
After the account was “bankrupted,” Glass increased the woman’s rent well beyond her monthly income — abusing her role as both guardian and landlord, Dieruf wrote.
Glass remained the woman’s guardian after she was moved to a new facility and, per court documents, Glass neglected to pay the new facility.
According to court documents, Glass was given access to a third patient’s benefits and financial accounts and she continued to collect his Social Security benefits after he was moved from the Glass Family Care Home.
“The defendant’s residents were senior citizens whose mental and physical capacities had deteriorated to the point of needing the care of a family care home. The defendant took advantage of her residents’ vulnerabilities, lack of oversight and trust in her to use and abuse their bank accounts or outright steal their income,” Dieruf wrote.
Dieruf also asks for restitution in the case, requesting the judge to order Glass to pay the amount lost to each of the resident’s estates.
The prosecuting sentence memorandum says the Glass Family Care Home is currently listed for sale at $260,000 and requests that any proceeds of a sale should be applied toward payment to her victims.
Glass’s attorney, Michael Curtis, also filed a sentencing memorandum, requesting the judge sentence Glass to home incarceration.
Curtis wrote Glass “has been a nurse and ... had done an excellent job in caring for her patients.”
“She is an extremely passionate person who feels for the other people and her sole job was caring for those in need,” Curtis continues.
Dieruf seemingly responded to that line in the U.S. memorandum with: “She insists she only cared for the well-being of her residents. The facts of this case demonstrate otherwise.”
Curtis says Glass’s mistake was commingling money — confusing her fiduciary duties.
The defense requested Glass receive mental health treatment if she were to be incarcerated, “or if she is released on some alternative form of sentencing,” Curtis wrote.
Curtis wrote home incarceration and supervised release would “reflect the seriousness of the offense and likewise promote respect for the law and provide just punishment.”
Glass’s official sentence, which will be decided by a judge after taking the sentencing proposals from counsel into consideration, will occur on Aug 14.
Full Article & Source:
Feds urge prison time for Argillite woman
No comments:
Post a Comment