Woman charged with stealing jewelry from client
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| Latoscha McClain, Rutherford County Jail |
Shannon Allen says she and her family did their due diligence when researching in-home health care companies for her octogenarian in-laws eight months ago.
When interviewing Zellena Johnson of the Hendersonville-based company Preferred Care At Home, Allen says she was assured the company conducted national background checks on all of their employees and checked the abuse and sex offender registries as well.
“We talked to her at length and she guaranteed that they run background checks and that they don’t hire anyone who has had any criminal charges in the last seven years,” Allen recalled. “She had all the right answers. The company came highly recommended to us and we thought we were making the best choice.”
Allen says that what she thought was a blessing for their family turned into a nightmare in July when she received a frantic call from her mother-in-law who couldn’t find her ring.
“We thought she misplaced it, but it was nowhere to be found,” she said. “We were searching everywhere.”
She then noticed that her mother-in-law’s diamond tennis bracelet and several earrings were missing as well.
Allen says she first tried to call Preferred Care but couldn’t reach anyone there.
She then called Hendersonville police who asked for the names of caregivers who had been in the home.
Hendersonville police Det. Tim Denning admits he was surprised to learn that one of the caregivers who had been in the Allen home on seven occasions since mid-April had a lengthy criminal record and warrants out for her arrest in two different counties.
“Yes, I was surprised,” he said. “It is unusual for someone working for a caregiving company to have that sort of history because usually the company conducts background checks.”
Latoscha McClain, 47, of Murfreesboro, is charged with theft of property $60,000-$250,000, a Class B felony, for allegedly stealing several pieces of jewelry on the days that she worked for the Allens.
Rutherford County online circuit court records show McClain was charged with theft and forgery in 2019. She pleaded guilty to the forgery charge and the theft charge was dismissed.
Records also show that McClain pleaded guilty to a theft charge in 2015 and to an identity theft charge in 2008. In 2002, she pleaded guilty to theft $1,000-$9,999.
Most recently, McClain was charged in August of 2022 with tampering with evidence and driving on a revoked license, according to Rutherford County court records. She was charged with failure to appear in Rutherford County court on July 21, and is being held without bond for another department (likely Hendersonville police), according to a Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
Online court records show that McClain was charged in Dickson County in 2017 with theft of property, two counts of forgery by uttering and 11 counts of fraudulent use of a credit card up to $1,000. Records show she pleaded guilty to the theft and forgery charges and was not prosecuted on the other charges. The records also show that case was reopened in 2022.
Allen says that when she approached Preferred Care’s owners about McClain’s criminal history, she was told that Johnson hired McClain because she was her cousin and she thought that McClain “turned over a new leaf” following her criminal history.
“What I wasn’t told [when I hired the company] is that even after these [background] checks are done, it’s at Zellena’s discretion whether she chooses to hire someone with a record,” said Allen.
She said she was shocked when the owners told her that Johnson had learned from her mistake and that she would remain with the company.
Allen says she would have stayed with the company if they let Johnson go.
“But when they told us they were keeping her, we were devastated. We were shocked,” she said. “She intentionally hired someone with a criminal record and put them in a vulnerable, elderly person’s home.”
She says she was offered a check and an apology by the company which she declined.
“It’s not a monetary issue,” she said.
Owner: Recent charges didn’t show up on background check
Preferred Care at Home Owner Richard Patterson said he has been “absolutely devastated and lost sleep over the way we let the Allen family down.”
McClain has been fired from the company and the office team, particularly Johnson, cooperated with police by proactively sharing information that might help lead to her arrest, he said.
Patterson also said that Johnson was aware of her cousin’s past issues from the 1990s, but believed she had turned her life around.
“The preliminary check only revealed details older than the industry standard lookback period provided by our background check service,” he said. “Based on the absence of recent charges and based on positive references received, we believe Zellena [Johnson] made a good-faith judgment call to hire Ms. McClain.”
Patterson said the company placed Johnson on administrative leave while they investigated what happened.
“Again, we did not find evidence of intentional misconduct, and as such we did not find it appropriate to fire her,” he said. “We take our core values very seriously and in this case I believe that firing Zellena would have been incompatible with our core value to ‘do the right things for the right reasons.’”
Patterson said he takes ultimate responsibility for what happened and has enhanced the company’s hiring guidelines to ensure greater safety and quality of care.
“I should have had more safeguards in place and checks and balances to ensure that my employees aren’t put in a position where judgment calls could result in suboptimal outcomes,” he said.
Victim’s family: Officers worked quickly to recover stolen items
Allen, who has severed ties with the company and hired other caregivers for her in-laws, wants others to learn from her ordeal.
Allen reported the stolen items – 16 in all – to Hendersonville Police on July 17. By July 19, she and her sister-in-law were identifying much of the stolen jewelry in a Murfreesboro pawn shop.
She credits the quick work of officers, including Denning, for the recovery of 14 of those pieces within days.
According to Denning, pawn shops are required to enter everything pawned to them into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), a national database.
Police enter in a serial number or detailed description of the items and see if they get a match.
“What helps is if [the item] has something unique about it. The best thing is if you have a photo of the jewelry so we can compare with the database of things pawned,” Denning noted.
Officers are also able to look up a suspect’s pawn history since anyone pawning something is required to show identification, he added.
Allen says she was told by a pawn shop employee that there are still items McClain brought into the pawn shop that haven’t been claimed.
“One of the things that helped was the victims came to us as soon as they found out something was missing,” Denning noted. “One of the key things is reporting things quickly. We are able to get to pawn shops and get it quicker. Once it gets out of the pawn shop, it gets much harder.”
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Caregiver charged with stealing hired despite lengthy criminal record
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