by Tommie Clark
BALTIMORE — Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates announced charges for crimes involving defrauding disabled veterans and tricking people into theft schemes.
Bates said the cases are under the umbrella of the Older and Disabled Persons Unit, which he launched one year ago.
"We built this basically from scratch," Bates said.
Bates shared the update before kicking off an older adult event to connect with and hear directly from people Wednesday morning.
He went over several case indictments, including a case involving Bryan O'Neal Jones, who was charged Tuesday with 31 counts of felony theft and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult for allegedly soliciting home improvement contracts and taking payments without completing work and without a license.
Other cases involved a similar scheme with charges against David Coleman.
"One contractor received over $100,000 from a 70-year-old disabled veteran who trusted him to do a full remodel of their home. Instead, he did some partial work, did it shoddy, did it ineffective," explained Economic Crimes Unit Chief Shari Greene.
Karen McAllister is charged with engaging in a felony theft scheme. She's charged with taking advantage of her own grandmother, who has since passed, but was in her 90s at the time.
Matthew Praglowski is charged with physically abusing his 77-year-old grandfather. Jasmine Monet is facing charges for incidents involving identity theft and credit card fraud. Wenetha Leslie is charged with financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult, felony theft, conspiracy and forgery for crimes against her father.
Bates and his team said the goal is to expand the unit to keep bringing cases like these to justice.
"We want to let everyone know that when your money is at risk, we take it seriously. If there is elder abuse, we take it seriously, and we're here to help," Greene said.
To report a crime, the one-stop helpline is 844-726-6378. The dedicated email address is odpuhelp@stattorney.org.
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Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates announces charges related to theft of elders
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