by BRIAN CRANDALL
(WJAR) — A North Providence woman is accused of improperly taking more than $240,000 from her mother’s bank account and using much of it to buy a house.
State police have charged Lisa McManaman, 55, with elder exploitation of more than $100,000 and obtaining money by false pretenses.
Her mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2015, according to court documents obtained by NBC 10.
According to the investigation reports, McManaman’s mother sold her home in 2020 and moved in with McManaman.
Authorities accuse McManaman of then transferring the money out of her mother’s bank account into her own without her mother’s authorization.
In 2023, the police report states the mother was living in an assisted living facility and went to the bank with a staff member after McManaman did not provide her mother with bank statements as requested.
It was at that time, the report states, the mother questioned why her bank account didn’t have nearly as much money in it as she expected.
Another daughter then went with the mother to State police to file a complaint.
That daughter, not McManaman, was their mother’s power of attorney.
Police note in their report that McManaman’s mother “continually had difficulty with her memory” during their interview, but was “adamant she did not give McManaman permission to take her money.”
McManaman’s sister told investigators that when she and another sibling had confronted McManaman about the money, McManaman got very angry and said she deserved it because she was taking care of their mother for years.
Investigators wrote that they suspected a signature was forged to allow McManaman access to $213,000 of her mother’s money.
They write in their report “it is believed that she (the mother) did not have the mental capacity to agree to give McManaman access to her bank account in 2020 or approve the $243,200 in transfers to McManaman’s bank account.”
McManaman entered a not guilty plea at her arraignment Monday and is free as the case continues.
McManaman’s lawyer, Nick Hemond, told NBC10 she “categorically denies the allegations.”
Hemond said, “We believe the allegations are not motivated by her mother, but her sister for her own improper motivations.”
McManaman’s sister has not replied to a message from NBC 10.
In 2016, McManaman pleaded guilty to federal charges of stealing prescription drugs from the VA Medical Center in Providence, where she worked as a nurse in the intensive care unit, and of failing to disclose on her employment application that she was fired from another hospital in Rhode Island.
She was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay $1000 restitution in that case.
Full Article & Source:
NBC 10 I-Team: Woman accused of draining elderly mother's bank account
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