Woman charged with stealing jewelry from client
by TENA LEE  |
| Latoscha McClain, Rutherford County Jail |
A Hendersonville woman credits the quick actions of police for
recovering jewelry allegedly stolen by a hired caregiver from
Murfreesboro, and questions why the caregiver – who has a lengthy
criminal history – was placed in her elderly relatives’ home in the
first place.
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.”
Full Article & Source:
Caregiver charged with stealing hired despite lengthy criminal record
