Trial again delayed in Nexus financial exploitation case

By Randi B. Hagi

Michael Donovan, left, and Richard Moore have each been charged with two counts of obtaining money through false pretenses and two counts of exploiting a mental incapacity for financial gain in the Augusta County Circuit Court.

An Augusta County judge has rescheduled a trial for the fourth time for the leaders of the company Nexus, who stand accused of financially exploiting a young man they took in. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.

Michael Donovan, Richard Moore, and former Nexus employee Timothy Shipe were arrested in 2022 for allegedly stealing more than $400,000 of life insurance money belonging to Zachary Cruz. Moore and Donovan took Cruz in after the Parkland school shooting committed by Cruz's brother.

Judge Sean Workowski presided over a hearing in the case on Wednesday. Shipe was present in the courtroom, but Donovan and Moore were not – appearing via phone call from Virginia Beach with their attorney, John D. Hooker, which they had not been authorized to do.

Judge Workowski said that an hour before the hearing, he received a motion from Hooker to continue, or delay, the case. Workowski noted that the trial has already been postponed three times, and was scheduled to begin on March 3rd.

Hooker argued that he was experiencing medical issues that would not allow him to go to trial so soon. He also said he wasn't prepared to defend his clients, because he hadn't been given the prosecution's evidence since being retained last August. Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Martin told the court his office gave Donovan and Moore's previous attorney the evidence back in 2023. Shipe's attorney agreed that the prosecution had fulfilled their obligations to the defendants.

Martin called Donovan and Moore's conduct "a purposeful and deliberate and considered strategy for delay," citing other court cases that have languished for multiple years. As WMRA has reported, federal prosecutors and judges have previously lambasted the defendants' delay tactics in multiple civil and criminal cases. However, Martin acknowledged that since Hooker argued he didn't have enough time to prepare for trial, that could give the defendants grounds for an appeal if they were to be convicted in March.

Judge Workowski granted the motion and rescheduled the trial to begin August 4th, but noted the repeated continuances were "getting ridiculous." He directed Hooker to research whether he could legally represent both Donovan and Moore without a conflict of interest, even if the married couple waives their right to other counsel.

Workowski also instructed the prosecutor's office to prepare paperwork requesting Moore's presence at the trial, since he may be in federal custody following his May 29th sentencing for tax evasion.

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Trial again delayed in Nexus financial exploitation case

Jury orders former Bastrop cop to pay $1 million in financial exploitation case

Austin American-Statesman

A Bastrop County jury has returned a verdict of $1,001,489 against retired Bastrop police officer Patrick Amy for taking financial advantage of an elderly widow.

Testimony in the civil case began on Aug. 12 in the 423rd District Court and the verdict was returned on Monday. In September 2019, a grand jury declined to indict Amy on criminal charges after he was accused of financial exploitation and following an investigation by the Texas Rangers.

Patrick Amy

Amy had been accused of representing the 81-year-old woman and her family of taking control of her financial assets through a power of attorney agreement to release a $125,000 lien the woman had on Amy’s home. County records show the woman loaned Amy the money in 2016 to purchase the home.

Amy's attorney, Joe Hernandez said on Tuesday that "there is no evidence to support the jury's verdict."

"Mr. Amy will be seeking relief, accordingly, from the trial court, and if necessary, the appellate court," Hernandez said.

Amy met the woman while she as a volunteer in the Citizens on Patrol program, said attorney Joe Grady Tuck, who represented her at trial along with Christopher Kirby. A recent widow at the time, the plaintiff lived in an upscale subdivision and Tuck said Amy ingratiated himself to her and persuaded her to purchase a house half the size, near his home in Circle D Estates.

In February 2016, the woman paid off the $125,000 loan on Amy's home, receiving a note and deed of trust drawn by her attorney, Tuck said. Evidence at trial included checks to Amy from the woman in the amount of $16,100 before December 2017, when she signed a power of attorney drafted by Amy to himself.

In April 2016, Tuck said, Amy prepared a release of the deed of trust and used the power of attorney to execute it, and also prepared a quit claim deed to himself to the woman's nearby home.

Tuck said that in May 2018, Amy's wife, Ruth, a 911 dispatcher, called an ambulance to have the woman hospitalized, and that she was later diagnosed with dementia and placed in a nursing home.

The Amys testified they emptied the home of everything in the house, Tuck said, selling the washer, dryer and a few other items, and donating the remainder to Goodwill. On cross-examination, Tuck said, Patrick Amy said he also sold a $12,000 dining room set and applied the proceeds to her nursing home bill but was unable to present any receipts.

Amy testified he planned to apply the proceeds of the sale of the woman's home to her nursing home care. In closing arguments, Tuck told jurors that if Amy wouldn't apply the proceeds of the sale of her belongings, he had no intent of applying the proceeds of the house sale.

After deliberating Friday and Monday morning, the jury returned a verdict that included actual and exemplary damages, and attorney fees, Tuck said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Former Bastrop cop ordered to pay $1 million in exploitation case 

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Jury orders former Bastrop cop to pay $1 million in financial exploitation case

Rochester woman ordered to pay $11K in financial exploitation case

By KAALTV

(ABC 6 News) – A Rochester woman was ordered to pay more than double the estimated amount she took from a vulnerable adult’s bank account in restitution Monday, Jan. 29.

Jamie Lynn Lambert, 47, pleaded guilty to financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult in November of 2023.

On Monday, she was sentenced to 5 years of supervised probation and ordered to pay $11,491.83 in restitution.

Lambert was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, and may not serve as power of attorney for any vulnerable adult.

According to court documents, Lambert received a stay of adjudication — meaning that if she completes her probation and other conditions without incident, the felony will not go on her criminal record.

According to court documents, the Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center spoke with a social worker in February in 2023, who provided bank statements for a woman who had suffered a stroke and been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

The woman lived in a Rochester facility.

According to court documents, Lambert was the woman’s power of attorney. Bank documents indicated that Lambert was transferring money from the senior’s account into her own checking account, then using the money to purchase food, alcohol, clothing, and sporting equipment.

According to court documents, Lambert first claimed the funds were being used for the senior’s benefit, but after viewing purchases for sports photography, sporting goods, and hotels with law enforcement, said she had “no excuse” for spending the funds herself.

According to the MAARC, the senior’s monthly liability had not been paid in months, and Lambert had not responded to facilities’ requests that she provide new shoes and clothing for the senior.

Bank statements indicated that Lambert used “at least $5,000” of the woman’s money for her own benefit.

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Rochester woman ordered to pay $11K in financial exploitation case

Springfield woman waives hearing in financial exploitation case

 by Jeff Lehr

Aug. 14—MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — A 50-year-old Springfield woman has been ordered bound over for trial on charges that she stole $2,360 from an elderly man in a long-term care facility in Aurora.

Angela D. Ormsby-Vigneaux waived a preliminary hearing Monday in Lawrence County Circuit Court on counts of financial exploitation of an elderly person and fraudulent use of a credit device. Judge Don Trotter set her initial appearance in a trial division of the court on Oct. 10.

The charges were brought against Ormsby-Vigneaux in April following an investigation by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

A probable-cause affidavit filed with the charges alleges that she used a debit card belonging to a resident of the Hudson House in Aurora to make 20 unauthorized withdrawals from his bank account between Nov. 21 and Nov. 25. At the time, the alleged victim had been hospitalized for 11 days.

A Hudson House staff member told the state investigator that she had seen the defendant leaving the victim's room with his computer and wallet, which she claimed to be taking to him at the hospital. The defendant subsequently admitted to the investigator that she'd used the victim's debit card to make the withdrawals totaling $2,360, according to the affidavit.

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Springfield woman waives hearing in financial exploitation case

Home health aide charged in $12K financial exploitation case

The Winona County Attorney's Office recently charged a 53-year-old Altura woman with four counts of financially exploiting a vulnerable adult. 

Jodi Marie Schilling allegedly received thousands of dollars in loans and checks from a Winona community member she provided services to as a home health care worker. According to the criminal complaint, Schilling started to provide services to the victim in 2018. She then repeatedly asked the victim to take out a loan for her, according to the complaint, and the victim did so as the victim “felt bad” for Schilling. The victim took out this loan at a bank in Winona around September 2018, investigators wrote. Schilling then allegedly asked the victim to take out several other loans, according to the complaint, and the victim ultimately did so and gave the money to her. 

Then, in May 2021, the victim received a $4,000 loan from another Winona bank, according to the complaint, and gave the money to Schilling after she asked for it. 

Meanwhile, the victim also wrote Schilling eight checks totaling $9,340 between January 2019 and July 2021, after Schilling asked for the funds, according to the complaint.

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Home health aide charged in $12K financial exploitation case

Estate Planner Indicted, Charged in TBI Financial Exploitation Case

Michael David Verble

MURFREESBORO – Special agents from the TBI’s Medicaid Fraud Control Division have obtained indictments charging a Nashville man accused of financially exploiting an elderly client.

TBI began its investigation into Michael David Verble (DOB 12-19-1955) in November, after receiving information from the Tennessee Department of Human Services Adult Protective Services. During the investigation, agents determined Verble, an estate planner, gained the confidence of an elderly client and manipulated a trust account that was established.

On August 4^th, the Rutherford County Grand Jury returned indictments, charging Verble with one count of Financial Exploitation of an Elderly or Vulnerable Adult and one count of Theft. On Thursday, agents arrested him and booked him into the Rutherford County Jail.

Note: The TBI’s Medicaid Fraud Control Division receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $6,862,935.00 for federal Fiscal Year 2020. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,287,645.00 for FY 2021, is funded by the State of Tennessee.

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Estate Planner Indicted, Charged in TBI Financial Exploitation Case

Carl Junction man receives plea deal in financial exploitation case

By Jeff Lehr

A Carl Junction man was allowed to plead down to a misdemeanor offense this week in a case of financial exploitation of an elderly woman and received a suspended sentence and probation.

Garyn L. Adams, 27, pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to a misdemeanor count of stealing in a plea agreement and was sentenced by Judge Gayle Crane to one year in jail, with execution of the sentence suspended and the defendant placed on unsupervised probation for two years.

Adams was charged in August 2019 with a felony count of financial exploitation of an elderly person following an investigation by Carl Junction police of money taken from an 86-year-old woman's bank account without her approval.

A probable-cause affidavit stated that Adams gained access to the bank account and began making fraudulent charges by setting her up for online banking, creating a PayPal account using her Social Security number and transferring money to PayPal accounts belonging to him and a second person.

The affidavit alleged that he tapped the account for more than $1,000. The judge ordered as part of his sentencing that Adams pay the remaining restitution in the case of $63.82.

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Carl Junction man receives plea deal in financial exploitation case