Sunday, May 8, 2022

100-year-old man breaks Guinness World Record for working at same company for 84 years

by Jordan Mendoza

There's finding a career, and then there's finding a company you stick with for so long it breaks a world record, as Walter Orthmann of Brazil broke the world record for longest tenure at the same company, all while turning 100 years old.

Born in the small Brazilian town of Brusque on April 19, 1922, Orthmann wanted to get a job when he was 15 to help with family with financial problems, according to Guinness World Records

Because of his proficiency in German, he was hired as a shipping assistant for the textile company Industrias Renaux S.A., now known as ReneauxView, on Jan. 17, 1938. Soon after, he was promoted to a position in sales and then became a sales manager, a position he has held ever since.

Walter Orthmann, who just turned 100, has worked at the same company for more than 84 years.  Guinness World Records

Now, he has been with the company for more than 84 years. It was verified on Jan. 6, giving him the Guinness World Record for the longest career in the same company. 

Labeling this record his "proudest achievement," Orthmann said that what pushed him toward making history was focusing on the present. 

"I don’t do much planning, nor care much about tomorrow. All I care about is that tomorrow will be another day in which I will wake up, get up, exercise and go to work," he said. "You need to get busy with the present, not the past or the future. Here and now is what counts."

Orthmann began traveling across Brazil for his job in the 1950s and said he fell in love with being on the move and establishing good relationships with clients. Last week, he celebrated his 100th birthday with co-workers, friends and family. Guinness said Orthmann is in good health "with excellent mental clarity and memory." The office is his favorite place to be, and his advice on longevity is to work for a good company where people feel motivated. 

"When we do what we like, we don't see the time go by."

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Naugatuck judge up for re-election faces three DUI charges

Probate Judge Peter Mariano. Andreas Yilma Citizen’s News

By Andreas Yilma Citizen’s News

NAUGATUCK — Probate Judge Peter E. Mariano faces a court date Monday, May 9 on three drunken-driving charges.

Police last year charged Mariano, judge of probate for Naugatuck, Beacon Falls, Prospect and Middlebury, with three counts of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and driving with a suspended license. Each incident happened in a span of about a month.

Mariano, 61, a Republican from the borough, is nearing the end of his fifth, four-year term as probate judge. State Rep. Rosa C. Rebimbas, D-Naugatuck, who is not running for re-election to the Legislature, is challenging Mariano at the Republican party’s nominating convention May 18.

Mariano was arrested April 28, 2021, after Naugatuck police officers conducted a welfare check and found Mariano to be operating his car under the influence of alcohol.

He was processed and released on a $500 bond, according to the police arrest log.

On May 18, 2021, officers were dispatched to D&D Liquors parking lot in response to a medical call. When officers arrived, Mariano was driving away. Officers conducted a motor vehicle stop and determined that Mariano was intoxicated. Mariano was arrested and released on $1,500 bond, according to the arrest log.

On June 1, police officers conducted a welfare check on Mariano after a call that he was driving drunk and with a suspended license. Mariano was found to be operating his car while under the influence of alcohol.

He was arrested and released on a $5,000 bond.

Mariano said he expects to make his plea in Waterbury Superior Court on Monday. He declined to say how he will plead.

“I really hit rock bottom. I didn’t care about anything,” Mariano said. “I couldn’t work. I was very upset. I was in denial about my situation. Fortunately there was never an accident.”
“I hit rock bottom,” Mariano said. “It was really a bad situation.”

Mariano’s friends — borough attorney Ned Fitzpatrick, attorney Carlos Santos, Naugatuck Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess, state Rep. David K. Labriola, R-Oxford, and attorney Kevin H. McSherry — sent a letter to Judge Salvatore C. Agati at Waterbury Superior Court asking the judge to suspend Mariano’s law license.

Agati agreed, but Mariano was allowed to continue as judge of probate. Mariano was grandfathered to a time when having a law license was not a requirement of being probate judge. Probate Courts traditionally oversee decedents’ estates and trusts, but also handle a wide range of issues affecting children, the elderly, persons with intellectual disability, and individuals with psychiatric disabilities.

Mariano said he has turned the corner for the better over the last several months.
He said he went to High Watch Recovery Center in Kent, a residential treatment center for people with alcohol and drug addiction.

“It’s a very intensive treatment. You live there,” Mariano said. “They know where you are at all times. You go to classes. It’s 24-hours-a day treatment. It’s very intense. Nightly AA meetings. It’s an excellent program.”

Mariano said he initially went to the treatment facility for a month in March 2021 but was drinking when he came back which prompted his friends to issue the letter.

After his third DUI charge, he went back on June 2, 2021 and stayed 40 days. Soon after his second stay, he said his friend died which led him to drink again.

He went back to the facility from Oct. 2 to Oct. 23. He said he has been sober for eight months.

Mariano said he also has Project Courage Substance Abuse Recovery Center workers come to him a couple times a week for counseling and conducting random urine tests. His urine has been negative of alcohol since he left treatment in October.

Mariano’s driving license was suspended for about 100 days but when he eventually came back from treatment he was allowed to get an interlock device to drive. The interlock device forces a driver to breathe into the device to detect any alcohol before the car can start. He is only allowed to drive his car, he said.

Mariano attended New England School of Law. He began his legal career with the firm Edward Fitzpatrick in 1985 which eventually became Fitzpatrick, Santos, Sousa, Perugini P.C.
Fitzpatrick said Mariano asked for leave to address his alcohol issues and is currently on an inactive status.

“He’s always been a very substantial and responsible member of the firm and the community until he encountered his difficulties with sobriety,” Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick said his friends understand his challenges and they’re satisfied that he’s addressing them in a positive way.

“He’s come very far on his journey and it will be a lifelong effort for him as it is for others who are similarly situated,” Fitzpatrick said. “We continue to wish him well and we have confidence that he will be successful.”

Mariano said he’s taking it one day a time.

“Absolutely, every single one of them, was very very upset with me,” Mariano said of his friends who intervened. “They’ve all come back and they’re all very proud of what I’ve done.”
Mariano said he’s running on his on record of 20 years of being a good probate judge, being unopposed during that time and cross endorsed.

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Top Companies Seek Workers With Autism

by Shaun Heasley

Justin Pierce, who has autism and works as an account support associate, sits at his desk at EY offices in Chicago in 2019. EY is one of several employers that are advertising job openings on a new career portal targeted at neurodivergent individuals. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

Major employers including Microsoft, Google, Freddie Mac and more are part of a newly launched job search platform directly aimed at recruiting employees with autism and other neurological differences.

The career portal known as the Neurodiversity Career Connector debuted last week. It’s intended to connect neurodivergent job seekers with openings at companies that have neurodiversity hiring programs in place.

The platform already features dozens of jobs — many of which are open to workers located across the U.S. — at Dell Technologies, Google, Travelers, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, Freddie Mac, HP, Ford, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Bank of America, Prudential, SAP and elsewhere.

The site was developed by the Neurodiversity @ Work Employer Roundtable, a group of nearly 50 companies with neurodiversity hiring programs.

Those behind the site said participating employers are looking to tap talent with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, Tourette syndrome and similar conditions.

“Neurodiverse individuals possess key competencies that are increasingly valuable to companies, such as strong problem-solving skills and unconventional thinking,” said Jill Houghton, president and CEO, of Disability:IN, a nonprofit previously known as the US Business Leadership Network which helps facilitate the employer roundtable. “A growing number of companies are seeing the value that diversity and inclusiveness brings to a company, and that’s why Disability:IN is proud to support the Neurodiversity @ Work Roundtable and help companies activate programs that work to hire neurodivergent candidates.”

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Saturday, May 7, 2022

Guardianships in Pennsylvania and a Ward’s Right to Vote

Written by:  Tucker Arensberg, P.C.

Far too frequently individuals and their family members find themselves in a situation where they need the authority to step into the shoes of a friend, family or loved one to make critical healthcare and financial decisions on their behalf.  Without this authority, individuals can find themselves in precarious situations where they are unable to advocate on behalf of a family member or pay bills or other expenses essential for that individual’s well-being.  A proper estate plan that implements Healthcare and Financial Powers of Attorney can alleviate this stress; however, often an individual fails to establish an estate plan, or lacked the testamentary capacity necessary to execute a Power of Attorney in the first place.  In those situations, a Guardianship may be the proper tool to enable another to act.

What is a Guardianship under Pennsylvania Law

A Guardianship is a means by which a substitute decision-maker can act on behalf of an adult who lacks capacity to make some decisions.  Only a court, after a legal proceeding, may judge an individual to be incapacitated and appoint a guardian for him or her.  The Guardian then assumes the care and protection of the person for whom they are appointed as Guardian.  The person over whom a Guardian is appointed is referred to as a “Ward,” or incapacitated person.  After their appointment, the Guardian takes all legal decisions on behalf of the person and the property of the Ward.  This includes decisions concerning the Ward’s support, health and education, among other critical decisions.  The Guardian is generally mandated to consult with the Ward regarding these decisions and assist the Ward to develop self-reliance and independence to the greatest extent possible.   Yet because of the broad authority given to a Guardian, questions often arise regarding what decisions can and should be made by the Ward themselves.  One particular question that comes up often every two to four years is whether the Ward is legally able to register and vote in primaries and general elections.  The short answer is a lawyerly one:  it depends.

Voting Rights under Guardianships

Whether or not a Ward is able to vote will depend on the state where the individual resides.  Many states such as Arizona, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Virginia have enacted statutes that outright forbid someone appointed a Guardian from voting.  Other states like Florida, California and Oklahoma have laws expressly requiring the Judge appointing the Guardian to decide at the hearing whether the alleged incapacitated person can communicate and participate in the voting process.  Notably four states preclude “idiots” from voting.  Depending on your political views that prohibition may or may not be working.

In Pennsylvania, there is no statutory disqualification that prevents a Ward from voting.  Accordingly, there is a presumption that the incapacitated person has the right to vote unless the Court Order appointing the Guardian expressly takes that right away.  Assuming the Ward can communicate and wants to exercise their franchise, it is important to include language in the Guardian Order expressly stating the Guardianship shall not affect or terminate an incapacitated person’s ability to vote.  With that language established, voting registration offices and polling places will be able to work with the Guardian and enable you to exercise one of the most important rights in American democracy.

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State judge who told parties he had ‘no expertise in family law’ faces discipline

By: Nikita Biryukov

Superior Court Judge Michael J. Kassel was first appointed to the court in 2001. He serves in Camden County. (Photo courtesy of the Administrative Office of the Courts)

A Camden County Superior Court judge is in hot water over a temporary assignment in the vicinage’s family division.

The Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct filed a formal complaint Tuesday against Judge Michael J. Kassel, saying he violated court rules and impinged on the judiciary’s integrity by failing to familiarize himself with family law, complaining about his temporary assignment, and repeatedly telling parties he lacked the expertise to adjudicate their cases.

Kassel, who has been a judge for 20 years, was assigned to Camden County’s family division once a week for roughly two months, from April to June 2021.

During his brief stint in family court, Kassel repeatedly complained to parties about his temporary assignment and said he “knew very little about the applicable laws” because he last served in the division 18 years ago, according to the complaint. Kassel has handled civil cases for most of his judicial career.

“Frankly, you could get a guy off the street that’s more experienced than me with this stuff,” he said in one family court case, according to the complaint.

On another occasion, the complaint said, Kassel asked attorneys to treat him “like I’m a ninth grader in high school.” In another, he requested “both sides walk me through the case like they were walking a fairly well-educated first-year law student,” warning them against assuming he knew anything about the law or their case.

Kassel also failed to recuse himself from a case involving an attorney who defended him on an 11-year-old drunk driving charge that ultimately was dismissed, and he also disparaged a court rule allowing defendants in summary family cases to forgo filing court documents if they appear in-person at a hearing, according to the complaint.

Complaints filed by the committee rarely result in judges being suspended or terminated. Most often, judges are issued a reprimand or a censure.

Judge shortage prompts reassignments

Kassel was assigned temporarily to the family division because of a shortage of judges there.

New Jersey’s judiciary has been grappling with a staggering number of vacancies. By May, 75 seats on the Superior Court will be vacant, Judge Glenn Grant, the Courts’ administrative director, told the Assembly Budget Committee earlier this month. Another 22 retirements are expected by the end of the year.

Those shortages, coupled with a pandemic-fueled slowdown in court proceedings that is just starting to abate, have forced the judiciary to temporarily reassign judges to the criminal and family divisions to more quickly clear priority caseloads.

Kassel’s case appears to be the first reassignment to result in disciplinary proceedings.

There are just three vacancies in Camden County Superior Court, and Gov. Phil Murphy has three nominations to the county’s bench awaiting approval from the Senate.

The chamber’s Judiciary Committee, which must approve gubernatorial nominees before they reach a floor vote, is expected to reconvene in May.

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Elder Abuse Task Force Shares Information with the Public on Signs of Abuse

by Thomas Fournier


The Month of May celebrates older Americans and their contributions to our country and communities. In 2019 Michigan started the state’s first Elder Abuse Task Force in order to protect some of the state’s most vulnerable population. Yesterday a virtual symposium was hosted by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to provide resources to the public to aid in protecting elderly family and friends. Attorney General Dana Nessel opened the symposium with a short introduction to the problems that face older residents of the state.

“So here in Michigan the numbers are staggering. 73,000 older adults are victims of elder abuse each and every year. And that is completely unacceptable. The Elder Abuse Task Force tackle the challenges faced by older adults at every angle; law enforcement, healthcare, mental health, social services and financial issues. And we an protect and help older adults by providing information about the resources available through the many Michigan organizations who are a part of the Task Force.” – Dana Nessel, Michigan Attorney General

The Elder Abuse Task Force has over 100 members and 55 plus participating organizations, who are all fighting against elder abuse. The symposium covered a wide variety of topics around signs of physical, emotional and financial abuse. Yesterday’s event was meant for the public, and the full symposium will be posted to the task force’s website in the coming weeks. On June 9th the Elder Abuse Task Force will hold another symposium directed toward professionals who work with the elderly.

Call 855-444-3911 to report suspected abuse. Below you will find links to the Elder Abuse Task Force’s website, along with information about elder rights, incident report form, and video’s about the task force and a registration link for the June 9th Symposium.

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Friday, May 6, 2022

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta Delivers Remarks at the Elder Justice Decision-Making Capacity Symposium


Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta Delivers Remarks at the Elder Justice Decision-Making Capacity Symposium
Washington, DC
~
Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Andy, for that warm welcome and for all of your work as the Department of Justice’s National Elder Justice Coordinator. I also want to thank the Elder Justice Initiative, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Education, the Civil Division’s Office of Training and our many federal partners, especially the Department of Health and Human Services, who helped to plan this remarkable symposium.

I want to thank our participants and panelists, and I am delighted to welcome all of you to the department’s first-ever Elder Justice Decision-Making Capacity Symposium.

The Department of Justice is committed to using all of its tools to ensure that older Americans receive the support and protections they deserve. Every year, millions of older Americans are abused, neglected and financially exploited, often by those who are entrusted to care for them. The department has aggressively pursued justice for elders in a wide variety of fields – from nursing homes that provide grossly substandard care, to guardians and others who abuse their positions of trust and to multinational fraud schemes that target older adults. The department has also formed strong collaborative relationships with state and local law enforcement and provides trainings and webinars on elder abuse and financial exploitation to hundreds of civil attorneys, prosecutors, judges, investigators and other elder justice professionals in multiple disciplines, to ensure that they can appropriately respond to the specific needs of older adults.

This symposium addresses a foundational part of our work to protect our nation’s older adults: ensuring that they have access to justice and that they are treated with dignity and fairness. Advocates, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, judges, clinicians and others have repeatedly reported that too often, older adults are being denied a full measure of justice, in part because of mistaken assumptions or inadequate assessments of their capacity to make decisions for themselves.

These assessments can have deep and lasting impacts on the lives of older adults. In the criminal context, these assessments may be critical in ensuring that justice is obtained for older adult victims and, through restitution in certain cases, that they are made financially whole again. For example, an older adult may be a critical witness to a crime that will not be prosecuted if she is deemed incompetent to testify. Perpetrators who target older adult victims may seek to manipulate them, and a victim’s decision-making capacity may affect their interactions with their abusers. Assessing the victim’s decision-making capacity can help law enforcement tailor investigations to identify those cases that may, initially, appear to be cases involving a consenting adult, when in fact the victim did not – or could not – consent.

In civil cases, assessments about the need for a guardianship or conservatorship may govern an older adult’s ability to make core life decisions – where she can live, what medical decisions she can make, how she can spend her hard-earned money and with whom she can develop friendships and find companionship and love.   

Those of us who work in the legal system need to have a deeper understanding of how to address the specific needs of older adults and how to appropriately assess an individual’s decision-making capacity in a given case. As we work to combat elder fraud and abuse, we must equip ourselves with the knowledge and tools to ensure that we protect their rights and pursue justice when they have been victimized.   

That is why I am truly excited that you all have joined us for this symposium. Over the next three days, we will be engaging in a robust conversation about how we can best serve and protect older adults in this country. Participants span the spectrum of experts – including professors, clinicians, researchers, judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, aging services and social services professionals, administrative officials and many others. Although you come from many different fields, we are all here because we share a deep commitment to supporting and protecting older adults.

Your diversity of experiences is critical: it is through the cross-sectional expertise that you all bring that we will be able to have a fuller understanding of how to safeguard the rights of older adults. We need clinicians to help legal professionals, judges and adult protective services officials understand what capacity assessments can and cannot tell us about an older person’s abilities, and we must ensure that the tools used to assess decision-making capacity are valid and reliable.

Clinicians and elder justice professionals also need to share common understandings about their respective roles in the legal system, and I hope we can learn how to enhance communication between and among clinicians and elder justice professionals.

Finally, this symposium will explore how misconceptions about aging and decision-making capacity impact our civil and criminal legal systems. We need to confront and dispel negative stereotypes about the cognitive and decision-making capabilities of older adults. Even when a person has been diagnosed with a cognitive disability, we must understand how to reliably assess their actual decision-making capacity and how that capacity impacts the outcomes of a specific case or prosecution.

This symposium is just the beginning of the work we must do to ensure that all of us – judges, prosecutors, advocates, academics, researchers, guardians, adult protective services, aging services, social services professionals, elder justice professionals, doctors and clinicians, law enforcement officers and government officials – have a greater understanding of how aging and decision-making capacity impacts older adults so that the civil and criminal legal systems honor the rights of older adults, provide them with the greatest autonomy possible and protect those who have been abused, neglected or subjected to financial exploitation.

Thank you for sharing your vision, expertise and leadership as we forge forward together in pursuit of justice for our country’s older adults.

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Former Altoona financial adviser agrees to plead guilty to federal fraud charges

By Andrew Dowd

ALTOONA — A disbarred financial adviser who ran a wealth management firm in Altoona has agreed to plead guilty to two criminal fraud charges brought against him by the federal government.

Michael F. Shillin, 32, signed an agreement in late April to plead guilty to one count each of wire fraud and bank fraud, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will dismiss nine other wire fraud charges contained in the same indictment.

Shillin’s next scheduled appearance is to formally enter his plea in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on May 23 at a courtroom in Madison.

The wire fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, three years of extended release and a $250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for bank fraud is 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a $1 million fine.

Shillin also will be required to pay restitution to his victims. That means he must pay back $462,000 in loans to Northwestern Bank of Chippewa Falls, but the amount he’ll have to return to his clients has not yet been determined.

Shillin was indicted in late October on the federal charges, but then allowed to be on release while his case was pending. Judge Stephen L. Crocker revoked Shillin’s release on April 14 after the defendant had been caught taking an unauthorized tropical vacation with his girlfriend to the U.S. Virgin Islands in early April.

The plea agreement explains how the government’s case relied on former clients and their documentation to establish that Shillin had lied to them about their investments.

“Shillin kept his clients artificially happy so they would refer other clients, keep money invested for longer, and invest more money,” stated the agreement written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Corey. Shillin’s firm charged its clients a yearly fee equal to a percentage of the money it managed for them.

One instance cited in the government’s case is a married couple that Shillin managed money for. He told them he’d bought shares of SpaceX for them and they were making a large profit. However, Shillin never did buy those shares, and SpaceX continues to be a private company that does not sell stocks to the general public. The plea agreement cited text messages and emails from fall 2019 and spring 2020 between the couple and Shillin to corroborate the allegations.

Shillin also is accused of defrauding clients by misrepresenting the costs and benefits of insurance policies he convinced them to buy. For example, Shillin advised a couple to switch their State Farm life insurance policies to ones at John Hancock with better long-term care benefits. However, when one of those clients called John Hancock in October 2020 about the policy, the company said the policy number provided by Shillin was invalid. The client then discovered the money provided to Shillin to buy the life insurance policy was still sitting in an investment account at Shillin Wealth Management.

Shillin also made fraudulent tax documents that led clients to believe they were eligible for tax breaks they were not entitled to, the plea agreement stated. Based on 1099 forms from Shillin, a couple expected to only pay $1,628 in federal taxes. But when learning they didn’t qualify for tax breaks Shillin promised, the couple re-filed and found they owed $27,512 in federal taxes.

Between August 2020 and September 2020, Shillin took out a total of $462,000 in loans from Northwestern Bank with the explanation it was to cover his firm’s payroll. To show he had collateral for the loans, Shillin provided a statement showing $1.25 million in an account owned by Shillin Wealth Management. However, that statement was actually for an account belonging to a couple advised by Shillin, not the financial firm itself, according to the plea agreement.

In addition to the federal criminal charges against him, Shillin also filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in November. The bank and multiple former clients are among the creditors listed in Shillin’s bankruptcy petition. That case is still pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

According to a Financial Industry Regulatory Agency database, Shillin began his career as a broker in July 2011 at Edward Jones in Chippewa Falls before changing firms to Raymond James Financial Services in August 2014. That second firm fired Shillin in mid-2018 for failing to follow the company’s procedures involving client fees, so then he opened his own firm. Shillin Wealth Management was in business in Altoona’s River Prairie development from mid-2018 until it closed at the end of 2020 while he was under investigation.

Shillin Wealth Management managed 2,992 accounts with nearly $135.5 million in assets in them before the firm went defunct in December 2020, according to a financial report provided to the court.

In January, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission barred Shillin from being a financial adviser, following similar bans imposed by Wisconsin regulators and FINRA.

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Metairie woman arrested, accused of stealing money from elderly

A Metairie woman was arrested after stealing money from the elderly, according to the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff said Tammy Davis, 54, is accused of impersonating an Ochsner staff member and fraudulently taking money from elderly victims. 

The investigation began in March 2022. The victims told the sheriff that a woman dressed in medical scrubs, later identified as Davis, approached them at local grocery stores and began a conversation, telling them she worked for their doctor and asking the victims if they recognized her from their doctor's office.

The sheriff said she then lied to the victims, telling them her car had broken down in the parking lot of the stores, and she needed money to pay the wrecker service standing by.

The victims gave the payment they believed was for the wrecker service.

Davis then told the victims she would contact them and pay them back when she returned to work at the doctor’s office, according to the sheriff.

A warrant was issued for Davis’ arrest.

She was booked with two counts of theft- less than $1,000, and two counts of exploitation of the infirmed, a felony.

After her arrest she was taken to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff said Davis has a history of illegal drug charges as well as exploitation of the infirmed, bank fraud, and theft.

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