A Measure of Justice
Happy new year. I hope you had a great holiday season.
This holiday season, a family I have represented for over twenty years finally got something they had long sought: a measure of justice.
In May of 2020, I was contacted by a long-term client regarding her elderly relatives. The elder couple had been “befriended” by a younger woman, aged 63, who over years had gained their trust and confidence. The family became concerned when they heard through the “grapevine” that this woman, who holds herself out as a pastor, had been referring to the elderly couple’s condominium unit as her own and that she was making plans to live in it after the couple passed.
The family and the couple retained my firm to investigate and file a civil action, if warranted.
We quickly concluded that the elderly couple had been swindled out of title to their home and considerable sums of money by this woman. We concluded that this couple had fallen victim to a undue influence, a very common scheme in Florida that often befalls lonely, isolated elderly persons.
My firm filed suit against her the next day.
We litigated this matter for over a year and discovered a multitude of questionable transactions. The documents we discovered in the litigation led us to believe that this woman had slowly, over the years, gained greater and greater control of this elderly couple’s finances to the point that she was able to:
• transfer title to the elderly couple’s home;
• divert pension payments to an account controlled only by her;
• cash out at least one life insurance policy; and
• transfer at least one time-share.
We came to believe there were actually many more instances that were either undocumented or were untraceable cash transactions.
The documents we discovered, however, led us to conclude she accomplished these misdeeds, at least in part, by falsely holding herself out to financial institutions as the couple’s “daughter” and by using a power of attorney we concluded had been falsified or otherwise procured by fraud.
After one and a half years, we were able to successfully settle this matter out of court in November, 2021. Although we had been looking forward to our client’s day in court, their advanced age and physical condition argued for a quick settlement. That’s where the matter stood until last month.
On December 14, 2022, the defendant in our case was arrested for many of the same allegations made in our civil complaint. She has been charged with four felonies:
• Exploitation of the elderly;
• Grand theft in the first degree;
• Grand theft in the third degree; and
• Engaging in an organized scheme to defraud.
The facts underlying the charges are essentially a criminal law counterpart to our civil allegations.
As a result of this incident, I was interviewed by WTVJ Channel 6, WSVN Channel 7, Telemundo, and The Miami Times. Below are the links to two of the interviews.
Of course, nothing can be done to eliminate the pain and humiliation my clients and their family have felt and continue to feel. They can, however, take solace in getting a measure of justice and, with that, some closure.
I'll be writing more about this topic soon and about steps people can take to protect themselves and their elderly relatives from this type of scam. Suffice to say, though, that we should keep our elderly close and remain involved in their lives and in their finances. If we don’t, nefarious characters will.
Happy new year, everyone.
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This article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. For further inquiry, please feel free to contact me at the email or telephone listed below.