"One of the worst cases of blatant exploitation"
A daughter got in touch with her attorney, concerned about exploitation of her father by a caregiver. In just a couple of weeks after being hired sight unseen, the caregiver had coerced the father into giving her an $800.00 loan.
It would get much worse.
A few weeks later the father backed his golf cart into the caregiver's car, denting the fender. She took him to a used car lot where she convinced him to buy a 2011 BMW SUV.
In just a few weeks he would suddenly possess seven new credit cards, buy a house, trade his paid off Cadillac for a new van and buy the caregiver yet another car.
Then the caregiver convinced him to name her as a beneficiary, with her adopted son as the Payable on Death beneficiary.
The victim's daughter and niece attempted numerous times to put a stop to this progressive nightmare, but the caregiver kept telling him that they just wanted to take her money and keep her away from him.
The daughter ws able to have me appointed as the father's Emergency Temporary Guardian while the caregiver was being investigated. That inquiry revealed that medical reports from four years earlier said that the father suffered from extreme dementia and was not able to make good judgment calls or remember things as he should. While declaring the father incompetent, the judge found that this was one of the worst cases of blatant exploitation she had ever seen.
As I began to handle the father's affairs the caregiver couldn't help but attempt another bold move. Even while under investigation she managed to get an amicable divorce from her forth husband and the very next day took the father to Georgia and married him. She thought that would prevent her from having to give a deposition as the case against her was building.
As of today, the victim has passed away and charges have been filed against the caregiver by the daughter. A trial is scheduled for later in the year.
Looking back, it's sad that we were not able to finally pry the abuser away from the victim so that at leaast the daughter could say to him, "I love you."
The caregiver now refers to me as a witch on a broom. In this case, I'll take that as a compliment.