YORK — Margie Thelma Miller was an elderly and “incapacitated” woman who lived in York all her life and stood to inherit thousands from two life insurance policies her sister left her until her court-appointed guardian took half of it, prosecutors say.
Shirley Steele Patton, who held Miller’s power of attorney and is now standing trial for exploiting her financially, is like a child who tried to pour herself a glass of juice, but spilled it, making a mess, her defense attorney said.
Patton, 54, of Waxhaw, N.C., is for the second time this year standing trial after police accused her of stealing money from Miller – deemed by a probate judge to be a vulnerable adult unable to make her own decisions – twice in 2011.
Last August, York Police arrested and charged Patton with breach of trust with fraudulent intent and exploitation of a vulnerable adult after they say she used her status as Miller’s power of attorney to request that a life insurance company send checks to a Charlotte address.
Patton took those checks and deposited them into a Bank of America account under both her and Miller’s names, police said. She paid herself with Miller’s money, spending more than $123,000.
Miller died last September without ever seeing a dime. She was 87.
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Update, Patton pleaded guilty and received four years in jail, five years probation and must pay back the MONEY! she stole. Had she pulled her crime in L.A. County it's highly unlikely that she would have been charged.
http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/09/10/5196401/caregiver-pleads-guilty-to-exploiting.html
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