Daughter, Son-In-Law Convicted Of Scamming Alzheimer's-Afflicted Widowed Mom Into Borrowing $350K Against Home & Using It Towards Luxury Home Purchase

In Clackamas County, Oregon, The Oregonian reports:

• Ask Clara Philpot how she's doing, and she'll answer with a beaming smile and a hearty "Fantastic." Ask the 87-year-old who is president or the name of the dog napping in her lap and she can't say. Philpot, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2002, also can't explain how or why she borrowed almost $1 million to finance a luxury home in Sherwood and immediately deeded half to Gayla and Jeff Ross, a daughter and son-in-law who took care of her.(1) After looking at the evidence, however, a Clackamas County jury took less than two hours to find Gayla Ross guilty of aggravated theft and first-degree criminal mistreatment.

• Ross now faces prison. She will be sentenced Sept. 8 along with her husband, Jeff Ross, a former Washington County sheriff's deputy who was convicted of first-degree criminal mistreatment. Philpot's net worth now is zero -- she gets by on Social Security -- and she could soon be homeless. The debt on the Molalla house she and her husband bought 43 years ago, and once owned free and clear, now exceeds the property's value, and she hasn't made a mortgage payment for two years.

For more, see Stealing from mom and dad in Oregon (if link expires, try here).

For story update, see King City woman gets prison time for bilking elderly mother (A King City woman convicted of taking her elderly mother's money was sentenced Tuesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court to 16 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $441,000 in restitution) (if link expires, try here).

(1) Under Gayla Ross' direction, Clara Philpot took out a $352,000 mortgage on her Molalla home. Ross used that money as a down payment on a home in Sherwood and obtained a $609,000 mortgage in Philpot's name, the story states. The day after the deal closed, Philpot reportedly transferred a 50 percent interest to the Rosses. Legally, Philpot had sole responsibility for mortgage payments that exceeded $5,600 a month -- more than four times her monthly income. Within a week, one of Philpot's relatives anonymously notified state welfare workers about the deals, and the Sherwood house was lost to foreclosure. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha