Another Vulnerable Senior Falls Prey To Adult Child; Deed To Home Signed Over, POA Used To Siphon Savings From Bank Account

In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, NewsOK.com reports:

• Her active life contrasts starkly with two years ago when [Rose] Howard (not her real name) sat alone and locked inside her daughter’s home for six months, while her daughter ran through her $39,000 savings account. She’d been hospitalized with a broken arm and upon discharge, her daughter convinced her to temporarily stay with her.

• "I could have stayed in my own home because I had home health,” Howard said. "But I figured there was no reason not to go. She’s my daughter. I trusted her.”

• A retiree of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority who single-handedly raised three daughters, Howard said her only surviving daughter coerced her into signing over the deed to her home, convinced everyone she had Alzheimer’s disease and misused a financial power of attorney to tap Howard’s money to buy expensive furniture, clothes, a brand-new pickup and stop foreclosure on her own home.

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• On Howard’s behalf, [Senior Law Resource Center(1) attorney Catheryn] Koss won a civil case against her daughter, resulting in a voided deed transfer on her home,(2) stopped payment on several large checks, monthly restitution paid by a granddaughter who was given some of Howard’s money, and imprisonment of her daughter, who has been in the county jail for a year. A criminal case, brought by the Oklahoma County district attorney’s office, is scheduled to be heard in two weeks. "All too often it’s impossible to recover money,” Koss said, "because many abusers are unemployed or underemployed.”

For more, see Financial elder abuse is feared widespread (More than 6,000 cases of mistreatment of seniors investigated last year).

(1) Senior Law Resource Center is a nonprofit organization in Oklahoma City that provides education and support to elders and their caregivers in Oklahoma and reportedly offers legal services on a sliding-scale fee.

(2) A quiet title action is typically the type of civil lawsuit initiated by the victim:

• to have the deed used in this type of unauthorized title transfer declared void, and
• to property restore the title to the property in the name of the victimized homeowner.