Attorneys Face Elder Abuse, Negligence Suit For Alleged 'Involvement' In POA Abuse Leading To Fleecing Of Cancer Victim's Home, Estate

In Multnomah County, Oregon, Willamette Week reports:

• Two Portland lawyers are being sued for elder abuse and negligence after allegedly helping two women steal from an ailing relative in her 80s. According to the suit filed Dec. 17 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, lawyers Stacy Fletcher and James Dodge were hired in 2008 to prepare a power of attorney for Evelyn Roth, who was 81 at the time and had recently been diagnosed with esophageal cancer.

• According to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Roth, the people who hired the lawyers were Kathleen Jingling and Virginia Kuehn, Roth’s niece and cousin respectively. Roth believed they needed power of attorney simply to pay routine bills while Roth underwent medical treatment, the suit says.

• Jingling and Kuehn were later each sentenced to one year in jail for placing Roth’s house up for sale, selling off her belongings and stealing from her estate.(1)

• The lawsuit claims Fletcher and Dodge should have known elder abuse was taking place. The suit, filed by Portland lawyer Sibylle Baer, seeks three times the amount of the money stolen—$682,974 total. Dodge says Fletcher was involved in the Roth case and that he himself was not. Fletcher has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Source: Going After the Lawyers for Allegedly Aiding Elder Abuse.

See Cousin, Niece Get Year & A Day After Copping Pleas To Abusing POA To Loot Accounts, Sell Home Out From Under Senior Thought To Be On Deathbed.