Caregiver/Legal Guardian Cops Plea To Ripping Off Disabled Man Over Whom She Had Full Control; Pocketed $125K+ While Stiffing Bank Out Of Victim's House Payments, Driving Home Into Foreclosure

In Hudson, Wisconsin, the Leader-Telegram reports:

• A Roberts woman pleaded guilty [] in St. Croix County Court to six felonies related to stealing money and obtaining prescription drugs for years from a man severely injured in a 2005 motorcycle crash.
  
  June M. Hicks, 54, was found guilty of five counts of theft in a business setting and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud. Fifty-one other charges were dismissed. She faces a maximum penalty of 18 years in prison when sentenced in April.
  
  Court records indicate $129,619 in restitution is owed, with $50,000 needing to be paid before sentencing. Hicks also owes the sheriff’s office $10,833.
  
  Hicks’ husband, Sammy L. Hicks, 63, of Roberts, faces 17 counts of theft in a business setting and is scheduled for a June trial.
  
  Courtney M. McConnach, 25, of Prairie Farm, the couple’s daughter, was earlier sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to a felony count of forgery and had 30 other counts dismissed. She was ordered to serve 90 days in jail and pay $13,930 in restitution. [Editor's Note: Importantly, as part of the plea deal, she also agreed to testify against her parents.](1)(2)
  
  The charges stem from an investigation related to the care of Mark Weckwerth, who suffered a severe head injury in a motorcycle crash. June Hicks was hired in 2007 to help care for him. She took full control of Weckwerth’s care in 2009 and became sole guardian in 2012.
  
  An accountant’s report indicated Hicks issued $114,858 in checks out of Weckwerth’s account to herself or others for expenses unrelated to his care between October 2009 and December 2011, and deposited income from Weckwerth’s care into the joint account of her and Sammy Hicks during 2009 to 2013, with the couple making mortgage payments on their residence from that account, according to court records.
  
  June Hicks failed to make mortgage payments on Weckwerth’s residence despite depositing a $120,000 pension check into his checking account in 2013. The residence went into foreclosure.

For the story, see Roberts woman guilty of theft from disabled man (Roberts woman pleads guilty to theft of over $125,000, prescription narcotics).

See also, Disabled man’s caregiver and her family face 107 felony charges:

• The charges are a result of an investigation by the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO). According to the criminal complaint, the SCSO received a complaint on Oct. 8, 2013, from the St. Croix County Aging and Disability Resource Center consisting of two anonymous letters detailing the possible exploitation of a vulnerable adult, identified as Mark E. Weckwerth of Hudson.

------------------------

(1) See Daughter would testify against parents under plea deal.

(2) See United States v. Moody, 206 F.3d 609, 617 (6th Cir. 2000) (Wiseman, J., concurring) (referring to the not-uncommon 'race to the prosecutor's office' that breaks out among participants in an 'about-to-fall-apart' criminal conspiracy):

• "When a conspiracy is exposed by an arrest or execution of search warrants, soon-to-be defendants know that the first one to "belly up" and tell what he knows receives the best deal. The pressure is to bargain and bargain early, even if an indictment has not been filed."