Prosecutor Accepts 'Sloppy Recordkeeping' Defense, Drops Criminal Charges Against Nephew Accused Of Abusing POA To Obtain $1.1 Million Reverse Mortgage On Widowed, Dementia-Stricken Aunt's Home & Fleece Estate Of Nearly $640K; Defendant Allowed To 'Buy-Out' Of Prosecution w/ E-Z Pay "Civil Agreement" To Cough Up $140K To Estate w/ $10K Upfront, $3K/Month

In Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, The Morning Call reports:

• All charges were dismissed Monday [May 22] against an Allentown man accused last year of "plundering" his aunt's estate of nearly $640,000.
  
  Bernard Daday, 58, instead entered into a civil agreement with Lehigh County prosecutors to pay back $140,000 to the estate of Helen Sipes, widow of Dr. Earl K. Sipes, chief of surgery at Sacred Heart Hospital. The couple, who didn't have children, left the bulk of their estate to several charities in the Lehigh Valley.
  
  The estate was worth $1.8 million when Earl Sipes died in 1998. Helen Sipes died in 2012.
  
  Chief Deputy District Attorney Charles Gallagher said an investigation showed that most of the expenditures Daday made were "appropriate," but that his record keeping was "sloppy."
  
  Daday, who became his aunt's power of attorney in 2004, paid $10,000 Monday and agreed to pay $3,000 a month until the money was returned.
  
  "If he fails to make a payment the charges can be reinstated," Gallagher said.
  
  After a grand jury investigation, Daday was charged in January 2016 with theft by deception, receiving stolen property, theft by unlawful taking or disposition and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities.
  
  The charges came to light when family members questioned a $1.1 million reverse mortgage Daday had taken out on the Sipeses' Salisbury Township home. Helen Sipes taxes had not been filed or paid since 2007, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed at the time of Daday's arrest.
  
  Daday did not testify during a brief hearing before Judge Maria L. Dantos.

Source: Charges dismissed in $640,000 theft case involving aunt's estate.

For earlier post, see Nephew Hit w/ Felony Charges For Allegedly Pilfering Nearly $640K From His 83-Year Old, Widowed, Dementia-Stricken Aunt (Use Of POA To Obtain $1.1 Million Reverse Mortgage On Victim's Home Among Alleged Bad Acts).