Proper planning for single seniors includes protecting the estate from control by third parties. A recent case illustrates how difficult it can be to protect a loved one from finacial abuse. Frank Calcaterra was in his 80s in 2008 when his family hired a home care company to help the former metro Detroit funeral home owner look after his ailing wife Jonnie, who had dementia. Kentucky-based ResCare sent Tangie Coleman, who, at the time, had a warrant out for her arrest, records show. It was later discovered that she lied on her application with ResCare.
Jonnie’s jewelry soon began to disappear. When Jonnie Calcaterra died in a nursing home in January 2012, Coleman and her mother were living in Frank Calcaterra’s lakefront home in Waterford and he was sleeping in the basement.
A few months later, Coleman married Calcaterra in Ohio, without his family’s knowledge. Frank Calcaterra’s sizable fortune soon disappeared. Estimates from court filings put the loss at anywhere from $500,000 to more than $1.5 million. On Oct. 25, 2012, when Coleman, who was 35, and Frank Calcaterra, who was 86, were married in Ohio, at least two complaints alleging financial exploitation had already been filed against Coleman with the Michigan Department of Human Services’ division of Adult Protective Services.
When Frank Calcaterra’s daughters removed him from his home, less than a year later, he was 10 pounds lighter and destitute. He did not have a single bank account maintaining a positive bank balance or a valid credit card. Coleman was driving him to a check cashing storefront with his monthly Social Security check.
The case highlights what experts say is a significant and growing problem in the U.S. — financial exploitation of elderly people by caregivers. Many cases go unreported and accurate estimates are hard to pin down, but studies suggest there are at least tens of thousands of such cases each year.
In May of this year, a judge appointed a conservator for Calcaterra, citing fraud and financial exploitation, which Coleman denies. Calcaterra’s court-appointed conservator, is seeking to annul the marriage, alleging it was a fraud Coleman perpetrated “solely for her financial gain.”
Calcaterra’s daughters are looking for answers and accountability, too. They’re unhappy the state failed to act and that it has been difficult to get police agencies to launch criminal investigations, with some officials saying the 2012 marriage mades the case a civil matter.
“Our concern is that no other family ever go through this,” said Calcaterra’s daughter Charlotte Knutson, who lives in Minnesota told a reporter for the Detroit Free Press.
Sgt. Brent Ross of Waterford Police recently closed a criminal investigation. “There is still no evidence that Tangie ever forged a specific check although it may be inferred,” Ross reportedly explained to the family throught their attorney via email. “Perhaps the checks were forged, but they could have been forged by anyone.”
Coleman, who declined to discuss her history with Calcaterra during a brief encounter with a Free Press reporter, denied wrongdoing in an answer she filed to the annulment/divorce petition. She claims Calcaterra gave her permission to sign his name to checks and his daughters are biased against her because she is black. “Frank always gave me stacks of money ... and always promised to take care of me,” said Coleman, whose Facebook page featured photos of her fanning a stack of $100 bills.
“They kidnapped my husband,” Coleman said in a court filing. “I want him back.”
Records show Coleman was married when she was hired to help Calcaterra, but got divorced on Oct. 11, 2012 — two weeks before her marriage to Calcaterra. Of the many checks drawn on Calcaterra’s bank account in 2011, more than 20 totaling more than $10,000 were payable to Coleman’s husband at the time, for services such as painting, lawn care and moving.
Calcaterra, who spoke to a Free Press reporter with his daughters present, said Coleman told him she needed to marry him in order to receive a significant legal settlement resulting from a lawsuit she brought against an Oakland County police department for an alleged police assault against her. Calcaterra had earlier given her money to hire a lawyer.
“They went to court and got a settlement,” Calcaterra said. But Coleman told him officials told her she is a spendthrift, and in order to be paid the settlement she first had to get married so she would have someone to watch over how she handled the money. “That’s why we got married,” Calcaterra said. “I don’t think there ever was a police report of this ever happening.”
There also is no record of any such lawsuit.
As might be expected, the family has filed a lawsuit against ResCare.
Text messages and handwritten notes exchanged between Calcaterra and Coleman show he was smitten with her. And Calcaterra pushed back hard when his daughters tried to convince him he was being used.
To read the full USA Today article, which includes practical precautions family members can implement, go here.
To read the Detroit Free Press article, go here.
No comments:
Post a Comment