Transport Risk Includes Assault, Abandonment, and Identity Theft!

Two senior living caregivers are charged with abuse and exploitation for allegedly stealing a resident’s identity and debit card and then abandoning the resident on the side of the road on a “particularly hot day” in 2019.  Tavetta Lavetta Jones and Tekera Levine, employees of Whispering Pines Assisted Living in Pensacola, FL, were supposed to transfer the resident to sign bond paperwork. 

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced the arrests and charges  following an investigation by the state Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Reporting suggests that the assisted living facility at which the resident lived was wholly unaware of the fraud, or that the resident had been abandoned:

Kevin Wheatley, owner of Whispering Pines, said he is in “scramble mode” to keep his facility “running safely and smoothly,” adding that he only learned about the incident recently from the local news.  “There is a certain amount of trust you have to put in your staff,” Wheatley told McKnight’s Senior Living. "If that trust is broken, it’s obviously heartbreaking.”

Wheatley reportedly told McKnight's Senior Living that Jones is no longer employed by the community and Levine, “who has a stellar reputation in the caretaking community,” is on administrative leave “until we can figure out what happened.” He said Levine maintains that she was not involved in the incident. 

Jones is charged with exploitation of an elderly person or disabled adult and criminal use of personal identification information. She faces up to 35 years in prison. Levine, a Whispering Pines manager, faces a charge of accessory after the fact and up to five years in prison. Both were arrested last weekend by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and released on a $5,000 bond each.  Both are entitled to a presumption of innocence.

According to the attorney general, the resident identified Jones and Levine as the employees who orchestrated the scheme. The resident also identified a black Volkswagen as the vehicle that Jones was driving the day the resident was abandoned on the side of the road.

Levine “gave varying accounts” about the incident and Jones’ involvement. Phone records placed both employees in the county where the resident was abandoned near the time that law enforcement responded to a 911 call from people who found the older adult on the side of the road. Phone records also placed Jones in the vicinity of ATMs where the victim’s debit card and personal identification number were used to access a bank account in August and September 2019.