DUBOIS – A DuBois woman will stand trial for taking more than $100,000 from her mother’s accounts.
Deborah Diane Hilliard, 57, 212 E. Weber Ave., DuBois, is charged with theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, two counts of theft by unlawful taking and access device fraud.
After a preliminary hearing, Magisterial District Judge James Hawkins ruled all charges be sent on to the Court of Common Pleas. Hilliard’s bail was set at $25,000, unsecured.
The charges stem from Hilliard’s activity from July of 2008 to August of 2012 when she allegedly charged airline tickets, car rentals and more on her mother’s credit card and took long-term care insurance payments intended for a nursing home. During this same time, although she was handling her mother’s finances, she failed to pay for the nursing home where her mother was living and her prescription bill.
The first witness was Sandra Lasher, Hilliard’s sister. She explained that she has five siblings. Her mother, Bertha Smeltzer, went into the DuBois Nursing Home in June of 2008. She was later moved to another nursing home in Brookville so she would be closer to Lasher’s home. Smeltzer, who died in March of 2013, had dementia, according to court records.
Prior to Lasher becoming Smeltzer’s guardian in September of 2012, Hilliard was power of attorney for their mother and handled the finances.
Lasher testified that she discovered her mother’s bills were not being paid. An application for medical assistance had been completed by Hilliard, but there were many questions regarding Smeltzer’s finances that were not answered by her sister.
She found that there was a large balance on her mother’s credit card that was overdue and there was a bill for Diamond Pharmacy, which supplied her mother’s medications. The bill for the nursing home was more than $100,000.
Lasher stated that she and her other siblings tried to find out about the finances but were told by Hilliard and another sister, Beth Smeltzer, that it wasn’t “our business.” When they tried to set up a meeting to discuss their concerns, “we were shut down,” she said.
Hilliard sent the family an e-mail claiming that their mother was on medical assistance and the bills were being taken care of that way.
Later they discovered the debt and she said her mother’s estate still owes the nursing home money.
Amanda LeGars of the Clearfield County Area Agency on Aging testified that she received a report on the victim owing the nursing home $100,000 in July of 2012. Employees of the home had tried to get Hilliard to apply for medical assistance for her mother but that fell through. After a while, Hilliard stopped returning their calls.
LeGars talked with Hilliard who supplied some tax records, and a copy of the paperwork naming Hilliard as power of attorney. Hilliard said she was paying bills on her mother’s behalf and provided some receipts.
LeGars spoke with other family members including Lasher. They worked together to get Lasher and her brother, William Smeltzer, named as guardians for their mother.
An investigation showed that checks from a State Farm long-term care insurance policy were written out to Bertha Smeltzer in care of Hilliard and deposited into Hilliard’s account. This money was intended for her long-term care, but none of this money had gone to the nursing home.
Charges to Bertha Smeltzer’s Discover Card for airline tickets, car rentals, trips to Vegas and other items were made after she was placed into the nursing home, LeGars said.
Connie Thiebaud, the former office manager of the DuBois Nursing Home, testified regarding the financial problems with the nursing home.
District Attorney William A. Shaw Jr. showed her a copy of the assignment of benefits form for the State Farm policy for the long-term benefits. It was signed by Hilliard in July of 2008, but the nursing home did not receive any payments from this for Bertha Smeltzer, she said.
Smeltzer’s debt to the home grew and eventually they applied for medical assistance for her. Thiebaud said an application was done, but the information they needed to complete it was never provided to them. Hilliard told them that Smeltzer’s funds had run out. She did not mention that her mother had a long-term care policy.
Beth Smeltzer of DuBois testified that she was living with her mother prior to her going into the nursing home. She said she often used her mother’s Discover Card to purchase airline tickets and other trip expenses.
She didn’t have a credit card of her own at that point and she would then pay her mother back either by check or in cash. After her mother went into the nursing home, she paid Hilliard for these expenses.
Beth Smeltzer also has power of attorney and was asked if she thought this was a conflict. She replied that she didn’t know it was incorrect for her to do this. She explained she stopped using the credit card once she got her own in 2010.
A portion of the power of attorney paperwork states that there cannot be any co-mingling of funds.
She did state that she knew Hilliard was using the card for her trips after their mother was in the nursing home.
“I did know she was using it for tickets when we went away,” she said.
She also believed her sister was using the card to pay the pharmacy bill.
When asked how the nursing home bills were being paid, Smeltzer stated that she thought the long-term insurance was paying for that and after that was done in 2012 the money was coming from an IRA account.
She explained that Hilliard started taking care of their mother in 2004 or 2005 when she quit her job. She stated that she worked at the DuBois Regional Medical Center and Hilliard took care of their mother while she was at work.
“She did the days and I did the nights and weekends,” she testified.
Hilliard sent an e-mail to her siblings regarding compensation for taking care of Bertha Smeltzer because she had quit her job.
Beth Smeltzer testified that she thought the compensation came from the long-term care policy because it was allowing her mother to continue living at home rather than going into a nursing home.
Shaw asked if Hilliard continued to collect money after their mother was put in the nursing home in 2008. Beth Smeltzer stated she didn’t think so.
During cross examination, attorney Gary Knaresboro asked if their mother was aware of the credit card use. Beth Smeltzer said she was because she was traveling with them on the trips.
“We did it all the time with her knowledge,” she stated. “She never had a problem with it.”
The charges to the card continued after her mother moved into the nursing home, and Smeltzer said she assumed that was OK.
Officer Joshua Johnston of the Sandy Township police testified that police were contacted by LeGars regarding this case. He investigated the allegations, which included interviewing Hilliard in November of 2013.
He described her as cooperative and she provided additional records from her bank accounts. She admitted she made some mistakes and acknowledged that $9,000 of the Discover Card charges was hers to pay. Hilliard explained she was compensating herself after her mother was moved into the home by using the long-term care funds because she had provided care to her mother while she was at home. She stated that previously her mother didn’t have the money to pay her. She based her services on a $7 per hour rate.
From August of 2008 to June of 2010, this insurance policy paid a total of $55,794.50.
Johnston said he matched up bank records from Smeltzer’s account and Hilliard’s account and could see that cash had been taken out and deposited into Hilliard’s account.
Knaresboro asked him if she seemed to understand the power of attorney paperwork and Johnston said no. She claimed it was never explained to her and she did not realize she couldn’t co-mingle her funds with her mother’s.
In his closing arguments, Knaresboro said that he believed the case should be a civil matter and not criminal. If their mother knew and approved of the use of the Discover Card, then it was not a crime.
Hilliard could be liable for some expenses but it was not a criminal matter, he said.
“It would be like the nursing home filing charges against a resident,” he said.
He also said that everyone that testified that day had misrepresented the duties of someone who has power of attorney. Hilliard didn’t have to pay the bills.
Shaw answered this by stating the case was not about the power of attorney but about her taking money that didn’t belong to her.
Shaw also pointed out that they continued to use the Discover Card after their mother was in the nursing home, which was not for Bertha Smeltzer’s benefit.
“This is about stealing,” he said.