Caregiver gets probation for stealing thousands from man, 88, she talked of marrying
A judge has ordered a Wichita woman who took more than $80,000 from an elderly man spiraling into late-onset Alzheimer’s disease to spend at least two years on probation for felony theft. She’ll also have to repay $60,900 to the man’s family and is barred from serving as anyone’s fiduciary while on probation, according to court records and the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.
Judge Eric Williams ruled that Laurie Nowlin’s probation can be extended beyond that, though, if she still has unpaid restitution at the end of the two years, said Dan Dillon, the DA’s spokesman. If she violates its terms, the judge could send her to prison for 13 months.
Investigators looking into a report of suspected financial abuse of the 88-year-old man found he had made Nowlin his power of attorney and the beneficiary of nearly all of his assets — including changing his will and the deed of his home — months after his mental capacity had likely diminished due to Alheizmer’s, according to an affidavit associated with the case and the DA’s office. Family members of the man who sued Nowlin in civil court for fraud alleged she had befriended him within the past few years then “took steps to isolate ... and alienate him from his family” after he hired her to help with his care.
Nowlin, who is about 30 years the man’s junior and served as one of his primary caregivers, “represented that she loved ... (him) in a romantic fashion and that she intended to marry him” even though she already had a husband, the lawsuit states. She then convinced him to write her at least $102,000 in checks and make around $141,000 in cash withdraws from his accounts — far more than her care services were worth, it says.
In her response to the civil allegations, Nowlin admitted that she and the man had discussed marriage, but she denied wrongdoing, saying some money paid for her services and the rest was a gift.
Between June 25, 2018, and Feb. 11, 2019, the man wrote at least $81,400 in checks to Nowlin and withdrew from his accounts another $2,000 for her, the affidavit in Nowlin’s criminal case says. Nowlin deposited several of the checks into a joint account she shared with the man and then “conducted several transfers via Facebook and used the funds to take multiple trips,” according to the document.
Nowlin, 60, was charged with felony theft and mistreatment of a dependent adult in 2019. She pleaded guilty to the theft charge on Oct. 27. Prosecutors dropped the other count in exchange, according to court records.
The DA’s office, in a news release, said the elderly man’s family spoke at Nowlin’s sentencing about how her thefts “took a toll of their family and damaged their relationship with the victim.” The man’s adult children were the designated beneficiaries and power of attorney on his assets before he met Nowlin and changed them, the release said. He is now deceased.
Nowlin told them during the hearing that “she should not have accepted the pay from the victim but she loved him and he wanted her to have it,” the release said.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 12:52 PM.
