$70K gone: Couple stole from elderly Wichita widower during visits, affidavit says
A Texas couple charged with mistreatment of a dependent adult and felony theft helped themselves to more than $70,000 of an elderly Wichita widower’s money after taking his checkbooks during a visit, according to an arrest affidavit released last week by a Sedgwick County judge.
Neither of the couple’s defense attorneys commented on the allegations Tuesday.
The widower’s niece called the authorities on Sept. 4, 2020, because she thought her 89-year-old uncle “was being taken advantage of financially” by Stephanie C. Bracks and Bracks’ common-law husband, Anthony D. Patterson, the affidavit says. Another niece, who is the widower’s power of attorney, told authorities she noticed his driver’s license, Social Security card and several checkbooks gone after Bracks, 40, and Patterson, 42, had visited him in January 2020.
A review of the widower’s bank accounts showed dozens of cash withdrawals and unauthorized checks written to the couple over several months, that likely went to pay their rent, car and cable bills, the affidavit says.
Investigators also discovered a $10,200 U.S. Small Business Administration loan taken out in the widower’s name after Bracks’ attempts to get one on her own failed, according to the affidavit.
In total, the couple allegedly misappropriated $70,686.37 of the widower’s money from December 2019 to July 2020, with the lion’s share tied — more than $52,000 — to Bracks.
The widower told the authorities “he did not give permission for anyone to use his money or sign checks using his name and would never allow this,” the affidavit says, adding:
“He wishes for them to return his money.”
One bank returned more than $21,000 of the stolen money to the widower’s account after he filed a fraud report. The affidavit doesn’t say whether any other banks did the same.
In response to a request for comment on the contents of the affidavit, Bracks’ public defender said such documents are “notoriously lacking in information” and that he was “not going to comment on an existing case that has only recently been charged and has not yet even had any type of public hearing.”
Patterson’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a message from The Eagle.
The couple is due back in Sedgwick County District Court later this summer for preliminary hearings, court records show. They made their first appearance in court on the charges in May.
This story was originally published June 23, 2021 at 4:19 AM.
