Contact: Sheri Greco
Elder
Abuse Vertical Prosecution Unit
Telephone: 874-6699
District Attorney Jan Scully announced today that defendant Jennifer Kaihau
was denied probation and sentenced to 4 years in state prison for her
conviction in an elder financial abuse case that involved a loss of nearly
$150,000. The Honorable Judge Richard Gilmour imposed the state prison
sentence and then remanded the defendant after he denied her request to
remain free on bail pending an appeal of her conviction.
Last month a jury found the defendant guilty of three felony counts of theft
by a caretaker from an elderly victim, grand theft and unlawful use of an
ATM/Debit card. The jury also made findings that as to each of these counts
the amount of loss exceeded $50,000. The defendant was employed as the in
home caretaker for the elderly victim when she began using the victim’s
ATM/Debit cards to make fraudulent purchases and cash withdrawals. The
victim testified that she had not given the defendant permission to use her
ATM/Debit cards and was unaware that there was hundreds of dollars of cash
being withdrawn from her accounts on a daily basis for over a year.
The 90-year-old victim did not attend the sentencing today but her
conservator and long time friend read a statement to the Judge that the
victim had written:
“I am ninety years old and have spent the last two years of my life thinking
of why the defendant would take advantage of me and embezzle $150,000. After
many agonizing hours of thought and loss of sleep, I still do not have an
answer. The loss of the money was upsetting, but what hurt the most was the
betrayal of trust. I really trusted her and cannot express the sorrow that I
feel having had that trust betrayed. I will have to live with the hurt of
this betrayal the rest of my life.”
According to Deputy District Attorney Sheri Greco who handled the case, a
financial crime against an elderly victim can change their life forever
often causing the same type of emotional and physical devastation as that of
a physical abuse crime and this state prison sentence demonstrates that
perpetrators of these types of crimes will be held accountable.
