Judge slaps injunction on suspended Orlando commissioner Regina Hill
A judge Friday put a permanent injunction on suspended Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill, preventing her from interacting with the elderly constituent she is accused of defrauding.
Judge Heather Higbee’s ruling came after more than six hours of testimony on the matter Friday, which revealed “troubling” new details of Hill’s spending of the 96-year-old woman’s money on vitamin infusions and a facelift. The allegations — which emerged from a year-long investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement — are also the subject of the felony indictment for elderly abuse and fraud Hill faces.
Hill took the stand at the hearing but refused to testify, citing the criminal charges and invoking her fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination. Prior to the hearing, her attorney, Nicole Benjamin, told reporters, “This was not, in fact, an investigation but an assassination of her character.”
In the civil matter regarding the injunction, originally filed last month, Higbee determined that the elderly woman, whom the Sentinel is not naming, had the mental capacity to displace Hill’s control of her affairs, which Hill gained through a power of attorney filing shortly after meeting the woman in 2021. The woman has now placed a family friend, Adriane Alexander, in charge. The woman faced an “immediate present danger” otherwise, Higbee found.
“Now we’re going to make sure that [the alleged victim] is taken care of for the rest of her life,” said John Martino, a Community Legal Services attorney for Alexander. “We can be rest assured now that Ms. Hill isn’t going to get back in and will not be able to access those accounts anymore.”
On her way out of the courtroom Friday, Hill declined to comment on the ruling.
Alexander, of Tampa, testified that her mother and the victim were college classmates and sorority sisters. Alexander and her mother used to drive over from Tampa annually to visit the victim, she said.
Those visits stopped when Alexander’s mother died. Soon after, the pandemic began — and Alexander said she had placed calls to the Orlando Police Department to do wellness checks on the alleged victim.
She said she agreed to take over the woman’s affairs after learning of the exploitation allegations.
“I wanted to make sure she wasn’t being taken advantage of – that was my only goal,” she said.
In a court filing last week, Hill argued that the woman lacked the mental capacity to void Hill’s power of attorney. But Tim Moran, another attorney representing the alleged victim, testified that when signing documents related to transferring her affairs from Hill to Alexander, the alleged victim appeared aware of what she was doing.
Moran said he asked the woman questions about Hill, and she said: “I don’t want her to take things that don’t belong to her.”
The allegations hinged on the criminal investigation by FDLE Special Agent Steve Brenton.
Brenton said Hill had obtained a fraudulent power of attorney. The document was signed by Hill’s son – though his name is misspelled – as well as a former aide as witnesses. The document was also signed by a notary.
Brenton said he questioned all three of those individuals, and none said they’d signed it.
Among transactions charged to the woman’s accounts that Brenton found suspicious were a $139 monthly membership to a Vitalounge — a medical spa specializing in IV infusions — another vitamin infusion by a Virginia-based company that occurred at the same time Hill was staying at a hotel in nearby Washington D.C., and a $2,850 facelift from an Orlando business that had a photo of Hill showing her before the procedure was completed.
Martino, the attorney representing Alexander, said they were “troubling.”
“I think that the several financial charges that were highlighted with respect to the facelift and the IV drips – it’s all troubling,” Martino said. “We all expect more from our elected officials.”
But other testimony showed Hill had provided assistance for the elderly woman since they came to know each other in 2021. Hill had arranged for around-the-clock care, bought her groceries, and cleaned up her home, which was in “deplorable condition” before Hill became involved.
One neighbor said that home was in “scary” shape before Hill became involved, covered in feces and with wasps inside. Hill’s presence heartened neighbors hopeful that the woman’s living conditions would improve. And they did, said Ebony Rumph Maxwell, who lives next door and grew up across the street from the woman’s home.
“The welcome home party we had for her was wonderful,” she said.
Benjamin, who is representing Hill in the civil matter, said Hill only acted to benefit the woman.
“She was happy, she was taken care of, she was loved and she knew it,” she said.
Hill, 58, was hit with the injunction last month, after Alexander alleged in a court filing that Hill had spent $100,000 of the woman’s savings on personal expenses like expensive perfumes, clothing, rental cars and hotel stays.
Then, a week later, a grand jury returned an indictment against Hill, with seven felony charges relating to elder abuse and fraud. Hill was ultimately arrested by FDLE.
On Monday Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Hill from office, where she was in her third term representing the downtown Orlando area on city council. A special election is expected to take place next month to temporarily replace her while the criminal case unfolds.
The injunction prevents Hill from living at either of the homes the woman owns, as well as a third property the two own together.
Hill first came to know the woman in her role as city commissioner, when she was informed of dire conditions in the home. Code enforcement records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel reveal a complaint against the alleged victim’s home in 2021, which had a collapsing roof and a foul odor emanating from inside.
Soon after, Hill set up a community cleanup of the woman’s home where a local roofing company donated a roof, according to a video Hill posted on her Facebook page about the event.
A week later, Hill secured power of attorney over the woman and took control of her finances.
