Orlando Commissioner Hill’s case part of ‘epidemic’ of elder abuse, experts say
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
A senior with memory loss and no family members to help gave control of her finances to a younger woman. In short order, the younger woman sold the elderly woman’s home and depleted her life savings while neglecting her medical care.
In broad strokes, this tale from Miami-Dade County resembles the elder abuse case now ensnarling suspended Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill. And there is one additional, critical element, common to the two cases and dozens more elder-abuse actions across Florida: The alleged misuse of a powerful but little-regulated legal mechanism called power of attorney.
Power-of-attorney agreements are intended to help vulnerable people who can no longer manage their own finances hand control to someone who can. But experts in elder affairs say seniors frequently end up exploited by the very people they appoint to care for them.
The United States has an “epidemic” of people abusing power-of-attorney agreements, said Roberta Flowers, a professor of law at Stetson University and director of the college’s Center for Elder Justice.
“They are an amazing tool,” Flowers said. “They are also the easiest way for people with nefarious reasons to take power away from an elderly person.”
Last month, a grand jury indicted Hill for her alleged activities after gaining power of attorney over an elderly constituent. Prosecutors say Hill drained the woman’s bank accounts as she treated herself to a facelift, expensive perfumes and IV vitamin injections. Hill maintains she loves the woman like her own family and committed no crime.
In the Miami case, investigators say the younger woman withdrew $400 in cash on the same day her newly-established power of attorney gave her authority over the elderly woman’s bank account. She eventually took another $200,000, using the older woman’s credit card to order dozens of items from Amazon, including jewelry and shoes, investigators say.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle recounted that story in December as she was discussing her office’s Elder and Vulnerable Adult Exploitation Task Force, drawing comparisons between the county’s large population of seniors and victims of human trafficking.
“They share these vulnerabilities and they’re just targets for all of the criminals that are out in our community,” Fernandez Rundle told reporters.
‘Orphaned adults’
Like the Miami woman, the elderly woman that Hill is accused of stealing from was especially vulnerable: She suffered from memory loss, had no living relatives and had become increasingly isolated as she aged.
When code enforcement officers visited the woman’s home in early 2021, she was living in deplorable conditions. The roof on her Lake Mann Estates home was collapsing and floors were drenched with cat urine and feces.
Shortly after being told of the situation, Hill led efforts to fix up the woman’s home on Mahalia Drive, enlisting the help of volunteers to replace her roof and soiled carpet and clean the inside of the home.
But Hill also swiftly established power of attorney — completing the process within just 45 days of meeting the woman, investigators say. Recent court filings suggest the woman did not understand how much authority she was handing to Hill.
In Florida, people do not need to enlist help from a lawyer to take control over someone else’s finances — they only need to obtain signatures from the account holder, plus two witnesses and a notary. They can copy and paste sample language that is widely available online.
In Hill’s case, the document used generic language. But one of the witnesses who signed the form is a local attorney.
Some states do not even require these documents to be signed by witnesses or notaries.
Once the document is signed, the person granted power of attorney can present a copy of the record to banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions to gain access to the person’s accounts.
And unlike court-appointed guardians, who face a raft of reporting requirements, people with power of attorney do not typically have to justify their spending to anyone else.
That’s what makes these agreements such low-hanging fruit for thieves, experts say.
“This happens way more often than I think people want to believe,” said Jeff Harvey, the CEO of Community Legal Services, the nonprofit that represented Hill’s elderly constituent. “You can effectively just print out a form and as long as you have a notary stamp and witnesses — you’re good.”
But power-of-attorney agreements can also be quite worthwhile when used appropriately, financial planning experts say, urging people to assign power of attorney to someone they trust while they are mentally sharp. Common in estate planning, the agreements are intended to allow a reliable third party to pay bills and manage savings and retirement funds if and when the account holder is no longer able to do so because of their age, an accident or an illness.
“I’ve told clients before that your power-of-attorney document can be more important than a will,” said Andrew Boyer, a board-certified elder law attorney based in Sarasota.
Darby Jones, whose St. Petersburg-based firm Professional Fiduciary Services provides those services for people who don’t have a family member or friend to fill the role, agreed.
“One of the most important documents that everyone should have is a power of attorney,” she said. “The challenge is finding someone to serve in that capacity.”
Jones said Florida has a large population of what she calls “orphaned adults” who don’t have living family members or close friends. Those people, she said, are especially vulnerable to exploitation.
While it’s not unusual for people to grant power of attorney to a friend, clergy member or someone else who isn’t related to them, it should be someone they know well, she said.
There are no indications that the elderly woman in Orlando had assigned that responsibility to anyone else before Hill took over her finances three years ago. Adriane Alexander, the family friend who has since wrested power of attorney away from Hill, has acknowledged she lost touch with the woman during the pandemic.
Sometimes, even choosing a family member doesn’t protect seniors from abuse. The Sentinel reviewed more than a dozen recent Florida cases and many involved a person accused of stealing from their parent or grandparent.
Last summer, a Winter Haven teacher pleaded no contest to charges she used her grandmother’s money to pay her car loan and gym membership and opened several credit cards in her name. Over the course of a year, she stole $66,000 from the 83-year-old woman, investigators say.
In 2022, a Pinellas County attorney was disbarred after an Iowa court found he looted more than $380,000 from his mother’s estate, spending roughly $300,000 to purchase and furnish a waterfront home for himself.
And earlier this month, an Escambia County man was arrested on accusations he stole $17,000 from his 82-year-old grandfather, using the money to pay for personal bills and purchases from Netflix, DoorDash and Amazon.
‘A wrong turn’
At least initially, Hill seemed to act in the elderly woman’s interests.
A short time after meeting her, Hill appeared prominently in an episode of the TV series, “Dirty Rotten Cleaners,” which documented efforts to make the home livable again.
“I am a city commissioner here in Orlando. My main focus here is making sure the constituent here in this home has quality of life, public health and public safety,” Hill said at the start of the show.
The woman, who does not appear in the episode, was not living in the home at the time.
Aside from cleaning up the home on Mahalia Drive, Hill completed an “extensive renovation” on a second property owned by the woman a short distance away, according to an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which also said Hill lived there at one point.
But at some point that has not yet been detailed in court filings, Hill allegedly started to use the woman’s finances for personal gain — spending her money on expensive bottles of perfume, a car rental, a facelift, dental surgery and a stay in a Miami Hotel room on New Year’s Eve.
She also used another legal document that investigators say was forged to purchase a third home together with the elderly woman, which Hill listed as her home address on records she submitted to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections. Again, the document required just a notary and two witnesses, with no other oversight.
Jones said it’s not uncommon for people who abuse power-of-attorney agreements to start out trying to help the person who signed it.
“I think people who may have started out with good intentions maybe take a wrong turn at some point and start to take advantage,” she said.
But experts say there’s no easy way to prevent people from exploiting vulnerable people after they’ve gained control of their finances.
A responsible attorney will make sure the elderly person understands what they are signing and that their memory is sound, said Sherrille Akin, a DeLand-based attorney whose practice includes estate planning and elder law.
“I insist on at least two meetings with the senior, sometimes three,” Akin said.
Still, meeting with an attorney isn’t necessary to complete the needed documents, and some experts say it wouldn’t be practical to require that.
“I think that it would be difficult to justify having an attorney as a gatekeeper,” said Larry Frolik, a professor emeritus in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law and nationally recognized expert on elder law issues.
Requiring a court to review how the elderly person’s money is disbursed may not be practical either, given the time and expense required and the large number of power-of-attorney agreements in place.
And some seniors might chafe at the notion that their trusted person needs someone looking over their shoulder.
“Folks in one group might say that’s far too much oversight; I don’t want to pay for that extra oversight,” Boyer said. “I don’t have any issue with appointing my son or daughter — why do we need big brother looking over us?”
