FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A district attorney announced that two people were sentenced for their connection to running a three-year financial elder abuse scheme that targeted a vulnerable Fresno County man and led to the theft of more than $800,000.<\/p>\n
52-year-old Gina Denise Abercrombie of Pleasanton and 52-year-old Justin Linder Teel of Friant were sentenced for financial elder abuse scheme that resulted in the theft of more than $800,000, along with the fraudulent acquisition of interests in property worth millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Both were convicted after a three month jury trial.<\/p>\n
The victim was identified as 74 year-old Randall Jon Hansen of Sanger.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the scheme began after the unexpected death of Hansen\u2019s wife in 2017, when he was experiencing significant health challenges.<\/p>\n
Abercrombie and Teel exploited his grief and vulnerability to gain increasing control over his finances, estate planning and valuable real estate holdings, according to the district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Evidence presented at trial showed Hansen owned numerous properties, including Sherwood Forest Mobile Home Park, a residence in Aptos, a home in Bass Lake, an almond ranch and other real estate, along with financial accounts collectively valued at more than $2.4 million.<\/p>\n
Over about three years, Abercrombie, described as Hansen\u2019s stepdaughter, and Teel siphoned more than $800,000 from Hansen\u2019s financial accounts while attempting to take control of his assets.<\/p>\n
Investigators reported finding forged documents, fraudulent deeds and unauthorized financial transactions, among other evidence of what they described as a sustained and sophisticated scheme.<\/p>\n
Among the acts outlined by prosecutors, the defendants incorporated Sherwood Forest Mobile Home Park without Hansen\u2019s knowledge and falsely identified Abercrombie as its owner.<\/p>\n
They also fraudulently obtained title to Hansen\u2019s Aptos residence, valued at about $3 million, by misrepresenting legal documents as refinancing paperwork when the documents transferred ownership of the property to Abercrombie, the district attorney\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
During the sentencing hearing, the victim\u2019s daughter, Stacy Hansen Dovali, described the impact on her father and family. \u201cThese crimes don\u2019t just take money. They took away trust, dignity, peace, and, in our case, took away my Dad,\u201d Dovali said. She also told the court, \u201cMy father deserved kindness. Instead, he was betrayed when he needed protection the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
A restitution hearing to determine the financial losses owed to the victim\u2019s estate is scheduled for Sept. 4, 2026.<\/p>\n
The jury found both guilty of one felony count of financial elder abuse and two felony counts of theft by false pretenses. <\/p>\n
At sentencing, a district attorney ordered Abercrombie to serve five years of formal probation and 365 days in the Fresno County Jail. <\/p>\n
He also imposed a 10-year criminal protective order prohibiting contact with the victim\u2019s daughter. <\/p>\n
Teel was sentenced to three years in state prison.<\/p>\n
The court also found Abercrombie induced others to participate in the crimes. <\/p>\n
Teel had previously served a prison term stemming from convictions for mortgage fraud, perjury and welfare fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A district attorney announced that two people were sentenced for their connection to running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-380033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}