Four people were arrested and are facing over a dozen charges for their alleged exploitation of a 72-year-old man who had dementia in Hollywood, authorities said.<\/p>\n
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the four suspects were engaged in a scheme to defraud the victim, later identified as Thomas Hegarty, of his Hollywood home, which is valued at over $300,000.<\/p>\n
“He lost everything. I mean heirlooms, possessions,” said Peggy Hegarty, Thomas’ sister-in-law. “He was in shock and depressed after this all happened. He was not eating.”<\/p>\n
The suspects and their charges include the following:<\/p>\n
Brandon Lee Miguel, 25 and Jordy Luis Perez, 25, are facing six charges, which include organized scheme to defraud $50,000 or more, grand theft exceeding $100,000, unlawful filing of false documents affecting real property, mortgage fraud, exploitation of an elderly person and money laundering<\/p>\n
Monica Elizabeth Castelli, 56, is facing two criminal counts, including kidnapping with intent to facilitate the commission of a felony, and exploitation of an elderly person<\/p>\n
Derek Enrique, 43, was charged with one count of false or fraudulent acknowledgments<\/p>\n
Deputies said that an investigation started when a family member, who was concerned about the Hegarty’s mental condition and was suspicious about the transfer of his residence, called Hollywood Police.<\/p>\n
Hollywood Police and the Broward County Property Appraiser\u2019s Crimes Against Property Unit led the investigation.<\/p>\n
Investigators said that the suspects allegedly took advantage of the victim and were able to get his signature on a power of attorney document and a warranty deed. The documents were allegedly falsely notarized and used to purportedly transfer ownership of the home to a company controlled by Miguel and Perez.<\/p>\n
Based on the victim’s documented dementia, investigators allege that he did not understand what he was signing.<\/p>\n
As part of the scheme, Miguel and Perez allegedly arranged for the victim to be removed from his home by Casteli, and he was moved to a rooming house in Miami Gardens.<\/p>\n
After the victim was gone, Miguel and Perez allegedly gained entry to his house and removed all of his personal property, which was reported missing.<\/p>\n
Part of the reported missing property included the victim’s three vehicles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four people were arrested and are facing over a dozen charges for their alleged exploitation of a 72-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1219,249,251,250],"class_list":["post-440714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-crime-and-courts","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}