\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAn 80-year-old Pennsylvania woman, Susan Larkin, is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a 75-year-old man with dementia after allegedly gaining power of attorney over him, according to the Allegheny County District Attorney\u2019s Office.Alleged financial abuse and isolationAuthorities say Larkin spent years taking money from the man, whom she was supposed to be caring for, while keeping his family away.Investigators allege that Larkin met the man online and that he moved from Alaska to Pittsburgh in 2023 to be closer to his children. Detectives say he ultimately moved in with Larkin, which is when the alleged crimes began. According to court documents, Larkin secretly took over as the man\u2019s power of attorney and prevented his children from attending his doctor\u2019s appointments.District Attorney Stephen Zappala said this was Larkin\u2019s way of hiding the man\u2019s deteriorating mental state to gain access to his finances.Nearly $1 million in question\u201cThe numbers that I saw initially were close to $1 million. The gentleman is 75 years old. He was in the early stages of dementia. A woman gets his confidence, transfers a payment from his son to her own account,\u201d Zappala said. Court papers allege Larkin used the man\u2019s money for personal expenses and withdrew $220,000 from his account when detectives claim she realized his children were becoming suspicious. \u201cThe criminals just work at this all the time. Powers of attorney are about trust. Guardianships are about trust. And when you’re older, I mean, and you trust somebody, that’s what we see. That’s senior abuse by definition,\u201d Zappala said. The man\u2019s children have since regained power of attorney and moved their father out of Larkin\u2019s home, but investigators are still tracking the missing funds. Defense denies allegationsLarkin\u2019s attorney, Phil DiLucente, denies the allegations, claiming his client was caring for the man and that the two were in a relationship. \u201cMy client loves this man greatly, has been with him for numerous years, and to now be attacked like this. I’m very, very disappointed. I really am,\u201d DiLucente said. Susan Larkin is charged with several crimes, including theft and access device fraud. She is free on a non-monetary bond and is scheduled to appear in court in July.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
An 80-year-old Pennsylvania woman, Susan Larkin, is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a 75-year-old man with dementia after allegedly gaining power of attorney over him, according to the Allegheny County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Alleged financial abuse and isolation<\/p>\n
Authorities say Larkin spent years taking money from the man, whom she was supposed to be caring for, while keeping his family away.<\/p>\n
Investigators allege that Larkin met the man online and that he moved from Alaska to Pittsburgh in 2023 to be closer to his children. Detectives say he ultimately moved in with Larkin, which is when the alleged crimes began. <\/p>\n
According to court documents, Larkin secretly took over as the man\u2019s power of attorney and prevented his children from attending his doctor\u2019s appointments.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Stephen Zappala said this was Larkin\u2019s way of hiding the man\u2019s deteriorating mental state to gain access to his finances.<\/p>\n
Nearly $1 million in question<\/p>\n
\u201cThe numbers that I saw initially were close to $1 million. The gentleman is 75 years old. He was in the early stages of dementia. A woman gets his confidence, transfers a payment from his son to her own account,\u201d Zappala said. <\/p>\n
Court papers allege Larkin used the man\u2019s money for personal expenses and withdrew $220,000 from his account when detectives claim she realized his children were becoming suspicious. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe criminals just work at this all the time. Powers of attorney are about trust. Guardianships are about trust. And when you’re older, I mean, and you trust somebody, that’s what we see. That’s senior abuse by definition,\u201d Zappala said. <\/p>\n
The man\u2019s children have since regained power of attorney and moved their father out of Larkin\u2019s home, but investigators are still tracking the missing funds. <\/p>\n
Defense denies allegations<\/p>\n
Larkin\u2019s attorney, Phil DiLucente, denies the allegations, claiming his client was caring for the man and that the two were in a relationship. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy client loves this man greatly, has been with him for numerous years, and to now be attacked like this. I’m very, very disappointed. I really am,\u201d DiLucente said. <\/p>\n
Susan Larkin is charged with several crimes, including theft and access device fraud. She is free on a non-monetary bond and is scheduled to appear in court in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 80-year-old Pennsylvania woman, Susan Larkin, is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a 75-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85827,85829,66224,4737,5855,23509,10910,85828,14465,19611,455,1399,83,85830,28,30,29,39079,7172,85386,7213,43388,80275],"class_list":["post-192790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-80-year-old-pennsylvania-woman","tag-accused-of-stealing-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars","tag-allegheny-county-district-attorneys-office","tag-attorney","tag-child","tag-dementia","tag-detective","tag-district-attorney-stephen-zappala","tag-dollar","tag-hundred","tag-investigator","tag-man","tag-money","tag-own-account","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-phil-dilucente","tag-power","tag-susan-larkin","tag-thousand","tag-trust","tag-zappala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}