Caregiver guilty of bilking, drugging elderly woman

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Decatur caregiver, convicted of drugging and then bilking her 97-year-old client, was sent to prison Thursday for crimes a judge called "horrifying."

For the second time this year,  Felicia Harvey, 36, pleaded guilty to defrauding an elderly client. At a sentencing hearing Thursday, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Clarence Seeliger said Harvey might have killed her client if her fraud had not been uncovered.

"This was close to being attempted murder," Seeliger said. "That's what makes this case so horrifying to me."

Following the prosecution's recommendation, Seeliger sentenced Harvey to eight years in prison followed by 12 years on probation. He also forbade Harvey from working with the elderly in any capacity for the duration of the sentence.

The judge said he was not happy to learn that while Harvey was defrauding the 97-year-old DeKalb woman, she was negotiating a Gwinnett County case in which she pleaded guilty to stealing almost $17,000 from a 90-year-old woman with Alzheimer's.

In Decatur in June 2008, M.T. Agnew, an elderly woman in good health, broke her shoulder in a fall, requiring her to get a caregiver. After she hired Harvey from a service, Harvey quit the service and opened her own business, keeping Agnew as her client, according to court documents.

Harvey quickly earned Agnew's trust. She also began drugging her with Tylenol PM and prescription sleeping pills, DeKalb deputy chief assistant district attorney Jeanne Canavan told Seeliger. She did this to get control over Agnew's mail so she never saw her bank statements, Canavan said.

Harvey began forging Agnew's checks to pay her own bills. All the while, Agnew's health quickly deteriorated. Her skin turned gray, her eyes looked sunken and her relatives thought she was dying.

Agnew fired Harvey in February after her fraud was discovered. DeKalb prosecutors say she stole almost $80,000 out of Agnew's bank accounts.

Within a week after Harvey was no longer caring for her, Agnew's health improved significantly. Her new caregiver said she "perked up like a spring chicken," Canavan said. "We believe it was no miracle. We believe it was because Ms. Harvey was no longer filling up her pill dispenser."

Harvey's case is among a growing number of elder abuse fraud cases pursued by metro prosecutors. Canavan said DeKalb prosecutors in particular have seen an increase in these cases, which involve caregivers being given the run of the house and preying upon vulnerable, elderly victims.

After Harvey was charged in DeKalb, Canavan told Seeliger, prosecutors learned the caregiver had previously been charged, but not convicted, in Fulton County, accused of stealing from an 85-year-old, wheelchair-bound woman in 2005.

Harvey also had been charged in Gwinnett County for stealing from her 90-year-old client with Alzheimer's. In 2007, Harvey started a routine of taking the woman out to lunch and stopping at the bank to get some money to pay for the meal.

But Harvey got the woman to unwittingly fill out checks for up to $1,200 at a time, Canavan said. In all, she stole $16,900 from the woman, who is now deceased. In April, Harvey pleaded guilty to that crime and was sentenced to 10 years' probation.

Harvey, who has four children, did not address the court. Her lawyer, Gayle Murray, said her client "made some terrible, terrible decisions that now have some terrible, terrible consequences."

Seeliger hesitated before accepting the prosecution's recommended eight-year prison term, calling it "extraordinarily lenient."

But Canavan said the DeKalb victim is so traumatized she does not want to testify and relive the ordeal. After a brief recess, Seeliger accepted the recommendation.

"This has been horrible for my aunt and extremely hard on the family," Agnew's nephew, Mike Trautwein of Norcross, said after the hearing. "We're pleased with the sentence because we did not want to put my aunt through anything else. I just hope it sends a message to other caregivers who might be thinking about doing something like this."