Former Okla. DHS worker charged with wire fraud

Editor's note:  FEDs, what makes Ms Daugherty any different from the criminals practicing in the Probate Court of Cook County?  Answer: They didn't get caught...yet.

 Alice R. Gore Estate value about 1 million dollars: Alice R. Gore, deceased, a disabled 99 year old ward of the Probate Court of Cook County, Judge Kawamoto’s courtroom was hours away from ending up in the Cook County Morgue. Alice's estate was depleted by probate court parasites and there were reportedly no funds to bury her. Her loving family paid for the burial expenses so that Alice would not have to suffer the indignity of being stacked like an Auschwitz inmate in the Cook County morgue. The judge allowed an easily manipulated, court documented, mentally disabled granddaughter to be appointed as Alice’s guardian and yet no sanctions were instituted against the judge or court officers for this blatant infraction of the law.
Strangely, 16 of Alice’s annuity checks, two of which show forged endorsements, disappeared. Alice’s daughter has a copy of a check with her signature possibly forged. The daughter’s attorney has been trying to obtain copies of the 16 other annuity checks for two years without success. Even more puzzling is a $150,000 life insurance policy owned by Alice and not inventoried into the estate by the court. The Probate Court of Cook of Cook County refuses to investigate these blatant infractions of the law. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Former Okla. DHS worker charged with wire fraud

BRIANNA BAILEY, The Journal Record

Updated 8:11 a.m., Monday, September 17, 2012

 Daugherty, a former DHS adult protective services specialist, has agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors in which she will plead guilty to the charges and make restitution payments, her attorney Irven Box said.



"She has accepted responsibility for what she did and acknowledged that what she did was wrong," Box said.



Daugherty is expected to enter a guilty plea at a hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. She will also forfeit her state pension as part of the guilty plea.



According to the charges, Daugherty had guardianship over a man identified only as "L.J.A." in court documents. The man was a former Federal Aviation Administration employee who received monthly disability payments from the U.S. Department for Labor for an on-the-job injury sustained in 1976.



Daugherty became the man's court-appointed guardian after he came under DHS care and was admitted to a nursing home in 2009.



As the man's guardian, Daugherty took control of his finances and was added as a trustee to his bank account in May 2009, according to the charges.



After the man died in March 2010, Daugherty closed his DHS case, but did not inform the Department of Labor that he had died so they could stop his workers' compensation checks, prosecutors claim.



She continued the scheme by faxing the U.S. Department of Labor a falsified court order and a letter on DHS letterhead to request that the man's benefit checks continue to be sent to her office after his death, instead of deposited into his bank account, according to the charges. She also used the man's name and Social Security number to open a new bank account under his name at a different bank, where she withdrew his disability money and wrote checks for her own benefit, prosecutors claim.



The DHS learned of the scheme from a call to its fraud tip line, said Sheree Powell, DHS spokeswoman.



The DHS launched a joint investigation with the U.S. Department of Labor into the complaint, but Daugherty retired in August 2011, before the investigation was completed, Powell said.



The DHS gave the results of its investigation to authorities. The agency was unable to uncover any evidence Daugherty had schemed to steal money from any other adults under her care as a DHS worker.



"I think the incident was a clear example that we at DHS will not tolerate any type of criminal activity," Powell said. "It is deplorable for a person who is in a position of protecting vulnerable adults to exploit their position and we simply will not tolerate that."



Daugherty faces up to 20 years of prison and $250,000 in fines.



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Information from: The Journal Record, http://www.journalrecord.com







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