November 17, 2008
Media Contact: Sandi Copes
Phone: (850) 245-0150
Santa Rosa County Woman Pleads No Contest to Exploiting Elderly Victim
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced the former owner and operator of a Santa Rosa group home pleaded no contest to charges that she exploited an elderly gentleman while he was a guest in her home. Marian Tolbert was arrested in late January by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit with assistance from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. By law, she will now be prohibited from working in the health care field.
Tolbert, 58, is the former owner and operator of Tolbert Adult Family Care Home. The criminal charges resulted from an investigation that revealed Tolbert intimidated the 74-year old victim who had been temporarily moved to the Tolbert Adult Family Care Home while his caretakers were out of town. The victim told investigators he was forced to sleep on a couch while in Tolbert’s care and that Tolbert constantly harassed him for money. He eventually was pressured into naming her as the beneficiary of a $10,000 life insurance policy and also paid her a security deposit and gas money – costs that were already included in the blanket fee paid in advance by his caretakers at the Minda Pascual Adult Family Care Home. Bank records corroborated the victim’s allegations and a copy of the victim’s life insurance policy indicated that, during the time he resided at the Tolbert Adult Family Care Home, he did change the beneficiary of the policy to Marian Tolbert. After returning to his permanent place of residence, the victim returned the name of his former beneficiary to the policy.
Tolbert appeared before Judge Thomas Santurri of the First Judicial Circuit this afternoon and pleaded no contest to one count of elder exploitation. As a condition of the Court’s sentence, Tolbert will serve three years of probation and be required to pay restitution to the victim. Under Florida law, anyone who is found by a court of law to have committed a criminal offense such as exploitation of the elderly or disabled is prohibited from working in the health care field.
The Court ordered Tolbert to pay the Attorney General’s Office $1,000 for the cost of their investigation. Judge Santurri also required Tolbert to pay over $600 in court costs and have no contact with the victim. The case was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit under the jurisdiction of the State Attorney’s Office for the First Judicial Circuit.