May 29, 2009
Media Contact: Jenn Meale
Phone: (850) 245-0150
Miami-Dade Case Manager Arrested for Exploiting Elderly Victim
TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced a Miami-Dade woman has been taken into custody for exploiting an elderly victim under her care. Sandra Rose Lackings, a case manager for Bayview Center for Mental Health, was arrested today by law enforcement officers with the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Investigators with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit’s Patient Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation (PANE) team began investigating Lackings, 53, after receiving a complaint from the Florida Department of Children and Families, Adult Protective Services. The investigation revealed that Lackings, while employed at Bayview Center, used her position to steal more than $3,700 from a 66-year old patient in her care. Lackings stole the money by accessing the victim’s online bank account and transferring the money to her personal account.
Lackings will be charged with one count of exploitation of an elderly person and one count of theft from a person 65 years or older, both third-degree felonies. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office for the 11th Judicial Circuit.