miami – A Tallahassee woman is charged with stealing real estate from her 81-year-old boss.
Gladys Smith, 61, tricked her victims into signing the deeds to control two rental homes worth more than $750,000, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. Ta.
The circumstances of the case led to other charges.
Smith faces felony charges of exploitation, grand larceny and organizing a scheme to defraud someone of more than $50,000, according to court records.
Prosecutors said Miriam Fernandez, 81, has an eye disease that has impaired her vision and Fernandez is unable to drive. Police took away her license two years ago. Fernandez has no children or living relatives of her own, leading to her exploitation, investigators said.
Investigators said Smith became friends with the victim late last year. At the time, Fernandez had lost his apartment in Hialeah, had no state identification and needed a place to stay, prosecutors said. According to court records, Smith allowed Fernandez to stay at his home in Margate, where the suspect became the victim’s caretaker for medical appointments.
During the process, Mr. Smith persuaded Mr. Fernandez to sign a power of attorney, prosecutors said. Investigators said Fernandez made it clear that he did not want his bank accounts or assets involved in the move.
However, according to court documents, Smith posed as the victim’s daughter and took control of the deeds to two rental properties Fernandez owned in Miami-Dade County. Investigators say Smith then took out an $80,000 mortgage on one of his homes.
Fernandez Randle said the properties provided livelihoods to the victims and were collectively worth more than $750,000.
According to prosecutors, Fernandez’s friend Sylvia, who accompanied the victim to a state attorney’s press conference in March, asked authorities to conduct a welfare investigation on the victim. According to court records, authorities found Fernandez abandoned in a dark room surrounded by the smell of urine and feces at Smith’s home in Margate.
“It’s the dark soul of humanity when someone takes advantage of the elderly,” said Hialeah Police Chief George Fuente, a detective assigned to the county’s Elderly and Vulnerable Exploitation Task Force. “So if anyone knows anything or thinks something is happening to another individual, we would urge them to let us know.”
“We won here,” Fernandez Randle said. “(The victim) has been through a lot, but because of her caring friends, her attentive friends, her eyes and ears that told my friend that something was wrong, she stands here as a victorious woman. I’m sitting in it.”
The Florida Department of Aging estimates that 17% of Miami-Dade County residents are age 65 or older, and 22% of them live alone.
Fernández-Randall said people with health problems and homeowners with no outstanding mortgages are being targeted, and their assets are “like a treasure trove” for scammers.
“We will not tolerate this crime in our community,” she said.
Since its creation in May 2022, the Miami-Dade EVA Task Force has filed 78 criminal cases and assisted 185 vulnerable adults.
Tallahassee police arrested Smith on Monday. She will be brought back to Miami to face her criminal charges.