A 49-year-old woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to defrauding a 77-year-old Anaheim man she befriended and married soon after the death of his wife of 50 years and was immediately sentenced to a year in jail.
Polly Sandra John was also placed on five years of formal probation.
John admitted multiple charges of theft from an elder and grand theft as well as sentencing enhancement allegations for committing a secondary offense while out of custody.
John accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Scott Steiner that will also include her paying restitution to the victim and agreeing to take her name off of his pension and not contesting a dissolution of the marriage, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Lynda Fernandez.
John’s attorney, Ginger R. Kelley, declined comment.
John met the victim, who suffers from mild dementia, at a local drug store where he would get his wife’s prescription filled, according to Fernandez.
The victim’s wife handled all of the couple’s finances, “so when she died he was completely lost,” Fernandez said.
The widower — who was 77 years old at the time and retired from a career with Boeing — allowed John to put her name on his house, pension, bank accounts, safe deposit box and a car, which was later sold, Fernandez said.
“This comes to the attention of police when a Wells Fargo teller has had enough of seeing this woman come in with him and take money out of his account,” the prosecutor said when John was charged in July.
“He does allow her name to be put on all of this, but he’s just clueless,” Fernandez said. “When police contact him, he can’t even remember her last name.”
John “never slept with him, never spent the night at his house,” the prosecutor added.
The victim was “cleaned out,” Fernandez said. His home fell into foreclosure and his insurance lapsed, she said.
The victim’s son was trying to work out an arrangement with a bank to keep his father’s house from being taken away from him, Fernandez said.
When John was arrested in July, the man she lives with, Michael Mitchell, told authorities they got married in a Romanian church but did not have legal documents to prove the union, Fernandez said.
Mitchell was convicted of theft of an elder in two prior cases in Orange County, Fernandez said.
John’s alleged fraud dates back to 2011 and 2012. The case was initially rejected by prosecutors.
— City News Service