Her family's legacy is gone, and she will never know it
The son of an Alzheimer's victim allegedly sold the family farm and forged checks totaling more than $136,000 from her account.
By PAUL LEVY, Star Tribune
February 16, 2009
Anna Sitte was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease long before moving to New Hope in 2005 to live with her son, Steve. As Anna's dementia worsened, she was declared medically incapable of understanding or signing financial documents.
How, then, could Anna, now 77, have written two checks in 2007 alone totaling nearly $100,000 to Steve's business associate? Why would Anna, who had few expenses of her own, sell her family's century-old North Dakota farm and then allow her bank account to evaporate?
Steven Carl Sitte, 52, who told Hennepin County authorities he was unemployed and $300,000 in debt, forged his mother's signature 17 times in 2007 on checks totaling more than $136,000, according to court documents. Sitte has been charged with two counts of forging checks and two counts of theft by swindle, all felonies. He intends to plead not guilty in court Thursday, his attorney said Monday.
Each year, an estimated 5 million Americans fall victim to elder abuse, said Bob Blancato, national coordinator of the Elder Justice Coalition in Washington, D.C. Of those cases, nearly one-fifth involve financial exploitation, said Sharon Merriman-Nai, co-manager of the National Center on Elder Abuse. The numbers of victims -- usually women between 75 and 80 -- are expected to increase as the population ages.
Yet elder-abuse crimes remain severely underreported -- with only 16 percent reported to adult protective services, according to the National Elder Abuse Incidence Study. Those cases can be challenging to prosecute, with victims in failing health often intimidated and unwilling to cooperate.
In Sitte's case, it was his brother, Jimmy, who called authorities.
"Reporting a family member?" Jimmy Sitte asked. "Some people feel it's wrong to turn in your own. My mother couldn't speak for herself. I had to on her behalf."
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