EVERETT — The two women were longtime friends and neighbors.
Now one is accused of bilking the other out of more than $50,000 and taking advantage of her friend’s deteriorating memory.
Ella Louise Harris was summonsed Friday to the Snohomish County Courthouse to answer to the allegations. Harris is 79.
Prosecutors late last month charged Harris with first-degree theft, a felony. They allege that Harris took advantage of her friend’s trust and worsening dementia symptoms to steal money from her checking account and retirement savings. They allege that Harris and her husband were regulars at the Tulalip casinos.
Harris has denied stealing from her 73-year-old neighbor. She pleaded not guilty Friday and agreed not to have any contact with the other woman. Harris allegedly has told detectives that as her friend’s caretaker she helped her write checks to pay bills and assisted her withdrawing money from cash machines.
“I have never taken money from her for anything,” the Everett woman reportedly said.
Detectives confronted Harris with copies of 41 checks written to her on her friend’s account, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Joan Cavagnaro wrote. Harris allegedly admitted that the other woman loaned her money, totaling $17,000.
She gave the detectives handwritten receipts, purporting to show that she repaid about $9,950. She also identified seven checks, totaling $4,000, as gifts from her friend, Cavagnaro wrote. Harris also said some of the checks were payment for helping her neighbor with household chores.
Detectives suspect that the thefts date back to 2011.
That year the woman with dementia told her younger brother she was concerned about her finances. He looked over her bank account and found a check that included the note, “$3000 cash for Ella,” and entries for two check made out to cash, totaling $5,000. The woman told her brother the checks were for Harris.
He confronted Harris about the money, and she claimed they were loans. He reported that about a week later his sister’s checkbook was missing.
The account was closed, and a new one was opened with the woman’s sister in-law added to the account. The elderly woman reportedly became estranged from her brother and his wife after they tried to talk to her about moving into an assisted living home, Cavagnaro wrote.
She became increasingly dependant on Harris and her husband for transportation and minor house repairs.
Prosecutors say the woman’s daily life centered around her home and garden.
“She had a long established pattern of frugality, shopping often at the Goodwill,” Cavagnaro wrote.
Her yearly income was about $18,000 from Social Security benefits and a retirement savings account managed by a brokerage firm. Her bank records showed that she lived within her limited income, with monthly expenditures totaling about $1,000, court records said.
The theft allegations came to light in 2014 after Bank of America employees noticed irregular activity on the woman’s account. They called police about possible financial exploitation.
Everett police detectives and the state’s Adult Protective Services launched an investigation. The state Attorney General’s Office filed a petition a month later to appoint a professional guardian to oversee the elderly woman’s finances, including the sale of her Everett house.
The petition alleged that the woman wasn’t able to manage her own affairs because of “confusion, memory loss with dementia and recent financial exploitation.”
Bank records show that between May 2013 and May 2014 more than $30,000 had been withdrawn from the woman’s account via cash machines at her bank branch and near the Tulalip casinos, Cavagnaro wrote. About 60 out of the 90 transactions happened at an ATM close to the Quil Ceda Creek Casino.
Harris and her husband have casino club cards, recording their gambling habits, court records said. Their neighbor doesn’t, and she couldn’t remember if she’d gone to the casino. She told police she thought it’d been years since she played the slots.
An officer noted that she appeared confused. She also looked puzzled when asked if Harris used her debit card.
Harris allegedly told police that she and her husband took their neighbor to the casino about two or three times a week. Harris said her neighbor withdrew money from cash machines for gambling.
But her neighbor told her court-appointed guardian that she doesn’t like going to casinos. She said that years ago she might have gone once or twice with Harris and her husband, Cavagnaro wrote.
Police also discovered that Harris had been added to her neighbor’s retirement account. Around that same time the woman authorized $400 a month to be moved from that account to her checking account. Several other transfers happened over the phone in varying amounts, up to $6,000 at a time, court records said.
The account manager told police that when the woman called “there always seemed to be another woman with her during the phone calls,” Cavagnaro wrote.
Police allege that Harris continued to steal from her neighbor even after she was told not to touch her money. A few days after talking to detectives in May 2014 Harris drove her neighbor to a bank, where she withdrew $700.
Detectives asked Harris about the transaction and she denied taking any money. She said she gave her neighbor a ride to the bank. Casino records show that Harris deposited $340 into slot machines that same day, Cavagnaro wrote.
Herald reporter Eric Stevick contributed to this report.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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