Former Cloquet police officer convicted of stealing $35K from woman with dementia

A former Cloquet Minn police officer has been detected guilty of stealing from a -year-old woman suffering from dementia Laci Silgjord was revealed guilty Monday of one count of felony attempted theft by swindle for over over the estate of Joan Arney a Cloquet woman suffering from dementia whom then-police officer Silgjord was given temporary guardianship over shortly before Arney died in My thoughts in current times are with the late Joan Arney and her family they should never have been exploited the way Laci Silgjord shamelessly exploited them Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison whose office prosecuted that scenario commented in a message In trying to cheat Ms Arney and her family out of her estate Silgjord betrayed her oath to her badge her department and the society she was supposed to serve The court located that Silgjord represented herself to Arney s bank as her fiduciary despite lacking legal authority to do so gained access to the victim s bank accounts and attempted to inherit her entire estate worth more than In the Attorney General s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit which investigates individuals or organizations that steal from Medicaid and abuse vulnerable people charged Silgjord with three counts relating to financially exploiting Arney Silgjord was acquitted of the more serious felony charge of financially exploiting a vulnerable adult which carries a maximum prison sentence of years and or a fine of and a gross misdemeanor charge of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult According to an study conducted by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Silgjord first met Arney in person after Arney called the Cloquet Police Department to analysis that her purse had been stolen Three months later Silgjord and other officers checked in on Arney at her home after she mistakenly sent mail to the police department After she did not answer the door officers entered her house to find Arney in a critical healthcare condition She was brought to Population Memorial Hospital in Cloquet before being transferred to St Luke s in Duluth Arney had no surviving children and an estranged husband Roger Arney from whom she had been separated since but remained legally married Shortly after being hospitalized St Luke s petitioned the St Louis County District Court for an order appointing an exigency guardian for Arney While visiting her a hospital social worker appealed Silgjord to serve as her crisis guardian Silgjord accepted and was granted temporary guardianship over Arney for two months According to the research records from St Luke s show Arney had significantly diminished mental threshold having had a stroke and suffering from dementia Arney reportedly did not know the current year held the hospital to be the place where trains switch cars and referred to people in the room who were not present While visiting Arney Silgjord recorded conversations by her bedside In the conversations Silgjord tells Arney that she is her new grandma and that she loves her Arney in turn advised Silgjord that she loves her Despite not having the legal authority to access Arney s bank accounts days after being appointed guardianship Silgjord provided her guardianship paperwork to Arney s bank and was granted access to her accounts which had a combined total of After obtaining access Silgjord transferred tens of thousands of dollars between the accounts Bank records obtained during the study show Silgjord wrote a check from Arney s checking account dated Oct to Atkin s Funeral Home for Silgjord also commented she used money from Arney s account to pay Arney s power bill Arney died Oct without a will ending Silgjord s emergency guardianship Silgjord assumed responsibility for the funeral arrangements but failed to alert Arney s legal heir her estranged husband Roger After learning about Joan s death in a newspaper obituary Roger met with Silgjord at a Perkins restaurant When Roger questioned whether her guardianship expired Silgjord communicated him she was in charge and ensuring Joan s wishes were being met failing to mention that she was no longer Joan s guardian Related Articles Roseville woman who swindled K from New Brighton employer spared prison Truck driver tells trooper he was distracted by map before Washington County fatal crash Two people located dead during welfare check in St Croix County Charge DNA links St Paul man to rape at Maplewood motel Shooter gets -year prison term for killing St Paul man after Edina birthday dinner