Florida official ‘stole 96-year-old sufferer’s $100k financial savings and blew it on a facelift and new house’

A Florida official is beneath investigation after she was accused of stealing a 96-year-old girl’s financial savings and spending the cash on a face carry and a brand new house.

Orlando Metropolis Commissioner Regina Hill is accused by Florida investigators of securing an influence of lawyer over the unnamed aged sufferer, which she used to purchase a house and a facelift, together with clothes, automobile insurance coverage funds, dental surgical procedure, and a New 12 months’s Eve keep at a Miami lodge.

She can also be accused of racking up over $10,000 in debt beneath the girl’s title.

Ms Hill has not been arrested or charged, however she is the topic of a state investigation that was triggered in February 2023 when the Florida Division of Regulation Enforcement (FDLE) acquired a tip from certainly one of her staffers who had been fired.

In accordance with an affidavit obtained by WESH, Ms Hill first met the girl in 2021 after listening to about her poor dwelling circumstances.

Inside a month, she had grow to be her energy of lawyer, pre-need guardian, and well being care surrogate, the affidavit alleges.

On the time, the girl had greater than $164,000 in her financial savings account.

The girl allegedly informed regulation enforcement brokers she remembers signing “some form of doc”, however didn’t perceive the small print of the authorized papers.

Courtroom paperwork additionally allege that the aged girl informed investigators she didn’t give Ms Hill her consent to make use of her financial savings to safe a mortgage for a house within the Lake Mann Estates space of Orlando.

Ms Hill’s son and girlfriend are believed to be dwelling within the house, whereas she lives in a separate house that reportedly as soon as belonged to the aged girl’s mother and father, which she allegedly spent a big portion of the financial savings to renovate.

An Orange County choose has reportedly ordered Ms Hill to stop all contact with the girl, who has since acquired a brand new energy of lawyer.

Ms Hill, who has served as an Orlando Metropolis Council member since 2014, denied the accusations.

“It’s unlucky that I’ve been thrust into these circumstances with these allegations,” she mentioned, including that she “liked and cared for” the girl “like my family”.

“I belief in God above all issues, and I belief within the course of. After ten years of service for the Metropolis of Orlando, I’ve illustrated my love and compassion for my constituents, my metropolis, and my household. I do know the reality; I do know I’m entitled to due course of, during which I belief, and I’ll await my day in court docket to show my innocence,” she informed The Impartial.

“The Metropolis has been made conscious of an investigation by FDLE and associated civil litigation involving Commissioner Hill. We aren’t aware about any of the small print of that investigation, nor are we concerned or named within the litigation,” the Metropolis of Orlando mentioned in an announcement.