HOUSTON -- A Houston healthcare worker hired to care for an 84-year-old retired federal judge has been arrested for forging thousands of dollars in checks.
Investigators say it only took Leatrice Johnson a few weeks to steal $25,000. Johnson was employed by the health agency Top Notch Health Care Services. However, an investigation revealed Johnson never should have been employed in the first place.
Johnson was hired in November to help care for retired federal judge Harold DeMoss, turning 85 at the end of the month and currently fighting cancer.
"During that time, she cashed approximately eight checks in a total amount of a little over $25,000," said prosecutor Mary McFaden.
"We trusted her," said Chip DeMoss, the victim's son. "She was very good with my folks."
Chip DeMoss and his sister say they were the ones who discovered the betrayal.
"She noticed his account was significantly down," DeMoss explained. She researched and found eight or nine different transactions."
According to McFaden, similar crimes against the elderly are all too common.
"In this case, the family was very involved, and luckily, we were able to catch it very early," McFaden said. "Most of the time, we are not able to catch up as early as this, and a lot more money can be taken."
Come to find out, this wasn't the suspect's first offense. Johnson had changed her name, and the health agency's background check came back clear, but she's currently in the middle of deferred adjudication for a felony theft charge under the name Leatrice Newman.
"We said, 'We want to catch her. We don't let her get away. What do we need to do to make this happen?'"
The DeMoss family pretended it was business as usual.
"She actually continued to come to the house for several days until we could work out the takedown," DeMoss said.
Now with Johnson behind bars, this family hopes healthcare agencies will require fingerprints during their background checks so no one else gets duped.
"When my sister told me it was her we could not believe it. But the more we looked into it, she was bad from day one."
