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Shandie
Marie Lacsamana Rosete turned up both in our vision of hell and our Christmas holiday round-up of folks convicted or accused of ripping off charities and the needy people they serve.
Today, the 34-year-old Placentia resident pleaded guilty to four counts of stealing more than $100,000 from 14 developmentally disabled clients–*and one client's 93-year-old, nearly blind aunt!
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Rosete had been the caretaker for Project Independence, an Orange County nonprofit that provides employment and independent living services to developmentally disabled adults. She was entrusted to help her adult clients manage their money, set up checking accounts,
pay bills, write checks and make deposits.
But, without her clients' knowledge or consent, Rosete wrote the 652 checks
to herself from the bank accounts of 14 developmentally disabled
adults.
One victim even lived with Rosete: *One client who lived with her 93-year-old, nearly-blind
aunt asked Rosete to help the elderly woman with her finances. Rosete wrote 11 checks to herself or “cash” from the 93-year-old's account.
The Anaheim and Garden Grove police departments began investigating the
theft after a relative complained to Project Independence that someone
was stealing from his developmentally disabled relative.
Rosete pleaded guilty today to four felony counts of caretaker
theft from a dependent adult and a sentencing enhancement for property
loss over $100,000.
She is expected to be sentenced to seven years in
state prison and ordered to pay more than $102,000 in restitution at her
Sept. 10 sentencing in
Santa Ana.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.