A senior with memory loss and no family members to help gave control of her finances to a younger woman. In short order, the younger woman sold the elderly woman’s home and depleted her life savings while neglecting her medical care.

In broad strokes, this tale from Miami-Dade County resembles the elder abuse case now ensnarling suspended Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill. And there is one additional, critical element, common to the two cases and dozens more elder-abuse actions across Florida: The alleged misuse of a powerful but little-regulated legal mechanism called power of attorney.

Power-of-attorney agreements are intended to help vulnerable people who can no longer manage their own finances hand control to someone who can. But experts in elder affairs say seniors frequently end up exploited by the very people they appoint to care for them.

The United States has an “epidemic” of people abusing power-of-attorney agreements, said Roberta Flowers, a professor of law at Stetson University and director of the college’s Center for Elder Justice.

“They are an amazing tool,” Flowers said. “They are also the easiest way for people with nefarious reasons to take power away from an elderly person.”

Last month, a grand jury indicted Hill for her alleged activities after gaining power of attorney over an elderly constituent. Prosecutors say Hill drained the woman’s bank accounts as she treated herself to a face-lift, expensive perfumes and IV vitamin injections. Hill maintains she loves the woman like her own family and committed no crime.

In the Miami case, investigators say the younger woman withdrew $400 in cash on the same day her newly established power of attorney gave her authority over the elderly woman’s bank account. She eventually took another $200,000, using the older woman’s credit card to order dozens of items from Amazon, including jewelry and shoes, investigators say.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle recounted that story in December as she was discussing her office’s Elder and Vulnerable Adult Exploitation Task Force, drawing comparisons between the county’s large population of seniors and victims of human trafficking.

“They share these vulnerabilities and they’re just targets for all of the criminals that are out in our community,” Fernandez Rundle told reporters.

‘Orphaned adults’

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