An proprietor of a Hastings insurance coverage company has admitted to draining $173,000 from her aged mom’s financial institution accounts for her personal private bills and to maintain the enterprise afloat, in accordance with legal prices.
Mary Rose Polley Schommer, 53, of Hastings, was charged by summons Thursday in Dakota County District Court docket with seven counts of felony monetary exploitation of a susceptible grownup whereas performing as her mom’s energy of lawyer and sole trustee.
Schommer is a licensed insurance coverage agent who co-owns Schommer Insurance coverage along with her husband, Brian Schommer, in accordance with the enterprise’ web site, which additionally states its mission is to “To Defend Our Shoppers From Main Monetary Loss.”
An lawyer shouldn’t be listed on her court docket case file, and he or she didn’t reply to a voicemail left Monday looking for touch upon the costs. A recorded message on the enterprise’ primary quantity states, “As a consequence of a household emergency, the workplace will likely be closed till additional discover.”
In accordance with a legal criticism, the Minnesota Grownup Abuse Reporting Heart in late 2019 acquired experiences that Schommer was energy of lawyer for and sole trustee of a belief benefiting her mom, who was in her late-80s, suffered from dementia and had been in an assisted-living facility in Hastings since 2013.
Throughout interviews with police, the aged girl was not oriented to time or place, couldn’t recall her date of delivery or the composition of her household, and was unable to trace conversations and reply to different questions, in accordance with the criticism.
The experiences alleged that she owed greater than $17,000 to the assisted-living facility for overdue hire. Throughout the investigation, she was moved to a second facility in Hastings the place her account then fell behind over $32,000 in overdue hire. It was additionally decided that she owed greater than $4,000 to pharmacies for prescription medicines.
As a result of Schommer is state licensed insurance coverage agent, the Minnesota Commerce Fraud Bureau investigated the allegations.
Bureau particular brokers obtained copies of the girl’s belief paperwork that confirmed Schommer was named sole trustee on Oct. 17, 2013, and that the belief required her to behave as a fiduciary for her mom.
Checking account information decided that between Might 2014 and April 2020 Schommer wrote 139 checks from the accounts to herself and likewise used the accounts to pay for her personal private bills straight, in accordance with the costs. Checks she wrote out to herself from the belief funds had been then deposited into her private financial institution accounts and withdrawn as money or once more spent on Schommer’s private bills.
The financial institution information additionally confirmed that a number of tried funds to the assisted residing services had been returned for non-sufficient funds.
Schommer informed bureau brokers in an interview that she was having private monetary troubles and started utilizing her mom’s belief funds “to maintain herself and her enterprise afloat,” the costs learn. Schommer recognized the checks she used for her personal private bills totaling $173,106.34.
Schommer doesn’t have a legal historical past, in accordance with court docket information. She has been court docket ordered to schedule a book-and-release appointment on the county jail previous to an preliminary Might 23 listening to.