By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A 52-year-old Wheeler woman has been found guilty in Dunn County Circuit Court of two felonies related to financial crimes against the elderly or the disabled.
Lori K. Feyen, along with her attorney Kerry Kelm, appeared before Judge Rod Smeltzer for a plea hearing and sentencing hearing March 5.
Feyen was charged with seven felonies that all included the modifier of a crime against an elderly or disabled person. The felonies included fraudulent financial card use of over $10,000; theft of movable property valued between $10,000 and $100,000; two counts of forgery; theft of movable property special facts; misappropriating an identification to obtain money; and criminal damage to property over $2,500.
Feyen pleaded “no contest,” and Judge Smeltzer accepted the plea and found Feyen guilty on one count of the theft of movable property worth between $10,000 and $100,000 and guilty on one count of forgery.
The remaining felonies were dismissed but read into the record for sentencing: fraudulent use of a financial transaction card; forgery; theft of movable property special facts; misappropriation of identification to obtain money; and criminal damage to property.
Judge Smeltzer withheld sentencing on each of the two felonies for which she had been found guilty and placed Feyen on three years of probation with 120 days in jail imposed and stayed for use by Feyen’s probation agent as a condition of probation.
Judge Smeltzer also ordered Feyen to have no contact with a 76-year-old victim identified in the court record by initials.
In addition, Judge Smeltzer ordered Feyen to pay $268 in court costs, a $250 DNA surcharge and a $10 drug surcharge on each of the two felonies for a total of $1,556.
A jury trial previously was scheduled to begin on March 15.
According to the criminal complaint, Boyceville Police Chief Greg Lamkin made contact with Gretchen Johnson, a guardian from Meraki Guardian Services, after she had attempted contact with the police chief regarding a possible burglary. Johnson said she had been appointed as the guardian of two people who lived in the Village of Boyceville who were 77 and 74 years old at the time. The 77-year-old was committed to the Neighbors of Dunn County in January of 2018 and the 74-year-old went to the Neighbors in July of 2018.
Johnson said Judge James Peterson had appointed her as guardian for the two people since they were unable to make decisions or give consent for themselves and that Feyen had previously been the appointed guardian but had not been paying their expenses. Johnson said she had been authorized by the court to sell the home the two elderly people had occupied to cover their debts, which amounted to over $261,000 as of July 22, 2019, the complaint states.
Johnson said she asked Feyen to move out of the house, and the locks were changed on July 24, 2019. Johnson and a realtor inspected the house on August 1 after the locksmith had reported the house was “trashed.” Johnson said Feyen had allowed goats inside the house, resulting in nearly $3,000 in damages that had to be repaired before the house could be sold.
Feyen told Police Chief Lamkin that she wrote checks to herself and the two elderly people had signed the checks. Feyen admitted to withdrawing money from the elderly individuals’ bank account and that she had taken the money out to pay two people to take care of one of the elderly people until the person went into the nursing home. Feyen said the checks for $10,450 were to take care of the elderly individuals’ expenses, according to the complaint.
Feyen said she had paid her bills and she had been told she should get paid for taking care of the elderly individuals. She said after the two people had gone into the nursing home, she had used their money to pay her expenses “for a little while to get caught up,” the complaint states.
