Exploitation case dismissed

SANDPOINT — A charge is being dismissed against a Clark Fork woman accused of neglecting a bed-ridden senior citizen and accessing her bank accounts while she was in a vulnerable state.

Sharyl Ann Hoskins was charged with neglecting and exploiting a vulnerable adult, a misdemeanor. However, Hoskins and Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Roger moved jointly to dismiss the charge and for Hoskins to repay the alleged victim $5,277, court records show.

The parties said in the motion that “the best interests of justice will be served by resolution that will assure the defendant certainty and alleged victim a measure of financial recovery not otherwise guaranteed by a continuation of this prosecution.”

Judge Debra Heise granted the motion and the charge was dismissed with prejudice, which means that it cannot be re-filed.

The allegations against Hoskins surfaced after the 73-year-old woman’s bank and a credit union began noticing that Hoskins was depositing checks from the woman’s accounts using a signature that was markedly different than the signature they had on file. A Ponderay bank sought to verify the authenticity of the checks, but a manager was unable to contact her, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The first suspicious check was written in November 2015 for $53. The sums escalated from hundreds to thousands of dollars earlier this year.

All told, nearly $26,000 worth of suspicious checks were drawn up, the affidavit said. However, the banks declined to honor the checks because of the suspicious signatures.

Bank officials noted that the size of the checks increased after $181,000 from the sale of a property was deposited in the woman’s account.

Ponderay Police investigated the alleged forgeries and discovered the elderly woman was confined to a bed with plywood sideboards, which meant she could not get out of bed without some form of assistance, the affidavit said. The woman also didn’t have access to a phone or intercom.

An official from the Idaho Commission on Aging conducted a welfare check on the woman in March and discovered she was locked in the residence alone and screaming in fear, court documents indicate. The official concluded the woman needed 24-hour assistance and although it appeared she was receiving care, it also appeared that she was being left alone overnight.

Hoskins, 49, told police that the woman’s signature changed as a result of a stroke and that she had the authority to write checks for the woman’s bills and her compensation.