Deal drops charge
of theft against daughterThe woman allegedly stole
thousands of dollars from her momUPDATE: The state expunged Letitia Lani McKee-Cooper’s arrest record in 2007 for the charges mentioned in the story below.
McKee-Cooper pleaded no contest to second-degree forgery on March 10, 2004, in a plea deal with the state. In exchange, the state agreed to drop a first-degree theft charge. At sentencing on May 25, 2005, the judge granted Cooper's request for a deferral of her no contest plea and ordered a five-year period of deferral.
That meant that if she stayed out of trouble until May 24, 2010, the court would dismiss the forgery charge and she would not have had a conviction on her record. However, on Aug. 7, 2006, her lawyer asked the court to shorten the period of deferral.
The court did, discharging McKee-Cooper from court supervision and dismissed the charge.
On. Nov. 23, 2007, the state Attorney General’s office expunged her arrest record for both counts.Prosecutors have dismissed a first-degree theft charge against a former Hawaii woman alleged to have had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets from her elderly and ill mother.
Under a plea agreement, Letitia McKee Cooper, 56, pleaded no contest earlier to second-degree forgery for signing her mother's name on a document terminating the lease to her mother's apartment.
Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto granted Cooper's request last week to defer her plea under conditions similar to probation and ordered her to pay a $5,000 fine.
Michael Green, attorney for Cooper, said his client is "beside herself."
"Publicly, she was just scorched," he said.
Cooper maintains that her 89-year-old mother, Ella McKee, had turned over to her power of attorney when Cooper signed the lease document and closed her mother's accounts, emptied her safe-deposit boxes and transferred title of two burial plots at Diamond Head Memorial Park in her name. She planned to relocate her mother, who was hospitalized, to California.
"She has power of attorney over all bank accounts; she has everything that gives her the lawful right to do what she did," Green said.
Cooper said she is innocent, but accepted the deal because she cannot afford to take the case to trial and needs to go on with her life. "I feel I have done nothing wrong and I'm being a victim of the system," she said.
Green said prosecutors should have gone after McKee's caregiver, Celeste Galola, who, within 10 days of meeting the elderly McKee, took her to a lawyer to have McKee sign over power of attorney to Galola and her husband. McKee is in the early stages of Alzheimer's and dementia.
Galola subsequently left for California, taking McKee with her. Galola was later convicted in California of elder endangerment of McKee and received probation, Green said.
Cooper said that when contacted by Galola's attorney to return her mother's property, she put up $300,000 in bonds, $15,000 in annual annuity money and her mother's jewelry into conservatorship.
"I put up all this money -- this was my mother's money -- so there was no theft," Cooper said.
Prosecutors opposed the deferral, arguing that Cooper had signed her mother's name on the lease termination with the intention of depleting her mother's assets, including her residence.
"This is not just a situation where she signed her mother's name," said Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee. Cooper cleaned out and closed her mother's accounts, cleaned out her safe-deposit box and lied about why she was terminating the lease, he said.
"She breached the trust of her mom, and the fact that the crime was committed against a family member who is elderly makes it egregious," Lee said.
Had Galola been intent on ripping McKee off, she could have left for San Diego without taking the elderly lady with her, Lee said.
An agreement to drop the theft charge in return for her plea to forgery was reached to avoid putting the elderly McKee through a trial, Lee said. "It would have been rather excruciating for the victim -- she just wants to move on."
McKee did get most of her property back, but was more concerned about her daughter acknowledging wrongdoing, he said. "She had a hard time because (Cooper) is still her daughter and she believes her daughter was ripping her off," Lee said.
Cooper contends she was a victim of malicious prosecution that has alienated her from her mother at a time when McKee is still cognizant. "The judge says the only way I can have contact with my mother is through probation officers -- I find that totally demeaning and debilitating," she said.