KEALAKEKUA — The victim “had her life savings stolen from her. Not borrowed, stolen,” deputy prosecuting attorney Kauanoe Jackson said Thursday in court, describing the thefts by Georgia Labrador of Waimea against her elderly ward.
In total, Labrador stole $18,922 in 20 separate transactions, and was ordered during her sentencing to make full restitution. She will also have to serve 90 days in jail.
Labrador was an employee of the state Adult Protective Services in a case manager type of role to assist a woman who had been ruled unable to care for herself. The victim was so confused she would arrive in stores and not know how much things cost, Jackson said.
The Adult Protective Services “provides crisis intervention, without regard to income, including investigation and emergency services for vulnerable adults who are reported to be abused, neglected or financially exploited by others or seriously endangered due to self-neglect,” according to the organization’s website.
“(Labrador) was robbing her year by year,” Jackson said.
The thefts happened from Nov. 4, 2011, to Feb. 5, 2013, according to the complaint. Labrador pleaded guilty Feb. 4 to second-degree theft and faced up to five years in prison.
Labrador was discharged from her position on March 21, 2013, for misconduct, said Keopulaulani Reelitz, public information officer for the department’s human resources division.
“The Department of Human Services takes issues of vulnerable adult abuse and exploitation seriously and responds swiftly to any and all allegations,” she wrote in an email to West Hawaii Today.
Labrador told 3rd Circuit Court Judge Ronald Ibarra she had taken the money and intended to pay it back. She was under severe financial strain at the time, she said, so she turned to the victim.
“I asked her. And I knew it was wrong,” she said.
She needed it to pay for a major surgery and the attending trips to Oahu, she said. She said that came in the middle of existing financial stress.
A search of court records show a total of $30,705.91 in summary judgments against Labrador and her husband for financial related issues.
Catherine Gibson, Labrador’s public defender, asked that her client be allowed to accept a deferral on the plea.
“I think that having a deferral would be helpful for her on probation,” Gibson said, adding that Labrador had no prior criminal cases or other matters that would deny a deferral.
Labrador agreed the jail term was reasonable, but asked that it be intermittent so she could continue her part-time job and care for her grandchildren while her son worked.
Ibarra ordered the jail terms should at least be 10-day blocks and that she must do five in the first year and four in the second.
The state of Hawaii has already replaced the stolen money, so restitution will go to the state.
The first block of that will be the $7,000 from unused vacation hours, which Labrador said she was intending to use to pay back the victim.
