DA: Personal care assistant charged with defrauding a 95-year-old woman

BOSTON — A personal care assistant has been charged with defrauding a 95-year-old woman of about $150,000.

Dominique Emmanuel, 41 of Brockton is being charged with medical assistance fraud by provider and larceny over $1,200 by a single scheme, District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.

According to the DA in February 2023, Boston police received multiple reports from a woman stating that her 95-year-old mother’s personal care assistant, was stealing from her.

Authorities later identified that Emmanuel was the woman stealing and was listed as an alternate executor of the will.

The victim’s daughter then discovered her mother’s Mattapan home was in foreclosure due to a reverse mortgage of which the victim and family members had no knowledge, the DA says. They also learned that approximately $120,000 was withdrawn from the victim’s Santander Bank account, which included $70,000 made payable to a construction company for work that was never done.

“The stunning breadth of this scheme illustrates the trust and authority given to this woman and how she abused that trust and authority to fill her own pockets. It’s something we’ve seen far too often, and it’s a clear signal to older adults and their families to be ever vigilant when money and services are involved,” Hayden said.

Emmanuel also never collected rent from the first-floor tenant of the home she and the victim were living in.

The tenant told investigators he had entered a rental agreement in March 2021 and he had paid the person known to him as Dominique $3,600 cash for the first and last month’s rent and $1,800 cash every month thereafter until December 2022, totaling over $30,000 in payments. The victim never received these payments, according to the DA.

Emmanuel will be arraigned on February 22 in Dorchester District Court.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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