Caretaker Gets 2 Years in Theft of $14,000 From Woman, 86

SANTA ANA —  A San Clemente man has been sentenced to two years in state prison for stealing thousands of dollars from a Leisure World woman while he worked for her as a driver and caretaker, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Leonard Dale Keeney, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzling $14,000 from the 86-year-old woman. He was sentenced Wednesday in South Municipal Court.

This case exemplifies how some elderly residents of retirement communities can become victims of those hired to care for them, said Rosanne Froeberg, a deputy district attorney who is in charge of elderly abuse cases in Orange County.

The victim, whose name was withheld by authorities, met Keeney in September, 1991, through his girlfriend, who was a nurse caretaker in the retirement community. The woman was not a suspect in the case, Froeberg said.

Shortly after the meeting, Keeney began to chauffeur the victim and help her with errands.

On one occasion, while helping the victim on a banking errand, Keeney glimpsed her personal code number for the automated teller machine. He later stole her ATM card and used it to withdraw money 48 times between Nov. 1, 1991, and Jan. 6, 1992, in Orange and San Diego counties, authorities said.

The victim notified her attorney of the numerous unauthorized ATM withdrawals from her bank account.

“This woman, when she opened up her ATM account, knew who to suspect,” Froeberg said. The woman’s attorney contacted the county’s Adult Protective Services, who then called sheriff’s detectives.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies arrested Keeney at his San Clemente home without incident on Jan. 6, Froeberg said.

With this case, “things fell into place as they are supposed to,” she said.