A Bucks County jury convicted a 49-year-old woman on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, for stealing more than $169,000 from her elderly father over a period of three years.
Diane L. Rohrman, of Downingtown, Chester County, was found guilty of theft, identity theft, access device fraud, and computer trespass. The jury deliberated for about three hours before reaching their verdict.
Common Pleas Judge Stephen A. Corr deferred sentencing for 60 days and ordered a pre-sentence investigation. Rohrman, who represented herself, was remanded to Bucks County Correctional Facility under $100,000 bail, 10 percent, to await sentencing.
Rohrman’s conviction followed a 3-day trial that featured testimony from her 83-year-old father, who walked into the Warminster Township Police Department in August 2019 to report that his daughter nearly wiped out his life savings.
The victim told police that after his wife has passed away, he designated his daughter, Diane Rohrman, to become his power of attorney in August 2016, where she would act in his best interest and that all expenditures she was authorized to make would be for his care and benefit.
Almost immediately, Rohrman, who was a licensed attorney, began taking money from her father’s accounts to use for her own expenses, including paying bills and home improvements, the investigation found.
During the course of his investigation, Warminster Detective David Bonacquisti obtained 11 search warrants for financial account records and determined that Diane Rohrman wrote 134 checks to herself from her father’s accounts, totaling more than $92,000. He also found that she wrote checks for thousands more that had nothing to do with her father or his care.
In addition to the checks, Diane Rohrman withdrew $35,645 in cash from two accounts belonging to her father. She also used her father’s account to make more than $17,000 in payments to her father’s credit cards. The credit card records showed that Diane Rohrman was in fact using those credit cards to make thousands of dollars in purchases that were not for her father’s care or benefit. Detective Bonacquisti also located electronic transactions made by Rohrman from the victim’s bank account using Zelle and almost $7,400 in payments for her Verizon Wireless account. Additionally, Rohrman used the victim’s funds to make more than $12,000 in payments to her own credit accounts.
“A power of attorney is not a license to steal,” Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber said. “But stealing is exactly what the Defendant did when her father trusted her to take of his finances.”
“Financial exploitation of the elderly is often hidden and hard to detect,” Furber continued. “In this case, thanks to the hard work of a seasoned Detective and the courage of the victim to face the very daughter that exploited him, these crimes were brought out of the shadows. The evidence in this case was clear, and the jury’s verdict was unequivocal. We will continue to fight for and protect elderly victims here in Bucks County.”
This case was investigated by Warminster Township Police Detective David Bonacquisti and prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber, Chief of Insurance Fraud and Economic Crimes.
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