Caretakers of a retired Monticello municipal judge were arrested Friday for allegedly scamming the 86-year-old man out of more than $40,000 over the last couple of months.
Maurice Everette Evans, 51, and Angela Rena Evans, 46, both of Monticello, are being held on $50,000 bond each for theft by deception, forgery and theft of property in connection with the alleged theft of more than $40,000 from retired Monticello Municipal Judge and former Monticello City Alderman Clifton Bond, according to Drew County Sheriff Mark Gober.
Gober said the couple threatened to have Bond placed in a nursing home if he did not sign checks. The couple is also believed to have stolen and forged Bond’s name on numerous checks.
For example, Maurice Evans charged Bond $3,000 to paint his house. However, there were three $3,000 checks written for painting the same house, according to Gober.
Bond said he also paid $20,000 for what Angela Evans told him was life-saving dental services. He said Angela Evans told him that she would die unless she received the dental work.
The couple had previously cared for Bond’s late wife Marjorie with no trouble whatsoever. “There was no sign of aggression, there was no sign of fraud and there was no sign of sham that might be practiced,” he said.
Knowing that he was a wealthy man and alone, Bond said the couple approached him about providing care-taking services, cooking, and maintaining his home and lawn.
“They said ‘We’re doing this not for particular compensation. We’re doing it because we like you. We’re doing this because we think you need to be protected,'” Bond said.
As an elderly person, Bond said he had reached a point in which he could no longer write a check so he would have Evans write the check and he would sign it. “That’s the way we operated until I figured out that he was using that money for something else,” Bond said. “He was getting money that he didn’t need, and didn’t deserve, and wasn’t supposed to get.”
Initially, the couple simply charged him too much for the services but it progressed to forgery, stealing and threatening, according to Bond.
When he protested the amount they were charging him, Bond said they threatened him.
“They’d say ‘If you want to be that way, we’ll just leave,'” Bond said. “Well, you don’t want them to leave because you’re dependent upon them. And they try to brow-beat you and threaten you. My fear is that I’ll be consigned to a rest home. They would say, ‘Now, if you don’t do what we tell you to do we’re going to put you in a nursing home.'”
Bond said Maurice Evans represented himself as a church-going man of high moral standards but he was everything but that.
“He attended every church meeting in town and he gave the appearance of absolute honesty and integrity and morality when he was exactly the opposite,” Bond said.
Bond, who served 27 years as Monticello Municipal Court Judge and a decade on the Monticello City Council, is calling for society to provide more protection for the elderly who are verbally and mentally overpowered by scam artists.
“The only thing society can do with this situation is to protect the elderly by legislation and by personal intervention,” Bond said. “Most of society is unwilling to put out funds to provide protection for the elderly. The elderly have to do it for themselves, if they are protected.”
Mr. Bond now has 24 hour care. He is doing much better. If you know an elderly person please go and check on them on a regular basis.
I am so glad they arrested them for doing this to Mr. Bond. If they would do it to him they would do it to anybody’s parent.
This so angers me! I am so glad Judge Bond understood what was happening and stood up to the Evans. And I am so glad you did this story, Patty.
This is so sad that this has happened. He used to teach me Sunday School when I was young. He doesn’t have children and I am sure that with Majorie Mae sick for so long, people were not close enough to continue visiting them. People like him that have given their time and energy such as church work, civic work and etc., especially church should have a group that visits the elderly and keeps track of what is going on in their life. I am sure that there is more than just him that needs just keeping up and visiting with him.
Right now, I can think of Mr. Odis Allen. He is by himself. Churches visit for new members, but he is probably right. His old friends might have passed away and his wife had been sick for a number of years. Don’t forget these elderly people because they didn’t forget you when they were young. A lot of people do not have children that live here.
THIS IS VERY DISHEARTENING. NOT ONLY DID THESE PEOPLE MISUSE THIS ELDERLY MAN, BUT THEY MADE A MOCKERY OF BEING A TRUE CHRISTIAN! MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH JUDGE BONDS! FROM NOW ON ALL ELDERLY NEED TO BE VISITED AND CHECKED ON!
THIS IS SO BAD!!!!! IT JUST GOES TO SHOW WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY WE HAVE. YES, IT’S HERE IN MONTICELLO. MR. BONDS IS A VERY SWEET PERSON. JUST TO THINK HE WAS USED BY SOMEONE HE HAD TRUSTED FOR SO LONG. I THANK GOD THAT HE WAS ABLE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT AND THAT HE WAS NOT LIKE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO GET USED BY THIS ABUSE. JUST TO THINK OF A PERSON DOING ANYONE THIS WAY AND USING GOD AND HIS CHURCHES TO COVER FOR THEM. HOW SAD!!!!! I PRAY THAT IF ANYONE YOU MAY KNOW THAT LIVES ALONE AND HAS HIRED HELP YOU WILL PLEASE KEEP CHECK ON THEM AND THEIR HELP…YOU SEE HOW HE WAS USED BY SOMEONE WHOM HE HAD TRUSTED FOR YEARS. PLEASE PRAY FOR HIM AND FOR THOSE LIKE HIM.
In CA you will go to prison scamming an older person out of money. Now this is sad they should go to jail.