A former pastor was arrested after police say she stole thousands of dollars from an elderly couple who had attended to her church.
Yvonne Hampton-Barley, 63, is facing charges including grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and exploitation of the elderly, Miami-Dade Police officials said Thursday.
The victims of this crime were in their 80s and suffered from Dementia and Alzheimer’s, police said.
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NBC 6 spoke to the attorney representing the victim's family, Ralph Ventura, who says he’s known this family for decades.
"They are relieved and gratified that, you know, justice is being done at this point,” Ventura said.
Ventura started to represent the family after they realized Hampton-Barley put her name on the couple’s home deed.
"The idea was that, you know, she's substantially younger than they are," Ventura said. 'So, when they passed, she would take the property."
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Over the course of several months, Hampton-Barley added her name to the victims' bank accounts, altered their retirement funding and tried to take the cash value of their life insurance policy, police said.
Hampton-Barley also posed as their daughter to withdraw around $18,000 from the man's checking account, police said.
"As a community, when a member of a community that is elderly is exploited, we take these crimes very, very seriously. And so we're asking anyone in the community if any family member or anyone who has felt that they have been defrauded by this same person, our detectives want to speak with you," Miami-Dade Police spokesman Angel Rodriguez said.
The attorney says the couple has since relocated out of the state. Police still want anyone that believes they may have been a victim of this crime to come forward.
