Woman conceals past convictions to access granddaughter’s estate

MILWAUKEE — Probate courts generate plenty of stories about bad guardians, people appointed by a court to look after a ward’s well-being or finances when they are too young or otherwise unable to take care of themselves.

Then there’s Betty Coleman.

Prosecutors say she lied about her criminal past to be named guardian of her own granddaughter’s suddenly flush estate. The girl, under 14 at the time, had been left $50,000 when Coleman’s ex-husband died.

Within five months, according to civil and criminal charges, Coleman had spent all the money, and not for the girl’s best interests. It went for alcohol, cigarettes, wigs, back rent and dozens of cash withdrawals.

Coleman, 56, even spent some of the money on her current husband — who is serving a prison sentence for sexually assaulting the same girl years earlier.

Meanwhile, the girl was living in an unfurnished room with another relative, and sleeping on an uninflated air mattress.

Coleman’s misdeeds were first uncovered in probate court in 2013, and her granddaughter won a default judgment for $150,000 against Coleman in 2014 on claims of theft, conversion, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and other claims.

Last month, prosecutors charged Coleman with embezzlement and contempt of court. She pleaded not guilty and is currently free on $500 bail and working on a plea deal, according to court records.

According to the complaint and civil court records:

After Coleman’s ex-husband died in 2012, it was learned that a life insurance policy paid $50,000 to Coleman’s granddaughter. Coleman and the man (who is not being named to protect the identity of the girl) divorced in 2007.

In 2013, Coleman applied to Milwaukee County Probate Court to be appointed guardian of the girl’s new estate. Under oath she disclosed that she was convicted in 1998 of using her parents’ credit card without their consent.

But she did not reveal four other convictions — for theft, forgery and identity theft — she had under another name.

She was appointed guardian in April and got two checks in May totaling $50,000. But despite specific orders that $20,000 be deposited and not touched until the girl turned 18, and that the other money be managed for the girl’s interests, Coleman immediately began spending the money on herself.