Man, 74, gets jail for stealing from mother
WEST CHESTER » The reunion that the Hart brothers held last week was a long time coming, but it was not a joyous one.
Alan Hart and Lawrence Hart travelled from as far away as Tennessee and Maine for the purpose of attending the sentencing of their older brother, Evans Hart, at the Chester County Justice Center Thursday. They did not, however, come to speak in his support.
Rather, they came to tell Chester County Court Judge David Bortner what it had meant to them to learn that their brother had improperly taken money from their elderly and mentally
disabled mother in the declining years of her life.
“This is not a happy outcome for either side,” Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Rice told Bortner at the sentencing proceeding Thursday. “Siblings do not talk to each other any more. This is a day full of hatred.”
Evans Hart had pleaded guilty to charges of theft by deception, receiving stolen property, and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds in March. His attorney, Paul Rubino of Paoli, urged Bortner to keep the 74-year-old, who suffers from various health problems, out of prison. He said that his client had taken responsibility, and had no criminal record that would warrant a stretch in prison.
But Rice, a member of the D.A.’s Elder Abuse Task Force who prosecuted the case, asked Bortner to sentence Hart to prison for at least six months. She pointed out how “offensive” Hart’s crime was, stealing money from his own mother, the late Anna Victoria Hart, when she had been suffering from dementia. Her oldest son had been given power of attorney, and at various times wrote what Rice called “thousands” of withdrawals on his mother’s account for his own benefit.
“He completely violated her trust,” Rice said.
In the end, Bortner rejected Rubino’s call for a probationary sentence and ordered Evans Hart sent to prison for three month to one year, with three months of home confinement following his release on parole. He gave the elderly man, who was supported by several friends in the audience, until Sept. 6 to report to Chester County Prison to begin serving his sentence.
Evans Hart must also begin paying $32,535 in restitution over the nine additional years of probation that Bortner ordered, the amount the two sides could agree was owed her estate.
“Financial exploitation of the elderly is one of the fastest-growing elder abuse crimes in Chester County,” Rice said after the sentencing. “The District Attorney’s Office aims to protect and defend the elderly, many of whom are unable to protect themselves. This was a just sentence, although no amount of incarceration nor money will ever heal the relationships this defendant destroyed.”
Evans Hart, of West Sadsbury, was arrested in March 2017 and charged with various counts of theft from his mother, who was then 99 years old and lived in Parkesburg. An investigation had begun by Parkesburg Detective Craig Yeckley in May 2016 after Lawrence Hart, of Maine, and Alan Hart, of Tennessee, reported that they had found financial documentation that made them suspicious about how Evans Hart was handling their mother’s money.
The discovery came when the two brothers appeared at a party in April 2016 for their mother’s 98th birthday.
Yeckley said Evans Hart appeared to have cashed in $51,000 in certificates of deposit at Anna Hart’s bank prior to their maturity date, costing his mother an amount in early withdrawal fees. The two brothers said that a review of their mother’s bank records showed an unusually low balance, in the low hundreds of dollars, when she had previously had at least $60,000 in liquid assets, according to Beckley’s criminal complaint.
The men said they saw transactions between Anna Hart’s account and an account held by their brother and his wife.
Lawrence Hart was about to have himself appointed as an emergency guardian of his mother’s estate. When Lawrence and Alan attempted to speak with Evans about their mother’s finances, he checked himself into a hospital. There, he told a great-granddaughter of Anna Hart who had gone to speak to him that he had taken money from his mother’s account for his personal use, Yeckley stated.
A review by police of the bank accounts showed transfers of “a large sum of money” to Evans Hart’s account over a 10-year period. He wrote checks to himself, and cashed in CDs before their maturity date, the review showed. The money was used to pay personal expenses such as a mortgage, credit cards, and a PayPal account. The amount of money that was suspect totaled $113,177, Yeckley wrote.
When confronted with the suspected thefts, Evans Hart told Yeckley that he knew what he did was wrong, but that the amount he stole was far less than what Yeckley pointed to. He said that he had intend to stop taking money from the estate as soon as his mother died, which was in November 2017.
According to Rice, Anna Hart was a remarkable woman for her time.
After graduating as salutatorian from Downingtown High School in 1936, she attended West Chester State Teacher’s College, graduating in 1940 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, at a time when many women did not attend college or seek to work outside the home.
She taught at various schools throughout Chester County during her teaching career including Midvale in South Coatesville, Unionville Elementary School, East Fallowfield Elementary school and various schools in the Octorara Area School District, from which she retired in 1980.
She and her husband, Stewart E. Hart, who died before her, raised four children — the three sons and daughter Doris Evans
Moore — and she oversaw an extended family, sometimes cooking a spaghetti dinner for more than 50 friends and relatives.
She also expressed a wry sense of humor, which was apparent from a message in her obituary:
“Ann would like to let you know that her work here is done,” the obit reads. “She received a call, an offer you can’t refuse, for an appointment from which she will not be returning. This assignment comes with a huge sign-on bonus, a reunion with family and friends she has not seen in a long time. Her new mission takes her to a wonderful place where she will be socializing, gardening, knitting and reading to her heart’s content. Music, laughter and love are guaranteed. Food is delicious and you never gain an ounce.
“She left detailed instructions for her children to celebrate her mission here, which has now been completed,” it read. “Low adherence to this instruction will not be tolerated.”