A caretaker who stole nearly $100,000 from a 96-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease must serve three months in the Ramsey County workhouse and stay away from vulnerable adults.
Barbara Joan Siercks, 70, also must pay restitution and complete 100 hours of community service over the next year, according to Ramsey County court records.
She is eligible to receive certain accommodations as she serves her sentence, including electronic home monitoring and work release.
Siercks was sentenced Friday, two months after pleading guilty to one count of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. A second count was dismissed.
She was hired to care for the 96-year-old St. Paul woman while working as an employee of Baywood Home Care in 2014. Over the next year, she wrote dozens of checks to herself from the woman’s bank account and made numerous cash withdrawals, totaling $97,150.
Her client’s friend alerted authorities after reviewing her financial records and finding an unusual number of checks made to Siercks.
Siercks’ attorney declined to comment.