MIAMI – A Tallahassee woman faces charges for stealing real estate from her 81-year-old boss.
Gladys Smith, 61, deceived the victim into giving up authority to control the deeds of two rental homes worth more than $750,000, according to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
The way it happened led to more accusations.
Smith faces criminal charges for exploitation, grand theft and organizing a scheme to defraud someone of $50,000 or more, according to court records.
Miriam Fernandez, 81, suffers from an eye disease that left her without enough vision that Fernandez could not drive, according to prosecutors. The police revoked his license two years ago. Fernandez has no children or living parents, which led to his exploitation, investigators said.
Smith became friends with the victim late last year, investigators said. At the time, Fernandez was losing her apartment in Hialeah, had no state identification and needed a place to stay, prosecutors said. Smith allowed Fernandez to stay at a home in Margate where the suspect became the victim’s caretaker for medical appointments, according to court records.
In the process, Smith convinced Fernandez to sign a power of attorney letter, prosecutors said. Fernandez made it clear she did not want her bank account or properties involved in the move, investigators said.
However, Smith posed as the victim’s daughter and took control of the deeds to two rental properties owned by Fernandez in Miami-Dade County, according to court documents. Smith then obtained an $80,000 mortgage on one of the homes, investigators said.
Those properties provided the victim with a means of livelihood and had a combined value of more than $750,000, Fernandez Rundle said.
In March, Fernandez’s friend Sylvia, who accompanied the victim to the prosecutor’s news conference, asked authorities to conduct a welfare check on the victim, prosecutors said. Authorities found Fernandez abandoned in a dark room surrounded by the smell of urine and feces in Smith’s Margate home, according to court records.
“It’s the dark soul of humanity when someone takes advantage of our elderly,” said Chief George Fuente of the Hialeah Police Department, whose detective assigned to the Elder Exploitation Task Force and vulnerable adults in the county. “So that’s one of those that I would encourage anyone who knows something or thinks there’s something going on with another person, to let us know.”
“We won here,” Fernandez Rundle said. “(The victim) has been through a lot but she sits here a victorious lady thanks to caring friends, watchful friends, eyes and ears that say something is wrong with my friend.”
The State of Florida Department of Alumni Affairs estimates that 17 percent of Miami-Dade County residents are over the age of 65, and 22 percent of them live alone.
Fernandez Rundle said people with deteriorating health conditions who own homes without unpaid mortgages are targets and their properties “are like buried treasure” to scammers.
“We will not tolerate this crime in our community,” she said.
Since its inception in May 2022, the Miami-Dade EVA Task Force has filed 78 criminal cases and assisted 185 vulnerable adults.
Tallahassee police arrested Smith on Monday. She will be returned to Miami to be arraigned on criminal charges.
