A Cobb County jury has convicted Jeffrey Carr and his father Joseph Carr, both from Gainesville, GA, of taking millions of dollars from an elderly Cobb County widow in violation of Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act.
In a unique engagement between IAG Forensics and the Cobb County District Attorney’s office, Laurie Dyke and IAG staff members were assisted by CCDA interns from Southern Polytechnic University to provide the forensic accounting analysis that proved essential to the prosecution’s case. At trial, Laurie Dyke served as a financial expert witness, and on March 3, 2015, the jury returned guilty verdicts for both defendants.
Over the course of nearly four years, the Carrs had engaged in acts of “interference, isolation and undue influence,” according to Deputy Chief ADA John Melvin, in order to manipulate Mrs. Frances Perkins, now 93, into surrendering financial power of attorney and subsequently hundreds of checks worth thousands of dollars each.
According to court documents, in addition to improperly receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mrs. Perkins, in 2012 Jeffrey Carr engineered the sale of 33 acres of land located at 542 Johnson Ferry Road for $12 million, which the Perkins family owned and for which he received more than $700,000 in commission. Also in 2012, Mrs. Perkins became hospitalized after a fall, and Jeffrey Carr had her moved into a rehabilitation facility in Gainesville, away from her daughters and friends, and subsequently into his father’s Gainesville home, a move which netted the defendants over $3 million in the guise of fees, rent payments, commissions, legal fees and other charges which Mrs. Perkins paid to the defendants.
Superior Court Judge Robert Leonard presided over the trial and has scheduled a sentencing hearing for March 10, 2015.
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