She died, but her debit card remained active. Did caregiver empty $20K from her account?
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A suspended nursing assistant in Pierce County is accused of stealing about $20,000 from her deceased client’s bank account, according to state health officials, allegedly through ATM withdrawals, online purchases and at stores such as Costco and Walgreens.
Jennifer Wenski’s certified nursing assistant license was suspended in June, according to a Washington State Department of Health news release Monday, Sept. 11.
“In January 2021, Wenski made purchases and ATM withdraws of approximately $20,000 with her deceased client’s debit card and used her client’s EBT card twice to make purchases for her personal benefit,” the news release said, echoing allegations made in paperwork related to her license suspension.
Five months prior to the suspension, Wenski was charged with 18 counts of second-degree identity theft and possession of stolen property, Pierce County Superior Court records show. The charges were related to several in-store purchases, with no single trip totaling more than $196. The charging document didn’t specify Wenski’s explicit connection to online purchases beyond alleged possession of her client’s debit card.
“We are confident that when all the facts and circumstances regarding these allegations come to light, it will be clear that Ms. Wenski had no intent to defraud (her client) nor her (client’s) estate,” attorney John Michael Sheeran, who is representing Wenski, told The News Tribune.
Wenski, 52, was a caregiver for nearly two years for the woman and allegedly began using her client’s debit card upon her death in January 2021, according to court and state health records.
“On the day of her death there were numerous online purchases through Amazon as well as other online purchases and ATM withdrawals,” the charging document said. “Even after (the client’s) death — the purchases and ATM withdrawals continued.”
Wenski’s client’s bank account maintained more than $26,000 at the time of her death, according to the charging document. Within a few weeks, the account was frozen with roughly $5,000 remaining.
Authorities zeroed in on several transactions that occurred within the first month following Wenski’s client’s death, and they obtained surveillance videos from businesses and copies of transaction receipts, according to the charging document. The investigation, including reviews of videos and photographs at the points of sale, concluded that Wenski had shopped at Costco, Winco, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Walmart, allegedly using her client’s debit card to buy merchandise totaling $5 to $196 each trip.
Wenski “was unsure if she had been grocery shopping after the death with (her client’s) debit card but ... after being shown some of the surveillance evidence she admitted that was her,” the charging document said. “She agreed that she had no right to take the money from (her client’s) account. She could not estimate how much she had taken.”
In 2021, state Adult Protective Services made a referral to the Puyallup Police Department in regard to fraudulent activity on the client’s bank account. At the time, Wenski was employed by First Choice Home Care, according to the charging document.
A human resources representative for similarly named First Choice In-Home Care, which maintains five offices in Washington, including in Pierce County, declined to confirm whether Wenski is or had been an employee, citing privacy rules.
Wenski purportedly told Puyallup police that she used the debit card to pay for her client’s cremation and believed she had given the card to the woman’s stepson within a week after the woman’s death. Wenski attributed large withdrawals on the bank account to illicit drugs that she claimed her client and her client’s recently deceased husband had used. Wenski claimed that she had taken out money from her client’s account to pay a drug dealer up to $4,000 to settle debts, according to the charging document.
The client’s family members disputed those claims.
Wenski received her credential to practice in Washington as a certified nursing assistant in August 2018 and was employed by an unnamed in-home services agency from December 2018 through March 2021, according to state Department of Health records related to her license suspension.
She must wait three years to apply to be reinstated, and prior to reinstatement she’d have to complete eight hours of programming on law, ethics and theft awareness, state health records show.
A trial readiness status hearing in the criminal case is scheduled for October, court records show.
This story was originally published September 13, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
