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Pair accused of bilking elderly woman

The 88-year-old widow tells deputies that the couple moved in to take care of her in 2001, then took her home and money.

By STEVE THOMPSON
Published October 5, 2005

NEW PORT RICHEY - Bologna and pickle sandwiches.

That's what an 88-year-old widow told investigators that Joseph and Cynthia Clancy fed her for days at a time while they ate more elaborate dinners.

Questionable cuisine is among the lesser allegations in a case that landed the Clancys in the county jail Tuesday without bail.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office says they:

Persuaded the elderly woman to sign over power of attorney.

Charged her $1,000-a-month rent to live in her own home.

Had her sign over the $370,000 house to them.

Forged her name on checks to deplete her $32,500 checking account.

Kicked her out of the house.

Recommended to her new caregiver that she be put in hospice, though she wasn't dying.

Deputies arrested Joseph Clancy, 52, early Tuesday at the woman's former home on Hilltop Drive.

They arrested his wife, Cynthia Clancy, 42, where she works as an office manager for the elderly woman's physician, Dr. Filiz King, in Hudson.

A phone call to King's office Tuesday reached his answering service.

"I think they had a problem and they had to close," the call taker said. The doctor would return Thursday, she said. King did not return the call made to his service.

The elderly woman, whose name is being withheld by the Times for her protection, met Cynthia Clancy at the office of a "Dr. Dion," Sheriff's Office reports say. Dion was the widow's former doctor, the reports say, and Clancy was that doctor's office manager then.

The elderly woman's former roommate, who has since died, asked Clancy to take care of her after his death, the reports say.

Once he died, the Clancys moved in to the woman's home to take care of her, the reports say. She, in turn, would pay "all the bills," the woman told investigators.

That was in 2001. Things went downhill, the woman told investigators, to the point where Joseph Clancy told her he wished she was dead, "adding he always gets what he wishes for."

Within a few months, the reports say, Cynthia Clancy took the woman to a law office to have her sign over power of attorney.

On May 28, 2004, the reports say, Clancy took the woman to her bank, produced a two-page document and told her to sign it. The elderly woman tried to ask what the document was about, but Clancy never explained it, the reports say. It turned out to be a deed that transferred ownership of her house to the Clancys.

Cynthia Clancy later forged the woman's name on a deed making a minor correction to the first one, sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said, then used her power of attorney to sign another one. The notary publics involved did not act appropriately, Tobin said. Investigators will be in contact with state officials, Tobin said, about the lapses.

The woman was hospitalized in December. Once she was released from a rehabilitation center, the Clancys would not allow her to return to her home, though all her things still were inside, sheriff's reports say.

The Clancys arranged for her to rent a room from a man who runs a one-room assisted living facility in his home. They told the man she was expected to die within six months, reports say. She wasn't.

The man, Jeff Kores, said Tuesday that he took her in, then called state adult protective officials when he realized the situation "stunk."

The officials called the Sheriff's Office this summer.

The Clancys both face charges of grand theft and exploitation of the elderly.

[Last modified October 5, 2005, 01:14:17]