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FRIENDSHIP – A 40-year-old former Adams County case manager suspected of stealing prescription drugs and money from vulnerable adults is facing felony charges.
Tracy Lynn VonMoos of Friendship was charged in October with stealing $3,085.31 from a vulnerable man and early this month with stealing an unknown amount of prescription drugs from a second vulnerable man. She’s charged with theft, committing a crime against an elderly or disabled person and two counts of misconduct. Court documents indicate VonMoos quit her job with Adams County on March 25.
According to court documents:
Managers from a home-care service told police prescription medications meant for a vulnerable man had been going missing since October 2015, and the managers had reported the missing pain medications to VonMoos, the man’s case manager. VonMoos never filed reports about the missing prescriptions with the Adams County Health and Human Services Department.
About two weeks after VonMoos left her job as a support and services coordinator for Adams County, she picked up prescription medications for the man. VonMoos told people she was no longer working as the man’s case manager, but she was a therapist and could pick up the prescriptions. VonMoos continued to visit the man and provide him with care.
In May, an ambulance took the man to the hospital. A family practitioner said the man had a pain patch on that should have been changed three days earlier. The man didn’t ask for any pain medication while in the hospital and the doctor said the man should have been experiencing withdrawal symptoms, if he had been taking the pain pills prescribed to him and recorded as having been taken. The man wasn’t experiencing withdrawal.
At one point, deputies placed a camera in the man’s home to learn who was taking his prescription medications. When they checked the recording, they found someone had unplugged the camera. The man couldn’t remember if he had told anyone about the hidden camera, but during an interview with police, VonMoos mentioned the camera.
Deputies searching VonMoos’ home found a prescription bottle with the man’s name on it, a wrapper for the pain patch and a receipt from a prescription. VonMoos told deputies she only had the prescription bottles to call in for refills for the man.
In a separate case, an employee at the Central Wisconsin Community Action Council reported in August that VonMoos had asked the agency’s accountant to write out two checks to her, totaling $1,700 for a client staying at an assisted-living residence. The man’s account for personal items exceeded the $200 limit set by the residence managers and VonMoos said she needed to get it down below the limit.
The accountant asked VonMoos for receipts from things she had purchased for the man using the money she requested. VonMoos provided receipts from various stores that showed purchases that included women’s and men’s fragrances, women’s clothes, a pet bed, children’s clothing, a batting tee, a baseball glove, headphones, pillows, DVDs, an iPod, sheet sets and other items. The assisted-living residence employees reported VonMoos had brought the man socks, underwear and jogging pants.
Police checked with the bank where the checks were cashed and learned that $3,085.31 that belonged to the man had been deposited into VonMoos’ bank account. When deputies searched VonMoos’ home, they found many of the items VonMoos bought, including a drone, still in their boxes.
VonMoos currently is free on a $500 cash bond for one case and scheduled to make her initial appearance Tuesday on the other. If convicted, she faces a maximum of 14 years in prison.