Enhanced penalties for crimes against vulnerable adults gets hearing

Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester) recounted a story in her district of a son who stole about $46,000 from his vulnerable mother’s bank account, yet prosecutors did not charge him under the financial exploitation of vulnerable adults act.

Liebling explained to the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee that the vulnerable adults act requires that an offender have a fiduciary obligation to the victim, which this son did not have.

“But of course he knew his mother was vulnerable,” she said.

That story prompted her to sponsor HF3465 that would not change anything in the vulnerable adult statute, but would modify the Minnesota theft statute to prescribe higher penalties for theft from a vulnerable adult.

“This legislation attempts to give prosecutors another option, one that reflects the egregiousness of the offense while keeping the current statutory scheme,” she said.

The committee held the idea over for future consideration.

If the offender knows or should have known that the victim was a vulnerable adult, the penalty for the underlying crime would be increased as follows:

• if the underlying crime was a misdemeanor, the penalty becomes a gross misdemeanor;
• if the underlying crime was a gross misdemeanor, the penalty becomes a felony with a maximum sentence of imprisonment of two years; and
• if the underlying crime was a felony, the maximum sentence increases by 25%.

Rep. Dave Pinto (DFL-St. Paul) said the increased penalties prescribed by the bill would not necessarily be a deterrence but would still have value on another level.

“We want to make sure that our penalties are reflecting how seriously we as a society just feel about an offense,” he said.

Committee Co-Chair Paul Novotny (R-Elk River) asked whether the increased penalties would apply to the “disgusting” bitcoin scams being increasingly perpetrated on elderly victims.

Liebling replied that she thinks the proposed law would be applicable in those situations.