'I thought these people really cared for me,' said Janet Lentz, one of several seniors who say they were victims.
By Susan Jacobson, Orlando Sentinel
KISSIMMEE, July 30, 2011 — When her husband's Alzheimer's disease made him so violent that she had to lock her bedroom door at night to feel safe, Janet Lentz knew it was time to put him in a nursing home.
Heartbroken, alone and unsure how to manage financially, Lentz turned to Kissimmee elder-care lawyer Linda Vasquez Littlefield to help get Medicaid for her husband.
Five years later, Eugene Lentz is dead; Janet Lentz, 76, is pinching pennies to survive; and Linda Vasquez has been arrested and disbarred.
Osceola County sheriff's investigators say Vasquez — known as Linda Littlefield before her divorce in May — used the Lentzes' credit cards to charge nearly $54,000 worth of office furniture, a vacation in Cancún and a ghostwriting project for her daughter. More than $43,000 was paid to Littlefield Law Group using the cards. Vasquez also spent nearly $8,000 from the couple's trust account to pay the card balances, detectives allege.
Lentz hopes Vasquez, 39, gets prison time for her fraud conviction in the case. Sentencing is Sept. 16.
Vasquez's ex-husband, Ross Littlefield, 46, who ran a trust in which Janet Lentz and dozens of other seniors placed their money, is scheduled to go to trial, also in September.
"I thought these people really cared for me," Janet Lentz said last week in an interview at her mobile home at Good Samaritan Village retirement community. "I was devastated. All I did was sob for days and days."
Vasquez referred the Orlando Sentinel to her attorney, Joseph Davis, who would not comment. Littlefield's attorney, Steven Tinsley, did not return calls or email.
Court records paint a picture of a woman and her husband who lived the high life, owning several pieces of real estate, a time share in Mexico and a Hummer, a Porsche and a Nissan 350Z. Vasquez was active with the Osceola Federated Republican Women and in 2009 announced her candidacy for U.S. Senate, although her name never appeared on the ballot.
Unbeknownst to her clients or peers, however, her life was unraveling.
The troubles came to light last year, when the Littlefields were charged with 10 counts of fraudulently using the Lentzes' credit cards, one count of fraudulently using their personal-identification information and one count of engaging in a scheme to defraud for at least $20,000 but less than $50,000. Prosecutors dropped 11 counts against Vasquez, and in May she pleaded no contest to the remaining charge.
"They took all my savings," Lentz said. "They had me believing that I had to turn over the credit cards and put them in the safe because that was a requirement of Medicaid."
Linda Balash of Harmony said she had a similar experience when she placed her parents' money in a pooled trust through JNN Foundation, which Ross Littlefield ran out of a downtown Kissimmee office building — about to be auctioned off in a foreclosure sale — that he and his ex-wife own.
Balash, who turned over $120,500 to the trust in 2009, is suing the Littlefields and the foundation on her folks' behalf. So is Dorothy Enright, who put in nearly $107,000 last year on behalf of Osceola resident Willa Lorraine, who has since died.
In response to the lawsuit, Ross Littlefield — whose Facebook page lists "greed is good" as a favorite quote — wrote that his clients were fully informed.
The lawsuit alleges the Littlefields said any money left in the trust after the death of their elderly clients would be returned to their estates or to their beneficiaries. Balash and Enright say they found out later that federal law requires that such trusts first reimburse Medicaid for any expenditures. The lawsuit claims the Littlefields engaged in deceptive and unfair trade practices, civil theft or exploitation, racketeering and civil conspiracy.
Balash, 61, said she chose the trust while she was overwhelmed by the sudden responsibility of tending to her parents, who moved from Deerfield Beach into Balash's east Osceola County home after her father, 84, had a stroke. He had been caring for Balash's mother, 79, who has dementia.
"When you have situations like that, you are scared and don't know where to turn," said Balash, a real-estate broker.
Another lawsuit is pending against Vasquez, Littlefield, JNN Foundation and Medicaid Benefits Experts, which Vasquez established in July 2010 in Tampa, one month after she agreed to be disbarred for a decade.
Helen Spaugh of Haines City was 93 in 2008 when she placed $90,000 with JNN, a lawsuit brought by her son states. The suit alleges the foundation kept improper financial records, may have charged excessive fees, committed civil theft and exploited a "vulnerable adult."
It's unclear what, if anything, the Littlefields' ex-clients will recover, or whether the former couple will manage finances for the elderly again.
Their divorce file lists $877,520 in assets and $1.7 million in liabilities, and a judge ordered Vasquez not to engage in Medicaid planning until she is sentenced.
Susan Jacobson
E-Mail: sjacobson@tribune.com
Copyright © 2011, Orlando Sentinel
Copyright © 2011, Orlando Sentinel
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.
