NASHUA, N.H. (AP) – A Connecticut woman is scheduled for trial on charges she stole $250,000 from her ailing, elderly aunt, a long-time resident of Nashua.
Kathleen Lavigne of Ellington, Connecticut, faces 28 counts of larceny. Prosecutors say she bought a house, a swimming pool and a motorcycle with money she stole from 88-year-old Cleopatra Matlis in 2002. Matlis died later that year.
A nephew of Matlis says the elderly woman became increasingly confused in the year before her death and that she may have suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Michael Loulakis of Great Falls, Va., and his mother charged in a lawsuit that Lavigne began spending Matlis’ money after bringing her to Connecticut to live with her.
Loulakis and his mother intervened and a Connecticut court appointed a conservator, or guardian, for Matlis.
A jury has already been selected for Lavigne’s trial in Tolland Superior Court in Vernon, Conn. The trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday, but it may be postponed. Connecticut prosecutors were in Nashua last week to arrange for subpoenas to be served on witnesses in New Hampshire.
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