SUWANNEE COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - The Suwannee County Sheriff's Office arrested a woman for forging checks for approximately $44,100 to take funds from an elderly person she was supposed to help as a caretaker.
Tracy Lee Bracewell was arrested on one charge each of uttering forged bills, checks or notes; crimes against a person; and larceny.
The probable cause document said she used funds from the 83-year-old victim's bank account while in a position of trust by having the victim sign at least two checks for $30,000 (5/12/16) made out to Bracewell and one for $10,000 (5/10/16) made out to cash.
A third check was made out to another person for a new air conditioner unit. That person, Bracewell's husband, Joseph, was in the Suwanee County Jail and unable to sign the check, the document said. The husband said he did not sign the check.
Bracewell opened a checking account at another bank on May 12, 2016, and deposited $31,000 thre the day she wrote one $30,000 check to herself from the victim's account, the document said.
"Records do not support any theory that the victim benefited from the defendant's actions and show that the defendant depleted the funds in just over a years time," the document said.
Records show that Bracewell ate out at various restaurants, made downpayments for a new vehicle and had transactions at salons and nail shops, the investigator wrote.
She was booked into the jail on July 19, 2018 on a $40,000 bond.
