Wednesday, November 11, 2009

PLANTATION KEY -- A former nursing home employee accused in civil court of misappropriating more than $150,000 from a resident of Plantation Key Convalescent Center is scheduled to be sentenced for contempt this Friday at the Monroe County courthouse in Key West.

Chief Monroe County Judge Luis Garcia found Maricel Perez-Guevara in contempt in August after she twice failed to comply with subpoenas commanding her to produce bank records and financial statements that could provide information on how she used the funds of Elizabeth Davis, 102.

Perez-Guevara, 38, and known to acquaintances as "Marty," subsequently failed to turn over the records at a Sept. 17 hearing as well.

Davis, then 98, granted Perez-Guevara power-of-attorney privileges over her finances in early 2005 while she was a resident and Perez-Guevara an administrator at the now-closed Marathon Manner Nursing Home.

Just as with a traditional attorney-client relationship, those granted power-of-attorney are required to act in the interest of the granter.

Though the two cases involving Perez-Guevara presently making their way through the courts are civil, she's also the subject of an active investigation by the Monroe County State Attorney's Office.

Investigator Eric Thomas said he expects to complete his work and hand it over to a prosecutor for review possibly as soon as this week.

An investigation conducted in 2006 and 2007 by Monroe County Sheriff's Office Detective Michael Wilkinson alleges that after attaining privileges to Davis' finances, Perez-Guevara went on a spending spree, buying everything from a gold frog charm to an all-terrain vehicle.

In 2005 and 2006 Perez-Guevara spent $264,000 on herself using Davis' money and just $33,000 on Davis, mostly for fees to Marathon Manor and then to Plantation Key Convalescent Center, where Davis was moved in late 2005, Wilkinson alleged.

Davis has been mentally incompetent at least since the second half of 2005, her doctor Joanne Mahoney reportedly told Wilkinson.

Friday's contempt hearing will be presided over by Judge Tegan Slaton, who was assigned to the case last month after Garcia recused himself due to a conflict of interest involving his assistant Renee Parker.

Parker notarized a quit-claim deed that gave Perez-Guevara possession of Davis' home in September 2006, county records show. At the time Parker worked for the Monroe County Clerk's Office, where Perez-Guevara was also employed.

Garcia recused himself because Parker would likely be a witness in a criminal case against Perez-Guevara, he said.

The contempt hearing was originally scheduled for Oct. 1 but was postponed at the behest of Perez-Guevara's attorney Kenneth Kaplan, who has since withdrawn from the case.

Reached by the Free Press, Perez-Guevara declined to comment.

rsilk@keysnews.com