Horry nursing assistant charged with stealing $10,000 from hospice patient
Curtis Graham/WBTW
A county magistrate set bond on 29-year-old Joann Denise Gerald on Saturday after Horry County Police charged her with stealing more than $10,000 from a hospice patient.
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By Jody Barr
WBTW News 13 Reporter
Published: August 31, 2008
A Myrtle Beach woman employed at the Grandhaven Home, a hospice care facility in Garden City, faces charges that she stole thousands of dollars from a patient in her care.
Horry County Police charged 29-year-old Joann Denise Gerald with exploitation of a vulnerable adult Saturday after investigators said she stole more than $10,000 from a patient.
The theft happened between July 1, 2008 and August 29, 2008, according to the arrest warrant.
Investigators said Gerald worked as a certified nursing assistant at the facility during that time and cared for the 97-year-old woman there.
Gerald took the money she stole from the victim and used it to pay her cell phone bill, car payments, and car insurance, according to the victim’s granddaughter, who spoke at Gerald’s bon hearing Saturday night.
So far, the victim’s family told the judge that they’ve found around $11,000 missing from several bank drafts the family placed into the victim’s account.
The thefts started happening in March, according to the family’s testimony in the bond hearing Saturday.
Gerald told the judge she was no longer employed by the Garden City business.
A county magistrate set Gerald’s bond at $30,000 and called her “a risk to society.”
Gerald’s family posted her bond following the hearing, according to court records.
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Posted by ( donnak ) on September 03, 2008 at 8:46 am
okay,i mean what she did was truly awful but she did not kill a kid with a boat, and recieve a $10,000 bond. go figure. u can steal from someone and get a $30,000 bond but kill a kid and get a bond for $10,000.
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Posted by ( Lamont ) on September 02, 2008 at 5:20 am
Yes I see that little smirk she has, I bet her elderly kinfolk are just happy with her. I’m not sure how she obtained the money, but apparently that system isn’t working. She should get at least 10 years in jail, and no time off for good behavior.
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Posted by ( Conway Gal ) on August 31, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Look at her smiling and smug about the situation. How can you live with yourself knowing you stole money from someone? Especially someone that trust you to help them in what’s probably the last days of their lives! It is sad that she can even have a bond and be set free. No amount of background checks, criminal checks, or credit checks can determine the true identity of a person. We’ve all made mistakes and some would show up on a criminal check, however that doesn’t make you a bad person. This woman probably had NO criminal background and look at what she’s capable of. Sad people with no sort of conscience what so ever!
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