Page 63 - Florida Sentinel 2-4-22

Crime Man Charged With Preparing
Caregiver Charged With Exploiting Elderly
A 56-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday and charged with defrauding the elderly. Ms. Donnitta Jean Vaughn, of Kissimmee, is accused of taking more than $14,000 from an 80-year-old woman with dementia. She was the woman’s caregiver.
Ms. Vaughn has been charged with: criminal use of personal ID of a person over 60-years-old; exploitation of the elderly; fraudulent use of credit cards; obtaining prop- erty by fraud; and grand theft.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, in June of 2019, the victim was evaluated by her physician who recommended that she not live alone in her home, at which time Ms. Vaughn, who is a licensed Certified Nursing Assistant, was hired as the victim’s caregiver to assist with personal care, household chores, and trans-
DONNITTA VAUGHN
porting the victim to her doc- tor’s appointments.
Ms. Vaughn was paid $720.00 a week as the vic- tim’s caregiver. She re- mained employed with the victim until March of 2021.
During the final weeks of her employment with the vic- tim, the victim’s friend (who had power-of-attorney) learned that one of the vic- tim’s credit cards was miss-
ing. Detectives reviewed bank statements and credit reports, and discovered Ms. Vaughn obtained $4,868.00 more than her agreed upon salary.
Detectives also found payments to Duke Energy which were applied to Ms. Vaughn’s personal resi- dence account.
Ms. Vaughn is also al- leged to have obtained three credit cards in the victim’s name and used them to buy clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, bath and travel items, eat out at restaurants, and pay childcare fees. She fraudu- lently charged a total of $9,594.28 to those cards.
Ms. Vaughn reportedly admitted to detectives that she felt she wasn’t getting paid enough, and knew the victim did not have the mental capacity to give per- mission for an increased salary.
Elementary School Principal Arrested For Sex Texts
The principal of a Hills- borough County elementary school was arrested and charged with sending sexu- ally explicit text messages. The messages were sent to an undercover detective he as- sumed was a juvenile.
According to the Hillsbor- ough County Sheriff’s Office, 41-year-old Derrick McLaughlin is facing sev- eral charges. Police said from January 19 to January 27, 2022, undercover detectives were portraying themselves as a 15-year-old boy during a chat operation to identify in- dividuals attempting to ex- ploit children.
McLaughlin, is alleged to have initiated a text con- versation on a social media app with the undercover de- tectives during this time. Over the course of the inves- tigation, McLaughlin at- tempted to entice the
DERRICK McLAUGHLIN
undercover detectives he be- lieved was a teenager to en- gage in sexual acts. McLaughlin is the princi- pal at Dawson Elementary School in Riverview, FL.
On January 27, 2022, McLaughlin was taken into custody. He was charged with transmission of harmful material to a minor, unlawful
use of a two-way communi- cations device, and use of computer services or devices to solicit certain illegal acts.
McLaughlin made sui- cidal comments at the time of his arrest and has been placed under a Baker Act.
Sheriff Chad Chronis- ter said, “It’s sickening that a trusted member of our community, a school princi- pal, would take advantage of a child for his own self-grati- fication.
“Thankfully, it was not a child, but one of our detec- tives, who was on the receiv- ing end of his obscene messages. No child should be subjected to the disturbing behavior put on display by McLaughlin.”
There is no indication that there are any addi- tional victims at this time. The investigation remains active.
False Tax Returns
A Tampa man has been indicted on 14 counts of aid- ing in the preparation and fil- ing of false tax returns. George Johnson made his initial appearance in federal court in Miami on January 21, 2022.
The indictment alleges that between February 2015 and February 2017, Johnson had a business located in the Middle District of Florida through which he offered his services to clients to prepare their income tax returns. Dur- ing that time period, John- son prepared and helped in the filing of numerous tax re- turns which contained false and fraudulent entries as to taxpayer credits and deduc- tions.
As a consequence of those false statements, Johnson’s clients received tax refunds to which they were not entitled. Johnson charged his clients a large fee for his services and required them to split the re- fund proceeds with him once they received their refund money from the IRS.
The total of the refunds, which resulted from the false and fraudulent tax returns charged in the indictment, is more than $155,000.
Belizean law enforcement officials arrested Johnson on January 19, 2022, at his San Pedro, Belize residence for immigration violations. The following day, he was es- corted by U. S. federal agents to Miami.
Girlfriend Of Homicide Suspect Arrested; Search Continues For Him
JOHNNY EVANS
The girlfriend of a man wanted in connection with a homicide has been arrested. The search continues for her boyfriend.
According to the Sarasota Police Department, Tierra Driver, 26, of Sarasota, has been arrested and is facing charges of accessory after the fact (murder). This is in con- nection to a homicide that happened just after midnight on Thursday, January 6, 2022, in the 1900 block of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.
Sarasota Police detectives are continuing to search for 22-year-old Johnny D. Evans. An arrest warrant for a charge of murder has been issued for him.
Evans is 6’1” and 170 lbs. and is considered armed and
TIERRA DRIVER
dangerous.
Sarasota Police detectives
believe Evans may be out of the state of Florida and in Mississippi.
Ms. Driver, who is the girlfriend of Evans, was ar- rested detectives said, after she withheld information on the whereabouts of Evans and drove Evans out of the state of Florida.
The case remains an ac- tive and ongoing investiga- tion.
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call Detective Maria Llovio at (941) 263-6836 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers by calling (941) 366- TIPS or online at www.sarasotacrimestop- pers.com.
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