New York's top prosecutor has brought charges in a case she described as especially cruel. According to News 12, a Queens man has been arrested and charged with stealing the home of a 92-year-old East Flatbush woman who has advanced dementia. The state Attorney General called the alleged conduct heartless, framing it as a brazen theft targeting one of the most vulnerable victims imaginable.
At the center of the case is an elderly homeowner who had spent most of her life in the house. The Attorney General's office says the victim, Althea Garrick, was getting care for advanced dementia in her East Flatbush home, where she has lived for 47 years. Her condition, prosecutors say, left her unable to protect herself from what allegedly happened to her property.
The core of the allegation is what prosecutors call deed theft. They accuse Mark Sackley of forging documents to transfer ownership of Garrick's home to himself, effectively signing away her house without her knowledge. He is then accused of allowing other people to move into the home, treating the stolen property as his own.
The alleged scheme went beyond the house itself and reached into the victim's finances. Sackley is also accused of stealing 148,000 dollars from Garrick, along with around 20,000 dollars taken from her ex-husband's pension. Together, the figures point to an alleged effort to strip the elderly woman of both her home and her savings.
Investigators say the money did not go toward anything resembling care for the victim. According to the Attorney General's office, Sackley spent the stolen funds on personal expenses, including credit cards, bills, luxury purchases, a jewelry store, clothing, nail salon visits and airfare. The spending, prosecutors suggest, underscored the personal gain at the heart of the case.
The Attorney General did not mince words in announcing the charges. Letitia James called Sackley's alleged crimes heartless and described the matter bluntly as deed theft, plain and simple. The case adds to a broader push by prosecutors to crack down on schemes that target elderly and incapacitated homeowners through forged property transfers.