Trial date set for woman accused of stealing from elderly woman

A trial date has been set in the case of a 46-year-old Berwick woman accused of theft of $48,500 in assets from an aged person stemming from a July 2012 arrest, according to St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court records.
Trial has been set March 2 for Rachel Aucoin, 46, of the 2800 block of First Street in Berwick, in the 16th Judicial District Court after a Nov. 13 pre-trial conference, according to court records.
Aucoin was charged with theft of assets of an aged person July 12, 2012, according to court records.
On Jan. 9, 2012, an Elderly Affairs investigator with the Governor’s Office came to the Morgan City Police Department to speak with detectives after the investigator was contacted by a Whitney Bank employee, according to the affidavit for Aucoin’s arrest.
The bank employee advised the investigator that there were some “red flags” on an account at the bank, the affidavit stated. Bank officials told the investigator that within the past 10 days about $10,000 had been withdrawn from the account and over the past three to four months a total of about $43,000 had been withdrawn from the account, the affidavit said.
Bank records indicated that the account holder had never previously withdrawn such large amounts in such a short period of time, the affidavit stated. Investigators spoke to the account holder, who told police she was unaware of the large sums of money being withdrawn from her account, the affidavit said.
Police then spoke to Aucoin, who told police she had no knowledge of the money being withdrawn from the victim’s account, the affidavit stated. Aucoin told police several times that she would never hurt the victim, according to the affidavit.
Upon receiving consent to search Aucoin’s purse, detectives found several receipts, some of which showed withdrawals from the victim’s account, the affidavit said. Detectives also located an Edward Jones check book belonging to the victim, which Aucoin should not have had, the affidavit said.
Police gathered videos of ATM withdrawals from the dates and times of the withdrawals from the victim’s account, the affidavit said. The videos showed a person who a detective believed to be Aucoin withdrawing money from the ATM at the same dates and times of the withdrawals from the victim’s account, according to the affidavit.
Detectives received a call from the victim’s son-in-law, who told police that a Morgan Stanley account belonging to the victim had been compromised, the affidavit said. Police noticed that about $60,220 from the victim’s Morgan Stanley account and about $9,800 was removed from the victim’s Edward Jones account, the affidavit said.
Around the same dates the money was moved from the victim’s Edward Jones and Morgan Stanley accounts, about $79,500 was deposited into the victim’s Whitney Bank account, the affidavit stated. Starting around the same time that Aucoin began working for the victim, there were several $500 and $1,000 withdraws from the victim’s Whitney Bank account totaling about $48,500, the affidavit said.
After reviewing the ATM withdrawal surveillance video, the money withdrawn from the victim’s account appears to have been withdrawn by Aucoin and the cash deposited into Aucoin’s account on or near the dates of the ATM withdraws from the victim’s account, the affidavit said.
Detectives believe Aucoin used the victim’s ATM card to remove money from the victim’s account and deposit some of the cash into her own account, the affidavit stated. Even though only about $36,725 was deposited into Aucoin’s account, investigators believe that Aucoin removed about $48,500 from the victim’s account and used it for her own benefit, the affidavit said.