LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – An elderly Valley dementia patient relied on his neighbors for years, and it never posed a problem, until he asked the wrong person for help.
That one very bad decision left him alone in a group home, without identification, or contact with any of the people who’d helped him in the past.
Now the person accused of ripping him off and cleaning him out faces a felony charge. It’s a case FOX5 Investigates has been looking into for months.
92-year-old Robert ((cart-ah-JHEE-nah)) Cartagena suffers from dementia. He found the Las Vegas Jaycees Senior Community Park at a time when he had already lost so many of his memories.
It’s a place where people look out for each other, and in Robert’s case, that community spirit really paid off.
“The community all sticks together, we all help each other out,” a resident named Virgina told us.
“If I don’t see my neighbor’s car move for a couple of days, I will call and say ‘are you okay?’” shared neighbor Sigrid Monda.
Sentiments like those made Robert love living in the senior mobile home park near the Las Vegas Strip.
“It’s really safe, you feel like you’re safe and you’re friends with everybody, you know…” he told us.
Those same feelings of security also led him to make a very big mistake. In September of 2023, he gave one of his neighbors financial power of attorney so she could help him manage his daily life.
“And I thought, wow, this is really nice that someone’s trying to help this resident who has no family, you know, in their 90′s,” shared Rob Deken, the park’s community manager.
Then, in February of 2024 that same neighbor – who court documents identify as Ursula Lichtenstein – had herself added to the title of Robert’s mobile home. Deken tells us he told Lichtenstein to remove her name from the title in early March. Court documents snow, instead of complying, she sold the home for $125,000.
Charging documents show, she told Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, she planned to allow Robert to live there until his death. But then in April…
“All of a sudden he just disappeared. Nobody could find him,” neighbor Michael Ponzi told FOX5.
“We’re trying to hunt him down, the person taking care of him is not cooperating, like telling us where he’s at,” Deken said.
Deken finally learned Robert went to the hospital after a fall. After his release, Lichtenstein dropped off at a group home – paying for only two weeks.
“It was a hospice…and basically he was there to die.”
Neighbor Sigrid Monda tells us, she took the lead in the rescue.
“I told the wife and a very good friend, take Robert out of here right now,” she shared.
“They had to carry him to the car because he was so doped up. It was terrible.”
By early May, Robert was back in the company of his friends at the park, staying with his estranged wife, but his life was in turmoil. He’d lost all his possessions when his home sold, including all his IDs.
Court documents show, Lichtenstein did refund him 115 thousand dollars of its purchase price. She told police she used the remaining ten thousand dollars exclusively for Robert’s care.
However — a closer look at Robert’s bank statements tells a different story. Beginning in February, his seldom-used credit card starts seeing a flurry of charges including nearly 15 hundred dollars in charges at Home Depot, three $1,000 withdrawals at the Orleans, and multiple meals at different restaurants around the Valley.
FOX5 Investigates also spotted charges for luxury hair care products and jewelry. Lichtenstein has not reimbursed Robert for any of that.
Still, in a conversation with FOX5 Investigates in May of last year, she insisted she only acted in the elderly man’s best interests. Documents show, she repeated that same assertion to police.
The accused now faces a single count of exploitation of an elderly or vulnerable person. That’s a Class C felony. If convicted she could face up to five years in prison and ten thousand dollars in fines, plus restitution. She next faces a judge in February.
In the meantime, we’re told a constable removed Lichtenstein from the mobile home park on January 16th.
Attorneys advise never granting anyone power of attorney unless you trust them explicitly, and they know how to handle money. FOX5 Investigates has more advise on handling POA’s here.
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