A former Cloquet, Minn., police officer has been found guilty of stealing from a 78-year-old woman suffering from dementia.
Laci Silgjord was found guilty Monday of one count of felony attempted theft by swindle for over $35,000 over the estate of Joan Arney, a Cloquet woman suffering from dementia, whom then-police officer Silgjord was given temporary guardianship over shortly before Arney died in 2020.
“My thoughts today are with the late Joan Arney and her family: they should never have been exploited the way Laci Silgjord shamelessly exploited them,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted that case, said in a statement. “In trying to cheat Ms. Arney and her family out of her estate, Silgjord betrayed her oath to her badge, her department, and the community she was supposed to serve.”
The court found that Silgjord, 37, represented herself to Arney’s bank as her fiduciary, despite lacking legal authority to do so, gained access to the victim’s bank accounts and attempted to inherit her entire estate, worth more than $150,000.
In 2023, the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which investigates individuals or organizations that steal from Medicaid and abuse vulnerable people, charged Silgjord with three counts relating to financially exploiting Arney.
Silgjord was acquitted of the more serious felony charge of financially exploiting a vulnerable adult, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and/or a fine of $100,000, and a gross misdemeanor charge of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
According to an investigation conducted by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Silgjord first met Arney in person after Arney called the Cloquet Police Department to report that her purse had been stolen.
Three months later, Silgjord and other officers checked in on Arney at her home after she mistakenly sent mail to the police department. After she did not answer the door, officers entered her house to find Arney in a critical medical condition. She was brought to Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet before being transferred to St. Luke’s in Duluth.
Arney had no surviving children and an estranged husband, Roger Arney, from whom she had been separated since 2013 but remained legally married.
Shortly after being hospitalized, St. Luke’s petitioned the St. Louis County District Court for an order appointing an emergency guardian for Arney. While visiting her, a hospital social worker asked Silgjord to serve as her emergency guardian. Silgjord accepted and was granted temporary guardianship over Arney for two months.
According to the investigation, records from St. Luke’s show Arney had significantly diminished mental capacity, having had a stroke and suffering from dementia. Arney reportedly did not know the current year, believed the hospital to be “the place where trains switch cars,” and referred to people in the room who were not present.
While visiting Arney, Silgjord recorded conversations by her bedside. In the conversations, Silgjord tells Arney that she is her “new grandma” and that she loves her. Arney, in turn, told Silgjord that she loves her.
Despite not having the legal authority to access Arney’s bank accounts, 10 days after being appointed guardianship, Silgjord provided her guardianship paperwork to Arney’s bank and was granted access to her accounts, which had a combined total of $43,120.
After obtaining access, Silgjord transferred tens of thousands of dollars between the accounts. Bank records obtained during the investigation show Silgjord wrote a check from Arney’s checking account dated Oct. 26, 2020, to Atkin’s Funeral Home for $6,000. Silgjord also said she used money from Arney’s account to pay Arney’s power bill.
Arney died Oct. 28, 2020, without a will, ending Silgjord’s emergency guardianship. Silgjord assumed responsibility for the funeral arrangements, but failed to alert Arney’s legal heir, her estranged husband Roger.
After learning about Joan’s death in a newspaper obituary, Roger met with Silgjord at a Perkins restaurant. When Roger asked whether her guardianship expired, Silgjord told him she was “in charge” and ensuring Joan’s wishes were being met, failing to mention that she was no longer Joan’s guardian.
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