A Superior woman accused of stealing about $34,000 from an elderly woman she was appointed guardian of in order to play penny slots made her initial appearance last week in Douglas County Circuit Court.
Carol Jean Tolliver, 60, faces one felony theft charge. She was appointed the other woman's guardian in August 2006 and was to receive $250 a month for managing her finances. From April 2008 to February 2009, the woman's bank account shrunk from $99,693 to $800, according to the criminal complaint.
Kathy Izzard, an economic support worker with the Douglas County Department of Health and Human Services who was investigating the case, noted that Tolliver had produced checks that had been written out to a Superior bar and to the bar's owner from the account. Tolliver told Superior Police Detective Mike Jaszczak that she wrote the checks out for cash and felt she could do so because her name was on the checks. She told the detective that because she has watched over the woman, who resides in a nursing home, "she was entitled to the money," the complaint stated.
Tolliver was the only person with access to the checkbook and admitted she wrote all the checks, including those cashed at various bars and made out to a number of individuals. She said she used the cash to play penny machines at a Superior bar, the complaint stated. Tolliver told Jaszczak she did not care about using the money from the account, that she would just keep playing and that it was her way to "get away."
Tolliver was released on a $2,000 signature bond with the condition that she have no contact with the woman who she had been appointed guardian for.
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If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Her next court appearance is June 24.
