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Great Escapes!

    January 2008 

Maydelle Trambarulo is finally FREE!  A resident of NJ, she has been trapped by the CT probate system for three long years and imprisoned in a CT nursing home away from her family

After a Superior Court judge recently ruled Maydelle could return to her family, unbelievably, her conservator asked the judge for a stay of Maydelle's release from his custody!  The battle seemed insurmountable, but the Trambarulos believe in miracles - and they just got one!

  Look at these smiles! 

See this story on Fox TV:

http://www.myfoxny.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=5821397&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Woman sentenced for swindling
great-aunt (Published Friday, July 21, 2006 11:19:31 AM CDT)
By Mike DuPre' Gazette Staff

(Note:  Kathleen Simane was Sylvia's Aunt's court-appointed temporary guardian.)

The next 20 years of Kathleen Simane's life will be either behind bars or under the state's watchful eye.  And if Simane violates either extended supervision or probation she could spend up to 25 years in prison.

Judge James Daley sentenced Simane, 36, St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday for two counts of theft by bailee in a case in which her great-aunt, Helen Fabis, and other relatives were swindled out of more than $78,000.  Simane pleaded guilty to the two charges in April.

In a barely audible voice, Simane apologized to her relatives for her crimes and said she would pay the court-ordered restitution: $78,290.

In addition, she must pay a 15 percent surcharge-$11,743-to the estate.

"She is incredibly remorseful and never intended to do any harm to (Fabis)," said Simane's attorney, Stephanie Ames of Woodland Hills, Calif.

Simane became Fabis' guardian because no one else in the family was willing to help the elderly woman, not because she was after her money, Ames said.

"This is a crime of impulse and opportunity," the lawyer said.

Fabis, an 85-year-old childless widow of 30 years, fell seriously ill in March 2001, and Simane was named temporary guardian in what was a family emergency.

Fabis, a rural Edgerton resident, died the next month.

Prosecutor Barbara Oswald, an assistant attorney general for Wisconsin, painted a different picture: "This is a case about greed, not about need. … Kathleen Simane is a financial predator. She preys on people whose assets allow her to live a better lifestyle."

Within days of gaining access to Fabis' accounts, Simane started spending her great-aunt's money, Oswald said.

Simane paid off one car and bought a better vehicle, Ames said.

Simane paid for breast augmentation with Fabis' money, and after Fabis died in April 2001, Simane asked that the funeral be delayed while her breasts healed, according to court documents.

"(Simane) also went to the effort of cashing (Fabis') Social Security checks," the prosecutor said.

Two relatives-Estelle Hartman, one of Fabis' sisters, and Sylvia Rudek, Hartman's daughter-asked the judge to sentence Simane to at least 10 years in prison.

"I am sad, and I feel guilty for the tragic way Helen died," Hartman said in a statement read by Ames. "The pain became greater as Kathleen's betrayal and treatment of my sister was revealed by my daughter, Sylvia."

Rudek said:  "Our family of four generations was destroyed by one person, and that person is Kathleen Simane. Kathleen Simane is not considered a member of our family. …

"There is nothing that Kathleen Simane won't say or do to get what she wants," Rudek said.

In levying his sentence, Daley noted Fabis' vulnerability and Simane's speed in taking advantage of her great-aunt.

"The funds should have been used for her benefit, but you used them for your benefit," Daley admonished Simane. "You took money from someone who could not protect herself. You were supposed to protect her. …

"We as a people will be judged by how we treat the least in our society and those who cannot help themselves," the judge said.

(See also:  From Television Personality to Prison)