Maxine Steelman, 85, had no trouble living alone. She liked to work in her yard and visit with friends. Now, thanks to a Hannibal man charged with taking her for about $1,800, Steelman will be locking her doors.
“I won’t trust people anymore, which I hate,” said Steelman.
Michael David Rickey, charged with three felony counts of financial exploitation of the elderly, likely knew what he was doing when he showed up in Steelman’s yard March 5, according to court records. He asked her if she needed any yard work done, and said he had worked for her neighbor. His rates would be reasonable, he assured her.
“He was a very personable young man, there wasn’t anything that said he was going to cheat me,” Steelman said.
Rickey spent a few hours cutting down five or six limbs from trees in Steelman’s yard, trimming another tree, and hauling them away, she said. While he was there, they chatted about his family, and she said he was a nice, nice-looking young man. When he had completed the work, he went into Steelman’s kitchen to give her the bill.
And boy, did he give it to her. For those few hours of work he billed Steelman $1,875, according to the probable cause statement from the Salem Police Department.
“He was standing in my kitchen, and he is kind of a tall guy. I was alone. I told him I thought the work was worth $300 or $400, but I didn’t argue,” said Steelman.
Steelman said she tried to stop payment on the check, but he had cashed it within a couple of hours. She tried to call the Dent County Sheriff’s Office the next day, but says they did not respond. She then called the State Highway Patrol, but they said the sheriff’s office would have to come out.
In the meantime, Rickey was hard at work. He did jobs for at least three other elderly Salem residents, charging them with what law enforcement claims is two to three times the estimated value for the work he performed. His M.O. was always the same, he would advise residents that he would not charge too much, then he would complete the work, or not, according to the probable cause statement. When it was time for him to square up with the resident, he would insist on them paying the bill.
The Salem Police Department was contacted by the son of one of the alleged victims, and Sgt. Joe Chase responded to her home. Rickey had been hired to clean gutters, trim some trees and tar a chimney. Further investigation by the Salem Police Department found that only part of the gutters had been cleaned, and Chase stated in his report that the work appeared to be subpar.
Rickey was arrested April 11 returning to the home of one of his alleged victims. His truck was searched, and his receipt book taken. He was interviewed by Chase at the Salem Police Department, and maintained that his prices were in line with, “what they charge in the city,” according to the statement. When Chase advised Rickey he was going to be charged with financial exploitation of the elderly, Rickey slapped his legs and said, “Well, let’s get it rolling.”
This is not Rickey’s first time facing these charges, nor is it his first encounter with the law in Dent County. Rickey has faced allegations and charges in 2011 in Maries and Dent counties. Police Chief Keith Steelman said that Chase remembered the name when a report was filed.
“He (Chase) told me they just couldn’t find him before,” said Chief Steelman.
At that time Rickey had been evading law enforcement for nearly five years on charges of theft by deceit and fraud in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas. He is currently out on bond in Cole County for three felony counts of failing to pay taxes, according to court documents.
“He has done this before, and gotten away with it,” said Dent County prosecutor Andrew M. Curley.
Financial exploitation of the elderly is an unusual charge, according to Curley, because it is essentially a civil case, with a criminal burden.
However, it is a charge that is becoming more common. The National Institute of Justice states that while the United States has no national reporting mechanism for exploitation, some third party organizations do track it.
An NIJ study from 2005 to 2007 found that elderly people were more likely to be financial exploited than physically abused. Victims of financial exploitation are likely to be independent, of sound mind, and did not financially support their abuser.
Chief Steelman said that the SPD has had reports of scams against the elderly, and had heard of it happening in the county, but that it does not always get reported.
“They might be embarrassed that they got taken, so they might not say anything,” said Chief Steelman.
The National Association of Adult Protective Services Administrators found in 2000 that financial exploitation of the elderly made up about 13 percent of elderly abuse, but it is also safe to say that failures to report and document the issue mean in reality, that number should be higher.
Maxine Steelman was contacted by Sgt. Joe Chase when he found her name in Rickey’s receipt book. It was April 16, almost a month and a half after she had handed over a check for more than $1,800 to Rickey, and after she had tried to get help from the sheriff’s office and the highway patrol, but had never heard back.
“I just hate that he got five more people while I was waiting on the sheriff,” said Steelman.
Sheriff Rick Stallings stated that he did have Sergeant Mike Roderman take Steelman’s statement.
“It was a civil deal, nothing criminal. Because it was civil, an agreement, we couldn’t pursue it,” said Stallings.
Missouri Revised Statute 570. 145 classifies financial abuse of the elderly as a class C felony when a person, “knowingly by deception, intimidation, undue influence, or force obtains control over the elderly or disabled person's property with the intent to permanently deprive the elderly or disabled person of the use, benefit or possession… if the value of the property is $500 but less than $1,000.”
