Caregiver used dementia patient’s credit card for Door Dash, Walmart purchases, police say

LOGAN — Dawn Wilson says she got a concerning call from her stepbrother, that led them to reach out to police more than a year ago. He had noticed some unusual charges on his dad, Dale Greenlee’s credit card statement.

“We had met each other at our father’s room and, we started looking through it,” Wilson recalled. “And a lot of the food was not anything that he would normally eat.”

Wilson said one of the charges was for about $250 worth of food at Costa Vida through DoorDash.

According to an arrest affidavit, Logan police eventually tracked the charges to 32-year-old Maria Trinidad Mendez, an employee at Williamsburg assisted living, where Greenlee was staying in hospice. A probable cause statement estimated that she had charged $633 worth in DoorDash, and about $399 worth in charges at Walmart, including dog treats and an Xbox controller. When detectives confronted Mendez about the charges, they say she claimed some were made by mistake on Greenlee’s card and that she had reimbursed him. According to the affidavit, she also claimed that Greenlee would buy the food for employees, and that the dog treats were for his dog. Detectives said Greenlee did not have a dog.

“I am very upset because,” Wilson said. “You know, when your parents get to the point where they need a home, you put them into a home where you think they’re going to be loved and respected, not to be abused.”

Wilson says Greenlee stayed at Williamsburg for about a month and a half and passed away shortly after. He suffered from both blindness and dementia at the time. While Greenlee was Wilson’s stepfather, she refers to him as her dad.

“He actually walked me down the aisle when I got married to my first husband,” Wilson recalled. “And he was there when all my babies were born.”

Wilson worries that other residents could have been victimized by Mendez, and she’s urging other families to check their records.

“I thought, well, if she has used my dad’s card, how many other people has she used their cards for?” she said.

Mendez was served two third-degree felonies and two class-a misdemeanors in connection with using Greenlee’s card. She will have to turn herself in for arrest before her first court appearance on January 25th, 2025.

A spokesperson for SAL Management Group, which manages Williamsburg, provided the following statement:

“We are aware of the serious allegations involving former employee Maria Mendez at our Williamsburg facility in Logan. We can confirm that Mendez is no longer employed with us, as we terminated her immediately upon learning of the situation.

At SAL Management Group, we take these matters very seriously. We have fully cooperated with local law enforcement and conducted our own investigation. Based on our communications with residents and their families, we believe this was an isolated incident.

We want to emphasize that we have a zero-tolerance policy for theft and the misuse of trust placed in us by our residents. The safety and well-being of those we serve is our highest priority, and we are committed to maintaining the integrity of our care.”