California Elder Law Attorney Blog

An arrest warrant has recently been issued for an in-home caregiver on allegations she stole nearly $100,000 from a Fairfax couple in their 90s, police said Wednesday.

Jane Macam McClellan, 48, is wanted on suspicion of financial abuse, embezzlement and forgery and is apparently on the lam, according to Fairfax police Sgt. Stuart Baker.

Baker said police attempted to arrange her surrender through a defense attorney in contact with McClellan, but the effort fell through. Now investigators fear McClellan might have found new clients to target, he said.

McClellan's lawyer, Anthony Lowenstein, said his client can explain the discrepancies and that he repeatedly offered to bring McClellan to the police department for voluntary questioning. But Fairfax police failed to set up a meeting and instead forged ahead with criminal charges, after which it was against McClellan's best interests to talk to them, Lowenstein said.

"This whole thing is specifically due to the Fairfax Police Department's complete incompetence," he said. "The Fairfax Police Department is a frigging joke, a frigging joke of an organization, and you can quote me on that."

Lowenstein, who said he spoke to McClellan on Wednesday, said he expects she will appear for an initial court hearing scheduled for Oct. 20.

The Fairfax couple, a 98-year-old woman and her 92-year-old husband, employed McClellan for about six months ending in August, when the couple's family found financial irregularities and fired her, police said.

"The family discovered the problem when they started getting bounced check notifications from the bank," Baker said. "They started looking into it and realized the entire savings was gone."

McClellan allegedly used the couple's credit cards and also spent their money to hire her own family members for housekeeping work, Baker said. In addition, McClellan allegedly increased the couple's reverse-mortgage payments to help disguise the effects of her spending.

"They had just barely enough to keep their own finances going," Baker said. "She basically took over their finances, ripped them off for almost $100,000."

Lowenstein said the case is "simply a misunderstanding" and that no money was used without authorization.

"There's completely an innocent and innocuous explanation," he said. "I'll get more specifics as the case progresses."

The Fairfax couple hired McClellan on the recommendation of a previous caregiver. Nick Trunzo, director of the county's Division of Aging and Adult Services, said there is no state or local licensing requirement for in-home caregivers.

"No one has to be licensed to be a caregiver, per se," he said. "It tends to be, in many cases, informal. People aren't required to be licensed."

Police said McClellan's place of residence is unclear, but that she has family ties in Marin and Contra Costa counties. She could be driving either a teal 1994 Pontiac Firebird, license plate 4VSZ752, or a green 2003 Pontiac Sunfire, plate 5EVW172, possibly to drive or pick up her children at Kent Middle School, police said.