Woman Charged With Stealing Elderly Mother’s Retirement to Fuel Gambling Habit

Police in Pennsylvania allege a 56-year-old woman residing in Ridgway drained her elderly mother s retirement savings to fuel her nasty gambling habit.

Court records reveal that Kelly Jo Wright was designated as her mother s power of attorney in early 2022. Instead of caring for her mother s finances as she battled early onset dementia, county prosecutors in Jefferson allege that Wright cashed out her mom s IRA worth $123K and gambled the money away at gaming facilities and casinos in both and Upstate New York in less than two years.

Against the advice of a financial advisor s recommendations who had managed the on the mother s behalf before her daughter gained power of attorney privileges, Wright surrendered the retirement account. An investigation discovered that Wright used the funds to pay her personal expenditures and cover her gambling trips during an 18-month period that ran from March 2022 through September 2023.

Wright allegedly also cashed out her mother s other banking accounts, which totaled about $27K. 

Prosecutors allege that Wright used much of her mom s money to pay for her gambling problem. They claim she lost most of the cash playing controversial , unregulated, slot-like machines, at local businesses in Punxsutawney and Reynoldsville.

Wright also visited the in Salamanca, NY, a roughly hour and 15-minute drive north from Ridgway. The casino owned and operated by the Seneca Nation told law enforcement that Wright had signed up for its rewards program and therefore it could provide a win/loss statement. Those records revealed that Wright lost $17K at the casino in 2022 and more than $7K last year.

If she gambled without first inserting her rewards program in a slot or having a dealer record her loyalty number, her losses could be considerably more at the tribal casino.

While Wright gambled away the money, her elderly mother received a monthly income of just $1,600 from Social Security.

Wright has been charged with four felony counts, including financial exploitation of an older adult or care-dependent person, theft by deception-false impression, theft by deception-prevent acquisition of information, and theft by deception-failure to correct.

She s due in court on Monday, Jan. 6 for a preliminary hearing. She remains in custody at Jefferson County s Brookville Correctional Facility after failing to post $100K bail.

This isn t Wright s first run-in with the law. A former caretaker of animals working on a rescue farm that had horses, donkeys, dogs, and cats, Pennsylvania court records show that in April Wright was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals causing death a third-degree felony. State police in DuBois charged Wright with 22 counts of .

This month, before the theft allegations came to light, Wright was also charged with a felony for the intent to manufacture or deliver illegal narcotics. In that case, the Jefferson County Drug Task Force alleges that Wright used Facebook Messenger to try and purchase hydrocodone pills and fentanyl from a person who turned out to be an informant.

The three cases are ongoing, court records show.