NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City building superintendent who was praised as a devoted caregiver in a New York Times profile was charged Thursday with stealing more than $350,000 from a 100-year-old resident of the building where she worked, prosecutors announced.
Rosalind Hernandez, 56, who worked at a 53-unit co-op apartment where many residents were older adults, is accused of persuading the victim to grant her power of attorney and then using his checkbook and debit and credit cards to make hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of unauthorized purchases.
“The victim relied on Ms. Hernandez for help, yet after she befriended him, she allegedly broke his trust and stole his hard-earned money for her personal greed,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement, adding, ”Those who prey on vulnerable older adults will be held accountable."
Hernandez's attorney, Vik Pawar, said, “We intend to fight these charges.”
The 2023 Times profile called Hernandez “the unofficial companion and caregiver to the retirees, widows and widowers” who occupied more than half of the apartments in the building near Google's offices in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood where she worked.
“If it weren’t for her, I’d be in the gutter,” a then-98-year-old resident named Antonio Ruas told the Times.
The district attorney's office would not say whether Ruas was the person Hernandez is accused of stealing from, but the details appear to match.
According to the indictment, the victim agreed to give Hernandez access to his bank account and credit cards as he became frailer.
The victim was injured in a fall in the summer of 2023 and was not expected to recover, so Hernandez accompanied him on a trip to visit his family, prosecutors said.
Hernandez returned to New York City with the man’s checkbook, bank card and credit cards, prosecutors said. He had given her the task of selling his apartment and tying up his affairs in exchange for $100,000, prosecutors said, but she also wrote large unauthorized checks to people unknown to the victim.
Prosecutors said Hernandez also used the victim's debit and credit cards on personal expenses such as travel, clothing and a subscription to an entrepreneurship training program for herself and her niece.
Despite his earlier dire prognosis, the victim recovered from his injuries and returned to New York. Once back home he regained access to his financial accounts and discovered the theft, prosecutors said.
Hernandez was indicted on two counts of grand larceny and released with an order of protection to stay away from the victim.