St. Paul police seek to launch new unit on elder abuse

One court document said 79-year-old Virginia Allred was "sobbing and appeared very upset" after her daughter began screaming at her brother and the staff at the Lyngblomsten Care Center.

Another says the daughter, Lisa Allred, began kicking and punching her brother while he visited their mother at the St. Paul nursing home.

Yet another says that Lisa Allred is being investigated by St. Paul police "for the financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult" and that Virginia Allred is close to being evicted from the nursing home because her daughter has failed to pay the bills.

Lisa Allred was charged last week by the St. Paul city attorney's office with two gross misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct. A warrant has been issued for her arrest, according to court documents. Although the criminal complaint lists Allred's age as 50, state driving records put her at 42.

The case points up a need the Police Department plans to address.

St. Paul police are seeking a grant to start a unit that would investigate elder abuse cases, said Sgt. Ann Bebeau, who, with Sgt. Mike Wortman, investigated this case. About 800 suspected elder-abuse cases are reported in St. Paul each year, she said.

"Between 2000 and 2030, the population of those over 65 is going to double," Bebeau said. "Law enforcement needs to think about what kind of services we're providing to that community."

According to a search warrant affidavit filed Friday in Ramsey County District Court, police went to Lisa Allred's home in the 1300 block of Seminary Avenue hoping to find financial records, power-of-attorney documents and other paperwork. What they found instead was a garbage house, complete with dead rodents, animal feces and trash.

The house was "immediately boarded and condemned," the affidavit said.

The court documents say Virginia Allred is disabled as the result of two major strokes, can't walk and has no use of one arm.

A second search warrant affidavit seeking records from Bremer Bank in St. Paul says that Virginia Allred's Social Security and pension checks are being direct-deposited into a joint account controlled by Lisa Allred.

"The daughter [Lisa Allred] has refused to pay the nursing home bill, which is now in the amount of $15,000," the document says. "The daughter states she needs the money for her home expenses. ... This has been the pattern at two other care facilities as well."

Messages left for the administrator and assistant administrator at the nursing home were not returned Monday. Efforts to reach Lisa Allred or her brother, Lance Allred, were not successful.