LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Calium Turnage, 59, plead guilty to one count of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult.
As part of the plea deal, Turnage will pay $140,000 in restitution and additional charges were dropped.
“The evidence clearly demonstrates that the defendant personally benefited from the victim’s vulnerable position, and in doing so violated Michigan law,” Nessel said. “Our elder populations are particularly susceptible to financial exploitations and we in law enforcement must remain vigilant and prepared to hold bad actors accountable for such transgressions.”
From July 2016 to Dec. 2017, Turnage wrote checks monthly between $3,000 and $4,000 from the checking account of a 91-year-old associate of his.
Turnage drove the elderly man and did other jobs for him. Roughly $30,000 in checks were paid to Turnage during that time. In the same time frame, 288 ATM withdrawals amounting to $142,000 were made by Turnage.
The elderly man was found to be incompetent, and two weeks before he died, Turnage became entitled to most the man’s $600,000 estate after he submitted a request to remove the victim’s longtime girlfriend and name himself as primary beneficiary of the estate.
Charges were initially filed against Turnage in Dec. 2020. After the plea deal count of embezzlement by an agent or trustee between $20,000 and $50,0000, a 10-year felony; and two counts of failure to file taxes, a five-year felony were dropped.
Turnage is scheduled for sentencing at 1:30 p.m. April 12.
More information about the task force and how to report suspected elder abuse can be found on the Department of the Attorney General’s website.
