Daughter indicted in 'financial abuse' case

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

UPDATE: The state expunged Letitia Lani McKee-Cooper’s arrest record in 2007 for the charges mentioned in the story below.
McKee-Cooper pleaded no contest to second-degree forgery on March 10, 2004, in a plea deal with the state. In exchange, the state agreed to drop a first-degree theft charge. At sentencing on May 25, 2005, the judge granted Cooper's request for a deferral of her no contest plea and ordered a five-year period of deferral.
That meant that if she stayed out of trouble until May 24, 2010, the court would dismiss the forgery charge and she would not have had a conviction on her record. However, on Aug. 7, 2006, her lawyer asked the court to shorten the period of deferral.
The court did, discharging McKee-Cooper from court supervision and dismissed the charge.
On. Nov. 23, 2007, the state Attorney General’s office expunged her arrest record for both counts.

A former Honolulu woman who prosecutors believe systematically stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her 89-year-old mother was indicted yesterday by an O'ahu grand jury on felony charges of first-degree theft and forgery.

"This is a case about the abuse of an elder in our community," said Stephen Niwa, city deputy prosecutor. "It is a case of financial abuse and our position is that sometimes financial abuse can be just as damaging as physical abuse."

Investigators believe that Letitia McKee Cooper, 58, took cash, stocks, jewelry and title to burial plots from her mother, Ella McKee, after gaining power of attorney on her mother's behalf. Niwa said the property taken from January to June 2000 amounts to "several hundreds of thousands of dollars."

The mother had worked in a civil service job at the Pearl Harbor shipyard before retiring, Niwa said.

He said that Cooper paid the care home bill for the first two months after her mother was released from a hospitalization but that after the payments stopped, the operator of the care home took care of McKee for free. The operator eventually moved McKee to the Mainland at the operator's own expense and continued to care for her, Niwa said.

Conviction on the theft count would carry a prison term of up to 10 years while the forgery count carries a maximum term of five years.

At one point, Cooper returned about $300,000 to one of her mother's accounts at the request of a "trust conservator" or someone appointed to oversee the account, Niwa said.

Cooper and McKee, who now live in separate homes in Southern California, could not be reached for comment.