Calling a caregiver’s actions “despicable,” a judge Wednesday sentenced her to four years in jail for bilking a retired Kansas University professor and his wife of more than $70,000 during the final years of their lives.

Melody G. McKenzie, 43, Lawrence, pleaded guilty earlier this year to fleecing William J. Griffith, former director of KU’s Center of Latin American Studies, and his wife, Shirley Griffith, after McKenzie began work in spring 2001 as the Griffiths’ in-home caregiver.

“Your actions were despicable,” Douglas County District Judge Paula Martin told McKenzie. “You preyed on the Griffiths when they were the most vulnerable.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Shelley Diehl said that when the Griffiths moved from their home to Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community in spring 2002, McKenzie convinced them to keep paying her $6,000 per week for what Diehl called “bogus companion care.”

In one 44-day period, checks worth $43,296 were made out to McKenzie from the Griffiths’ account, Diehl said.

Financial records showed about $300,000 in checks paid to McKenzie from the Griffiths’ account, officials said, but $70,817 is the agreed amount of restitution in the case.

William Griffith died in July at age 94; Shirley Griffith died in August 2002 at age 81.

The Griffiths had no living relatives. Mrs. Griffith — who made the financial decisions in the family — decided to hire McKenzie as the couple’s health declined late in life, said family friend Charles Stansifer, a KU history professor.

Sweet-talked

McKenzie worked with a group of caregivers known informally as “the Stull nurses.” Stansifer said he thought most of the crew members were McKenzie’s relatives.

At first, the crew came and went from the Griffiths’ home on Broadview Drive but eventually moved in with the couple to provide full-time care, said Stansifer, who served as William Griffith’s legal guardian. Stansifer and others were concerned about the arrangement but at first didn’t have specific evidence of wrongdoing.

Stansifer said he thought McKenzie had sweet-talked her way into Shirley Griffith’s favor, then influenced her to write checks for exorbitant amounts of money.

“Close to the end of Shirley’s life, she really could not tell the difference between $3,000 and $30,000 or $300,000,” Stansifer said. “She was simply told by Melody to sign the check, and she did without knowing what the consequences were.”

Along the way, McKenzie and her group convinced Shirley Griffith to fire a financial adviser and fire an attorney who was involved in the couple’s finances, Stansifer said. The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services also looked into the situation but found there was nothing it could do, he said.

After Shirley Griffith died, an officer of CornerBank, 4621 W. Sixth St. — the conservator of the Griffiths’ estate — began trying to piece together the couple’s finances. That led to an investigation by the Lawrence Police Department.

“I felt compelled to report to the authorities that I suspected the Griffiths had been financially exploited,” CornerBank trust officer Barbara Braa said in court Wednesday.

Braa said the case illustrated the need for senior citizens to work with a professional financial adviser.

Four years

Asked Wednesday by Martin whether she had anything to say for herself, McKenzie said no.

Martin sentenced her to four consecutive 12-month sentences in the Douglas County Jail, one for each count of mistreatment of a dependent adult, a misdemeanor. Prosecutors had recommended only a year in jail, and McKenzie’s attorney, Brian Johnson, asked for probation.

Charges are pending against a co-defendant in the case, Donald M. Steele, 44, Lawrence, who is charged with financial abuse of the Griffiths related to landscaping work in summer 2001. The relationship between Steele and McKenzie isn’t clear in court records.

Such crimes were the reason for formation of a Vulnerable Adults Task Force, announced in late October by Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline and intended to offer beefed-up enforcement of crimes against people who are elderly or disabled.

Kline said elderly Kansas were increasingly targeted because many of them live in relative isolation, have cash assets and generally trust people.