photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Sept. 4, 2024.

An employee of an elder care facility in Lawrence was ordered to stand trial Friday after a judge found probable cause to believe that she had mistreated and stolen thousands of dollars from a resident at the facility.

The defendant, Honesty Trussell, faces felony charges of mistreatment of a dependent adult or elder person and theft stemming from incidents in March and April, when she worked as the life enrichment coordinator at The Windsor of Lawrence, an assisted living and memory care center at 3220 Peterson Road.

According to the residence director of the facility, Ashley Burnison, who testified Friday at Trussell’s preliminary hearing, Trussell began working at The Windsor in August of 2023, first as a certified nursing assistant, before being promoted to life enrichment coordinator. Trussell’s job was like that of an activity director, Burnison said, arranging crafts and outings for the residents and helping to keep them engaged. The Windsor can house a little over 40 residents, but Burnison thinks there were 25 or fewer staying there at the time.

“I thought Honesty was helping” the resident in question, Burnison testified, but in April Burnison was told that the resident had noticed unauthorized transfers of money from her financial account. Those transfers allegedly were connected to a phone number belonging to Trussell.

Lawrence Police Officer David Hogue told the court that he responded to a report of theft at The Windsor on April 11. He said he visited with the resident, who had a mobile phone and an iPad or similar tablet, and he said that she appeared to need some help using those devices. Hogue said he learned that money was sent via the resident’s phone to Apple Pay, a mobile payment service — and specifically to a phone number that matched Trussell’s.

Hogue said he viewed screenshots showing 15 transactions, beginning on March 28, totaling $2,000. He said Trussell, when confronted, admitted to receiving the transfers, but she said the money was a “gift” from the resident and that she intended to repay it.

Burnison testified that The Windsor prohibited employees from accepting gifts of any kind, monetary or otherwise. Hogue said that he asked Trussell if she was aware of that policy and that she said yes.

Judge Sally Pokorny ordered Trussell to stand trial on both the mistreatment and the theft counts and set her next court date for Sept. 27.