WEST WARWICK – A nursing assistant who was convicted of stealing from memory loss patients at the Spring Villa Memory Care Assisted Living Facility has had her state licenses revoked, WPRI-TV CBS 12 reported Tuesday.
Dr. Utpala Bandy, R.I. Department of Health interim director, adopted a recommendation to revoke the licenses of Tracy Famulari, who pleaded no contest this past February to a dozen counts of felony exploitation of an elder over $500 and under $100,000.
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Famulari is on probation until 2028.
“A nursing assistant is to assist patients who need help. Taking patients’ money is unethical and untrustworthy and incompetent,” hearing officer Catherine Warren wrote in the recommendation.
Court records show police began investigating a larceny at the assisted living facility in December 2019 after an administrator learned that funds from the personal allowances of 26 residents with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of severe memory loss “had been fraudulently accessed and used by the facility’s administrative assistant, Tracy Famulari,” WPRI-TV reported.
According to an affidavit obtained by WPRI-TV, a facility administrator spoke with Famulari, who was a registered nursing assistant and licensed medication aide at that time, after noticing discrepancies that Famulari had initialed. The administrator warned Famulari that if he found more discrepancies, he’d have to involve the police.
An internal audit found “numerous discrepancies in the personal needs accounts of the additional twenty-five victims,” the affidavit said.
The administrator notified the police when he discovered Famulari initiated all of the fraudulent transactions. He told police Famulari forged the initials of other employees, who later confirmed the withdrawals were not in their handwriting nor did they give her consent to initial them on their behalf, according to the WPRI-TV report.
Though Famulari was fired, she was not charged until January 2021, according to court records obtained by WPRI-TV. She initially faced 23 counts of exploitation of an elder and three counts of obtaining money under false pretenses under $1,500.
Famulari was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution totaling $19,444, with $8,000 paid upfront, WPRI-TV reported. As of Monday, court records say Famulari still owed a remaining balance of $9,444.
Famulari testified during her license hearing that she had the receipts for the withdrawals “but was unable to access them,” adding that “the court documents make her look like a bad person, but really she did not have the money to prove her innocence,” WPRI-TV reported.
At the time, Famulari said she was employed as a nursing assistant but couldn’t access any money and wasn’t working “due to an accident which requires surgery.”
