Embezzlement from a vulnerable adult leads to jail.

Dean Drake with his attorney, Al Swanson, Jr.

By Allison Scarbrough. Courts/Police Editor.

LUDINGTON — A 54-year-old Riverton Township man convicted of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult and stealing/retaining a financial transaction device without consent was sentenced in 51st Circuit Court Tuesday, March 15, to serve four months up front of a one-year discretionary jail sentence and ordered to pay nearly $5,000 in restitution.

Dean Alan Drake testified last January that the victim has multiple sclerosis, and he helped care for her occasionally.

“I wasn’t the leader in the plan,” Drake said Tuesday. “I just stupidly did it.”

In exchange for his guilty pleas to the two counts, two other counts of stealing/retaining a financial transaction device without consent were dismissed.

The crimes occurred in May through July of 2015.

Drake testified that the the victim provided her personal identification (PIN) for her automated teller machine (ATM) card, and he took more money out of her bank account than she authorized.

“The victim had physical maladies that made her a vulnerable adult,” said Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola.

Drake was ordered to pay $4,999.62 in restitution, which is joint and several with a co-defendant. He was given credit for 121 days served in jail.

Judge Susan K. Sniegowski followed the plea agreement for his sentence, noting Drake’s non-leadership role in the offense and his prior record of no felonies.