A Gadsden woman pleaded guilty last Friday to “Financial Exploitation” – of her late mother while she was conservator of her mother’s assets.

According to a news release from Attorney General Steve Marshall – Gina Cook Gilbert, age 63 drew a five-year prison sentence for the first-degree financial exploitation of an elderly person, a Class B felony, and also with an additional two years of probation.

Gilbert became the conservator over the finances of her mother, Patricia Jerome, in October of 2014, according to the release.

Four years later – authorities found that she had used Jerome’s assets for personal expenses, and she had also breached her fiduciary duties as the conservator.  Gilbert admitted during a civil lawsuit in that case and also a subsequent criminal investigation – that she couldn’t account for more than $2.5 million of her mother’s money.  She repaid the funds at the end of the civil case; her mother died in 2019.  Gilbert was arrested in 2020.

A.G. Marshall commended Deputy Attorney General John Kachelman and the Attorney General’s Investigation Division for all of their efforts in the prosecution. 

(Gadsden Times)