Niece Pleads Not Guilty to Embezzlement Scheme

A Fullerton woman accused of stealing more than $270,000 from her 96-year-old aunt and spending it on a sports car and loans to her boyfriends pleaded not guilty Monday to felony charges of embezzlement and elder abuse.

Carolyn Birkitt Taggart, 60, was arrested last month after police investigated a tip they received from a former boyfriend in March, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Doug Brannan. The boyfriend reported Taggart’s embezzling scheme, including a loan he received for roughly $30,000 to start a television production business, Brannan said.

Taggart fired her aunt’s accountant when the elderly woman moved to a retirement home in Orange County last year and, as her closest relative, took over her financial affairs, officials said. The aunt had more than $400,000.

Shortly thereafter, Taggart began forging checks from her aunt’s bank account that ranged from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands, Brannan said. Since her arrest, Taggart’s accounts have been frozen along with her aunt’s, and officials are seeking a conservator for the aunt, he said.

Detectives found purchases estimated at $270,000, including a $44,000 Corvette and a $10,000 cashier’s check that was transferred to Taggart’s new boyfriend in prison, Brannan said.

The prosecutor would not release the aunt’s name, saying she remained an easy target.

If not for the original tip, Brannan said, officials would likely never have learned of the transactions. Bank officials never reported suspicious activity in the victim’s accounts, he said.

“Usually someone notices something, especially when this kind of money is involved,” Brannan said. “Here we have an elderly woman who at one time was quite stable financially and who no longer is. It’s disheartening.”

Taggart, a retired engineer, faces six years in prison if convicted.