Former Jackson County DFACS worker indicted on charges of fraud, exploiting the elderly

A former employee with the Jackson County Division of Family and Children Services has been indicted on charges of forgery and exploitation of the elderly, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced Thursday.

Marquetta Curry, who was employed by DFACS at the time of the alleged crime, was indicted by a grand jury Monday on charges of exploitation of an elderly person, forgery and identity fraud.

The exploitation charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, according to the Attorney General’s office.

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The fraud occurred April 19 when Curry is alleged to have instructed an elderly client to give her a check with a blank payee line for $30,000, according to the indictment.

She took the check to South State Bank, where she presented information that the check was authorized by a woman reported to be a great niece of the family, according to the document.

That woman did not authorize the check, the indictment said. Curry, 32, had been employed at DFACS since January 2017.

The case was investigated by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Division.

“We are working every single day to protect Georgia’s older and at-risk adults from abuse, neglect and exploitation of any kind,” Carr said in a statement announcing the indictment.

Curry had not been booked into the Jackson County Jail by Thursday afternoon.