Top Stories Milwaukee

(This story originally ran on May 25)

A woman once convicted of stealing from the nursing home she ran as patients suffered from neglect will now go to prison for tax evasion.

Karen Mason, 57, was CEO, administrator and part owner of Havenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Milwaukee. It closed in 2005 after a raid by state and federal regulators uncovered severe neglect. Some patients were denied baths and clean sheets and one jumped to his death after staff failed to report to his doctors that he was threatening suicide.

wisconsin eastern district federal courthouse in Milwaukee

While patients suffered, federal authorities say, Mason was taking money from Havenwood accounts and buying furniture, carpeting, jewelry, new cars, concert and sporting tickets. In all, police allege, she took over $1 million. She was also accused of spending money on vacations, wedding and honeymoon expenses and payments to the Milwaukee Yacht Club.

A federal judge sentenced Mason to two years in prison last week after she pleaded guilty to a single count of tax evasion. After her release, she will serve three years of probation.

In 2008, she pleaded guilty in Milwaukee County Circuit Court to charges of theft and abuse of a patient causing physical harm, all felonies. She was sentenced to 15 months in the Milwaukee County House of Corrections and ordered to pay back $20,696 to the Havenwood employee 401(k) account and $64,435 to a bank account belonging to the nursing home.

Federal charging documents say Mason was CEO, administrator and part owner of the nursing home while living in Oconomowoc, Germantown and Menomonee Falls. She was also CEO and part owner of a consulting firm, Avalon Health Care Management.

In the tax evasion case, prosecutors alleged she took in about $642,000 in income in 2004 – $212,000 in salary from the nursing home and consulting firm and the rest from theft – but never filed a tax return.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.