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Woman Testifies Against Pair

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By TODD LESKANIC

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 4, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - In May 2004, Cynthia Clancy told Eloise Mudway her house was on the verge of foreclosure.

Cynthia Clancy took her to a bank. Sign this paper, Clancy told her, so we can save the house, Mudway testified.

Mudway had no reason to distrust Clancy. She and her husband, Joe, had lived with her at her Hilltop Drive home since 2001. Mudway paid all the bills in exchange for their company and care.

Mudway, then 86 years old, signed the document.

"I always believed Cindy," Mudway testified Wednesday. "Everything she told me."

Mudway's attitude toward the Clancys changed shortly after signing what she later learned was a quit-claim deed to her $370,000 house. What Mudway didn't know was that her signature transferred ownership of her house to the Clancys.

More than a year later, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office charged the Clancys with exploitation of the elderly and grand theft. Their trial began Wednesday. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The trial is expected to last through Friday. Circuit Judge Jack Day will decide the case in lieu of a jury.

Mudway, now 91 and in a wheelchair, was the first witness called by Assistant State Attorney Mary Handsel. Her testimony retraced the entire ordeal, from the time she allowed the Clancys to move in with her in 2001 until they dropped her off at another family's home in early 2005.

She testified that her relationship with the Clancys was good for the first few years they lived together. She said she especially loved and trusted Cynthia Clancy and gave her power of attorney and the ability to write checks on her bank account.

The relationship turned sour around the time she signed the quit-claim deed, Mudway testified.

"I signed it, and they rushed me back home and went somewhere with the paper," Mudway said. "During the coming weeks, Cynthia said, 'I want to talk to you.' She said, 'I want $1,000 the first of the month because we own the house.'"

Mudway said her friends no longer wanted to visit the house because the Clancys didn't make them feel welcome. She testified that she was afraid of Joe Clancy and wasn't allowed to get the mail or answer the door.

When Handsel showed her letters from the bank about the pending foreclosure, Mudway said she had never seen them. She testified she no longer received bank statements and had no idea the house was headed to foreclosure.

A box containing $30,000 cash also disappeared, Mudway said.

Court documents show the Clancys refinanced the house twice in 2004, getting more than $30,000 from one of the transactions, Handsel said. Mudway testified that she received none of the money.

Two notaries improperly signed off on paperwork for the refinancings, according to testimony.

Mudway's testimony was by no means perfect. She couldn't recall dates, and when Assistant Public Defender Dean Livermore began his cross-examination, Mudway said she couldn't recall any of three depositions she had given in the case.

Cross-examination will continue this morning.

Livermore, who represents Cynthia Clancy, said in his opening statement that Mudway knew what was happening with her finances.

He pointed out that Mudway's career as a home health nurse meant she knew about estates and land transactions.

She had accumulated credit card debt, Livermore said, and knew she was eventually going to run out of money.

"Ms. Mudway did nothing she didn't want to do," Livermore said. "Mrs. Clancy took no money from her, and there is no proof she took any of this money."

Mark Goettel, Joe Clancy's attorney, said his client isn't named on any of the documents in question and didn't receive any benefit.

"In fact, you're going to hear that Joe Clancy's position on the house was, 'Let's walk away. I don't want the house,'" Goettel said. "But despite that, they felt obligated, based on their taking care of Ms. Mudway and on M

s. Mudway's representations to them that she was going to leave them the house anyway after she died."

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

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