Six-year sentence for woman who defrauded neighbor

A woman who swindled her deaf, blind 80-year-old neighbor out of hundreds of thousands of dollars was sentenced today to serve six years in federal prison.

Lillian Cossaboom was "devastated" when she learned her neighbor, Rebecca Moody, had used a power of attorney to drain Cossaboom's savings, cash in her stocks, run up credit-card bills and mortgage her paid-off house in New Port Richey, according to Cossaboom's friends, Howard and Bernadette Wagar, who said they discovered the theft.

The loss "devastated her self-trust, devastated her trust of others, devastated her judgment of the character of others," said Howard Wagar, who put the total loss at more than $1 million.

In court, Moody, who was convicted of wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property, was held responsible for documentable fraud of nearly $600,000 – money lost by Cossaboom and her banks.

Bernadette Wagar said Cossaboom was cut off from others during the fraud; her door bell was disabled, her phone line was cut and her electric and other bills were frequently not paid.

"She had no contact with the outside world," Bernadette Wagar said.

"She wanted Becky to consolidate her money and clean up the house and get it ready to sell," Bernadette Wagar said.

Instead, Moody "left her $30 in two bank accounts."

"What ticked Lillian off was when Becky said, 'I'm buying your food with my own money,' and Lillian's thinking, 'Where's my money?' "

Cossaboom and her late husband had built up a comfortable nest egg, Howard Wagar said. She planned to make a sizable donation to the New England Home for the Deaf, where she now resides. But now it's gone.

Moody, 62, who deals with several medical problems, is a two-time cancer survivor, and doctors fear the disease may have reoccurred in her brain, said her attorney, Todd Foster.

"I love Lillian," Moody said under questioning from U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara. "She was not just like a neighbor to me. She did come to my house every day. She ate dinner with us. I was surprised as anyone when Lillian left. … I treated Lillian nice, and I feel like I did what I was supposed to do."

But the judge was unmoved. Most damning, Lazzara said, was a tape played during the trial of Moody posing as Cossaboom and cashing in her stocks.

"That voice was cold and calculating," the judge said. "For you to sit there and deny criminal responsibility falls on deaf ears."

Lazzara rejected a request from Foster that he impose a sentence of two years of house arrest.

"Such a sentence would certainly not promote respect for the law," the judge said, "and would not deter future criminal conduct."

Lazzara also rejected Foster's arguments that Cossaboom didn't meet the legal definition of a vulnerable victim.

"If Lillian Cossaboom is not an unusually vulnerable victim, I don't know who is," the judge said.