Caretaker who stole from ‘the tulip lady’ gets community service

A woman who helped care for 93-year-old Wheatland resident Pearl Graham, also known as "the tulip lady," was sentenced Tuesday in Yuba County Superior Court to community service for stealing money from Graham in February 2022, officials said.

According to the Yuba County District Attorney's Office, Shannon Fay Bezerra was sentenced by Yuba County Judge Benjamin Wirtschafter to serve 120 hours of community service for felony theft from an elder. Bezerra used her job as a caregiver to steal $2,700 from Graham, officials said.

"Anyone who steals from a vulnerable 93-year-old woman deserves to spend some time in jail" Yuba County District Attorney Clint Curry said in a statement. "While I am disappointed in the sentence, I am very thankful to Miss Pearl's guardian angels, Deputy Prince, and Deputy District Attorney Monique McDevitt for looking out for the tulip lady."

Bezerra, who still works for In-Home Support Services (IHSS), was Graham's caretaker after an incident in December 2021 that led to a community effort to take care of the beloved tulip lady.

During that time, Graham had been found to be living under a pile of wet blankets at her home on Fourth Street in Wheatland. While the heat was still on in the home, a section of the roof and two walls had been torn off for repairs, the Appeal previously reported.

As heavy storms passed through the region, several neighbors became concerned about Graham's health and safety.

Tami Holland-Davis, a local realtor and friend of Graham, said she started to receive calls from neighbors in the area because they knew she was friends with Graham, but due to the condition of the house and the fact that Graham is wheelchair bound, Holland-Davis said she could not believe that Graham would still be inside the residence.

"I drove by a couple of times to check in and thought, ‘there is no way she is still in that house,’" Holland-Davis previously said. "Knowing now that she was in there then just breaks my heart."

Holland-Davis eventually teamed up with fellow realtors Sharon Bradshaw and Kelly Zimmerman to investigate the situation further. When they reached out to the Wheatland Fire Department, they were told that Graham was in fact inside the residence still and several calls to Adult Protective Services had already been attempted but no response had been received at that time, the Appeal previously reported.

Holland-Davis went to the Fourth Street residence on Dec. 14, 2022, and found Graham nearly frozen to death and trying to warm herself under a heap of damp blankets and wearing soaking wet socks. After calling for her with no response and seeing her empty wheelchair, Holland-Davis said she started peeling back the wet blankets on Graham's bed until she saw her little eyes looking back and she whispered, "can you help me?"

Zimmerman said the three realtors then set to work to create a plan to get Graham out of the home and into a warm, dry and safe location. Together, they got Graham out of the cold, wet house and into warm clothing and a hotel room in Yuba City.

In January 2022, Graham was able to move into a new apartment and Bezerra was hired to provide part-time caregiving through IHSS – a program that provides in-home assistance to eligible aged, blind and disabled individuals as an alternative to out-of-home care and enables recipients to remain safely in their own homes, officials said.

"Graham was hospitalized for a time in February. When Graham came home she discovered her front door unlocked and $2,700 missing from her safe. Bezerra was one of a few people with access and admitted to Bradshaw that she had taken the money," the Yuba County District Attorney's Office said. "After attempting to get Bezerra to repay the stolen money, Graham's guardian angels contacted police. Bezerra initially claimed the realtors had extorted her into repaying $1,100, but she eventually confessed to stealing the money. Bezerra told Yuba County Deputy Prince (then a Wheatland Police Officer) that she entered Graham's home to drop off laundry, and then decided to steal the cash. She explained that IHSS did not pay when her clients were hospitalized so she felt entitled to the money."

In May 2022, Bezerra was arrested in Sutter County for possessing methamphetamine with the intent to sell it, officials said. A warrant in the theft case related to Graham was issued in June 2022. In September 2022, Bezerra was sentenced to one day in jail for the methamphetamine arrest.

The Yuba County District Attorney's Office said it refused to offer Bezerra a plea bargain that didn't involve some substantial time in jail.

"On December 19, 2022, Bezerra pled ‘straight up’ to felony embezzlement from an elder, meaning that she pled without any deal as to the sentence," the Yuba County District Attorney's Office said. "On February 27, 2023, Judge Wirtschafter denied the prosecution's request for a jail sentence and instead followed the recommendation of the Yuba County Probation Department to sentence Bezerra to only 120 hours of community service. Bezerra continues to be employed providing care through IHSS."

Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. High 79F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph..

Partly cloudy. Low 58F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.

Updated: June 6, 2023 @ 2:52 am

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