2 convicted in Fresno County elder abuse scheme that stole $800,000

A Fresno County jury convicted Gina Denise Abercrombie and Justin Linder Teel in a financial elder abuse case involving more than $800,000 taken from 74-year-old Randall Jon Hansen of Sanger. The case, tried over about three months in Fresno County Superior Court, centered on a vulnerable man who owned Sherwood Forest Golf Club near Sanger and died in 2020.

The pair impersonated Hansen and used his identity to apply for business loans. The fraud also extended to the acquisition of interests in property worth millions of dollars.

The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office first filed charges in April 2023 over conduct from Feb. 9, 2017, through Jan. 31, 2022. By then, more than $700,000 had already been stolen. The original case also named Beverly Rutherford, then 81 and from Arizona, as a co-defendant accused of helping isolate and influence Hansen while acting as his caretaker.

The district attorney’s office will seek the maximum sentence of 5 years and 4 months in prison for both Abercrombie and Teel, along with possible restitution of up to $875,000. The trial involved thousands of documents and extensive testimony.

Teel had been paroled in 2015 after convictions for mortgage fraud, perjury and welfare fraud. The defendants knew each other from high school.

Families, caregivers and bank employees can look for the same warning signs that surfaced in this case: an older adult being isolated from others, loan applications filed in that person’s name, unusual business paperwork, and property interests shifting under suspicious circumstances. Suspected financial elder abuse can be reported to Fresno County Adult Protective Services.