Son Gets Six Months In Life Savings Swindle Of Dementia-Stricken Mom; Need To Meet Nursing Home Expenses Makes Sale Of Family Farm Likely

In Hennepin County, Minnesota, the Star Tribune reports:

• Anna Sitte lost her life's savings to swindle, her ability to recognize family members to dementia and, at 78, is about to lose what's left of the farm her family settled a century ago. "What she has is a measure of dignity," her son Jimmy said. "There are lots of ways to measure justice, but I tell the prosecutors that they did something good."

• The family, however, has been torn apart. Jimmy's brother, Steven Carl Sitte, 53, of New Hope, is serving six months in the Hennepin County workhouse after pleading guilty to swindling their mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. He was turned in by Jimmy.

• Anna Sitte is expected to be moved within weeks to a nursing home in Wahpeton, along the Minnesota border and 12 miles from her North Dakota farm. It's an assisted-living complex that Jimmy said Anna really can't afford. Jimmy said he will probably sell the three remaining acres of the 188-acre family farm to help the state of Minnesota pay for his mother's assisted-living home. With her medication, Anna's monthly living expenses are expected to reach $7,000, he said.

• "The judge ruled that my brother owed my mother $274,000 in restitution, but I doubt they're ever going to see a penny of it because he's broke," said Jimmy Sitte, a musician who lives modestly.

For the story, see She lost the farm, but found a new life (A victim of an elder abuse scheme is about to go to a home, while one son serves time and another tries to make sense of a family divided).