by Dennis Dalman
A former Cloquet police officer, current Sartell resident Laci Silgjord, was found guilty in May of financial exploitation of an elderly vulnerable adult, according to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
Cloquet is a city near Duluth. Silgjord was found guilty by a jury in a trial recently in Carlton County in which Cloquet is located.
The charges against Silgjord were brought in July 2023 by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. The charge document stated that Silgjord met the woman in May of 2020 when, as a police officer, she went to the woman’s house after a call about a stolen purse. The two women formed a friendship. A month later, the 78-year-old woman had a stroke that caused severe cognition problems.
After her stroke, the woman was hospitalized, and at the request of a hospital social worker, a court appointed Silgjord as her guardian to help the woman with duties involving her personal care.
The court complaint alleged that some months later, Silgjord claimed she was the woman’s fiduciary and thus gained access to the woman’s bank accounts. After the woman died, it was alleged Silgjord attempted to inherit the woman’s entire estate in spite of the fact the woman had some surviving family members, including an estranged husband.
After the woman’s death in the fall of 2022, Silgjord’s guardianship was terminated. She said she had a recording of the woman saying she loved Laci like a family member and wanted “to take care of her.”
The prosecutor’s case claimed in court that Silgjord exploited the deceased woman by attempting to claim $157,000 from her estate.
In the courthouse, Silgjord’s attorney argued there is no evidence that she derived any benefit from her relationship with the woman and that after the woman died, Silgjord merely filed a monetary claim for services she had rendered for the woman.
A date has not yet been set for sentencing.