BROCKTON, MASS. (WHDH) - Three women have been charged in connection with the neglect and death of an 79-year-old woman in Brockton, prosecutors said.
Authorities said all three women “participated in a scheme to steal from the Medicare program,” according to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office and the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office.
Eva Fontes Cardoso, 53, Lisa Hamilton, 64, and Kayla Cardoso, 31, appeared in Brockton Superior Court Friday on charges of Medicaid fraud and caretaker neglect. Prosecutors allege the three were responsible for the wellbeing of 79-year-old Dinora Cardoso, but that the conditions she lived in ultimately contributed to her death in 2023.
Eva Fontes Cardoso is the victim’s daughter and Kayla Cardoso is her granddaughter. Hamilton was a visiting nurse at the time, prosecutors said.
Investigators said Eva Fontes Cardoso was getting paid through a state program allowing relatives to serve as caregivers. They said Kayla Cardoso was her grandmother’s legal representative and took a split of Eva’s paycheck while signing off on care that her grandmother wasn’t getting.
On May 17, 2023, Eva called 911 to report that her mother needed an ambulance, and first responders found Dinora Cardoso covered in cockroaches, bedbugs, and feces, prosecutors said. She died two days later at the hospital from necrotizing fasciitis and sepsis due to infected ulcers, according to the DA’s office.
Prosecutors said Hamilton never reported the filthy conditions Dinora was found in.
“Lisa Hamilton, Eva Cardoso, and Kayla Cardoso would have had to have seen the cockroaches and the bedbugs and the feces and they did nothing about it,” said Heidi Gosule, the attorney general for Medicaid fraud.
Dinora’s death was ruled as neglect.
Eva Fontes Cardoso’s lawyer said they will vigorously fight the charges.
“It is Miss Cardoso who called 911 to report the condition that her mother was in and her mother was in very poor condition,” said her attorney Paul Lonardo-Roy.
All three women were charged with caretaker neglect (causing serious bodily injury) and caretaker neglect (permitting or committing abuse, neglect, or mistreatment). Eva was additionally charged with manslaughter, Medicaid fraud, and larceny over $1,200. Hamilton was additionally charged with fraudulent claims.
The women are due back in court in January. Eva’s bail was set at $5,000 and Kayla’s and Hamilton’s bails were each set at $500.
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