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David Kopecky was a worker for Hennepin County’s adult protection division. His job was to take on cases of assisting individuals who were too old or too ill to attend to their own business.- When Kopecky was assigned the case of Wayne Williams of Minneapolis, it was to take the 85-year-old man to the doctor and to check on a health-care bill. But Kopecky chose to go far beyond the call of duty. He also helped Williams with – and out of – his estate, valued at $1.4 million.
Williams, who had never married and had no family members in town, had been the owner of a small hardware store. He saved the money with the intention of leaving it to the Dunwoody Institute, a technical-vocation school in Minneapolis. Williams himself had attended Dunwoody and he often told friends that he wanted his savings to go to the school that had taught him so much.
Kopecky is accused of forging several checks on Williams’ account. When the bank notified Williams of the activity, most of the funds were recovered. The county fired the errant caregiver in January 1994 and Williams died a year later.
Kopecky has been sent to jail. He’ll probably serve 23 months in prison and then will be released to 10 years probation. Part of the sentencing guidelines demand that Kopecky not be allowed to have any financial control over vulnerable people and that he make restitution to Williams’ estate in the amount of $30,000.
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