Former Cloquet officer charged by state

A former Cloquet police officer was charged last week by the Minnesota Attorney General’s office with financially exploiting a vulnerable adult — an elderly woman she befriended after responding to a call — and attempting to swindle the woman’s estate and her estranged husband after she died.

Laci Marie Silgjord worked as a police officer and later a K-9 partner for the city of Cloquet from 2015 to 2022. She met Joan Arney (now deceased) in May 2020 after the Cloquet resident called police about a stolen purse. The two became friends. When Silgjord and another officer found Arney on the floor of her home in August 2020, in need of medical care, that relationship ramped up quickly. After the hospital determined she was not mentally able to make her own care decisions, Silgjord became Arney’s guardian on Sept. 11, 2020. The police officer was not appointed as a conservator to make financial decisions for the victim or manage Joan’s money.

Joan Arney died on Oct. 29, 2020. On Dec. 18, 2020, Silgjord filed a petition in Carlton County District Court seeking to be appointed personal representative of Joan’s estate.

In Silgjord’s own court documents from the probate case — the legal process of getting court authority to transfer property of a person after death — she stated that she and Joan were friends, and Joan had become like another grandmother to her.

“Joan indicated she had no close family members and that she loved me and wanted to take care of me and my family,” Silgjord wrote in a January 2021 probate demand for notice.

The criminal complaint shows that Silgjord wrote checks to Atkins Funeral Home and paid Joan’s power bill after becoming her guardian. But she also transferred tens of thousands of dollars between Joan’s various bank accounts and — according to a recording she made and filed in court — incorrectly told Joan’s estranged husband after her death that she was still on the guardianship and conservatorship paperwork when he asked for a key to Joan’s house.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced his office had filed criminal charges against Silgjord last week.

“After knowing the victim for approximately five months before the victim passed away, Silgjord attempted to inherit the victim’s entire estate, despite the victim having surviving family,” the news release stated, adding that “four months after meeting Joan Arney, Silgjord represented herself to a bank as the victim’s fiduciary, despite no legal authority for this role, and gained access to her bank accounts.”

The AG’s office charged Silgjord July 20 in Carlton County District Court with one count of felony financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult, one count of gross misdemeanor financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult, and one count of felony attempted theft by swindle.

State investigates

According to court documents, Cloquet police chief Derek Randall referred a complaint from Joan Arney’s estranged husband, Roger Arney, to the Minnesota Attorney General Office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) on April 30, 2021. The Wrenshall resident claimed that Joan had suffered from dementia, paranoia, and anxiety attacks, that he was not notified of Joan’s death by Silgjord, who he said also had Joan cremated without authority. Although the Cloquet police department was conducting its own internal investigation, Randall asked the Attorney General’s office to investigate the criminal allegations to avoid any conflict of interest.

The Carlton County Attorney’s Office also referred the case to the AG’s office, which has original criminal jurisdiction over Medicaid fraud and also prosecutes the abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults.

Diane Castro, an investigator with the MFCU, reviewed medical, banking and court files related to Joan Arney, as well as Silgjord’s work records and the city’s investigation into suspected misconduct involving Silgjord as it relates to Arney.

She did not interview Silgjord, who refused to speak with her.

Allegations

Castro wrote the criminal complaint, which also touched on Cloquet police department training and policies for handling vulnerable adults along with a specific provision to “refrain from developing or maintaining personal or financial relationships with victims, witnesses or other individuals during the course of, or as a direct result of, any official contact.”

Over seven pages, Castro builds her case that Silgjord financially exploited Joan Arney by using her position as a police officer and guardian of Joan to obtain control of Joan’s bank accounts without legal authority and eventually to try to inherit her entire estate. She includes a detailed timeline, legal definitions and cross-references many of Silgjord’s legal claims after Joan’s death.

The complaint alleges Silgjord “sought excessive fees and exaggerated the time she spent on guardianship tasks,” after Joan’s death.

In her petition, Silgjord claimed guardianship expenses in the amount of $7,454. According to the complaint, she asked for $50 an hour, rounding up to an hour for phone calls that lasted only minutes. She also made claims for compensation for things she did and was paid for during work hours at the CPD.

In addition to the claims for guardianship fees, court records show that Silgjord filed additional documents to obtain an additional $158,213.28 from Joan’s estate, which includes the entire value of the estate plus money left to Joan by her late stepmother.

The complaint includes a written statement Silgjord made in a court filing made in March 2021: “I was Joan’s court appointed guardian & took care of her prior to her death. There is no formal will but Joan told me & my husband she loved us and wanted to take care of us. I have this recorded on my cell phone.”

“Silgjord … used the opportunistic bedside recordings she made of Joan while Joan was incapacitated to try to achieve this goal,” the complaint alleges. Comparing the recordings with medical records, Castro said records show Joan was confused and had severe memory and cognitive deficits when Silgjord made these bedside recordings, which the investigator called “opportunistic.”

The criminal complaint also alleges that Silgjord attempted to “swindle Roger and Joan’s estate” by misrepresenting her financial authority to Roger.

Continuing consequences

The criminal case is only the latest struggle for Silgjord.

She lost her petition to be appointed the personal representative of Joan Arney’s estate — Roger Arney was appointed as her closest surviving relative — and her claims for Joan’s estate were disallowed. She received only $1,000 as compensation for being Joan’s guardian and $259 as reimbursement for expenses she incurred for cleaning Joan’s house and shoveling the snow.

She is also no longer a Cloquet police officer. Silgjord was initially dismissed by unanimous vote of the Cloquet City Council in February 2022, but appealed. She ultimately agreed to resign in return for a nearly $50,000 payment for “damages in a case involving humiliation, damage to reputation or emotional harm arising from employment” as well as attorney fees. Her employment officially ended June 7, 2022 — 13 months after she was placed on paid administrative leave. Her K-9 partner Vader remained with her.

Because she resigned, the investigation and disciplinary files are not public data. The Pine Knot News previously reported on Silgjord’s involvement in the Arney case, but could not definitively tie the end of her employment with the city to what happened with Arney. The current criminal complaint shows she was investigated by the CPD for possible misconduct relating to Joan Arney.

Silgjord’s first hearing (online) is set for Sept. 21 with Sixth District Carlton County Judge Rebekka Stumme. If found guilty of felony financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult, Silgjord could be sentenced up to 20 years and/or payment of a fine no more than $100,000.

Silgjord now resides in Sartell, Minnesota, where her husband, Brandon Silgjord, is police chief.

A Facebook post from October 2020 on Brandon’s page offers the story of Laci and Joan’s friendship as an example to others. It also provides details from his point of view, noting that Laci and Joan bonded over their love of animals and Laci gave Joan companionship she may not have had for years.

“I write this story with only one purpose, to remind the people that have forgotten of the type of humans we have serving behind the badge. We are far from perfect but we love and care deeply about the communities and people we serve. The final and most beautiful part of this story is that it is not unique,” he wrote. “I know so many brothers and sisters that put the uniform on everyday that would have stepped up and done the exact same thing to help a human in need.”