Testimony spotligts Ross neglect victim's family history

Aug. 11--Long before dying from alleged neglect, a 70-year-old Ross Township woman started life as a friendly, pleasant girl, the younger of two sisters raised by a loving, devoted father, according to her brother-in-law's testimony Monday.

Dr. Stanley Mandel, 78, of North Carolina testified during the fourth day of the trial of John Tedesco, 45, and wife Tina Tedesco, 39. The Tedescos are charged with fatally neglecting Mandel's mentally disabled sister-in-law, Barbara Rabins, who was pronounced dead in the couple's Saylorsburg home in August 2011; and stealing Rabins' trust fund money for their own personal use.

Barbara Rabins and older sister Ronnie Rabins were born in New York City to dentist Emanuel Rabins, whose wife died when the girls were young, said Mandel. While Ronnie had no disabilities, it became clear that Barbara had a disability that left her with a prepubescent child's mentality in her older years.

"She was a pleasant, friendly person who on the outside seemed like anyone else," said Mandel. "If you had a short conversation with her, you detected nothing wrong. But, the longer you carried on a conversation with her, the more you realized you weren't talking to a mentally mature adult. She would repeat things or giggle at times, as a child would. Her disability left her very vulnerable and easily manipulated, which is why her father kept her with him and protected her."

Rabins loved both daughters equally. He nourished Ronnie's love of dance, which she later taught as an adult, and showed Barbara how to be self-sufficient at simpler tasks while doing the more complex things for her, Mandel said.

Barbara stayed with their father while Ronnie left for college, where she met fellow New York City native Mandel. Ronnie later moved with Mandel to Virginia, where they married and he finished medical school, and then to North Carolina, where he joined the University of North Carolina's surgical faculty and they raised their children.

Rabins later moved his dental practice and Barbara to North Carolina, to live near the Mandels, where he continued to look out for her while doing community charity work. The families remained close, celebrating holidays and birthdays together.

Rabins set up Barbara's trust fund, at First Citizens Bank in North Carolina, from which money was to be used for her continuing care, medical and living expenses after his death. These expenses included vacation and holiday trips.

The trust fund was set up to go to Ronnie if Barbara died and then to the Mandels' children if Ronnie died.

Trouble started when Rabins, in his older years began suffering dementia that eventually made him paranoid and suspect Ronnie Mandel was trying to poison him.

"Barbara and her father were so close that her mood, emotions and perceptions basically reflected his own," said Mandel. "So, when he became suspicious of Ronnie due to his dementia, Barbara likewise became suspicious. And when he estranged himself from us and cut off all contact, he took Barbara with him."

Despite this, the Mandels visited Rabins and supported his care at a North Carolina nursing home until he died there at age 84 in 1988.

The Mandels lost contact with Barbara, who that same year moved to a New Jersey apartment complex.

Shortly after moving there, she met John Tedesco, a manager there at the time, who grew close to her and eventually learned she was disabled, and about the trust fund set up in her name. John and Tina Tedesco later contacted First Citizens Bank in North Carolina, which handled the trust fund, identified themselves as Barbara's nephew and niece and, through her, gained access to the trust fund and her social security benefits.

When trust fund money later began being requested from the bank and sent to Barbara in New Jersey, the Mandels figured she was safe with someone looking after her. If she was being taken advantage of, neither the bank nor the Mandels were aware.

The Mandels' 34-year-old son died in 2002, after which Ronnie suffered depression and emotional withdrawal that affected her physical health until her own death at age 76 in 2013. The family was too preoccupied with these personal tragedies to think much about Barbara and what she may or may not have been going through at the time, said Stanley Mandel.

Sharon Leinwand, trust officer and vice president of Wealth Management Services at First Citizens Bank in North Carolina, testified Monday to being assigned Barbara Rabins' trust fund in the 1990s.

Leinwand never met Rabins in person and never met the Tedescos in person prior to her Monday court appearance. She communicated mainly with Rabins and Tina Tedesco through phone calls and letters, which she kept records of in journal entries.

Leinwand said the trust fund went from $400,000 in the 1990s, when it was assigned to her, to $196,917.71 at the time of Rabins' August 2011 death.

Between August 2002 and Rabins' death, Rabins and Tina Tedesco requested money for Rabins' rent, utilities, furniture purchases, vacation trips and medical expenses not covered by insurance, said Leinwand. Other money was requested for Tedesco to cook, clean and shop for Rabins, as well as drive her around.

The prosecution believes Tedesco manipulated and coached Rabins into requesting this money and telling the bank her health was good enough, for her to go away on trips, when it in fact wasn't. The Tedescos allegedly used the money for themselves.

When Rabins moved with the Tedescos to Ross Township in 2006, they arranged for her to share a nearby apartment with a disabled friend unable to care for himself, let alone anyone else, according to previous testimony. Leinwand said Tina Tedesco told her she was working on locating Rabins' birth certificate and medical care card in order to get Rabins' insurance switched from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

The prosecution is trying to prove the Tedescos intentionally left the incontinent Rabins in filthy conditions in the apartment, letting her physically deteriorate in her own waste until her death from dehydration and choking. The prosecution believes the Tedescos found Rabins dead in the apartment and, to avoid the appearance of neglect, moved her to their home to make it look like she had died there in their care.

The Tedescos' defense is that they never meant to neglect Rabins, but simply became too overwhelmed by the demands of caring for someone in her condition.

Rabins was living in the apartment in 2010, the year she was sent to one New Jersey rehabilitation facility after a stroke and then to another New Jersey rehabilitation facility the same day she was signed out from the first. Leinwand said she was unaware Rabins in fact was in a nursing home, after a stroke, when Tina Tedesco at the time told her Rabins was doing fine and needed money for another vacation trip.

It wasn't until at a later date that Tedesco finally revealed Rabins had been in the hospital, according to Leinwand. Months later, when Tedesco requested more money for another vacation trip, the bank expressed its concern about sending any more money for any expenses other than Rabins' medical care, especially with the trust fund being depleted at that point.

Leinwand said Tedesco contacted her on the day of Rabins' death to tell her Rabins had died. Leinwand said Tedesco requested that Rabins' social security payments be withheld and no longer deposited into her and Rabins' joint account.

The defense in cross-examining Leinwand pointed out that people can recover enough from strokes to go on vacation trips and raised the question of whether the Tedescos were truly manipulating Rabins in order to gain control of her money.

Mandel said John Tedesco contacted him after Rabins' death and requested money to pay for cleaning up Rabins' apartment and covering rent she still owed at the time of her death.

"I told him to take it up with the trust fund," Mandel said. "That was the only contact I've ever had with the Tedescos."

___

(c)2015 the Pocono Record, Stroudsburg, Pa.

Visit the Pocono Record, Stroudsburg, Pa. at http://www.poconorecord.com/

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.