Former Bucks County police officer sentenced for pursuing love scam to steal from elderly woman
Carlito Cortez, 60, spent several years trying to gain control of an elderly woman's estate, prosecutors said.
A former Bucks County police officer was sentenced Friday to 90 days of home detention and seven years of probation for pursuing a scheme to steal the estate of an elderly woman while professing to love her, prosecutors said.
Carlito Cortez, 60, of Richboro, met the woman in 2020 when he responded as a part-time Langhorne police officer to her home for a reported theft of jewelry.
Cortez then spent the following years establishing a relationship with the woman and eventually manipulated her into signing a last will and testament that he falsely presented as a power of attorney document in an attempt to gain control of her estate, valued at more than $500,000, prosecutors said.
“Protecting our elders from this kind of abuse is a top priority, and we will continue to hold those in positions of power accountable when they violate the public’s trust,” Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said in a statement.
As special conditions of his sentence, prosecutors said that Cortez must have no contact with the victim, undergo a mental health evaluation, complete a decision-making class, and submit a formal letter of apology to the woman.
Cortez, who had worked part-time for the Langhorne Borough and Yardley Borough police departments, pleaded no contest to charges including perjury, false swearing, official oppression, theft by unlawful taking, and related offenses. He was charged last May.
The investigation began in 2023, when the woman’s neighbor expressed concern to police that Cortez was taking advantage of the woman while spending hours — and sometimes staying overnight — at the woman’s home, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
Cortez told the woman he loved her, she later told police, but “only when she did things for him,” according to the affidavit.
Cortez recommended she hire a woman as a live-in aide who police later learned was not licensed and was in an extramarital relationship with Cortez, and had the victim pay her $3,000, the affidavit said.
The would-be aide later testified before a grand jury that when Cortez recruited her for his scheme, he told her the victim was “loaded,” according to court filings.
During the sentencing hearing, the victim’s impact statement was read in court by Deputy District Attorney Alan J. Garabedian.
The woman, who is now 77, expressed a total loss of trust in those who offer help, saying she now lives in fear and keeps her home constantly locked.
“The reason I am coming forward with this now is to protect other women in the future from being influenced by promises of affection, scare tactics, or emotional abuse,” she wrote.