Norristown council member charged with felony theft in elder-care case
Tiffani Hendley allegedly accepted funds that her sister stole from their aunt, a dementia patient
A Norristown council member is facing charges for allegedly accepting more than $20,000 from her sister, who Montgomery County prosecutors allege had been bilking hundreds of thousands of dollars from their aunt’s bank accounts.
Tiffani A. Hendley, 47, a council member at-large, was charged last week with third-degree felony counts of theft, conspiracy, and receiving stolen property, as well as related misdemeanors.
Police brought charges against Hendley after investigating her sister, Marlena Green, who was given power of attorney over the sisters’ aunt in 2021.
The 67-year-old aunt was suffering from dementia when Green, 38, took the woman into her care, moving her from Ohio to Montgomery County and taking control of her finances.
Not long after, police allege, Green began to drain her aunt’s bank accounts, spending over $440,000 in 2021 and 2022 on luxury purchases like designer clothes and bags, Mercedes and Jaguar cars, and vacations to Los Angeles and New Orleans. Green was charged with 19 offenses last week, including 15 felony counts.
Hendley was implicated, police said, when Green sent her a total of $21,670 between cashiers checks and mobile payments from the bank accounts over that time.
Police allege Hendley was “keenly aware” that the money was her aunt’s, citing evidence from text message communications and family conversations.
Hendley and her attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Norristown solicitor Sean Kilkenny told local media Thursday that, for now, Hendley’s charges would not prevent from continuing to serve on Norristown’s council because she has not been convicted of a crime.
Kilkenny, who is also Montgomery County’s sheriff, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Before being elected to council in 2021, Hendley, a Democrat, was a member of the Norristown Area School Board.
She was released from custody with an unsecured bail of $100,000 and is scheduled to appear in court in November.