A caregiver for an elderly woman has been ordered to stand trial in February along with her father after they were indicted earlier this year for allegedly bilking her client out of more than $50,000.
Heather Ann Buhr of Hereford will be in Cochise County Superior Court on Dec. 14 for a pretrial conference in advance of a Feb. 2, 2021 jury trial. She and her father Isaac Butts will be tried together on one count each of theft by financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
Buhr, 35, was employed in December 2017 to provide daily in-home care for an 83-year-old client. She later introduced her father to the client, and at some point the Arizona Attorney General’s Office received a report that at least $53,000 had been stolen from the client between February and May 2018.
The indictment accuses the father-daughter pair “without lawful authority, knowingly took control, title, use or management of the property of (M.B.), a vulnerable adult, while acting in a position of trust and confidence and with the intent to deprive (M.B.) of the property.”
Court records show Buhr has retained Natasha Wrae as her attorney while Butts, 71, is represented by Michael Storie. The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General F. Sterling Struckmeyer.