Florida Lawyer/Guardian Accused of Exploiting Her Elderly Wards for More Than $100K

It’s the ideal scenario for criminals — the power and legal authority to handle their victims’ finances, more so than the victims themselves.

But the judges who assigned Jacksonville attorney Cynthia Leigh Nichols, 55, as a guardian over elderly individuals wouldn’t have expected an officer of the court to follow such a scenario.
 

Nichols was arrested Friday on charges of exploiting the elderly in excess of $100,000 and grand theft. She has since been released on the condition that she appears at her next court date.
 

Investigators have accused Nichols of using the bank accounts of her wards to make purchases on items that include furniture, cars and even a house from which she, her friend and her friend’s daughter benefited.
 

The Department of Children and Families alerted the State Attorney’s Office in November after conducting a three-month investigation into Nichols’ activities, DCF spokesman John Harrell said.
 

Investigators found that Nichols had been making purchases from the account of her ward, Mary Vest, before Vest died in November at the age of 78, an arrest report said.
 

Three 2011 payments or down payments on two automobiles were made at Arlington Toyota, totaling $32,600. The arrest report said one of the cars was titled to Nichols’ longtime friend, Gina Bateh, 48, a five-time felon with at least 93 arrests in her criminal history. The other was titled to Bateh’s then-19-year-old daughter, Micheil Brooke Bateh.
 

Nichols is also accused of purchasing a house off Southside Boulevard with Vest’s money. Vest never lived there, although the home now is in the name of her estate. Instead, investigators said while Vest lived at an assisted living facility, Gina Bateh was actually residing at the home, which property records show to be valued at about $200,000.