Son Who Bilked Elderly Parents With Dementia Sentenced

A Bloomington man who swindled his sick, elderly parents out of hundreds of thousands of dollars was sentenced to work release earlier this month.

Paul Charles Dietl, 52, was sentenced April 4 in Redwood County Court on one count of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.

Dietl was sentenced to serve 60 days on work release.  He’ll get one day of credit for time served.  Judge Patrick Roland stayed 305 days of jail time for a two-year period, in which Dietl will be placed on supervised probation.

Dietl was initially charged with four felony counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. As part of an Alford Plea, three of those counts were dropped and the guilty count was reduced to a gross misdemeanor.  An Alford plea means the defendant maintains innocence, but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a conviction.

In October 2017, Dietl’s siblings reported to the Lamberton Police Department that their elderly parents, who had dementia and were in a nursing home, had been swindled by their brother.  Investigators found a number of concerning transactions, which included international and out-of-state credit card charges, a $60,000 pickup loan, and funds from an unauthorized lake cabin sale, according to court documents.

In April 2019, Assistant Redwood County Attorney Joseph Sanow filed a notice with the courts that he intended to seek an aggravated sentence for Dietl, citing the amount of monetary loss, and saying that Dietl used his position as the victims’ son to commit the crime.