An Albert Lea woman who allegedly stole thousands of dollars from an account of a person she knew has been charged with three felonies in Freeborn County District Court.

Debra Kay Beighley, 65, is charged with three counts of felony financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Her first appearance is scheduled for Feb. 22.

Court documents state Beighley was charged after the alleged victim’s account was missing approximately $18,000. Beighley, the alleged victim’s power of attorney, reportedly admitted taking at least $4,500 to $5,000 for herself, paid to “cash,” court documents state. Beighley allegedly said a lot of the money went to the alleged victim’s legal guardian and the person would not take checks for payments. She said she would sign the checks to “cash” and endorse the checks, providing the cash to the legal guardian.

Court documents state Beighley could not produce records of who the money was given to and for what during the interview with police. She said she started taking payments of what she was owed from the alleged victim’s account for managing the trust and received permission to do so by the trust’s co-executor.

The co-executor denied Beighley was given permission or asked for permission to take money from the account for her personal use. She was reportedly given a $1,000 loan from the trust and had payed back $500 as of March 2017.

Beighley resigned from the trust in November.

In a second interview, she allegedly admitted taking $17,760 from the alleged victim’s trust account, stating she believed she was entitled to more than $19,000 from the account due to being an executor of the trust.

Payments Beighley reportedly took for herself were described as “minor” from 2012 to 2014, increasing substantially in 2015.

Beighley reportedly never received a court order for payments for her work on the trust, and the trust did not allow any payments to her.

There were dozens of transactions Beighley made to “cash” from the trust account or were taken as cash withdrawals. From April to October 2017, the account reportedly lost $8,550, with a $6,200 loss from September 2016 to March 2017.