GAMBLING ADDICTION: Portage man admits taking $98,000 from father

GAMBLING ADDICTION: Portage man admits taking $98,000 from father

The Portage man who admits he gambled away a “monumental” amount of his elderly father’s income and savings was ordered to serve three years of probation and get treatment for his gambling addiction.

Larry W. Hoffer, 64, pleaded guilty Friday in Columbia County Circuit Court to felony theft from a vulnerable adult.

Judge W. Andrew Voigt ordered Hoffer to serve the probation sentence — the maximum amount allowable for the charge — at the request of Assistant District Attorney Brenda Yaskal and Attorney Dennis Ryan of Baraboo.

Hoffer apologized at the hearing.

“They trusted me … and I went the other way,” Hoffer said. “I’m truly sorry for it.”

In a written statement provided to Voigt in March, Hoffer’s sister said his actions over several years have created feelings of guilt, shame and anger on her part. She said Hoffer’s actions have resulted in emotional suffering for all family members, especially her father, a 95-year-old veteran of WWII.

She wrote that Hoffer had told others that she had taken the money that belonged to their father.

It is important, Voigt said, that Hoffer repay his father the “monumental total” of money taken from his accounts.

You have a lot of work to do here,” Voigt told Hoffer at the hearing. Voigt said he hopes Hoffer can make amends with family members.

Ryan told Voigt that, while his job as a defense attorney is to be a “reliable guide through a process” that can be confusing to defendants, that he was “mystified personally” how a son could “do this to his dad.”

“It goes to the addictive power of gambling,” Ryan said.

A restitution hearing is set for May 13; the amount is likely to be $98,485, according to Yaskal. It is possible at the hearing that Hoffer will be ordered not to make claims on the estate in the future.

“This is a huge amount of money,” Yaskal said.

Portage police said they were asked in October 2012 to investigate money taken from the account of a 93-year-old man who had $139,000 missing from his financial accounts.

A witness said the accounts had been at $160,000 in total, but as of October there was $28,000 left.

Police said Hoffer was given power of attorney with the accounts in March, and that he had taken without permission about $73,000 via 209 withdrawals from a checking account from March 2011 until Sept. 14, 2012, and about $26,000 via 63 withdrawals from a money market account from July 2011 through August 2012.

When questioned by police, Hoffer admitted that he was responsible for the withdrawals, police said.

Hoffer said most of the money was used for gambling, according to the complaint.

Voigt said Hoffer must undergo treatment for addiction to gambling, that he may not become power of attorney or primary caretaker, nor go to casinos or other gambling businesses.

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