A Montgomery County man has been charged with stealing $3.7 million from an elderly woman with dementia
James Batt is charged with stealing from and exploiting a woman with senile dementia before and after her death.
A Montgomery County man has been charged with stealing more than $3.7 million from an older woman, who was suffering from dementia, and her family, before and after her 2019 death.
James Batt, 66, of Flourtown, was arrested on felony theft and exploitation charges on Monday, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said Batt financially exploited the woman for years, made unauthorized transactions from her accounts for personal use, and failed to distribute funds to others listed in her will in his role as executor of her estate.
Batt was friends with Alice Lineman of Lower Moreland, and was named the executor and trustee of her estate. Lineman died at age 92 in 2019, and her will designated him as the largest sole beneficiary, directing 45% of her assets to him, according to a criminal complaint. At the time of her death, Lineman held more than $2.5 million and other nonmonetary assets.
A 2018 letter from Batt to Lineman’s nephew indicated that Batt was aware of Lineman’s vulnerable condition. “Alice has been diagnosed with senile dementia. Her … aide has been with her since November 2017, with the express duty of helping her with ALL activities of daily living, none of which she is capable doing herself,” the letter read, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors allege that Batt spent and withdrew Lineman’s money for his personal use. Before Lineman’s death, Batt withdrew over $880,000 from Lineman’s Wells Fargo checking account, and spent $30,000 on Lineman’s American Express account. The address on the Amex account was changed to match Batt’s home address, and the name of a man with whom Batt is in a relationship was added as an authorized user. After Lineman’s death and until April 2023, additional transactions totaling nearly $500,000 were made on the account, authorities said.
The spending grew after Lineman died. Batt allegedly wrote 139 checks to himself totaling nearly $600,000 from the Wells Fargo account. Lineman’s trust also held a Morgan Stanley account, from which Batt made nearly $1.4 million in charges, checks, and transfers between Lineman’s death and 2022, authorities said.
Batt spent more than $1 million before Lineman’s death and over $2.6 million after, according to police. The money went toward travel, hotels, restaurants, and even plastic surgery, prosecutors said.
Lineman’s nephew and the nephew’s wife were owed 30% of Lineman’s estate as stipulated in her will, but have received only $150,000, authorities said. They initiated proceedings against Batt in Montgomery County Orphans’ Court but Batt never responded, even after the judge issued orders compelling him to appear and to turn over estate assets, and found him in contempt of court. The judge removed Batt as the Lineman estate’s trustee in 2023.
At a bail review hearing this week, a judge stipulated that Batt could not use any money from Lineman’s estate to make his bail of $99,000.