A woman entrusted to act as a housekeeper and to look after a retired dental college professor admitted Wednesday, Jan. 26, that she exploited and neglected him.
Julia Hunter, 65, pleaded guilty in Richmond County Superior Court to two counts each of exploitation and neglect of a vulnerable adult, as well as possession of oxycodone and methamphetamine. Judge Ashley Wright sentenced Hunter to 12 years in prison.
Hunter’s actions came to light on Christmas Eve 2017 when a Richmond County Sheriff investigator agreed to do a welfare check on Dr. Louis Gangarosa Sr. A neighbor had contact one of Gangarosa’s children when he and other neighbors became concerned about strangers coming and going from the doctor’s home at all hours and generally causing problems in the neighborhood, said Assistant District Attorney Roslyn Norman.
Inside the house reeked of chemicals and rotting food. Gangarosa was 88 years old and suffering from respiratory disease, a condition exacerbated by what investigators learned was the manufacture of methamphetamine in the home.
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The chemicals soaked into the home to the degree it was unlivable. The professional cleanup cost over $100,000, the victim’s daughter Maria Gangarosa Emerson told the judge Wednesday. The people who her generous and kind father allowed into his home stole and pilfered so much that his estate still cannot be closed because of the outstanding debts.
Gangarosa was elderly, but healthy for his age before he became a victim of exploitation and neglect. He died painfully, unable to breathe Nov. 14, 2018.
“No one should have the end my father did,” his daughter said.
Dr. Gangarosa moved to Augusta in 1968 from New York to become one of the first associate professors of oral biology and medicine and the coordinator of the pharmacology at the School of Dentistry at the Medical College of Georgia, according to his obituary. He became a full professor in 1972 and retired in 1994. He formed Healing Through Caring and invented the healing mouth rinse Oralief.
Hunter had very little in the way of a criminal history, only a few misdemeanors. She became Dr. Gangarosa’s housekeeper around 2013. Her role in what happened in his home was passive, her attorney, Kara Stangl, said Wednesday. Hunter has been in the county jail unable to make bond since Dec. 24, 2017.
The plea agreement limited any potential prison term to 15 years. Wright sentenced Hunter to the 12 years in prison followed by six years on probation. She will get credit from the time of her arrest on the incarceration portion of her sentence.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
