Jury awards $20 million in Santa Rosa elder abuse case

Jurors on Thursday awarded nearly $20 million in damages to an elderly Santa Rosa widow who alleged her handyman manipulated her into giving him control of her bank accounts and signing over a real estate nest egg, in part by threatening to abandon her.

The award in favor of 92-year-old Gudrun Block-Sabanovich was reached after about four hours of deliberation at the end of a five-week civil trial before Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Peter Ottenweller.

Evidence suggested the handyman, Theodore Smith Hudson III, 53, of Cloverdale, took advantage of the woman’s fragile emotional state after her husband died in 2015, persuading her to transfer her assets to him, said her lawyer, Lewis Warren.

Among them were 10 commercial investment properties in California, Nebraska and Texas worth an estimated ?$18 million as well as $1.5 million in cash Hudson used to buy his 4,000-square-foot luxury home in Cloverdale, Warren said.

“She was distraught and had nobody,” Warren said. “He basically manipulated her and insinuated himself in her life. He ended up taking everything.”

Hudson’s lawyer, Andy Martinez, did not immediately return a call Thursday afternoon seeking comment. Hudson maintained the money and property were given to him as gifts, Warren said.

Prosecutors have charged him with elder theft and fraud with a white-collar enhancement, making him eligible for prison if convicted.

He was arrested in December and released on his own recognizance. A criminal trial could be held later this year, prosecutor Carla Rodriguez said.

With the civil award, Block-Sabanovich is expected to ask the judge to void the deeds to the commercial and residential properties. She will also be entitled to $500,000 in legal fees.

She and her husband, a retired Stanford professor Nicholas Sabanovich, amassed a sizable real estate portfolio after moving from Palo Alto to Sonoma County about three decades ago. They settled in Wikiup and had no surviving children.

Hudson worked for them, serving as a caretaker when Sabanovich died in 2015.

Soon after, he threatened to quit if Block-Sabanovich did not pay him $50,000, Warren said.

He later convinced her to increase his salary to $100,000 and got her to put his name on all her bank accounts, her lawyer said.

Last year, the elderly woman transfered titles to properties that generate about $90,000 a month in rent, Warren said.

It all came to light last summer when Block-Sabanovich opened a bank statement and spotted a transfer of $300,000 from one of her accounts. She confronted Hudson, who admitted taking out a total of ?$1.5 million to buy a “dream house” in Cloverdale on Woodhawk Lane, Warren said.

She contacted authorities when he refused to return all her assets.

Among the jury’s findings were that Hudson used undue influence to obtain the money and real estate holdings, Warren said.

“He’s basically going to have to give back all the properties,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 707-568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @ppayne.