Julie Cromer
SANTA BARBARA — A fugitive who fled from the justice being meted out by Santa Barbara Superior Court pursuant to an October 2015 conviction on charges of elder abuse has been tracked down and was captured on April 6th by detectives of Massachusetts’s Norwell Police Department.
According to Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, 48-year-old Julie Cromer—who had been convicted of the financial elder abuse of a 77-year-old Santa Barbara resident “whom Cromer met at a pug dog rescue event”—fled the jurisdiction just prior to her scheduled sentencing hearing, at which she would have been “sentenced to 60 days in custody, placed on felony probation, and order to pay $10,000 in restitution.”
Instead of making her court appearance, Cromer committed an additional felony by failing to appear, left the U.S. for Germany “and possibly other places in Europe,” Hoover reported.
When she didn’t make her 2015 court date, the SBSD Felony Fugitives Unit, acting upon a newly-issued warrant for her arrest, noted that Cromer was posting Facebook updates about her travels, eventually indicating she had returned to the U.S. and was residing in Massachusetts.
Stateside once again, Cromer continued rather inexplicably to post her photograph on Facebook and other websites, leading authorities to identify and locate her with some precision.
Cromer, who had used her victim’s credit card for large transactions that included airline tickets, hotel charges, car rentals, and retail purchases throughout Texas, Arizona, and Massachusetts, had fraudulently changed mailing addresses on the victim’s accounts to avoid detection.
Her activities were noted by Santa Barbara bank officers, who took note of modifications to the victim’s accounts and notified local police.
Hoover noted that Cromer is due for extradition back to Santa Barbara where she will “face additional felony charges” well beyond her initial 60-day sentence.
Photo: Courtesy: Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
