MINNEAPOLIS — Federal prosecutors say a Twin Cities man convinced an 83-year-old former neighbor with dementia to adopt him, and then scammed the victim out of more than $1 million.

Joseph Robinson, 44, of Lakeville, is federally indicted for three counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and two counts of money laundering for actions that allegedly resulted in the theft of $1 million, while Hennepin County Adult Protection investigators believe Robinson ultimately took an additional $1.2 million from the victim, according to court documents.

The victim is a retired accountant from Minneapolis identified in the indictment as “Edward S.”, now 83 years old, who in December 2018 was diagnosed with mild dementia. The condition worsened over the next five years, according to court documents, and the man is currently living in a Lakeville nursing home.

At Robinson’s initial court appearance Thursday, prosecutors revealed that the night before turning himself into authorities, Robinson sent his girlfriends to the nursing home to connect Mr. S. to Robinson via a FaceTime call. As the prosecutor recounted those details to the judge in court, several other defendants from other cases including an alleged gang member charged with RICO rolled their eyes and shook their heads at Robinson.

Details of the allegations are laid out in the federal indictment as well as an emergency guardianship case filed by Fiduciary Foundation in October 2023 in an attempt to stop the fraud, despite the victim Mr. S. at that time siding with Robinson.

According to the guardianship order signed by a Dakota County judge, Robinson took advantage of Mr. S.’s diminished cognitive state to take significant control over the victim’s life and enrich himself. 

The initial allegations say Robinson:

• Convinced the victim to adopt him as his son.
• Convinced the victim to transfer real estate to his name.
• Convinced the victim to transfer titles to at least seven classic cars to his name.
• Convinced the victim to give him power of attorney.
• Convinced the victim to lose a brokerage account amounting to over $500,000.
• Obtained control of more than $1.3 million of the victim’s assets.

When KARE 11 News reached Robinson by phone and asked about the details in the court documents, he said, “None of that stuff is true.”

Mr. S’s only actual family members included a sister who lives in Oregon and a brother in Alaska who recently died.

As the court case regarding guardianship proceeded, Robinson began appearing at court hearings with an attorney to contest the allegations against him. During one hearing Robinson testified, saying that Mr. S. told him about these plans long before his cognitive decline.

“My father for years, years, years ago before his situation took place as far as his medical situation, years ago he told me these are the things that he’s leaving me. And he said before he get any worse, these are the decisions he wants to make. That’s what he said,” Robinson said under oath on Oct. 20, 2023, according to court transcripts.

“I have no control what he wants to do for me. I have no control of it. If I’m guilty for what he wants to do for me that’s — I don’t know how to explain it. We have a loving — a beautiful relationship. I’m with him six to seven days a week,” Robinson testified. “I do not… I keep this man healthy. I go to doctor appointments. I do everything underneath the sun for him. He’s here. He’s not pressured. I don’t force him to do anything. I don’t know where these allegations are coming from, but it’s been very despicable, these allegations.” 

The petitioner added more allegations in the months after the guardianship was signed, raising the amount they believed Robinson had stolen to $2.2 million.

During testimony, Robinson revealed as a child he met Mr. S. when they were neighbors, then reconnected in about 2018 when the victim hired him to do work on his house. 

In December 2023, Robinson filed his own petition for guardianship, writing that as his legal son, Robinson is the only one taking care of him. A month later, Robinson withdrew the request, noting that the Mr. S’s cognitive state continues to decline significantly.

In March 2024, Fiduciary Foundation filed a petition to void the adoption of Robinson by the victim, citing conversion and theft, undue influence, and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. 

Then, in August, they filed a petition to remove Robinson from Mr. S.’s will, noting that Robinson had sold some of the classic cars the victim had given him, in violation of a court order. A judge granted that request.

Court documents indicate that Robinson and Fiduciary Foundation signed a settlement agreement in September to sign back the victim’s Minneapolis house and remaining classic cars, along with a $200,000 judgment. 

However, the FBI executed a search warrant one month later at a storage unit rented by Robinson, and found all of the victim’s belongings from his Minneapolis house inside, along with “a box containing a fairly large number of savings bonds.”

The federal indictment accused Robinson of wire fraud for transfers totaling over $130,000, mail fraud for misuse of a $38,000 check from a car sale refund, and money laundering for cash withdrawals of $20,000 and $35,000 in the months after the guardianship was in place.

Federal prosecutors opted not to seek detention for Robinson, so with the magistrate judge’s reminder not to have any direct or indirect contact with the victim, Robinson is allowed to remain free pending his trial.

ST PAUL, Minn. — Inside the Minnesota State Capitol, there are many signs of the holidays. Inside the rotunda, a Christmas tree greets those entering the building.

Down the hallway, carolers made up of lawmakers, pastors and Christians sing their reason for the season.

Next to them, though, is what they say is an unwanted guest.

“We have not come here to honor that,” a speaker to the group said, pointing towards a display in the middle of the room.

“I think that the display is poorly timed, and it was done on purpose to be an offense to Christians,” State Representative Jim Nash, R-48A, said.

That display is of a phoenix rising from the ashes, surrounded by paper cranes, underneath an upside-down pentagram. The display was put up by the Minnesota Satanists, and according to the group, is their first holiday display.

“I can’t change the fact that that’s here, I can lend my voice to the fact that I’m not on board with the message behind it,” Nash, who spoke and prayed alongside others in the group of more than fifty, said.

“In a free country, the answer to one person’s speech is another person’s speech,” State Representative Harry Niska, R-31A, said. “If you disagree with it, then express yourself.”

“We celebrate as Minnesotans and Americans, that we’re allowed to have differences of opinion and of religious practice, and it’s all guaranteed and we can do it by the Constitution,” Minnesota Satanists Congregation Leader Asmodeus Sion said. “The reason we put it up was for representation. We wanted to bring joy and beauty to the community, and tertiary to that, we wanted to express our First Amendment rights,” Sion continued.

The group applied for a permit and was approved by the Minnesota Department of Administration, which handles the displays that go on inside the State Capitol building. The Minnesota Satanists display is set to run through next week.

The Department of Administration also said they approved a nativity scene as well.

That plurality of religions is key – and guaranteed by the First Amendment.

“The government cannot establish religion, it cannot discriminate against religion,” Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, said.

“If they’re going to allow one display, then they have to allow others,” Kirtley said. “As long as they conform with whatever permanent process the government has established that has to be done in a neutral way.”

Kirtley says just like any other group, if they follow the rules, they have the right to display their religious symbols too.

“If there’s any place that something like that should not be damned, it’s got to be a public space where government operates, because our government is supposed to be the government of the people,” she said. “That’s all the people.”