Ex-Emmaus Diner Owner Found Guilty of Stealing $260K from Emmaus Senior

The former owner of the Emmaus Diner, his former girlfriend and her daughter have been found guilty by a Lehigh County jury of bilking an elderly Emmaus woman out of $260,000, according to lehighvalleylive.com. 

Hristos “Chris” Dimou, of Upper Milford Township, Penelope Veronikis, 49, of Bethlehem, and her daughter, Barbara Paxos, 29, also of Bethlehem, had been accused of depriving Queen E. Hersh, formerly of 627 W. Greenleaf St., of almost all her assets over a two-year period, according to statements by the Emmaus Police Department and the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office at the time of their arrest. 

The woman's assets included a Pocono vacation home that police said they sold without Hersh's consent for $170,000. 

The verdict was returned last week.

Hersh first learned something was amiss in July 2008 when she received a foreclosure notice on her Emmaus home, which she had owned outright for 20 years. She died on Dec. 10, 2008. She was 90.

According to the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office:

In 2006, Hersh, then 88, and her younger sister, Ella H. Crawford, lived together at the Greenleaf Street address, which had been the home of Hersh and her late husband. Both women were childless.

Crawford worked as a hostess and waitress supervisor at the Emmaus Diner, and Hersh was retired from the Emmaus Shirt Factory.

Hersh had diabetes, a heart condition, early onset of dementia and could no longer drive. Her sister became Hersh’s primary caregiver, taking Hersh to doctor’s visits and ensuring that Hersh took her medications.

In May 2006, Crawford was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and expressed concerns about her sister’s future care to her boss at the Emmaus Diner, Dimou.

Two days after Crawford’s death on June 17, 2006, Veronikis, who was Dimou’s girlfriend at the time, took Hersh to a lawyer and obtained full power of attorney over Hersh.

Over the next two years, in addition to selling the vacation home, Veronikis opened credit card accounts in Hersh’s name, named herself sole beneficiary of Hersh’s life insurance policy, and withdrew cash for her personal use from Hersh’s bank accounts, funding a tummy tuck and a breast lift, among other things.

Dimou, Veronikis and Paxos are all free on bail. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 25 before Judge James Anthony.