PAWNEE COUNTY —A Kansas couple made their first court appearance on Thursday following a more than two-year investigation of financial mistreatment and elder abuse.
Jeffrey S. Bates, 64 and Sandi K. Bates, 62, both of Larned, appeared before Pawnee Magistrate Judge Julie Cowell, according to Pawnee County Attorney Doug McNett.
They were each charged with one Count of Conspiracy to Commit Financial Mistreatment of a Dependent Adult/Elder Person, with an aggregate value of at least $100,000, but less than $250,000, alleged to have occurred between July 15, 2015, and December 31, 2022. This charge is a severity level 6 person felony.
Jeffrey Bates faces an additional count of Physical Mistreatment of a Dependent Adult/Elder Person, by allegedly knowingly inflicting physical injury, unreasonable confinement or unreasonable punishment upon a dependent adult or an elder person, alleged to have occurred on or about November 26, 2022. This charge is a severity level 5 person felony. In the alternative Bates is charged with Criminal Restraint, a Class A Person Misdemeanor.
The charges stem from a two-and-a-half-year investigation by the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Department initiated by a report of alleged elder abuse. The sheriff department was assisted in the investigation by the Kansas Attorney General’s Economic Crimes Unit.
The Bates were arrested by the sheriff’s department without incident at their Larned residence on December 1, 2025, and released later that day after posting surety bonds.
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for January 21, 2026.
Under Kansas law, “elder person” means a person 60 years of age or older. As charged, the crime of Financial Mistreatment of a Dependent Adult/Elder Person means the intent to knowingly take the personal property or financial resources of a dependent adult or an elder person for the benefit of the defendant by taking control of the personal property or financial resources of said dependent adult or elder person through undue influence, coercion, harassment, duress, deception, false representation, false pretense or without adequate consideration to such dependent adult or elder person.
A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for January 21.