Centerville woman who kept sister in cage pleads guilty to federal fraud charges
A Centerville woman who faces allegations she kept her care-dependent sister in a cage pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges she stole the victim’s Social Security income.
U.S. Judge Donetta W. Ambrose scheduled sentencing for Leona Biser on June 21 on two federal counts of fraud, online court records show.
Biser, 52, of the borough’s Vestaburg section, was arrested in August on federal and state warrants after she didn’t appear in Washington County court on the local charges.
She reportedly was living in a tent behind the duplex at 29 Sixth St. that was condemned after her sister, Loretta Lancaster, was rescued from the duplex.
The federal indictment followed Biser’s Jan. 15 arrest by the state attorney general’s office on charges, including endangering the welfare of a care-dependent person and false imprisonment, after investigators found her sister in a wooden cage-like structure in Biser’s home.
Lancaster, who was not receiving her prescription medication, was found on a dirty mattress in the cage with only a baby bottle. She was relocated to a personal care home.
Biser remains in Washington County jail awaiting another date to appear in court to enter a plea in the false imprisonment case. Her attorneys could not be reached Thursday for comment.