Tyrone caregiver accused of gambling away client’s money faces 1,030 charges

by: Bill Shannon

TYRONE, Pa. (WTAJ) — A caregiver from Tyrone is facing a litany of charges after allegedly using a man’s financial information to rack up thousands of dollars in gambling debt.

Dottie Kay Brenneman, 38, was placed in prison Jan. 21 after being arraigned on 1,030 counts, 513 of which are identity theft. More than 500 counts of access device fraud, along with forgery, financial exploitation of a care-dependent person, theft by deception and criminal use of a communications facility, add to her charges.

Tyrone police were contacted July 1, 2025, and spoke with the victim, who alleged Brenneman had made unauthorized withdrawals from his account, according to the criminal complaint. It was noted that Brenneman was the victim’s caregiver from November 2024 to July 1, 2025.

According to the victim, he had a severe visual impairment that required assistance. This assistance included Brenneman being there to set up a bank account, charging documents show. Police went over some of the victim’s bank statements with him, allegedly showing numerous transactions he never authorized, including to online gambling sites and other apps. The victim showed police he only used an older-style touchpad flip phone that isn’t able to use phone applications.

The affidavit of probable cause shows that at one point, Brenneman had a family member go to the victim’s home with money to apologize and attempt to start paying him back. Police requested Brenneman to come to the Tyrone Police Department to speak about the incident, to which she agreed. According to police, she arrived that day with $500 that she wanted to give back to the victim.

Brenneman alleged she had a gambling problem, and at first, she only took $50 from the victim and was going to pay it back with her winnings, charges read. Police allege Brenneman admitted to taking a payday loan from the victim’s account and then claimed there were various phone apps she didn’t know how to stop or “turn off” from the victim’s account.

Warrants sent to two different online gambling sites showed hundreds of attempted deposits, with some approved and some denied. According to the complaint, the information from the online gambling apps showed the accounts under the victim’s name, but the account being accessed by a different IP address and WiFi network. Police noted they approached Brenneman’s house and discovered the WiFi at her home had the same unique name that the gambling sites reported.

In total, Brenneman is accused of racking up $7,713.25 in debt using the victim’s bank account information.

Brenneman was placed in Blair County Prison, unable to post her $50,000 bail set by MDJ Kevin Stoltz in Tyrone.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 3.