Police accuse Hardwick woman of financially extorting autistic man

According to police, Walters accused the man, with whom she had been romantically involved, of sexually touching her infant daughter.

Police say Walters brought her child to doctors after the alleged sexual contact on April 18, but doctors found no physical evidence of that.

According to court documents, Walters previously brought her child in on multiple occasions and doctors also found nothing wrong with the child.

The affidavit further notes that Walters had previously made accusations against men that were later determined to be unfounded, dating back to 2018.

Walters had been the subject of a criminal investigation last year by Hardwick police, which revealed that Walters may suffer from Munchausen syndrome by proxy. This is a condition exhibited when a parent or caregiver makes up health problems for the person in their care — sometimes the child is injured to match the tale, or medical tests are altered.

The man’s case manager said he has been diagnosed with high-level autism, which nonetheless resulted in “cognitive defects with significant language impairment.” The man’s father said he had been tested for processing delays at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, which showed the man had delays that lasted for as long as 17 seconds before he responded to prompts.

Morristown police interviewed the man with his mother and case worker present. He told police that he had been giving Walters so much money that one of his bank accounts had a negative balance of $1,500.

According to police, an employee with North Country Human Services who manages the man’s Social Security disability income provided bank records showing the man had given Walters a total of $1,742 between November and April, mostly in small amounts ranging from $2 up to $160.

Walters was also accused of taking advantage of the man by coercing him to sign his vehicle over to her after she accused him of damaging a tablet valued at $50.

Regarding Walters’ allegations of child abuse, he told police he was merely massaging the child’s feet and legs because she was crying, “and that’s when everything went sideways.”

A friend of Walters told police she thought it odd that Walters wanted the man’s car since it wasn’t inspected, and Walters didn’t have a driver’s license.

According to an affidavit, the friend said Walters is a “pathological liar” and has portrayed similar falsehoods about domestic abuse with the child’s biological father. She said Walters told her she was just using the man for his money.

Police accused Walters of not only exploiting the man out of that money and his car but lying to police about it and “exposing her child to unnecessary hospital examinations and a lengthy criminal investigation where no evidence of foul play was discovered.”