CARLTON, Minn. — Former Cloquet police officer Laci Silgjord, 37, has been sentenced to three years of supervised probation for attempting to illegally obtain over $150,000 from the estate of an elderly woman she met during a call for service.
Silgjord was convicted in May by a Carlton County jury on a felony charge of attempted theft after evidence revealed she sought to manipulate her way into receiving the estate of Joan Arney, a 78-year-old woman suffering from dementia, who passed away in October 2020.
Silgjord had met Arney just five months prior, during a police response to a report of a missing purse. She later became Arney’s court-appointed guardian, but falsely claimed to be her conservator. In August 2020, Silgjord found Arney collapsed in her home after a suspected stroke. Arney was hospitalized until her death.
Over the following months, Silgjord continued to visit Arney in the hospital, making multiple audio recordings of their conversations, and later used those recordings to try to claim the woman’s estate in probate court — despite Arney having no will and a surviving estranged husband, Roger Arney, who was legally entitled to inherit.
The probate court ultimately rejected Silgjord’s claim, and investigators from the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office later charged her with multiple felonies. While she was acquitted on two counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult, she was convicted of attempting to defraud the estate.
Judge Amy Lukasavitz declined both the defense’s request for a reduced sentence and the prosecution’s push for jail time. Silgjord’s prison term of one year and one day was stayed, meaning she won’t serve it unless she violates probation. She was also ordered to complete 80 hours of community service.
Prosecutors argued that Silgjord abused her position of authority, failed to notify Roger Arney of his wife’s death, and even threatened him with arrest—despite knowing he was the rightful heir. Assistant Attorney General Keaon Dousti said Silgjord’s actions eroded community trust and showed “no remorse or accountability.”
Defense attorney Rebecca Duren countered that the offense involved an attempted civil claim, not direct financial exploitation, and noted the jury’s partial acquittal. Silgjord continues to maintain her innocence.
