HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Patrick Penker is charged with fraud and tampering with a government record after prosecutors say he filed a fraudulent will for his wife Alberta White. Her family says if it's legit, it had to be signed from beyond the grave.
Alberta White died of cancer in 2013. Her will was filed days after her death in Huntsville. Her family told Eyewitness News' Ted Oberg they thought it was odd since they didn't know their mother had a will. As they closed out her final bills and bank accounts, White's family realized something might be wrong. Alberta's daughter in law, Stephanie Tudor, found a charge on White's credit card for totallegal.com, an online legal document source. Stephanie says the company told her over the phone, it was for a will downloaded on September 21. Alberta White died September 13th, 2013, eight days earlier.
Eyewitness News compared the will filed in the Walker County court for Alberta White and the fill-in-the-blank will available on totallegal.com. They were nearly identical.
The filed version leaves everything to Patrick Penker.
We tracked Penker down at a court appearance in Huntsville. He told us he's done nothing wrong.
"The children are vindictive," he told Ted Oberg. "They were estranged from their mother and they want to take it out on me."
Penker faces possible prison time if he's convicted at a later trial.
The will wasn't the first time White's kids had questions about the mom's love interest. Shortly after their mother met the man online, they were concerned about the stories their mother was telling them about her new boyfriend.
Among the jobs their mother told them Penker held:
But a quick Google search of their mom's new boyfriend revealed he was also a federal felon who served time for identity fraud. Penker was convicted and sentenced to federal prison in 2002 for identity fraud and money laundering.
When asked, Penker denied that as well.
"I didn't cheat people in the past," he told Ted Oberg.
"You went to prison for that?" Oberg asked.
Penker said, "The feds wanted me to testify, but I would not do so."
As part of that that now decade old scam, published reports show Penker passed off his firm as 'Dewey Cheatem and Howe.' It is the well-known name of the fictional firm of the Three Stooges.
Penker now admits that was "dumb," but never hid it from Alberta White or her children.
As for the current charges, he repeatedly blamed a strained relationship between the kids and their mom.
"My wife was estranged from her children. She wanted everything to go to me. I didn't want everything," he said.
When asked directly, "How did your wife sign the will after she died," Penker first said "it's in question" whether the will was downloaded after her death and given the pending case he said he couldn't "go into that right now." He then denied downloading the will after she died.
He denies any wrongdoing or that he benefited in any way and claims he gave their assets to the Mormon Church and White's heirs. Her children question that. The Walker County legal case is ongoing.