Any person who, having assumed the duty voluntarily, by written contract, by receipt of payment for care, or by order of a court to provide for the support of an elder or an adult with a disability, and having been entrusted with the property of that elder or adult with a disability, with intent to defraud, appropriates such property to a use or purpose not in the due and lawful execution of that person's trust, is guilty of theft by exploitation. Theft by exploitation is punishable as theft pursuant to chapter 22-30A.
S.D. Codified Laws § 22-46-3
Theft by exploitation--Penalty
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case State v. Hauge (2019)
Most recently applied in State v. Clemensen (November 2025)
Source: SL 1986, ch 186, § 3; SL 1989, ch 30, § 53; SL 2005, ch 120, § 342; SL 2007, ch 147, § 4; SL 2016, ch 120, § 21.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.