Only YOU can Prevent Elder Abuse

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – so what  do these people have in common? 

See if you can match the face to the crime:

According to the Orange County District Attorney’s (OCDA) office, your mother’s  care-giver, relative, best friend, attorney, doctors, fill in the blank,  announced the arrest of Joe Doe/Jane Doe. Your mother with Alzheimer’s disease entered a nursing home some eight months ago.  Somehow, Joe Doe/Jane Doe  acquired your mother’s power of attorney.

While announcing the arrest ed o 52 year old Ross M. Rabelow and three other suspects on charges of scamming more than 200 seniors in three states out of nearly $700,000. The fraud involved seniors paying for home security services, home care, and long-term care insurance, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said:  “This was a disturbing and despicable scheme designed to extract as much money as possible from unwitting seniors who believed they were protecting themselves against costly future home care expenses.”

This was a disturbing and despicable scheme designed to extract as much money as possible from unwitting seniors who believed they were protecting themselves against costly future home care expenses.”

Also charged in the scheme were Bruce Howard Cherry, 52, of Philadelphia, Thomas J. Muldoon, 57, of Delaware County, and Robert P. Lerner, 56, of Philadelphia. The men face charges of theft, unfair business practices, insurance fraud, conspiracy and dealing in proceeds from unlawful activity. All four defendants remain behind bars awaiting bail.

Investigators allege the four men used a series of front businesses to sell bogus home care and home security services. In many cases the victims received little or no services after paying thousands of dollars and signing contracts.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Daniel Seeman was charged last week with 13 felony counts of theft and embezzlement for allegedly stealing from  his elderly neighbor, whom he took advantage of, until she was weeks from death and told police that he was "just trying to be helpful" despite having no experience with estates or family trusts, according to investigators. Prosecutors say Seeman stole at least $200,000 from the elderly woman.

Seeman, 57, of Berkeley acknowledged to police that he had put himself in an "awfully bad situation" while handling the financial affairs for his neighbor, Anne Nutting. Seeman told a Berkeley police detective that it was "clearly a mistake for me to stay as enmeshed with her as I did," authorities said.

Because Judge Seeman is an elected official he can not be administratively removed from the bench. The options for removing Seeman include a recall by voters, impeachment by the state Assembly, or a vote to remove him by the Commission on Judicial Performance. Until there is a resolution to his case Judge Seeman has been transferred from Superior Court in Oakland to a Small Claims court in Pleasanton.

John Arthur Walthall, 56, of La Habra, California was sentenced to  168 months in federal prison and to pay $2,479,000 in restitution to his victims after he was convicted in December of multiple counts of wire fraud. Walthall, stole nearly $5 million dollars from a Laguna Niguel couple in their 80s. Walthall persuaded the couple to invest in his company Advanced Recycling General Partnership. He convinced the victims he would use the money to extract gold for abandoned mines. Prosecutors argued Walthall used the money to purchase cars, make payments on personal debts, school tuition for his son, and back alimony

On March, Fresno County California Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Sharon Elaine Harrelson on several counts of felony embezzlement and elder abuse. After her arrest authorities executed search warrants on her home, office, and financial institutions.  Since thenm additional victims have come forward and in the course of examining evidence gathered during the searches authorities found more victims. Harrelson was re-arrested by detectives while in court of the previous charges.  Harrelson remains in the custody of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department, charged with two additional felonies.

The Dauphin County Elder Abuse Task Force announced the arrest of Kevin Marcy.  According to  investigators say Marcy, who had his aunt’s power of attorney, stole $379,132.62 from his 89 year old great aunt, a retired teacher with Alzheimer’s disease.   Authorities charged Marcy with theft for allegedly taking money from his aunt since 2005, about the time she entered a nursing home.

Now consider that according to the California Attorney General’s website, California's most vulnerable people are its children, poor, elderly and disabled and can all too often be victimized by:

Medical doctors ordering unnecessary lab tests, and allowing untrained, uncertified assistants to provide medical treatment to patients

Dentists performing unnecessary teeth extractions on both adults and children

Medical supply companies billing for equipment and products that were neither ordered nor delivered

Nursing homes allowing their patients to suffer from bedsores, malnutrition and dehydration

Nurse assistants physically abusing elderly and dependent adult patients who are entrusted to their care

In a separate piece, we make the argument that elder abuse, like any other crime, in most cases – some 70-90% of them, the culprit is an insider.  Someone close to the vulnerable.  We also make the case that while laws, regulations, and law enforcement agencies, such as the OCSD, OCDA and politicians, industry lobbyist (such as the AARP) and  the various bureaucracies, such as California Adult Protective Services, California Department of Aging, California, California Long Term Ombudsmen, and on an on ad nausea may help, all are for the most part useless and do not provide the return for the tax Dollar.  Let me clarify politicians, unions, lobbyists and bureaucracies are not the solution - they ARE the problem.

The problem is the symbiotic relationship between politicians, unions, lobbyist and bureaucracies

Instead, only YOU can prevent Elder Abuse:  A grass roots efforts involving the community and the local city council.

Stay tuned as we expand on the reasons to support our argument, including proposals going forward.

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Elder Abuse Aided and Abetted by Parasitic Bureaucracies 

Posted By CotoBlogzz June 26, 2011

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – If you want to get back at your elder parents for your own shortcoming, this is your day.  According to  Kathleen Wilber,  USC's. Mary Pickford Professor of Gerontology,  recent studies suggest that more than one in seven older adults is victimized each year. Unfortunately, such studies rarely take into account what we refer to as the parasitic bureaucracy effect – this is where a bureaucracy either to cover up its own incompetence and or to increase its sphere of influence, delays, denies and ore ignores reporters requests for transparency, as described in some of the pieces summarized below

Documented Elder Abuse, including examples of the parasitic effect.

 

“Elderly Abuse:  Parolees discovered living in nursing homes, residents not told of sex offenders, ex-cons”  Chris Fuscon and Lori Rackl describe how they investigated the high numbers of sex offenders and parolees living in Illinois’ nursing homes – Investigative Reporters and and Editors (IRE) September/October 2005

 

“Poor Regulation,” The Oregonian.  Brent Walth writes about and investigation that he and fellow reporter Erin Hoover Barnett did on the sudden collapse of the Oregon-based Assisted Living Concepts.  The company, which at some point acquired a new assisted-living center every week., “slashed budget, paid measly wages and hired inexperienced staff.”  The article points to some of the differences in regulations in assisted-living and nursing homes - – Investigative Reporters and and Editors (IRE) November/December  2002

 

 

“Agencies in New Mexico impeded fraud and elder care investigation,” The New Mexico Independent.  The series explored allegations that state agencies interfered with fraud and elder abuse investigations.  The Medical Fraud Division stated that the Human Services Department and the Health Department had withheld, filtered and sanitized information and documents requested by investigators – Government Health, February 23, 2011

 

“Edler Abuse investigations mishandled at state veteran homes.” The Dallas Morning News, James Drew of the Dallas Morning News found that a criminal investigation into alleged abuse by two workers at a state veteran’s home in West Texas languished for more than two years because of confusion who should investigate and conflicts among police, state officials and veteran’s home investigators – Justice, April 7, 2011

 

Helping California Crack Down on Elder Abuse

Elder abuse is a devastating but often overlooked problem that can cause emotional as well as physical pain and suffering, shattered trust, financial ruin and even an increased risk of dying. The tragedy of elder abuse was recently brought home by 90-year-old screen legend Mickey Rooney in his dramatic Congressional testimony describing his own experiences.

“Recent studies suggest that more than one in seven older adults is victimized each year,” said the USC Davis School of Gerontology’s Kathleen Wilber, who is the Mary Pickford Professor of Gerontology. “Sadly, a recent summary of elder abuse interventions found that there is little evidence that efforts to prevent or address abuse work.” – June 2011

 

“The Price of Living” series, The Post Courier, Chareslton, S.C.  The newspaper spent months going through individual case files at the Charleston County Probate Court to learn what was happening to the savings of the elderly incapacitated persons.  Reporter Doug Pardue discovered a court that was set up to protect vulnerable elderly persons but often helped drain their estates though court-approved fees to lawyers, guardians and conservators.  Health, Justice, Dec. 2010