California Enabled Elder Abuse - Open Letter to Assembly Member Mariko Yamada, Chair of the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee Assembly Member

Subject:  Stated Enabled Elder Abuse

To:  Assembly Member Mariko Yamada, Chair of the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee Assembly Member

Linda Halderman, Vice-Chair of the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee

Assembly Aging and Long-Term Care Committee
1020 N Street, Room 360A
Sacramento, California 95814
916.319.3990 phone
916.319.3884 fax

Subject:  Stated Enabled Elder Abuse

Honorable Mariko Yamada and Honorable Linda Halderman

The premise is that more laws and more regulations beget more bureaucracies, and more lobbyist such as the Financial Abuse Specialist Teams (FAST) teams, and less crime prevention. Or as I refer to State-Sponsored Eider Abuse -  What is needed is awareness and funding for investigators controlled at the local level. http://cotobuzz.blogspot.com/2012/08/coupled-to-be-arraigned-for-financial.html

I trust your will not only be receptive to the premise that California’s efforts in terms of preventing Elder Abuse have failed, but you will look into specific complaints below and take action:  On July 12, 2012 we contacted Chisorom Okwuosa and  Sarah Ludeman, Public Affairs Assistant Director California Department of Aging.  Our simple question to Ms. Ludeman was in essence, how does CDA know that the moneys allocated to elder abuse prevention are being used effectively?

While Ms. Ludeman was courteous, she had no idea.  She did refer me to Orange County Team Obbudsman Molly Davis – Ms. Davis stated she was not familiar with how to use metrics to manage for success, she was clearly inconvenienced by my call and threatened to hang up.  The second source provided by Ms. Ludeman never returned our emails and or telephone calls.

Debra Morrow, Division Manager Sacramento County Senior and Adult Services basically told us that what we were looking for was none of our business.

We contacted the City of Long Beach’s Record Coordinator and Theressa Graham basically told us where to go, whereas the National Center on Elder Abuse failed to respond to the following request:

While we understand that NCEA is not a reporting or investigation agency, it is funded by the taxpayers.  Hence, we would like to know how NCEA measures whether it is spending taxpayer funds.  In other words, specifically, can you provide metrics used to measure how effective NCEA has been for 2012?

For reference, we have asked a similar question to certain experts NCEA lists in its Expert Sources for Journalists  page:

 http://www.ncea.aoa.gov/ncearoot/Main_Site/FAQ/Resources_For_Professionals/Expert_Bios.aspx - so far not response, confirming our conclusion as listed in the email sent to these experts, forwarded as reference.

Additionally, the Orange County Council on Aging and other state actors in California presumably designed to prevent elder abuse have all failed to respond.

All  of this coupled with our prior research on elder abuse makes our rpremise self-evident:  California’s efforts to prevent elder abuse have not only failed, but these are actually being used as state-enable elder abuse tools. That might include the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee, unless you can convince us otherwise.

Look forward to your hearing from you with suggestions.

JL "Buzz" Aguirre, Publisher The CotoBuzz Journal

Freelance Investigative Journalist

www.cotobuzz.com

The mission of investigative journalism is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the status quo.

949-NEW-WEBO

FAX:  509-EKL-TUWL

C.C. Sarah, Ludeman

Doug Haubert. Long Beach City Prosecutor

Theressa  Graham, City of Long Beach Records Coordinator

Coupled to be arraigned for financial elder abuse of 91-year-old mother

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA  - . Peter Garcia, 70, and Virginia Kay Furr-Garcia former married couple are scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow for stealing $350,000 from the husband's 91-year-old mother.

Peter Garcia, 70, and Virginia Kay Furr-Garcia, 50, both of San Clemente, are each charged with one felony count each of grand theft, conspiracy to defraud another of property, conspiracy to commit forgery, and theft from an elder with sentencing enhancements for property loss over $200,000 and aggravated white collar crime over $100,000. They are being held on $500,000 bail and are scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow, Aug. 3, 2012, at 10:00 a.m.

According to the Orange County District Attorney’s (OCDA) office, at the time of the crime, Garcia and Furr-Garcia were married, but have since divorced. Between Jan. 1, 2009 and Sept. 27, 2010, Garcia and Furr-Garcia are accused of conspiring to close four annuity funds belonging to Garcia's mother worth approximately $350,000, without the victim's knowledge or consent. The defendants are accused of closing the accounts and transferring the money into an account held jointly by Garcia and the victim
.

Garcia is accused of then moving the money from the joint account with his mother into an account held by the couple. The couple is accused of using the victim's stolen money for personal living expenses including groceries, gas, and utility bills. 

The victim discovered the theft when she could not afford to pay her bills at her senior living home for several months. The victim reported the theft on March 10, 2011, to Orange County Sheriff's Department who investigated this case and arrested the defendants yesterday, Aug. 1, 2012.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Doug Brannan of the Major Fraud Unit is prosecuting this case.

RELATED STORIES


Only YOU can Prevent Elder Abuse

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.

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

Prevent Elder Abuse, Adopt ACT program

Posted by CotoBlogzz



In the piece titled, Only You can Prevent Elder Abuse, we argue 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, politicians, industry lobbyist (such as the AARP) and  the various bureaucracies, such as California Adult Protective Services, (APS) California Department of Aging, California, California Long Term Ombudsmen, FAST and on an on ad nausea may help, all are for the most part useless  - they ARE the problem.

The alternative is a proposal we refer to ACT:  Awareness, Communication and Tenacity.  In a future  piece, we will expand on this program, but the tenet is that if your friends and family have been victims of abuse, do not expect the system to work for you. it will not.  It  is up to you.

The story below is an example, not an exception that proves the rule,but the rule:

My only sibling and his wife embezzled over $600k from my mom. Left her with $166 at 93. She has dementia. She was evicted from Atria in Sand Juan Capistrano, she only has a small SS benefit, I mean SMALL. I will discuss where I had to move her another time, but I did not put her on welfare.
My experience with Orange County Adult Protective Services (APS) was laughable and one agent put me in jeopardy by telling my brother I reported him. I did not as several financial institutions reported the elder exploitation of my mom.
My mom's given name is a man's name making it easy for my brother to pretend he was her. His wife impersonated my mom on the phone with B of A to obtain more credit in my mom's name.
Not only did they financially rape my mom, they used her SS# to reopen very dormant credits cards in her name and charge up a storm.
I filed a police report with OCSD who sent it the case back East, where my brother lives. The Orange County District Attorney's (OCDA) office refused  the case and I got the case reopened last summer, only t have the  DA say everything they did was perfectly legal.
There is a springing Power of Attorney (POA) involved, undue influence, possible conflict of interest by the attorney my brother used to gain control of my moms finances.
"Durable" and "Springing" Powers of Attorney (POA) are frequently used to plan for a Principal's future incapacity or disability and loss of competence resulting, for example, from Alzheimer's Disease or a catastrophic accident. By appointing an Agent under a "Durable" or "Springing" Power of Attorney, the Principal is setting up a procedure for the management of his or her financial affairs in the event of incompetence or disability.
A "Nondurable" Power of Attorney enables a Principal to decide in advance who will make important financial and business decisions in the future.  POAs are also helpful in avoiding the expense of having a court appoint a Guardian to handle the Principal's affairs in the event of incompetence or disability.
My brother is a typical  profile, an alcoholic in and out if rehab, but he's a classy addict in his Gucci loafers and designer clothes.  His last purchase was a BMW SUV before draining my mom's trust to $166.
No one did a thing, the Orange County's  Financial Abuse Specialist Team (FAST, )  no one. I have all letters to lawyer asking him to make sure my mom's funds were safe. He called my brother instead and didn't protect his client, my mom.
My mom almost died because of this abuse.
Law enforcement won't pursue family. Embers who exploit their parents.
Low risk crime with no consequences.
The case is complex and the OCSD and the police back east argued over jurisdiction. I had a female  Investigator for while who fought hard for my mom, then was promoted.
We went to the FBI because mail fraud and  Internet transactional fraud. My surprise is the DA does not know what a springing POA is. Shocked. My brother never had legal POA.
I don't expect anyone to do anything on my mom's behalf, unless she could move to a better care facility. There is something shady going on with the agencies. I want  to uncover the ness. Tell the truth. And there is an elder law community intentionally impoverishing seniors.

Stay tuned.  We are working the case and will report our findings.

If you have stories of elder abuse, let us know: