Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Protecting Ontario seniors from abuse in nursing homes

Excerpt from The Star: (click for entire article)

Ontario has strong legislation to care for and protect 77,000 seniors in its nursing homes. Now here’s the bad news: it’s “not enough to eliminate abuse and neglect in all long-term care homes.”

Indeed, that finding comes from a task force created in the aftermath of a Star investigation into abuse in nursing homes, which uncovered the shocking rape of a 71-year-old woman.

The group’s 18 recommendations, released in a report last week, range from increasing the role of residents and families in the operation of nursing homes to hiring more staff. That Health Minister Deb Matthews did not jump up and commit to fund additional staff in Ontario’s 634 long-term care homes is little surprise. She is struggling to keep health expenditures down in the face of a $15-billion provincial deficit.

Daughter Pleads Guilty to Misappropriating Elderly Mother's Funds

John J. McCarthy, State’s Attorney for Montgomery County, announced that Lynda LaTour pled guilty today to Misappropriation by a Fiduciary in front of the Honorable Judge Robert A. Greenberg, Circuit Court, Montgomery County, Maryland.  The Defendant faces a maximum sentence of five years incarceration.  LaTour will be sentenced on July 13, 2012 by the Honorable Robert A. Greenberg.

Starting in 2009, LaTour embezzled almost $250,000 from her mother, Yola Cardinali, by abusing the authority her mother gave her through a power of attorney.  Mrs. Cardinali was born in 1926, and began showing signs of dementia in 2008 while she was living independently in New York City.  In 2009, the Defendant obtained power of attorney to handle her mother’s finances and, in March of that year, moved her mother to Sunrise at Montgomery Village.  In early September 2009, the Defendant signed a residency agreement with Sunrise of Rockville, as well as a responsible party contract under which she agreed to pay for her mother’s apartment, residential assisted living services, meals, medication, and respite care.   The Defendant carried out her contractual obligations until she told Sunrise staff, in November 2010 that her mother was out of money.  In fact, when attorneys for Sunrise contacted the State’s Attorney’s Office in April 2011, the Defendant owed Sunrise approximately $30,000.  (In September 2011, when Sunrise filed a separate civil action against LaTour for breach of contract, she owed more than $52,000; in February 2012, Sunrise won a default judgment against LaTour for almost $76,000).

The State’s Attorney’s Office traced Mrs. Cardinali’s assets from 2008 and determined that from the February 2009 sale of her New York home until March 2011, approximately $354,000 of her money was deposited into the Defendant’s bank account.  In violation of her fiduciary duty under the power of attorney, the defendant spent just slightly more than $100,000 of that amount for her mother’s benefit.  She spent the remainder for improvements to her own home (almost $11,000 for painting, nearly $7,000 for heating and air conditioning, close to $5,800 for bathroom work, $5,500 for landscaping), payments on her daughter’s student loans, and numerous other personal expenses.  While the Defendant was benefiting from her mother’s money, Montgomery County had to resort to seeking guardianship to protect Mrs. Cardinali’s personal and property interests, and she was eventually transferred to another facility where her expenses are being paid for by the County’s Medical Assistance Long-Term Care Program.

“Financial exploitation of vulnerable adults and seniors is serious crime in Maryland, and we are committed to aggressively prosecuting these offenses,” McCarthy said in reaction to the plea.  “This was one of the first cases investigated under the special Senior Financial Exploitation Initiative that we started last year due to the rampant increase in this type of case in the County.  The circumstances are especially egregious when, as here, family members abuse a trusted relationship to take advantage of their older relatives.”   In making today’s announcement, McCarthy thanked Assistant State’s Attorney Bryan Roslund for his prosecution of the case.  He also praised David Newcomer, Chief Investigator, and Deborah Zuckerman, manager of the senior financial exploitation project, for their investigation. He also thanked the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention for providing grant funding to support the State’s Attorney’s Initiative.

Deborah Zuckerman
Program Manager
Senior Financial Exploitation Prevention Initiative
Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office
50 Maryland Avenue, 5th floor
Rockville, Maryland 20850
(240) 777-7340

Summary Judgment May Not Be Granted In Elder Abuse Case When A Complete Defense Has Not Been Established

Excerpt from JD Supra: (click for entire article)

In Knox v. Dean (--- Cal.Rptr.3d ----, Cal.App. 4 Dist., April 24, 2012), a California Court of Appeal considered whether summary judgment in an elder abuse charge against a conservator of an elderly man was correct.  The court ruled that because the caregiver’s defense was based on his mere assertion of the facts, and not a proven defense, triable issues of facts existed and summary judgment should not have been granted.
Facts

Lawrence A. Dean (“Dean”) was conservator for Blaine Knox (“Blaine”) from 2003 to 2007, during which time Blaine was 89 to 93 years old.  In 2004, 2005, and 2006 Knox filed accountings of his conservatorship with probate court to which no written objections were filed.  Dean filed a fourth accounting in 2007, at which time Blaine’s daughter, Donna Knox (“Donna”), filed written objections.  Donna then filed suit against Dean alleging elder financial abuse, elder physical neglect, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud.  Among Donna’s allegations were that Dean paid for services that were not performed or not needed, benefiting himself and people with whom he had personal relationships, that he failed to provide Blaine needed medical care, and that he allowed people to live rent free or at below-market rents in apartments that Blaine owned, depriving Blaine of income to which he was entitled.

Dean moved for summary judgment which the trial court granted.  Donna appealed.

DHS rolls out new hotline number to report child, elder abuse

Patti’s Comment:  I’m glad to see this new hotline will make it easier to report child and elder abuse in MI.  More information, organizations and services can also be found on my website page: Children/Family Issues – Michigan Matters.

From Michigan Radio:

DHS Rolls out New Hotline Number to Report Child, Elder Abuse (Michigan Radio – 3/5/12)

Michigan’s Department of Human Services has introduced a more streamlined process for reporting child and elder abuse in the state. It’s one of a series of child welfare improvements the state agreed to make when it settled a lawsuit with New York-based Children’s Rights group in 2008. The agreement required DHS to create a statewide, 24-hour hotline that anyone in Michigan can call to report possible child or elder abuse.

DHS rolls out new hotline number to report child, elder abuse

Excerpt from Michigan Radio: (click for entire article)

Michigan’s Department of Human Services has introduced a more streamlined process for reporting child and elder abuse in the state.

It’s one of a series of child welfare improvements the state agreed to make when it settled a lawsuit with New York-based Children’s Rights group in 2008.

The agreement required DHS to create a statewide, 24-hour hotline that anyone in Michigan can call to report possible child or elder abuse.

Up until now, you had to call the specific hotline number in your county, and quality and response times varied.

Why Elder Financial Fraud Is on the Rise

Excerpt from Forbes: (click for entire article)

There are few crimes that bother me more than elder fraud.

I hear and read about these stories all the time. Older investors are routinely fleeced with products they don’t need and certainly can’t understand. They are trusting, usually isolated and often cognitively impaired. They like to pick up the phone and talk to people. When they get invitations for free steak dinners, they go and then feel obligated to buy the dreck the sponsoring brokers are selling. Pick up any paper in any retirement area. They advertise all the time.

Despite their vulnerability, older folks are prime targets for scam merchants.

Abuse of elderly hearing is Tuesday as lawmakers consider tougher approach

Excerpt from Grosse Pointe Today: (click for entire article)

Tomorrow (Feb. 21) in Lansing, advocates of senior citizens can be heard. The state House Families, Children and Seniors committee is taking up a package of bills aimed at protecting seniors from financial exploitation and physical abuse.

You can submit written testimony or attend and testify. The Area Agency on Aging 1-B is organizing efforts to provide input through one of its staff members, Ann Langford.

As the agency says: “We need advocates to speak out and stand up for Michigan’s vulnerable adults!”

Alberta senior says life in long-term care is abuse, misery and broken elevators

Excerpt from Winnipeg Free Press: (click for entire article)

An Alberta senior has gone public with allegations of misery, physical abuse and substandard living conditions at a long-term care centre.

Beverley Munro says staff in her ward at the Edmonton General Hospital physically manhandle her to get her to bed, and three months ago ripped her earlobe when her dressing gown got caught in her earring.

"She just gave it a rip and off came the bottom of the ear," Munro said Tuesday at a news conference called by the NDP at the legislature.

Staff took too long in dressing the wound and her ear will now be permanently disfigured, she said.

"I thought somebody should do something. There are other people in there. You can't just rip people around."

Experts call for federal body to act on elder abuse

Excerpt from The Worlde Today: (click for entire article)

A Queensland family is launching legal action to recover millions of dollars, handled by some of their late father's advisers.

Queensland farmer Roger Hack died last year after a long battle with dementia. But much of his wealth is missing and his children are going to court to try to recover the money.

Advocates for the elderly say cases like this one are not isolated and most receive no publicity.

Mt. Morris Township senior center director apologizes to judge over snub

Excerpt from mlive: (click for entire article)

A senior citizen center director has apologized for what she says was an unintended snub of Genesee County's chief probate judge.

Krapohl Center Executive Director Gayle Reed apologized in a Feb. 2 letter to Judge Jennie E. Barkey after the judge told the county Board of Commissioners she had been told she "was not welcome" at the center if accompanied by any representative of Sheriff Robert Pickell's elder abuse program.

Barkey had written to every senior citizen center in the county, offering to speak about avoiding telephone scams after her own 93-year-old mother-in-law was targeted.

"I have contacted you because the response from the Krapohl Center was very disturbing ...," Barkey wrote to county board Chairman Jamie Curtis. "We have an obligation to our vulnerable seniors and, in my opinion, the Krapohl Center, funded by the (senior citizen services) millage, is side-stepping their duty."