ELDER ABUSE EXPOSED DOT COM

Retired Los Angeles Police Department Captain Glenn R. Ackerman Says Probate Judges Failed to Protect Abused, Elderly Mother

I discovered that my then-82-year-old mother’s life savings—about $150,000—had been stolen by a relative. My mother, Jonnye Ketchum, was left penniless, except for a $900 per month pension; she was fortunate in that her home, in Camarillo, California, was fully paid for.

I immediately filed an elder abuse crime report with the Camarillo station of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, naming the relative, whom I shall call the “perp” for brevity, as the suspect. The detective assigned to the case had never before handled an elder abuse case and literally had no idea how to proceed. As I was one of the founders of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Elder Abuse Unit and a former commanding officer of the Financial Crimes Division, of which the Elder Abuse Unit is a part, I was able to bring in two expert detectives from that unit to assist in the investigation.

Their tests and interviews of Mrs. Ketchum revealed that she was suffering from significant mental impairment and that the perp had obtained her savings through an ongoing pattern of threats and browbeating; even as the investigation was being conducted, there was evidence that the perp was helping herself to the bulk of Mrs. Ketchum’s pension. The perp admitted to receiving large sums of money from Mrs. Ketchum, but characterized these takings as freely proffered “gifts” and “loans.”

When the case was submitted to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office for filing, it was summarily rejected on the basis of a seemingly willful failure to understand the fundamental elder abuse concepts of diminished capacity and undue influence. In effect, Mrs. Ketchum was deemed competent to divest herself of every asset and die in the gutter.

READ MORE: http://elderabuseexposed.com/retired-lapd-captain-glenn-ackerman-on-california-probate-judges-failing-to-protect-abused-mother/