PRIME REAL ESTATE... Evicting Seniors is "Elder Abuse."

Seniors At Retirement Home Shocked To See Eviction Notices Posted On Doors

WESTWOOD (CBSLA.com) — Hundreds of seniors are told they are being kicked out of their retirement homes.

Flossy Liebman is a collector of clocks, but she’s losing time.  The 95-year-old says she and the roughly 200 others at Vintage Westwood Horizons senior living community are being evicted. Most are in their 90s.

Notices were posted to their doors last week showing the seniors have until the end of March to move and most don’t know where to go.

From CBS Los Angeles - Click here.

Elder Abuse – Often the Kin Did It: Feds to Collect Data.

What kind of people cheat and financially abuse incapacitated older folks?

Sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and lawyers – people who act as guardians for their relatives and clients.

What can the federal government do about it?

Currently not much, because elder abuse generally is considered a state and local problem. But at least the federal government can help with the important step of defining the problem. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to soon launch a data collection program that will assist experts combating elderly exploitation.

“Unfortunately, the extent of elder abuse by guardians is relatively unknown to us due to the limited data that we have available,” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said at a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing last week.

The title of the hearing gets to the point — “Trust Betrayed: Financial Abuse of Older Americans by Guardians and Others in Power.”

“The amount of money lost through exploitation of elders is staggering and growing,” said Cathy “Cate” Boyko, Minnesota judicial branch conservator account auditing program manager. She cited a 2015 study indicating the estimated national annual financial loss at $36.5 billion. 

Read the article: Here

Data collection is key, yet it seems far removed from the day-to-day suffering of seniors who can’t help themselves. Consider these stories from hearing testimony:

• “An 82-year-old WW II veteran had suffered two strokes and was confined to a wheelchair and homebound. After his wife passed away, he needed help so he bought a mobile home and asked his daughter to move in with him. He also named his daughter agent under a POA [power of attorney] and added her to the title of the home and his bank accounts. The daughter systematically isolated her father and took complete control over his money …” said Jaye Martin, executive director of Maine’s Legal Services for the Elderly. “When he sought help he believed he had $20,000 in savings, but only $15 remained in his accounts. Bank records revealed that his daughter had taken his money for her personal use, opened and charged thousands on credit cards in his name, and purchased a new car using her POA authority to add him as a co-signer.”
• A niece caring for her 83-year-old aunt in Virginia used the elderly woman’s money for the younger woman’s personal expenses, “including an $11,645 pickup truck for a friend and $360 at a sunglasses retailer in Tennessee,” said Kathryn A. Larin, GAO’s forensic audits and investigative service acting director. The niece was ordered to pay more than $32,000 in restitution and sentenced to 12 months in prison.
• Citing another criminal complaint in Virginia, Larin said a legal assistant to a lawyer acting as a professional guardian stole more than $100,000 from an elder’s bank account to support a drug habit. The lawyer discovered the thefts, but allowed it to continue because he had a “personal relationship” with his assistant. After the thefts were discovered, the lawyer “pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony, agreed to repay the stolen funds, and in 2015 consented to the revocation of his law license,” according to Larin.

In the past year, Martin said 48 percent of the elder-abuse cases handled by her organization involved financial exploitation, “with 75 percent of those involving family members as the perpetrators.

Media Mogul Sumner Redstone Sues Ex-Girlfriends Over Accusations Including Elder Abuse

From left, Manuela Herzer, Sumner Redstone and Sydney Holland. Mr. Redstone is suing them, accusing them of engaging in a yearslong scheme to drain his wealth by running up credit card bills, selling stock and changing his estate plan.CreditDavid Crotty/Patrick McMullan

Sumner Redstone, the media mogul, on Tuesday sued two ex-girlfriends over civil claims including elder abuse, saying he was forced to borrow $100 million from the private company that holds his voting shares of CBS Corporation and Viacom to cover tax obligations on gifts he gave to the women.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks about $150 million that Mr. Redstone’s lawyers say he gave to his former girlfriends Manuela Herzer and Sydney Holland. Mr. Redstone’s lawsuit is the newest front in a nearly yearlong litigation war between Mr. Redstone, the 93-year-old former Viacom chairman, and Ms. Herzer.

Ron Richards, a lawyer for Ms. Herzer, said the lawsuit had no merit. “All of the gifts Mr. Redstone made to my client and to Sydney Holland were made with his full knowledge and blessing,” he said.

In a statement, Ms. Holland called the lawsuit “fictional revisionist history.” She said that Mr. Redstone’s lawyers and doctors “vetted and approved all payments” she received.

Ms. Herzer had challenged her removal as Mr. Redstone’s designated health care agent last year, saying that Mr. Redstone was not competent to make the decision. A Los Angeles judge dismissed her case in May, saying Mr. Redstone made it clear in a videotaped deposition that he did not want Ms. Herzer making decisions about his care. Ms. Herzer has appealed that ruling.

Read the entire article: Gold Diggers

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day shines spotlight

Elder Abuse Awareness Day shines spotlight on hidden scourge

What is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day?

Each year, hundreds of thousands of older persons are abused, neglected, and exploited. In addition, elders throughout the United States lose an estimated $2.6 billion or more annually due to elder financial abuse and exploitation, funds that could have been used to pay for basic needs such as housing, food, and medical care. Unfortunately, no one is immune to abuse, neglect, and exploitation. It occurs in every demographic, and can happen to anyone—a family member, a neighbor, even you. Yet it is estimated that only about one in five of those crimes are ever discovered.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) was launched on June 15, 2006 by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations. The purpose of WEAAD is to provide an opportunity for communities around the world to promote a better understanding of abuse and neglect of older persons by raising awareness of the cultural, social, economic and demographic processes affecting elder abuse and neglect. In addition, WEAAD is in support of the United Nations International Plan of Action acknowledging the significance of elder abuse as a public health and human rights issue. WEAAD serves as a call-to-action for individuals, organizations, and communities to raise awareness about elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

http://www.aoa.acl.gov/AoA_Programs/Elder_Rights/EA_Prevention/weaad.aspx

"The term “elder abuse” applies, in general, to people age 65 or older, though it can happen to any vulnerable adult.

Elder abuse is not just physical attacks — hitting, slapping, bruising, burning with cigarettes — although all that happens.

It could entail emotional abuse, sexual abuse, financial exploitation, neglect, abandonment and self-neglect."

http://www.wiscnews.com/portagedailyregister/news/local/article_1256e149-4fc3-594f-ad3d-dc07b44abea2.html

"THIS AIN'T NO GAME SHOW!"

Nashville woman guilty of elder abuse; father found in filth

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Nashville woman has been convicted of elder abuse after housing officials found her father in an over-full adult diaper with feces on his feet and under his nails.

According to the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, a jury on Wednesday found Mattie Florence Sweeney guilty of two felony counts of elder abuse.

Read more:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/19/nashville-woman-guilty-of-elder-abuse-father-found/

Nurse Accused of Assaulting 91-year-old Dementia Patient

IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — An Iredell County nurse is accused of repeatedly assaulting a 91-year-old man who suffers from dementia.

Statesville police said the man’s daughter reported the assaults at Iredell Memorial Hospital.

Tamara Hager Brito has been arrested in connection with the case.

More: Assault on 91-year-old

Majority of elder abuse cases are caused by family members

Financial abuse is a hidden crime. Statistics from the National Center of Elder Abuse state 90% of the time family members are the abuser.

Family Members

Wealth can make you even more susceptible

WASHINGTON — Just before the release of a survey about elder financial abuse, an arbitration panel awarded $34 million in damages, including hearing costs, to the estate of Roy M. Speer, a co-founder of the Home Shopping Network.

The award is further proof that rich people are just as vulnerable to financial exploitation as anyone else. In fact, their immense wealth can make them even more susceptible.

The case involved the investment firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and two stockbrokers. Speer died in 2012. His wife Lynnda brought a claim against the company, arguing that her husband's estate and his foundation funds had been mismanaged.

The arbitration panel agreed and found that Morgan Stanley and the brokers were guilty of "unauthorized trading, churning, breach of fiduciary duty/constructive fraud, negligence, negligent supervision, ... and unjust enrichment."

Read more:
Michelle Singletary: Do your part to stem elder abuse

Nurse pleads guilty to elder abuse; Gentrification evictions amount to elder abuse; Caretaker nearly kills man

Katherine Blevins Lenoir, 53, of Maplesville, pleaded guilty today to one count of reckless abuse of a protected person, according to an attorney general's statement. The hearing was held before Circuit Judge Ben A. Fuller.

Lenoir is a former employee of Don Hatley Healthcare and Rehabilitation of Clanton. A licensed practical nurse, Lenoir admitted she inadvertently administered a large dose of a narcotic pain medication to a resident of the facility instead of the requested cough medicine, according to the statement.

Instead of alerting the facility to her mistake, Lenoir manipulated treatment records to reflect that she had given the correct medication, according to the AG's statement. The patient, suffering from an overdose of the narcotic pain medication, was discovered by a nurse on a later shift and rushed to the hospital where she spent several days in the intensive care unit before being released, according to the statement.

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/03/alabama_nurse_pleads_guilty_to.html


Evictions in the Bay Area, where the cost of living has skyrocketed in recent years, appear to have taken a fatal turn.

The death of a 97-year-old woman in Burlingame on March 3 was widely reported by local and international news agencies, with quotes from friends and supporters of Marie Hatch claiming she was “done in” by the stress of being evicted from her home of 66 years.

But what many reports missed, according to a local housing activist, is that Hatch was only the latest Peninsula senior resident who died shortly after being hit with eviction notices or staggering rent increases.

Hatch lived with her friend Georgia Rothrock, 85, in a modest, brown-and-white cottage at the corner of California Drive and Oak Grove Avenue. Despite the home’s location on a noisy thoroughfare, next to a busy auto mechanic’s shop, real estate website Zillow pegs the dwelling’s value at $1.2 million.

Lawyer Nanci Nishimura, who represented Hatch on a pro bono basis, said she will continue to fight the eviction on Rothrock’s behalf. Nishimura’s firm, Cotchett, Pitre, & McCarthy, LLP, is suing landlord David Kantz.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/gentrification-evictions-amount-elder-abuse/


An elderly Arvada man hired a caretaker from jail, who proceeded to swindle him for $20,000 dollars and almost killed him, by pushing him down the stairs of his home and stomping on his head.

In November, Jana Bergman was sentenced to 208 years in prison for attacking 88-year-old Jack Woods.

While Woods’ story is horrific, it’s not unusual or rare.

http://www.9news.com/news/crime/elder-abuse-caretaker-nearly-kills-man/67953180

82-year-old woman found dead in home, son arrested

Son arrested in 82-year-old mother’s death in south Charlotte home

Two years after Ina Feldman was found strangled and beaten to death in her south Charlotte home, police say they have charged her 58-year-old son with her murder.

Irwin Jay Feldman initially told police he found her body about 9:30 a.m. Feb. 4, 2014, in her townhouse on Torrey Pines Court, a south Charlotte community of mostly older residents with little crime. Irwin lived a few doors down from his mother.

In the two years since Feldman was killed, police have not released many developments in the case.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Major Cam Selvey, speaking from police headquarters on Thursday, said police have been actively working the case since Feldman’s death. Over the past few weeks, investigators developed probable cause that linked Irwin Feldman to the killing, he said.

Read more:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article62508187.html

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article62508187.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article62508187.html#storylink=cpy

Viral video spurs debate on elder abuse in India

A CCTV video of a woman beating her elderly mother-in-law has raised the issue of elder abuse and elder care in a culture where a wife is meant to care for her husband and in-laws into old age.

Security footage recorded early this year in a home in northern India shows an elderly woman being violently beaten by her daughter-in-law, Sangeeta Jain. The video (below) now has almost six millions of views on Facebook and YouTube. Be warned that the video contains graphic content.

Read more: Viral Video

Daughter sentenced in elder-abuse case

A woman was sentenced to two years in prison, plus five years’ post-prison supervision, for what the prosecution described as depleting her mother’s account “into oblivion,” leaving her unable to pay her debts.

Rene Sutton, Child’s older daughter, received $250,000 during the same period Osterud received $3 million. Sutton was also written out of a will when previous versions had the sisters equally splitting the inheritance.

Read more: 

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/crime/2016/01/07/daughter-sentenced-criminal-mistreatment/78428696/

Has been to prison before for a similar crime

A man accused of kidnapping and repeatedly beating a woman is now in custody, thanks to a high-tech camera.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Suspect arrested in Coalinga on charges of kidnapping and repeatedly beating a 71-year-old woman has been to prison before for a similar crime.

Deputies say the suspect attacked a 71-year old woman in his car before he left her tied-up inside her home.

http://abc30.com/news/man-arrested-near-coalinga-on-elder-abuse-kidnapping-charges/1142916/