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Successful ProsecutionsAlthough the tide is certainly shifting, it is still common to hear those working with abused vulnerable adults complain that it is difficult, if not impossible, to get prosecutors interested in pursuing such cases. To make it easier to show that such prosecutions are possible, AAR will periodically run summaries of cases that have been successfully prosecuted. If you know of a successful prosecution, please send it to AAR at Loree@wordbridges.net. We especially welcome cases where the prosecutor and/or others involved in the case are willing to be contacted by other jurisdictions for further details and advice. Mother Abuse, Neglect: 10 years Pell City, Alabama Ottie and Patricia Stokes were sentenced to 10 years for the intentional neglect and abuse of Lois Smith, Patricia’s mother. The judge ordered them to serve three years in prison and serve the remainder of the term on probation. Smith, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, was found in a house with no running water or electricity and a refrigerator that had been duct taped shut. She weighed 64 pounds when found. (Source: www.dailyhome.com; December 28, 2002) Financial Exploitation: 52 Weekends and Restitution Arizona Allan Young, CPA, received a sentence of 52 weekends in jail, loss of his CPA certification, five years of probation, and was ordered to pay approximately $80,000 in restitution for defrauding two elders. He would give “seminars” in local retirement communities, befriend elderly women who had no family, take over their finances as trustee, charge enormous fees and make himself beneficiary of their wills. (Source: Email to the national elder abuse listserve, October 2002) Financial Elder Abuse: 3 Years Contra Costa County, California “Serial Sweetheart Swindler” Nick Adams was sentenced to three years in prison for financial elder abuse, securities fraud, and attempting to dissuade a witness by threats of force and violence. He pleaded no contest to one count of theft (of more than $150,000) from a 70-year-old woman he dated between May 2000 and January 2001. (Sources: www.lancastereaglegazette.com; abclocal.go.com; December 2002) Neglect: 8 Months Prunedale, California James Hayes, whose relationship to the victim was not reported, was sentenced to eight months in jail and four years probation for neglecting Therese Driesbach, who died the day after she was found. Police arrested Hayes when neighbors’ concerns led them to find Driesbach in poor condition, with Hayes under the influence of opium. Driesbach was known to have both alcohol and drug use problems. (Source: www.californianonline.com, January 2003) Nursing Home Neglect: $950,000 San Diego, California The owner of Cedar Manor Homes agreed to pay heirs of Angelo George $950,000 to settle a lawsuit the family brought after George’s death. George, an Alzheimer’s patient who had lived at the home for three months, had been brought into a local hospital with pneumonia, dehydration, malnourishment, septic shock, and wasted muscles. Most dramatically, ants -- both dead and alive -- were in George’s eyes and mouth when he was admitted. The consulting company who had placed George at Cedar Manor has also been sued for reckless behavior. (Sources: www.signonsandiego.com; December 2002 and January 2003) Assisted Suicide: 5 Years Atlanta, Georgia In a case that garnered national attention, Carol Carr pled guilty to a reduced plea of assisted suicide in the shooting deaths of her two sons, who had Huntington’s disease and lived in a nursing home. She received a sentence of five years in jail. Originally she had faced two counts of felony murder and two counts of malice murder. (Source: Associated Press, January 2003; see also October 2002 AAR news brief at http://www.wordbridges.net/elderabuse/aar/vol1issue1/news.html) Neglect of Group Home Residents: Probation, Community Service, and Education POA-Assisted Theft from Mother: Restitution, Diversion Program Jefferson County, Kentucky In a case that is notable because the defendant held a Power of Attorney (POA) over and had a joint bank account with her victim, Kyra C. Anglin pled what amounted to guilty to stealing $7,180 from her mother between August 2000 and May 31, 2001, and allowing $16,000 in nursing home bills for her mother to go unpaid between May 1 and December 19, 2001. She was ordered to make restitution and enter a three-year diversion program. If she meets those terms, her two felony charges of wanton exploitation of an adult by a caretaker -- but not her two misdemeanor charges of reckless abuse or neglect of a disabled adult -- will be erased from her record.
Silver Spring, Maryland A counselor at a group home for disabled adults was convicted of leaving five severely mentally disabled adults in a van in a parking garage on a hot day for at least 50 minutes while she went shopping. Shandell Nikki Matthews was sentenced to two years incarceration, but the judge suspended the sentence and instead ordered her to serve two years of supervised probation and perform 50 hours of community service. Matthews was also ordered to “receive 100 education hours in the field of working with vulnerable adults,” according to Prince George’s County’s www.gazette.net. (No further details of what this means were published.) She cannot provide direct care to vulnerable adults for the next two years. (Source: www.gazette.net, January 2003) Failure to Report: 1 Year, $1,000 St. Charles, Missouri The president of a nursing home management company, American Healthcare Management, was sentenced to the maximum penalty -- a year in jail and a $1,000 fine -- for failing to report the beating death of a resident in one of its nursing homes, Claywest Nursing Home. Charles B. Kaiser III had positive reviews from two pre-sentence investigations and more than 40 character references, but that didn’t sway Senior Judge Ellsworth Cundiff, who said, “I’ve had rape cases, I’ve had death penalty cases. This was the maddest, angriest jury I’ve ever seen.” The jury had deliberated for two hours. (Sources: www.stltoday.com; www.kansascity.com; www.guardian.co.uk.com; Nov. 2002 through February 2003) Nursing Home Beating Death: 15 years St. Charles, Missouri In the case reported above, nurse aide Karl Willard pleaded no contest to charges that he had beaten nursing home resident Marshall Rhodes so severely in August 1999 that he died a few days later. Willard was sentenced to 15 years in prison. (Sources: www.stltoday.com; www.kansascity.com; www.guardian.co.uk.com; Nov. 2002 through February 2003) Nursing Home Deaths: $60,000, Training, and Nursing Home Sale Xenia, Ohio A manslaughter trial was averted when Integrated Health Services agreed to pay a $60,000 fine, conduct a three-year training program for staff, and leave its Carriage-by-the-Lake nursing home in Bellbrook within a year and a half. The charges resulted from the deaths of four residents when a nitrogen tank was mistakenly hooked up to an oxygen system. (Source: Associated Press, October 2002) Nursing Home Beating: 5 Year Deferred Sentence, Anger Management Classes Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Family members objected loudly when Shawn Herschel Smith was given a five-year deferred sentence in return for a guilty plea to beating and neglecting a nursing home resident in his care. Smith must also perform 100 hours of community service, attend anger management classes, and not be employed in any nursing homes. Smith had no criminal history. (Source: www.newsok.com, December 2002) Theft from Residents: $20,000 Restitution and Suspended Term Lexington, South Carolina Two former employees of a facility caring for mentally retarded persons received three years in prison, suspended to five years probation contingent on them paying more than $20,000 in restitution for funds they stole from residents and/or Medicaid patients’ accounts. (Source: www.lexingtonchronicle.com, January 2003) Nursing Home Slap: 18 Month Deferred Sentence Westminster, Vermont Barbara Sisco, a licensed nursing assistant, was convicted of slapping a 91-year-old resident with Alzheimer’s disease after the resident scratched her. Sisco pleaded guilty as charged, although cited mitigating factors included: she had previously had a good relationship with the resident, she apologized immediately after the incident, she had “no relevant criminal record,” and the family agreed with the sentence. Along with her deferred sentence of 18 months, Sisco will perform 50 hours of community service and go through anger management counseling. Federal regulations bar her from working in a health-care facility that receives federal funds for at least five years, according to Assistant Attorney General Seth Steinzor. If Sisco complies with all the conditions, her criminal record will be expunged at the end of her 18 months. (Source: www.reformer.com; February 2003) Father Imprisonment and Mistreatment: 2 Years King County, Washington Only one of three children, Jack McKinney, was sentenced for keeping Maurice McKinney, who had Alzheimer’s disease, locked in a room, diapered in a garbage bag, and 50 pounds underweight. Jack, who got 2 years in prison, had become the primary caregiver and took money from his father’s estate to provide care. However, his sisters, who lived nearby and one of who controlled the father’s finances, were not prosecuted. “This kind of case shows the limitations of the law,” Judge Robert Alsdorf said as he berated the two sisters and sentenced Jack. (Source: www.seattletimes.nwsource.com, email to the national elder abuse listserve; November 2002)
Theft from Mother: 44 Months Waukesha, Wisconsin Thomas A. Rosche was sentenced to 44 months in prison for stealing $368,000 from his mother’s trust fund, money he said was a “loan.” The case originally ran into problems because the son had a Power of Attorney that gave him gifting rights. However, the son showed up voluntarily at a hearing to appoint a guardian for his mother, admitted taking the money, refused to provide the court with financial records as ordered, and left the state. An APS worker reported, “We tipped Social Security off to the fact he had been keeping her SS checks each month and not paying the [facility where his mother resided]. He made it back into Washington County court on contempt charges and obviously the criminal courts picked up where probate had already laid the groundwork.” (Source: Email to Wisconsin elder abuse listserve, January 2003)
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