Current and former employees of an Ohio nursing
facility are accused of mistreating two patients in their care,
including one who died as a result of the nurses' actions, Attorney
General Dave Yost said Thursday.
A Franklin County grand jury indicted seven
people who worked as nurses in 2017 at Whetstone Gardens and Care Center
in Columbus, Yost said in a news conference.
The defendants face 34 charges, including involuntary manslaughter and patient neglect, Yost's office said.
One patient "literally rotted to death" as a
direct result of the nurses' neglect, Yost said, adding that another
suffered physical harm because nurses falsified her medical records and
forged signatures.
"This is gut-wrenching for anyone who has entrusted a care facility with the well-being and safety of a loved one," Yost said.
The accused include six current and former
employees and a contracted certified nurse. According to online court
records, they have not entered pleas and no attorneys were listed for
them.
A spokesman for Whetstone said it has been cooperating with law enforcement since concerns arose two years ago.
Four employees were immediately fired for falsifying the second patient's records, spokesman Ryan Stubenrauch told CNN.
But Whetstone "strongly" disagrees with
accusations that its employees were responsible for the other patient's
death, Stubenrauch said.
Two employees accused of manslaughter were
suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, he said. The
contracted certified nurse is no longer at the facility, he said.
"It's truly a tragedy any time one of our residents dies,"he said. "We're confident that this man's tragic death was not the result of neglect at our facility."
A timeline of the allegations
The first patient developed wounds on his body
in February 2017 that progressed to gangrenous and necrotic tissue, Yost
said. Nurses delayed bringing him to a hospital, where he died on March
5, 2017, from septic shock as a result of the wounds.
Three defendants were indicted on charges of
involuntary manslaughter, gross patient neglect and patient neglect,
Yost said. They are accused of failing to take medically appropriate
steps that could have saved his life.
Whetstone disagrees that the treatment provided by employees caused his death, Stubenrauch said.
"There are a lot of circumstances around
that gentleman and his untimely passing," Stubenrauch said. "We are
confident that once those things come out it will be clear that the care
he was provided at Whetstone did not contribute to his death."
The second patient suffered physical harm as
a result of inadequate care because nurses falsified her medical
records, Yost said.
The patient's medical records contained
false information and forged signatures of nursing staff. An
investigation found that the patient's medical file listed care at times
when the patient was not physically present at the facility.
"As soon as it happened we did an immediate review and fired the people who broke our rules and our trust," Stubenrauch said.
Five nurses were indicted on charges
including forgery and gross patient neglect. The patient later died, but
no one faces charges related to the death.
"These victims were completely dependent on
others for day-to-day care, which their families trusted Whetstone
Gardens to provide. Instead of providing that care, evidence shows these
nurses forced the victims to endure awful mistreatment and then lied
about it," Yost said.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has disbarred an
already-suspended attorney who played a key defense role for a former
doctor convicted of killing four people with ties to an Omaha medical
school.
The high court said in a ruling Friday that Jeremy
Jorgenson violated state law and attorney rules of conduct by continuing
to make filings and practice law after his 2017 suspension, failing to
inform clients of his suspension and failing to return clients' money.
Jorgenson's
disbarment is the latest in a string of troubles he's faced since
agreeing in 2016 to help represent Anthony Garcia in the former doctor's
first-degree murder case.
Garcia
was convicted later in 2016 of killing the 11-year-old son and a
housekeeper of Creighton University faculty member William Hunter in
2008, and killing pathology doctor Roger Brumback and his wife in 2013.
Prosecutors said Garcia blamed Hunter and Brumback for his 2001 firing
from Creighton's pathology residency program. Garcia was sentence last
year to death.
Jury selection is set to begin in the trial of a health care executive accused of defrauding Medicare of $1 billion, one of the nation's biggest such cases.
Jurors
chosen beginning Monday will decide the fate of 50-year-old Philip
Esformes, who operated a network of 30 nursing homes and assisted living
facilities in Florida. Prosecutors say Esformes and other conspirators
referred thousands of Medicare patients to their facilities even if they
didn't qualify for services.
Esformes
is also accused of accepting kickbacks for steering Medicare patients
to other health care providers, which then billed the government program
for unnecessary services.
Esformes has pleaded not guilty and has been jailed since his 2016 arrest. Two others involved in the scheme have pleaded guilty.
Esformes faces a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.
Gene Rogers lived a large life before dementia began to chip away at it.
A former Marine who signed up at
17 and fought in Korea, Rogers went on to become a stock car racer,
earned an electronics degree and spent more than three decades working
for AT&T as he and his wife, Kathryn, raised three boys during their
60-year marriage.
He spent his retirement in Carlsbad, Calif., living near Camp Pendleton where he started in the Marine Corps and where his passion for golf took him to a course nearly every day.
Then, he got sick.
Faced with the reality that 81-year-old Kathryn couldn’t care for him
alone, the family sold the Carlsbad home, banked the proceeds and found
a pleasant, $5,540-a-month assisted living facility where Rogers could
receive around-the-clock care in a secure environment.
On Dec. 30, 2017, Rogers went to live at Meadow Oaks of Roseville,
a tan stucco facility along Linda Creek in California that touts itself
as offering “well-being and a positive, active lifestyle.”
Six months later, the 83-year-old
Rogers was dead from heat stroke after allegedly being left alone on a
patio in his wheelchair, then forgotten about for hours outside as the
summer heat built. State licensing officials investigated the death and
in October, announced their fine: $1,000.
But the Rogers family is far from satisfied with the results of the state’s investigation, which they said has left them with numerous questions about what happened to Gene Rogers.
“It was June the 30th, the
hottest day of the year so far,” his son Jeff said in an interview with
The Sacramento Bee. “We got a call late in the day and they said, ‘Hey,
your father’s being taken to the hospital to get checked out.’ They
weren’t specific about what happened. They just said, ‘We’re hoping to
have him checked out. Seems like he’s OK.’ There was no panic in their
voice.
“Then I got a call from the
hospital and they said he came in in critical condition, and I was like,
‘What are you talking about?’ He was completely unresponsive to
anything but pain stimuli, his skin temperature was like 104, they had
to bag him in what they refer to as a cooling bag to get his skin
temperature down.”
An investigation by the state
Department of Social Services’ community care licensing division found
that “staff failed to provide adequate care and supervision” and levied
the fine, which was doubled from $500 because “you have been cited for
repeating the same violation within 12 months.”
State records show that 24 days
after Rogers was left on the patio, another resident living at Meadow
Oaks with her husband “was able to leave the facility unattended” at 7
p.m. on July 24, 2018. That resident “fell outside on the street while
walking and 911 was called,” a state facility evaluation report dated
Aug. 6, 2018, states.
Westmont Living, the La
Jolla-based company that operates Meadow Oaks, did not respond to
telephone and email requests for comment.
Rogers’ death has spawned a
wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of his family by Sacramento
attorney Sean Laird, as well as an enhanced review of whether the
facility should face a fine of up to $15,000, the most allowed under
state law, according to elder care advocate Carole Herman.
The case also has raised
questions about the events that led to Rogers’ death, with the family
and the lawsuit alleging that staff members gave conflicting stories
about what happened that day.
High hopes
Rogers’ family said they had high
hopes when he was placed at Meadow Oaks, a location they preferred
after looking at other options and deciding he was better off near
Sacramento rather than the San Diego area, where monthly residential
fees could easily top $10,000.
Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
They also said things appeared to
be going well for Rogers at the facility, where he enjoyed watching
“The Big Bang Theory” on television and playing chess and checkers with a
young staffer who had taken a liking to him. Family members visited on
Sundays, once bringing along four generations of relatives.
But problems began to emerge,
according to Jeff Rogers and his mother, who said they began to notice
his hygiene was beginning to suffer and that they found him alone on the
patio several times.
“This complete neglect led to a
variety of harm to (Rogers) at Meadow Oaks, where he was unkept
(unkempt), unmonitored and recklessly neglected,” according to the
family’s elder abuse and wrongful death suit, which was filed in
Sacramento Superior Court in November. “On multiple occasions family
members found (Rogers) unattended in his wheelchair on the patio where
he was left for long periods of time, without assistance, and would
become groggy and difficult to understand.”
The suit says Rogers “could not
push himself in his wheelchair, and certainly could not push himself and
open the door either to exit or enter the facility by himself.”
“Family members, on multiple occasions, instructed the facility not to leave him outside unattended,” the suit reads.
Despite that, Rogers ended up on
the memory care patio of the facility after breakfast about 9:45 a.m.
June 30, the state’s report on the incident states.
The report was compiled after a
complaint was filed by Herman, president of the Foundation Aiding the
Elderly, or FATE, in Sacramento, on behalf of the family.
“On 6/30/18, during a heat storm
with temperatures hovering around 103 degrees, Mr. Rogers was left
unattended on the patio of this facility for an estimated 3-4 hours and
suffered from extreme heat exposure which caused him to suffer a heat
stroke,” Herman’s complaint states.
Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com
The high temperature that day in
downtown Sacramento was 103, according to the National Weather Service,
and Rogers remained on the patio until at least 11:30 a.m., according to
the state’s investigation.
Who was watching?
Logs kept at the facility show
Rogers was checked on hourly, and the facility’s executive director told
investigators Rogers was given water at 10:30 a.m. One staffer told
investigators she gave Rogers “water to avoid dehydration several
times,” according to the state’s report.
That staffer, who is identified
as “S2” but not named, went to lunch from 10:35 a.m. to 11:10 a.m., and
investigators who interviewed three other staffers who were on duty that
day “could not confirm that S2 found a replacement caregiver to cover
her lunch break,” the state’s report states.
During the lunch break, there was
only one other staffer on duty, and that worker told investigators she
did not cover for the woman during lunch, according to the report.
At 11:30 a.m., two workers went outside to bring Rogers back inside for lunch and “found him unresponsive,” the report says.
“Ambulance records, however,
revealed that 911 was called at 12:04 p.m.,” the state’s report says.
“(Rogers) had been sitting outside for 1 hours, 45 minutes or longer
when temperatures were increasing and reached 93 degrees by 12 PM when
emergency services were called.
“The temperatures were verified
by a local city weather graph. When (Rogers) arrived at the hospital,
his body temperature was 103.4 (F), he was dehydrated, and had multiple
areas of sunburn (basic blister burns)/redness on body.”
Rogers was admitted to intensive
care, but family members said doctors told them there was little hope
for him, and that at one point he became unable to swallow. He was moved
to hospice care and died July 14. The cause of death was listed as
“heat stroke due to prolonged exposure to sun and heat,” the state
report found.
The report initially was
classified as “confidential.” But after inquiries by The Bee, social
services officials released the report and filed a new copy of it,
noting that the original “was inadvertently marked ‘confidential’
instead of ‘public.’ ”
Placer County coroner’s officials listed Rogers’ death as “accidental.”
The Rogers family alleged in
their lawsuit that Meadow Oaks frequently did not have enough staff on
hand to supervise residents. Jeff Rogers said he was present when one
resident managed to slip out the front door of the facility unnoticed,
and said he had to alert staffers.
“In fact this facility had been
cited by the state of California for inadequate staffing based on
multiple events in 2017 and 2018,” the Rogers lawsuit states.
The Rogers family said they believe Gene Rogers died simply because staffers forgot he was on the patio and left him there.
“I went down there and I said,
‘What happened...?’ ” Jeff Rogers said. “The only person that gave me
their story was the director. It was like she was reading from a script:
Dad got himself outside like he often did, he was checked on and given
water at regular intervals and that’s when he got himself back inside.
“Well, someone’s handing me a
boatload there,” Rogers said, insisting that his father could not have
wheeled himself out the door and certainly could not have gotten back
inside through a door that he said was kept locked. “It seemed like
something was being covered up.”
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SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. (WGCL) - The ex-wife of a fugitive former attorney
suspected of killing his mother says she and her children are terrified
he'll show up.
On the day he was supposed to begin serving a
prison sentence for fraud, police say disbarred Georgia attorney Richard
Merritt killed his own mother.
A nationwide manhunt has been underway ever since.
Merritt’s ex-wife and children are in protective custody.
"We are scared, we've been hiding, we have protection from the US Marshals office,” Dr. Merritt said.
She
says her ex led a double life, was a verbally abusive drunk and
allegedly snapped on Feb. 2, when he allegedly killed his own mother.
That was the same day he was set to turn himself over to authorities for a 15-year prison sentence for defrauding clients.
"I think he was drunk and I think he told her he wasn't going,” Dr. Merritt said.
She
says she believes others are helping Merritt evade capture. Dr. Merritt
added that she's fearful of how a confrontation with police will end.
"I think suicide is a possibility,” she said. “He destroyed us with what he did."
The US Marshals service is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to Merritt's capture.
A measure that would allow
residents of nursing homes to have security cameras in their rooms is
advancing in the Minnesota Senate, amid concern about abuse, neglect and
retaliation in elder care facilities.
In August 2016, Mary Ann
Papp of Bemidji, Minn., broke her right ankle. Papp, who has diabetes,
suffered wounds from the cast that eventually forced doctors to amputate
her leg.
Her daughter, Lisa Papp-Richards, says her mom
developed bedsores on her left side, which led to the amputation of her
other leg a few months later. Papp-Richards suspected staff at the
nursing home weren't paying attention.
"I just felt like there
was something wrong, and my mom would try to tell me something, but it
wasn't making sense because she was on all these drugs," Papp-Richards
said.
She bought a webcam and installed it in her mom's room.
"My
mom called me and said you need to get up here right away. And I said
why? And she said they found the camera and they want you to remove it.
And I said 'Mom, we don't have to remove it.'"
But she did. Papp-Richards says administrators told her the webcam was a violation of the nursing home's policy.
Papp-Richards
has driven several times from Bemidji to St. Paul to advocate for
legislation that would allow cameras in residents' rooms at elder care
facilities. She wants to help others avoid the mistreatment that she
says her 76-year-old mother has suffered.
"I believe that my mom
would still have her legs, because I could have seen that they weren't
going in there like they should. I could have done something."
Elder
abuse attorney Suzanne Scheller represents Papp-Richards. Scheller
argues that nursing homes have no right to remove webcams because they
are residents' personal property, like the possessions of an apartment
tenant. But she says nursing homes refuse to see it that way.
"They're saying without the law, we don't have to comply," Scheller said.
The
measure would establish guidelines for cameras in residents' rooms.
Among other things, any roommates would have to consent. The proposal
also requires residents or their representatives to notify the facility
within two weeks that a webcam is present.
That provision won
over the state's nursing home owners. At a Senate committee hearing
Tuesday, Toby Pearson with Care Providers of Minnesota says operators
back the legislation.
"Our members believe that yes, we should
receive notice, to help ensure the ability to respect privacy as well as
act as a deterrent," Pearson said.
Republican Jim Abeler of Anoka
is one of the Senate authors of the bipartisan measure. He says the
majority of employees at elder care facilities do their jobs well, but
webcams can offer another level of protection for residents.
"This
information gleaned by this video monitoring can be used at a trial, if
you wish to charge someone with a bad act," Abeler said. "And it will
also have the effect of putting everybody on notice that they should do a
little better job."
The measure goes next to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Minnesota House is considering similar legislation.
A plan to expand San Francisco’s ability to involuntarily hold the
homeless for mental health and substance use treatment will impact far
fewer people than initially thought.
While The City has identified dozens of people potentially eligible
for the holds, a requirement of the state law authorizing the local
program has inadvertently limited the pool of those who could qualify to
fewer than 10, city officials told the San Francisco Examiner Friday.
To be considered under the proposal for a judge-ordered involuntary
hold, or conservatorship, a person would need to have had eight or more
5150 psychiatric emergency holds in a year, according to the terms of
Senate Bill 1045. The bill, co-authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener and
passed by the state legislature last year, is intended to address the
chronically homeless who are suffering from substance use and mental
illness.
The City has identified 55 persons “who potentially meet the criteria
for SB 1045,” having had eight or more more 5150 holds in 12-month
periods over the past two years, according to Rachael Kagan, a
spokesperson for the Department of Public Health.
But further limiting the possible number of eligible people is a
requirement that The City also has to first seek through court petition
to help the person through Laura’s Law, otherwise known as assisted
outpatient treatment, or AOT.
It’s estimated that that prerequisite brings the number eligible down
to below 10, Mayor London Breed’s spokesperson Jeff Cretan confirmed to
the Examiner.
That’s because most of the 55 put on frequent 5150 holds are known to
be unsuitable candidates for assisted outpatient treatment.
Wiener is now seeking an amendment to SB 1045 to change the
provision, which was added to the bill last year during the approval
process. He called it “clean-up legislation to ensure that SB1045 can be
effectively implemented.”
“It would be unethical to force The City to seek frivolous AOT
petitions for people they know aren’t appropriate candidates,” Wiener
said in a text message. “The bill retains the AOT requirement, but with
flexibility in cases where the department medically determines that a
person isn’t an AOT candidate.”
Cretan said that they are “aware Sen. Wiener is working on
legislation to address this issue” and that they still plan to move
forward with the program. He said that it’s “worth doing” if it can help
just one person.
He added, “This is not a one year program. It is a multi-year program.”
The debate over the conservatorship proposal could come to a head as
early as March before the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who co-introduced the local legislation
with Breed to implement the program, said he is committed to seeing it
through, despite the limited reach of the proposal and opposition from
groups like the Coalition on Homelessness and the Mental Health
Association of San Francisco.
“I’m not willing to back down,” Mandelman said. “If it’s four, it’s still worth doing. If it’s one, it’s still worth doing.”
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, chair of the Rules Committee, hasn’t taken a
position on the legislation, but questioned whether the limited impact
it would have is worth it, given the concerns being raised by advocates
over civil liberties.
Ronen said that she’s been told by staff in the Mayor’s Office it
would only impact two to five people given the limitations of SB1045,
which were apparently only recently recognized.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Ronen told the San Francisco Examiner
Friday. “I’m still trying to figure it out. It’s just not going to be
very impactful.”
The plan has strong support in some sectors, however, including among downtown business interests.
A Jan. 23 letter signed by leaders of 10 influential groups,
including the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the San Francisco
Travel Association, the Hotel Council and the Hospital Council of
Northern and Central California, calls upon the Board of Supervisors to
pass the legislation.
“The public health and humanitarian crisis playing out on our streets
impacts all of us,” the Jan. 23 letter reads. “Without adequate tools
to intervene, people battling untreated mental illness and drug
addiction will continue to deteriorate on sidewalks, in parks, and
across our public spaces. The status quo is unacceptable to those who
are left outside to suffer.”
The letter concludes: “We live here, work here, and represent
businesses that collectively employ tens of thousands of people who also
live in this city. We believe that Housing Conservatorships will make a
lasting, positive long-term impact in the lives of our neighbors most
in need.”
Jessica Lehman, executive director of Senior and Disability Action,
which opposes the legislation, said in response to the letter that
“decisions about how to respond to the homelessness and mental health
crisis must be made with people directly affected, people who have had
trouble accessing services and getting their needs met.”
She said that “forcing people into treatment is not only wrong; it is
ineffective at creating lasting change and it is the wrong use of the
city’s funds.”
“If we are serious about helping people, we need to provide quality,
intensive mental health and substance use services, along with permanent
supportive housing. To think that anything else will work is to ignore
the facts,” she continued.
Breed, who made the conservatorship plan part of her platform in her
run for mayor last June, most recently referred to the legislation
during her Jan. 30 state of the city address.
“To help those who are truly suffering get real treatment, I’ve
partnered with Supervisor Mandelman on conservatorship legislation,”
Breed said. “Because when people can’t care for themselves, we need to
care for them.”
She also announced that she would create a new position, the Director
of Mental Health Reform, “who will better coordinate mental health care
for those suffering in our City, strengthen the programs we have that
are working, and, yes, cut the ineffective programs — because clearly
some things just aren’t working.”
Leslie Tracy wanted to be able to help when her mother took a turn
for the worse in her battle with ovarian cancer last spring. Employed as
a graphic design and production assistant at the biotech manufacturer
Promega, Leslie looked into the company’s new policy for family
caregivers and found she could take two weeks’ worth of paid leave as
needed over several months.
It made a huge difference. Leslie, 32, was able to spend time in the
hospital and at home when her mom was the sickest and be with her during
the last moments of her life. And when she was at work, Leslie was able
to concentrate more.
“It was just easier for me to get through my day knowing that if I
had to leave for an afternoon, I didn’t have to pick up and start
working again at 9 p.m.,” Leslie said. “I was able to just go and do
what I needed to do at home, and then I could pick back up the next day
or in a few days when I came back to work.”
That “soft” return on investment factored into Promega’s decision on
family leave, said benefits manager Diana Clark. The company believes
that offering paid leave for employees who need it – over and above
parental leave – will reduce stress, improve productivity and result in a
healthier and happier workforce, she said.
A small but growing number of companies agree. In 2017, only two of
the nearly 60 companies surveyed by the advocacy group PL+US confirmed
that they offered benefits for non-parental family caregivers. Last
year, the same survey found that 10 companies offered such benefits.
The increase reflects growing awareness by companies, employees, and
investors that workers need and want family leave beyond caring for
newborns. More than eight in 10 employers recently told the Northeast Business Group on Health that they expect caregiving to become an increasingly important issue over the next five years.
“We’ve seen a tectonic shift in the private sector and from
individual employers moving on family leave,” says Annie Sartor,
directory of advocacy at PL+US. Companies are recognizing that “more
people may need time to care for a seriously ill family member than to
bond with a newly arrived child.”
Corporate policies
The structure of paid leave varies. The accounting firm Deloitte
offers 16 weeks of fully paid leave to workers, while most companies’
offerings range from one to four weeks, according to the PL+US report.
Of the 10 companies providing paid leave to caregivers, eight make no
distinction between full time and part-time employees.
Deloitte expanded its paid family leave policy to include non-parents
in September 2016, when management became worried that the challenges
of caregiving were having a negative impact on its workforce, which
spans five generations.
Since its implementation, more than 5,000 workers have taken
advantage of the program, Carolyn O’Boyle, leader of Deloitte’s Talent
Strategy & Innovation team, said last July during a congressional hearing
on paid family leave. O’Boyle said that the cost of the program was
lower than projected because the company was able to temporarily
backfill employees with other team members.
“This expanded leave program has had a profound impact on our people,
and the realized benefits have far outstripped concerns about
operational disruption,” O’Boyle said.
Pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Meyers Squibb in March announced it was
broadening its paid family leave program, offering eight weeks of paid
leave to not only new parents, but also to all types of caregivers and
family members of all ages.
“We realize that our employees can work best when they feel their
responsibilities at home and at work are being supported,” Chief Human
Resource Officer Ann Powell Judge said in a statement.
Paid family leave ranked as the most desired work perk among employees polled
by benefits provider Unum in August, with nearly six in 10 saying that
they wanted the benefit. Still, there were many more companies,
including CVS, Lowe’s and Dollar General, that offered new parental
leave policies last year without expanding that leave to those caring
for non-newborn family members.
“We know that the population is rapidly aging, the number of
caregivers is shrinking, just because of demographics, but companies, by
and large, just have not caught up,” says Vicky Shabo, a vice president
at the National Partnership for Women & Families.
Currently, about 34 million Americans provide unpaid care to an adult age 50 or older, according to a report from the National Alliance on Caregiving.
As more women enter and stay in the workforce, there are fewer
non-working family members who can take on that care. Meanwhile, six in
10 family caregivers are also employed, with an average 35-hour
workweek, the report found.
Caregivers who leave the workforce,
even for a brief period, can face financial ramifications for decades.
Awareness of the monetary and psychological stress around caregiving may
be why more than nine in 10 workers recently surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management said that the paid leave is important to their overall job satisfaction.
Yet companies that want to provide family leave for employees face
hurdles. The policy potentially affects many more workers than maternity
and paternity benefits do, making it much more expensive. For small
businesses, the cost may be too much. Larger companies may need to be
pushed into offering more leave.
Seeking government help
And that’s part of why there’s a parallel movement on the government
side to pass policies that would provide a basic paid leave to
caregivers. Seven states have some kind of paid caregiving leave
policies, including Massachusetts, which acted this past summer. Four
other states have bills in the works.
Federally, the current policy is the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Passed in 1993, it mandates that large employers provide 12 weeks unpaid leave
for workers who need to take time off to care for family members or
recover from illness. The U.S. is the only developed country that
doesn’t offer any paid leave.
“There’s just a recognition that all of these other countries have
figured out how to do this,” says Jeff Hayes, program director, job
quality and income security, at the Institute for Women’s Policy
Research. “Companies there are still running; they’re still considered
competitors.”
The 2016 election was the first time that both major presidential
candidates said that they’d support paid leave, according to Megan
Sholar, a political science professor at Loyola University Chicago. The
midterm election, which saw a record wave of women and younger
candidates ascend to office, also may spur movement at the federal
level. President Trump renewed some hope for legislation during his
State of the Union speech this week when he said he supported a plan
“for nationwide paid family leave so that every new parent has the
chance to bond with their newborn child.”
But some advocates say policy solutions should go further. Any new
legislation must value all care, said Ellen Bravo, co-director of Family
Values at Work.
“There will be pressure to accept something narrow and minimal just
for parents, or six weeks for a lower rate of pay,” Bravo said. “That
won’t help American families, and it won’t help the people who need it
the most.”
Even in states with paid family leave regulations, many workers don’t know about them or don’t understand them, a recent AARP report found.
Real solutions to the caregiving crisis will require not only new laws,
but shifts in corporate culture that encourage caregivers to take
leave, much like corporate culture is starting to support men taking
paternity leave.
The fact that both the government and corporate America are starting
to recognize the needs of non-newborn family caregivers could mark a
tipping point, Bravo said.
“It’s just the beginning, but it’s a place to start,” Bravo says.
“It’s been 25 years since we passed FMLA, and we should just pass paid
leave. We can do it.”
Willie Fred Shorter, 58, was arrested for allegedly impregnating a woman
with disabilities in 2015, when he worked in a group home.
(Brevard County Sheriff's Office)
A Florida
caregiver was arrested Wednesday after a years-long investigation
revealed he impregnated a woman with disabilities while working in a
group home, police said.
Willie Fred Shorter,
58, was arrested on a charge of committing lewd and lascivious battery
on a disabled person, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said.
Shorter was working in a group home run by the Bridges foundation
when he allegedly impregnated a woman who has “the mental capacity of a
small child” and is unable to give consent, Florida Today reported. The staff discovered the woman, who was not identified, was pregnant in January 2015 and contacted police.
The woman initially named three men who were potentially the father of her child, FOX35 reported.
Shorter’s name came up, but he denied the allegations and there was not
enough evidence for authorities to obtain a DNA sample.
The woman gave birth in May 2015 and her family adopted the baby, but
the investigation stalled until last April, when the victim said
Shorter touched her genitals while she was in the group home.
Shorter voluntarily submitted a DNA sample, which matched with the child, police said.
Shorter
was an employee with Bridges for about eight years and worked as a
“direct support staff” with people with disabilities, Bridges president
and CEO David Cooke told Florida Today.
"We've been in Brevard for 62 years serving people with disabilities. We
are absolutely devastated," Cooke told the news site. "This is
devastating for the client, for the family. It's devastating for the
staff who work so hard everyday, working for our clients with
significant disabilities."
We have little sympathy for criminals in the first place.
But
there’s something especially repulsive about a person who would prey on
the most helpless in our society - children, the elderly and the
disabled.
Maxine Donaldson, 53, pleaded guilty Monday in Richmond
County Superior Court on charges stating she did precisely that:
neglecting older and disabled folks under her supposedly competent
supervision and, on top of that, siphoning off financial benefit from
them.
The charges spanned two cases - neglect of an elderly
person; operating an unlicensed personal care home; and 13 counts of
exploitation of an elderly person. In a plea deal, Judge Daniel J. Craig
sentenced Donaldson to 15 years in prison and five years on probation.
She
was arrested first in 2017 for the exploitation part - specifically,
stealing $25,000 from a 69-year-old Alzheimer’s patient she looked
after. We hesitate to say that Donaldson actually “cared for” this
vulnerable man.
Prosecutors said she told the man’s children she
would tend to the man’s needs for $1,600 a month. But a few months
later, she upped the fee to $2,600 a month, and by that time she had
added herself to the man’s bank account. The man’s children had no idea
any of this was going on, prosecutors said.
This took place in
Donaldson’s licensed personal care home, Shavonna’s Place. While she was
out on bond in that case, an elderly abuse task force found she had
been running an unlicensed personal care home on the side, on Belair
Road.
The judge also ordered Donaldson’s name be placed on Georgia’s newly
instituted elder abuse registry, the product of several measures passed
last year by the Georgia General Assembly aimed at protecting seniors
from being mistreated.
It’s been an ongoing mission in our state
legislature for several years. In 2013, for example, lawmakers had the
wisdom to pass House Bill 78, which shifted the state’s elder abuse laws
into the criminal code. That now gives law enforcement greater
authoritative muscle to respond to reports of abuse.
Last year, one of the bills lawmakers passed enabled district
attorneys statewide to form special teams to respond to suspected cases
of abuse, neglect or exploitation. The Augusta Judicial Circuit already
had that - the local Crimes Against the Vulnerable and Elderly task
force. That’s the group of investigators that ferreted out the
unlicensed care home in the Donaldson case.
As America’s
population grows grayer, we find ourselves more often relying on other
people to help look after our older loved ones. Some people just don’t
have the time or the ability to give their senior relatives the comfort
and care they deserve.
That often means seeking out smaller
personal care homes, especially if you don’t have deep enough pockets to
pay for accommodations in a larger, more professionally operated
assisted living facility. And these homes need to be safe and secure.
Thanks
to increasingly tougher Georgia laws, seniors who deserve special care
are getting better protection against the unprincipled leeches out to do
them harm.
It’s now a significant trend among senior citizens to buy cute tiny homes
for their post-retirement years. Not RVs, but tiny wooden structures
sometimes put up on wheels as an alternative to assisted living. These
homes make it easy for elderly people to cope on their own.
Having to worry about paying an
outrageous mortgage and managing excess space is not healthy. A lot of
elderly people want something cozy and compact to make life less
stressful. It’s also much easier to make small homes suited to the needs
of the elderly.
Tiny homes make living off the grid more feasible
In a chat with Sanluisobispo.com,
72-year-old Bette Presley reveals how comfortable her life has been in
her tiny home. She lives off the grid in a mobile 166-square inch home
in Arroyo Grande, and she’s confessed to living her best life for the
past 14 years.
Mrs. Presley had wanted somewhere
small and cozy she could live entirely off the grid and be mobile. She
got her dream when her tiny home with wheels came in and solar panels
were installed. She got rid of a lot of the old, useless stuff taking up
her space, and she moved in with the most essential items. She wanted
to reconnect with nature, and her new home literally brings her ‘down to
earth’.
Tiny homes are great options for downsizing
When
all your kids move away and you loathe the idea of assisted living,
compact living may be the next best thing. In a chat with Today Home, 61-year-old retired music teacher Adele Smith said she couldn’t endure the size of her large house anymore.
`“I had my little corner of the
living room where I’d watch TV, and I’d use the bathroom and my bedroom
and the kitchen. And I’m like, I’m just storing crap in this house. I’m
not using this stuff.”
Mrs. Smith decided to move into a
tiny home because she couldn’t deal with the massive space she was
living all alone in. Her only daughter had moved out and she needed
something that’d make her feel less lonely.
She got rid of her 1300-square-foot
and got a 140-square-foot bungalow in Oregon. It’s much smaller than
she’s ever lived in, and she says, “It fits me to a T. I’m really very
content.” Her new home has everything a home should have, and most
importantly, it’s small.
Money saved when space is saved
Many elderly people move into these
homes to save money, not particularly because they need to downsize.
Tiny homes are quite affordable, ranging from $10,500 to about $20,000
depending on the size and furnishing. In fact, they have been selling
quickly.
It’s the best option for anyone
seeking something affordable and probably mortgage-free. A lot of
elderly people being catered for by their children wouldn’t want them
spending a lot on useless space. They opt to move into these tiny homes
so their children can save funds.
Assisted living, move over!
Tiny
homes are a great alternative for senior citizens who don’t want to
move into assisted living. The homes can be tweaked to suit their
physical and mental needs. According to Today Home, Dani Moore who has osteoporosis had a wheel-chair ramp installed in front of her house.
She also installed a chain host with
a rock climbing harness to help her lift off her seat. Some tiny homes
even have visual and voice assistants to remind the elderly of certain
things, such as prayer and medication.
MEDCottage
designs and constructs tiny homes with this purpose as a major
pace-setter. Their cute homes – nicknamed “granny pods” – are
state-of-the-art homes that basically watch over the elderly. Their
homes have facilities equipped into the tiny spaces to make it easy for
elderly people to live on their own, unaided by nurses and caregivers.
Tiny homes as a business strategy
The Sausage Nonnas
of Italy are using their tiny mobile homes to put the ‘-s’ in
‘strategy’. These three grandmothers from Italy run a wonderful sausage
delivery service in Chicago from their small homes. They make sausages
on Sundays for events. Sometimes, they move their homes the location and
set up shop on site. Other times, they just deliver batches to their
clients. Nonna Antonia, Nonna Gina, and Nonna Lidia can’t stop being
working class ladies, even in their golden years!
A woman who ran an assisted-living facility out of her Baltimore home
was charged with raping a 67-year-old woman suffering from dementia,
court records show.
Dorothy Ann Brown, 72, was arrested last month over the allegations,
which were reported to police in June – prompting five adults in her
care at a home in the 4500 block of Garden Drive to be relocated or to
move in with relatives, according to court records cited by the Baltimore Sun.
The 67-year-old victim who “suffers from a diminished mental
capacity” told police that Brown forced her to perform oral sex in the
basement of Brown’s home. Brown also performed oral sex and other sex
acts on the woman before threatening to assault her by slapping her face
if she relayed details of the assault to anyone, the woman told police.
Detectives responded in June to Golden Doves Adult Medical Daycare,
where the victim told staffers about the alleged abuse. Staffers at the
facility then contacted police, the Baltimore Sun reports.
An assistant manager at Golden Doves told the newspaper that he
remembered the victim getting emotional while reporting the alleged
abuse to a social worker. The woman had been visiting the facility for
about a year for medical care while living at Brown’s home facility,
assistant manager Ashfaq Ahmed said.
A forensic examination taken at a hospital later revealed that
Brown’s DNA was found on the woman’s breasts, according to charging
documents.
Police told the newspaper that the victim was then removed from Brown’s care and returned to live with her relatives.
Attempts to reach Brown — who was released on her own recognizance
last week on charges of first-degree rape, vulnerable adult abuse and
other counts — were unsuccessful Friday.
Brown’s attorney, Richard K. Scott, told the newspaper that Brown
will plead not guilty to the allegations. She’s scheduled to return to
court on Feb. 21.
“As a result of the allegations that were made against her, [state
officials] forced her to close down her adult day care,” Brown told the
Baltimore Sun. “They took away her income and put her in jail for
several days. She’s been in the business of adult day care for 50 years
with no problems from what she told me.”
Scott did not return a message seeking comment on Friday.
Winston-Salem, N.C.
– A woman who embezzled from an older person for whom she was a
caretaker pleaded guilty to federal charges on Friday, February 8,
announced United States Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin for the Middle District of North Carolina.
Teresa
Denise Schneider, 52, of Durham, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to one
count of bank fraud and one count of wire fraud, in front of the
Honorable Loretta C. Biggs, United States District Judge for the Middle
District of North Carolina.
“We should honor our elders, not
steal from them. Ms. Schneider abused her position of trust as
caretaker. We will aggressively pursue those who commit such acts,” said
U.S. Attorney Martin, adding, “I commend the Department of Treasury
Task Force, NC SBI, and AUSA Chut who worked diligently to make sure
this defendant is held accountable for exploiting a vulnerable victim
and abusing the trust of the victim’s family.”
According to court
documents, Schneider began caring for the victim in 2010 and continued
to do so until the victim’s death of natural causes at the age of ninety
in 2013. During this time, family members of the victim, who visited
almost daily, became concerned about Schneider’s involvement in the
victim’s finances. In September 2011, a family member instructed
Schneider to provide monthly copies of all bank and credit card
statements. Schneider complied, but after the victim’s death, the family
discovered that the account statements Schneider provided had been
altered to remove or conceal transfers of funds to Schneider. In total,
Schneider embezzled approximately $370,000 from the victim.
Schneider’s
main source for converting the victim’s funds to her own use involved
the victim’s credit card. Schneider transferred funds from the victim’s
deposit and investment accounts to overpay wildly the credit card by
tens of thousands of dollars. Schneider then converted this money in two
ways. First, she made numerous unauthorized purchases on the card,
including paying for spa treatments, travel, college tuition, dining,
and expensive shopping sprees at department stores. Second, Schneider
used a direct transfer feature of the credit card to transfer over
$100,000 to her personal bank account.
Schneider knew that she was not entitled to these funds and not authorized to make these transfers.
The
sentencing is set for July 18, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. in Winston-Salem.
Schneider faces up to thirty years in prison, a fine of up to
$1,000,000, and supervised release of not more than five years following
release from prison. At sentencing Schneider will also be ordered to
pay restitution.
This case was investigated by the United States
Department of Treasury Office of Inspector General Task Force and the
North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States
Attorney Frank J. Chut, Jr. prosecuted the case.
Elder abuse
includes physical abuse, caregiver neglect, financial exploitation,
psychological abuse, sexual abuse, and abandonment. Since President
Trump signed the bipartisan Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act
into law, the Department of Justice has participated in hundreds of
enforcement actions in criminal and civil cases that targeted or
disproportionately affected seniors.
A Grove City woman who went to Mount Carmel West hospital was the
last intensive-care patient to receive an excessive and potentially
fatal dose of pain medication from Dr. William Husel, and the case
triggered the hospital's investigation, attorneys said Wednesday.
Husel
apparently was escorted out of the hospital sometime after 82-year-old
Melissa Penix died shortly before 11 p.m. on Nov. 20. She had received a
2,000-microgram dose of the opioid fentanyl, said attorney Craig Tuttle
of the Columbus firm Leeseberg & Valentine.
The dose is the
highest reported by attorneys representing more than 15 families of
Mount Carmel Health System patients who died under Husel's care. The
highest previously reported dosage was 1,000 micrograms.
Tuttle called the dose given Penix "absurd and unfathomable."
"It was just stunning. ... And the family was appalled and shocked at learning the truth," he said.
Health care professionals have told The Dispatch that a 250-microgram dose would be enough to raise questions.
Husel
has been accused of ordering excessive doses of painkiller from 2015 to
2018 for 33 near-death patients at Mount Carmel West in Franklinton and
one such patient at Mount Carmel St. Ann's in Westerville. All the
patients died, and Mount Carmel has said the doses potentially caused
the deaths of 28 of them.
Attorneys said a wrongful-death lawsuit
probably will be filed on behalf of Penix's husband in Franklin County
Common Pleas Court on Thursday. A copy of the suit decries the health
system for failing to act on formal complaints filed on Oct. 25 and Nov.
19 about Husel's care, and it says that hospital representatives told
Penix's family that her death triggered their investigation.
Mount Carmel has said Husel was removed from patient care on Nov. 21,
and it has acknowledged that three patients died after the Oct. 25
complaint. A public apology was issued in January. All patient families
also have been notified about the dosing issues, the system has said.
"Our
family is immensely disappointed in the tragic choices of Dr. William
Husel, the nurses, pharmacists, and leadership of Mount Carmel Health
System," Penix's family said in a statement. "Melissa, affectionately
known as Mel or Meemaw, was a devoted Christian, a wife of more than 65
years, a mother to all who graced her home, a loving and laughing
grandmother and cookie-giving, color-right-along-with-you
great-grandmother."
The
Penix suit will name as defendants Mount Carmel, Husel, a pharmacist
believed to have approved the order, and a nurse believed to have
administered it. It also will list unnamed administrators and managers
who were aware of the Oct. 25 report and/or the Nov. 19 report.
Penix, the law firm said in a statement, had been taken to the
hospital with stomach pain on Nov. 15 and subsequently was diagnosed
with pneumonia. On Nov. 19, she was admitted to the ICU with increasing
difficulty breathing and was placed on a ventilator to allow her body to
rest and heal, the statement said.
Penix was able to smile, make
gestures and interact with family members, according to the firm. Then,
on the afternoon of Nov. 20, she complained of stomach pain. A few hours
later, Husel told her family that she had a severe stomach infection
and was brain-dead, and that her organs were failing, the firm said.
They were encouraged to remove care, which they did.
Penix, the firm said, died within five minutes of being administered the fentanyl.
Also
on Tuesday, attorney David Shroyer, who has filed three wrongful-death
lawsuits in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on behalf of patient
families, said he submitted a motion agreeing to postpone questioning
Husel under oath but asking a judge to allow the civil cases and
evidence-gathering to proceed.
The motion is in response to one filed Tuesday by Husel's attorney,
Gregory Foliano, who argued that the civil cases should be put on hold
until after the completion of a related criminal investigation and any
potential prosecution so that Husel does not have to respond to
questions that could be used as evidence in any criminal matter.
The
Ohio Department of Health said Mount Carmel submitted a correction plan
Wednesday for St. Ann's hospital in response to a warning from the
federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that the hospital
could be terminated from the Medicare program over serious
pharmaceutical-service deficiencies. A plan for Mount Carmel West was
submitted Tuesday.
A nationwide manhunt is underway for a disbarred Georgia attorney accused of killing his mother.
Richard
Merritt had been sentenced to 15 years in prison and 15 years on
probation after being convicted of stealing money from his clients and
elder abuse. The court found him guilty on more than 30 counts of theft,
forgery and elder exploitation.
He was given until 5 p.m. on February 1 to get his affairs in order before turning himself in.
Instead, the US Marshal Service says he cut off his ankle monitor and fled.
The
day after Merritt was supposed to surrender, his mother, Shirley
Merritt, was found violently killed. Her car was missing, while
Merritt's vehicle was found at the scene, the US Marshal Service said in
a statement.
"The vehicle he may be driving is a 2009 silver
Lexus RX350, bearing a Georgia tag CBV 6004," the US Marshal Service's
statement reads. "He may have shaved his head or otherwise changed his
appearance, and should be considered armed and dangerous. Do not try to
engage him. If you see Merritt, please contact law enforcement
immediately."
Merritt had admitted to settling civil lawsuits on
his clients' behalf without their knowledge, forging signatures on
settlement checks and documents and keeping money intended for his
clients, the Cobb County District Attorney's office said in a statement.
"The
victims came to him for help, and he helped himself instead," Senior
Assistant District Attorney Jason Marbutt said. "People ought to be able
to trust their lawyer. When a lawyer lies, it has ripple effects on the
entire system."
Merritt was also ordered to pay $454,706 in restitution to his clients.
"Some
of his client-victims were pursuing medical malpractice claims and are
now further injured financially because of Merritt's crimes and abuse,"
the Cobb County DA's office said. "Some other victims are elderly.
Merritt lied to the victims, leading them to believe he was still
pursuing their legal claims. Meanwhile, he was spending the unauthorized
settlement funds on lavish vacations and a Porsche."
CNN has
reached out to the lawyer representing Merritt in his initial conviction
for comment but has not yet received a response.
A local woman faces a second set of
charges for elder exploitation after authorities claimed she stole more
than $20,000 from an 82-year-old woman over the past two years.
In September 2018, Adult Protective Services received a referral regarding financial exploitation by Karen Mills Thomas.
Thomas, 66, currently has criminal charges pending for elder exploitation against a different victim.
According
to charging documents, Thomas offered to help an elderly woman with her
finances after she broke her arm. The woman resides in a local nursing
home.
The woman claimed she had not seen her bank
or credit card statements in several years because Thomas had them all
sent to her home address. The woman asked to see the statements, but
Thomas would not bring them to her.
The woman said
when she went to her credit union to review her bank account, she
noticed changes she had not made. She showed the manager her debit card,
which had expired, and the manager told her she had been sent a new
card. The address where the card was sent belonged to Thomas.
A teller at the bank provided a letter indicating that
Thomas had identified herself as the alleged victim and provided a
password for her account.
Upon review of the bank
statements, APS found that Thomas had not paid any of the woman’s bills
in more than a year. The woman’s credit report showed several new
accounts that she claimed she did not open or give permission to open,
and some of the woman’s existing accounts had balances she said were
much higher than those she had accrued.
In October
2018, the alleged victim requested a change of address from Thomas’
address to her own and began receiving bills in her name.
It
was also discovered that Thomas’ alleged lack of payment had landed the
woman in collections on several accounts for balances she had not
accrued.
Thomas allegedly racked up debts at Sears,
Pier 1, Herberger’s, Montgomery Wards and Target. She also allegedly
signed up for Direct TV under the woman’s name and had the service
hooked up at her own address.
The
affidavit states that a total of $20,619.98 is unaccounted for in the
alleged victim’s credit union account, and this total does not include
the expenditures on the woman’s existing credit cards and accounts or
the new credit cards and accounts that Thomas allegedly opened in the
woman’s name.
In August and September 2018, Thomas
allegedly wrote a total of three checks for the woman’s rent at the
nursing home that were returned for insufficient funds.
Thomas was arrested on a warrant with a $10,000 bond.
CHICAGO (CBS) — Many seniors suffering from dementia are getting fleeced out of their money, often by someone they know.
“He had lung cancer and he had advanced dementia,” Paul Barnett said of his uncle near the end of his life.
After
fighting in the Korean War Ollie settled in a Park Manor home, later
collecting a nice pension from his days working at Chicago Public
Schools.
“My uncle was receiving $4,200 a month,” Barnett said.
Barnett said Robert Griffin was his uncle’s friend and would help him out.
“Mow the lawn and shovel snow and go to the store for him,” Barnett said.
When Uncle Ollie recently died, Barnett took possession of the estate
and noticed suspicious activity on a bank account he shared with his
uncle.
“There were a lot of checks for cash for $5,000 just written out to “Cash,” he said.
By Barnett’s analysis, the checks in question totaled more than
$100,000. All were signed by Ollie Smith, but Barnett said his uncle’s
friend, Robert Griffin, told him he signed Ollie Smith’s name on the
checks even though he didn’t have power of attorney.
Griffin would not talk to CBS 2 Investigators on camera but did say
twice during phone conversations that he signed the checks in question
using the name Ollie Smith.
Griffin claims that Ollie asked him to sign the checks because he no
longer could, and he claims he used the money to pay bills for Ollie but
can’t provide a detailed accounting of the funds.
And there’s a Veterans insurance policy for $10,000. The beneficiary
changed to Robert Griffin – signed by Ollie Smith – but after Paul
objected the Veterans Administration ruled the signature was a forgery
and gave the money to Paul.
Again Griffin claims Ollie told him to sign his name.
Barnett said he thinks Griffin took advantage of his uncle and his dementia.
“Oh yes, definitely,” he said. “It’s called undue influence.”
To make matters worse, Paul Barnett’s name was on his uncle’s account
at Hyde Park Bank. But he was never notified of the large withdrawals
for cash.
A spokesman for Hyde Park bank said they cannot comment on specific
bank procedures, but they do take elderly abuse very seriously and
provide training for their staff.
Charles Golbert, acting Cook County Public Guardian, says the problem is “huge and it’s growing, and it’s continuing to grow.”
It’s Golbert’s job to protect the money and property of those who can’t do it themselves and have no one else to help.
“Today with the aging baby boomers, robbing older people is a lot
easier than robbing banks, and its where the money is today,” he said.
Forty percent of the new cases in the public guardian’s office involve financial theft of the elderly,
One such recent case involves Symphony nursing home.
“A worst case because of the top to bottom level of corruption,” Goldberg said.
Grace Watanabe suffers from Dementia. According to a civil suit filed
by the public guardian’s office on Grace’s behalf, staff members at the
Symphony nursing home stole more than $700,000 by forging her name on
some checks and accessing her ATM account.
“They were really preying on her and trying to make her feel terrible
about having money and not sharing with them,” said Dawn
Lawkowski-Keller.
Watanabe said it makes her feel “angry and just terribly disappointed.”
And 96-Year old Nellie Bridgeman, who also suffers from dementia, was
allegedly fleeced out of $330,000 by Nicholas Chervyatiuk, a priest at
Nelly’s church.
Bridgeman said she trusted him — at first.
“I figured if you can’t trust a priest who can you trust?” she said.
Chervyatiuk is charged with theft and is awaiting trial.
“He shouldn’t have done that. That’s not his,” Bridgeman said.
About half of the states in the US have laws requiring banks to report suspected elder financial abuse. Illinois does not.
The public guardians office says such a law would help stop these types of cases much earlier on.
“Illinois is behind the curve on this,” Golbert said “Every time it’s been proposed the banks lobbyists have knocked it down.”
The Illinois Bankers Association says the industry “treats the issue
of financial exploitation extremely seriously” but is concerned about
banks “overly-reporting on customers” which could lead to “violating the
customers’ expectations of trust and privacy.”
Golberts concern remains on the victims who end up losing their money.
When asked about the people who would do that to elderly people,
Golbert said, “They’re scum. They’re also cowards, Don’t pick on people
with dementia and physical infirmities and who are vulnerable and who
are alone.”
Chicago police confirm they are investigating the case involving
Ollie Smith’s money. A spokesperson for Symphony Residences says that
upon learning about the incident with Grace Watanabe they contacted law
enforcement and are cooperating with the investigation. They added that
the employees named in the public guardians suit no longer work there.
Experts urge family members in cases like this to keep an eye on their loved ones’ financial statements.
FOLEY -- The Benton County Attorney's Office has
charged a Rice woman with illegally obtaining medical assistance while
acting as the guardian and conservator for a man who was hurt in a car
crash.
Fifty-two-year-old Sheila Burski
is also charged with financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult for
allegedly taking social security payments intended for that man,
69-year-old Norman Meinert.
The
felony charges show Burski was appointed Meinert's guardian in December
2013. She listed Meinert had no assets when filing for medical
assistance for him. From 2013 until Meinert's death in the fall of
2017, the county and state paid approximately $132,000 in medical
assistance payments.
Upon his death, Burski completed a final
accounting of Meinert's estate and court records show several
discrepancies, including a real estate sale from Meinert to Burski and
her husband in the amount of $510,000 in 2005. In 2011, records show the
contract for deed was satisfied somehow. Based on the monthly payments,
Burski would have paid just over $162,000 of the $510,000. It's unknown
if the nearly $350,000 remaining on the property was ever paid to
Meinert.
The charges allege Burski didn't
disclose the property sale. The contract for deed was satisfied in 2011
and with Meinert's accident occurring in 2013, the money fell within the
5-year look-back window to disclose assets and ultimately would have
prevented Meinert from qualifying for the medical assistance payments.
Burski
is also accused of taking Meinert's social security payments, cashing
them through her own bank account and failing to disclose those payments
over a three-month span in 2017 prior to Meinert's death.
The embattled operators of an Arizona long-term care facility have
agreed to be regulated by the state, effectively ending a plan to close
down the unit where an incapacitated woman gave birth after being raped.
Patrick Ptak, spokesman for Governor Doug Ducey, said the state
received written confirmation that Hacienda HealthCare would enter into a
voluntary regulation agreement.
“This is good news and the best immediate outcome as it means Hacienda
patients and families would be allowed to stay in the home they’ve
known for years while ensuring new and enhanced protections and
oversight are put in place,” Mr Ptak said in a statement.
Under the agreement, Hacienda will have to devise a long-term plan and
timeline that priorities health and safety at the intermediate care
facility where the victim resided.
Hacienda will also have to employ an on-site evaluator to make sure necessary changes have been met.
The care provider will have to work with an outside health care
consultant until the state finds it is in compliance. All these
conditions will also apply to the skilled nursing facility, which shares
the same campus.
State agencies had issued an ultimatum after Hacienda HealthCare announced its decision to shut down on Thursday.
The provider would have to comply with an order to hire a long-term
third-party management team. The other option was to allow the state
Department of Health Services to hold licensing authority over the
facility.
A closure would have forced the relocation of nearly 40 intellectually disabled patients, some of who are medically fragile.
State regulators vehemently opposed the idea. They also argued
Hacienda contractually requires written consent from the state
Department of Economic Security to close any operation.
The facility has been in turmoil since a 29-year-old patient gave
birth on December 29. Nathan Sutherland, a nurse whose DNA police said
matches a sample from the baby, has pleaded not guilty to charges that
he raped her.
Hacienda has struggled to meet the state’s request to hire a third-party management team to oversee daily operations.
The provider had said its board “after a great deal of careful
consideration, has come to understand that it is simply not sustainable
to continue to operate our intermediate care facility”.
Hacienda operates the only privately-run intermediate care facility in
Arizona. It currently serves 37 intellectually disabled children and
adults. It would take weeks or months to transition all of them to other
places.
“It’s not something you can do overnight,” said Will Humble, a former director of the Department of Health Services.
