Carson couple arrested in elder abuse investigation; 10 victims rescued

ByTim Caputo and Bianca Buono 

CARSON, Calif. (KABC) -- Several elderly patients have been rescued in Carson, where investigators say a couple was operating multiple unlicensed facilities. That couple has now been arrested on accusations of elder abuse and fraud.

Residents across four neighborhoods in Carson woke up to a law enforcement investigation into elder abuse on Wednesday. The operation was led by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, in partnership with the L.A. County Fire Department, the California Department of Justice and others.

Deputies served warrants at four homes starting around 6 a.m.

Tina De los Reyes lives next door to one of them. She says for years, she's seen several elderly patients living at the home, but no one caring for them. On Wednesday morning, she watched as one patient was rescued by first responders.

"I'm just concerned, because they're old lady like me. And then one time, me and my sister saw a guy fell down there," De los Reyes said.

On Enslow Drive, another home was marked with a notice barring occupancy. Neighbors there said they were relieved to see the police activity.

Investigators say they've been looking into the homes since Feb. 24, when they responded to a call for service at one of them. They found and rescued seven elderly patients that day, who they say were malnourished and neglected.

On Wednesday, they rescued three more.

Eyewitness News was there when deputies showed up at a home on W. 234th Place shortly before 7 a.m. An elderly man was sitting by himself outside on the lawn.

"We are definitely continuing the investigation to see if we can rescue more," said Lt. Quiana Penn from the LASD Carson Station.

Investigators arrested 80-year-old Gary Hogg and 72-year-old Alicia Hogg, accusing them of elder abuse and fraud.

Business records indicate Alicia's company is called Abundant Care Home Inc. Additional state records show both Alicia and Gary operate a nonprofit called Global Covenant Christian Churches.

"The care was not happening from what we could see, and they were also unlicensed. So they were not abiding by any California laws or county statutes," Penn said.

The victims who were rescued were treated and taken to more appropriate facilities to get the care and attention they need. Investigators believe there could be more victims out there, and anyone with information is encouraged to contact the LASD Carson Station.

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Carson couple arrested in elder abuse investigation; 10 victims rescued 

Powers woman arrested after elder abuse investigation

by Robert Desaulniers

POWERS, Ore. – A woman is facing charges including criminal mistreatment after allegedly hitting a 70-year-old man with a knife and threatening to shoot him, according to the Coos County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the Coos County Sheriff’s Office, on May 8, Adult Protective Services heard a report from a caregiver at a home in Powers that said a woman had threatened a resident with a 4-inch knife on April 29. The caregiver allegedly told APS the woman had hit the 70-year-old victim with the knife and threatened to buy bullets to shoot the resident and others. Deputies said a conversation with other caregivers at the residence on May 9 confirmed the victim’s need for sustained care, and revealed additional details about the incident, including the alleged assailant’s possession of a small revolver.

According to the CCSO, the assailant was identified as Dorothy Shaw, 69, of Powers, who had previous convictions for felonies. On May 10, deputies carried out a search warrant at the home and seized the knife and 15.9 grams of methamphetamine from Shaw’s purse. Shaw was arrested and sent to the Coos County Jail on charges of first-degree criminal mistreatment, unlawful use of a weapon, menacing, and unlawful possession of methamphetamine.

The CCSO said the senior resident was relocated, and the Oregon Department of Human Services’ Aging and People with Disabilities agency arranged for new care.

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Powers woman arrested after elder abuse investigation

Elder abuse investigation center launched for Central Virginia

Attorney General Jason Miyares | Attorney General Jason Miyares Office

By Legal Newsline

Attorney General Miyares Announces Elder Abuse Investigation Center for Central Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. – Attorney General Jason Miyares today announced the creation of the Elder Abuse Investigation Center for Central Virginia to address and combat the growing issue of elder abuse and neglect. Statistics show that one in ten Americans over 65 have been victims of elder abuse, yet only one in 24 cases are reported to the authorities.

Operating as a specialized unit within the Office of the Attorney General, the Elder Abuse Investigation Center aims to enhance and streamline collaboration among Central Virginia jurisdictions to investigate and prosecute instances of elder abuse in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and private residences. This includes physical assaults, neglect, sexual assaults, violent crimes, and suspicious deaths.

This initiative will see a coalition of law enforcement agencies, Commonwealth’s Attorneys, and elder advocates from Richmond, Colonial Heights, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hopewell, Hanover, Powhatan, and Goochland Counties working together. Additional jurisdictions are expected to join the effort in the near future.

Although other regions of Virginia have similar elder abuse investigation coalitions, such as the Peninsula Elder Abuse Forensic Center, this will be the first initiative in Central Virginia.

As Attorney General, Miyares has taken several new steps to fight back against elder abuse in Virginia, including advancing the Senior TRIAD program, streamlining consumer protection resources, and advising the General Assembly in crafting legislation to increase penalties for criminals and scammers who target vulnerable older Virginians.

For more information about the resources offered by the Office of the Attorney General to prevent and address instances of elder abuse and neglect click here.

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Elder abuse investigation center launched for Central Virginia

Son charged for stealing $153,168 from 86-year-old father, officials talk elder abuse warning signs

LOWER SWATARA TOWNSHIP, DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. - More than $150,000 is stolen from an 86-year-old man and police say it was his son and daughter-in-law who did it.

Chester Robert Garman III and  Kathy Alice Garman are facing charges of felony theft and access device fraud for allegedly stealing $153,168 from Chester's father over a four year period.

"This case is the fourth biggest financial case since 2004," said Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick.

Dauphin County officials are using the Garman's elder financial abuse case as a reminder for people to keep an eye on people ages 60 and older for signs of abuse, neglect or financial exploitation. Reports of elder abuse in the county continue to increase year after year. So far this year, the county has received more than $1,600 reports of elder abuse.

"In Dauphin County we want to make it clear that if there are suspected abuses occurring, that we will take actions," said Hartwick. "We are communicating and we will do everything to make sure we are protecting out seniors and bring those individuals who perpetrate those crimes to justice."

In most elder abuse cases, like the Garman's, the abuse is done by someone they know and trust. The Dauphin County Area Agency on Aging says there are many signs of abuse. Anytime anyone notices anything they think is questionable, they can call the agency anonymously and they can look into it.

Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo says, to help prevent financial abuse of an elder, have a power of attorney especially once someone has a caregiver, even if they are a family member. He says without it, it can be a license to steal.

"You want to have clear delineation of what the obligations are of the caregiver to the person receiving the care," said Chardo.

For more information on the Dauphin County Area Agency on Agings and how to report suspected elder abuse click here.



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Son charged for stealing $153,168 from 86-year-old father, officials talk elder abuse warning signs

Dauphin County task force to release more info on elder abuse investigation

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - Dauphin County's Elder Abuse Task Force is expected to announce more information about a couple accused of stealing more tan $150,000 from an elderly relative.

Police arrested Chester "Rob" and Kathy Garman. Investigators said they used an 86-year-old relative's credit card and accessed his bank cards without his knowledge from 2013-2017.

The case is the 4th largest sum of money involved in a financial exploitation case since the task force was formed in 2004.

The task force will hold a press conference Monday at 10 a.m. at the Dauphin County Administration Building in Harrisburg. 

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Dauphin County task force to release more info on elder abuse investigation

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New details on arrest of couple accused of stealing $153K from elderly relative coming Monday

B.B. King's Estate War: 15 Kids, 15 Moms and a 'Totally Haywire' Fight

When bluesman B.B. King died last year, he bequeathed to the world a body of work spanning six decades that brought joy and comfort to millions. The crooner of "The Thrill Is Gone" and "Sweet Sixteen" transformed American music, inspiring such rockers as Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson and Buddy Guy. King was 89 when he succumbed to congestive heart failure in his Las Vegas home and died peacefully in his sleep on May 14, 2015.

The year since then has been decidedly less peaceful. While neither of King's two marriages resulted in children, he managed to leave behind a vast family: 15 kids from 15 women. If that family history weren't complex enough, King's authorized biographer Charles Sawyer wrote in his book, The Arrival of BB King, that doctors found the musician's sperm count too low to conceive children.

In 2015, Sawyer told The Guardian that he had given King the option to remove the reference and that King declined. Either way, King claimed 15 kids as his own - never disputing his paternity - and of the 11 who survive, many now are fighting with King's appointed trustee over his estate, a fortune that family members tell THR could be worth between $30 million and $40 million when royalties, asset sales and rights are taken into account.

Many of the kids point to a 2007 will and trust that they claim grant them generous allowances. But King's longtime business manager, LaVerne Toney, who is now the legal trustee of King's estate, asserts that she merely is following a 2014 trust, which names the children but doesn't provide for them with specific monetary gifts.

According to the trustee's own legal filings in Nevada, King's estate also is far smaller than the children allege: $5 million and change spread across a few Wells Fargo bank accounts. But the kids have assembled teams of lawyers to fight the estate's guardians. The litigation could continue for years.

While the value of King's estate is the subject of great contention, observers say it hardly is a case like Michael Jackson's estate, which has gone up in value roughly $1 billion since the enigmatic singer's death. In King's case, he wrote few of his hits, sold records for decades to a segregated America and made deals at a time in which black artists were hardly paid handsomely. According to analysis conducted for this story by Billboard, King's publishing and recording assets - including his catalog - are valued at roughly $7 million to $8 million, based on Nielsen Music data and consultation with a financial executive who buys publishing and master recording catalogs.

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B.B. King's Estate War: 15 Kids, 15 Moms and a 'Totally Haywire' Fight 

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BB King: coroner says there is no immediate evidence of poisoning 
Guardianship for Blues Great BB King Rejected

Judge leaves BB King's estate in hands of longtime business manager

BB King’s longtime business manager has been named sole executor of his estate Thursday despite objections from a lawyer for four of the late blues musician’s daughters.

Clark county District Judge Gloria Sturman first refused to let attorneys Benjamin Crump and Jose Baez contest King’s will on behalf of daughters Karen Williams, Patty King, Rita Washington and Barbara Winfree.

The will, filed in January 2007, puts Laverne Toney alone in charge of administering King’s assets, his property and his trust. The trust documents have not been filed publicly.

The judge then rejected efforts by Las Vegas attorney Larissa Drohobyczer to cast Toney as having misused her power of attorney while BB King was alive to move about $1m from personal to joint bank accounts to which she had access, and to block relatives from visiting King in his dying days.

“A million dollars is a big deal,” Sturman said, but she left the argument for another day.

“I’m not saying there may not be other issues or that we may not need outside assistance,” she said.

“But he had a plan. I don’t see anything before me at this point in time that he wanted that changed.”

Attorney Brent Bryson, lawyer for the estate and Toney, said claims by the daughters that Toney stole from their father, isolated him and poisoned him before his 14 May death at age 89 had no basis in fact. The family members had provided no evidence that a competing will existed, he said.

“There has to be more to the objections than hollow allegations and innuendo,” Bryson said.  (Continue Reading)

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Judge leaves BB King's estate in hands of longtime business manager

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BB King: coroner says there is no immediate evidence of poisoning

Guardianship for Blues Great BB King Rejected

KXAN investigation into abuse report at assisted living center results in new law

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A year and a half long KXAN investigation resulted in a change in Texas law.

KXAN uncovered how the state agency responsible for protecting elderly patients at assisted living facilities did not do its job and broke the law by not reporting 78 percent of abuse allegations to law enforcement.

A local lawmaker saw our original report and promised to help with legislation. This week Gov. Greg Abbott signed his bill into law.

The investigation started with allegations that a male resident of an Austin assisted living facility sexually assaulted a woman there who had dementia and a court ordered guardianship in place.  The investigator didn’t take note of her guardianship order which stated she could not make decisions on her own.

But the new law, which was authored by State Rep. Elliott Naishtat and goes into effect Sept. 1, requires facilities to keep guardianship orders on file and also requires investigators at the Department of Aging and Disability Services to check for that document before completing their investigation.

“I promise you that the agency will be following up on this and making sure that the new law is complied with,” Naishtat told KXAN.

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KXAN investigation into abuse report at assisted living center results in new law

BB King: coroner says there is no immediate evidence of poisoning

The Clark County coroner’s office in Nevada is investigating claims that blues legend BB King was poisoned, but coroner John Fudenberg said there was no immediate evidence to support the allegations.

Two of King’s daughters claim the guitarist was poisoned and not properly cared for before his death at age 89 on 14 May, and accused his aides of past elder abuse.

Police say they will wait for the autopsy results from the coroner’s office before determining whether to initiate a homicide investigation.

“Until such time as the Clark County Coroner determines Mr King’s death to be from other than natural causes, the Las Vegas metropolitan police department is NOT moving forward with any investigation,” the police public information office said in a statement emailed to the Guardian.

“At this point, we don’t have evidence that these allegations of foul play will be substantiated,” said Fudenberg in a statement. “However, we are taking them very seriously and will be conducting a thorough investigation.”

The new allegations appear to be part of a long-running feud between King’s 11 surviving children and his long-time attorney, LaVerne Toney, who has power of attorney over his estate.

Family members have claimed that Toney has control of over $5m in assets, $1m of which has allegedly disappeared recently. Authorities have repeatedly rejected the family’s claims however, most recently finding in May that King did not need a guardianship as he already had an attorney, the Associated Press reported.

The Clark County coroner conducted an autopsy on King’s body on Sunday, and is coordinating with the Las Vegas metropolitan police homicide division. The coroner expects that it will take six to eight weeks to receive laboratory results from the autopsy.

King’s daughters Karen Williams and Patty King lodged the poisoning complaints in identically worded affidavits given to the Associated Press by their attorney, Larissa Drohobyczer.

Both said they believed that King was “murdered” and was administered “foreign substances”, but three doctors have reportedly asserted that King was properly cared for in the days leading up to his death, when he received round-the-clock health monitoring. King died on 14 May with aide Myron Johnson at his bedside.

Both he and LaVerne Johnson have dismissed King’s daughters’ allegations, refusing to comment to the AP.

“They’ve been making allegations all along. What’s new?” Toney said.

King received hospice care at home, wishing to avoid invasive medical care, according to attorney Brent Bryson. He criticized the decision to conduct an autopsy on King’s body.

“He made the decision to return home for hospice care instead of staying in a hospital,” Bryson told the Hollywood Reporter. “These unfounded allegations have caused Mr King to undergo an autopsy, which is exactly what he didn’t want.”

In both October and April, Nevada police and social services investigated whether Toney should be removed as King’s guardian, Clark County family court hearing master Jon Norheim said in May, but found no reason to revoke guardianship. Toney worked with King for 39 years.

More than 1,000 people attended a public viewing of King’s body in Las Vegas last week. A procession on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, is scheduled for Wednesday, with a viewing on Friday and burial Saturday in Mississippi, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Born Riley B King in the Mississippi delta on a cotton plantation, BB King spent his early 20s in Memphis, Tennessee, where he moved to pursue a career playing the blues.

He is largely credited with bringing blues to mainstream rock and roll, and was often called “king of the blues” and “ambassador of the blues”. King’s style, known predominantly for one-note guitar solos, was especially influential of rock of the 1960s and 1970s.

King performed between 200 and 300 road shows per year even into his 70s. He started his career touring on what was called the “chitlin’ circuit” of small bars in the Jim Crow south (“chitlin’” or chitterling refers to the soul food dish made of the small intestines of pigs, often sold at the clubs).

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BB King: coroner says there is no immediate evidence of poisoning 

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Guardianship for Blues Great BB King Rejected

Lawmaker promises fix after KXAN uncovers flawed elder abuse investigation

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A Texas lawmaker saw our investigation that exposed alleged sexual assaults at an Austin assisted living center and the state's admitted failure in investigating the incidents. He now guarantees action to help better protect your aging loved ones.

Also because of our investigation the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services finally reported the incidents to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. That report comes more than two years after the incidents and the day after our investigation first aired on May 19th.

“I think that’s a major failure,” said State Representative Elliott Naishtat.

Representative Naishtat, who is the vice-chairman of the House Public Health Committee, said he never again wants to find out the state did not do its job investigating allegations of elderly abuse.

“This is something which I will be working with DADS, the Department of Aging and Disability Services, and the commission (Texas Health and Human Services Commission) to make sure that they know this is unacceptable,” said Representative Naishtat, who was appalled by what KXAN uncovered.

Our investigation uncovered a lawsuit alleging an elderly woman was sexually assaulted by a male resident at Longhorn Village, which was established by the University of Texas alumni association, Texas Exes. According to the lawsuit, filed by the woman’s legal guardian and her family, there is no way legally she could have consensual sex because a doctor determined she suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia so severely that she could no longer make decisions for herself. A judge agreed and ruled the woman “incapacitated,” and appointed a legal guardian to handle her affairs and make decisions for her.

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Lawmaker promises fix after KXAN uncovers flawed elder abuse investigation