Pinellas County professional guardian Fernando Gutierrez has been charged with multiple counts of exploitation of elderly residents who resided in assisted living facilities using power of attorney agreements. The I-Team has done multiple stories about Gutierrez, who has been under investigation for years by the Florida Attorney General's Office. He admitted to us the he is the POA or health care surrogate for dozens of elderly residents.
If you know someone who is affected by his arrest, please contact me at adam@abcactionnews.com
RUSSELLVILLE – Tommy Montgomery was trying to help a woman and her family who were down and out. Instead, Montgomery ended up being a statistic in the growing crime of elder abuse financial exploitation.
“I met her and she said she was going to help me," said the 64-year-old Montgomery. "Then she said she needed some money, and she would come by my house and I would loan her money.”
Montgomery’s wife was in a nursing home and he believed the woman was going to help out around his house.
“At least that’s what she led him to believe,” Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing said.
After loaning the woman money, Montgomery was then approached about giving the woman and her family a place to live.
“They started staying on my porch, and the next thing I knew, her, her husband and their two children had moved into the house with me,” he said.
Before long, Montgomery said he was asked to go with the woman to help her get loans.
“She took me to where you write checks and they would loan you money,” Montgomery said.
He said he never got any of the money that he signed for, which according to the district attorney’s office amounts to nearly $3,000.
“She even had him put his truck up for collateral on one of the loans,” Rushing said. “She had him on the hook for all of the loans, and he got nothing out of it but the payments.”
Montgomery said the couple and their two children lived with him several months.
“Tommy, is so good-hearted and always wanting to help others that he couldn’t say 'no' to her,” Rushing said.
“I was just trying to help, and they took advantage of me,” Montgomery said.
According to reports, the Franklin County Department of Human Resourses got involved in trying to check on the two children, and a concerned citizen who knew Montgomery contacted police.
As it turned out the woman, Julie Hawk Clark, was arrested for financial exploitation. Her husband was arrested on the misdemeanor charges of illegal possession of prescription drugs.
Rushing said Clark eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree financial exploitation of the elderly and was sentenced to five years, split to time served and being placed on supervised probation for five years.
“Neither she nor her husband can have any contact with Tommy,” Rushing said.
“It’s just sad that there are people who prey on the goodness of others like this. And that’s all this was,” Rushing said.
Montgomery’s case is not an isolated incident. More and more adults, 60 and older, are becoming victims of elder abuse.
According to a report by AARP, 1 in 10 Americans age 60 and older have experienced some form of elder abuse.
Jerry Groce, regional director for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, said elder abuse comes in a variety of forms from sexual to emotional to physical violence and financial manipulation.
“You see them all, but the biggest issue we see right now is financial exploitation,” Groce said.
He said people will go to “great depths” to take advantage of others, especially the older population.
“Eldely people seem to be more trusting. They grew up in a time when people gave them their word and they kept it,” Groce said. “Unfortunately, in today’s society that just doesn’t happen like it used to.”
Locally, law enforcement and DHR officials who work with the elderly population are seeing an increase in elder abuse cases.
According to local statistics, in 2010 there were 173 cases of elder abuse reported in Colbert, Franklin and Lauderdale counties. That increased to 543 in 2016. This year, the three counties have reported 383 cases.
“There is no question elder abuse is on the rise. It’s one of the fastest growing types of abuse we see,” Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly said.
A large percentage of the abuse cases involve financial exploitation.
“It used to be we might see one (case) every year or so. Then it got to be every month or two. Now, it seems like we see one of these cases every week,” Connolly said.
Rushing said he recently had three cases of financial exploitation, the most the county has had at one time.
“Honestly, it’s almost like an epidemic,” Rushing said.
Cassie Martin, adult protective supervisor for Colbert County DHR, said in many cases, it is the caregiver or a relative who is exploiting their elderly family member.
“The victims are so trusting and they are having to trust someone to take care of them,” Martin said. “Oftentimes, the ones abusing and exploiting are the ones our adults trust and love. This often makes it hard for the older adults to admit that abuse happened.”
Groce believes the problem has increased because of our more mobile society.
“In the past, people had extended family who lived nearby and took care of them. They were always checking on them,” Groce said. “Now, as society has become so mobile, families don’t live that close, some not even in the same city or state. They’re spread out, and it leaves our older adults vulnerable to this kind of abuse or exploitation.”
Groce said statistics indicate elder abuse is one of the least reported crimes.
“According to reports, we may be getting only about 20 percent of cases actually occurring” Groce said.
“It’s scary to think there are that many more of these types cases going on that we don’t know about,” Rushing added.
Connolly said many victims are afraid to report the abuse.
“They’re scared to come forward because they need someone to take care of them,” he said. “And they’re scared for their safety, so it goes unreported.”
Martin said victims are often ashamed of what has happened to them.
“They don’t want to admit that they have been taken advantage of,” she said, “and that is exactly what’s happened. People are preying on these innocent victims. There are people who make a living taking advantage of our elderly population.”
Groce said law enforcement and DHR are working to make people more aware of the problem.
“Our older population should be revered, not exploited,” he said. “We want to do all we can to take care of them, keep them safe, and protect them from being take advantage of by these predators.”
In some respects, Bitty and Beau's is like any other coffee shop — there's the smell of coffee brewing, the pastry case of croissants and muffins, a handful of people sitting at tables in front of steaming cups.
Yet there are other signs that this is someplace different. There's the bubbly cashier, Jesse Guillaume, who has cerebral palsy and wears a flower crown every day, and only takes a break from chatting to ring up customers’ coffee orders. There's Matt Dean, who has autism and is bent on selling Bitty and Beau’s totes to everyone who walks in the door — "It's perfect for summer!" — in between helping out behind the bar, where workers churn out frappes and cappuccinos.
And then there are the occasional dance parties in the center of
the coffee shop, often led by 22-year-old Trevor Jefferson, who has
Down syndrome and dreams of being a Hollywood actor. He shakes his hips
to Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, blowing kisses at the smartphone
cameras recording his moves.
“You kind of see a lightbulb go off in people’s eyes,” Ben
Wright, who co-founded the shop with his wife, Amy Wright, told TODAY
during a recent visit. All of their 40 employees have some form of
disability, with the exception of two managers.
“The whole point is just to show people who come in that people
with intellectual and developmental disabilities can do a lot more than
you think they can,” Wright added.
TODAY
Ben and Amy Wright named the coffee shop after their children Beau and Bitty, who have Down syndrome.
The couple opened Bitty and Beau’s
in January 2016, in a 500-square-foot store in Wilmington, North
Carolina. They quickly outgrew the location and moved into a former
Hummer dealership a few miles away — 10 times the size of their original
space. This fall, they’ll open a second outpost in Charleston, South
Carolina.
“This dream has unfolded so quickly and with so much support
behind it that we never saw this coming,” Amy Wright, who runs
day-to-day operations at the coffee shop, told TODAY.
The Wrights have four children; their youngest two, Bitty, 7,
and Beau, 12, the coffee shop’s namesakes, have Down syndrome. They
opened the shop in part so that their children would one day have a
place to work.
The estate planning lawyers on the website at Walsh & Padilla in
Houston look like you would expect. Earnest. Well-groomed. Suits and
ties for the men, pearls and pendants for the women.
There's only one problem: Walsh & Padilla doesn't exist.
The Houston Bar Association, in a lawsuit filed in state district court in Harris County, alleges that Walsh & Padilla
is fictitious and its website touting estate planning, probate and
other legal services is an elaborate front for a scam to fleece the
elderly, including one victim who had $14,000 drained from a bank
account. The attorneys in the photos look so lawyerly because they are
lawyers -- except at other law firms, from where the photos were stolen.
The site even includes a working phone number, with an automated
answering system that patches callers through to the voice mail of top
partner "Jonathan Walsh." (Calls to that number seeking comment were not returned.)
The scam involves sending letters to elderly residents in the
United States and Canada informing them that they have life insurance
proceeds coming to them as a pretense to gain bank account numbers and
other financial details, according to court documents. The bar
association on Monday obtained a court order requiring the website to
shut down immediately; the bar association also said it filed a criminal
complaint with the Harris Count District Attorney's Office, which
declined to comment.
The scam has an unusual level of sophistication, nothing like the easy to spot email entreaties for money, said Mary Kate Raffetto,
a commercial litigator at Beck Redden, who has done much of the legwork
to track down the scam artists. "Someone with some know how-has done
this and put this together," she said.
The website remains up
as the bar association, which traced the operation to South Africa,
tries to locate the web server and deliver the restraining order. "The
more we investigate, you see they're trying to cover their tracks to
prevent you from finding out who hosts the site," said Raffetto.
Walsh & Padilla came to the attention of the bar association recently when its president, Alistair Dawson, received a call from the Houston law firm Jackson Walker. The photo of one of its partners, Curt Langley, appeared on the Walsh & Padilla site, but over the name "Jonathan Walsh, B.A., J.D."
That was discovered by a recipient of one of the letters about life
insurance proceeds who became suspicious, did a reverse search on the
Jonathan Walsh photo, found Langley and notified him. "I've been telling
everyone here they wanted to use someone who is good looking and has an
honest looking face," said Langley.
William R. Hayes,
an estate planning and probate lawyer with Hayes & Wilson in
Houston, also started getting calls from Canada and discovered, much to
his surprise, that his firm's website had been cloned by Walsh &
Padilla. One of the calls Hayes received was from a Canadian who was
contacted by Walsh & Padilla under the guise of a relative who died
in Houston and left a life insurance policy of $6.2 million.
"They changed the name, put in a new (phone) number," he said, but
the design, courtroom photos and even the blue/brown/gold color scheme
are the same. Even the links on cloned website take visitors to the
biographies of Hayes & Wilson lawyers, including Hayes and his
partner Lisa Wilson, to make it look like they work for Walsh & Padilla.
"If you do enough clicking, you will find most of us on it," he said.
"Walsh & Padilla also used photos of three lawyers and one firm administrator at Allen Matkins, a Los Angeles-based real estate law firm. All the names were changed, according to the lawsuit.
"The case serves as a reminder that if something seems too good to be
true it probably is," Raffetto said. If a lawyer, financial advisor or
someone else says they've got money for you, she said, "Be very wary."
SALT LAKE CITY — As county officials prepare to use their purse strings power to help address the troubling situation around Salt Lake County Recorder Gary Ott, state leaders also are pushing forward.
The Legislature's Political Subdivisions Interim Committee voted
unanimously Wednesday to create a bill file that legislators can use to
create a new law to remove incapacitated county elected officials from
office — and fill a "hole" in state law that provides no recourse when
such situations arise.
Earlier this year, Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, proposed
a bill that would implement a three-tiered process for removal: a voter
petition, a unanimous vote from the applicable governing body, and a
judicial proceeding where a judge could order a medical evaluation of
the public officer in question.
However, the bill was placed on hold
during the 2017 Legislature, with lawmakers saying the issue needed
more study, and wary that such a law could be used as a political
weapon.
Previously, Chavez-Houck sponsored the bill alone. But Wednesday, Sen.
Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, stepped forward as a Republican
backer with his own ideas of how to make such a law palatable to
legislators.
Thatcher proposed a different three-part framework, where a county
council or commission would have to vote unanimously to call for a
mental competency exam in court. If a judge then ruled the individual to
be incompetent and untreatable, the council could then vote unanimously
to remove the official from office.
"This is a deep, personal issue for me," Thatcher revealed during
Wednesday's meeting. "Gary Ott was one of my mentors. When I made the
decision to run for office, Gary Ott was the very first elected official
I sat down with. He wrote me my first donation. I love this man."
But the last time Thatcher had a conversation with Ott at a Republican event, he realized something was wrong, he said.
"After about 15 seconds of lucidity, he started yelling at me for taking
his tools before (his deputy) Julie (Dole) quickly whisked him away and
out of sight," he said.
Dole disputed Thatcher's story, telling the Deseret News in a text message Wednesday it "never happened."
"I've never seen Gary yell at Thatcher or yell about his tools," she
said. "Matter of fact, I can't recall ever seeing Gary yell. I'll think
on this more, but (I) am not recalling any situations of Gary yelling in
my presence."
Thatcher told lawmakers that "in a perfect world" loved ones would help
an elected official step down with grace when they're inflicted by
illness, but as portrayed by Ott's story, that isn't always the case.
That's why, he said, a law to address such situations is needed.
"Yes, I want to deal with the Gary Ott situation," Thatcher said. "But I also want to make sure this never happens again."
However, creating such a law might not be as simple as passing a bill.
Darcy Goddard, chief policy adviser in the Salt Lake County District
Attorney's Office, told lawmakers they "would almost certainly require" a
change to the Utah Constitution to create a law that wouldn't be
vulnerable to unconstitutional arguments.
A constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds majority vote in
both the House and Senate, and would need to be approved by voters in
the next general election.
Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, said she could "see where this is going
to be very tricky," but added that Thatcher's proposal "probably has
some merit."
Rep. Val Potter, R-North Logan, said he's supportive of pursuing a new
law because he worries that situations such as Ott's, while rare, have
happened before and can happen again.
When he was a county council member, Potter said, "we had this very thing happen."
"We had an elected official who was not able to do her job because of
cancer," he said, but the matter was resolved when county leaders
"offered her an opportunity to resign."
"This does happen, and I don't think we know how many times this has happened," Potter said.
As waves of baby-boomers reach retirement age, it seems there has
been more media coverage lately about issues that affect seniors. One
of these is the prevalence of elder abuse. I'm not sure if it's on the
rise or it's just being publicized more than it once was, due to
shifting demographics.
We often think of elder abuse in terms of what we can readily
observe-- physical acts committed against older people, hidden cameras
revealing in-home caregivers or nursing home employees lashing out at
those they've been entrusted to protect. But there's another form that
can sometimes take years to recognize and can be difficult to prosecute,
but it is abuse nonetheless-- financial exploitation of the elderly.
With my parents recently retired, I've been on the lookout for
information about how to improve quality of life for the 65+ population.
That's why yesterday's Tribune article about a Blue Island car dealership allegedly taking advantage of an 85-year-old customer caught my attention.
Her son says his mother, June Shivers, dropped off her beloved 2005
Lincoln LS one day for some repairs. She came home later that afternoon
with a 2014 Ford Fusion and a six-year payment plan at about $400 per
month.
It appears that she thought the dealership was giving her a "loaner"
car to test-drive for a couple days while the Lincoln was in the shop.
Concerned, her son called the dealership after his mother's friends
told him, "I think they're trying to sell your mom a car." The
dealership assured him she was just going to take it for a test drive,
but when she got home, he found documents in her possession, bearing her
signature, that suggest otherwise.
She's since filed a lawsuit against the dealership and the bank that
provided the financing. Her son says she wasn't given a fair trade-in
value for the Lincoln; she got a $600 credit when a fair one would have
totaled at least $2,000. He also claims that his mother has been having
problems with her memory and was not in a position to make the
transaction. He believes the dealership took advantage of her.
The Blue Island business, however, asserts that they had seen June
Shivers several times over the years, and that they didn't notice any
signs that she was having cognitive difficulties. The car has since
been repossessed, and she's still on the hook for what's left of the
loan, more than $10,000.
It's not clear what happened here. It seems odd that she would trade
in a vehicle that she loved, when it was fully paid for, and take on a
purchase that would leave her in so much debt. Unfortunately, it
appears that her family hasn't provided any documentation of her memory
problems, which would help their case. Still, something doesn't add up.
Her son alleges she didn't know what she was signing when she
provided her John Hancock on the forms that finalized the sale, and that
she never would have given up her Lincoln.
Cases like this remind us to keep tabs on our older loved ones. It's
bad enough when businesses take advantage of them. And there are the
numerous phone scams where some unknown individual contacts them to tell
them their child needs to be bailed out of jail or that they must
support a particular cause. Too often, the elderly victims send money
or provide bank account information, their assets are taken, and by the
time law enforcement can get involved, it's usually too late to recoup
the losses.
What's especially troubling is that fraud often takes more subtle
forms, and the older person is exploited by some one he or she knows and
trusts. The New York Times reports that, in many cases, the guilty parties are the victims' own friends or family members.
They may seek access to the older person's home or bank account,
stealing small amounts at a time so as not to call too much attention to
themselves. Those with dementia and similar problems are especially
vulnerable, because they're less likely to recognize what's happening.
Yet they can be cheated out of their entire life savings, sometimes
even losing their homes, too.
It can appear that they consented to the withdrawals or willingly
gave away valuable possessions since they readily provided access to
their assets, when in reality they didn't know they were being fleeced
of everything they had.
Many instances of abuse go unreported. Authorities may be reluctant
to get involved, thinking it's a "family matter." But as increasing
numbers of well-off Americans reach their golden years, there's been a
resounding call in many states and locales to
put stiffer penalties on the books for those who take advantage of this
population, and several jurisdictions have taken measures to crack down
on elder exploitation.
In 2010, the federal government passed the Elder Justice Act to raise
awareness of financial crimes committed against older people, and to
encourage reporting of cases of exploitation.
Greater awareness and tougher legislation are definitely in order.
It's also important for the families of exploited individuals, when
reporting such cases, to provide relevant medical information if their
loved one has memory loss. Doing so makes it easier for a judge, jury,
or police officer to understand how the victim could easily be taken
advantage of.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on your older loved one. If they mention that
they've recently turned over the keys to their home or granted power of
attorney to some one you wouldn't expect or don't trust, don't be
afraid to ask questions and dig deeper. If the person in question is
not doing anything suspicious, they should be willing to be transparent
about their relationship to your loved one, and should understand why
you're concerned.
If fraudulent activity is going on, then you can intervene early,
before your loved one's entire livelihood is lost, and the criminal can
hopefully be brought to justice before any more damage is done.
(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) – Thanks to a monetary donation by Dearborn County Hospital and the support of Circuit Court Judge James Humphrey, LifeTime Resources was recently awarded a grant to better assist seniors and incapacitated adults in Dearborn County.
Monies derived from the $50,000 Volunteer Advocates for Seniors or Incapacitated Adults (VASIA) grant, awarded by the Indiana Supreme Court, will be combined with Dearborn County Hospital’s donation of $12,500 and additional funding to help maintain and operate a volunteer guardianship program.
As a requirement to receive a VASIA grant, applicant programs must have a commitment from one or more entities in their service area to provide matching funds.
Designed to address temporary and/or emergency guardianship needs, the program, operated by Sentry Services and administered by LifeTime Resources, will serve as a guardian/representative payee for seniors or incapacitated adults whose family and/or friends are either unable or unwilling to assume the responsibility. The intent of the program is to assure that the rights and interests of all seniors and incapacitated adults are protected under the full extent of the law.
The VASIA grant will also allow for the program to expand its scope of services for seniors and incapacitated adults through the use of volunteers. The program will utilize volunteers to provide various forms of assistance such as calling and/or visiting the individual; escorting them to healthcare appointments; helping them apply for benefits; and other appropriate activities or duties.
For more information on the program and its services and requirements, please contact Sentry Services at LifeTime Resources by calling (812) 432-6220.
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - Two people in Greeneville have been charged with abuse after police say an elderly woman was locked outside of her home-- away from her oxygen.
Around 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, officers responded to an anonymous complaint to check the welfare of an elderly woman on the front porch of her home on Cherry Street.
The victim says her son, Josh Lane, and his wife, Brandy Ragan, locked her out of the house because she woke them up.
The victim also said they nailed the windows shut and padlocked the door to keep her from gaining entry to her oxygen machine.
She went on to say she had been without her oxygen for three days.
Lane and Ragan are both charged with willful abuse and neglect or exploitation of an adult.
Ragan is also charged with an outstanding violation of a probation warrant.
The police report said the incident was drug related.
It can be overwhelming to try to understand your options for in-home, community-based and long-term supports and services. Maine’s Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) are here to help!
ADRCs provide answers to questions about aging and disability resources in Maine. ADRC staff are knowledgeable on a wide range of issues and can help you find the resources you need.
ADRC resource experts have designed this site to help you find your own way to the right resources. Click “Explore Your Options” to get started. If you don’t find what you need or need more help, call 1-877-353-3771.
TODAY
TODAY
