Courts Appoint Special Counsel to Oversee Reform of New York’s Troubled Guardianship System

Judicial leaders in New York created two new oversight positions as they work to reform the state’s guardianship system. The personnel additions follow a ProPublica investigation that spotlighted lax monitoring of court-appointed guardians.

by Jake Pearson

New York’s top judicial leaders are moving to reform the state’s troubled guardianship system after a ProPublica investigation found lax monitoring allowed court appointees to abuse and neglect the elderly and infirm New Yorkers they were supposed to protect.

The renewed attention will come from two newly created positions in the state court system: a special counsel for guardianship matters and elder justice, who, according to a spokesperson, will focus on “reform efforts of the statewide adult guardianship system”; and a so-called statewide coordinating judge.

More than 28,000 New Yorkers are under the care of court-appointed guardians, charged with managing the affairs of people deemed incapable of caring for themselves. Under state law, guardians can control their wards’ finances and health care and are paid for their services from their charges’ funds. But as ProPublica reported this year, court oversight of these officials is threadbare. In New York City, for example, there are just over a dozen judges and 157 court examiners responsible for overseeing the guardians and ensuring the welfare of 17,411 people.

Advocates say those most vulnerable to abuse and neglect are the so-called unbefriended — the New Yorkers who have no friends or family able to look after them. An internal court assessment obtained by ProPublica estimated that they account for 20% of all wards statewide. No single government agency provides for their care. The courts have long relied on a small network of nonprofits and professional guardians for these low- and no-fee cases.

The shallow pool of providers, coupled with too few court examiners to oversee guardians’ work, has led to neglect, exploitation and abuse. A woman featured in ProPublica’s reporting lived for years in a home that had no heat and was infested with bedbugs and rats — conditions her legally appointed guardian did not rectify and her examiner did not question. Another guardian spent more than half of her ward’s life savings for care provided by her own private business — a flagrant conflict of interest that a judge permitted for years.

After ProPublica sent questions about that guardian’s conduct to the court system, a court spokesperson said an inspector general had opened an investigation into the allegations. The spokesperson didn’t provide any further details.

The court system’s actions come as advocates press local and state officials to buoy the guardianship system that they say cannot keep pace with the demand for services, especially among the elderly, which is the fastest-growing age group in the state. Advocates told lawmakers at a New York City Council hearing on elder fraud last week that the current arrangement is unsustainable.

“The chronic lack of available guardians has created an untenable situation,” testified Jean Callahan, who chairs a group of judges, lawyers and others involved in the guardianship system called the Working Interdisciplinary Networks of Guardianship Stakeholders, or WINGS. “We’ve created an unfunded mandate in New York.”

Callahan was among a half dozen professionals who urged the City Council to pass a resolution calling on state leaders to create a publicly funded system. The bill’s author, City Councilmember Crystal Hudson, drafted the measure in response to ProPublica’s reporting. “Now is the time for Gov. [Kathy] Hochul to take action, to strengthen our guardianship system by instituting a public fund to compensate guardians in order to safeguard vulnerable New Yorkers in need of protective arrangements,” Hudson said during the hearing.

Her bill endorses a $15 million annual appropriation that would support a network of nonprofits that cater to the poorest of the unbefriended. Guardianship Access New York, a coalition of nonprofits that drafted the proposal, sent a letter last week to Hochul and other top state officials urging them to fund the initiative, which is supported by roughly two dozen community groups, including AARP New York.

Another plan, suggested by an advisory committee to the state court system, goes much further. It proposes creating an independent statewide agency to serve as a guardian for those who have nobody else, an endeavor that the group estimates would cost $72 million annually to staff.

State Sen. Cordell Cleare, who chairs her chamber’s Committee on Aging, said in an interview that she supports overhauling the guardianship system, and she has endorsed the more modest proposal to help nonprofits care for the unbefriended statewide. “From everything I’ve looked at and weighed, I think it’s the right thing to do,” she said.

But it’s not clear whether Hochul and the state’s legislatives leaders agree. While they’ve acknowledged the need to care for the state’s growing aging population, none have specifically commented on the problems in guardianship highlighted by ProPublica or advocates’ proposed fixes. Any reform efforts would go through the Senate and Assembly judiciary committees, but neither chair responded to requests for comment for this story.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the governor said Hochul will review budget proposals “in January, as required by law.”

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Courts Appoint Special Counsel to Oversee Reform of New York’s Troubled Guardianship System

Trenton Police warn residents of scam calls from impostors posing as utility staff

The Trenton Police Department is alerting residents to an increase in scam calls involving utility impostors. These callers pose as utility representatives and inform residents that their utility bills are unpaid, warning them of imminent service disconnection.

Residents are strongly advised to safeguard their personal and financial information. The department emphasizes that individuals should not disclose sensitive details over the phone unless they first verify the legitimacy of the call by contacting their utility company directly. This precaution helps prevent fraud and potential financial exploitation.

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Trenton Police warn residents of scam calls from impostors posing as utility staff

Emergency Petition Seeks to Expedite Conservatorship for CEO of Nursing Home Giant Life Care Centers

By Amy Stulick

An emergency petition on Tuesday was filed to expedite the conservatorship action brought by the son of Life Care Centers of America CEO Forrest Preston, as other executive members cited year-end obligations.

Preston’s son, Aubrey B. Preston, should be appointed as his conservator on an emergency basis, executives said, due to the critical and time-sensitive needs of Tennessee-based nursing home operator Life Care and its affiliates. Forrest is incapable of attending to his duties as CEO in his disabled status, the executives allege in the court filings.

The son is requesting limited powers necessary to protect his father’s health, safety and welfare. And, in consultation with Life Care President Todd Fletcher and CFO Steve Ziegler, the younger Preston is seeking to make all decisions for Life Care and its affiliates that his father made in his leadership roles.

“[Forrest] is often the sole decision maker for essential business decisions or sole authorized signatory for essential documents,” Ziegler said in the court filing.

A new court date of Nov. 12 was set to hear the emergency request, while a hearing on the original petition was scheduled for mid-January. The action seeks a 60-day appointment in line with the maximum under Tennessee law until the January hearing, according to a report from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Fletcher said that despite Forrest’s current roles with Life Care and its affiliates, he neglected his responsibilities by often being absent for weeks if not months on end.

“Forrest’s extended absences have occurred even when pivotal action items were required of him, including [failure] to timely execute loan documents that almost caused the default of an over $100,000,000 loan on one occasion,” Fletcher claimed in court documents.

Personal observations by Ziegler and Fletcher indicate that Forrest Preston is mentally disabled and can no longer understand basic business issues. The executives don’t believe he has the capacity to understand and execute legal documents on behalf of Life Care and its affiliates, according to court documents.

Ziegler and Fletcher said in the court documents that they believe Forrest no longer comprehends even some of the more basic aspects of Life Care and its affiliate operations.

“He, in fact, regularly exhibits confusion about routine matters in his daily life that are far less complex than the business issues he contends with at Life Care and its affiliates,” said Ziegler.

Significant business decisions on the immediate horizon for Life Care include loan renewal documents and vote equity shares to guide the businesses’ direction, court documents show.

Ziegler pointed to year-end tasks that need to be completed. The team can’t wait for January to take action, he said.

Aubrey noted that his father may be a potential flight risk as Forrest’s wife, Kim Nguyen Preston, asked an employee of the nursing home company to begin the process of renewing a passport for Forrest, according to court documents.

Life Care’s executive team is concerned that Nguyen Preston may terminate key employees of Life Care in retaliation as well.

Court filings allege the wife and her siblings also engaged in conspiracy and civilly aided one another in misappropriating Forrest’s assets, citing violations of the Tennessee Adult Protection Act. The filing also claims that since marrying in 2018, Nguyen Preston has progressively isolated Forrest from his family and friends.

The complaint suggests that instead of protecting him, Nguyen Preston and her family unlawfully enriched themselves, acquiring significant real estate and cash.

The older Preston is being asked by a county judge to submit to two medical examinations within 10 days amid the conservatorship petition.

Full Article & Source:
Emergency Petition Seeks to Expedite Conservatorship for CEO of Nursing Home Giant Life Care Centers

See Also:
Life Care Centers CEO Faces Conservatorship Bid, Raising Concerns Over Nursing Home Giant’s Future

‘Disabled’ Life Care Centers owner resists medical, competency tests, son applies for emergency conservatorship

by James M. Berklan

Amid fears his third wife is planning to take him out of the country, the billionaire owner of Life Care Centers of America is now the subject of an emergency conservator request from a son who wants some control over his “disabled” 91-year-old father.

The request in a Tennessee court comes less than a week after Aubrey Preston first asked a judge to intervene on behalf of his father, Forrest Preston, whom he claims has been increasingly isolated and abused by his wife and her siblings since their “secret” marriage six years ago.

It followed the discovery that Forrest’s wife, Kim Phuong Nguyen Preston, had entered company headquarters in Cleveland, TN, late at night for no apparent business purpose less than 48 hours after the initial conservatorship request was filed Oct. 29.

Kim also asked Forrest’s personal assistant at the company to help renew his passport and help get her son a passport.

The emergency appeal, which was filed Monday, included sworn affidavits from Life Care’s president and its CFO, who each testified that Forrest has been missing from company work for weeks or months at a time and is “mentally disabled” and unable to make important decisions.

The result has put Forrest’s health, and that of the company, at great risk, they contend in Monday’s Bradley County Chancery Court filing.

Forrest Preston founded Life Care in 1970 and remains its CEO, board chairman and sole owner. His net worth was estimated by Forbes at $1.2 billion last year.

Life Care consists of more than 200 skilled nursing facilities and assisted living communities in 28 states and has more than 30,000 employees.

Pivotal hearing

A hearing has been set for Nov. 12, at which time Aubrey Preston hopes to be named his father’s conservator, or financial overseer, for up to 60 days. That would bridge the time until a mid-January hearing, which has been set to determine whether more permanent conservatorship terms should be put in place.

After last week’s court filing, a judge assigned a legal guardian to help arrange medical testing for Forrest. Through a long-time friend and business associate, however, Forrest refused to submit to the tests, this week’s filing notes.

When a member of the local media reached him by phone Tuesday, Forrest reportedly vowed he was “here to stay.” He also called his wife “a great class lady” and said he would not “beat up” on Aubrey for filing for conservatorship. 

“We’ll work it out,” he added before cutting off further inquiries, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Janice Seay, the personal assistant to Forrest Preston, said in her affidavit that Kim asked her to help with his passport renewal after Kim said there was interest in returning to her native Vietnam, possibly to purchase real estate. 

Aubrey Preston has accused Kim Preston, along with her brother and sister who live with the couple in Tennessee, of improperly influencing his father to transfer millions of dollars in cash and US real estate to them.

“Forrest is mentally and physically disabled. Without an emergency conservator in place, there will be substantial harm to his health, safety, and welfare as he is vulnerable, including to Kim [and her sister and brother’s] schemes,” wrote attorney Gary R. Patrick in Monday’s filing.

Life Care Centers President Todd Fletcher, who is also a nephew of Forrest Preston, and CFO Steve Ziegler, said via affidavit that Forrest “no longer comprehends even some of the more basic aspects of Life Care and its affiliates’ business operations.” They also described “confusion about routine matters in his daily life.”

“I do not believe that Forrest has the capacity to understand and execute legal documents on behalf of Life Care and its affiliates,” each testified.

Since Kim allegedly has Forrest under her control, each also said they feared that she would “retaliate” against them and other key employees leading to a loss of “essential leadership and crippling operations.”

“Kim’s disruptions of the business of Life Care and its affiliates is devastating to employee morale and operations,” they added.

Also included in the emergency filing was an affidavit from a neighbor of one of Forrest and Kim’s properties, who said it has uncharacteristically gone into disrepair from neglect and has been frequented by vagrants. Upon talking with Forrest about these conditions, the neighbor said he did not appear to understand the conversation — “he simply was not there.”

Attempts to reach Kim and Forrest Preston Wednesday were unsuccessful.

In his emergency conservator request, Aubrey Preston has asked for “limited powers to protect his father’s health, safety, and welfare in the interim.” That would include assuming his father’s decision-making powers as head of the company, in consultation with LCCA President Fletcher and CFO Ziegler. 

He also would acquire control over his father’s passport and, in consultation with the court-appointed legal guardian, would hold sway over any desired expenditures above $25,000. 

Aubrey and his agents also would be able to investigate Forrest’s assets and any transfers made from him or LCCA to Forrest, his wife or her relatives, or anyone else who has received more than $50,000 in value, during the last two calendar years.

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‘Disabled’ Life Care Centers owner resists medical, competency tests, son applies for emergency conservatorship

Judge Admits to Judicial Misconduct as Charged, but Denies Willful Misconduct

Respondent counsel for Chatham County Probate Judge Thomas C. Bordeaux Jr. disagreed the jurist's conduct "amount[ed] to willful misconduct in office; a willful and persistent failure to perform the duties of office; and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the judicial office into disrepute."

by Cedra Mayfield

What You Need to Know

• Chatham County Probate Judge Thomas C. Bordeaux Jr. answers judicial misconduct charges.
• Judicial Qualifications Commission of Georgia announced 10 counts of formal judicial misconduct charges against Bordeaux in October.
• Bordeaux has retained Cartersville attorney S. Lester Tate III and Atlanta attorney W. Matthew Wilson as respondent counsel.

A Georgia judge accused of failing to timely issue final orders in at least nine probate cases has responded to judicial misconduct charges launched against him by the Judicial Qualifications Commission of Georgia.

Unlike many other judges who've come under fire, Chatham County Probate Judge Thomas C. Bordeaux Jr. has admitted to the bulk of the allegations charged against him.

However, respondent counsel for the jurist challenge the judicial watchdog's conclusion that Bordeaux's conduct amounts to willful misconduct that's prejudicial to the administration of justice.

Code of Judicial Conduct Violations

According to formal charges announced by JQC Director Courtney Veal and Deputy Director Ashton Murphy on Oct. 3, Bordeaux failed "to fairly, promptly, and efficiently dispose of" at least nine probate cases before him since 2017.

The 10-count charging document alleged Bordeaux violated at least two Code of Judicial Conduct rules, one of them repeatedly. (click to continue reading)

Full Article & Source:
Judge Admits to Judicial Misconduct as Charged, but Denies Willful Misconduct

See Also:
Chatham County Probate Judge under State investigation

Abdicated Authority: How We Fail Conservatees

Author(s): Nicolas Badre, MD,Alex V. Barnard, PhD 

Key Takeaways

• California's homelessness crisis and misuse of conservatorship highlight the complexities of involuntary psychiatric care, with recent legislative efforts expanding treatment criteria.
• The debate on involuntary treatment focuses on balancing life-saving care and civil liberties, with both sides agreeing on the importance of law application over wording.

SHOW MORE

How can we ensure an accountable, effective, and limited conservatorship system? Here are some actionable concepts.

BillionPhotos.com/AdobeStock

States began reforming their laws on involuntary mental health treatment to put an end to indefinite commitments 70 years ago, yet there is still no consensus on when involuntary treatment works, for whom, and to what it is needed. The binary debate on the necessity or harm of involuntary treatment has often overshadowed pragmatic solutions. Here we focus on actionable concepts that involve a greater role for government in ensuring an accountable, effective, and limited conservatorship system.

California encapsulates many aspects of the broad debate concerning involuntary psychiatric care. The state faces a significant homelessness crisis, characterized by political desires to utilize mental health services to address the perceived nuisance of homeless individuals, particularly those using substances in public. It is also notorious for controversies surrounding the misuse of conservatorship to restrict liberties, as highlighted by the high-profile case of Britney Spears,¹ and farther back by the case of Brian Wilson.²

In recent years, the state has moved aggressively to expand the use of involuntary treatment. As Governor Gavin Newsom declared, “We know what it takes to help people with mental illness out of the shadows and out of encampments—housing and treatment. It’s time to go big and reform the system.”³ This vision is exemplified by Senate Bill 43 in 2023, which made substance use disorders eligible for conservatorship and expanded the definition of “grave disability”—the key criterion for conservatorship—to include an inability to provide for personal safety and medical care (alongside food, clothing, and shelter).

Diagnosing the Problem

Proponents of expanding involuntary treatment argue that it provides life-saving care for individuals who are unable or unwilling to consent to treatment, and who might otherwise wind up incarcerated, homeless, or dead. Opponents argue that forced treatment is traumatic and that the needs of individuals with serious mental illnesses are best met through voluntary services, independent housing, and peer supports. Both sides of this debate, however, seem to agree that the specific wording and structure of commitment laws is impactful and worth fighting over.

We argue that problems in the current conservatorship system are more related to implementation than the wording of the law. The landmark Supreme Court decision in O'Connor v Donaldson (1975) established that the state “cannot confine a non-dangerous individual who is capable of surviving safely by himself or with the help family or friends.”⁴ Yet law enforcement, inpatient psychiatrists, judges, and public guardians define “grave disability” differently.

Emphasis should be placed on the consistent and fair application of current laws. Multiple attempts at changing conservatorship laws in California have had little impact. The vehement debates about precise wording of involuntary laws are less important than how they are applied by stakeholders, “you would be hard-pressed to find anything resembling a strategy for how judges, clinicians, or bureaucrats should be using the law as written.”⁵

Each of the actors involved in the continuum of conservatorship can effectively block someone from advancing on the pathway to the conservatorship, none of them can ensure that a person who needs it gets it or ensure that other actors deliver quality care. Furthermore, the fragmentation hinders adequate evidence to be disseminated rendering each participant with inadequate information to evaluate the need for conservatorship.

While conservatees are legally required to be in the least restrictive setting, many linger inappropriately in locked facilities because step-down programs are mostly private and screen out those with criminal justice history, substance use, or comorbid medical issues.

Because of a lack of state guidance or evaluation, there are no clear outcome measures for conservatorship, meaning that conservatees in some counties of the state rapidly cycle on and off conservatorship while others are left on conservatorship, with the important civil liberties restrictions it entails, for life. These problems stem not from commitment laws but the way the state has effectively “abdicated authority” over them: declining to use its regulatory and financial levers to provide direction to the conservatorship system.

Proposals for Improvement

Data Collection

While both sides agree the current system is dysfunctional, we lack the basic data needed to assess the nature and scale of that dysfunction. Lee and Cohen highlighted significant limitations in the reporting of civil commitment across the United States, finding that only 25 states offered a publicly-available count. As they point out “without accurate incidence estimates, links to potentially contributing and consequent factors of civil commitment cannot be reliably assessed.”⁶ It is antithetical to science to discuss the necessity of more or less civil commitment without knowing how much civil commitment is currently being performed and for what reasons. An absence of baseline data also makes it impossible to assess whether changes to commitment laws actually change the number of commitments, much less improve outcomes.

Oversight Enhancement

Clinicians often resist oversight, fearing their expertise and morality are under scrutiny. Clinicians in California are familiar with vigorous public defenders representing clients in conservatorship hearings who challenge their diagnosis, the veracity of hearsay from family members, and the treatment team's ability to predict the future. However, oversight could encompass various aspects that benefit both providers and the people they serve, such as:

• Providing training and guidelines to ensure that the multiple actors in the conservatorship system (physicians, law enforcement, judges, public guardians) define criteria in a way consistent with evidence about who is most likely to benefit from conservatorship.
• Ensuring that local mental health departments provide adequate reimbursement to ensure that mandated services are available for individuals under conservatorship. Without such measures, private hospitals are deincentivized to adequately treat individuals.
• Counterbalancing reimbursement, for-profit programs must be overseen to curb excess on the inappropriate use of involuntary programs. Recent reporting shows how major hospital chains twist criteria to extend inpatient stays.⁷
• Safeguarding against for-profit programs selecting only the most cost-efficient admission by creating requirements of admission or providing a safety net of public institutions.

When California closed its Department of Mental Health in 2012, it left a significant oversight void that remains unaddressed. The state needs to have dedicated leadership specifically focused on regulating the conservatorship system.

Funding for Appropriate Placements

Contrary to popular folklore, California has a high rate of involuntary treatment—nearly 500 involuntary holds per 100,000 annually compared to less than 200 in Texas,⁶ or European countries like France and England.⁸ Despite this, the state only had about 5000 conservatorships in 2018,⁹ compared with over 100,000 individuals on emergency holds that year. The real bottleneck is not the availability of acute psychiatric beds, then, but placements afterwards. Locked, sub-acute mental health rehabilitation centers are in such high demand that they can afford to be selective, leaving many patients without placement options. Patients are thus subjected to either inappropriate, long-term hospital stays or discharged rapidly, contributing to the revolving door phenomenon. Focusing investments to ensure patients can step down to less restrictive levels of care can avoid both the expense and civil liberties concerns of expanding inpatient placements.

Concluding Thoughts

Seventy years ago, societal measures led to the closure of state hospitals and a shift in the care of individuals with severe mental illness. Today’s system relies heavily on short-term involuntary holds without effectively transferring patients to lower levels of care, resulting in high readmission rates. The current fragmented, complicated, and unregulated system fails to achieve the goals of both proponents and opponents of involuntary treatment. In other domains, like corrections, such poor data and oversight would be deemed unacceptable. Ultimately, the states have failed to fulfill their roles by “abdicating their authority” and leaving implementation up to individual courts, hospitals, and clinicians. Effective measures to increase accountability would benefit both sides of the debate on involuntary care.

Dr Badre is a clinical and forensic psychiatrist in San Diego. He teaches medical education, psychopharmacology, ethics in psychiatry, and correctional care. Dr Badre can be reached at his website, BadreMD.com. Dr Barnard is an assistant professor of sociology at New York University. His research examines decision-making in public mental health care in France and the United States.

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Abdicated Authority: How We Fail Conservatees

Roosevelt man indicted for manslaughter in mother’s death; sister charged with elder abuse

MINEOLA, N.Y. — A 65-year-old man from Roosevelt has been indicted on manslaughter charges in connection with the death of his 85-year-old mother, while his sister faces charges for alleged abusive acts toward their mother in the weeks prior to her death, Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced.

Michael Rainford McDougall is accused of placing his mother, Carmel McDougall, in a headlock and swinging her, causing her to fall and suffer a severe head injury that ultimately led to her death. McDougall, her primary caregiver, has been charged with Manslaughter in the Second Degree, among other felonies, after video footage reportedly captured the incident inside their home. His sister, Nichole McDougall Mullings, is charged with Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent or Physically Disabled Person for allegedly physically restraining and threatening their mother on two occasions.

According to DA Donnelly, McDougall was arraigned on charges of Manslaughter in the Second Degree, Endangering the Welfare of a Vulnerable Elderly Person, Criminally Negligent Homicide, and additional counts of Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent or Physically Disabled Person. He pleaded not guilty, and his bail was set at $250,000 cash, $500,000 bond, or a $1 million partially secured bond.

Mullings, 55, was arraigned on two counts of Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent or Physically Disabled Person and was released to pre-trial services. Both defendants are scheduled to appear in court on November 22, 2024.

Prosecutors allege that on September 12, police responded to a wellness check at the family’s Hudson Avenue home, where they found Carmel McDougall unresponsive. Video footage from the home’s internal NEST cameras reportedly showed Michael McDougall putting his mother in a headlock and swinging her, causing her to fall and hit her head on the floor. As she lay injured, McDougall allegedly threatened her to get up.

Carmel McDougall was transported to Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a catastrophic brain bleed. She was placed on life support and later died on September 18.

Additionally, on August 30, Mullings allegedly restricted her mother’s movement and breathing on two separate occasions, acts also captured on video, according to the DA’s office.

DA Donnelly condemned the alleged actions of both siblings, stating, “Frustrated with their 85-year-old mother’s declining health, Michael McDougall and his sister, Nichole McDougall Mullings, allegedly took their anger out on her with physical violence and threats.” She added, “Carmel McDougall’s son and daughter failed her when she needed them most.”

If convicted, Michael McDougall faces up to 19 years in prison, while Mullings could face up to 1-1/3 to four years.

Full Article & Source:
Roosevelt man indicted for manslaughter in mother’s death; sister charged with elder abuse

Hellertown woman found guilty in financial exploitation of mother, authorities say

By  Pamela Sroka-Holzmann

A Hellertown woman has been convicted of financial exploitation of her 86-year-old mother’s estate.

Alyssa Ann Piazza, 54, of the 1600 block of Oakridge Lane, on Friday was found guilty by a jury of two counts felony theft, felony neglect of care of a dependent person, felony forgery, abuse of a care dependent person and misdemeanor communication of lewd, threatening or obscene language.

The verdict was announced Tuesday morning by the Northampton County District Attorney’s Office. 

Piazza scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 12.

George Nassif, the public defender representing Piazza, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta, who prosecuted the case, said he was thankful to the jury for its “careful consideration of the facts and the rendering of an appropriate verdict.”

He warned losses associated with the financial exploitation of older adults exceeds $3 billion annually.

“The statistics also bear out the high prevalence of social isolation, cognitive impairment, and the existence of a relationship of expected trust between the victim and perpetrator often renders these adults uniquely susceptible to financial exploitation,” Baratta stated in a news release.

Authorities said Piazza misused a power of attorney and left her mother homeless as she diverted her mother’s entire financial estate and sold her home of 27 years.

The woman in August 2022 reported verbal and mental abuse to the Lower Saucon Police Department.

She told investigators Piazza and her husband moved in with her at her Mansfield Street home in 2015. She suffered an illness two years later and placed Piazza in control of her affairs, according to court records.

The woman reported being shoved and dragged by Piazza, and called derogatory names. Piazza withheld food from her and threatened her if she reported the treatment, court records state.

Piazza was found by police to be stealing the vicim’s prescription medication in August 2022 after picking it up from an area pharmacy.

Piazza additionally stole hundreds of thousands of dollars after selling the victim’s home and transferred the cash into her own bank account, authorities said. 

Piazza then posted photos on social media illustrating the newfound wealth, court records state.

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Hellertown woman found guilty in financial exploitation of mother, authorities say

'I can't wait for you to die soon!' Tennessee nursing assistant charged with elder abuse

by WTVC

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A certified nursing assistant threw a 90-year-old Alzheimer's patient out of a shower and started beating him, saying "I can't wait for you to die soon!" according to Chattanooga Police.

The incident happened on Wednesday in the early morning hours at the Ascension Living Valley Residence on Mountain Creek Road, which is a facility for people with Alzheimer's disease.

The victim required two certified nursing assistants (CNAs) to give him a shower, while he was seated in a shower chair.

The other CNA told officers that she and 51-year-old Gary Christopher Crownover were giving the victim a shower when the victim hit Crownover in the face, which knocked off his glasses.

The affidavit says Crownover then

..became very upset and pulled the chair with the victim in it completely out of the shower and then dropped the chair and victim onto the floor. Witness stated Mr. Crownover then hit the victim in the head with closed fist multiple times and then smacked victim in the face with open palm multiple times. Witness stated Mr. Crownover stated "I can't wait for you to die soon" to the victim. Witness stated she was shocked with the incident.

The CNA said she and Crownover then picked the chair and victim up off of the floor and dried him off.

There was blood on a towel from a knee injury the victim sustained during the beating, and he also had redness on his right eye, according to the affidavit.

After putting the victim to bed, the CNA reported what she saw to her supervisor, who immediately called the police.

The affidavit says police were advised that Crownover had been "sent home on suspension" before officers got there.

Authorities arrested Crownover later in the day on Wednesday and charged him with abuse of a vulnerable adult.

We reached out toAscension Living, who tells us via email:

"The health and safety of our residents and associates is of the utmost importance. We take these allegations very seriously and are cooperating with law enforcement officials on this matter. The associate is no longer working and has no access to the facility. We are committed to ensuring a safe environment and remain dedicated to serving the healthcare needs of our community."

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'I can't wait for you to die soon!' Tennessee nursing assistant charged with elder abuse