Police arrest 38-year-old for exploiting 96-year-old man

ST. GEORGE — A St. George man faces multiple criminal charges relating to prescription fraud and exploitation of an elderly person after being arrested by Washington City Police on March 21.

According to the probable cause statement filed by Washington City Police, Gregory Leon Bowler, 38, of St. George was arrested after an investigation was conducted involving a report of prescription fraud at the Walmart pharmacy in Washington City.

The statement said police determined that a man, later identified as Bowler, had called the pharmacy on March 14 and identified himself as a local doctor, and using that doctor’s DEA number (assigned by the Drug Enforcement Administration), he ordered a prescription for hydrocodone, along with one refill. The prescription ordered was in the name of an elderly man that lives with Bowler.

The pharmacy filled the prescription, and Bowler identified himself when he purchased the drug on March 14. On March 16, the statement said, Bowler returned to the pharmacy and purchased the refill.

According to the statement, Bowler called the pharmacy on March 20 and, again posing as the same doctor, ordered a third bottle of the same drug. When Bowler arrived to pick up the prescription, the pharmacist called the doctor and found out the prescription had not been called in by him. Bowler left the pharmacy without the prescription and police were notified.

Washington City Police were able to locate Bowler and placed him under arrest for an outstanding warrant on March 21. He was charged with a second-degree felony for communications fraud, three counts of third-degree felony prescription fraud, a third-degree felony for forgery and two counts of third-degree felony possession of a controlled substance.

Bowler was booked into Washington County’s Purgatory Correctional Facility on those charges on March 21.

Bowler was charged with several additional criminal offenses on March 28, after St. George Police discovered that Bowler was in jail, police Sgt. Sam Despain said.

According to the probable cause statement, Bowler is accused of stealing two checks from a 96-year-old man that lives with him, forging the man’s name and cashing those checks. One check was written on March 9 for $200 and the second check was written on March 17 for $150.

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Police arrest 38-year-old for exploiting 96-year-old man

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Guardianship: Exploitation, Abuse and No One is Responsible

Florida bill SB 670 moved through the Florida Senate this last week. 

The bill would provide protection from accountability and responsibility for owners and investors in nursing homes.  In the end, it would also limit the amount that could be recovered in damages. The deep pockets of private equity firms and passive investors would be protected under a measure passed by the Senate on Thursday.

Obviously, profits are far more important than making sure the people representing your investments in the nursing homes (the employees) are well trained and performing their jobs in a professional manner.

Sighting the high cost applied to each bed, the claim is made that this cost would be reduced by reducing or outright eradicating any access to the people who supply the capital investment in the homes.

Maybe a better business plan would be to make sure that abuse, forced drugging, starvation and neglect didn’t happen in the first place.

Also:  we will be discussing kangaroo courts…what that really means and why you should be hopping mad over it!  
5:00 pm PST … 6:00 pm MST … 7:00 pm CST … 8:00 pm EST

LISTEN LIVE or listen to the archive later

Who Knows Best? Dispute Over Disabled Man's Care Magnifies Guardianship's Complexities

Rarely is there so much tension — or so much at stake — around giving someone hope for a family reunion as in the case of Dominic Pantoni.

Every month, Dominic intently waits at the door of his group home for his mother to arrive, and he immediately asks her, “When’s the next hearing?”

A court hearing, in Dominic's eyes, means going home, or at least leaving a place that he calls prison, said his mother, Nancy Pantoni. She has been trying since 2010 to change legal guardianship of her 27-year-old son, who has intense special needs because of a genetic disorder.

However, it’s that obsession with going home that his guardian, a caseworker with Jewish Family & Children's Service of Pittsburgh, asserts in court record may be holding back the young man from coping with the 24-hour care he needs and taking opportunities to work or to socialize.

As a result, Pantoni’s interactions with Dominic have been restricted by the guardianship agency, which declined to comment on the specific case because of privacy concerns.

She can visit for one hour a month. No phone calls. And she said she’s not informed when he’s admitted to the hospital or his medications have changed.

"His health has significantly deteriorated so much that I’m concerned for his life,” she said. “I’m on a mission to save my son’s life, I really am. I’ll do anything.”

The tug of war over Dominic’s fate highlights the challenging dynamic of court-appointed guardianships, which often pit an unknown third party assigned to make decisions in the best interest of a ward against family members who inherently feel they know what’s best for their relative.

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Who Knows Best?

California court revives suit claiming woman frozen alive in morgue

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California appeals court has revived a malpractice suit brought by the family of an 80-year-old grandmother they claim was prematurely declared dead by doctors then frozen alive inside a body bag in the hospital's morgue.

A lower-court judge had dismissed the lawsuit brought in May 2012 by relatives of Maria de Jesus Arroyo against White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles over the woman's 2010 death, on grounds that the statute of limitations had lapsed.

But a three-judge panel of a state appeals court sided with the family on Wednesday in agreeing they could not have known how Arroyo was alleged to have died until it was brought to light by a pathologist in an expert opinion he gave in December 2011.

 "Plaintiffs had absolutely no reason to suspect that the decedent was alive rather than dead when placed in the hospital morgue," the court said in its 27-page opinion. The lawsuit now goes back to Los Angeles Superior Court.

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California court revives suit claiming woman frozen alive in morgue

Clark County to Start Task Force to Help Elderly

SPRINGFIELD-- An elder abuse task force is starting in Clark County after an 87-year-old man was swindled out of thousands of dollars. Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly says elder abuse is one of the most under-reported crimes. The Sheriff is using one suspect- Ronald Eugene Massie- as the poster child for the task force.

"He looks like a big teddy bear he's loveable he's likable that's the crazy part of it," said Ben Cox, Massie's latest alleged victim.

"But I have a weakness of trusting people."

Cox met Massie just three weeks ago, and trusted him to fix his three cars. He gave the suspect more than $5,600 dollars in checks for parts and access to lines of credit to do the work.

"And I found out later that he really did nothing on it," Cox said, "The transmission in the back was not repaired. The work was just not done."

Cox started asking for receipts for the work being done. When Massie could not be provided, law enforcement got involved in the case.

"This is the case the I hope is the catalyst to start a new era," said Sheriff Gene Kelly. His office investigated the case after a tip from Cox's bank teller. Massie was arrested for the 75th time on April 3, 2014, in connection to the Cox case.

The recent arrest and investigation sparked the creation of a task force to stop other seniors from becoming victims.

"It's more difficult to help them once that has occurred than it is to educate them and help protect them before something happens," said Maureen Fagans of United Senior Services.

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Clark County to Start Task Force to Help Elderly

Alzheimer's Patient Plays Piano

This is for my mother, Margaret Logan. Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 2002 and has had a slow gradual descent into a demented state. She has little dignity remaining in her life. She hasn't been able to feed herself, write, watch television, go to the toilet unaccompanied, or do anything much. She doesn't know who anybody is, though usually starts to recognise me, her eldest son after 30 minutes or so. 

Note:  Margaret Logan passed in May of 2012. 


Source:
Alzheimer Patient Plays Piano #1

NJ group home worker convicted of faking, stealing medical records to cover mistake

UNION COUNTY — An East Orange woman was convicted today of falsifying medical records to cover up her own mistake, then stealing the records after she was fired, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace Park announced.

Joy Ebuzor-Onayemi, 48, was convicted of third-degree burglary and fourth-degree falsifying medical records, following several hours of jury deliberation after a five-day trial before state Superior Court Judge Stuart Peim in Union County.

Ebuzor-Onayemi called a doctor instead of calling 911, an infraction that was uncovered by the management. But in the days leading up to a disciplinary hearing, she altered the medical record to cover up her misstep, Tomlinson said.

Ebuzor-Onayemi was fired on April 8, 2011, and after leaving the company's headquarters she drove back to the group home, broke in, and stole the records implicating her, according to Tomlinson.

In 2011, Ebuzor-Onayemi worked at a Berkeley Heights residence for people with developmental disabilities, where she took patients' blood pressure readings. On one occasion, though, she failed to follow protocol after taking an abnormally high reading, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Meghan Tomlinson, who prosecuted the case.

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NJ group home worker convicted of faking, stealing medical records to cover mistake

Disciplinary committee files complaint against Mercer County judge accused of mistreating employees

TRENTON – A state court disciplinary committee has filed an official complaint against Mercer County Judge Gerald Council alleging that the judge mistreated employees in the Drug Court Program, which he oversees.

According to the formal complaint filed by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, Council was demeaning toward a drug court coordinator, on one occasion shushing her and telling her he did not want to hear from her in front of a drug court participant and another employee.

On another occasion the woman, referred to as A.J., alleges in the complaint that Council pulled her by the ear toward the exit of the courtroom saying “come on, come on, come on” and referred to her as “my problem child.”

Council also allegedly referred to one employee who was a senior probation officer as his “little pet” at a staff meeting.

The officer felt uncomfortable after the comment and corrected Council in front of other employees that she was not his “pet,” according to the complaint. The complaint alleges that Council also referred to an investigator on his Drug Court team as “hop-a-long” on a few occasions after that employee underwent hip replacement surgery.

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Disciplinary committee files complaint against Mercer County judge accused of mistreating employees

Creation of public guardianship office should address problems disclosed by audit

Sen. Colby Coash
Photo courtesy of
Unicameral Information Office

A change in state law should address problems with public guardians disclosed by a state audit.

Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln sponsored LB 920, creating the Office of Public Guardian with the judiciary branch of state government.

The law gives Nebraska courts authority to appoint public guardians from the office, an option courts didn’t have before, leading to the alleged abuse of the system by Judith Widener of Scottsbluff.

A state audit raised questions about the spending of Judith Widener of Scottsbluff and led to criminal charges being filed against her for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands from many of the more than 600 people whom she served as guardian.

According to the auditor’s office, “Widener masked her alleged embezzlement through a complex array of credit cards and over 40 bank accounts containing more than $600,000.”

The Scottsbluff Star-Herald reported Widener, who is 70, was formally charged with theft by taking, a felony. Widener ran Safe Haven Inc., a company claiming to be an online debt and credit counseling firm. The company handled accounts of persons appointed legal guardians to handle the financial affairs of the elderly or disabled.

Coash says a lack of options led to the alleged abuse.

“And when they couldn’t find anybody, people like Judy Widener got appointed,” Coash tells Nebraska Radio Network. “Now the court has a different option and I think that’s going to go a long ways to protecting vulnerable people.”

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Creation of public guardianship office should address problems disclosed by audit