SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — As people took to the streets in San Francisco
to protest abuse against Asian elders, police arrested a man suspected
of assaulting 70-year-old, former San Francisco Commissioner Greg Chew
on Tuesday, according to a press release from San Francisco Police
Department.
The assault was reported on August 2, just after 7:30 p.m. when SFPD
officers with the Southern Station were called to Folsom and Third
Streets due to a report of an aggravated assault. Officers on scene
found a 70-year-old male victim who told officers he had been struck and
knocked to the ground. The victim, later identified as Greg Chew, did
not know the suspect who hit him. He was taken to the hospital with
non-life threatening injuries.
Just before 11:30 a.m. on Sunday officers with the Tenderloin Station
noticed a man in the area of Eighth and Market Streets that matched the
description of the suspect. Officers were able to detain the suspect and
then identified him as Derrick Yearby, 34, San Francisco. According to
police, “officers developed probably cause to arrest Yearby.”
Yearby was then transported to San Francisco County Jail and booked on charges of
aggravated battery causing serious bodily injury, assault with force
likely to produce great bodily injury, elder abuse, and great bodily
injury enhancement.
Police are still investigating this incident. Those with information
are asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or Text a Tip to
TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous.
Getting older can be a
scary concept, leaving some of us wondering who will take care of us
when we're elderly and potentially dealing with poor health and memory.
If we're lucky, we have plenty of family around us to ensure that we're
happy and healthy when we can't do as many things for ourselves
anymore... but obviously, that's not the case for everybody.
Enter this grandma,
who her grandchildren shared on TikTok recently. At 82 years old, she
had been neglected and struggling with dementia, and when her
granddaughter realized the conditions she'd been living in, she
immediately took her in and didn't look back.
Her granddaughter
explained that they found "thousands of lice, eggs, and lice feces" in
her hair, and she only weighed 78 pounds at the time. This grandma had
also had a hard life before this — she'd been in an abusive
relationship, survived cancer, and raised her children and
grandchildren.
"I
gave her a manicure, cut her hair and put her earrings in, gave her a
long bath and then shower," she wrote in the video. "She also has
dementia and can't see very well. She couldn't use her voice."
Seeing
the change in Grandma after she'd been taken care of was like night and
day, and she seemed to be really happy to be surrounded by family and
given the chance to relax and have others watch out for her. She even
gained 10 pounds in the first two weeks of living with her
granddaughter!
This
grandma is lucky to have family who cares about her, and hopefully, the
rest of her days will be much better than the ones she's leaving behind
her.
A mix-up of residents at a convalescent home in Santa Monica has
upset a woman’s family after they were told she was dead, only to find
she’d been confused with another patient.
A nurse at Santa Monica Convalescent Center — which is changing its
name to Sunset Park Healthcare — told the family of 83-year-old Isabel
Valencia that she had died. However, it was a different resident who had
died, according to Valencia’s son-in-law Mike Fanous.
“They made a mistake. I looked at the deceased person; it’s
not my mom, and my mom is sitting in the bed close to the deceased
person … I was furious, when I got there I was very upset,” Fanous said.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the mix-up meant the two patients were
being given each other’s medications for several days, a nurse told
Fanous.
“The lady that passed away, that could have caused her death. They were saying, ‘Well, we don’t know that,'” Fanous said.
A statement from Sunset Park admits the nurse made a mistake.
“It’s unfortunate human error. It was an isolated incident, and the
facility obviously feels very badly for the family,” the statement said.
“These are electronic medical records … What happened is, the nurse
pulled the chart for the wrong patient.”
Valencia’s family plans to pursue legal action, and they have moved her to another facility.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is also investigating.
Chattanooga police have arrested a man who they say raped an elderly
woman with cancer on the sidewalk of MLK Boulevard in July of 2022.
According
to the arrest report, the victim told police that she was walking
during the morning of July 27, when 45-year-old Wesley Chubb walked up
from behind and forced himself on her.
Police say he forced the victim to the ground and assaulted her.
A CPD surveillance camera in the area recorded the assault and police say Chubb later admitted to being the man in the video.
Chubb is charged with rape and aggravated abuse of elderly or vulnerable adult.
He is being held on a $110,000 bond and scheduled to appear in court on August 9.
Stay with the Local 3 News app for updates to this story.
Family members claim abuse of loved ones by care facilities and courts under conservatorship
Mildred Rodriguez in her niece’s, Cathy Rodriguez, vehicle on September 2, 2018.(Courtesy of Cathy Rodriguez)
Sacramento, Calif. — By Robert J Hansen
An Alameda County Civil
Grand Jury investigation into conservatorship proceedings in Alameda
county found that conservatorship is in likely need of reform, according
to the Grand Jury’s 2021-2022 report.
Although
the investigation found no evidence of criminal acts by court staff, it
did find that involuntary conservatorships are often very expensive for
conservatees, especially those who are removed from their homes and
placed in care facilities.
These individuals, depending on the
degree of impairment, may be placed in a conservatorship, a legal
proceeding in which the court appoints a person or agency to take care
of the individual’s needs and make decisions on their behalf.
Under the current system, conservatees’ estates can be quickly drained, despite court oversight, the report said.
These
legal services are provided by the Alameda Public Defender and Legal
Assistance for Seniors (LAS) and are the primary safeguard against a
person being placed in a conservatorship that is unjustified or
unnecessarily restrictive.
Legal
Assistance for Seniors (LAS) clients are primarily elderly adults in
general conservatorships, whereas 80 percent of the Public Defender’s
clients are developmentally disabled adults in limited conservatorships.
In
2019, the Alameda County District Attorney investigated allegations
that, among other things, probate court staff committed financial abuse
and failed to protect conservatees’ assets.
Conservatees like Mildred Rodriguez.
Mildred Rodriguez on March 18, 2019.(Courtesy of Cathy Rodriguez)
In 2017, Mildred Rodriguez was living in a mobile home that she and her niece, Cathy Rodriguez owned.
Then
when a roommate died, Rose Rivera, Cathy’s third cousin, took Mildred
against her will to live with her, according to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez,
who for years worked for the Alameda County Probation Department, was
told by another cousin that Rose Rivera took Mildred and tore the floors
and bathroom out of the mobile home, making it inhabitable.
Video recordings show the mobile home was unlivable.
Rivera
took over Power of Attorney over Mildred and tried to defraud her of
all her property and assets according to Cathy Rodriguez.
“Rose destroyed the mobile home and the majority of my aunt's belongings were gone, a few things were left,” Rodriguez said.
Cathy
and Rose battled through the courts for guardianship of Mildred and
numerous attempted restraining orders, Court documents reveal.
Rivera
attempted so many unsuccessful restraining orders that she was ruled a
vexatious litigant by the Alameda Court, according to court records.
While
Mildred was living with Rivera, a medical evaluation was done and it
was determined that Mildred was not getting the care she needed and her
environment was not good for her, according to documents provided by
Rodriguez.
“I tried to get my aunt out of Rose's home through the
cops but to no avail,” Rodriguez said. So, I filed the petition in
probate Court in Berkeley California.
Rivera objected to
Rodriguez’s petition for guardianship of Mildred from the encouragement
of attorney Roger Spencer, according to Rodriguez.
Spencer,
the court-appointed attorney for Mildred, stated that a neutral party
is needed to act as conservator due to the family feud between Rodriguez
and another family member, Rose Rivera.
He also objected to Rodriguez having guardianship of Mildred.
"Each
time I have met with the conservatee, [Mildred] she has expressed
distrust for Cathy Rodriguez. She is unwilling to have Cathy in control
of her or her money or property in any way," Spencer said in July 2018.
Mildred
Rodriguez recognizes she requires Conservatorship and wishes the Court
to appoint the Alameda County Public Guardian as her Conservator of
Person and estate Spencer told the court.
“She does not trust, and will never trust Cathy Rodriguez,” Spencer said.
However, the handwritten documents by Mildred contradict Spencer’s statements.
One of several handwritten letters to the Alameda Court by Mildred Rodriguez asking to live with Cathy Rodriguez.(Courtesy of Cathy Rodriguez)
A November 2018 letter by Mildred tells the judge that she is not happy where she is and would rather live with Rodriguez.
“I hope there is something you can do and let me live with my niece Cathy Rodriguez,” Mildred wrote in March 2019.
The
court placed Mildred in conservatorship under Alameda County Public
Guardian in May 2018. While under conservatorship, she lived at a couple
of different facilities according to the court documents.
First,
she was at St. Regis Retirement Center before being moved to Jones
Convalescent Hospital in August 2018, according to court documents.
Cathy would come to visit her aunt and once took her to the mobile home, unaware she was restricted from doing so.
The
Public Guardian then filed a complaint claiming that Cathy’s behavior
was disruptive to hospital staff and residents and was eventually
prohibited from having any contact with her aunt.
“I was not informed that I was not allowed to take my auntie out,” Rodriguez said.
Jessica
Chia, Deputy County Counsel for the Public Guardian’s office, requested
that the court restrict Rodriguez from contacting or visiting her aunt.
Chia also claimed that Rodriguez’s complaints against the Public Guardian’s office were inaccurate.
“You
raised several complaints against the Alameda County Public Guardian's
office and the Office of the County Counsel based on untruthful and
inaccurate allegations, and you continue to reiterate these allegations
at public meetings, in broadly distributed email communications, and in
court proceedings,” Chia said in a letter to Rodriguez.
Video
recordings and written documents from Mildred reveal how she felt
mistreated, neglected, and abused while under the protective
guardianship of Alameda County.
“The system is abusing my auntie and keeping her in prison with no contact from the outside world,” Rodriguez said.
In a March 2018 letter, Mildred wrote that she doesn’t want to go with Rose anywhere.
“They
(the nursing home) never tell me that she (Rose) is going to pick me
up. Rose shows up and says you are going with me. I don’t like that,”
Mildred wrote. “Rose yells at me and says I have to go with her. I cry
sometimes because I don’t want to go. Judge, please help me.”
In
March 2019, Rodriguez tried to petition the Alameda County Public
Guardian for conservatorship of her aunt but was again denied.
“I
want out of here. I want out of this place. I don’t like staying here
and being with these people,” Mildred said in a video recording.
Mildred Rodriguez
telling her niece, Cathy Rodriguez, that she doesn’t want to live at the
Jones Convalescent Hospital on December 22, 2018.(Courtesy of Cathy Rodriguez)
Mildred died under the care of Alameda County and Bay View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in November 2020.
“I knew that she would never be free because she was only going to be free once she left in a body bag,” Rodriguez said.
Rivera could not be reached for comment.
The Alameda County Public Guardian’s Office also could not be reached for comment.
The
final account showed Mildred’s estate was valued at just over $14,000
yet owed the county over $83,000 according to final accounting records.
Leaving a total balance owed at more than $73,000.
Hundreds of new petitions for conservatorships are filed in Alameda County each year according to the Grand Jury report.
The
investigators from the Grand Jury’s report offered the following
recommendation to reduce or eliminate such costs for conservatees.
“In
situations where family members petitioned the court to be appointed
conservator and the Court finds conservatorship is not appropriate and
eventually dismisses such petitions, the proposed conservatee should not
be held accountable to pay for the costs of the legal process initiated
by another person,” investigators recommended.
The lack of a
contract between Alameda County and its conservatorship defense
providers that outlines the expected scope of representation means that
not all proposed conservatees receive the same level of service and
raises the risk of litigation against the county.
Involuntary
conservatorship proceedings can quickly drain proposed conservatees’
estates, which would not occur under a recorder’s fee-or grant-funded
model.
Rodriguez frequently attended Alameda County Board meetings
in person and spoke during public comment regarding her concerns with
her aunt's case.
After trying to fight for her aunt, Cathy
Rodriguez claims she is now the target of retaliation from attorneys and
the Alameda County Public Guardian’s Office.
There will be follow-up articles in the coming weeks on what Cathy Rodriguez has experienced after her aunt died.
This
report relied on the 2021-2022 Alameda County Grand Jury Report. It
also relied on hundreds of pages of court documents, numerous video
recordings and several letters provided by Cathy Rodriguez.
While scientists have always recommended physical
activity to keep the brain healthy, research now shows regular
stretching and motion exercises can help older people with mild memory
troubles.
Researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine recruited 300 adults with mild cognitive decline
to do aerobic and stretching-and-balance exercises. The groups were
split up based on those two exercises, twice a week with a personal
trainer, and trained two additional times a week on their own over a
12-month period.
The study shows that even simple exercises can slow cognitive decline for senior citizens in the early stages of dementia.
(iStock)
The study was presented on Tuesday at the 2022 Alzheimer’s Association
International Conference in San Diego, California. All the participants
had some form of mild cognitive impairment, one of the first stages of
dementia, and lived sedentary lifestyles.
Overall, both groups completed 31,000 exercise sessions, claimed the
study's author, Laura Baker. At the end of the experiment, none of the
group members had experienced cognitive decline, while a control group
with similar participants with mild cognitive impairment who did not
work out did decline.
Baker told the Associated Press the results from the stud indicate
"this is doable for everybody," especially for seniors who have a
limited physical exercise routine. Moreover, she recommends that
exercise "needs to be part of the prevention strategies" for elderly
citizens already at risk.
Maria Carrillo, the chief scientist at
the Alzheimer's Association, told the AP that research in the past has
indicated daily physical activity has helped reduce inflammation in the
brain and increase the amount of blood flowing to it.
Baker also noted that having a social group or a network of support was crucial for the elder participants.
Participants were routinely given support while being active at their YMCA facilities, and regular video call sessions were set up after Covid-19 shut down the gyms, according to the Associated Press.
MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — The Mobile County
Sheriff’s Office received a domestic violence complaint between a
father and son last week. Deputies say the 56-year-old stepson, Kim
Griffin, physically assaulted his 81-year-old stepfather, Willie McCall.
The sheriff’s office says to call it what it is: elder abuse. After the
assault, the victim, Willie McCall had to go to the hospital for
injuries to the back, mouth, face, and neck.
"This guy's a coward. Basically, beat his 81-year-old dad," said Captain Paul Burch.
56-year-old
Kim Aundrea Griffin is in the Mobile Metro County Jail, charged with
domestic violence strangulation, elderly abuse, and robbery of his
81-year-old stepfather Willie McCall. Griffin was trying to get McCall
to sign over his power of attorney-giving griffin access to his
finances, vehicle, and estate. When McCall refused to sign...
"The
stepson who's 56 years old threw him against the cabinet, knocked him
to the floor, and when he was on the floor began to choke and strangle
him then beat him in the face," said Burch.
The stepson didn't stop there. Before taking the keys of the victim’s car:
"The
stepson made the victim take off his bloody clothes and change into
other clothes in case anyone was to come over, took the bloody clothes
with him," said Burch.
Unfortunately, what happened to Willie
McCall is not uncommon in Alabama. Commissioner of the AL Department of
Senior Services, Jean Brown, says it happens more than you think.
"11,000
cases reported. For every one of those reported cases, it's estimated
that there are 23 cases that are ongoing and occurring that are never
reported," said Brown. "11,000 would be just the tip of the iceberg."
Brown
tells me it's common for an elder to be abused by someone close to them
like a family member. It's hard to say how long willie McCall was
enduring this abuse.
"What makes that so sad, is that quite often
it’s very hard for a parent to report their son or daughter. They love
their son or daughter and in addition to that if the son or daughter
does not take care of them, they may not have anyone else," said Brown.
Burch
says the incident occurred over a financial dispute and that McCall is
okay. Commissioner Brown says financial abuse can be one that goes
unrecognized because the victim may not be aware that someone taking
advantage of them.
“Ferris Bueller” star Edie McClurg, 77, suffers from dementia and now
her legal team is fighting to get a man who has been living with her
out of her home.
In documents filed on Tuesday as a request for a temporary
restraining order, McClurg’s lawyers said a man named Michael Ramos
claims to be McClurg’s “long time friend” and was able to “ingratiate
himself into (her) life while she was battling dementia.”
McClurg’s team wrote that Ramos is unemployed and “was able to
finagle his way into (McClurg’s) home even though he has never paid any
rent or expenses.”
The complaint also claims Ramos tried to take McClurg, who is
under a conservatorship, out of the state of California “in order to
marry her when he knew she lacked capacity.”
A 2019 court order mandated Ramos not go through with the
nuptials, but allowed him to keep living with McClurg, according to
documents obtained by TODAY.
The complaint says the two have “never been romantically involved,”
but that a caretaker for McClurg filed a criminal complaint against
Ramos that accused him of assaulting her in McClurg’s home “on more than
one occasion.”
Per the complaint, the caretaker also reported she is concerned Ramos
“either has been or may be currently assaulting (McClurg) in a similar
manner and that given her diagnosis of dementia, she may not even
realize that it has been or is occurring.”
The complaint goes on to say that even if Ramos is not abusing
McClurg, his presence is “causing severe emotional distress and mental
suffering.”
Ramos’ lawyer denied that he was abusive to the caretaker or McClurg.
Last month, McClurg’s legal team filed a petition to remove Ramos
from the property following the allegations of the caretaker. In his
response to the petition, Ramos denied that he had been abusive to
either woman.
“Angelique Cabral (McClurg’s conservator) wants me to be removed from
the residence and uses mere lies and speculation that I have harmed or
may harm Edie and that is a lie that I cannot live with and must
defend,” Ramos said in his response, in part. “I did not harm Edie
McClurg and I would not harm Edie McClurg.”
In 2017, according to court documents, McClurg’s doctors found
that she was “no longer able to handle her own affairs given severe
cognitive dysfunction, is not capable of living alone without
supervision and assistance, and is especially vulnerable to undue
influence given her poor judgment and evident dementia (likely due to
Alzheimer’s disease).” She was then placed under a conservatorship in
February 2019.
McClurg’s legal team declined to speak to TODAY.
Ramos is next slated to appear in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Aug. 25 for the restraining order case.
McClurg has a lengthy and varied resume in Hollywood. She
appeared in famous films such as “Carrie” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”
and television classics like “The Hogan Family.” She was also a
prolific voice actor, lending her voice to characters in many animated
films like “Frozen,” “Cars” and “A Bug’s Life.”
Older men without dementia who self-reported fraud victimization were more likely to experience significant increases in BP over time compared with men who did not report being victims of fraud, researchers reported.
Approximately 5 million older Americans per year experience financial
exploitation, fraudulent schemes or scams, and financial losses are
difficult for older adults to recover due to limited earning
opportunities and shorter time horizons, Melissa Lamar, PhD, professor and clinical neuropsychologist at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago, and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. In
addition to economic consequences, data show elder fraud may be
associated with increased hospitalizations, admittance to skilled
nursing facilities and lower 5-year survival rates.
‘Important public health consequences’
“These findings show that fraud victimization has important public
health consequences and underscore the need for efforts to prevent
exploitation,”Lamar told Healio. “Our work points
toward the need to consider more stringent BP monitoring in older men
after incident fraud victimization. We also need to expand this work to
include greater racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity.”
Lamar and colleagues analyzed data from 1,211 older adults
participating in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, an ongoing cohort
study on aging initiated in 1997 (mean age, 80 years; 75% women). A
substudy introduced in 2010 included an annual assessment of fraud
victimization. The decision-making assessment included a question asking
participants if, in the past year, they were a victim of financial
fraud or were told they were a victim of financial fraud. During up to
11 years of annual observation, participants also underwent serial BP
measurements to calculate per visit averages of systolic and diastolic
BP, mean arterial pressure
(MAP) and pulse pressure. Researchers examined cross-sectional
associations between baseline fraud victimization and BP, and then used
longitudinal data to test the hypothesis that fraud victimization is
associated with increases in BP after incident fraud.
Within the cohort, 83 participants reported experiencing fraud victimization.
In adjusted models, researchers found that fraud victimization was associated with increased systolic BP (P = .04), diastolic BP (P = .007), and MAP (P = .01) compared with non-victimization. Fraud victimization was not associated with pulse pressure.
In longitudinal change point analyses, researchers found that fraud
victimization was associated with elevations in BP among men but not
women.
“For example, compared to pre-fraud BP levels for women, men showed
an additional annual pre-fraud decline in systolic BP of 0.6 mm Hg,
resulting in a total estimated annual rate of decline of 0.87 mm Hg,”
the researchers wrote. “In addition, the annual rate of change in BP
increased by an estimated 1.46 mm Hg post-fraud. Similar post-fraud
increases were seen for the other BP metrics.”
Role of emotional dysregulation
Older adults who are victims of fraud may develop elevations in BP
either directly or indirectly due in part to concomitant emotional
dysregulation shown to be associated with fraud victimization, including
increased stress, anger and anxiety, the researchers wrote.
“In fact, more than half of financial fraud victims (53%) report
experiencing socioemotional problems involving moderate to severe levels
of distress,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers noted that the study was conducted in an almost
exclusively non-Hispanic white population of fraud victims and
non-victims, with most reporting high levels of education, adding that
more research is needed on fraud victimization among underrepresented
groups while factoring in neighborhood deprivation status and social
determinants of health.
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