Joe Roubicek is presently the economic crimes investigator for the State Attorney’s Office 17th Judicial Circuit of Florida, and author of the book: Financial Abuse of the Elderly: A Detectives Case File of Exploitation Crimes
READ CHAPTER THREE of Joe Roubicek’s new book in progress:“KILL MOM, KILL DAD: Disposing of the Elderly for Profit”
See Also:
The OPPAGA Report and Elder Abuse
Financial Abuse: Fraud vs Exploitation of the Elderly
Judges at a panel on Tuesday defended New York state’s department-by-department approach to discipline of attorneys, saying they receive fair hearings regardless of the venue.
New York leaves attorney discipline up to each of the four intermediate appellate departments, unlike many states that have a unified system.
During a discussion at the New York State Bar Association’s annual meeting, Luis Gonzalez, presiding justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, said that while uniformity was a “laudable objective,” justice could still be served using disparate disciplinary rules.
Some differences in the department’s disciplinary rules are minor or procedural, panelists said. In the First Department, for instance, referees designated to investigate certain cases are allowed to make recommendations to the judges about the type of sanction to impose. In the Second Department they generally cannot.
Other differences are more significant.
Only two appellate divisions — the Third and Fourth — allow oral arguments in disciplinary cases. And all the appellate departments except the First have a diversion program for attorneys whose minor disciplinary infractions stem from alcohol or drug abuse.
Some New York attorneys have questioned whether the state bar would benefit from a less balkanized system. In a 2005 report, the New York County Lawyers Association’s Committee on Lawyer Discipline suggested the disciplinary rules should be more unified.
Full Article and Source:
Judges Debate New York’s Approach to Attorney Discipline
A former caregiver at a Skyline Center group home pleaded guilty to financially exploiting two residents.
Anitra D. Enriquez pleaded guilty to two counts of dependant adult abuse, financial exploitation and received fines of $100 and $65.
According to court documents, Enriquez served as a Skyline caregiver at a group home at 272 36th Ave.
Samantha Kress, a Skyline employee, reported strange withdraws on the bank accounts of two dependent adults living at the group home at 272 36th Ave. North, according to the affidavit.
According to court documents, caregivers have access to residents’ accounts for dependent adult care.
Full Article and Source:
Woman Pleads Guilty to Financial Exploitation
This is the replacement show for the January 27th technical problems. Beverly Newman, Elder Advocate, Florida, will be co-hosting this show. This evening we will be discussing one of the newest booming medical industries; the Hospitalist and why you should avoid them at all costs in most cases. Beverly will be discussing the Sarasota, Florida, sheriff department efforts to have people admitted to hospitals sign total waivers on their constitutional rights and their right to medical privacy. All of this just in time for the one-sided crackdown on prescription drug users. Of course no real effort will be expended to go after the manufacturers and distributors. And there certainly will not be any action taken against Doctors who prescribe chemical restraints for the elderly using drugs prohibited for use on the elderly. This would be particularly handy in the case of elder abduction at the hands of professional predators. Not knowing what they were signing, they could actually be facilitating their own waiver of rights in every area….and would be declared incompetent immediately afterwards. The law enforcement coding/billing system and the answer to why law enforcement will not report or respond to reports of abuse, kidnap and neglect of elderly individuals committed by professional predators.
With his two victims looking on, a 76-year-old former court appointed conservator pleaded guilty Monday to theft and sexual battery charges, crimes he committed against the very people he was charged with protecting.
Speaking so softly he could barely be heard, Walter Strong of Celina entered the guilty pleas under an agreement where charges of rape by an authority figure were dropped. From 2004 until 2011, Strong was the conservator of a handicapped couple. He admitted to sexual battery on the woman and theft of $105,479 from both of them.
He will face 270 days of jail time under the plea deal, time that could drop to 200 days for good behavior.
Although Strong was also ordered to make restitution to the couple, his attorney, Jack Lowery of Lebanon, told Circuit Judge Judge David A. Patterson it was unlikely his client would ever be able to pay back the full amount.
“He doesn’t have $105,000,” Lowery said.
When the judge asked him directly if he would agree to make restitution, Strong said, “I don’t know how.”
Patterson warned Strong that, if he failed to make an effort at restitution, the full 10-year sentence called for under state law could be imposed.
Full Article and Source:
Conservator Pleads Guilty to Sexual Battery, Theft
See Also:
TN Conservator Charged With Raping Woman, Stealing From Couple
The Commission on Judicial Performance has publicly admonished Judge Charles R. Brehmer of the Kern County Superior Court.
The commission determined that Judge Brehmer should be publicly admonished for misconduct relating to the judge’s 2008 campaign for judicial office. Judge Brehmer violated the Political Reform Act (Act) by receiving cash contributions in excess of $100, failing to disclose the true source of a $15,000 loan to the campaign, failing to disclose $9,000 in contributions on a pre-election campaign statement, failing to timely file three semi-annual campaign statements, and failing to deposit the $15,000 campaign loan from his campaign treasurer into the campaign committee’s bank account and instead depositing it into his personal bank account.
The judge admitted three of the violations in a stipulation with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) wherein the judge also agreed to pay a $5,500 fine. The additional violations, not addressed in the FPPC stipulation, were found by the commission. The FPPC determined, and the commission concurs, that there was no evidence of any intent to conceal information from the public on the part of Judge Brehmer.
Full Article and Sourc:
Public Admonishment of Judge Charles R. Brehmer
The state Supreme Court has privately reprimanded a former northern Indiana probate judge.
The South Bend Tribune reports that Peter Nemeth agreed to the sanction last month, before he retired as St. Joseph County probate judge. Nemeth had served as a probate judge since 1993.
The Judicial Qualifications Commission filed a misconduct charge against Nemeth in August claiming he violated the code of judicial conduct during a 2011 guardianship hearing by suggesting it was inappropriate for taxpayers to pay for a sign language interpreter for a woman seeking custody of a deaf teenager when she “hadn’t paid taxes for several years.”
Nemeth has said he doesn’t believe he did anything wrong.
Full Article and Source:
N. Ind. Judge Sanctioned Before Retirement
See Also:
Now Retired Judge Sanctioned During Last Weeks on Bench
Vermont has made big progress in clearing up a backlog of investigations into reports of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of the elderly and other vulnerable adults, according to both critics and defenders of the state’s Adult Protective Services system.
But there’s concern among some lawmakers and advocates that the division of the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living may be clearing the backlog, in part, by being too selective in taking new cases.
And the department’s commissioner acknowledged in an interview and in testimony to the House Human Services Committee that there are big gaps in the data used by lawmakers trying to measure the division’s performance.
The House Human Services Committee heard testimony Thursday that APS failed to intervene in a Bennington County case of an 89-year-old woman whose daughter was threatening to kill her.
Sandy Conrad, executive director of the Southwestern Vermont Area Agency on Aging, said repeated calls from her office to APS beginning at 1:13 p.m. on a Friday in November drew no response until the following Monday. After a cursory review, APS sent a letter to Conrad’s agency saying, “The available evidence indicated that abuse, neglect or exploitation did not occur,” she told the committee.
Despite appeals to more senior APS staff, there’s been “nothing to date that changes this decision,” Conrad said. “And that perpetrator still lives in that household and is still a threat to that situation.”
Full Article and Source:
Data Gaps Hamper Elderly-Abuse Review in VT
Former Cedar Grove Middle School secretary Bobbie Neil Ward is facing decades in prison after a DeKalb jury found her guilty of 21 of 25 counts of wide-ranging crimes against disabled and elderly victims on Jan. 16.
Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 25.
Ward was on trial on a 25-count indictment of abuse and exploitation of disabled adults, identity fraud, forgery, false imprisonment, and neglect and exploitation of an elderly person.
A grand jury said she committed the crimes between August 2006 and November 2011 when she claimed to own a home health care service but instead fraudulently used bank accounts, pensions and Social Security numbers of her clients.
During her trial, which began on Jan. 7, DeKalb Superior Court Judge Tangela Barrie severed two of the counts – one count for aggravated assault and one count for disabled adult abuse – from the indictment.
Ward will face those charges at a later date.
DeKalb District Attorney Robert James applauded the guilty verdict and said justice was served.
Full Article and Source;
Woman Convicted of Elder Abuse
DEAR ABBY – My husband’s younger sister, “Cindy,” is mentally ill. She has caused tremendous problems in the family. She has been arrested too many times to remember and is now on five years’ probation for injury to a child. My in-laws continue making excuses for her and are the worst enablers I have ever known.
My husband once urged his dad to put Cindy into a group home or program that will take care of her because his parents are getting up in years. They refuse because it would mean they’d have to have Cindy officially committed, and they think there is still some magic doctor out there who will fix her.
Can my husband do anything as a last effort before something happens to one of his parents, or she winds up in jail?
~SAD IN TEXAS
DEAR SAD – Your husband should try to convince his parents to get some family counseling. It might help them accept that their daughter needs more help than they are equipped to give her. An outside, objective person should weigh in so that Cindy can get the professional help she so obviously needs.
If she is physically, psychologically or emotionally abusing her parents, Adult Protective Services can step in to be sure they are protected. When your in-laws pass away, if your sister-in-law becomes a danger to herself or those around her, a family member can request a commitment and psychological evaluation.
Source:
Dear Abby
National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse 