New Jersey Considers Adopting New Elder Law Protections

If lawmakers in New Jersey adopt a newly proposed law, the state will join about 30 others that have enacted so-called anti-”granny snatching” legislation. Known as the New Jersey Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act, the proposed law would make it much more difficult for family members with incapacitated elderly relatives to circumvent the state adult guardianship protections.

When a state court appoints an adult guardian for an elderly person, it typically appoints a family member to that position. With granny snatching, a family member who was unhappy with the guardianship determination can move the elderly person to a new state and ask a court in that state to name the family member as the guardian. If the court agrees, the new guardian will effectively from the old guardian’s rights because the old guardian was given powers under a New Jersey court and not the new states court.

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New Jersey Considers Adopting New Elder Law Protections

Man Acquitted of Kidnapping his Mother from Assisted Living Facility

A Cascade County jury has acquitted a South Dakota man of charges he kidnapped his mother from an assisted living facility in Montana.

James Wainscoat was arrested last August in California after he took his 93-year-old mother from Renaissance Senior Care in Great Falls. Prosecutors argued the woman was kidnapped because he could not legally make decisions for his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Wainscoat told the Great Falls Tribune he was acting on his mother’s wishes and wasn’t aware of the legal guardianship or Alzheimer’s diagnosis until later.

Wainscoat’s mother, Troy Wainscoat, now lives with one of her daughters in California.

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SD Man Acquitted of Kidnapping Mother

Three Charged in Philly Kidnapping and Abuse of 4 Mentally Challenged Adults

Three people were charged in a horrific case of Philadelphia kidnapping involving four mentally challenged adults.

Linda Ann Weston, Thomas Gregory, and Eddie Wright are alleged to have been involved in a criminal scheme were they chained four handicapped adults to the cellar of their Tacony apartment so that they could steal their Social Security checks, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. A Philadelphia police spokesperson described the crime as “pure evil.”

Last week, the landlord of the apartment building checked on the basement after receiving complaints of suspicious activities, reports the Inquirer. In the boiler room, the landlord found the four malnourished adults chained to pipes. There were bathroom buckets and a container of orange juice laying around, but no food.

All four of the victims are described as severely mentally challenged and police believe that one of the men may have been held for over a year.

As a result, Weston, Gregory, and Wright face first degree felony charges for kidnapping, as well as other charges for criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, and related offenses.

Three people were charged in a horrific case of Philadelphia kidnapping involving four mentally challenged adults.

Linda Ann Weston, Thomas Gregory, and Eddie Wright are alleged to have been involved in a criminal scheme were they chained four handicapped adults to the cellar of their Tacony apartment so that they could steal their Social Security checks, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. A Philadelphia police spokesperson described the crime as “pure evil.”

Last week, the landlord of the apartment building checked on the basement after receiving complaints of suspicious activities, reports the Inquirer. In the boiler room, the landlord found the four malnourished adults chained to pipes. There were bathroom buckets and a container of orange juice laying around, but no food.

All four of the victims are described as severely mentally challenged and police believe that one of the men may have been held for over a year.

As a result, Weston, Gregory, and Wright face first degree felony charges for kidnapping, as well as other charges for criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, and related offenses.

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Three Charged With Philadelphia Kidnapping and Abuse

Woman Cleared of 2008 ‘Kidnapping’ of Elderly Man

A woman who was charged with kidnapping and attempted theft in 2008 was acquitted by a jury in King County Superior Court.

Kulany Roeksbutr, 32, was cleared of all charges following a five-day trial before King County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell in December 2009.

Roeksbutr and a friend, Sunjinda Yahatta, were charged after Yahatta married a 78-year-old man who was in an Issaquah nursing home suffering from dementia. The charges alleged that Yahatta married the man so she could drain his bank account, and that Roeksbutr acted as a witness at the wedding and was involved in the alleged scheme.

The women took the man to the bank after the marriage and tried to withdraw $23,000, according to charging documents. A suspicious teller called police.

Both women were acquitted of all charges after defense attorneys argued that the state had failed to prove the elderly man was incapacitated at the time of the wedding.

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Woman Cleared of 2008 Kidnap Case

Man Accused of Kidnapping Mother Arrested

A Great Falls man accused of kidnapping his elderly mother from an assisted-living facility was arrested while trying to secure legal guardianship of her in Lake Tahoe, Calif.

James Wainscoat, 70, was found in Lake Tahoe with his 92-year-old mother Troy Wainscoat and the woman’s granddaughter, 18-year-old Ishayah Wainscoat.

James Wainscoat and Ishayah Wainscoat were both arrested. James Wainscoat has been charged with felony kidnapping and is held on a $100,000 bond in California, the Great Falls Police Department said. Ishayah Wainscoat was charged with accountability to kidnapping and was held on a $25,000 bail. She has since bonded out, police said.

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Great Falls Man Accused of Kidnapping Mother Arrested in California