Groups say development in abuse suit against Vt.

MONTPELIER – Vermont Legal Aid and Disability Rights Vermont are planning to announce the details of a settlement with the state Adult Protective Services Division.

The two groups will hold a press conference today in Montpelier.

The groups filed the lawsuit last December, saying Adult Protective Services routinely violates the law that requires it to begin investigating reports of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults within 48 hours of receiving them.

The state had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

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Groups say development in abuse suit against Vt.

Employees at Totowa mental health facility admit stealing patient information to file fake tax returns

A nurse and a co-worker at a state-run mental health facility in Totowa are facing up to 10 years in prison after admitting that they stole patient information that was used to file phony tax returns in a bid to obtain nearly $400,000 in refunds.

Alidu Dramani, 33, a practical nurse from Irvington, and Evans Boamah, 30, of Elizabeth, a human services assistant, admitted to U.S. District Judge William J. Martini in Newark earlier this month that they stole the names and Social Security numbers of patients at the North Jersey Developmental Center.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
They then gave the stolen identity information to a conspirator, who was a tax preparer, to file false tax returns and get federal tax refunds to which they were not entitled, authorities said.

As a result of the defendants’ participation in the conspiracy, tax preparers filed, attempted and intended to file false tax returns for 2009 through 2011 seeking $396,416 in tax refunds, authorities said.

Dramani, who was hired in 2007 and earned $49,134, and Boamah, who started a year later and made $33,290, were arrested by agents of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations unit in August 2012.

They were suspended without pay and are facing termination from their jobs at the 188-acre campus in Totowa, which currently serves 283 developmentally disabled residents, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services said Tuesday.

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Employees at Totowa mental health facility admit stealing patient information to file fake tax returns

Flint man arraigned on charges of first degree elder abuse of partially blind mother diagnosed with dementia

FLINT, MI – A 47-year-old Flint man has been arraigned on charges of first-degree vulnerable adult abuse of his 67-year-old mother after authorities dispatched to a Flint home said they observed “deplorable” conditions inside the home, said Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell.

Acting on a 911 medical call, sheriff’s paramedics responded to 524 Clinton St. Thursday, June 20.
 
After discovering a bathtub littered with used razors and old, tattered toilet paper rolls, floors covered with dog feces and garbage piled as high as five feet in bedrooms, authorities contacted the sheriff’s Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation Prevention team, Pickell said in a press conference Tuesday, June 25

Amid the investigation, authorities identified George Gilbert Harper, 47, and his mother, Sharon Harper, 67,  living at the home.

A detective arrested George Harper on an outstanding warrant of soliciting a prostitute out of Flint after he had attempted to flee the scene, Pickell said. Harper was arraigned on the soliciting charge on June 21. George Harper had moved in the home two months ago and had been his mother’s part-time caregiver, the sheriff said.

George Harper was arraigned on charges of first-degree vulnerable adult abuse — a 15-year felony — and resisting and obstructing police, a two-year felony. Harper was  held on a $10,000 bond.

An attorney for George Harper was not listed in court records.
“I wonder, how many more women, men, elderly people, vulnerable adults are living in these kind of conditions?” Pickell said.

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Flint man arraigned on charges of first degree elder abuse of partially blind mother diagnosed with dementia

Efforts intensify in Michigan to protect elderly, vulnerable adults

Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith

Elder and vulnerable adult abuse in recent years was like child abuse in the 1960s, says Macomb County elder advocate Marty Prehn.
 

It wasn’t talked about. It was kept in the family.

  

But that is changing, as elder advocates in Michigan have instituted a slew of laws and initiated programs to create awareness and protect elderly and vulnerable adults, over the past year.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Rhonda Powell, former director of the Macomb County Senior Citizen Services Department and now deputy director of the state Office of Services on Aging. “There hasn’t been this big of a movement to protect elders in a long time. Unfortunately we’ve arrived at a point in time where these safeguards are needed.”

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Efforts intensify in Michigan to protect elderly, vulnerable adults