Elder Abuse and Neglect: Two on Trial for Murder (Pa. USA)

Attorney: Couple wouldn't have benefited from elderly woman's death
By RICK LEE
Daily Record/Sunday News
08/12/2008 06:57:22 PM EDT

Bernadette Leiben clearly needed medical attention in the days, weeks and possibly months before she died.
She did not get it from her son or daughter-in-law.

Both are on trial now in York County Common Pleas Court. William J. Donohue, 73, and Frances Ann Donohue, 62, are charged with first- and third-degree murder and conspiracy.

The commonwealth maintains the couple ignored the 87-year-old bedridden Leiben's medical needs, allowing her to die in a small second-floor bedroom of a home in Airville in May 2004. Money was the motive, according to the commonwealth.

But the defense maintains that Leiben, except for her Social Security benefits, was penniless. And her death, while possibly negligent, was unintentional.

Attorney Rick Robinson has offered that, morally right or wrong, William Donohue had no role in his mother's care. During today's opening remarks, Robinson said, "The evidence will show that Bill Donohue just was not involved in the caretaking of his mother."

When Leiben died May 20, 2004, Fairview Township Fire Department emergency medical technicians called her doctor in Maryland to see if he would sign the death certificate.

Having not seen Leiben in a year, the doctor refused and the York County Coroner's Office was contacted. Coroner Barry Bloss, when confronted with the numerous bedsores and maggot-infested wounds on Leiben's body, authorized an autopsy.

Dr. Sara Funke, the pathologist who performed the autopsy, is to testify Wednesday about her findings.

Abridged
SOURCE: York Daily Record


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