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December 2, 2009

Judge Hands Down Sentence in Elder Abuse Case (USA)

Judge hands down sentence in elder abuse case
By STEPHANIE PORTER-NICHOLS
December 1, 2009


By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

An incapacitated victim of elder abuse testified in court from a gurney last week at the sentencing hearing for the woman who had been her caretaker. Mabel Seabolt, 84, of Mitchell Valley, told the court she loved Stella Farmer “and could not understand what Farmer would be punished for,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Roy Evans’ office in a release late last week.
Farmer, 45, of Atkins, entered an Alford plea of guilty to the charge of abuse and neglect of an incapacitated adult resulting in serious injury, and was convicted on Sept. 17, the release said. Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jill Kinser Lawson prosecuted Farmer, who was defended by Michael Bishop of Abingdon.



The prosecutor said Farmer was caregiver for Seabolt “off and on for approximately one year and continuously for four to six weeks prior to Seabolt’s November 2008 admission to Smyth County Community Hospital.”
The commonwealth’s evidence, presented at the conviction and sentencing hearings, included “extensive medical and photographic evidence of” Seabolt’s injuries. “Upon admission, Seabolt was in sepsis and renal failure and was severely dehydrated and malnourished,” the release said. “She had numerous bed sores, ranging from stage one to stage four, the most serious. She weighed only 76 pounds.”


Seabolt “had been restrained for so long and in such a way that she lost the use of her feet and legs. According to one of her current nurses, Seabolt’s sores had completely healed after six months of treatment but she will never regain the use of her feet or legs,” the release said.



According to Virginia Department of Social Services statistics, 14,314 cases of elder and vulnerable adult abuse were reported in fiscal year 2008. Of these, social workers investigated 12,150 reports and substantiated 7,482. 


Abridged
SOURCE:     SWVA TODAY

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