Woman Alleged Stole $50,000 From Great-Aunt (MI. USA)

Woman allegedly stole $50,000 from great-aunt, Janet Webster, 91, of Clio

By Laura Angus | Flint Journal

January 06, 2010

CLIO, Michigan

After a 91-year-old Clio woman nearly was evicted from a nursing home, investigators discovered her great-niece allegedly stole $50,000 from the nonagenarian from 2008 to 2009.

Tamara A. Altvater, 52, has been accused by authorities of taking the funds from her great-aunt, Janet E. Webster, while not paying expenses for her care, said Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell. 

Altvater had control of Webster’s finances for at least three years, and authorities say she wrote checks to herself from her aunt’s bank account.

“We learned from our investigation that Tamara Altvater used the money to buy things for herself,” Pickell said

When Webster’s monthly bill at her nursing home fell three months behind, Altvater told employees that her great-aunt was “out of money,” Pickell said. Employees alerted the elder abuse task force about their suspicions, he said.

Abridged
SOURCE:   MLIVE.COM
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Man Sentenced to 90 Years In Ponzi Scheme (CA. USA)

Man sentenced to 90 years in Ponzi scheme

Jan. 6, 2010

SANTA ANA, Calif., 

Jan. 6 2010 (UPI) 

A California man who cheated 124 elderly investors out of more than $11 million received a 90 year, eight month, prison sentence, court records indicated.

The sentencing in Santa Ana, Calif., of Jeffrey Gordon Butler, 51, of San Juan Capistrano -- who was convicted in June of 694 felony counts of stealing by illegally selling unqualified securities and filing fraudulent tax returns -- culminated one of the largest elder-abuse cases ever tried in Orange County, the Orange County Register reported Tuesday.

Butler bilked 124 elderly investors of the money through a Ponzi scheme, the Register reported.

Abridged
SOURCE:    UPI NEWS
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Care Home: Patients Being Tube-Fed 'to Save Time' (UK)

Patients being tube-fed 'to save time'

Patients are having their health put at risk by staff who feed them through tubes unnecessarily because they are too busy to help them eat normally, a report has warned

By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
06 Jan 2010

Putting a tube into the stomach to give nutrition artificially should be a last resort but busy hospital wards and care homes are using them inappropriately, the report from the Royal College of Physicians said.

Experts said that there could be a "hidden agenda" for fitting feeding tubes due to staffing issues and costs.

Care homes are refusing to take some patients without a tube in a widespread practice which was condemned by the working party who compiled new guidelines for clinicians.

Dementia patients are often tube fed but evidence has shown it does not prolong their life and may be harmful, the report said.

Dr John Saunders, co-chairman of the working party and experts in medical ethics, said: "In the demented patient it does not prolong life, the treatment is inappropriate and futile. It is actively unethical and dubious."

Abridged
SOURCE:   The Telegraph, UK
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Wman Weighs Plea In Family Theft Case (CT USA)

Woman weighs plea in family theft case

January 5, 2010

By James Tinley, Register Staff

An Ansonia woman accused of taking ownership of her elderly mother’s house against her mother’s wishes, and stealing more than $72,000 from her mother’s bank accounts has until the end of the month to consider a plea offer following a brief court appearance Monday.

Donna D. Kingston, 61, faces three counts each of first- and second-degree larceny for allegedly abusing the power of attorney her elderly mother gave her over finances, prosecutors said.

Kingston is accused of emptying $72,000 from her 89-year-old mother’s bank accounts into her own in June and July 2007. She is also accused of using the power of attorney over her mother’s finances to take full ownership of her mother’s house in Ansonia, appraised at $263,000, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Abridged
SOURCE:    The New Haven Register
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3 Nursing Home Patients Killed By 'Chemical Restraints' (CA. USA)

California Attorney General Says Nursing Director Drugged Patients to Control Them

By JOHN HENDREN

Jan. 5, 2010

What happened in a bucolic nursing home nestled in the California mountains starting in 2003 shocked investigators. When residents at the Kern Valley Nursing Home complained or annoyed nursing director Gwen Hughes, prosecutors say she chemically restrained them with powerful anti-psychotic drugs. Her methods were so severe, three residents died.

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Phyllis Peters' mother Fannie Mae Brinkley was a feisty 97-year-old who suddenly lost energy. "I'd say, 'I can't get my mom awake,'" Peters remembers. "She just won't rouse, she's lethargic."

No one told Peters that her mother had been given a powerful anti-seizure drug that prosecutors say killed her.

Peters says of her mother today, "I'm absolutely convinced she would have lived to be 100. Absolutely."

California Attorney General Jerry Brown says that Hughes ordered one patient drugged just for glaring at her, and another for throwing a carton of milk. Some residents were left drooling, dehydrated, and dangerously thin.

According to Brown, "In a couple cases, elderly people were actually held down, restrained against their will, and given excessive amounts of medicine to keep them quiet."

Even more shocking -- Hughes had been fired for over-drugging once before, from a nursing home in nearby Fresno, Calif. The administrator of that nursing home said they told her next employer only the dates she worked there, out of fear of lawsuits.

On Tuesday, three nursing home officials appeared at a hearing on charges of elder abuse at the Kern Valley facility from 2003 to 2007 -- Gwen Hughes, as well as administrator Pamela Ott and staff physician, Dr. Hoshang Pormir. The three defendants each face up to 11 years in prison, and all have pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing is set for March 9, 2010.

Abridged

SOURCE:    ABC NEWS

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"Victim" in Financial Elder Abuse Case Spoke Up (USA)

D’ Sant Angelo Prosecution Hits Snag

When Is a Victim Not a Victim?

January 5, 2010

by BARNEY BRANTINGHAM 

Spectators in a Santa Barbara Superior Courtroom yesterday were stunned when a woman named as a victim in a financial elderly abuse case stood up and told the judge, “I am not a victim.”

The District Attorney’s office is charging that Denise d’ Sant Angelo stole money from Cecilia “Sally” Sanchez and her Montecito barber husband Bobby—financial elder abuse—but Cecilia leapt up from her seat among spectators to deny it. Both women have not only been friends in the past but apparently still are.

D’Sant Angelo is in custody in lieu of $70,000 bail. Cecilia Sanchez has refused to discuss her I’m-not-a-victim position with Cota. Judge Anderson asked her to get together with Cota before Thursday’s hearing to explain.

Abridged
SOURCE:   The Independent
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Woman Suspected of Stealing From Nuns Faces New Charges (CA. USA)

By ERIC LINDBERG

Jan. 2, 2010

A woman suspected of stealing $2,800 from a group of Santa Barbara nuns has been arrested on additional charges of financial elder abuse and grand theft, police officials said.

Denise D’Sant Angelo was taken into custody in Woodland Hills by the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday in connection with a $70,000 felony arrest warrant issued by Santa Barbara police. Authorities offered few details about the investigation that led to the new charges, but said they are aware of two victims and believe there may be more.

“The Santa Barbara Police Department has an open investigation regarding Denise D'Sant Angelo and has reason to believe there may be additional victims,” according to a news release. “The [police department] asks that if you have had any suspicious business transactions with Denise D'Sant Angelo to call … 805-897-2335.”

Attempts to contact police officials yesterday for more information were not successful. Authorities noted that D’Sant Angelo had been out on bail at the time of her arrest and is scheduled to appear in court next month in connection with the theft case involving the Sisters of Bethany.

D’Sant Angelo had been charged with one count of felony grand theft after she allegedly stole donations from a group of local nuns who were evicted from their convent on Nopal Street in 2007 to free up money for a sex abuse settlement involving the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Community members had rallied behind the nuns and donated more than $13,000 to help them relocate. But prosecutors said D’Sant Angelo took the reins of a group called Save Our Sisters that was accepting checks on the nuns’ behalf and allegedly deposited 10 checks directed toward the sisters into her personal account.

She was also involved in an embezzlement case out of Ventura County dating back to 2005, in which she reportedly bilked a woman out of $18,700.

D’Sant Angelo has several court appearances scheduled in the coming weeks, including her arraignment on the new charges on Monday.

SOURCE:    The Daily Sound

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Insurance Agent Guilty of Fraud (PA. USA)

Insurance agent guilty of fraud

By JANET KELLEY, Staff Writer

30 December 2009

An Elizabethtown insurance agent pleaded guilty Wednesday to defrauding nine of his clients of more than $214,000.

And because six of those clients are senior citizens, prosecutors said, the law requires a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in prison for each.

Steve A. Brubaker, 56, had been accused of convincing his clients to invest in worthless securities, promising to invest in charity businesses with their money.

In one case, prosecutors said, Brubaker offered to handle the financial bills and investments of a woman whose daughter had just died of cancer.

He took the woman's $104,500 insurance policy payment, Deputy Attorney General Mark Bellavia told the judge, and then kept $60,000 for himself.

Abridged
SOURCE:   Lancaster Online
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Ex Lawyer Arrested In Elder Abuse Case (CA. USA)

Ex Clovis lawyer arrested in elder abuse case

Dec. 30, 2009

By Russell Clemings

The Fresno Bee

A former Clovis lawyer was arrested Wednesday by Fresno police and charged with embezzling more than $100,000 from an elderly client.

Police said the attorney, James Saccheri, 63, became trustee of the woman's finances after she moved into a care facility in 2002. He failed to make several payments to the facility for the woman's care, police said. He came under investigation by the police elder abuse unit in July 2008.

Saccheri was booked into the Fresno County jail on 119 counts of theft from an elder adult. Bail was set at $1.7 million.

SOURCE:     The Fresno Bee
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Elder Abuse Targeted (Canada)

By Laura Cudworth, Staff Reporter

January 1, 2010

"Maggie," an elderly Perth County woman suffering from dementia, was forced to swallow sedatives she didn't want and was tied to a chair while her daughter went to her full-time job.

She has since been moved to a retirement home and her daughter is facing charges.

Maggie's story isn't unusual. It's estimated between four and 10 per cent of Ontario seniors experience some type of abuse, but in Perth County, which has the highest per capita ratio of seniors in the province, those numbers take on added significance.

To address the issue, a new report called "Breaking the Silence: A Report on Elder Abuse in Perth County" suggests education campaigns are key.

"It's one of those things where nobody wants to think elders in our society are victims of abuse," said Cheryl Legate, executive director of Victim Services of Perth County and a member of the elder abuse committee.

The report, compiled and written by Snap Marketing & Communications and commissioned by the Perth County Social Research and Planning Council, makes three recommendations:

* a comprehensive education campaign be launched in partnership with local service providers

* consideration be given to starting an elder abuse response team

* holding a progress meeting in the spring to discuss a course of action.

There are communities that already have elder abuse response teams. The team would be made up of professionals like police, service providers and hospital and retirement home staff who may see elder abuse.

"Certainly we would love to see that model, but it may be a while before we see it here. If we can get there that would be a great day," Ms. Legate said.

Seniors shouldn't feel ashamed and should talk to someone they trust like a family doctor, their banker, lawyer or police, he stressed.

Also, some seniors won't report abuse because they don't want to get their caregiver in trouble, Ms. Legate said.

It's not just seniors and the general public that need to be educated. Caregivers sometimes don't provide adequate care but there's no malice intended, the report says. Caregivers too are encouraged to reach out for support when they become overwhelmed.

Debbie Deichert, executive director of the Alzheimer Society of Perth County, noted in the report the organization's caregiver support groups are growing all the time and said it's a good sign.

Abridged

SOURCE:    The Stratford Beacon Herald

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