Violence Against Seniors on the Rise (MI USA)

Violence against seniors on the rise

More financial scams, brutal crimes reported; observers fault poor economy

Doug Guthrie and Charles E. Ramirez

The Detroit News

February 17, 2009

Eastpointe widow Joann Hornberger, 77, rented an upstairs bedroom to a 43-year-old boarder because she needed the money and help around the house.

On June 6, 2007, the man came home drunk, beat Hornberger and tried to smother her with a pillow. He shot up the house, terrorizing her until dawn. Friends found Hornberger battered but alive.

"It was a nightmare," said Hornberger, who is sharing her experience as a volunteer at local senior centers. "I had known him for about four years ... I thought he could stay with me and maybe do some odds and ends around the house."

Fraud and violence against the elderly are on the rise throughout Metro Detroit, according to law enforcement and advocates for senior citizens.

"It's stunning, the level of violence we are beginning to see," said Thomas Wenzel, principal Wayne County prosecutor for elder abuse.

Examples abound throughout Metro Detroit:

• Police are circulating photos from surveillance cameras in Southgate and Lincoln Park, where an 86-year-old woman's credit cards were used to buy furniture, clothing and a microwave. The victim was bruised when a purse-snatcher threw her to the asphalt in a Taylor grocery store parking lot on Jan. 11. Her attacker was a young woman.

• Gregory Nathaniel Wayne, 32, is awaiting trial on charges of torture for binding, beating, kicking and choking a Detroit couple in their 80s on Nov. 7 while allegedly demanding to know where money might be hidden in their home. The man was duct-taped to a chair and tossed down the basement stairs. The woman was stomped into a coma.

• A Livonia woman was sentenced Thursday to 23 to 40 years for killing her 82-year-old mother by shoving her down the basement steps last March. Mary Beth Connolly, 49, had been caring for her medically fragile mother, Betty Connolly. Authorities say the daughter had been siphoning funds from mom's bank accounts. Betty Connolly died from a broken neck and head injuries.

• William Blanchard, 80, survived being bound, beaten and robbed in his Harper Woods home last year, but he died from unrelated causes last October, a month before one of his two attackers was set for trial. The man eventually pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced last month to eight to 20 years.

• Shirley Cowan, 76, of River Rouge was strangled and her throat was slit last summer in her home by a handyman who had been the son of her best friend. Cowan withdrew $2,000 from her bank account the day before her death. Her killer spent days after the slaying on a drug binge in a motel room. The money never was recovered.

Faunce said law enforcement officers in Warren now are warning seniors about predators posing as water department workers who force their way inside.

Abridged

SOURCE:      DetNews.com

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Authorities Say Phone Scams on the Rise (NY USA)

Authorities say phone scams on rise

BY JOSH MROZINSKI

Wyoming County Press Examiner

Betty Lathrop, 82, is outraged people tried to take advantage of her love for a grandson last fall.

In October, the Meshoppen resident almost became victim of a phone scam. A caller claiming to be her grandson, Nathaniel, asked that money be wired to him in Canada because he was in trouble.

"I'm angry," Lathrop said. "You have to be careful today. People are out for the money."

The incident and similar scams have caught the attention of law enforcement authorities and the Better Business Bureau.

Wyoming County Chief Detective David Ide said he is investigating reports of telephone scams in cooperation with the FBI and Pennsylvania Attorney General's Elder Abuse Unit.

FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver in Philadelphia said the agency is aware of the scam.

"Before you wire money, check with other family members to make sure the request is legitimate," Klaver said.

He added the Internet allows information to be easily retrieved about people, including from social Web sites and posted obituaries.

On Oct. 20, a man called Mrs. Lathrop and said he was her grandson, Nathaniel.

The man said he was in a motor vehicle crash in Canada and needed $4,600, Mrs. Lathrop said.

She added he requested the $4,600 be wired through a money service to a Wal-Mart in Toronto, Canada.

Wanting to help her grandson, Mrs. Lathrop took $4,600 out of a bank account and traveled to Wal-Mart in Eaton Township, south of Tunkhannock.

At the store, Mrs. Lathrop said three different employees convinced her that it may not be a good idea to wire money to Canada.

So she didn't wire the funds.

"One of the best ways to avoid the scam is to ask personal questions," Preszler said.

Anyone who is victimized by a phone scam is asked to call police or the Pennsylvania Attorney General.

Internet crime can also be reported at http://www.ic3.gov.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Centre has established a hotline known as PhoneBusters. PhoneBusters can be reached at, 1-888-495-8501.

Abridged

SOURCE:    The WC Examiner

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Killer of 90-year-old Hopkins Woman Gets 43 Years (MI. USA)

Family members of Irene Kunze, who was brutally murdered for a few dollars in her apartment last summer, didn't accept an apology from Corey Omar Posley-Wells, 28.

By ABBY SIMONS, Star Tribune

February 17, 2009

With mostly-stifled anger and a smattering of tears, those closest to the 90-year-old Hopkins woman brutally murdered for a few dollars in her Hopkins apartment last summer looked her killer in the eye one last time.

They didn't accept his apology.

"Never would I have thought that someone in my family would be a victim of such a cruel act," said James O'Shea, grandson of Irene Kunze, who was stabbed to death on July 7. "I always wondered if there was something different I could have done to change the outcome of that day. I'll probably always wonder... But two things are certain. You'll spend the majority of this existence in prison, and when death comes to you, you'll spend eternal existence in damnation."

It was a mixture of fond recollection of the loving, headstrong family matriarch and seething anger in the sendoff of Corey Omar Posley-Wells, 28, during his sentencing in Hennepin County District Court this afternoon. Following a guilty plea last month to first-degree burglary and first-degree murder while committing a robbery, Posley-Wells will spend 43 years in prison before he is eligible for release.

Afterward, St. Cyr said that though the sentencing has marked the beginning of a healing period, the words from her mother's killer were of little comfort.

"They mean nothing because he lied," she said. "The only thing he's sorry for is that he was caught."

Abridged

SOURCE:     The Star Tribune

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Son of Alzheimer's victim Allegedly Sold Family Farm (Mi. USA)

Her family's legacy is gone, and she will never know it

The son of an Alzheimer's victim allegedly sold the family farm and forged checks totaling more than $136,000 from her account.

By PAUL LEVY, Star Tribune

February 16, 2009

Anna Sitte was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease long before moving to New Hope in 2005 to live with her son, Steve. As Anna's dementia worsened, she was declared medically incapable of understanding or signing financial documents.

How, then, could Anna, now 77, have written two checks in 2007 alone totaling nearly $100,000 to Steve's business associate? Why would Anna, who had few expenses of her own, sell her family's century-old North Dakota farm and then allow her bank account to evaporate?

Steven Carl Sitte, 52, who told Hennepin County authorities he was unemployed and $300,000 in debt, forged his mother's signature 17 times in 2007 on checks totaling more than $136,000, according to court documents. Sitte has been charged with two counts of forging checks and two counts of theft by swindle, all felonies. He intends to plead not guilty in court Thursday, his attorney said Monday.

Each year, an estimated 5 million Americans fall victim to elder abuse, said Bob Blancato, national coordinator of the Elder Justice Coalition in Washington, D.C. Of those cases, nearly one-fifth involve financial exploitation, said Sharon Merriman-Nai, co-manager of the National Center on Elder Abuse. The numbers of victims -- usually women between 75 and 80 -- are expected to increase as the population ages.

Yet elder-abuse crimes remain severely underreported -- with only 16 percent reported to adult protective services, according to the National Elder Abuse Incidence Study. Those cases can be challenging to prosecute, with victims in failing health often intimidated and unwilling to cooperate.

In Sitte's case, it was his brother, Jimmy, who called authorities.

"Reporting a family member?" Jimmy Sitte asked. "Some people feel it's wrong to turn in your own. My mother couldn't speak for herself. I had to on her behalf."

SOURCE:   Minneapolis Star Tribune

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5 Indicted in Fraud Plots Against Elderly (AZ. USA)

February 17, 2009

Five people were indicted last week in four separate fraud schemes all aimed at weaseling elderly Valley residents out of their money, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced Monday.

Sylvia Cubit, 40, a phlebotomist at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea, was indicted in a plot to steal patients' checkbooks and credit cards while they were staying in the hospital. When police searched her home, they found receipts for a TV, video-game system and gift cards.

Janice E. Lindahl, 58, faces 10 counts of fraud theft and elder abuse after police say she fleeced a 91-year-old neighbor who suffers from Alzheimer's, out of $85,000. Police say she convinced the Phoenix woman to sign over her power of attorney and allow Lindahl to pay her bills. According to the probable-cause statement, Lindahl purchased televisions, video-game systems and car work with the victim's money, and hired Lindahl's mother to care for the woman, even though the mother had no caregiving experience.

Nicholas King, 23, and Nathan Cameron Spotten, 18, have also been indicted. Police say they called elderly residents, claimed to be bank representatives and convinced the victims to give up debit-card and pin numbers.

Benjamin Baker, 28, pled guilty to attempting to take the identity of another on Feb. 6, when he opened a charge account using his 78-year-old grandmother's identity.

SOURCE:   Arizona Republic AZ. USA

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State Finds Some Nursing Homes With Serious Problems (Ma. USA)

AT SOME NURSING HOMES, STATE FINDS SERIOUS PROBLEMS

By Thomas Caywood  TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

 February 15, 2009

The quality of the region’s nursing homes overall ranks below the state average, and some local nursing homes have been reprimanded in recent years for physical and sexual abuse, neglect and other serious mistreatment of elderly residents, according to state reports. 

Health care regulators have found some local nursing homes lacking in areas ranging from cold food to filthy bathrooms to violations of patient rights — in one case a facility making no effort to help residents vote in a state election. Regulators also have cited medication errors and preventable falls in at least three patient deaths in local nursing homes over the last three years. 

“You have to be there for your loved one constantly. You cannot trust,” warned Kevin Samara of Shrewsbury, who attributed his 85-year-old father’s death last spring to a downward spiral that began after the otherwise alert and vigorous man went to nursing homes in Worcester, then Marlboro temporarily to recuperate from a muscular condition that had required hospitalization. 

“The bottom line is the only thing you can do as an individual is you have to be there constantly advocating,” Mr. Samara said of his experience with local nursing homes. “You have to have a demeanor where you can be firm with management, but friendly with the floor staff.” 

The DPH’s Mr. Dreyer said Central Massachusetts isn’t unusual in the state in having a small number of nursing homes drawing a disproportionate number of patient and family complaints that were substantiated by investigators. 

Ten of the region’s 62 nursing homes account for nearly half of the state complaint investigations here over the last three years, according to the T&G analysis of state records. 

Dr. Barry Lang, a Boston physician and medical malpractice lawyer who negotiated an undisclosed settlement with an Auburn nursing home in 2007, said his work with families of nursing home residents has convinced him that no one should put a loved one in a nursing home without thoroughly checking out the facility and its staff. 

“A lot of them are just hell on wheels,” he said. “They warehouse people to take money. They’re understaffed, underpaid. People are hired with very little background check, if at all.” 

Abridged

SOURCE:     Worcester Telegram Ma. USA

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5th Annual Call to Action on Elder Abuse (Ca. USA)

 By The EFPN Reporter

Registration Open for Call to Action 2009!

Click here to register now!

On March 26, 2009, over 300 professionals from the fields of banking, law, social services and law enforcement will come together for the 5th Annual Call to Action. The day long event features a morning conference, an elegant luncheon and an award ceremony honoring leaders in the fight against elder financial abuse. The event will be held at the Carnelian Room, located at 555 California St., 52nd Floor, San Francisco, California. The Carnelian Room is known for its majestic view of the city and is the perfect place for such a dynamic event.

We are proud to have the Honorable US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi serving as the founding member of our Call to Action 2009 Honorary Committee. 

For a detailed conference program, click here.

SOURCE:   The EFPN REPORTER

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Elder Abuse Rises As Economy Tanks (MA. USA)

BOSTON, Feb. 9

(UPI) -- Authorities in Massachusetts say elder abuse is increasing as more family members lose jobs and investments shrink in the dismal economy.

"Many of the issues we are dealing with are simply related to overload," Dale Mitchell, who heads Ethos, a Boston agency that handles the city's protective services program, told The Boston Globe.

Economic stresses are pushing many family caregivers to the breaking point while social service programs that once helped them also are scaling back, the Globe reported Monday.

Ethos received 134 reports of alleged elder abuse and neglect in January, the highest for any month in the agency's 32 years, Mitchell said.

Ethos is one of 22 agencies in Massachusetts that investigate mistreatment of elders. In years past, about 30 percent of allegations were confirmed, those agencies told the Globe. In the first quarter of this fiscal year, that number rose more than 60 percent, the Globe reported.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

SOURCE:     UPI USA

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County Attorney Targets Fraud, Abuse of Seniors (AZ. USA)

By MIKE SAKAL, TRIBUNE

February 16, 2009 

 In an effort to combat abuse and fraud to seniors, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced on Monday the formation of a special prosecution team dedicated to dealing with such offenses.

The announcement was made less than two weeks after two women who were workers at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea hospital were arrested on suspicion of credit card theft, fraud and forgery involving an elderly patient at the hospital. It also came on the day one of those women was indicted.

Sylvia Cubit, 40, a phlebotomist who also worked at Chandler Regional Medical Center, and Nancy Adame, 34, were arrested by Scottsdale police on Feb. 3 after a 79-year-old woman who was a patient at Scottsdale Healthcare was contacted by her bank about suspicious activity on her checking account. The woman then realized that charges had been made on her card and checks had been cashed without her knowledge.

Both Cubit and Adame are accused of taking the woman’s credit cards and checks from her purse on separate occasions while she was a patient at the hospital, and apparently they did not know what either had done, according to the county attorney’s office.

Cubit admitted to the crime, Scottsdale police said.

The county attorney’s office also announced Monday a 10-count indictment of fraud, theft and elder abuse charges against Janice Lindahl, 58, of Phoenix, who allegedly fleeced a 91-year-old neighbor suffering from Alzheimer’s disease out of $200,000.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said of the recent incidents: “Senior citizens have a right to be protected from fraud and abuse. In these financial times, we must be especially vigilant to protect those who might be targeted for cons and swindles.”

SOURCE:     East Valley Tribune

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Pair Jailed Over Bid to Swindle 94 YO Grandmother (UK)

By Deborah McAleese

14 February 2009

The family of a blind 94-year-old grandmother, whose son and daughter-in-law have been jailed for six months for cheating her out of her home, said she has been left devastated by the fraud.

Husband and wife George Ignatius Martin and Mary Martin were jailed yesterday after they admitted forging land registry documents to transfer the elderly pensioner’s home into their name, while she lay ill in hospital.

Crown Court Judge Mr Justice Hart told the Martins that their greed had caused deep distress to their victim, Mrs Annie Martin, who was forced to live in a nursing home on her release from hospital, while her son and daughter-in-law lived in the Saintfield property they had cheated her out of.

Last night Mrs Martin’s family told the Belfast Telegraph that her life had been destroyed by the couple.

The fraud relates to a house at Downpatrick Street in Saintfield which the victim Mrs Annie Martin owned with her son George Ignatius Martin.

In 1997 Martin and his wife forged Mrs Annie Martin's signature so her daughter-in-law Mary's name would be added to land registry documents.

In 2002 the property was transferred from the three names to the names of George and Mary Martin after the couple again forged Mrs Martin's signature on a registry form.

Civil proceedings are now under way to have the property signed back to Mrs Annie Martin.

Her granddaughter Michelle Crawford told the Belfast Telegraph that while the family is pleased with the sentence imposed by the courts it will not change the fact that Mrs Martin has been left devastated by the actions of her son and daughter-in-law.

Abridged

SOURCE:     Belfast Telegraph - UK

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