May 31, 2005
Elder Abuse...
It's interesting that NPR's Morning Edition did a piece on "Elder Abuse" on the same moring that Da Paper reports on a local lawyer who is going on trial for allegedly bilking a rich, elderly client. From the NPR story:
When the Elderly Become Financial Targets
Morning Edition, May 31, 2005 Though California has some of the strictest elder abuse laws in the country, few cases of financial abuse are actually prosecuted. But a local district attorney is testing a novel legal strategy to put perpetrators of financial abuse in jail. And the case may have far-reaching impact. Judy Campbell of member station KQED reports.
One of the problems advocates for the elderly have in dealing with elder abuse cases is the fact that many old people refuse to report the abuse. Doing so is often considered an acknowledgement of helplessness.
The Louisiana legislature should take a hard look at this issue, particularly in light of the case of ex-lawyer Nicholas Estiverne:
Nicolas Estiverne, 60, is charged with exploitation of the infirm for allegedly taking over [92-year old client Angie] Neil's finances in 1997 and bleeding her accounts dry by the time she died in January 1999. If convicted in a trial now set to begin Wednesday in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, Estiverne, an outspoken man and a firebrand of a lawyer, could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
We are quick to recognize that children are vulnerable and need extra protection by (and from) society. We need to recognize that the elderly are often as vulnerable as children.