Drug epidemic
Julie Capone, who heads the elder abuse unit of the AlleghenyCounty district attorney’s office, said the drug epidemic that has affected the lives of so many southwesternPennsylvanians in recent years has also resulted in increased financial abuse of older relatives.
“It’s amazing sometimes how much money has been taken before anyone has noticed,” she said.
Ms. Capone noted that at sentencing hearings for some perpetrators, she has heard them astonished at what they were willing to do to those they care about while in the throes of addiction. In addition to victims’ relatives, that has occurred with trusted caregivers paid — but not typically paid much — to assist financially comfortable seniors, she said.
“I don’t think a lot of caretakers necessarily start out that way — I think it’s just that they see an opportunity,” the assistant district attorney said. “A lot of times I’ve heard them say at sentencing they don’t get paid a lot of money, and they get desperate and have a drug or gambling problem — they’re trying to raise their kids, and they get greedy when they see the money. They say, ‘I’m here, the family’s not,’ and they take $20 [belonging to an elderly client], and then $40, and then $400.”
Some research has found that financial exploitation often overlaps with other types of abuse, having more to do with characteristics of the perpetrator than the condition of the victim. Socially isolated people with a history of risky behavior, including substance abuse problems or criminal records, are considered more likely to take advantage of older relatives, especially those they may deem aburden.
In the case of Martha Bell, who served state and federal prison time for crimes running a now-closed Robinson nursing home, she used a fraudulent business scheme to entice Mr. Chatak — an acquaintance she met through a mutual friend — to write check after check to her adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A former union organizer in his late 80s who had served on the Allegheny County Retirement Board, Mr. Chatak was not naive about money and there was nothing in his testimony at Bell’s preliminary hearing to indicate he was cognitively impaired. But he acknowledged his judgment was poor in giving away retirement savings to a felon who used it on casino gambling and shopping, amongother purposes.
“She lied to me,” the widower testified less than a year before his death, in describing himself as a hard-working person who carefully saved overthe years. “I just want my money that’s for my pension. I’m sorry I ever talked to her. I’msorry I met her.”
Mr. Marson, the professor emerituswhoformerlyheaded the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, saidolderadults’judgmentcan be affected by loneliness, depression, anxiety or other problems associated with people who lose a lot of their social connections late in life. The risks become greater if they’re in their 80s, say, rather than their60s.
“This combination of cognitive decline, whether it’s from normal aging or a true disorder [like Alzheimer’s], and the fact that they’ve accumulated greater wealth because they’ve been around longer — that is the recipe for exploitation,” he said.