Elder Abuse Victim Stories on Betrayal by California Law Enforcement Agencies and Prosecutors
The California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) Licensing and Certification Program—hardly an aggressive watchdog of wealthy, politically connected nursing homes—issued a class “B” citation and monetary fine in October 2011 to a nursing home that negligently failed to administer oxygen to a fainting patient at a flow rate required by physician orders and the patient’s care plan. At that time, the unfortunate, 88-year-old victim suffered rapidly declining oxygen saturation levels, respiratory arrest, and unexpected death. In its citation, CDPH said, “The above violation had a direct relationship to the health, safety and security of Patient 1.” Despite CDPH’s findings, tantamount to obvious elder neglect, the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse (BMFEA) chief of prosecutions, Mark Zahner, based his decision to file no criminal charges in the case, not on the assigned BMFEA special agent’s expert opinion, but instead on the different opinion of BMFEA medical consultant Kathryn L. Locatell, M.D. Dr. Locatell shockingly said, “There were no breaches of any applicable standards of care in the events leading to Mr. [patient’s name deleted] death. I see no indication of neglect whatsoever. . . . Whether or not oxygen was administered, or administered timely . . . was immaterial.”
Are you an elder abuse victim who has been further victimized by a California law enforcement agency or district attorney?
- Are you an elder abuse victim who has been victimized a second time by the mishandling of your elder abuse report by a California law enforcement agency or district attorney charged with the legal duty to protect the public from both professional and non-professional caregivers who commit criminal elder abuse against vulnerable seniors in the community and in nursing homes?
- Did your local police, district attorney, or Attorney General Kamala Harris’ Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse (BMFEA), which is part of her California Department of Justice (DOJ), disregard overwhelming evidence you gave them substantiating your elder abuse report?
- Did your local police, district attorney, or BMFEA, which is headed by its director, Mark Geiger, and its chief of prosecutions, Mark Zahner, fail to prosecute and hold perpetrators accountable for verifiable (e.g., video-recorded), serious crimes, including financial elder abuse, sexual assault, rape, and manslaughter?
You are just one of many victims of California law enforcement agencies’ failure to prosecute criminal elder abuse, especially in wealthy, politically connected nursing homes
- You are one of a growing network of informed citizens, elder advocates, government whistleblowers, demoralized law enforcement officers, and nursing home insiders throughout the United States who are committed to publicly exposing and reforming what the April 2010 report Victimized Twice: Abuse of Nursing Home Residents, No Criminal Accountability for Perpetrators, by Disability Rights California (DRC), revealed. According to Victimized Twice, which is the protection and advocacy agency for the State of California, California government’s elder abuse response and criminal justice system is a failed and biased system in which there is no criminal accountability for perpetrators of elder abuse in nursing homes.
- You may also be just one of many victims of the BMFEA, which reopened a closed criminal investigation of the March 2008 death of an elderly woman in a nursing home, Johnnie Esco, and charged two licensed nurses, but not the nursing home, in March 2012 with felony elder abuse only after the Sacramento Bee’s embarrassing September 2011 exposé on the Esco case and BMFEA’s initial failure to file any charges.
- The Sacramento Bee‘s March 16, 2012 “Nurses Face Felony Charges in Death of Cameron Park Man’s Wife,” by Marjie Lundstrom, chronicled “the four-year quest of Don Esco [Johnnie Esco’s 81-year-old widower] to find justice for his late wife,” during which he “made hundreds of phone calls and personal visits to local, state and federal authorities to get someone held accountable.”
Elder Abuse Exposed.com compiles and publicly exposes your stories and evidence of California law enforcement agencies’ refusal to prosecute criminal elder abuse in wealthy, politically connected nursing homes
- Elder Abuse Exposed.com compiles and publicly exposes your well-substantiated elder abuse reports that you have submitted to your local police, district attorney, or Attorney General Kamala Harris’ Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse (BMFEA).
- Elder Abuse Exposed.com and our growing network of like-minded victims of misconduct by California law enforcement agencies also publicly expose how these agencies try to whitewash your reports or sweep them under the rug.
- Elder Abuse Exposed.com publishes your personal stories and primary source documents (e.g., elder abuse reports, correspondence, public records, government investigation reports, photos, audio recordings, and videos). We do this so that we all can expose to the light of day that California law enforcement agencies are consistently refusing to fulfill their duty, in the words of Attorney General Kamala Harris, to “enforce and apply all our laws fairly and impartially” and “ensure justice, safety, and liberty for everyone.”
What you can do
- If you are an elder abuse victim, a family or friend of a victim, an attorney, or a patients’ rights advocate with a personal story and primary source documents to share with the world regarding misconduct by your local police, district attorney, or California DOJ’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse (BMFEA), please tell your story so that we can add it to our compilation of victim stories below.
- If you are a demoralized local police detective, BMFEA special agent, or a conscience-stricken county or BMFEA prosecutor with inside information or hot tips regarding elder abuse cases and misconduct by California law enforcement agencies, please send us (even anonymously if you want) your information and documents that you want to include in our compilation of personal stories below.
- If you are a state or federal politician, legislator, prosecutor, an official from a watchdog or oversight agency, a patients’ rights advocacy organization, or a news reporter who is troubled by California law enforcement agencies’ unwillingness to prosecute criminal elder abuse in wealthy, politically connected nursing homes unless, for example, the law enforcement agencies are embarrassed by exposés in the media, then Elder Abuse Exposed.com urges you to read the compilation of victim stories and primary source documents below.
Victim stories and evidence of California law enforcement agencies’ failure to protect elder abuse victims
- California attorney general’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse prosecutors overlooked Sun Healthcare nursing home abuse and deaths, says victim’s daughter
- Misconduct and strong-arm tactics during raid of elder abuse defendant Silvia Cata’s home by agents from California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, alleges daughter
(Note: We are in the process of preparing and uploading victim stories and supporting documentation related to the betrayal by California law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. Thank you for your patience. In the meantime, you can now see many victim stories related to the betrayal by California probate court judges.)
