D.C. Bar Addresses “Breaking the Silence on Elder Abuse”

The Washington D.C. Bar has a feature article on elder abuse in February issue of its Washington Lawyer.  It begins with a comparison of Brooke Astor’s history to a “quiet” case of exploitation in the District:

“The issue of elder abuse made front-page news in 2009 when famed philanthropist Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted on 14 of 16 counts for financially exploiting his mother, stealing millions of dollars from her. A few years earlier in the District of Columbia, a similar case played out on a much smaller scale and away from the media glare.

 

D.C. resident Hattie Mae Goode was a housekeeper who, along with her husband, had scrimped and saved, bought a house (in which she took great pride), and wanted to be independent in her elder years. Several years after her husband died, Goode was introduced to Reginald Rogers by a mutual friend. Rogers, a lawyer, soon became indispensable to Goode, taking her to doctor appointments, to the bank, and eventually obtaining power of attorney over her.

 

‘She trusted him to take care of her and her financial affairs, which turned out to be a very bad idea. He just cleaned her out,’ says Goode’s niece Alma Robinson, who is executive director of the California Lawyers for the Arts. ‘It was such a horrible story. This widow by herself with nobody looking after her, and then he convinces her that her family is trying to take advantage of her,’ Robinson says. Cases such as Goode’s and Astor’s are all too common, say experts, yet the issue of elder abuse often goes unnoticed.”

While much of the article sounds familiar, in terms of the recitation of predicted numbers of victims and the sad facts uncovered in actual investigations, the article also points to an interesting “new  project” launched in October, the “District’s Collaborative Training and Response to Older Victims,” or DC TROV.  For more on this new team approach, read “Breaking the  Silence on Elder Abuse,” by Kathryn Alfisi.