The timing couldn’t have been worse for Jacqueline and Alex Burt.
Arrested last week by Clark County (Nev.) police and charged with criminal neglect of their 86-year-old grandmother, the pair faces a court date May 12.
Their case comes just as the State of Nevada’s Attorney General’s Office has mandated punishing elder abusers a priority. The Elder Abuse Unit or EAU was created in the fall of 2007. The Clark County District Attorney’s 4-person team seeks to apprehend and prosecute those charged with abuse or negligence of the elderly and demented, reports KVBC, the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas.
In the Burt’s case, their grandmother was found with pressure sores and living in squalor.
“If you add the number of unreported of elder abuse it could be staggering," said John Kelleher of the EAU. "Many times, perpetrators use a position of trust as caretakers and then they fail to give care,” he added. “That results in extreme abuse and neglect."
Sugar Vogel with the Las Vegas Senior Citizens Law Project trumpets EAU’s creation. “Those of us who have been working with seniors, seem to have been waiting forever for some type of enforcement," she said. “Many don't think elder abuse or exploitation is even against the law. But it's a crime to abuse your parents and people need to go to jail."
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