<p>Charged with exploitation of the elderly, Marian Tolbert was taken into custody by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. If convicted, she faces up to five years in jail and a $5,000 fine. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office for the First Judicial Circuit.</p>
<p>After Tolbert’s arrest, the 74-year-old resident was moved to another nursing home in Santa Rosa County. The victim, allegedly forced to sleep on a couch for three weeks, said Tolbert harassed him for money and threatened him into listing the accused as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy.</p>
<p>Under duress, the victim also complied with Tolbert’s demands to pay her money to run errands – costs included in the prepaid fee at the nursing home. Bank records and an altered life insurance policy backed up the victim’s story.</p>
<p>In another Tallahassee, Fla. case – this one abuse - an employee of South Florida State Hospital in was arrested for allegedly abusing a disabled resident. Shirley Burch, a medical technician at the Pembroke Pines hospital, was accused of pushing an elderly resident who suffers from schizoaffective disorder.</p>
<p>Witnesses told investigators Burch often became angry and on two occasions, pushed a 68-year-old resident, causing him to fall and cut his face. The abuse was reported to the Department of Children and Families, which referred the investigation to the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit’s Patient Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation (PANE) team.</p>
<p>Burch was fired and is in the Broward County Jail. She is charged with one count of abusing a disabled adult, a third-degree felony. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The case will be prosecuted by the Broward State Attorney’s Office.</p>
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2008/01/23/caregiver_elder_abuse/
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