Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli is taking aim at those who prey on our senior citizens. Former bank President Richard Freer, a financial predator, recently pleaded guilty to squandering the life savings of many elderly clients who trusted him. But this extends to family members, too, who often steal from and physically abuse older relatives. In addition, our elderly are often targeted by scam artists. After meeting with the Department of Aging Director John Mehler, the DA has decided to establish an Elder Abuse Task Force.Explaining his motives, Morganelli repeated Hubert Humphrey's often quoted moral test of government, stating government is judged not just by how it treats those in the dawn of life, but those who are in their twilight as well as those who are in the shadows.
Morganelli has established a child sexual assault division and court school to help those in the dawn of life. His recently announced Mental Health Court should provide relief for some of those in the shadows. Now he proposes that we pay closer attention to elderly crime victims. His hope is that an Elder Abuse Task Force will prevent those crimes from happening.
Morganelli is no fan of establishing a task force just for the sake of having one, he stated, but believes an elder abuse task force would educate the public, seniors and law enforcement. He said it will be a small group wuth the following goals:
- Education. - Bankers and health care providers should be trained to recognize signs of exploitation, like a dwindling bank account. He believes local television, radio and social media should be used to disseminate information to the public.
- Link Elderly Service Providers With Law Enforcement. - "More communication will result in less victimization," Morganelli explains.
Originally published at 2:48 pm in outline form.
10 comments:
I am very sure in lehighcounty DA Martin will not be following suit anytime in the future? Berks DA notified other counties of the Bail Bond issue in the Brown Hole of pa and we of the valley know there is no hankiepankie near epicentralize location?
Thank you DA Morganelli for your etics integrity and honor in this matter, as this is similar to war crimes against Americans on our own soil committed against one of the most vulnerable?
redd
patent pending
just to be clear,
this is a tsk force t prevent elder abuse, right?
I have changed my inartful headline.
Not really sure what a task force can do to prevent elder abuse. I agree elder abuse is horrible but dont understand how a task force is going to prevent anything. Sounds like feel good gobbly gook with no real purpose. But someone can enlighten me
The definition of "task force" is:
n. political bullshit ex. The thrice embarrassed politician decided to form a task force in hopes it would win votes.
There are two that have been left out the takeing advantage of the disadvantage with the help of a justice system that was put in place to protect and serve? Than there is the cps angle work together with domestic confusions to confuse the allready confused, were small childrens civils rights are neglected and negated because attorney freinds are not getting paid for the payoff ruleings to be put to paper properly?
Than there are massive amounts of factual paperwork that has never been viewed by proper persons because proper procedureof presentation is made impossible by this subcircus of the commonwealth courts? If this is the way some want to be retired and looked over for seat seeked if not a more stringent repremand to office personel is not in keeping with the situations created?
redd
patent pending
Since the county underfunds th department of Aging, what's the point?
Gee, this is great, sez Crazy Old Lady. The banksters have been robbing my 78 year old husband and me of out interest income for six years now -- about $30,000 in round numbers over the whole period, plus forcing us to eat our seed corn, so to speak. Then there is the great Pennsylvania condominium rip-off, where they let the developers put in this system foreign to our Anglo-American law on property, and fail utterly to lend any oversight at the state level, further ripping us old people off after The Syndicate moves in and takes over...I am so happy that now there will be a task force to deal with these bullies, thieves and thugs.
As a former aging worker, I saw many instances of abuse and neglect that were not identified as such. As I begin to show the signs of aging, I wonder if I will have someone to care for me, without robbing or hitting me. We already have elder protective services available to Pennsylvanians. What will the task force do to expand upon that service?
I saw John Mehler earlier this evening. He tells me that the main thing he hopes to accomplish is to improve the communications link that exists between the aging department and law-enforcement. He adds that there are a lot of bad people out there war increasingly taking advantage of senior citizens. You may have seen some of this yourself when you were so employed.
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