AUGUSTA, Maine — Attorney General Janet Mills on Wednesday called on the criminal justice system to give priority to crimes involving the financial exploitation of the elderly.
“This is the new frontier in intra-familial crime, like domestic violence was the new frontier several decades ago,” Mills said.
Currently, cases involving domestic violence are given priority by the criminal justice system over other kinds of cases.
Mills also urged the creation of a statewide Financial Abuse Specialist Team to support law enforcement officers investigating financial exploitation crimes against the elderly.
Mills announced the findings and recommendations of the Task Force on the Financial Exploitation of the Elderly during a press conference in the Hall of Flags at the Statehouse.
“Maine’s senior citizens are a vital part of our community,” Mills said. “They have worked hard, and they deserve respect and protection. Their financial and physical security should be our highest priority.
“We need to put out the welcome mat to seniors on the steps of our police stations, district attorney offices, sheriff departments and our courthouses,” the attorney general said. “This report makes some common-sense recommendations to improve the statutes and improve the prosecution of these crimes.”
Figures on what the implementation of the recommendations would cost were not included in the report.
“Elder abuse has emerged as a significant challenge for Maine’s law enforcement agencies,” the report said. “The United States Department of Justice estimates that one in nine people over the age of 60 will be abused or exploited this year, or an estimated 33,000 victims of elder abuse in Maine alone. Older adults who are abused or mistreated are three times more likely to die within the next decade after the abuse than are adults in the same age group not subject to abuse.”
The team the task force recommended creating would “provide critical support to law enforcement by assembling and summarizing financial records for criminal investigations,” the report said. The task force recommended adding a dedicated investigator and a special prosecutor to the attorney general’s office.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Office of Aging and Disability Service, has budgeted two positions to work with law enforcement and prosecutors on cases involving older victims.
Legislation proposed as a result of the report would, if passed, direct judges to consider old age of victims as sentencing factor, allow financial exploitation as a reason to obtain a protection from abuse order and to define “dependent person” in the crime of endangering the welfare of a dependant person. The proposed definition is “a person, regardless of where that person resides, who is wholly or partially dependent upon one or more other persons for care or support, because the person suffers from a significant limitation in mobility, vision, hearing or mental functioning.”
The task force, comprising Mills, prosecutors from around the state, law enforcement officials and representatives from the court system and the Department of Health and Human Services, identified in the report a number of barriers to prosecution of financial crimes in which the victim is over the age of 60. They included a perception among criminal justice professionals that these are family or civil issues, a lack of training in handling financial crimes against the elderly and an inadequate legal framework for prosecuting elder financial exploitation.
The task force made the following findings:
— Financial exploitation of elder victims must be treated as a high priority in all parts of the criminal justice system.
— Criminal justice agencies must be proactive in overcoming barriers to accommodating the needs of elder victims.
— It is of critical importance that these crimes not be viewed by the criminal justice system as private family matters or as civil issues instead of crimes.
— Protocols need to be implemented for law enforcement agencies, prosecutors’ offices and the judiciary, as well as in social service and other agencies that have contact with elder victims for dealing with victims.
— Training must be targeted to meet the unique needs of the different types of criminal justice professionals.
— It is important to support the efforts of other groups, such as the Maine Council for Elder Abuse Prevention, to make sure more victims come forward and crimes are reported.
Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin, who was on the task force, pointed out the problem with the current system by using as an example the prosecution of Meredith A. Purcell, 62, who was found guilty Nov. 30, 2012, of raiding her elderly mother’s retirement account between 2007 and 2011. The complaint was referred to the attorney general’s office in March 2011 and Purcell was charged the following September and was not tried until November 2012.
“Additional resources from a FAST team or other sources would allow local law enforcement to investigate cases of elder financial exploitation. More cases would be investigated and prosecuted in less time,” Robbin said Wednesday. “East Millinocket could have completed the Purcell case, and the district attorney could have prosecuted.”
The family of Purcell’s victim, Geraldine Hoxie, would have been able to obtain a protection order and the no-contact provision that was part of Purcell’s bail conditions would not have been necessary, Robbin said.
“In addition, providing expedited scheduling for elderly victims would have made this case more of a priority and avoided the months of delays in bringing it to trial,” she said. “With time, elderly victims become unavailable due to death or disability. In this case, Mrs. Hoxie’s health declined in the months prior to trial.”
Purcell was sentenced in May 2013 to four months in jail and ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution.
Hoxie died Sept. 13, 2013, at the age of 90.