As published in The Independent November 7, 2001

Editor's note: This article is the first in a two-part series examining financial abuse against elders in the community

By Dwana Simone Bain
Staff Reporter

Donna Hughley lived for years in her San Bruno home. But it's not hers anymore.
It now belongs to her nephew Michael and his wife Liz, who, Hughley alleges, swindled her out of title to her property.
Hughley, 91, claims that during the four years her nephew and niece-in-law lived with her, they verbally and physically abused her husband, stole and trashed her personal property, including throwing her antique bed in the yard, starved her pets, and harassed an intimidated her into to signing her property over to them.
"That's the biggest mistake I've made in my 91 years," Hughley said. Hughley said she had been ill the day her nephew took her into a financial institution to get a home loan.
The only way he could get a loan, he told her, was "If I put the house in his and her name," Hughley said.
"He said 'trust me, Aunt Donna,'" Hughley remembers. "I'll put your name back as soon as they put the money in my hands." He never did.
Now Hughley is fighting back. She filed a restraining order against the pair and hired an attorney. Michael and Liz "had to leave immediately and take a few personal belongings," Hughley said.
They have since disappeared.
As for the house, "The lawyer's going to try to get it back for me," Hughley said.
Hughley's lawyer is Donald Dowling, a civil litigation and estate law attorney in San Bruno.
"She was told that she was going to be given the property back," Dowling said. "The property hasn't been deeded back."
Even if Hughley gets her house back, she'll have a bigger loan at a higher interest than before, Dowling said. And Hughley reportedly reaped none the loan's benefits.
"She can't tell me where any of the proceeds of the refinance are," Dowling said.
Dowling filed a lawsuit on Hughley's behalf against Michael and Liz and against the financial institution that witnessed and facilitated the loan.

A common scenario
Unfortunately, stories like Hughley's are not uncommon, Dowling said. "You have a lot of elderly people who are real estate rich and cash poor."
Often, elderly people own homes worth a lot of money, with either no mortgage or a small mortgage.
Under such circumstances, it's sometimes easy for friends, relatives or financial institutions to profit from the situation.
According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, financial or material exploitation is defined as the "illegal or improper use of an elder's funds, property, or assets."
Examples include cashing an elderly person's checks without authorization, forging an elder's signature, misusing or stealing an elder's money or possessions, coercing or deceiving an older person into signing a document -- such as a will -- and the improper use of power of attorney or conservatorship or guardianship.
Ann Musso, a Burlingame resident, has assisted two elderly friends who fell victim to fraud. Musso is currently fighting for conservatorship of her neighbor, George Hastings.
Hastings lived in his Burlingame home with his wife, Mary, whose name was on the title to the property, Musso said.
This past January -- two weeks before Mary died - "the stepson told George, 'let's get it in my name,'" Musso said.
The stepchildren promised Hastings "he would get his share of the house ... after [Mary] died," Musso said.
"[George] moved out of the house after they sold it. He kept waiting for his stepson to give him his share of the money," Musso said.
Hastings bought a new car, thinking he could pay it off when he got the money from the house.
Musso said that Hastings -- himself now dying of cancer -- never saw a cent. His stepchildren sold the house this summer and "basically took off," Musso said. "We're trying to find them now."
Musso recently fought a court battle to help another elderly friend who'd been allegedly swindled.
The man -- a longtime city employee who was in poor health -- had given power of attorney to a longtime female friend. "He trusted her explicitly," Musso said. "He handed over basically all rights to his money to her. She sold all his stuff, left him with very little of his belongings."
Musso and her husband "went to an attorney and basically got everything back in his own name," she said.
Older people are often so lonely, Musso said, and they sometimes don't understand the complexities of modern finance. "They feel helpless ... everything is so much more sophisticated," Musso said. "When they're that old and they don't have anybody, they're going to do what you tell them."
"It's very heartbreaking," Musso said.

On the rise
In 1998, the state Legislature determined that approximately 225,000 incidents of elder abuse occur in California annually, an increase of over 1,000 percent in a decade. Of such cases, approximately 32 percent involve financial abuse.
The National Center on Elder Abuse also reported that a 1998 National Elder Abuse Incidence Study estimated that for every reported incident of elder abuse, neglect, exploitation or self-neglect, approximately five go unreported.
However, senior citizens have begun to report such cases more often.
Burlingame Attorney Niall McCarthy specializes in elder cases at his law firm of Cotchett, Pitre and Simon, "We see more and more cases that we get contacted on of financial elder abuse," he said.
Neither victims nor perpetrators can be easily be categorized by ethnic group or social class, McCarthy said. And the creditors who take advantage of the elderly aren't limited to a particular institution. "Elder abuse transverses all economic classes, races and really affects virtually everyone in society," McCarthy said.
The elderly are vulnerable for two reasons, McCarthy believes. They are the richest population segment in California. They also tend to be the most trusting. "Those two factors make them targets," McCarthy said.

Police Perspective
Burlingame Police Cmdr. Jack Van Etten has seen all-too-many financial abuse cases over the years. "Those issues come up quite a bit," he said.
In one case Van Etten remembers, a woman had diverted funds and was using an elderly woman's credit. Police arrested the culprit. Though the woman served a jail sentence, Van Etten does not believe she paid the money back.
Sometimes, Van Etten believes, recovering the money lost is difficult. Often, elderly victims are not able to be in court or testify on the stand.
And if they can testify, at times a poor memory makes for insufficient testimony.
In one case Van Etten recalls, a man reported to police that he did not remember signing over his estate to his son.
Nevertheless, with crimes involving the elderly, "We try to investigate them as thoroughly as we can," Van Etten said.
Such cases are always referred to the District Attorney's Office, Van Etten said, because often other information -- circumstantial evidence -- can help prove an elderly plaintiff's case.

Resisting financial fraud
In criminal and civil cases, attorneys and other advocates are fighting on behalf of seniors who've been victimized by financial abuse. At press time, Dowling said he still had much research to conduct on the Hughley case. "It's almost too early to tell exactly where this case is going," he said.
But the laws could help Hughley's cause. "Within the last 10 years, the Legislature has set up laws to protect elders in situations just like this," Dowling said.
Hughley is "a classic example" of someone the law is designed to help, Dowling said. "This a woman who never had a checking account in her life ... she was not financially astute."
In many circumstances, when an elderly person gives away property, "the person who received it -- even it was done voluntarily -- is under an obligation to return whatever they were given. It doesn't matter what their intent was at the time ... It's [a question of] 'were they a dependent adult at that time?'" Dowling said. If so, "then their actions can be undone."
Increasingly, attorneys are winning civil lawsuits against people and organizations that take advantage of the elderly.
"I typically am not contacted until the loan is complete or the senior has been separated from their money. It's my job to get them their money back."
Retribution is difficult in some cases, McCarthy said. "But it is rarely impossible."