Elder Exploitation and Abuse: Criminal Case out of Fourth District Court of Appeals in West Palm Beach

Are you concerned about certain financial activity that may   be done to take advantage of an elderly relative? Do you not think guardianship is appropriate? You may still have a remedy from the State Attorney’s office. Have you read Florida’s Statute on elderly abuse and exploitation? Experienced Palm Beach probate litigators know that liability for taking advantage of the elderly could extend into the criminal sector. That’s exactly what happened to a Defendant in a criminal case out of the Fourth District Court of Appeals.

Exploitation of the Elderly

• Florida has the highest population of elderly persons per capita in the United States and the USA in general has an aging population.
• West Palm Beach is no exception.
• Florida has an expansive system of safety nets meant to avoid elderly abuse and exploitation.
• For example have you considered petitioning the Court for a guardianship over your relatives?
• Sometimes this kind of relief is to little to late or worse there is no one there to make the action.
• For example in one case outlined below an elderly woman had adult children with handicaps.
• Unfortunately no one was able to see the Palm Beach elderly abuse until it was to late, which may have obliterated the special needs trust the woman had set up for her adult disabled children.
• Do you know how to contact the State Attorney to consider pressing charges for abuse of the elderly?
• Do you know what you will have to prove?
• If you fail your evidentiary burden the other side may move for an acquittal, check out what happened in this case out of the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

Javellana v. State of Florida

• The defendant appealed his conviction for abuse of the elderly.
• He and his wife became well acquainted with an elderly woman with a vast financial estate in West Palm Beach.
• The defendant’s wife even worked at an investment firm and began assisting the elderly woman with managing her trust accounts back in the 80s.
• In 2008 the defendant and his wife had an attorney who was a “good friend” amend all the testamentary documents of the woman to make them the residuary beneficiaries of the estate.
• What about the adult sons with disabilities?
• On appeal the appellate court said that the State had failed to meet its burden of proof and that the case should have been dismissed at the close of the State’s “case in chief.”

Do you agree?

Want to read the whole case before you make up your mind?

Check out the entire case by clicking here.