back
|
 |
A Plan to Halt Mistreatment Of the Elderly
By: Kate Stone Lombardi
The New York Times, March 8, 1998
Margaret Brigham looks like a dream of a grandmother. Petite, with
beautiful white hair and wearing a blue suit and a fresh coat of lipstick,
the 89-year-old woman walked slowly to the podium, where she trembled a
bit before beginning her story.
In a voice so quiet that the audience leaned forward in their seats to
hear her, Mrs. Brigham recounted the day that a man arrived at her
doorstep in Ossining, saying he was looking for work. When she told the
man she had no job for him, he asked for a glass of water. As Mrs. Brigham
went into the kitchen, he followed her into the house. The man then opened
the basement door and threw Mrs. Brigham down a long flight of narrow
steps. After she landed, he came down after her, ripping her wedding and
engagement rings off her hand over her knarled, arthritic knuckle. He then
dragged her around a corner and locked her in a small, dark storage closet
underneath the stairs. Mrs. Brigham recalled: "He kept yelling:
'Where's your money? Where's your money?' I said, 'I'll tell you if you
let me out.' "
The man did not let her out but ransacked her house and left her for
dead. Mrs. Brigham, however, found a metal rod from her vacuum cleaner in
the closet and used it to pound the door repeatedly with all her strength.
Though she was dazed, bruised and suffering from a broken arm, she was
eventually able to open the door, climb up the stairs and call 911.
"Almost immediately the police and a detective arrived," Mrs.
Brigham said, smiling shyly. "They were kind and wonderful."
Mrs. Brigham was speaking to a group of police officers, who had
gathered recently at District Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office here for the
county's first training session for law-enforcement officers on abuse of
the elderly. The program was sponsored jointly by Mrs. Pirro's office and
Elder Serve of Westchester, a division of the Hebrew Home for the Aged at
Riverdale.
Mrs. Pirro said that in the last few years there has been a huge
increase in physical and sexual abuse against elderly victims. Last year
she started an Elder Abuse Unit in her office to prosecute those crimes.
She said the effort was particularly important because the elderly are the
fastest growing age group in the county. "As citizens are living
longer, the risk of violence to them has likewise increased," Mrs.
Pirro said. "We have to come together and collaborate as we have in
the areas of domestic violence and child abuse to serve these most
vulnerable citizens."
The training session covered mistreatment of the elderly ranging from
neglect and financial fraud to physical abuse and violent crime. Mrs.
Pirro said studies show that each year 4 percent of adults 65 and older
are physically being abused or neglected. The elderly are particularly
vulnerable to crime because of their isolation, their frailty and their
dependency on others, experts at the training session said. Compounding
the problem is a reluctance on the part of many older victims to report
physical assault -- especially sexual crimes -- to the police. Prosecutors
who work with older victims said there are many reasons for the elderly's
hesitancy to testify against an assailant, including fear, guilt and often
dependence on the attacker for food, shelter and medication.
Lisa A. Linsky, associate chief of the Special Prosecutions Division,
described several recent physical-assault cases. In one case, a
drug-addicted 36-year-old man punched and burglarized his 78-year-old
father and 82-year-old mother. In another, a Mount Pleasant man repeatedly
punched his 78-year-old mother in the face, and a 22-year-old man beat his
mother and then kept her locked in her home.
In all these cases, prosecutors had to persuade the victims not to
withdraw charges. Ms. Linsky described "a mutual web of
dependency," in which parents may be providing a home or money for
their adult children, but the abusive children have physical control over
the parents. "These kinds of cases happen all over our county,
involving all kinds of people and relationships," Ms. Linsky told the
officers. "We have to be very aggressive in prosecuting domestic
violence when we don't have the cooperation of the victim. Likewise with
the elderly, who sometimes do not cooperate out of shame, misguided
loyalty, fear of retaliation or fear of not being believed."
Ms. Linsky said abuse of the elderly has certain similarities to child
abuse. She advised the officers to look for patterns of physical injury --
like bruises in various stages of healing, welts, burns, malnutrition,
lacerations and rope marks. She added that preservation of the crime scene
is critical and that investigating officers should pay close attention to
the interaction between elderly people and their caretakers, checking for
inconsistencies between each person's description of the incident.
Barbara Egenhauser, chief of the Sex Crimes and Elder Abuse Bureaus,
talked to the officers about sexual crimes and the elderly. She described
the case of a 76-year-old widow in Port Chester who answered the door at
7:30 A.M. for a 19-year-old handyman who had recently painted her porch.
He asked if he could use her phone, and once inside he punched her in the
face, pushed her down and raped her.
Ms. Egenhauser described two other cases -- one of an 84-year-old
victim who lived in housing for the elderly in lower Westchester and one
of a 64-year-old former nun and schoolteacher -- both of whom were raped
by young assailants. In these cases, Ms. Egenhauser said, the women did
not immediately call the police, did not want to go to the hospital and
did not initially want to press charges.
"These are women of a different generation, and there are issues
of shame and embarrassment that are profound and that are
exacerbated," Ms. Egenhauser said. "This generation did not get
sex education in elementary school. They didn't have classes in high
school on date rape. These women often lack the words that define the
crime. It is excruciatingly difficult for them to become part of the
criminal justice system. Their fear of publicity and being victimized
again on the witness stand is acute."
One thing that has helped minimize trauma is the office's use of
vertical prosecution, in which the victim works with only one assistant
district attorney so that she does not have to retell the story
repeatedly.
Detective Thomas Reddy of the Ossining Village police, who with
Detective David See, investigated Mrs. Brigham's case, also spoke to the
officers. He said that in addition to gathering information, officers
should evaluate the victim's condition -- checking for hearing or sight
impairment, senility or a chronic health problem. He said it is important
to have a victim take prescribed medications before an interview and be
given information on what to expect as the case progresses.
Most important, he said, was to be compassionate and respectful.
"Never underestimate the ability or the intelligence of the elderly
victim because of their age," Detective Reddy said. "Most can
recall minute details. Be compassionate, but don't treat them like a
child. They may be frail, but they have been around and they know what's
going on."
After the crime against Mrs. Brigham, Detective Reddy installed a
peephole and a deadbolt lock on her door. This week, Mrs. Pirro's office
is expected to announce a new program, Watchful Eye, in which, in
collaboration with private businesses, peepholes and deadbolt locks will
be installed for elderly residents, and they will also be equipped with
hand-held air horns.
Mrs. Brigham was able to identify the man who assaulted her. Not only
did she provide a police artist with an uncanny likeness of the suspect,
Larry Stevens of Staten Island, but she also picked him out of a lineup.
Mrs. Brigham also testified against him, and Mr. Stevens was convicted of
robbery, burglary and assault for which he faces 12 1/2 to 25 years in
prison. Mr. Stevens is a suspect in several other cases involving elderly
victims, and he is awaiting trial on charges of homicide of an elderly man
in Greenburgh.
At an interview at her home, Mrs. Brigham held the hand of Detective
Reddy, whom she called, "my adopted grandson." She said she
planned to attend Mr. Stevens's sentencing, so long as the detective is
willing to accompany her. Referring to the suspect, Mrs. Brigham leaned
forward and said: "To tell you the truth, I'd like a little time
alone with the gentleman. Well, I can't call him a gentleman, because he
really wasn't one. I hope people don't think I'm terrible. But I want them
to put that man in a very strict jail with a big, mean cell mate."
|
