ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Camera Catches Elder Abuse
Sexual Assault at Adult Care Facility
In a recent case outside California, a concealed camera in an 83-year-old patient’s care facility room caught on film the sexual assault of the resident. The perpetrator was a co-owner of the facility. He later admitted to the police that he committed the assaults. The elderly victim died less than a month after the recorded assault. The story is absolutely horrendous and followed multiple citations against the facility for neglect and abuse. Sadly, the case is not isolated; reports of sexual assaults in nursing homes and other care facilities for the elderly have risen at an alarming rate over recent years, in California and throughout the country. If you or someone you know is a victim of nursing home abuse or elder abuse in any type of adult care facility, call one of the California and San Mateo County elder abuse and nursing home abuse lawyer at Evans Law Firm today at 415-441-8669.
What Cameras Could Do
Cameras, hidden and otherwise, have previously been presented by advocacy groups as a possible solution to the disturbing trend of abuse in elderly care facilities and nursing homes. The recent case illustrates that cameras in nursing homes can in fact catch wrongdoers in the act. Perhaps even just the threat of cameras might deter the perpetrator from committing the act altogether.
Potential Problems
Should facilities be made to install surveillance cameras to combat elder abuse? One potential road block for cameras in nursing homes is the patient’s right to privacy. Nursing homes are, in an ideal world, social places. Residents come and go from other residents’ rooms, and friends and family can visit residents as well. Residents also do not always have their own rooms. Would hidden cameras discourage socialization? Perhaps, but, as this case proves, the idea of surveillance and cameras in nursing homes to counteract abuse is a good first step toward finding a way to halt abuse in nursing homes.
Contact Us
If you or a loved one been the victim of elder abuse in a nursing home or other residential care facility for the elderly in San Mateo County or elsewhere in California, contact Ingrid Evans and the other Evans Law Firm elder abuse and nursing home abuse attorneys at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, qui tam and whistleblower law, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities, securities fraud and FINRA arbitrations.
