Man Found Guilty in Elder Abuse Case
A 33-year-old man was found guilty of elder abuse in a case in Ventura County, CA according to a report posted by the Ventura County Star. 33-year-old Edmundo Prieto Ramirez was found guilty on five counts of elder abuse by theft.
According to the report, Ramirez allegedly married a 77-year-old woman in order to steal money from her. The report states that Ramirez had been renting a room from the woman for three years prior to marrying her and even began using her money prior to their marriage. Ramirez reportedly spent roughly $8,000 of the woman’s money through credit card and check transactions.
According to the report, the 77-year-old woman was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. That makes this incident much worse as it was clear that the woman was unable to do anything to prevent from suffering financial elder abuse. Incidents of elder financial abuse have been increasing simply because most elderly individuals are in no condition to monitor their finances and essentially become easy targets.
Abusers pick victims that are suffering from some debilitating mental condition that prevents them from discovering or calling attention to the abusers activities with their finances. One of the things that tipped off detectives as to the crime that was going on was a call between Ramirez and the woman where she stated that nobody should have access to her bank account because she was not married. If not for that phone call, the 77-year-old elderly woman could potentially still be losing money as a result of this abuse.
