Two Caregivers Arrested In Elder Abuse, Exploitation

TALLAHASSEE, FL - North Co.Gazette Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that the owner and operator of a Santa Rosa County Adult Family Care Home has been arrested and charged with exploiting an elderly resident of the facility.

Marian Tolbert was taken into custody based on allegations that she intimidated the victim into making her the beneficiary of his $10,000 life insurance policy. She was arrested by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit with assistance from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. The victim, a 74-year old resident of the Minda Pascual Adult Family Care Home, was temporarily moved to the Tolbert Adult Family Care Home while his caretakers were out of town. He reported to investigators from the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit that he was forced to sleep on a couch for the better part of three weeks. He also described how Tolbert would constantly harass him for money and would threaten him in order to make her the beneficiary of his life insurance policy.

In another case involving elder abuse and exploitation, an employee of South Florida State Hospital has been arrested on charges that she abused a disabled resident of the hospital. Shirley Burch, a medical technician at the Pembroke Pines hospital, allegedly pushed the elderly resident who suffers from schizoaffective disorder and the abuse was reported to authorities.

Burch was subsequently terminated from her employment at the hospital. The abuse was reported to the Department of Children and Families which referred the investigation to the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit’s Patient Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation (PANE) team

Abridged =>>