Domestic Elder Abuse in Louisiana: The Case of August Baxter

by -Eric C. Baxter

My late father, August Baxter, was an elderly and disabled man when, as his wife lay dying, his home was invaded by interlopers who appointed themselves to be his "caregivers". He was coerced into signing legal instruments he could not read and which were artfully designed to imprison him and rob him of his assets. His body was ultimately found in the lake behind his home, just days before a legal resolution seemed at hand. The manner of his death was classified as "undetermined", but his apparent drowning in two feet of water resulted from negligence, violence or the application of psychological abuse.

Throughout his long ordeal, family members reporting his exploitation, urgently warning of his endangerment and attempting to arrange the legal assistance he requested were subjected to acts of official reprisal and intimidation. State law defines elder abuse and criminalizes any failure to report it; it does not criminalize the actual commission of abuse or the misconduct of corrupt investigating authorities. As a policy of civil rights, this simply means that one concerned for an abused elder's welfare is required to convene his own lynch mob.

Toward a viable civil remedy: Contrary to the misguided and profoundly incompetent policies of the EPS, further elder abuse should be enjoined against when the abuse first occurs; the policy of allowing it to continue until "other efforts fail" merely results in needless suffering and death. Standing to file for protection from domestic elder abuse should extend to victim's family members and not lay exclusively in the hands of mindless and arrogant bureaucrats.

Read More About Elder Abuse in Louisiana here =>>

Dear Eric;

When you sent your father's story in , this had an immediate resonance, my father Dr. A.J. Fernandez also died an unclassified death , in our opinion due to the application of psychological abuse by the removal of his wife of 58 years from his side with out benefit of due process.

A short time later my mother was left alone as a result of a negligent (APS Investigation) and fell requiring brain surgery and became incapacitated after signing over everything everything she had saved for her retirement .

The problem in Adult Protectives Services in being retroactive is that they must often have a body before they act and by then it is too late for your father, my mother and the countless other victims that could have been avoided .