State Bureaucracy Slow To React To Deed Ripoff Of 89-Year Old Dementia Sufferer By POA-Abusing Son, Says Attorney

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, NewsOK reports:

• Tulsa attorney Larre Sloan said he recently got a family guardian appointed for his wife’s 89-year-old grandmother, who has dementia and whose live-in son abused a power of attorney to tap his mother’s money for personal purposes and deed her property to him. The new guardianship, he said, will revoke the power of attorney and help void deeds and fix her bank accounts.

• "We had a favorable result. However, we did it despite DHS [Department of Human Services],” Sloan said. "Our experience was Adult Protective Services did more to protect the alleged perpetrator than the victim.” Among other things, the case was delayed from 60 to 154 days, and investigators failed to read submitted bank accounts and detailed notes by the caretaker, he said.(1)

Source: Help available to foil financial exploitation.

(1) According to the story, the Senior Law Project of the non-profit law firm Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma — 557-0014 — offers free help with civil cases to seniors age 60 and older who live in Oklahoma and can’t afford to pay for private attorneys. Volunteer coordinator Sharon Ammon said the project can’t pay court costs, but those fees often are waived. The nonprofit Senior Law Resource Center in Oklahoma City — 528-0858 — offers Oklahoma seniors of any income level free advice and legal services on a sliding-scale fee.