Ruby Moore had lived in her house on Juanita Avenue for 55 years when foreclosure proceedings began in 2006.
Family members were shocked. Something wasn’t right. Moore, who was 87 years old, had apparently used her home to acquire a series of loans totaling $575,000. She was living on $1,200 a month in Social Security; her new loan payments were more than $4,600 a month.
When her family approached Moore, she was unaware of any loans taken in her name.
“She wasn’t cognizant of it at all,” said one family member.
Moore lost her house later that year. She was forced to sell it and move into an assisted living facility in order to pay off the loans, which were acquired at an 11 percent interest rate. It was a family tragedy. Moore and her late husband had built the home nearly 60 years ago on a lot given to them by Ruby’s grandfather, Mauro Gonzalez, who in 1905 was the first Mexican American to settle in Redondo Beach.
Redondo Beach police detectives investigated the matter and discovered what appeared to be a case of financial elder abuse. Police believed Moore’s longtime caregiver, Mariana Montes, had orchestrated the loans and taken the money for personal use.
The family member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Moore had taken in Montes almost 20 years ago. Moore’s sister had been Montes’ landlord, the relative said, and when Montes was unable to make rent, she introduced her to Ruby.
“Ruby’s husband had just died, and she was trying to put two and two together,” the relative said. “She thought [Montes] could maybe help with things she couldn’t do on her own…. She moved in with one or two children and when time came for her to move out, she had four or five…then boyfriends, then relatives. It was just a real pigsty. Ruby is just real warm-hearted. She thought they were treating her real nice. Little did she know they were nice to her face and sticking a knife in her back.”
Police discovered ample evidence, including bank records, supporting an allegation of financial elder abuse. They found, for instance, that in one day alone Montes wrote $27,000 in checks to herself from Moore’s account and then traveled to Mexico for liposuction surgery.
But detectives struggled to build a case that the District Attorney felt confident filing.
Finally, last year, with the four year statute of limitations approaching, the case was turned over to newly-formed cold cases unit. The unit, which consists of retired police officers John Skipper and Rick Peterson and former city prosecutor (and LA County deputy DA) Steven Kay, was ideally suited for the investigation. Skipper and Peterson have a combined 60 years police experience, including 30 years in investigations; Kay, perhaps most famous for prosecutorial work in the Manson family murders, serves as the perfecting sounding board for building cases the DA can file.
Financial crimes are notoriously labor-intensive to investigate, and detectives with full case loads are less able to devote the time necessary to build a case. Small police departments rarely have access to forensic accountants, and thus detectives often must do complex financial legwork themselves. In this case, RBPD detective Fabian Saucedo uncovered another hugely complicated case while investigating Montes – she apparently was also operating a “Ponzi” scheme that targeted Latin American immigrants and allegedly bilked at least 55 victims of more than $500,000.
In order to concentrate on that case – and with the statue of limitations on approaching in February – Saucedo turned the elder abuse investigation over to Skipper and Peterson. Because Redondo Beach has relatively few cold case murders to investigate, their unit was evolving into a broader unsolved crimes unit.
The unit received the case in October. By December, a case had been filed and Montes was arrested and charged with financial elder abuse. She was simultaneously charged with fraud in the “Ponzi” scheme that Saucedo had discovered.
City Attorney Mike Webb, whose department’s serious crime reduction fund (derived from misdemeanor penalties in the city) pays for the cold case unit, said that the ability to use the former officers on such cases is proving invaluable. Most such cases, he said, rarely get filed.
“Most law enforcement agencies don’t have the resources to go after those types of fraud cases because it’s not a violent crime,” Webb said. “But obviously it has a catastrophic impact on a victim’s life. We are fortunate in Redondo now to have the ability to solve those crimes and give criminals a reason not to commit those types of crimes here.”
Skipper said that seeing the case prosecuted – Montes appeared at a pretrial hearing this week – was especially gratifying because Moore’s family was able to feel some sense of justice. He also hoped the prosecution would help serve as a deterrent to other, similar crimes.
“That is something most cold case investigators will tell you – that is why they are there, to show people we are not just going to let these things drop off the face of the Earth,” Skipper said.
Skipper strongly praised Saucedo’s investigative groundwork and credited Peterson with much of the accounting work that finally brought the case to a close.
Karen Liebig, head of the Keepsafe Coaltion, a South Bay organization that provides help to victims of elder abuse, said that the incidence of such crimes is approaching near-epidemic levels in California. More than 225,000 cases are reported each year, Liebig said, and it is believed only one in five are actually reported – meaning more than 1 million instances of elder abuse take place annually.
Liebig, whose organization gives frequent presentations on how to safeguard against elder abuse, said that background checks should be performed on caregivers.
“Check out your caregivers,” she said. “Do not get a caregiver from a Pennysaver magazine. Check references. Screening services can be purchased. The best way to find a caregiver is word of mouth – somebody that had a good experience with a caregiver — but just don’t get a caregiver without doing some kind of background check on them, because you never know who you are going to get. Ruby Moore had to sell her home. She lost more than a half million dollars that could have been used for her care.”
Webb said that elder abuse cases are likely to become even more prevalent, but hopefully not in Redondo Beach.
“It’s horrible and unfortunate that with the Baby Boomers aging, we are going to see more and more of this type of crime unless we do something to stop it,” Webb said. “Those types of criminals who commit these crimes are not stupid. They are picking a type of crime they think they can get away with. If they realize there is investigation and prosecution in Redondo, they are going to go elsewhere.”
More information on elder abuse is available at www.keep-safe.org. The organization is going a presentation at Casa De Los Amigos at 10:30 a.m. on April 26. ER
This is very unfortunate… This is something that the local government should focus on to.