On Friday, Sept. 19, at 11:30 am officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to the 1000 block of 20th Street in order to investigate a report of elder abuse that also involved domestic violence.
Upon arrival at the location the officers knocked on the door but the suspect was standing in the doorway and refused to allow the officers to enter the premises.
A few moments later the alleged victim, an elderly woman, walked into the living room with the assistance of a caretaker. The victim told the suspect that she wished to speak with the officers outside. The suspect prohibited the victim from speaking with the officers so the officers asked the victim if she would grant them permission to enter the premises.
The victim told the officers that they could enter, so the officers proceeded to enter the premises without incident.
The officers, once inside, spoke with the victim who told them that the suspect had refused to feed her breakfast as a punishment for the victim attempting to smoke a cigarette earlier that morning.
The victim added that when she had attempted to arise from her bed in order to make an effort to consume food the suspect had pushed her down to the floor causing her to cut her knee.
The victim continued to explain that the suspect had then physically picked her up and shoved her back onto the bed, raised the side rails in order to imprison her in the bed, slapped her in the face and had called her a “moron.” The victim added that later that morning the caretaker had arrived and the victim had asked the caretaker if she could have the telephone in order to call the police.
When the suspect had heard her attempting to summon the police she (the suspect) had snatched the phone away in order to stop the call.
The officers then spoke with the caretaker who told them that the victim would routinely tell her about other incidents of abuse she had experienced with the suspect, but added the victim would also ask her not to notify the police because she (the victim) didn’t want the suspect to get arrested.
The victim told the officers that she could no longer tolerate the physical and emotional attacks and felt it was time to get the police involved.
Based upon the evidence the officers arrested the suspect, a 73-year-old resident of Huntington Beach, and he was charged with cohabitant abuse, elder abuse, and prohibiting the victim from calling the police. Bail was set at $50,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
