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Long Beach Elder Abuse Defense Lawyer
Elder abuse accusations often come out of families: a sibling disagreement about money, a caregiver blamed for a decline nobody could have prevented, a report made by a mandated reporter who saw a bruise. The charge is serious, and so is how easily it is filed. The consultation is free.
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The charge
What Penal Code 368 covers
Penal Code 368 covers two quite different things under one number. Subdivision (b) makes it an offense for any person to wilfully cause or permit an elder, meaning someone 65 or older, or a dependent adult, to suffer unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering, or to be placed in a situation endangering their health, where the person knew or reasonably should have known the victim was an elder or dependent adult. It is a wobbler, and the exposure rises where great bodily injury or death results.
Subdivisions (d) and (e) cover financial abuse: theft, embezzlement, forgery, or fraud against an elder or dependent adult by a caretaker or by anyone else, with the penalty keyed to the value taken. These are the cases that most often involve family members, powers of attorney, joint accounts, and gifts that one relative later characterises as theft.
Criminal neglect requires more than a poor outcome. The statute reaches the failure to provide medical care, food, shelter, or protection from health and safety hazards by someone who had a duty of care, and the mental state is criminal negligence rather than ordinary mistake.
Sources: Penal Code 368(b)(1) — physical abuse, neglect, and endangerment of an elder or dependent adult; Penal Code 368(d)–(e) — theft, embezzlement, forgery, and fraud against an elder; Welfare and Institutions Code 15610.07 — abuse of an elder or dependent adult defined.
How they arise
Where these accusations actually come from
Mandated reporters, including doctors, nurses, care staff, and social workers, must report suspected abuse, and a report triggers an Adult Protective Services investigation and often a police referral. That system is designed to err toward reporting, which means many reports describe things with innocent explanations: bruising from anticoagulants or frail skin, weight loss from disease progression, falls that no level of supervision prevents, and confusion caused by medication or dementia rather than by anyone’s conduct.
Financial cases frequently begin with one relative seeing a bank statement. A parent who gave money willingly, a joint account used as the parent intended, a caregiver paid for real work, or an inheritance decision another sibling dislikes can all be reported as exploitation. Capacity is usually the contested issue: whether the elder understood and intended what they did, which is a medical and factual question rather than an assumption to be drawn from their age.
The consequences
What a conviction carries
A felony conviction under Penal Code 368 carries a term of two, three, or four years, with additional consecutive terms where the victim suffers great bodily injury or death, and higher terms where the victim is 70 or older. Where great bodily injury was personally inflicted, the conviction can be a strike under Penal Code 1192.7(c)(8).
The collateral consequences are often worse than the sentence. A conviction ends a career in nursing, care work, or any licensed health profession, is reported to the licensing board, and for a non-citizen can be a crime involving moral turpitude or a crime of child or elder abuse with removal consequences. A financial abuse conviction is also a crime of dishonesty. Restitution is mandatory, and a parallel civil suit under the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act is common.
Sources: Penal Code 368(b)(2)–(3) — enhanced terms where great bodily injury or death results; Penal Code 1192.7(c)(8) — personal infliction of great bodily injury as a serious felony.
The defense
How these cases are defended
Medical causation is the centre of most physical and neglect cases. Independent review of the records, by a physician rather than an investigator, regularly shows that an injury or decline was the natural course of disease, a medication effect, or an unavoidable fall, and not the result of anything a caregiver did or failed to do. The standard is what a reasonable person in that position would have done, not perfection and not hindsight.
In financial cases: authority and consent. A valid power of attorney, a joint account the elder created deliberately, documented gifts, an agreed caregiver wage, and evidence of the elder’s capacity at the time of the transactions all defeat the intent the statute requires. A family dispute about an inheritance is not a crime, and the contemporaneous documents usually show which it is.
Then the ordinary issues: whether the accused had a duty of care at all, whether they knew or should have known the person was an elder or dependent adult, whether the victim’s statements are reliable where dementia is involved, and whether the loss figure is accurate.
The office
How the Law Offices of Patrick S. Aguirre defends these cases
The office has defended criminal cases in Long Beach and across Los Angeles County for nearly three decades. Elder abuse cases turn on records: medical charts, care notes, bank statements, and the documents showing what the elder actually decided and when. Those are obtained and independently reviewed rather than accepted as the investigator summarised them.
These cases also frequently run alongside a civil suit, an APS investigation, and a licensing proceeding, and statements made in any of them can be used in the others. Nothing here predicts an outcome. The firm has offices in Long Beach and Downey and speaks Spanish.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions
My parent gave me the money. How is that a crime?
It is not, if they had capacity and intended the gift. Penal Code 368(d) and (e) require a theft, embezzlement, forgery, or fraud, all of which need wrongful intent. The contested question is almost always whether the elder understood and intended the transaction, which is answered from medical records and contemporaneous documents rather than from another relative’s assumption.
I am a caregiver and a patient was injured. Am I criminally liable?
Not for a bad outcome alone. The statute requires wilful conduct or criminal negligence, which is more than ordinary carelessness and far more than an unavoidable decline. Where an independent medical review shows the injury or deterioration was the course of the disease, a medication effect, or a fall no reasonable supervision would have prevented, the element is missing.
Is elder abuse a felony?
Penal Code 368(b)(1) is a wobbler, chargeable as a misdemeanor or a felony carrying two, three, or four years, with additional consecutive terms where great bodily injury or death results and higher terms where the victim is 70 or older. Financial abuse under subdivisions (d) and (e) is keyed to the value taken.
Adult Protective Services called me. Should I explain?
Not without advice. An APS investigation regularly becomes a police referral, and what you say is passed on. Explaining yourself feels natural and is where a great many of these cases get their most damaging evidence. The same applies to an employer’s internal investigation or a licensing board inquiry.
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Meet your attorney
Law Offices of Patrick S. Aguirre
A Professional Law Corporation
The future of your case may depend on a successful outcome. It can be stressful to go through the legal process alone—but thankfully, you don’t have to.
The Law Offices of Patrick S. Aguirre will stand up for clients’ interests and rights, providing high-quality representation in personal injury cases and criminal defense matters throughout California from its Long Beach office.
We work with you and for your best interests. Our legal team is compassionate, hard-working, and tenacious—fighting to get the job done right when it matters most. No case is too complicated or insignificant for our full attention. Our clients may move forward into a brighter future free from worry about past mistakes.
We’re the legal team that never gives up. When you need an attorney who will fight for what’s right, turn to us, and we’ll do everything in our power to help. No matter how challenging your situation may seem, there is hope.
“Courage is the most important attribute of a lawyer.”
Robert F. Kennedy
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