OJAI, Calif.—A Southern California woman is in custody after deputies discovered her 96-year-old father and multiple pets living in a home stinking of feces and infested with up to 700 rats, authorities said on March 19.
Catherine Ann Vandermaesen, 65, was arrested on suspicion of felony elder abuse and misdemeanor animal neglect, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. She was in custody and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Vandermaesen didn’t want to allow deputies inside the home during a welfare check last Wednesday, March 13, in Ojai, a small city in a rural valley northwest of Los Angeles, the statement said. A sheriff’s task force returned the next day and encountered multiple pets and urine and feces throughout the residence, authorities said. The home was also filled with garbage, according to the release.
Eight dogs, two rabbits, a cat, a parrot, and 55 pet rats were removed. Animal Control estimated the house was infested with another 200 to 700 rats.
Vandermaesen’s elderly father and her 74-year-old sister, who deputies described as a “possible victim,” were taken by ambulance to a hospital. Their conditions were unknown.
County welfare authorities assumed custody of Vandermaesen’s father, who uses a wheelchair. Officials also helped the sister get temporary housing services.
Vandermaesen had “willfully caused or permitted the health of her elderly father to suffer” by allowing him to live at the home, officials said.
The city declared the home “unlivable and a danger to the occupants and animals.”
Woman Gets 15 Years in Prison for Brutal July 4 Attack on Grandfather
A California woman who was charged in the attack of a 92-year-old grandfather was sentenced to 15 years in prison, said officials.
Laquisha Jones, 30, of Los Angeles, was charged with felony elder abuse in December.
Witnesses said Jones hit Rodolfo Rodriguez, the elderly man, with a brick, and he suffered a broken jaw and broken ribs on July 4, 2018.
BREAKING: A Los Angeles woman who used a block of concrete to repeatedly beat a grandfather in his 90s in Willowbrook…
The Los Angeles Superior Court announced her sentence on Feb. 28, reported Fox Los Angeles. In December, Jones pleaded no contest in the attack, The Associated Press reported.
In the attack, a witness, Misbel Borjas, claimed that Jones yelled “go back to your country.”
The case, however, was not prosecuted as a hate crime, AP reported.
BREAKING NEWS: A woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for brutally attacking a 92-year-old grandfather with a brick in Willowbrook. Prosecutors said evidence pointed to a possible hate crime.
由 ABC7 发布于 2019年2月28日周四
Jones is slated to appear in court on April 11 for a restitution hearing.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in July that Jones allegedly beat Rodriguez with a brick. Witnesses at the time said that several men got involved in the attack on Rodriguez.
“Detectives began an extensive investigation into the assault. They obtained an arrest and search warrant for a suspect. Due to working every angle and lead in the case, it ultimately resulted in the arrest of Laquisha Jones without incident,” the office said in a prior report.
Arrest made in July 4 attack on 92-year-old man https://t.co/OoHZf4EJ3P pic.twitter.com/Owm78zyNyn
— Fox5NY (@fox5ny) July 11, 2018
A witness told CNN that Jones allegedly told Rodriguez, “Go back to Mexico.”
Erik Mendoza, the grandson of the victim, also had written in a GoFundMe page that an “African-American lady and five other guys” assaulted his grandfather. “He is doing really bad, has a lot of bruises on his face and a broken cheekbone,” he said.
Rodriguez is a native of Mexico but a legal resident of the United States, and he was reportedly visiting his family. When he was attacked, he had gone out alone for his daily walk, his grandson told NBC News.
“Who would do this to anybody?” Mendoza asked. “A 92-year-old senior citizen, what can he do to anybody? There’s no harm that he meant.”
Other details about her case are not clear.
Violent Crime in the US
The number of murders and violent crimes committed in the United States dropped slightly in 2017, according to new crime statistics released in September 2018.
“Crime declined nationwide last year, consistent with our earlier analyses of 2017 data in the nation’s 30 largest cities,” Ames Grawert, senior counsel for the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, told the Washington Times.
Update (12:53 p.m.): The LA County Sheriff's Department issued a statement on the investigation, saying detectives do…
由 NBC LA 发布于 2018年7月11日周三
“That’s the good news. The bad news is that even while crime is falling, the number of Americans incarcerated remains near-record highs. Now is the time to address the problem.” The number of cases of manslaughter and murder dropped 0.7 percent in 2017 from the prior year, the report said.
Rapes rose by 3 percent and aggravated assault rose by 1 percent, but overall violent crimes dropped 0.2 percent, the report added.
In large California cities, crime was up in 2016, the last year data was collected.
“Data analysis by the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation found that of the 69 California cities listed in the report, 46 had increased in violent crime last year. Some cities saw increases of more than 50% in crime, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. In Los Angeles, violent crime rose 16.8% compared to 2015,” said the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, citing FBI data.
“Cities with the largest violent crime increases included Moreno Valley (+66.3%), Burbank (+50.7%), Fremont (+41.6%), El Cajon (+27.8%), Santa Maria (+26.1%), Rialto (+22.7%), Riverside (+22.5%), and Pasadena (+18.1%).”
It added: “The largest increases in murder were reported in San Jose (+127%), Santa Ana (+116.6%), San Bernardino (+100%), San Diego (+41.1%), and Berkeley (+35%). Rapes increased in many cities, including in Corona (+166%), Fremont (+73.6%), Fairfield (+70.5%), and Elk Grove (+68.4%).”
The Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips contributed to this report .
