SAN BRUNO, CALIFORNIA – Our San Diego nursing home injury attorneys have learned that the son-in-law of an 81-year-old woman, accused of keeping her in a severe state of neglect inside a rotten-smelling San Bruno home faces up to 90 days jail after pleading no contest to elder abuse. John Thomas Lyons, 56, was also promised that he could have the felony reduced to a misdemeanor halfway through probation if he serves the time successfully. Lyons will be sentenced on October 30.
Prior to his plea, Lyons faced up to five years prison if he was convicted by trial of the original elder abuse charges. The case has finally settled more than two years after San Bruno police discovered the woman. On July 30, 2007, Lyons called for medical help because he thought his mother-in-law was having a seizure and medics reported finding the woman in a state of “severe neglect,” with bed sores, gangrene, feces on her body and under her nails and clothing matted with feces and rotting food. Medics also reported that there was a rotten stench throughout the house. Lyons lives in Sacramento but stayed at the disabled woman’s San Bruno home at least four days a week as her caretaker. Currently, Lyons is free from custody on a $50,000 bail. While this incident relates to elder neglect in a private home, similar scenarios unfortunately occur in nursing homes throughout California. If a loved one has been the victim of improper care in a nursing home, contact our California skilled nursing home lawyers to discuss the circumstances of your case.
The California nursing home injury lawyers of Berman & Riedel, LLP comprise a San Diego based law firm that focuses its practice primarily in the area of elder abuse and neglect. The firm’s San Diego skilled nursing home attorneys have successfully represented victims of elder abuse and neglect throughout the state of California against some of the state’s worst perpetrators of elder abuse and neglect. The firm’s success is largely attributable to the vast experience and knowledge that the firm’s elder abuse attorneys have in this complicated area of litigation.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the care that an elderly loved one is receiving at a nursing home or other type of elder care facility, speak to a California nursing home injury attorney today at Berman & Riedel, LLP by calling (858) 350-8855. Our attorneys will be more than happy to provide you and your family with an initial free consultation to discuss what rights you may have under California and federal law. For more information about Berman & Riedel, LLP’s elder abuse and neglect law practice, visit the firm’s main San Diego nursing home injury lawyer website at www.preventelderabuse.com.
