North Georgia Elder Abuse Task Force presented the Pat King Awards
Oct. 24—Representatives of the North Georgia Elder Abuse Foundation presented the Pat King Guardian Award at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Headquarters, 3121 Panthersville Road in Decatur, on Oct. 21 at 10 a.m.
The award recipients were: Cliff Tippens, Special Agent of the GBI; Will Johnson Esq., Georgia Prosecuting Attorney's Council; Jim Mooney Esq., Georgia Attorney General's Office, Medicaid Fraud Division; and Chekesha Johnson, Chief Investigator, Georgia Attorney's Office, Medicaid Fraud Division.
Each of the recipients were key members of a collaborative team that took on a long-term investigation of the largest illegal unlicensed personal care home ring in Georgia. Their in-depth criminal investigation uncovered multiple unlicensed personal care homes in several counties where groups of elderly and handicapped victims were kept in squalid conditions, at times starved, deprived of bare necessities and their meager financial resources were stolen from them.
Despite their individual heavy workloads and the global pandemic, they continued to collaborate on this investigation, rescue victims from abusive environments and ultimately conduct successful prosecutions of multiple defendants for racketeering, exploitation and related charges; offences that were tantamount to horrific human trafficking of disabled and elderly victims.
Because of their individual high competence, personal resolve, tenacity and heart for protecting vulnerable exploited victims, Georgia is now a better and safer place elderly citizens to live.
The North Georgia Elder Abuse Task Force also acknowledges that to be successful and effective, law enforcement investigations rely on cooperation and collaboration with several partner agencies.
In this particular multi-faceted major case, several agencies were recognized and thanked. Without these entities, the case would not have been successful. The agencies were: Georgia Adult Protective Services, Healthcare Facility Regulation Division, City of Albany Police Department, Georgia Long Term Care Ombudsman, Monroe County EMS, Forensic Special Initiatives Unit and Dougherty County District Attorney's Office.
The North Georgia Elder Abuse Task Force Foundation was founded in 2018 by volunteers in the Cobb County Neighborhood Safety Commission to tackle the rising problem of elder abuse by fostering collaboration among public and private agencies that fight elder abuse.
