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SCS/SB 689 - Under current law, a person who recklessly and purposely causes serious injury to an elderly person commits the crime of second degree elder abuse. This act makes it so a person who recklessly or purposely causes such injury has committed the crime. This act adds undue influence to the types of acts that, when committed against an elderly or disabled person, constitute the crime of financial exploitation. Undue influence is defined under the act to mean influence by a person who has authority over the elderly or disabled person in order to take unfair advantage of the person's vulnerable state of mind, neediness, pain, or agony. It includes improper use of various types of fiduciary authority. This act allows the Department of Social Services to release records regarding the income or assets of a resident of a skilled or intermediate nursing facility to prosecuting attorneys who are investigating or prosecuting an offense of financial exploitation. If a person is found guilty of financial exploitation by being in possession of funds disclosed as income or assets in department records and the funds are owed to a nursing facility, the court can order the offender to make restitution to the facility. The prosecuting attorney may receive ten percent of the funds collected under the order as reimbursements for the cost of enforcement. MEGHAN LUECKE
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