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Woman, 70, Is Not Exempt From Imposition of Restraining Order for Elder Abuse—C.A.
Panel Rejects Contention by Defendant, a Lawyer, as to Purpose of Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act
By a MetNews Staff Writer
It’s no defense to a petition for a restraining order under the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act that the defendant is herself an oldster, the Court of Appeal for this district has held in rejecting the position of a restrained person under that act who is a wheelchair-bound 70-year-old lawyer.
Defendant Laura G. Dewey was sued in separate actions by four residents of “Friendship Manor,” a retirement community in Santa Barbara County’s City of Goleta, where friendships of the four with Dewey, also a resident there, deteriorated markedly. Dewey’s challenges to four restraining orders granted by Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle were consolidated on appeal, with affirmance coming Monday in an unpublished opinion by Justice Tari L. Cody.
Acrimony developed between Dewey and plaintiff Judith Hughes after the latter took exception to Dewey berating a non-party resident, Barry White. Dewey explained in her brief on appeal that she “tried to explain” at the time of the confrontation, “that White was, not only an antisemite, but one who subscribed to Nazi ideals, and that he stalked her. Friendship Manor had sent him a letter instructing him to leave Dewey alone, but he ignored it and continued to harass her because she is Jewish.”
Disputes later arose with plaintiffs William Cropley and Dennis Berger.
Shoving Alleged
The first of two incidents precipitating discord with plaintiff John Bobkoff occurred in the spring of 2022. As Dewey tells it, she was moving along in a pathway in what she calls her “electric mobility chair, but proceeding too slowly, as Bobkoff perceived it, and he ordered her to “move,” then pushing her chair out of the way.
A few weeks later, she allegedly spotted him swiping a neighbor’s Sunday newspaper; challenged him, and he pushed her aside.
None of the plaintiffs, who were in pro per—as was Dewey—filed a respondent’s brief.
Summing up their allegations, Code said that Dewey’s action toward them allegedly included “trying to ram them with her mobility scooter; waiving her cane at them; falsely accusing them of battery and theft; calling them obscene names and racial epithets; filming them with her cell phone without permission; and using her professional training to intimidate them by saying things like ‘go ahead and sue me I’m a lawyer.’ ”
Cody added:
“They also describe being frightened by her acts toward others, such as using her cane to knock down bicyclists and to strike the cars of those stopping to pick up family members in front of Friendship Manor.”
Dewey’s Contention
Dewey wrote in one of two briefs on appeal:
“The Act is designed to ensure the safety of elders, not to provide a forum for fellow residents of senior communities to resolve their differences.”
She said in the other brief:
“The Legislature did not intend to provide our courtrooms as forums for resolving disputes in a communal living facility, nor should restraining orders be granted following episodes of ‘mutual combat.’ ”
Position Rejected
Disagreeing with Dewey’s stance, Cody said:
“Nothing in the Act prohibits trial courts from issuing protective orders against elderly or dependent adults who violate its provisions.”
She noted that under Welfare & Institutions Code §15657.03(c), “any person” may be restrained. The subsection provides, with an exception not applicable:
“[A]n order may be issued under this section, with or without notice, to restrain any person for the purpose of preventing a recurrence of abuse, if a declaration shows, to the satisfaction of the court, reasonable proof of a past act or acts of abuse of the petitioning elder or dependent adult.”
Cody said that the plaintiffs’ accounts of events, in testimony, “conflicted, often fundamentally” but noted that an appellate court must bow to credibility determinations by trial courts.
The case is Bobkoff v. Dewey, B327917.
Dewey received her law degree from Lewis & Clark College in 1982 and was admitted to the State Bar of California the following year. She was president of Santa Barbara Women Lawyers in 2001-02.
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