Three arraigned in kidnapping of Modesto woman from hospital

Three people suspected of kidnapping a 94-year-old Modesto woman to withdraw cash from her bank account made their first courtroom appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Rosemary Bazan, 38, Salyce Bazan, 19, and Manuel Flores, 38, have each been formally charged with kidnapping and elder abuse. Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Ruben Villalobos said in court that the defendants also face an enhancement to the kidnapping charge because the alleged victim was 65 years or older.

Based on the circumstances of the alleged crime and the age of the elderly woman, the judge increased the defendants’ bail to $200,000 for Rosemary and Salyce Bazan. Villalobos said Flores’ new bail amount at $300,000 was based on the fact he has a prior burglary conviction considered “a strike” under the state’s three strikes law.

Modesto police officials said the defendants on Monday afternoon took the woman, who suffers dementia and heart disease, from a hospital and convinced her to withdraw $1,000 from her bank account.

Family members of the suspects said the woman was at Doctors Medical Center. On social media and in a brief conversation with The Bee, they’ve said she is a close friend of the family, did not want to be in the hospital and the whole case is a big misunderstanding.

Doctors Medical Center spokeswoman Tiffani Burns would not comment, saying that because it’s a criminal investigation, all questions were being referred to the Police Department.

Rosemary and Salyce Bazan both asked the judge if he could release them from jail on their recognizance. The judge denied their requests. Rosemary Bazan began to cry in the courtroom, telling the judge, “We’re innocent, your honor.”

The judge entered a not guilty plea on behalf of each defendant, who appeared in court without an attorney. The court appointed attorneys to represent the defendants at their next hearing.

Villalobos scheduled the defendants to return to court Wednesday for a pretrial hearing. He arranged for a bail review hearing for Rosemary Bazan on the same date.

It’s unclear how the defendants are related. About 10 people attended the arraignment hearing to support the defendants. They gathered outside the courtroom after the hearing, wiping away tears. They declined to comment for this report.

Police were alerted Monday afternoon when the woman’s social worker called to say the suspects checked her out of the hospital against medical advice, according to Modesto Police spokeswoman Heather Graves.

The suspects live in the same southwest Modesto neighborhood as the woman and had befriended her.

After leaving the hospital, the suspects went to several fast-food restaurants then to a bank where they attempted to cash a large check the elderly woman wrote to one of them. The victim did not have the funds to support the check, so she withdrew a smaller amount – $1,000 – in cash for the suspects, Graves said.

After being contacted by the social worker, officers went to the woman’s house, where they found her with the suspects. She has since been readmitted to the hospital, Graves said.

Attorney Joyce Gandelman, director of the Senior Advocacy Network/Senior Law Project in Stanislaus County, said she believes someone would need to show an advance health care directive or conservatorship to remove such a patient, suffering dementia, from a hospital. Questions to the California Department of Public Health were not immediately answered Wednesday.

While police reports did not indicate use of force by the suspects in taking the woman from the hospital, Gandelman said kidnapping also includes taking a person by means of fraud and as part of a plan toward “another nefarious intent.” That further criminal intent is indicated by the suspects allegedly taking the woman to a bank to withdraw money for them.

Juan Ramirez, manager of Stanislaus County Adult Protective Services, said it’s hard to speak on the case without knowing more about the alleged victim. As a general rule, the elderly are presumed to have mental capacity unless there’s been a medical and legal determination they don’t. That’s part of their right of self-determination, he said. “Somebody would have to be conserved – a court determines this person no longer is capable of making medical or financial decisions. ...”

“With a person such as this, where there is no family there for them or if the family doesn’t think they have dementia, there is nothing an agency is going to do. If it comes to attention as this now is, the Public Guardian’s Office is the local agency charged with taking these cases before court.” The Public Guardian’s Office, part of the county Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, becomes the conservator.

It could not be determined Wednesday if the 94-year-old has a public guardian.

Gandelman also spoke to the right of self-determination – “seniors have the right to live the way they want to” – but said it’s a sad situation when a person with dementia is conned or manipulated into spending their money, often in ways that deplete life savings.

“We’re trying to get seniors and people who are not quite there yet to make powers of attorney before they get dementia, so people who really care about them are making decisions for them,” she said.

Con artists routinely scam seniors, even those of sound mind. “They may not be demented, but they’re influenced, and it all fits under that umbrella of financial abuse.”

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Three arraigned in kidnapping of Modesto woman from hospital."