Editor's note:  This story has been updated since its in-print publication.

PENNSYLVANIA — As officials in Pennsylvania are publicizing the “rampant” issue of elder abuse and their latest efforts to combat it, a 78-year-old Pike County woman, her family and a court-appointed special advocate (CASA) continue to seek justice in what they’re calling an overlooked case of “textbook elder exploitation.”

After months without gaining any traction from county officials, Marsha Newton doesn’t know where else to turn. Meanwhile, CASA volunteer Chuck Petersheim, who has tried to find legal help on her behalf, said he’s outraged at the county’s lack of action.

“It would have been so easy for these people to help this woman,” he said. “It’s cut and dried, black and white, and they did nothing. Where’s the outrage on their part?”

The storm

Through their years raising a family in Rockaway, NJ, Marsha Newton and her late husband Charles Bruce Newton always used to talk about one day relocating to rural Pennsylvania.

He died in 2000 before they had the chance. Two decades later, Marsha finally made that dream come true when she moved into a little house in Dingmans Ferry.

“I really liked living there,” she said.

But just one year after moving in, Hurricane Ida hit, and her life changed overnight. Marsha woke up to shards of sheet rock falling on her head as the storm sent a tree crashing through her bedroom ceiling.

“The tree hit at midnight, September 1, 2021; I’ll never forget it,” said Alexis Newton, Marsha’s great-granddaughter, who was living with her at the time. A teenager who also lived there got trapped in her own bedroom. Alexis “body slammed” the door to the teen’s bedroom, then ran into Marsha’s room and pushed her wheelchair-bound great-grandmother out to safety. The fire department came to the house later that night and deemed it structurally unsound—the family wasn’t allowed back inside.

It would be nearly a year before they could call their storm-damaged house a home again. Throughout that time, Marsha was largely on her own. She said nothing in her life leading up to this incident, prepared her to make informed decisions either.

“I never had to deal with anything like this, I didn’t even know how to deal with it,” she said. “I had a house in Rockaway, but my husband was there; he took care of fixing up the house if anything went wrong.”

After the storm

After getting displaced by the hurricane, Marsha lived out of a couple of different one-bedroom hotel rooms that her insurance covered for a limited time, and was busy looking for a contractor to make her house livable again. In the wake of Hurricane Ida, and the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, finding anybody who was available was no easy task.

“I called over 30 contractors and they were all busy,” Marsha said. Navigating the largely digital insurance process at 78 while living in a hotel wasn’t much easier, she said. With no fixed address and having difficulty logging into the online insurance portal, keeping up with communications from the company proved basically impossible.

Doing things over the phone was no less aggravating, she said.

“I called and they gave me an adjuster for my claim. Then I’d call back and never be able to get that person again,” she said. “That kept happening, and kept happening and kept happening for months.”

Marsha finally found somebody and hired them to fix up her home. She described the contractor as “Mr. Nice Guy” who promised to take care of everything—at first—even feeding her cats so that she didn’t have to make trips back to the house.

She now says she was “manipulated” into allowing him to handle the financial side of things, and alleges he deposited a $42,000 insurance check meant to go toward her home furnishings and personal belongings, and only gave her about half of it.

The contractor did not respond to River Reporter’s requests for comment. He stopped working on the house in early 2022 and maintains—evidenced by a court filing—that he has still not been paid what he is owed.

Marsha now beats herself up for how things went, but says it all occurred during a particularly vulnerable time. Alexis wasn’t there to help at this point either, because she was living in her car, and didn’t have regular contact with Marsha as she normally would.

“A week before the tree fell on the house, a deer had crashed into my car,” Marsha said. “Two weeks after that, we got COVID. So, I was really not altogether… I’m 78 years old; it was all just too much for me… I wasn’t thinking straight.”

A continuing saga

Marsha eventually found a supporter in Petersheim, who became aware of the situation through his involvement in the CASA program. He wasn’t assigned by the court to be Marsha’s advocate, but became personally invested in helping her after visiting her home and hearing her story.

Petersheim owns a home construction business in the region and has written for the River Reporter as a freelancer in the past.

Petersheim collected documents and records of Marsha’s insurance process and reviewed them with his lawyer and a Narrowsburg-based insurance broker, Eric Goldstein.

“Between my lawyer, myself and an insurance expert, we were able to put the pieces together of what happened to her,” Petersheim said. “We weren’t able to fix it or remedy it, although I’m still trying.”

Goldstein told the River Reporter that the check covering Marsha’s personal belongings should have gone directly to her.

“The insurance company did what they were supposed to,” he said. “It’s just, she was, unfortunately, taken advantage of.”

According to correspondence from the insurance company which has been shared with the River Reporter, the company paid out more than $130,000 in total for Marsha’s claim.

Beyond this small, unofficial team of advocates, Marsha has had no luck in finding legal help for her situation.

Advocacy center

On June 15—recognized as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day—the PA Department of Aging (PDA) announced the establishment of a “first-of-its-kind” older adult advocacy center. Specifically, the center is tailored to help victims of elder abuse or neglect and promises to set the national standard for protecting older Americans.

“The older adult advocacy center will be designed to serve older adults in the safest, least restrictive way. No one should ever be a victim of abuse, especially our aging population,” said secretary for the aging Jason Kavulich, who used to serve as Lackawanna County’s Area Agency on Aging director. “This facility will change thousands of lives and will serve as a state and national model.”

Pennsylvania—which is home to one of the largest elderly populations in the country—investigates tens of thousands of potential abuse cases each year. Lackawanna County’s department alone investigates about 1,200 cases annually. According to state data, the vast majority of elder abuse never gets reported in the first place. In a 2020 report, PDA estimated that, at the high end, maybe 10 percent of cases are brought forward.

But what if reporting a case doesn’t help?

No help from the DA

Marsha talked to the state police about the situation, but said they told her they can’t pursue it, because Pike County District Attorney Raymond Tonkin has deemed it a civil, not criminal, issue. Tonkin has not responded to any of the River Reporter's requests for comment. Neither have the state police.

Marsha said the Pike County Area Agency on Aging showed an initial interest in what happened, but that a case worker more recently told her that they also could not do anything more for her, referencing the DA in her decision as well. Marsha’s case worker said, citing privacy protocols, that she couldn’t comment on the case specifically.

Pike County Area Agency on Aging supervisor Robin Soares—talking about elder abuse in general—said that even if a case of potential exploitation isn’t considered criminal, there are other avenues that protective services can explore with local seniors.

“We can always make a legal referral, if the DA or law enforcement deem it a civil matter, we could still assist and walk them through the legal process,” Soares said. “It’s not the end of the line.”

Since originally reporting this story, Marsha has told River Reporter that the department has provided her with the phone number of a pro bono attorney. 

“Every single person in a position to help this vulnerable, elderly woman who experienced significant trauma due to an event completely outside her control has failed her,” said Petersheim, who continues seeking legal help on her behalf. “When I first learned of this situation, I thought I’d make one phone call and the DA would be all over it. Here I am a year later shaking my head and wondering what is wrong with these people.”

Getting back home

By March 2022, there was still a good deal of work left before the 900-square-foot house would pass an occupancy inspection. The work that had been completed—Marsha, Alexis and Petersheim say—was done shoddily. According to the occupants, the shower wasn’t installed correctly, the basement still floods when it rains, and until just recently, the two bedrooms where the tree landed had no electricity.

A shallow layer of water covers the Newtons' basement floor. Alexis said the flooding has her concerned about mold.

Alexis and her boyfriend, who were living in their car at the time, picked up much of the slack. Though they had no carpentry experience, Alexis said they spent their days learning on the spot how to make the house livable again, while working nights at a nearby inn.

“It took about three months, because I had to research, go to the store, figure it all out. We had no money,” Alexis said. “But all I cared about was getting back into her home.”

Habitat for Humanity also helped finish some more intensive projects, like installing a kitchen sink.

The family moved back into the house in August of 2022—almost a full year after the storm made them homeless. Habitat has been back to make additional improvements, like hooking up Marsha’s room with electricity, which she said she’s grateful for.

Overall, the house remains in “deplorable condition,” as reported by River Reporter photographer Jeff Sidle when he visited the house.

It’s been a year and a half since Marsha’s world caved in on her, and hitting nothing but roadblocks since then, she says, “Emotionally I’m not doing too good right now.”

“I feel let down, I feel hopeless,” she said. “Every place that I have reached out for help, nobody can help me… It reminds me of a conspiracy, even though I know it’s not. You just feel like everything’s against you.”

The front exterior of Marsha Newton's home with the remnants of the tree stump at the far left visible where the tree fell onto the roof near the peak.

A poorly fitted thermostat installation.

Unfinished drywall in living area.

The transition from the living area to the kitchen and bedroom area shows uneven flooring and an unfinished step.

Bathroom shower top detail.

Detail of the shower wall install.

Flooring in the kitchen area of Marsha Newton's home does not lay flat and has gaps and buckling.

Alexis Newton, great-granddaughter of Marsha Newton, points out an unfinished drywall and gas connection that used to feed a heater that is no longer present.

Alexis Newton standisin the kitchen that she helped to install cabinetry and countertops.

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