Lawsuit says 'financial slavery' service by dominatrix was elder exploitation
A Florida dominatrix was within the bounds of legality when she advertised her availability to provide physical punishment and “financial slavery,” a lawyer for Alex Abrams says.
But a Seminole County Circuit Court lawsuit alleges that Judith Gumbrecht, aka “Goddess Jude,” went too far with a sadomasochistic financial relationship with Abrams. She violated a state law against exploiting elderly persons financially, the complaint alleges, when she took $500,000 from the 68-year-old man’s bank and credit card accounts, plus his home, WKMG reports.
“Given his mental and physical condition, he was exploited,” attorney Brian Mark, who represents Abrams, told the station. The lawyer says his client suffered from dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and clinical depression when he gave Gumbrecht control of his accounts and transferred a townhome worth a little over $100,000 to her.
The defendant knew of Abrams’ diminished mental capacity because “She went with him to the doctor when he was diagnosed,” Mark said. “She was fully aware.”
However, a lawyer for Gumbrecht denied that his client had done anything wrong, based on what she knows of Abrams. Attorney Lawrence Walters.declined to comment on the case in detail, WKMG reports, because he is still reviewing the allegations of the court complaint,
A state statute bans financial and other exploitation of disabled adults and the elderly. It defines an elderly person, for this purpose, as “a person 60 years of age or older who is suffering from the infirmities of aging as manifested by advanced age or organic brain damage, or other physical, mental, or emotional dysfunctioning, to the extent that the ability of the person to provide adequately for the person’s own care or protection is impaired.”
Prohibited exploitation includes obtaining or using an elderly person’s assets “by a person who knows or reasonably should know that the elderly person or disabled adult lacks the capacity to consent.”
Alternatively, when a business relationship exists, the law also bans “knowingly obtaining or using, or endeavoring to obtain or use, an elderly person’s … funds, assets, or property with the intent to temporarily or permanently deprive the elderly person … of the use, benefit, or possession of the funds, assets, or property, or to benefit someone other than the elderly person.”
Hat tip: Palm Beach Post.
