
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994                   TAG: 9404220195
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Short

WOMAN GETS 1 YEAR FOR NEGLECT

A judge sentenced a woman to a year in jail for neglecting her 83-year-old mother, who died of complications from malnutrition and dehydration.

It was at least the second time a Virginia judge imposed the maximum sentence allowed by a new law holding those who care for incapacitated adults responsible for their welfare.

Betty Jane Lynn, 61, was convicted in January of neglecting her mother, Alma Ford Christ.

Christ was taken to Bedford County Memorial Hospital Aug. 4, 1993. She died Aug. 5 as a result of multisystem failure complicated by malnutrition and dehydration, a state medical examinier said.

Hospital officials and lifesaving crew members testified that besides other chronic health problems, Christ had open and bleeding bedsores all over her body. Rescue squad workers found her lying in her own feces.

According to testimony, Christ had not been turned or moved from the couch where she stayed in Lynn's home for most of the approximately two years she lived there.

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB