Criminal mistreatment is the charge filed in relation to the case of an 86 year-old Alki man who died after being found in such bad condition, he died days later. This happened in 2010; two of his sons have just been charged this month. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office tells WSB they are due in court the day before Thanksgiving to answer charges. 57-year-old Kenneth Shaw and 54-year-old Keith Shaw are charged with second-degree criminal mistreatment because of what happened to their father Kyle Shaw Jr.
This story was first reported last night by seattlepi.com. Today we obtained the court documents, which say it happened almost exactly two years ago when the brothers were living with, and fully financially supported by, their father and 83-year-old mother. A unidentified family member called an ambulance, reporting that their father was in “an altered state of consciousness” after not eating or drinking for a week. The ambulance EMT saw and smelled filthy conditions and discovered that the older man’s socks looked as if they had grown into his feet, which medics eventually described as “rotting.” Other problems were found at the hospital.
Meantime, an investigation proceeded, and Keith Shaw is quoted as ultimately telling authorities that they didn’t want to put their parents into a nursing home because it would cost $100,000 a year and would “clean out the accounts,” undesirable to them because he had no retirement coverage and his brother Ken had never worked. Their brother and sister-in-law next door also were reported to be living off their parents’ money.
Ten days after being taken to the hospital, Kyle Shaw Jr. was sent to hospice care at a West Seattle nursing home, and four days later, he died, weighing just 108 pounds at five-feet-seven, according to the court documents – 43 pounds less than he had weighed at a health-care appointment two and a half years earlier. Weight loss and muscular atrophy were listed as among the causes of Kyle Shaw Jr.’s death, but
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