Arrest Of Nursing Home Operator In Connection With Alleged Bribery

State of California, Nov 08, 2006

LOS ANGELES – Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced the state Department of Justice Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse (BMFEA) has arrested the owner of six skilled nursing facilities in Southern and Central California in connection with the alleged bribery of a nursing home inspector for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LADHS).

“In my seven years as Attorney General, I have seen few more disturbing cases of public trust betrayed and gross abuse of the elderly who cannot defend themselves,” said Lockyer. “The owner of these homes lived in luxury on the taxpayers’ dime while the senior citizens she was paid to care for lived in squalor. Our investigation in this case will continue. I hope the owner’s claims of having a cadre of public employees secretly on her payroll prove to be false bravado. But if they are not, we will apply the full force of the law.”

Marlene Zerna Robertson, 62, of Bradbury Estates, owner of MZR, Inc. (MZR), was arrested Thursday and booked in Los Angeles County jail on five counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Along with Robertson, BMFEA agents arrested two co-conspirators: Isidra Abacan Agulto, 54, of Glendale, corporate administrator of MZR; and Josemar Aberin Mercado, 49, of Bradbury Estates. Agulto was booked on five counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, and Mercado was booked on one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.