Man Arrested Over Neglect of Mother, 76

A Glendale man was arrested Saturday on suspicion of elder abuse after police found his 76-year-old mother lying on his apartment floor surrounded by human feces and cockroaches.

Mohammed Hossein Bozorgzadeh, 43, was released by Glendale police after posting a $10,000 bond. He will be arraigned on Nov. 5, authorities said.

Bozorgzadeh’s mother, Azymi Darakhandeh, was found at 10 a.m. in his three-bedroom apartment in the 1700 block of North Verdugo Road by the manager of the apartment complex, who summoned police.

The manager, Matthew Song, let himself into the apartment to check the water heater after tenants living below complained about water seeping through the ceiling, Song said.

Song found the apartment full of trash and cockroaches. While investigating the water leak, he heard a noise in the bedroom and found the elderly woman, who he did not know was living there, he said.

“I was really shocked,” Song said. “She couldn’t walk, she couldn’t say anything except her last name.”

Song called police, who found the woman lying on the bedroom floor, clad in a brown sweater and covered by a small blanket. The carpet under her was infested with cockroaches and she appeared to be dehydrated and malnourished, Sgt. Pete Michael said.

Paramedics took Darakhandeh to Glendale Adventist Medical Center. Authorities notified Bozorgzadeh, who was arrested at the hospital when he came to check on his mother, Michael said.

Bozorgzadeh gave no explanation for the situation, Michael said.

“The only statement he made was that he was the sole person who took care of his mother, and that it was difficult to take care of her,” he said.

Song said he and other staff members at the apartment complex had been in Bozorgzadeh’s apartment twice before during Bozorgzadeh’s 1 1/2 years as a tenant, but they did not know that his mother also lived there. Bozorgzadeh is now being evicted, the manager said.

Medical center officials said Wednesday that they were prohibited by law from disclosing Darakhandeh’s condition.