Faced With Prison, Woman Drops Guilty Plea in Elder Abuse Case

A Simi Valley woman abruptly withdrew a guilty plea for felony elder abuse Thursday after a judge said she would face prison time for allegedly neglecting her husband so severely that he was hospitalized with deep bedsores.

Shirley Starkey, 69, pleaded guilty two months ago to one felony count of elder abuse and a special allegation that she caused great bodily harm to her husband, William. Judge Herbert Curtis had previously agreed that Starkey could be placed on house arrest instead of being sent to prison.

But he changed his mind Thursday after reading a probation report and letters from William Starkey’s relatives. The documents have not been made public, but Curtis said that what he read was serious enough to warrant a prison sentence.

This is the second time that Starkey has faced charges of neglecting her husband, who suffered from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. In June 1997, he fell out of bed and spent an entire day on the floor in his own waste before his wife called 911.

She pleaded no contest to elder abuse and was placed on three years’ probation. She was also ordered to provide a safe environment for her husband.

In late 1998, Starkey was arrested when she took 68-year-old William to the hospital dehydrated, malnourished and with bedsores so deep they exposed his bones. He was placed in a nursing home, but has since died from ailments unrelated to the alleged neglect.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Audry Rohn said she is not surprised that the judge changed his mind.

“This was a crime that required [Starkey’s] knowledge and action,” Rohn said after Thursday’s hearing. “She willingly neglected her husband.”

Rohn said the probation report showed that Starkey controlled and dominated her husband and that she did not suffer from mental illness.

But defense attorney Craig Robinson said the case illustrates how difficult it is for the elderly to care for their spouses, especially when there are health complications. Robinson also criticized social workers who he said failed to keep tabs on William Starkey’s health and help his wife care for him.

“She is barely able to take care of herself, much less another person,” Robinson said.

The day after Christmas 1998, Shirley Starkey called a neighbor to say she needed his help taking her husband to the hospital. The neighbor found William Starkey caked in his own feces and covered with open wounds, according to court records.

During an interview with a detective, Shirley Starkey said she couldn’t help her husband because he was cantankerous and mean. She said that he wouldn’t eat anything but milk and dessert and that he refused to go to the hospital. He wouldn’t use a bedpan, she said, adding that she had given up trying to put diapers on him.

When showed pictures of his condition, she said, “They were just bedsores and he did it to himself,” a Simi Valley detective told the court.

Starkey told the detective that she thought the sores would heal and that she tried to put diaper rash medication on them.

Curtis scheduled the case for trial next month in Ventura County Superior Court. Starkey could face seven years in prison if convicted.