11:27 AM EST on Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Sixty-four-year-old Phillip Crowe says at first he was angry, frustrated at paying a $1,500 deposit for tree work that was never finished.

He wasn't alone. The same man had scammed 26 people.

“This is a lot of victims for one person over a relatively short amount of time,” Crowe says. “So there's a need.”

Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel is trying to address the need by creating a three-person elder abuse unit.

The announcement comes one week after the release of a state legislative report showing just 34 elder abuse convictions in Kentucky in four years.

“Just shows we have a huge weakness in Kentucky in elder abuse,” says Cathy Allgood Murphy of the AARP of Kentucky.

Prosecutor Todd Lewis will lead the new unit and says the cases often come down to the dollar bill.

“Senior citizens are often targeted because of their money. Even when they're physically abused by family members and others, it so often revolves around money that we're decided to look at the cases in a unique light differently than any other case,” Lewis says.

Stengel says the new unit won't cost the office a penny. It's being formed by re-organizing the existing staff -- and its work began Tuesday.

Web story produced by Jay Ditzer.