Statutes | Fort Belknap Tribal Code Title IV Part II ยง 1.10 | 2019
A. A person commits the offense of Elder Abuse if s/he purposely or knowingly does one or more of the following: inflicts physical injury upon an elder or intimidates an elder or financially exploits an elder or when a caretaker or a family member knowingly deprives (as defined under Abuse of a family member) an elder of the basic necessities of life such as, but not limited to food, shelter, clothing, and medical and personal care, which are necessary to avoid physical harm, mental anguish, or mental illness or commits an act or causes an act to be committed against an elder with the intent to terrify, harass, abuse, repeatedly annoys or repeatedly offends the elder.
B. A person convicted of Elder Abuse shall be guilty of a Class 1 offense and shall be fined an amount not to exceed $5,000.00, or imprisoned for a term not to exceed one year in jail, or both.
C. Mandatory Arrest.
1) An officer shall arrest and take into custody any person who the officer has reason to believe abused an elderly person with whom s/he is residing. This mandatory arrest provision means the victim need not sign a complaint for an arrest to occur. Further, the officer shall arrest if he has probable cause to do so even though it may be against the express wishes of the victim. No warrant is required.
2) An officer shall arrest and take into custody any person whom the officer has probable cause to believe has violated an order for protection regardless of whether the person violating the order was invited back into the home.
3) Whether or not an arrest occurred the officer must make a written report and submit the report within 48 hours to the prosecutor. The prosecutor must provide a copy of such report to the Department of Social Services within 48 hours after its receipt.
D. Definitions. For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall control:
1) "Elder" shall mean a person who is 55 years old or older.
2) "financially exploits" shall mean expending the funds of an elder for purposes which do not directly benefit the elder, without hislher permission, or expending resources for purposes which do not directly benefit an elder who is incompetent.
3) "intimidates" shall mean an act or statement by a person which purposely causes another person to perform or not to perform an act because helshe is afraid or believes to do so would mean the person would carry out a threat.
History: Subsection 1 .I0 (A-D) enacted pursuant to Resolution 3-95: revised on the 3/8/99, Resolution 63-99