Police Officer Allegedly Exploits Elderly Woman

A New Hampshire Superior Court is set to decide a hearing about whether Portsmouth Detective, Aaron Goodwin, has actually coerced an elderly woman to place himself in a position to inherit her wealthy estate. Goodwin denies that he committed any wrongdoing. Goodwin appears to have believers in both “the New Hampshire Attorney general’s office and the Bureau of Elderly Affairs.” Both agencies have claimed that there appears to be no evidence of the crime to which Goodwin stands accused. Suspicions were aroused when the 94-year-old woman made Goodwin a beneficiary of a new trust that she created this past June. The woman claims that there was no wrongful conduct occurred, and that she is more than capable of making decisions about where her estate should go. Meanwhile, the woman’s competency is in dispute at the moment. 

The person making the allegations of wrongdoing is the elderly woman’s attorney, James Ritzo. Ritzo claims that he has completed estate planning work for the elderly woman in the past and claims that her wills have remained consistently the same. Recently, she changed her will shortly after meeting the detective, and only after Goodwin shopped around for an attorney who would change the will. Ritzo claimed that he refused to change the will on the ground that he believed she was not mentally competent. Ritzo claims that she woman suffering from dementia and failing eyesight, which might play into her incompetency.

See Elizabeth Dinan, Lawyer: Cop Is Exploiting Elderly Woman, SeacoastOnline, Nov. 4, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.