2C:24-8 neglect
of elderly person, disabled adult; third degree crime
1. a. A
person having a legal duty to care for or who has assumed continuing
responsibility for the care of a person 60 years of age or older or a disabled
adult, who abandons the elderly person or disabled adult or unreasonably
neglects to do or fails to permit to be done any act necessary for the physical
or mental health of the elderly person or disabled adult, is guilty of a crime
of the third degree. For purposes of this section "abandon"
means the willful desertion or forsaking of an elderly person or disabled
adult.
1. a. A
person having a legal duty to care for or who has assumed continuing
responsibility for the care of a person 60 years of age or older or a disabled
adult, who abandons the elderly person or disabled adult or unreasonably
neglects to do or fails to permit to be done any act necessary for the physical
or mental health of the elderly person or disabled adult, is guilty of a crime
of the third degree. For purposes of this section "abandon"
means the willful desertion or forsaking of an elderly person or disabled
adult.
b.
A person shall not be
considered to commit an offense under this section for the sole reason that he
provides or permits to be provided nonmedical remedial treatment by spiritual
means through prayer alone in lieu of medical care, in accordance with the tenets
and practices of the elderly person's or disabled adult's established religious
tradition, to an elderly person or disabled adult to whom he has a legal duty
to care for or has assumed responsibility for the care of.
c.
Nothing in this section
shall be construed to preclude or limit the prosecution or conviction for any
other offense defined in this code or in any other law of this State.