Son Accused of Abuse Took Good Care of Mom: Lawyer

The attorney for a Dania Beach man accused of abusing his elderly mom said his client took great care of his mother, and that police made a mistake when they identified rice on the woman’s neck as maggots.

Pastro Jang-Sung Park, 53, was arrested in May after police said they found his 84-year-old mother malnourished, dehydrated and living in an outside shed.

Police also claimed the woman had a worm burrowing into her body.

Park was originally charged with a second-degree felony of elderly abuse with serious bodily injury. The charges were downgraded Wednesday to elderly abuse simple neglect.

“There were no maggots ... there were pieces of rice stuck to her clothing, police made a mistake," defense attorney Pedro Dijols said after a hearing Wednesday. "There was no worm burrowing, that's ridiculous."

Dijols said Park will return to court on Sept. 2 and plans to enter a not guilty plea.

"Mr. Park actually was taking very good care of his mother, he took her to the doctor on a regular basis," he said. "This is a situation that a lot of people don't understand what was going on."

Dijols said Park had decided to rent out all the rooms in his house when the recession hit.

Authorities also claimed the shed the woman was forced to live in had no water or air conditioning, a claim. Dijols said that is also false.

"There was a plan that came up between him and his mother that she could stay out in the shed," Dijols said. "The shed was not some regular Home Depot shed, this was in very excellent condition, he used it as an office prior to this, it has air conditioning that worked ... the shed was clean. It had electricity."

"She was being fed on a regular basis, her needs were being taken care of. It wasn't as bad as the police made it out to be."

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