Aurora man pleads guilty to neglecting mother
By Matt Hanley mhanley@stmedianetwork.com June 4, 2012 5:26PM
Kevin H. Roberson / photo from Kane County State's Attorney's office
Article Extras
Updated: July 7, 2012 8:24AM
One of three Aurora siblings accused of neglecting their elderly mother has pleaded guilty.
Kevin Roberson, 43, of the 1100 block of North Randall Road, pleaded guilty last week to criminal neglect or abuse of an elderly person, according to the Kane County state’s attorney’s office.
Roberson entered his plea without an agreed upon sentence, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. Roberson faces up to five years in prison, but could be sentenced to probation.
In 2011, Kevin Roberson and his siblings, Connie and Alan Roberson, of the same Randall Road address, were all charged with failing to care for their 77-year-old mother after she was released from a hospital.
Court records said their mother, Martha Roberson, had open wounds, malnutrition, severe dehydration “and other severe health problems due to serious neglect.” Officials also noted she had a “nest of bugs” in her hair and severe tissue damage that led to gangrene and the eventual amputation of part of one leg.
According to court documents and prosecutors, her children also did not take her to follow-up doctor visits or get their mother’s prescription medication. Paramedics who went to the Roberson home reported an “overwhelming odor of dead and decaying flesh,” prosecutors said.
Martha Robinson was appointed a private guardian to make financial and medical decisions on her behalf.
The trio opted against putting Martha Roberson in a nursing home because she paid the rent on the home they all shared, prosecutors said.
The cases against Connie Roberson and Alan Roberson are pending. Connie Roberson is scheduled to be in court June 21; Alan Roberson on June 15.
In 2010, two Geneva sisters were convicted of criminal neglect in the death of their ailing mother. After getting a conviction at trial, then-Kane County State’s Attorney John Barsanti did not seek jail time for the sisters, who had no prior criminal history. They were sentenced to conditional discharge — a less-strict, non-reporting form of probation. (Barsanti is now a judge in Kendall County.)
All the Roberson siblings have previous convictions. According to prosecutors, Alan Roberson was charged with drunken driving in 2008 and again in 2009. Kevin Roberson was charged with drunken driving in 2010. He was also charged with possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia in 1995. Connie Roberson has a 1992 felony charge of manufacturing and delivering a controlled substance.
