FRESNO COUNTY LAW INFORCEMENT FAIL  TO CONDUCT HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION

Date:   May 27, 2007
Place: Odd Fellows Cemetery at 1541 Belmont Ave, Fresno, Ca. 93707
Time:  Press Conference 7:30pm - Prayer Vigil To Follow

Rev. Floyd D. Harris Jr President of the National Network In Action a civil and Human rights organization will be holding a press conference and Prayer Vigil to expose how people of color in Fresno County can't receive justice. This matter has scale to a national issue.

First the Fresno Police and the Fresno Sheriff Office kept playing with the daughters emotion by stating the other had jurisdiction and no one did anything.

The Fresno Police Detective refused take take initial documented crime report to him.

Then Fresno PD and Fresno SO internal affairs ignored her complaints and failed to refer her to the specialized elder abuse law enforcement unit.

It was not until Betty Harmon sought the assistance of the California Attorney General's office that referred her to the California State Justice Department-Bureau of Medical Fraud Elder Unit then finally someone listened to Betty.

The caretaker was sentenced to jail for financial abuse. Betty begged the local coroner to exhume her mother's body. He refused stating that Ms. Lilly could not have been poisoned.

Desperately Betty mortgaged her home, took her life savings and borrowed from friends and relatives to exhume her mother's body. She flew her mother's body to another state to have her examined by an independent forensic examiner.

Lilly M Harmon was taken to Fresno Community Hospital on 11/18/2004 by her neighbor Theresa Centeno and released the same day. Lilly was then admitted by ambulance on 11/21/2004 to Fresno Community Hospital and was transferred to Beverly Manor Hospital 2 days prior to her death, which occurred, on 12/6/2004.

Prominent, Dr. Matthias Okoye, MDJD from Lincoln, Nebraska concluded that Ms. Lilly Harmon was consistent to homicide and that she was poisoned by arsenic (acute and chronic) recently before her death.

Betty forwarded the findings to the local District Attorney and has been awaiting word from them for over a 1 1/2 month. Once again she was told by the DA's office that they would have to determine if the FC sheriff's office or the FPD's office had jurisdiction. Back to step one, two and half years later.

Now, after Fresno Bee covering story the Da's office calls to inform that this case will be turned over to FPD, The office that refused to accept the initial crime reported in the first place.

Although Betty has provided the proof that first elder financial abuse occurred, and now has proof that her mother was killed, Yet the ongoing failure of our public servants to investigate has turned the death of Ms. Lilly Harmon into a cold case.

Rev. Floyd D. Harris Jr
National Network In Action  
Ph: 559-803-0286

Ph: 1( 612) 961-7651 - Daughter of victim, Betty Harmon