Man accused of tying up his mother, 80, is arrested in her death

A Costa Mesa man has been arrested in connection with the 2012 death of his 80-year-old mother whom he kept restrained to a bed and portable toilet, authorities said Wednesday.

Robert Dickerman, 47, who was arrested Tuesday, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and elder abuse resulting in death.

Detectives said they found Yoshiko Dickerman lying in urine inside a bathroom in her home in the 900 block of Azalea Drive in July 2012. She was dehydrated and had open sores on the left side of her body, police said.

The woman was taken to Orange Coast Memorial Hospital where she died the next day of sepsis, an inflammation of the body, according to an autopsy.

Dickerman, who was unemployed, said he had been caring for his mother since 2001, police reported.

Authorities described the home as being extremely dirty and cluttered, and that Dickerman told them he couldn’t clean up because his mother’s needs kept him preoccupied.

Costa Mesa police said they were called to the home in response to a medical aide report of a combative elderly female. Officers said Dickerman told them his mother slipped and became combative when he attempted to help her up.

Police said he left his mother on the bathroom floor for two days. Detectives subsequently discovered that Yoshiko’s son would tie her up to a bed and portable toilet, police said.

Dickerman is being held at Orange County Jail on $1-million bail and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.

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