The Carolina prosecutor’s office filed criminal charges on Wednesday, October 28, against Francheska Lee Ortiz Machado, 23, for allegedly assaulting and threatening her elderly adoptive parents, according to Puerto Rico Justice Department Secretary Lourdes L. Gómez Torres. The incidents took place on October 19, when Ortiz Machado allegedly struck her 65-year-old adoptive mother in the face with a metal chair after damaging the door of her residence with the same object.
On Tuesday, October 27, the defendant allegedly threatened to attack her mother again and to hit her 67-year-old father while holding a broom handle and insisting on entering the house. Prosecutors Kristia J. Díaz Pérez and Carlos Gómez González charged her with abuse of elderly persons under Article 127A of the Puerto Rico Penal Code.
Judge Annette Santiago Díaz, of the Carolina Court of First Instance, found probable cause on all charges and set bail at $40,000. Ortiz Machado was jailed after failing to post it, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for November 12. Agents Brenda Massa, of the Carolina Criminal Investigations Corps, and Jesús Rodríguez, of Carolina Norte, handled the investigation.