Nickelodeon Child Star Arrested for Protecting Disabled Aunt from Elder Abuse, Founds #SpongeyLeaks

When Trevor Eyster, known by the ’90s generation as "Sponge" from Nickelodeon’s Salute Your Shorts, discovered that his own family member had fallen victim to abuse in her own home, he took an unusual step. He started filming everything he saw, resulting in the launch of an ongoing docudrama miniseries "to find help for my aunt and bring awareness about elder/dependent adult abuse to as wide an audience as I could find," giving viewers a surprisingly candid look at how deep of a crisis abuse turns out to be for its victims and their family members.

In mid-November, Eyster received a desperate email from his bed-bound aunt, Barbara Eyster, that triggered his immediate visit. When Eyster entered her home in Northridge, CA, he encountered squalor "beyond my comprehension." His aunt, who suffers from progressively worsening multiple sclerosis, was subject to living without sunlight as her windows were covered up, no hot water to sterilize clothing and bed sheets, and the backyard pool intended for her physical therapy was dark green and infested with mosquitoes. Her statefunded IHSS caregiver was neglecting her medical needs, treating the open wounds of an immune-suppressed woman with rubbing alcohol and baby wipes, and allowing her various infections to spread uncontrollably, resulting in her re-hospitalization.

Eyster moved in and assessed the situation for a week before instructing the caregiver to leave the property. Instead, the caregiver called 911, falsely accusing Eyster of holding him hostage with a loaded gun. On the basis of the accusation, Eyster was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department on November 25th. The District Attorney’s office dropped the felony charges, as reported by TMZ, citing "inconsistencies" with the caregiver’s claims, noting the caregiver had a history of prior elder abuse reports filed against him.

According to the National Council on Aging, up to five million elderly Americans are victims of abuse each year – generally in their own homes. "We have to bear witness to the lives of those around us, especially the elderly and the vulnerable, who may not use technologies like Facebook to stay connected to the world," Eyster lamented in a recently televised interview on The Dee Armstrong Show.

One of his challenges, Eyster states, is "the shame that I feel for not monitoring the situation more closely or knowing that this was going on sooner." He hopes that by bringing his aunt’s situation into the light that his audience will gain a deeper understanding about the multifaceted impacts of elder/dependent adult abuse and the cascading legal and financial ramifications it has on the family members left to pick up the pieces.