Senior Financial Empowerment Act of 2009

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and Congressman Howard Coble today introduced the Senior Financial Empowerment Act of 2009 (H.R. 3040). The legislation will help stop abusive mail, telemarketing and Internet fraud targeting seniors.

Congresswoman Baldwin: "I became aware of the seriousness and scope of fraud targeting seniors when I helped my own grandmother in her later years. These crimes can have severe financial and emotional consequences for older Americans and their families. Our bill will educate the public, seniors, their families, and their caregivers on how to identify and combat fraudulent activity."

Full Article and Source:
Baldwin Targets Senior Financial Fraud

When Guardianship Nominations Go Bad

Mina Sirkin a nationally recognized attorney reporting on inheritance matters, expects that the disputes around Jackson's children, estate and life insurance may have unexpected results.

Sirkin, who was the CBS2/KCAL9 expert on the death of Anna Nicole Smith and the guardianship of her child, and a media expert regarding the Conservatorship of Britney Spears, says it is likely that the nomination of guardian by Michael Jackson relating to the two children he had with his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe may fail because the court did not make the special findings necessary to terminate her paternal rights.

Therefore, under California law, Rowe as the mother of those two children will have priority over any nominated "guardian of the person" by Michael Jackson. However, Debbie can't expect the same results when it comes to guardianship of the estate of the minors.

The Jackson case is a perfect example of when guardianship nominations can go bad. Parents who name guardians of the person who were married to the parent of the minors can't expect their intended results, unless the other parent has actually consented to the nomination in writing in California.

Surrogate parents also have special rights in California which if not terminated by the court will remain in tact for the surrogate parent. At this point, it is unclear whether or not any court has terminated the surrogate's rights.

Any and all of Jackson's life insurances are at risk at this point, even if he created irrevocable life insurance trusts for his minor kids naming those children as beneficiaries. Sirkin continues to say that large policies are subject to many exclusions and the facts of death of Jackson, along with the coroner's findings, will greatly impact whether those insurance will be paid.

Full Article and Source:
TV Legal Expert says Michael Jackson's Children are not Protected

Gloria Allred, who requested the court appoint a guardian for the children of OctoMom, had this to say:

The court still has jurisdiction to decide what's in the best interest of the children.You cannot will a child like a piece of property, or piece of jewelry -- a child is a human being. The court will give great weight to the preference of the parent, but will not be bound by that preference.

Whoever obtains guardianship of the kids is going to need funds to take care of these children. But there are lots of debts and creditors who will want to get their money, too. I anticipate there will soon be a probate battle going on.

I do anticipate that there may soon be guardianship battles, custody battles, and probate battles. This is the beginning of a whole new chapter.

Source:
Gloria Allred's Thoughts on Michael Jackson

See also:
A Storm Brewing

Public Guardian Speaks Out

A child whose mother set her on fire and 100 other foster kids in state custody will lose "all counseling services" if Illinois is allowed to cut its Children and Family Services budget by 50 percent on July 1 as planned, a Cook County Public Guardian says. Robert Harris claims the budget cuts will eliminate "all counseling services to children who are in state care due to physical or sexual abuse, neglect or dependency."

On behalf of more than 100 foster children, Harris sued the Department of Children and Family Services and Gov. Pat Quinn, whose budget calls for DCFS funding to be cut by 50 percent.

Harris asked the Cook County Court to enjoin Quinn and the DCFS from terminating counseling services for children in custody without due process and "without individual consideration of each child's needs."

Harris says the children have "all suffered extraordinary trauma in their young lives," such as "physical and sexual abuse, witness(ing) domestic violence" and neglect.

Full Article and Source:
Foster Kids Endangered by Huge Budget Cuts in Illinois

See also:
Governor, Guardian and DCF Being Sued

Will Justice Be Served?

Prosecutors and the police should be paying attention to the John F. Pawloski saga.

The attorney and former St. Clair County public guardian on Tuesday agreed to repay $7,522 missing from the estate of a client. In April Pawloski agreed to repay $63,075 missing from another client's estate. In both cases, his attorney said Pawloski was "contrite."

Pawloski has refused a judge's order to provide financial accountings in those cases plus a third, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self- incrimination. An appeal is pending.

In addition, the state Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission has accused him of taking money without permission in the three cases.

What are the criminal authorities doing?

Maybe St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida is waiting for the appeal to be decided. But the longer this saga drags on without criminal charges, the more it appears Pawloski is getting kid glove treatment from the legal system.

If Pawloski as public guardian took money from some of the most vulnerable members of our community or their estates, he abused his position of public trust and deserves to be charged with a crime. Being sorry and repaying the money is great, but that doesn't let him off the hook.

Source:
Will justice be served

See also:
Attorney Will Repay Estates

Who watches the guardians?

Lawyer Agrees to Repay Estate

Lawyer Appeals Judge's Demand

Lawyer Given More Time

Ten Days to Produce Documents

John Pawloski Case

HB2788 Update

Laird's Bill Clears Senate discusses legislative action in West Virginia increasing criminal penalties for abuse, neglect, injury and misuse/misappropriation of funds or assets of elderly or adult incapacitated persons.

West Virginia House Bill 2788, introduced on 2/24/09, has concurred with the Senate version, passed earlier, and has been approved by the Governor on 5/7/09, to become effective 7/10/09.

The amended criminal code enhances penalties for abuse, bodily injury, neglect, and misappropriation or misuse of the funds or assets of an elder person or incapacitated adult by caregiver, guardian or custodian.

See:
West Virginia Senior Services - Legislative Updates

Exploited by Neighbor

Virgil Huber's neighbor pleaded guilty to two felony elder exploitation charges after his niece pursued the case in Madison County Circuit Court.

Sharon Deabler, now of Oakland, Fla., was living in O'Fallon, Ill., when she noticed a change in her uncle, who then lived in East Alton.

Huber's neighbor, Gladys "Roberta" Fillingim, entered the picture after she took him to the hospital when he cut two fingers while woodworking in 1999.

Eventually, Fillingim was charged in Madison County Circuit Court with four felonies - two counts of criminal neglect of an elderly person and two counts of unlawful financial exploitation of an elderly person. Fillingim pleaded guilty in September 2005 to the two financial exploitation charges in exchange for a prosecution agreement to drop the criminal neglect counts.

The court sentenced Fillingim to four years of probation to be served concurrently on each charge and ordered her to repay an estimated $257,000 that prosecutors said she had stolen from Huber. The court ordered Fillingim to pay $200 a month to Huber's estate, which was reduced to $100 a month when her husband died.

Fillingim, who was 73 at the time of her plea, could have faced up to 30 years in prison, but prosecutors agreed not to seek prison time because of her age, poor health and the fact that she agreed to make restitution.

Deabler became Huber's legal guardian after the court determined that Huber was victimized by Fillingim. Huber then moved to Florida, where he turned 88 in April, to live with his niece and her husband.

Deabler went through eight attorneys before finding the appropriate one who helped arrange the successful prosecution of Fillingim.

Full Article and Source:
East Alton elder was exploited

Trust Fund Dipping

The Supreme Court ordered the disbarment of Edward Fagan, a lawyer who won millions of dollars in settlements for Holocaust victims but who also misappropriated some of their money to pay his debts.

Fagan told the justices during a hearing on June 16 that disciplinary authorities' handling of the evidence may have deprived him of a chance to prove that the money he took was for legal work and he asked for a remand for further fact-finding.

But the justices declined and found him guilty of knowing misappropriation of client and escrow funds.

Fagan also took sums from client accounts without authority, using some of it to pay the rent on his New York office, according to a finding last year by a special master, retired Superior Court Judge Arthur Minuskin.

Minuskin said Fagan failed to hold $82,582 in escrow given to him by client Gizella Weisshaus, a Holocaust survivor, from the estate of Jack Oestreicher; that he improperly disbursed $303,582 of Holocaust settlement funds from client Estelle Sapir; and that he misappropriated $40,000 from clients' funds to pay his New York law office rent.

Full Article and Source:
Holocaust Victims' Lawyer Disbarred for Trust-Fund Dipping

Lawyer Guilty of Fraud

Beverly W. Hersh wanted most of her $12 million fortune to go to charities and other worthy causes after her death in 2005.

But prosecutors say her lawyer gave about $9 million to himself, friends and relatives.

Cincinnati lawyer Robert L. Schwartz pleaded guilty to federal charges of mail fraud and filing a false income tax return in connection with his handling of Hersh's estate.

Schwartz was supposed to move Hersh's money into trusts that would be used to benefit worthy causes, but federal prosecutors say he used most of the money for personal expenditures and gifts to friends and associates.

The fraud charge is tied to his failure to give $2.5 million to Hadassah Hospital in Israel, as Hersh had instructed him to do. Schwartz also gave away large sums of money from a $6.3 million "discretionary trust" that he controlled, prosecutors say.

Full Article and Source:
Lawyer pleads guilty to mail fraud

Judge Accused of Violating Judicial Rules

A circuit judge testified that he intended no improper action when he remained involved in an estate case he first took on before he was elected to the bench.

Circuit Judge L.T. Simes of Helena, who has been sanctioned three times previously by the Arkansas Judicial Discipline Commission, is accused of violating judicial rules by acting as an attorney while he was on the bench. It came out in testimony that Simes has been the subject of 24 complaints since 2004.

Complaints before the commission are kept sealed until they reach the point of a formal charge. Most of the 24 accusations against Simes were dismissed but commission investigator Lance Womack said there are four open cases against Simes, including the estate matter. That's in addition to the three sanctions.

Full Article and Source:
Arkansas Judge Defends Himself in Impropriety Case

Chamber of Commerce for Persons with Disabilities

Pete Schoemann wants to build a bridge between the business and disabled communities.

The Orlando attorney is part of both worlds: A partner in the law firm Broad and Cassel, he has two sons with autism. He founded the Chamber of Commerce for Persons with Disabilities Inc. two years ago and is now looking to expand the organization's regional focus to a national one.

The Chamber hopes to be an umbrella organization for groups across the U.S. that promote the disability community and help disabled entrepreneurs get businesses off the ground.

Like more traditional chambers, the group wants to create a place to network. But it will also deal with issues that affect disabled entrepreneurs - such as changing federal contracting programs to include disability businesses.

Rogue Gallart, president of the Central Florida Disability Chamber: "The end result is to get off (Social Security) disability."

Full Article and Source:
Attorney building chamber for disabled

Attorney Ordered to Mental Health Evaluation

An attorney who repeatedly failed to submit to a court-ordered mental health evaluation has been suspended for three years by an appeals panel that upheld a professional misconduct charge against the lawyer.

Although attorney Cheryl K. Brodsky had no prior disciplinary history, the panel in Matter of Brodsky, 2006-09233, ruled that she was in "violation of an explicit directive ... that she be examined by a qualified medical expert, irrespective of whether or not she agrees with the underlying premise."

Brodsky's suspension arose from a grievance filed in 2006 by Paul J. Kenny, now chief clerk of the Appellate Term, who said that Brodsky, at an interview for a court attorney position, had claimed she was married to Queens Supreme Court Administrative Judge Jeremy S. Weinstein.

Full Article and Source:
Attorney's Failure to Pursue Mental Health Evaluation Leads to Suspension

A Storm Brewing

The King of Pop is dead, and now begins what could turn into a legal battle over the custody of his three children — and what remains of his once-vast fortune.

Michael Jackson, who spent a lifetime and countless millions trying to recapture his lost childhood, has left his own children in legal limbo following his sudden death Thursday at a rented Los Angeles home, apparently of cardiac arrest.


Family associates and legal experts see a storm brewing over the care of 12-year-old Michael Joseph "Prince" Jackson Jr., 11-year-old Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and 7-year-old Prince Michael II Jackson.

Full Article and Source:
What Will Happen to Michael Jackson's Children, and His Fortune?

More information:
Although Rowe initially waived parental rights to the children, she later changed her mind, and an appeals court ruled she was the legal mother of Prince Michael Jr. and Paris Michael Katherine. USC law professor Scott Altman: "When a child has two legal parents and one of them dies, the other takes custody." To gain custody, other family members or individuals designated in Jackson's will as guardians would have to show that giving custody to Rowe would harm the children.
Michael Jackson's death: Will Debbie Rowe get custody of two kids?


Regardless of whether he left a will, Michael Jackson's three children stand to inherit everything he owned – after the creditors and taxman take what's theirs, say legal experts in California. Little is known about the King of Pop's estate planning or will, according to Business Week. Jackson had sole custody of his three children and ex-wife Debbie Rowe is the mother of the older two. The mother of the youngest child has never been identified.
Does Michael Jackson have a will? His kids, Prince Michael, Paris, Blanket might inherit millions

The mother of Michael Jackson's two eldest children is preparing to battle the singer's elderly mother for custody. Former nurse Debbie Rowe gave away her parental rights in exchange for a £4.2million pay-off ten years ago. But last night, she told friends she would fight 'tooth and nail' for their return.
Battle over Jacko's three children: Ex-wife who took £4m payoff wants custody

There is, say family sources, 'no prospect whatever' that they will be returned to Debbie Rowe - the biological mother of Jackson's older son and daughter, Prince Michael and Paris Katherine. His youngest son, known as 'Blanket', was born in 2002 from an unnamed surrogate mother. Prince Michael and Paris have never called Rowe 'Mom', having been raised by Jackson. He was paying Rowe £750,000 a year to stay away from the children and his family are determined to see his wishes are carried out. Should Rowe launch a custody bid - as she threatened earlier this month - battle will be joined.
What WILL become of the children in the masks?

Michael Jackson's family will wage an epic battle to make sure Paris and Michael Jr. do not end up in the custody of one Debbie Rowe -- this according to family members who spoke with TMZ. The family complained that the kids don't even know Debbie Rowe -- she hasn't been a part of their lives. They say the kids must remain "within the family."
Jackson Family Will Fight Rowe Tooth and Nail

Lawyer Declares Client Incompetent

After a long-running battle over his handling of an elderly widow’s case, Spokane attorney Steve Eugster has narrowly avoided disbarment.

The state Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Eugster should instead be suspended from practicing law for 18 months. He will also have to pay $13,500 to the now-deceased woman’s estate.

Justice Tom Chambers wrote for the majority: "Eugster breached his duty to maintain his client’s confidences, used confidences to take action directly contrary to his client’s interests, and created a nightmare for his client who had to spend $13,500 defending a petition to declare her incompetent."

The case involved Marion Stead, an 87-year-old Colville widow who hired him in 2004. Stead wanted Eugster to look into how her only child, Roger Samuels, was handling her finances.

Eugster, a longtime acquaintance, concluded that nothing was amiss. He tried to reconcile the family.

But Stead fired him and hired attorney Andrew Braff. She also hired a professional management firm.

By then, Eugster has said, he felt Stead couldn’t handle her own affairs. He refused to turn over her case file and instead asked a court to appoint a guardian for Stead. She spent $13,500 fighting that.

A court official interviewed more than a dozen people who knew Stead. Virtually all, including her doctor, said she could handle her own affairs.

Chambers wrote: "Eugster fails to explain why his epiphany that his client was incompetent seems to have occurred on the very day he discovered that she had retained new counsel and wanted to discharge him."

Eugster has said he felt that his elderly client was vulnerable, unable to understand her finances, and in danger of being taken advantage of.

Full Article and Source:
High court suspends lawyer Eugster

Elder Abuse Cases

Elder abuse is a national problem that will continue to rise with increases in the number of older adults, due to the Baby Boomer generation swelling the population 60 and older.

Estimates of the incidence of elder abuse range from 2 to 10 percent, depending on the survey method.

Data on elder abuse in domestic settings suggest that 1 in 14 incidents, excluding self-neglect, come to the attention of authorities.

Connecticut has the highest rate of reported elder abuse cases, which is almost three times the national median.

In 2006, the latest year in which reliable statistics are available, approximately 640 cases of elder abuse were opened in Fairfield County alone. Approximately 330 of these cases were in the Greater Bridgeport area.

In Connecticut, physical injury and financial abuse of the elderly and disabled are criminal offenses. Also unique to Connecticut is a mandated reporting rule for some professionals who suspect a case of elder abuse. Anyone, however, may report. Those who are not mandated to report but report in good faith, are free of liability.

Full Article and Source:
Connecticut leads nation in elder abuse cases

25-Year-Old Lawsuit Settlement

The stories were horrifying and heart-wrenching: a boy beaten bloody while in foster care; a 15-year-old girl tortured and starved to death by a mentally ill guardian; a 5-year-old fatally scalded by his mother after state officials removed him from a safe foster home.

It's no wonder such egregious cases of abuse and neglect have helped drive a 25-year-old lawsuit over how the Maryland Department of Human Resources and the Baltimore Department of Social Services care for the state's most vulnerable children and adolescents.

That's why the settlement announced this week between advocates for Baltimore's children and the city's foster care system represents a potentially tremendous step forward for the health and well-being of children in Maryland.

Some of the requirements:
1. The state must make sure children in its care have case plans and that they actually receive the health care, educational support and other services identified in those plans.

2. The agreement would allow the state to free itself from federal court supervision for the first time since 1988 if it meets dozens of specific goals and maintains that performance for an 18-month period.

3. Each caseworker will be responsible for no more than 15 children, and a single supervisor will be responsible for no more than six caseworkers.

4. The system has agreed to hire an outside expert with broad credibility in the field to monitor its progress and make periodic reports.

Full Article and Source:
A milestone for youths - Our view: Maryland now has a unique opportunity to fix its long-broken child welfare system; for the sake of future generations, it can't let that chance go to waste

Elder Abuse Task Force

District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman created the Elder Abuse Unit in 2008, just months after taking office, to address a rise in reported crimes against the elderly, which include physical and sexual assaults, neglect, theft and other financial exploitation.

In the past, deaths at nursing homes or assisted living centers may have escaped scrutiny given the advanced age and medical condition of many residents. But the DA believes better trained police and caregivers will help detect more wrongdoing in the future.

Ferman: "Now that we have the Elder Abuse Unit, we’re looking in a much more comprehensive way at these kinds of deaths."

The DA’s unit supervises an Elder Abuse Task Force, a multi-disciplinary committee made up of law enforcement agencies and the county’s Aging and Adult Services. The task force reviews individual cases to determine whether a crime has occurred.

The group also works with geriatric and forensic specialists, the Montgomery County Bar Association, victim advocacy groups and others.

Full Article and Source:
District Attorney’s Office seeks to protect seniors

Cooke Donates 100K to Mission

A local judge has approved a $100,000 donation to Mission San Miguel from billionaire heiress Phoebe Hearst Cooke.

Conservatorship attorneys had no objection to the gift because it was consistent with Cooke’s longstanding giving to the mission.

Cooke has given as much as $1.3 million to the mission over the past five years to help it keep running after the devastation of 2003 San Simeon Earthquake, said the Rev. Ray Tintle, pastor of the San Miguel parish. The earthquake caused large cracks in the church’s sanctuary, and its rebuilding continues today.

"We could not have reopened without her help."

Full Article and Source:
Billionaire Hearst heiress gives $100K to Mission San Miguel

See also:
Hearst in Conservatorship

Tentative Ruling to Seal Records

Conservators and Lawyers Line Up

$2 Billion Conservatorship Battle

Governor, Guardian and DCF Being Sued

Governor Pat Quinn and two Department of Children and Family Services officials are being sued over state budget cuts that will eliminate counseling services to abused children in foster care.

The children filed suit--110 wards of the state, listed in the complaint only by their first names. Also listed as a plaintiff is Robert Harris, Public Guardian of Cook County.

Named as defendants are Governor Quinn, as well as Erwin McEwen, Director of DCFS, and D. Jean Ortega-Piron, Guardianship Guardian of DCFS.

The complaint explains that "The children bring this action challenging the failure of the defendant, Pat Quinn, Governor of the State of Illinois to implement a budget which funds the Department of Children and Family Services in a manner consistent with the Department's responsibilities to the children in its care."

As a result of the current state budget, the general revenue fund for the Illinois DCFS will be cut in half, ending "all counseling services to children who are in state care due to physical or sexual abuse, neglect or dependency," a decision already announced by Director McEwen.

Full Article and Source:
IL Governor Pat Quinn and DCFS officials sued over state budget cuts

See also:
Senior Protest Against Gov. Cuts

The Anna Nicole Saga

The saga of Anna Nicole Smith is arriving in Seattle for a one-day-only performance.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is convening at the old federal courthouse downtown to hear the case of Marshall v. Marshall, the never-ending battle over the estate of Anna Nicole's dead husband, the Texas billionaire J. Howard Marshall.

Anna Nicole married Marshall, an 89-year-old oil tycoon, in 1994. But when he died 13months later, a Texas court ruled that his will didn't include Anna Nicole and awarded all his riches to his son, Pierce.

Anna Nicole's lawyers went to a bankruptcy court in California, which ruled that Pierce Marshall owed Anna Nicole $450 million. A federal district court then reduced that to $88 million. Then the 9th Circuit invalidated that, saying federal courts don't have jurisdiction over state probate matters.

Anna Nicole's took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it ruled in 2006 that the federal court can indeed get involved. So now the 9th Circuit has to take up the actual issues of the money.

Anna Nicole died of a drug overdose in 2007, and Pierce Marshall died in 2006. So that leaves Anna Nicole's sole heir, 2-year-old daughter Dannielynn, fighting with Pierce's heirs.

Full Article and Source:
The Anna Nicole Smith circus is coming to town

See also:
Marshall v. Marshall

Forum Shopping

Celebrity Money Battles

Attorney Will Repay Estates

John F. Pawloski, an attorney accused by state regulators of unauthorized use of at least $28,000 from a disabled adult ward and two estates, has for the second time agreed to pay back missing money.

Pawloski, who in 2007 was acting as St. Clair County's public guardian and administrator, in May was accused by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of using $2,500 for himself from deceased Cahokia resident Vernon Denbo's estate without permission from a judge. Pawloski denied that claim in his response to the ARDC complaint.

Pawloski's lawyer, Jim Williams, told St. Clair County Associate Judge Stephen Rice that Pawloski would repay $7,522 missing from that estate.

Also in May, the ARDC accused Pawloski of unauthorized use of at least $20,000 from Cahokia resident Harold Watts' estate, and he has denied that claim, as well. Pawloski in April agreed to repay the $63,075 missing from the estate. The money, to be repaid through a payment plan, will mostly go to the National Cystic Fibrosis Association, the sole beneficiary of Watts' estate. Some will be used to pay the new administrator's cost of managing the estate.

Full Article and Source:
Metro-east attorney will replace money missing from dead person's estate

See also:
Who watches the guardians?

Life in Court's Hands

What does Gary Harvey want? Since Jan. 21, 2006 -- the day Harvey fell down his basement steps -- he has been unable to answer that question.

Harvey’s fall caused traumatic brain injuries that left him in a persistent, vegetative state -- unable to talk, walk, eat or otherwise function independently. His condition is not likely to improve, his doctors have said, according to affidavits.

With no living will, Harvey’s wishes are not clearly defined. Does he want to continue living with the help of life-sustaining machines, or does the 58-year-old Horseheads resident want to die?
A judge must decide.

On Tuesday, Chemung County will ask Supreme Court Justice Judith O’Shea to authorize the removal of Harvey’s feeding tube. The county will also request that the judge issue a do-not-resuscitate order. Those two actions will end Harvey’s life.

The county’s requests are based on the recommendations of the St. Joseph’s Hospital Ethics Committee, which decided May 29 the tube removal and the DNR order are in Harvey’s best interest. The ethics board says Harvey is suffering and has little to no chance of recovery.

What Chemung County wants, said Sara Harvey, is “to starve my husband to death.” She plans to fight vigorously to keep her husband alive.

However, Sara Harvey does not get to decide her husband’s fate. In February 2007, just a year after Gary Harvey’s fall, a judge ruled Sara Harvey could no longer be her husband’s guardian. The court ruled she was an abusive guardian who failed to use good judgment and follow medical advice.

The Chemung County Department of Social Services is Gary Harvey’s guardian.

Sara Harvey claims she was sandbagged at her guardianship hearing in 2007. She said the hearing went on without her having use of a lawyer.

Full Article and Source:
Man’s life in court’s hands

See also:
Save Gary Harvey's Life

Perry Vetos The Take Away Your Child Act

Gov. Perry vetoed SB 1440, which sought to clarify narrow and uncertain guidelines set by the Gates v. Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (DFPS) court case. However, the bill goes too far. It creates uncertainty about how DFPS would take children into custody which could potentially infringe on the rights of parents and guardians.

Gov. Perry: “This court-created uncertainty is real and must be addressed, however I’m concerned SB 1440 overreaches and may not give due consideration to the Fourth Amendment rights of a parent or guardian. I am directing DFPS, to study the effect of the Gates decision on the ability of the department to appropriately enter a residence and, if necessary, to transport the child for interviews in a neutral location. I am also directing the department to develop and recommend statewide procedures to follow when seeking court orders without compromising the rights of parents and families.”

Source:
Gov. Perry Announces Final Decisions on Legislation

More information:

If you ever need a classic example of an out of control Texas Legislature and an out of control legislative process, you need look no further than the passage, as amended, of Senate Bill 1440.

SB-1440 started life as a fairly innocuous bill authored by Sen. Kirk Watson (D-14) and co-authored by Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-21) designed to speed the execution of an uncontested judicial order pertaining to child support or child protection. It passed in the Senate on April 16th on a viva voce vote, 31-0.
Source:
SB1440 The Take Away Your Child Act

Parents and children throughout Texas are in greater danger than ever, thanks to a recently passed child-protection measure by Democratic Sen. Kirk Watson – Senate Bill 1440 – that expands the powers of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to make it easier to remove children from their homes and families for investigation of alleged child abuse or neglect.
It’s been dubbed the “Take Away Your Child Act.”
Source:
COALITION ASKS TEXAS GOVERNOR TO VETO “TAKE AWAY YOUR CHILD ACT”

SB 1440 — CPS bill. Authored by Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin), this bill has by far drawn the widest range of opposition of any from the 81st Legislature — bringing together home school advocates, socially conservative Republicans, Libertarians, and the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.

Another Kirk Watson bill, SB 1064 which died during the chub-a-thon in the Texas House, lives on as a last-minute amendment to SB 1440.

If SB 1440 is signed into law, Child Protective Services may enter a child’s home or take a child from school for an interview and to obtain medical records, according to powers given in the SB 1064 wording (though a judge’s permission would still be required).
Source:
Could these bills be destined for a Perry veto?

Where The Money Is

Authorities charge that Salem County investment adviser Jeffrey Southard systematically bilked elderly clients out of $1.8 million in a Ponzi scheme that unraveled when securities regulators began looking into his business. Southard pleaded guilty to preying on elderly clients, who turned over their money to him on the promise of guaranteed annual returns of 6 percent to 11 percent.

Instead of enriching his clients, Southard used much of the money to pay his mortgage, private-school tuition, car payments, and other personal expenses.

The story rated a few paragraphs in the newspaper, but the fact is that schemes by investment advisers and other professionals that target elderly clients are proliferating. The reason is, as Willie Sutton put it when asked why he robbed banks, that is where the money is.

People 50 and over are sitting on a vast pile of wealth - 70 percent of the net worth of U.S. households, according to MetLife, the insurance giant. Those assets have been accumulating over several decades of unprecedented economic growth in the United States.

Some elderly are especially vulnerable because they are physically weakened, emotionally vulnerable, or impaired in other ways that might affect their judgment.

That exposure, along with the potential changes in inheritance rules and the sheer magnitude of the over-60 demographic, is helping to fuel a sharp uptick in business for lawyers who are experts in wills and estates and overall wealth management.

Full Article and Source:
Law Review: As scams target elderly, a legal niche also booms

Save Gary Harvey's Life

Gary Harvey suffered a traumatic brain injury after a heart attack and subsequent fall down a flight of stairs.

His wife, Sara, has fought for over three years to free him from Chemung County Dept. of Social Services, his court-appointed guardian, which has confined Gary to a nursing home. Sara feels he is neglected and abused, and wants to bring her husband home so that she can care for him.

The guardian has deprived Sara of critical information and shut her out of the decision-making process regarding her husband’s care and restricted her to limited, timed, and “supervised” visits.

Now, the County plans to seek a court order to withhold Gary’s nutrition and water and put him on DNR status.

Gary Harvey is a Veteran. “Supporting the troops” should mean to support them when they need us; not just when we need them. Gary Harvey needs us now.

Please call Chemung County Attorney Bryan Maggs at 607-733-4635 and express your support for Sara Harvey to make life-and-death decisions for her husband – instead of the County or court. Tell Bryan Maggs to surrender the guardianship and let Gary Harvey go home.

See also:
The Gary Harvey Story

Daughters Seeking Guardianship

Tamara Carter and Renita Head are questioning why the staff at Heartland of Holly Glen did not know their father, 96-year-old Golden Braswell, disappeared from their watch.

Braswell was discovered by Toledo police crews sitting in the middle of traffic in his broken down motorized wheelchair, a mile away from the nursing care facility.

Before Saturday's disappearance, the family was already fighting to get him out of the nursing home.

The daughters are concerned that their father did not have his two monitors with him (one on his wrist and the other on his wheelchair). They also believe the stories from the police and the nursing home are conflicting.

Head: "We are petitioning the court to get legal guardianship over him. We hope to take him back to Georgia to our home, to love, to nurture him and to honor him."

Full Article and Source:
Braswell's daughters seek answers

When Court Intervenes

A woman, referred to as "Mary," didn't understand when her father was declared disabled and temporary guardianship was given to her brother, who she distrusts with her father's estate.

Mary: "Two doctors made the decision (of disability). Two visits, and they made testimony. A judge told us a criminal has more rights than a disabled person."

Mary said she thinks the Madison County Circuit Court, and the attorney it appointed, contributed to her father losing his rights to work, drive and testify on his own behalf.

Madison County Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder said attorneys are required to watch out for their elderly clients, even if loved ones do not agree with them. Crowder co-chairs the 3rd Judicial Circuit Family Violence Prevention Council.

Full Article and Source:
Courts may intervene in elder disputes

Alone and Afraid

My Mother, Mollie Florkey, was forced into Heartland Nursing Home, Hillsboro, OH in June of 2007 by her son and legal guardian.

She is alone; she is afraid; she suffers from negligent "care" and abuse. I believe she is drugged.

All she wants is to come home, with me, and let me take care of her for her remaining days. But, her son won't allow her peace, security, or the love and comfort of her daughter. And the court doesn't care.

I am afraid my beautiful and treasured Mother is going to die and I can't save her.

Astor Died Early

It occupies but a single line in box No. 5 of a tax document regarding Brooke Astor’s estate, and so small one might have to squint to see it. But the message is glaring: “Date of death: 2/7/2006.”

But it was not until a year and a half later that Mrs. Astor died, at age 105, and that discrepancy was a focus of testimony on Thursday in the trial of her son, Anthony D. Marshall, 85, in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

He is accused of fooling Mrs. Astor, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, into changing her will so that he could tap into millions of dollars that she intended to leave for charity.

G. Warren Whitaker, a trusts and estates lawyer who prepared the tax document, said that one reason he began preparing to probate Mrs. Astor’s will, something that does not happen until a person dies, was that Francis X. Morrissey Jr., another estate lawyer, regularly told him “that her death might be imminent.”

More than three years before Mrs. Astor’s death, Mr. Whitaker, along with Mr. Marshall and Mr. Morrissey, was preparing how to handle her will and estate.

In addition to Anthony Marshall, Mr. Morrissey is also on trial, on fraud and forgery charges.

Full Article and Source:
On Sample Tax Form, Mrs. Astor Died Early

Guardianship Fight Over Inmate

While Leon Toney lay in a coma at a Tacoma rehab facility, the state invalidated his marriage.

The move draws into question whether the women he married, Rene, can continue as his guardian and make key decisions about his medical care.

She was given the role in May after a court battle with Toney’s aunt, Charrene Robinson, who moved to Tacoma from California to help take care of him. Robinson said she plans to redouble her challenge now that the state has voided the couple’s marriage.

Rene, who has largely stopped working to be at Toney’s bedside, said that she was going to fight the revocation.

"I don’t know why we all can’t get along and heal Leon. I’ve been in this man’s life. He called me his wife. I called him my husband. Now they’re trying to twist everything around. He’s going to wake up and be like, ‘What happened?’"

To make matters more complicated, if Toney awakens, the state Department of Corrections has claim to him. The 31-year-old was incapacitated in September after trying to hang himself with a sheet in an isolation cell at McNeil Island Corrections Center.

Toney was sentenced to 28 years for shooting a man in the stomach. He had served 12 years.

Problems with Toney’s marriage were found by a Washington State Patrol detective who was investigating his suicide attempt at the Corrections Department’s request. Based on the detective’s findings, the state voided the couple’s marriage license.

Full Article and Source:
Guardianship fight centers on inmate in coma

Woman Wants Answers

Simply put, Monica Yepez wants answers.

She wants to know the details of what became of her dentistry practice after she was paralyzed. She wants an accounting of the sale of her $600,000 home in the Los Miradores neighborhood that went on the market while she was incapacitated. Now that she can speak again, she wants to know where her monthly $11,000 disability check is, and she wants to make sure no one is taking advantage of her.

Most of all, she wants to be in control of her life.

"I lost everything once," she said during a recent interview while sitting on a wheelchair. "Why take it away from me again? I'm not asking for miracles. Just give me what is mine."

Since June 2006, Yepez, who was a pediatric dentist for 13 years, has been a ward of the state. A medical procedure at Del Sol Medical Center in 2006 left her paralyzed. According to court records, she went to the hospital because she was dehydrated. Fluids that were supposed to help her instead caused her brain to swell, resulting in paraplegia.

Yepez lost not only her mobility but also her ability to speak.

For the past six months, Yepez's condition has been improving. She has regained the use of her hands, she can talk again and she can easily recall every detail of her life.

A year ago, she was not prepared to make decisions on her own. Now she is.

Full Article and Source:
Former dentist questions handling of estate

No Evidence of Criminal Activity

A state Attorney General's investigation into Macomb County Probate Court contracts with ADDMS Guardianship Services of Shelby Township found no evidence of criminal activity by the company or the court, according to a recent AG report sent to Michigan Supreme Court officials.

But the report did reveal questionable bookkeeping at ADDMS and possible breaches of fiduciary responsibility. David Tanay, chief of the Attorney General's criminal division, cited "deficiencies" in how the court is operated and recommended improved verification of bank receipts and prompt inventories of clients' assets to help correct the problems.

Source:
State finds no criminal actions at Probate Court

See also:
ADDMS and Fortuna Estate

State Probe of Guardianship Firm

"Nobody Gave a Damn"

The first time a beloved relative in his mid-70s wired several thousand dollars to strangers, believing he was paying taxes on huge lottery winnings, it seemed like a fluke, a mistake he would understand once we straightened him out.

Then it happened again. And again.

In less than a year, this Ivy League-educated professional sent at least $23,000 to slick con artists who came to know his personal interests, as well as his bank-account, credit-card and other personal information. Yet even more shocking than how effectively and efficiently scammers won his trust and his retirement savings was how impossible it was to stop them.

His children and stepchildren counseled him, cajoled him and took him to task. Experts, lawyers and his doctor were consulted. Law-enforcement agencies, from the local police to state officials to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were called. He agreed to give power of attorney to a son to help with financial matters. Yet he continued to send away money he couldn't afford to lose, fully expecting to see a huge reward in a matter of days.

"We never found a law-enforcement agency that cared," the son says. "To me, nobody gave a damn."

Full Article and Source:
A Family's Fight to Save an Elder From Scammers

Sheila Gast Sentencing

Sheila Gast’s sentencing date is on 7/7/2009 at 1:15pm.

If you are a victim, please write a victim statement to the judge before July.

1. How have you suffered from Sheila Gast and her lawyers?

2. How much money did Sheila Gast and her lawyers take from you?

3. How much have you emotionally suffered from Sheila Gast and her lawyers?

Robert M. Small
Hennepin County District Court Courts
Tower C-1251
Hennepin County Government Center
300 South 6th Street Minneapolis, MN 55487

See also:
Investigators: The Power of One - May 2009

Judge Accused of Assaulting Mom

A part-time judge, who sometimes works at Fulton County Juvenile Court, is accused of assaulting her mother.

Judge Jacqueline Gibson and two siblings are all charged following a fight that broke out over custody of the 92-year old woman.

Some believe the family feud surrounds the mother's property and it all came to a head recently at a sibling’s home.

According to documents obtained by Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Jones, Judge Gibson and her brother, Gary Gibson, went to their sister's house to take their mother away, since Gary Gibson is the guardian. With an Atlanta Police officer there, one side says the mother didn't want to leave.

Attorney Elizabeth Rogan, who represents Gibson’s sister Blair King: “She did not want to go. She resisted. And a fight broke out. It's a very complicated unhappy story.”

Full Article and Source:
Judge Accused Of Assaulting 92-Year-Old Mom

"Disruption of Congress"

2005 - Activist Elena Sassower annoyed congress, her trial judge, and defenders of free speech—all the way to jail

Two days before Christmas, Elena Sassower walked out of the Washington, D.C., jail where she'd just finished serving a sentence that should frighten anyone inclined to protest in the halls of power.

For reading a 24-word request to testify at a judicial appointment hearing on Capitol Hill, an act that qualified as "disruption of Congress," Sassower was hit with six months' incarceration—the maximum allowed by law. Despite the grave constitutional implications of her case, not one of the dozen civil rights organizations she'd asked for help came to her assistance: not the ACLU, not Public Citizen, not People for the American Way, not Common Cause.

Her real crime, it seems, was her penchant for being a pest. Reached by the Voice, attorneys from three such organizations refused to comment or spoke only off the record. One attorney privately told the Voice that his group's unwillingness to lend Sassower a hand had "nothing to do with the merits of her claims" and "everything to do with her being a very difficult person." Sassower ended up acting as her own lawyer, doing herself no favors in the trial.

Full Article and Source:
The Scourge of Her Conviction

Elderly Sues Judge Seidlin

An 83-year-old woman has filed a lawsuit against former Broward Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin over accusations that Seidlin exploited her frail health for personal gain.

Barbara Kasler's suit also lists Seidlin's wife, Belinda, and his in-laws, Barbara and Oren Ray, as defendants.

The lawsuit was filed less than a month after the state ended an elderly-abuse investigation and found no wrongdoing in Seidlin's relationship with Kasler, a wealthy, bed-ridden widow who is his neighbor in the Marine Tower condominiums on Las Olas Boulevard.

That investigation was triggered in March after Kasler's niece and a caregiver jointly called the state's elder-abuse hotline, alleging neglect and financial exploitation by Seidlin, his wife and his mother-in-law.

Full Article and Source:
Former Broward Judge Larry Seidlin sued by elderly neighbor

See also:
Seidlin Cleared in 2nd Probe

Judge Accused of Exploitation

New Protection for Estates

Local advocates for the elderly are praising a new law that prevents anyone who abuses, neglects or financially exploits vulnerable adults from inheriting their money.

House Bill 1103, sponsored by Rep. Jim Moeller was signed into law May 18 by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Longview resident Tom Deutsch, who advocates for vulnerable adults in Southwest Washington, calls the new law “great progress” in addressing a sharp rise in senior exploitation cases.

Full Article and Source:
New protections for estates of abused seniors making an immediate impact

Judge's Guardianship Guide

Parents looking to establish guardianship over their adult children with disabilities are getting a leg up from a local judge.

Judge Lawrence Kirkwood prepared a guide to walk parents through the often confusing process of seeking guardianship.

Until last year Floridians needed a lawyer to seek guardianship, which could cost thousands of dollars. But a recent act of the state’s legislature made it so that parents can file for guardianship on their own.

Full Article and Source:
Judge Offers Guide For Parents Seeking Guardianship

More information:
Judge's help called a 'lifeline' for parents

Accountant Becomes Guardian

After reading last month's News-Democrat stories about problems with guardianship of impaired adults accountant Charles Fike decided to intervene.

Fike: "What concerned me is the lack of accountings, the lack of showing where the money's going."

He told Judge Stephen Rice, who oversees probate court in the county, that he'd like to get into the guardianship business. He has visited with health care providers, such as Memorial Hospital in Belleville, to let them know they can turn to him when trying to find a guardian for a patient.

Since last week, he has been appointed as guardian for three people.

"I see the need for this, and I believe I can do it," Fike added that he thinks his more than two decades of experience as an accountant and his responsibility in caring for his parents provides the perfect background for this type of work.

Full Article and Source:
Belleville accountant offers to be guardian for impaired adults

Kristal Estate Settlement

A settlement has been reached in the long and often bitter battle over the estate of former CBGB proprietor Hilly Kristal, CBGB Made Hilly Kristal a Millionaire—His Ex Got Nothing.

At the center of the dispute: whether Kristal's ex-wife Karen, who was the legal owner of CBGB throughout the club's entire existence, signed the business over to her former husband in 2005. The document was unwitnessed, and today, Karen Kristal says she has no memory of signing it. But her daughter, Lisa Kristal Burgman, who was the chief beneficiary of the more than $3 million dollar fortune her father left behind when he died in 2007, maintains that her mother did willingly sign, and that the club and the money was therefore rightfully her father's, and now hers.

"The thing that I'm mad about is the guardianship," says Dana, who explains his and his mother's decision to settle as the result of legal blackmail by his sister, whose lawyers threatened a guardianship over his mother in the midst of the now two years worth of legal wrangling.

"I was told they could actually put my mother in a hospital. That's why we felt we had to agree...You never know what's going to happen in a guardianship, and I didn't want that threat over my mother."

Full Article and Source:
The Final CBGB Settlement: Hilly Kristal's Estate Takes Its Last Legal Bow

Missing Teen

TX - CCPD is seeking the assistance of the public in locating the following missing, possibly endangered, person:

Ryan Ramirez, age 16. Ramirez was last seen at this grandparents' residence in the 1200 block of Florida street on April 3, 2009 at approximately 10:00 PM. Ramirez left behind a note indicating he intended to run away and has not been heard from nor seen since. His grandparents, who have guardianship, are worried because he also left behind prescribed medication. Ramirez, who is 5'6" tall, 120lbs with black hair and brown eyes, may have traveled to San Antonio to visit a girlfriend or family members.

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Ryan Ramirez is urged to call Sr. Officer J. Lerma in CID at 886-2677 or 886-2840.

Family members are extremely worried about his well-being and are desperately hoping for any confirmation that he is in good health.

Source:
CCPD Seeks Public's Help In Locating Missing Teen

Testamentary Capacity

A lawyer testified that if New York socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor could not recognize her only son, that would indicate she was mentally incompetent to approve changes to her will.

G. Warren Whitaker, an expert in trust and estates law, said a person's inability to recognize her own child shows she is probably unaware of what she is doing when she signs a will and thus lacks legal "testamentary capacity.''

Whitaker, despite overruled defense objections, was asked by Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann whether a person would be considered mentally competent to sign a will if she thought her only child was her husband.

Witnesses have testified in the eight-week-old trial that Astor referred to son Anthony Marshall as "my husband."

Whitaker: "That would certainly be an indication of lack of testamentary capacity."

Full Article and Source:
Lawyer Tells Of His Role in Astor Will Fight

Eli Lilly and Zyprexa

Eli Lilly & Co. urged doctors to prescribe Zyprexa for elderly patients with dementia, an unapproved use for the antipsychotic, even though the drugmaker had evidence the medicine didn't work for such patients, according to unsealed internal company documents.

In 1999, four years after Lilly sent study results to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showing Zyprexa didn't alleviate dementia symptoms in older patients, it began marketing the drug to those very people, according to documents unsealed in insurer suits against the company for overpayment.

Regulators required Lilly and other antipsychotic drug- makers in April 2005 to warn that the products posed an increased risk to elderly patients with dementia. The documents show the health dangers in marketing a drug for an unapproved use, called off-label promotion, said Sidney Wolfe, head of the health research group at Public Citizen in Washington.

Wolfe: "By definition, off-label means there is no clear evidence that the benefits of a drug outweigh the risks. The reason why off-label promotion is illegal is that you can greatly magnify the number of people who will be harmed."

Full Article and Source:
Lilly Sold Drug for Dementia Knowing It Didn’t Help, Files Show

See also:
Bitter Pill

Judiciary Committee Public Meeting

Legislation Does Not Address Fraud

Legislation that would require certification of some guardians of impaired adults is expected to be signed by the governor, but one lawyer involved in Illinois guardianship reform efforts said it doesn't address the biggest problem.

Mark Heyrman, a clinical professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School who led a task force that in 2001 came up with recommendations for guardianship reform in Illinois, said he supports the new bill and thinks it'll provide needed training for some guardians who don't know how to do their job.

However, he doesn't believe good training will stop someone who wants to steal a person's money.

Heyrman: "I think it's a nice, interesting piece of legislation. I don't think it will address the primary problem, which is fraud."

Full Article and Source:
New rules for adult guardians likely on the way

See also:
A Situation That's Ripe For Abuse and Neglect

Unfairly Barred

Ailing and elderly, Gladys McManaman says she's miserable because a nursing home has limited the time she can visit her disabled daughter. McManaman's 61-year-old daughter, Patricia, who can neither walk nor talk, lives at Riverside Convalescent Hospital in Chico.

Gladys McManaman, 85, said the nursing home's administration will only let her visit Patricia between 9 a.m. and noon on weekdays.

There are no exceptions. She couldn't visit on Mother's Day, Easter or her daughter's birthday.

And if she stays a bit longer than the three hours she's allowed, a staff member will tell her sharply, "It's four minutes past noon — you have to go!"

McManaman's lawyer, Joe Earley, said Riverside officials claim the mother is a danger to her daughter, but they raise only vague fears.

Earley said he doesn't accept that story. He's convinced the facility's administration is retaliating against McManaman for filing complaints about the place.

McManaman said Patricia has had many falls and has often been neglected by the staff. Also, the facility has not responded quickly when her daughter has needed medical care.

McManaman said she had been Patricia's conservator. But while she was in the hospital, her conservatorship was taken away, and the Public Guardian became the conservator. That seems to have left her without any rights concerning her daughter.

Full Article and Source:
Mother says she's unfairly barred by nursing home

Save Reta

Reta Cook Pleads Mercy

This is my mom.

She transferred her money to my brother, and he and I paid for attorneys and care in and to save my mom from Santa Clara County.

They said she was a victim of financial abuse, I feared for my life.

Mom got sick, and my son was disabled.

She gave him money after selling her home and moving into assisted living.

NO ONE knows how nosey assisted living social workers are - mom said it is none of their business and told them she was there for care and she could leave whenever.

But the public guardians started sniffing around.

The next thing I know, my son is being accused of financial abuse cause grandma bought him a car when she sold her house.

She was deemed incompetent, demented, needed locked up and drugged.

I took her away, to southern California where she was deemed mentally alert and competent by two doctors within a week.

Guardianship needs reform.

More people need to sue the guardians and win MILLIONS for the loss of their parents and defamation of character.

My mom is still fighting. Getting weaker physically but not mentally.

NASGA Celebrates World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

NASGA
National Association to STOP Guardian Abuse
http://www.stopguardianabuse.org/
http://NASGA-StopGuardianAbuse.blogspot.com

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

June 15, 2009
For more information contact:
Annie McKenna
info@StopGuardianAbuse.org
Media Liaison
_________________________________________________

NASGA Celebrates World Elder Abuse Awareness Day June 15, 2009
_________________________________________________
NASGA is a civil rights organization comprised of victims and families working to expose and end unlawful and abusive guardianships/conservatorships.

It is fitting that on this day of global recognition, NASGA brings to public attention a shocking truth: elderly and/or disabled and vulnerable people are often abused – physically and financially - by their court-appointed “protectors.”

The abuse is enabled under color of law by uncaring or corrupt courts presiding over guardianship / conservatorship cases.

Unlawful and abusive guardianships constitute elder abuse at its worst.
Guardianship wards are often isolated from family and friends and forcibly removed from their homes to nursing homes where they die prematurely, alone and afraid; completely unaware of their families’ constant struggle – almost always in vain - to free them.

The court-appointed fiduciaries and their lawyers engage in dissipating their victims’ assets by exorbitant and/or fraudulent billing, leaving them indigent, to ultimately become a burden on the US taxpayers under Medicaid – quite contrary to the intent of the “protective” statutes.

Many families go to the Office of the Attorney General for help - only to be turned away because the abuse has been court sanctioned.

Americans should be outraged by this public sanctioning of abuse. NASGA calls for legislative reform to stop this insidious crime foisted upon our most vulnerable citizens - the elderly and disabled – by misapplication and misuse of law actually intended to protect them.

Rell Signs Legislation

Gov. M. Jodi Rell says she has signed legislation overhauling Connecticut's 300-year-old probate court system.

The measure consolidates the current 117 probate court districts to between 44 and 50. It's part of an effort to cut costs and streamline the deficit-plagued system.

It also sets regular schedules of 40 hours per week in those courts -- some of which are open part time now -- and requires future probate judges to be attorneys.

Full Article and Source:
Rell signs Conn. probate reform bill

See also:
Nearing Reform

Guardians Needed

The need for legal guardians for people with disabilities and for the elderly is on its way to a crisis point, with more than 100 people who once lived in the Fort Wayne State Developmental Center or another state institution on a state-funded guardianship program waiting list. Add to that the number of young adults with disabilities each year who reach 18 and must have a court-appointed guardian.

The nonprofit Volunteer Lawyer Program of Northeast Indiana and Easter Seals Arc are hosting a free informational meeting at the Allen County Public Library for parents and caregivers of teens or adult children with disabilities. It is an educational outreach of VLP's Volunteer Advocates for Seniors and Incapacitated Adults, which finds volunteer guardians for adults with no family or friends able or willing to oversee services such as housing or health care. A guardian of the estate may also be appointed.

Although Tuesday's forum is targeted at families with adult or soon-to-be adult children with disabilities, training for volunteer guardians for older adults and others through VLP-VASIA will be offered later this year. In some cases, an incapacitated person may have medical or other urgent issues requiring intervention but even when family is found, “They will not step up because they're afraid of being financially responsible,” said attorney Catherine Christoff with Christoff & Christoff, also active with VLP-VASIA.

Although no one denies the guardianship need is significant, just how serious of a problem it is remains uncertain, said Julie Cameron, coordinator of Mental Health in America in Allen County's Adult Guardianship Services. There is no good tracking in Indiana's public or private guardianship programs of how many people on waiting lists may die before a guardian is found or perhaps a distant relative accepts the role. The guardianship process needs to be deliberate and taken very seriously, Houk said, noting “We're talking about suspending people's civil rights. It's important there are barriers.”

Full Article and Source:
Needed: Guardians for Indiana's disabled, elderly

Lost Trust

My family has been traumatized.

We have spent day in and day out trying to find someone to help us.

There are no words that describe the kind of pain you have watching your loved ones get locked away.

And then you are told that you can not go visit them.

I am sure that they were scared.

We were scared.

We feel lost.

We only knew a life of being together as a family. But it is gone.

We do not trust anyone that works for the justice system.

We do not trust the county we live in.

We are constantly looking over our shoulder to see what the people are doing.

We believe they are murderers and thieves.

Guardian Shot Grandson

Robert Clark Jr. could quickly move from playing with his 6-year-old grandson to yelling at him, said a neighbor.

Michael Levigne, 6, and his younger brother lived with their grandparents for about four years, since guardianship was switched by a probate court.

Police say Clark shot and killed the boy in an incident that may have been triggered by the boy dropping a watermelon or cutting into it before his grandfather wanted him to. Clark also shot and wounded his wife before police shot him, according to Commerce Police Chief John Gaissert.

State Child Advocate Thomas Rawlings said Tuesday that his office is looking into the child’s death. He wants to know whether DFCS performed any assessment of the grandparents as adequate care providers.

Chief John Gaissert said there were “no flags” that suggested that Robert Lewis “Bobby” Clark was set to explode.

Full Article and Source:
Neighbor: Slain boy was yelled at often

Services for the Elderly

Advocates for the elderly in California say recent budget cuts are dramatically affecting the ability of social service programs to keep up with demand at a time when the state's elderly population - and the incidents of elder abuse - are exploding.

One example is Contra Costa County, where the Aging and Adult Services Program laid off two-thirds of the staff who investigate abuse complaints of elderly and dependent adults. The county is now turning over virtually all of its self-neglect cases to some other agency - often, the police.

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Ed Rendell is proposing to allow an additional 30,000 seniors to enroll in the state's prescription-drug program for older residents, a move called essential to helping them survive the difficult economic times.

Rendell says he is working with House Democrats to push through legislation that would raise the current income eligibility limits for seniors to qualify for the state's popular PACENET program. The money for the program, which is funded by the Pennsylvania lottery would be augmented by requiring pharmaceutical companies to give the state the same drug rebates that it gives to the federal government's Medicaid program.

Full Article and Source:
As Calif. Budget Shrinks, Services For Elderly Slip

Who Owns Your Estate?

By Curt Chancler

Who really owns your estate? In reality you do NOT. The assets, land and property acquired throughout your lifetime can be taken, changed, and/or sold if a Probate Court so decrees. You can write a will and it isn’t worth the paper it is written on if challenged and taken to Probate Court. While statutes decree that the Court is to follow the wishes of the decedent that does not always happen.

Right now in Linn County Oregon a six year probate battle continues to rage between an avaricious Portland, Oregon Northwest Natural Gas Company (NWNG) and their legal firm Stoel Rives; West Coast Bank’s Trust Company represented by Garrett, Hemann, Robertson, Jennings, Comstock and Trethewy of Salem; and their alleged linchpin James Van Horn, stepson to Archie Q. Adams, Sr., represented by Fitzwater & Meyer LLP, Portland and paid by NWNG.

NWNG reportedly also guaranteed West Coast Trust $20,000 to assure they took the position of personal representative. All this in order to strip the inheritance, a lifetime of work for Archie Q. and Ethel Adams, from their children. An inheritance that NWNG continues to assert to the Court is of little value.

Full Article and Source:
Who Owns Your Estate?

Hearst in Conservatorship

The supervision of Phoebe Hearst Cooke’s care and estate is now in the hands of her twin brother and her nephew.

Judge Teresa Estrada-Mullaney ruled Wednesday that George Hearst Jr. and his son, George Hearst III, are the new conservators for the 81-year-old granddaughter of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.

Estrada-Mullaney ruled after brief comments from attorneys that Cooke’s cognitive state and paranoia make her vulnerable to fraud and undue influence.

Cooke’s family members will oversee her personal care and fortune, estimated to be worth $2 billion.

Full Article and Source:
Family will handle care for aging Hearst heir

See also:
Conservators and Lawyers Line Up

$2 Billion Conservatorship Battle

Penny Slots Guardian

A woman accused of stealing about $34,000 from an elderly woman she was appointed guardian of in order to play penny slots made her initial appearance last week in Douglas County Circuit Court.

Carol Jean Tolliver faces one felony theft charge. She was appointed the other woman’s guardian in August 2006 and was to receive $250 a month for managing her finances. From April 2008 to February 2009, the woman’s bank account shrunk from $99,693 to $800, according to the criminal complaint.

Kathy Izzard, an economic support worker with the Douglas County Department of Health and Human Services who was investigating the case, noted that Tolliver had produced checks that had been written out to a Superior bar and to the bar’s owner from the account.

Tolliver told Superior Police Detective Mike Jaszczak that she wrote the checks out for cash and felt she could do so because her name was on the checks.

The complaint stated that she told the detective that because she has watched over the woman, who resides in a nursing home, “she was entitled to the money.”

Full Article and Source:
Penny slots spur thefts

Audit Finds Fund Mismanagement

A new audit indicates that the past practices of the Cook County Public Administrator's Office cost taxpayers at least $227,871 in missing funds and possibly millions more in sweetheart contracts.

The office is supposed to protect the assets of those who die without a will or with an executor who is incapable. But an audit by county auditor Laura Burman found that before 2003, estate funds were commingled and estates with negative balances were subsidized by others with positive balances.

At least some checks were outright stolen from one estate to the tune of $3,198, and about $3 million was spent on estate services that were questionable, the account found. Burman found that some of the companies hired to "manage" estates weren't even incorporated or registered with the state when they were given the contracts.

Nicholas G. Grapsas, the new county public administrator who took over in November, told county board members that he has since separated each estate and instituted many of Burman's recommendations for cleaning up the office.

Still, he admitted, county taxpayers had to fork out at least $227,871 to make up for a deficit in the office's fund that had to be repaid to the estates.

Full Article and Source:
Cook Co. fund mismanagement cost taxpayers $227,871

“Guardian of Mentally Ill” Probate Case

More information on the Mary Kass case.
See: Battle of Artist Wills

An ailing artist, her wealth and future were flung into the spotlight.

The Boston Globe revealed on its front page sealed court proceedings in the guardianship case of resident Mary Kass, a student of Hans Hofmann in the 1950s in Provincetown and an art patron.
As a result of the sudden publicity local police were posted outside Kass’s East End home on Commercial Street, at the request of her lawyer, until valuables could be removed. That coverage lasted for about 10 hours, police said, at a cost of $32 per hour, just after the Globe story broke.

Kass’s niece and nephew, both from the Washington, D.C. area, filed a lawsuit late last year in Barnstable against Kass’s primary caretaker, resident Elizabeth “Betty” Villari. The case is labeled a “guardian of mentally ill” probate case, with Kass as the ward under consideration.

According to the Globe, the plaintiffs alleged that Villari, a personal trainer who co-owns a local gym, and psychotherapist Mary Ellen Henry, also a resident, took advantage of Kass’s diminished mental state to gain control over her and her assets, including the purchase of three waterfront homes.

Full Article and Source:
Wealthy artist’s competency case made public

She lived in a modest, brown house on a narrow Provincetown street. Few knew of her vast wealth, the valuable works of art she owns. And that is how the intensely private artist apparently wanted it. Mary Kass studied with renowned artists, exhibited her paintings in Provincetown, and displayed her work in Denmark, France, and Switzerland.

Now 74, Kass uses a wheelchair.

Her enormous fortune, estimated at $60 million, is at the center of a legal dispute between her relatives and the personal trainer and psychotherapist whom Kass named as the primary beneficiaries of her estate.

A judge is expected to decide whether Kass needs a legal guardian. If the judge decides Kass cannot take care of herself, two people on opposite sides of the dispute over the estate want responsibility for her welfare: her nephew, Thomas Kass Berger, and her former personal trainer, Elizabeth ''Betty" Villari.

The judge's decision, following a 10-day trial will not determine who inherits Kass's fortune. But her legal guardian, if the judge appoints one, would be responsible for her financial affairs, property, and physical welfare.

Full Article and Source:
Future of Cape artist becomes $60m question - Judge weighs guardianship as 2 sides vie

Drug-Induced Dementia: A Perfect Crime

Under the influence of declining birth rates, expanding longevity, and changing population structures around the world, the global prevalence of senile dementia is expected to increase more than four-fold within the next forty years. Within the United States alone, the number of affected individuals over the age of 65 is expected to rise exponentially from 8 million cases (2% of the entire population in the year 2000), to 18 million retirees (roughly 4.5% of the national census in the year 2040). Although they are striking, these statistics quite likely underestimate the scope of the coming epidemic, as they fail to consider the impact of under-diagnosis, early-onset disease, and the potential for a changing incidence of illness in the context of increasingly toxic environments.

In the face of this imminent crisis, concerned observers have called for policies and practices which aim to prevent, limit, or reverse dementia. Drug-Induced Dementia: A Perfect Crime is a timely resource which reveals why and how medical treatments themselves – specifically, psycho pharmaceuticals – are a substantial cause of brain degeneration and premature death.

A first-of-its-kind resource for patients and clinicians, the book integrates research findings from epidemiology (observational studies of patients in the “real world”), basic biology (animal experiments), and clinical science (neuroimaging and autopsy studies) in order to demonstrate the dementing and deadly effects of psychiatric drugs.

Source:
Drug-Induced Dementia: a perfect crime by Grace E. Jackson, MD

Filial Responsibility Laws

Boomers could get caught by laws already on books in thirty states

Did you know you could be responsible for your parents' unpaid bills? Thirty states currently have laws making adult children responsible for their parents if their parents can't afford to take care of themselves. While these laws are rarely enforced, there has been speculation that states may begin dusting them off as a way to save on Medicaid expenses.

These laws, called filial responsibility laws, obligate adult children to provide necessities like food, clothing, housing, and medical attention for their indigent parents.

According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative research organization, 21 states allow a civil court action to obtain financial support or cost recovery, 12 states impose criminal penalties on children who do not support their parents, and three states allow both civil and criminal actions.

The passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 made it more difficult to qualify for Medicaid, which means there may be more elderly individuals in nursing homes with no ability to pay for care. In response, nursing homes may use the filial responsibility laws as a way to get care paid for.

Full Article and Source:
States May Take New Look at Requiring Adult Children to Pay for Aging Parents

More information:
States With Filial Responsibility Laws

Adult Children Could Be on Hook for Parents' Nursing Home Bills

Group Claims Filial Responsibility Laws Will Save on Medicaid Costs

Taking Care of Our Caretakers: Using Filial Responsibility Laws to Support the Elderly Beyond the Government’s Assistance

Adult Children, Aging Parents and the Law

Landmark Ruling

What experts say was a landmark Supreme Court ruling allowed their maternal grandfather, George Smith and his wife Brenda to adopt the children.

The legal battle over their adoption may have ended their relationship with their paternal grandparents, an outcome one attorney involved called heartbreaking.

Smith, whose daughter La Shonda was the children’s mother, and his wife first petitioned to adopt the children in April 2005. That was about a month after their 27-year-old father, Eduardo Silvils, died in a car accident.

Silvils’ parents did not ask to adopt the children but did seek guardianship. Their position was that neither set of grandparents should adopt the children, thus creating a situation where both sets of grandparents had the chance to see the grandchildren regularly.

In 2006 a family court judge supported their position, giving the Smiths primary guardianship of the children but denying adoption. In his order, the judge wrote that it was in the children’s best interest to “enjoy the love, affection and involvement of all their grandparents in their lives.”

The District Court of Appeal upheld that decision. But the Florida Supreme Court ultimately disagreed.

The high court called a split guardianship “the antithesis of the right to permanence and stability that is afforded by adoptions.”

The children also have financial security after a Jacksonville jury awarded them and George Smith $2.83 million in a wrongful death lawsuit filed after their mother’s death.

Full Article and Source:
Jacksonville grandparents adopt after landmark decision

McQuillan Pleads Guilty

A former Jackson County lawyer pleaded guilty as charged to embezzling about $800,000 from the estate of a veteran.

Richard McQuillan admitted to three counts of embezzling more than $20,000. His crimes are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $15,000 or three times the stolen amount, whichever is greater.

McQuillan removed funds three times from the estate of Robert Howard, who died in December 2006, and converted the money to his own use.

Circuit Judge John McBain is to sentence him July 16.

Full Article and Source:
Jackson attorney pleads guilty to embezzling $800,000

See also:
Estates Bled Dry

Attorney Plundered $1Million Estate

The Gary Harvey Story

“Dying With Dignity” (Emma Wright - June 3, 2009) was the title of WENY-TV’s report on the Gary & Sara Harvey story.

This was a story (not fully reported) that has the government, business, staff, lawyers, judges and the so-called ethics committee intruding upon personal family and health care matters; not only intruding, but making life and death decisions for Gary, while apparently excluding Sara Harvey to the point of telling her (to her face) that the decision of the (so-called) ethics committee would be reported to the establishment’s attorney, who would then relay it to her attorney, so if she wanted to know anything, she would have to ask him.

The degree of compassion, or rather, lack thereof, is utterly amazing and far from comforting.

The Ethic’s Committee Consult reportedly held behind closed doors on May 29, 2009 is neither the beginning nor the end of the story at hand. It is merely the latest insult in a long line of events that go back nearly three and one half years. Events that challenge and define and assures us that our lives can change in a spilt second no matter what we might have thought a moment before the devastation devours all the hopes and dreams once held dear.

Full Article and Source:
Behind Closed Doors: The Gary Harvey Story

See also:
The Right to Life

Not Happy With Treatment

Held Captive

Sanity an Issue in Parental Kidnapping Case

A lawyer for the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller argued that "pure madness" from a longstanding and worsening mental illness drove his client to kidnap his 7-year-old daughter last summer, and urged jurors to dismiss the diagnosis of a prosecution psychiatrist who found the defendant was legally sane.

Defense attorney Jeffrey A. Denner implored jurors to reject the testimony of Dr. James A. Chu, a clinical psychiatrist. Denner said that Chu's 2 1/2-hour meeting with the defendant in jail was woefully inadequate for an accurate diagnosis and that Chu was unqualified because he has no forensic background and works mostly as a hospital administrator.

In contrast, he said, the defense's two mental health witnesses, the psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow and psychologist Catherine T.J. Howe, both have extensive training in forensics and spent 28 hours with Rockefeller over 14 separate sessions before diagnosing him with narcissistic personality disorder and grandiose delusions.

Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David A. Deakin urged the jury to look past the "preposterous diagnosis" by the defense experts. Deakin asserted that Rockefeller had never been diagnosed with a mental illness before his arrest in the abduction and is really a "self-centered, controlling, and manipulative man who was angry" at his ex-wife, Sandra Boss, when she won custody of their daughter, Reigh, and moved with her to London in December 2007.

Deakin: "This is not a case about madness. It's a case about manipulation. Don't let him get away with that. Don't let this insanity defense be the culminating manipulation in a lifetime of lies designed to try to get what he wanted."

Full Article and Source:
Lawyers attack diverging diagnoses

More information:

Doctor says ‘Clark Rockefeller’ faking crazy

First Wife of 'Clark Rockefeller' to Testify at Kidnap Trial

‘Crockefeller’ to Court: My Ex-Lawyer Said Too Much to the Media