'Caught on Camera'

Employee caught on hidden camera punching, kicking and stripping Alzheimer’s patient, police say.

Full Article and Source:
Woman, 78, Beaten, Stripped by Assisted Living Workers: Police

Ex-TX Judge Takes Plea in RICO Case

A former Texas judge pleaded guilty yesterday to unspecified charges in a federal racketeering indictment, admitting that he took bribes from attorneys and others during his eight years in office in exchange for favorable treatment in court cases.

Abel Corral Limas, who is presently in private practice in Brownsville, was accused in a 17-page indictment of violating the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by operating the 404th Judicial Court as an income-producing enterprise, according to the Associated Press and the San Antonio Express-News.

Four unidentified attorneys and a middleman, who are named as persons A through E in the document but not themselves indicted, allegedly were involved in the claimed scheme. It isn't clear what their status presently is in the case. Together, the two lawyers allegedly paid the judge about $235,000 in bribes, according to the Express-News.

Limas reportedly charged fees such as $1,500 to permit those on probation to report by mail, instead of in person, and $700 to change bond terms.

He was released on $50,000 unsecured bond after his guilty plea and is scheduled to be sentenced in July.

Source:
Ex-Judge Takes Plea in RICO Case, Admits Role in Alleged $235K+ Court Bribery Scheme

Exploition Convictions Help Raise Awareness

After pleading guilty to exploitation of a vulnerable adult, former certified nursing assistant Cheryl Ann Porter was sentenced March 21 to five years of supervised probation, was ordered to provide more than $25,000 in restitution and received a suspended sentence of three to seven years in prison.

Possibly most importantly, Albany County Prosecuting Attorney Richard Bohling said, was that Porter would now be registered with the Department of Family Services as someone who has exploited a vulnerable adult and is no longer licensed as a CNA.

“We had 10 other counts charged, but basically they were facets of the diamond. This was the jewel,” he said. “It’s been my position in this case from day one with her defense attorney that what she is truly guilty of is exploiting a vulnerable adult. I wanted a conviction for that charge, and I was not prepared to settle for anything less.”

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Exploitation Convictions Possible, Serve to Help Raise Awareness

Ciavarella Hangs Acquittal Arguments on Evidentiary Issues

Arguing that evidence submitted by the federal government was both time-barred and insufficient, former Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. has petitioned a federal court judge to overturn his racketeering and honest services fraud convictions.

Ciavarella wrote that he should be acquitted of those major charges, which would leave him guilty of only tax fraud charges, or provided a new trial.

The former judge used a 20-page brief to support a series of motions that were filed last month, alternately challenging U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Edwin M. Kosik's discretion in overseeing the case and the strength of federal prosecutors' evidence against him.

The former judge was accused by federal prosecutors in January 2009 of concocting a "kids-for-cash" scheme with Conahan and taking more than $2.8 million from Mericle and Robert J. Powell, the builder and former co-owner of Pa. Child Care, a for-profit juvenile detention facility.

A jury, however, only found Ciavarella took $997,000 from Mericle in his capacity as a judge, conspired to launder that money and lied about it on his tax returns.

Conahan pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge in an open-ended agreement with federal prosecutors.

Mericle and Powell also admitted wrongdoing for their roles in the case.

Now, Ciavarella is hinging his appeal, in part, on Kosik's decision to bar him from mentioning Zubrod's contention that Mericle's payment was "not a kickback or a bribe in any sense."

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Ciavarella Hangs Acquittal Arguments on Evidentiary Issues

'Strange New Twist'

Here's a bizarre new twist in Michael R. Mastro's long-running bankruptcy case, Washington's largest ever:

The guardian appointed last month to look out for the interests of the now-incapacitated former real-estate magnate in court says she can't use the lawyer who has represented Mastro since the proceedings began nearly two years ago — because they represent different things.

Guardian Faith Ireland said in a court filing this week that, while she is charged with representing Mastro's best interests, attorney Thomas Bucknell is obligated to follow Mastro's past instructions.

Even if they aren't in his best interests.

So Ireland, a former state Supreme Court justice, has retained her own lawyer. What's more, she wants his fees, and hers, paid out of funds administered by Mastro's chief adversary, court-appointed trustee James Rigby.

If that doesn't happen, Ireland wrote, she'll have to quit.

Full Article and Source:
Mastro Bankruptcy Case has Strange New Twist

See Also:
Guardian Appointed for Real Estate Magnate Michael Mastro for Bankruptcy Case

Relationship between Quality of Care and Negligence Litigation in Nursing Homes

Untangling the relationship between the quality of health care and the risk of negligence litigation is a crucial challenge in medicolegal research. Although previous studies have probed this relationship, an important question for clinicians and health care institutions remains unanswered: does the delivery of high-quality care reduce the risk of being sued?

Methodologic and data problems have frustrated attempts to answer this question empirically. Malpractice claims are typically too rare among individual physicians to allow meaningful assessments of risk. Physician-level quality measures also have substantial limitations. Measures of litigation risk and quality at the hospital level are more robust, but physicians, not hospitals, are the chief defendants in most medical malpractice claims. The absence of a comprehensive national repository of data on all filed malpractice claims adds to the difficulties; it generally forces a choice between limiting investigations to a few institutions and pulling back to ecologic analyses at the area level.

These methodologic constraints are less problematic in the long-term care setting. The vast majority of claims alleging negligence in the delivery of nursing home care target the facility, not the individual clinicians who work in the facility. Quality measures for nearly all nursing homes in the United States are collected routinely, are detailed, and are widely used in research. In addition, the predominance of large nursing home chains provides natural points of convergence for information on many claims from many facilities.

Historically, rates of litigation against nursing homes were low. That changed in the middle-to-late 1990s, with sharp spikes in rates noted in several regions. We linked indicators of the quality of care in nearly 1500 nursing homes in 48 states to data on the incidence of negligence claims against them. Our goal was to compare the litigation experiences of high-performing and of low-performing facilities.

Claims data:
Five of the largest nursing home chains in the United States provided us with data on tort claims brought against their facilities. The facilities operated in 48 states, and the claim periods varied by chain: 2000–2006 for chain 1, 1998–2005 for chain 2, 1998–2005 for chain 3, 1998–2005 for chain 4, and 2000–2005 for chain 5. Every claim in each period was included, regardless of whether it was resolved in or out of court and whether it resulted in a payment to the plaintiff. We defined a claim as a written demand for compensation for injury.

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The New England Journal of Medicine: Health Policy and Reform

Scott Bloch Will Spend One Month in Jail

On March 30, 2011 Judge Deborah A. Robinson denied Scott Bloch’s motion to reconsider his guilty plea on the criminal contempt of Congress case USA v Scott Bloch.

Scott Bloch was the former Special Counsel for the Office of Special Counsel and was accused of dismissing hundreds of whistleblower cases without investigation.

Scott Bloch, in the face of a federal investigation, asked Geeks on Call to wipe his computer clean of all digital files thus destroying evidence that the FBI was seeking in the Congressional investigation. On March 30, 2011 Scott Bloch was sentenced to one month in prison by a D.C. federal court.

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Medical Whistleblower

Judge Honored for 16 Years of Service

With balloons on the bench and cake and punch on a table off to the side, Calhoun County Probate Court Judge Gary Reed entered his courtroom Friday to applause.

More than 150 people were there to mark Reed's retirement at midnight from the bench after 16 years.

While his wife, mother, brothers, fellow judges, lawyers, staff and friends looked on, several speakers said Reed, who sat as a Juvenile Court Judge in the Family Division of Circuit Court, was fair and compassionate from the bench, especially dealing with children.

Reed said his greatest satisfaction was "protecting kids from harm from others and sometimes from themselves."

Reed's term does not end until Dec. 31, but state officials have not made an appointment to replace him and his duties have been spread among other judges.

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Judge Honored for 16 Years of Service

Supreme Court Denies Lokuta a Second Hearing

The state Supreme Court has denied former Luzerne County judge Ann Lokuta's request for a reargument in her bid for reinstatement to the county bench.

Lokuta was removed from the bench more than two years ago following a trial before the state Court of Judicial Discipline. The court found she had mistreated court employees and attorneys, repeatedly showed up late for hearings and failed to recuse herself from a case involving a family that supported her politically.

The Supreme Court rejected Lokuta's bid to overturn the discipline court's verdict earlier this year. Her attorneys say she plans an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Source:
Supreme Court Denies Lokuta a Second Hearing

See Also:
Judge Ann Lokuta Loses

Charged with Stealing From Children's Home

The executor of an estate intended to benefit the Tennessee Children's Home has been charged with stealing from it.

Daryl Bornstein faces nine felony counts. His wife, Janalyn Bornstein, faces five counts.

Bornstein was the executor of an $800,000 estate, left to the Children's Home by Nashville Firefighter Raymond Simmons.

After allegations of mismanagement, a probate court removed Bornstein as executor last year. By then, an official with the Children's Home says only about $50,000 was left.

Daryl Bornstein is jailed on $2.2 million bond.

Source:
Executor Charged With Stealing From Children's Home

Jury Decides Richard Morse is Incapacitated

After a rare trial, a Clark County jury has found a Vancouver man incapacitated and unable to make decisions about his money and medical care.

Jurors deliberated for more than nine hours Thursday and Friday before deciding shortly after 1 p.m. Friday that a third-party professional guardian should be appointed to make financial and medical decisions on behalf of Richard Morse, 72. The jury’s ruling that Morse is incapacitated means they found him unable to provide for his safety and health and manage his finances.

The case was rare in that it was apparently the first time that 12 Clark County citizens were asked to decide a guardianship case, rather than a judge.

At least 10 jurors were required to find Morse incapacitated in order to strip him of his rights to make his own decisions. Morse preserved some of his rights, but the 10-juror requirement was met on all the “big ones,” said Morse’s attorney, Jim Senescu of Dimitrov & Senescu.

Addressing Superior Court Judge John Wulle, Senescu said immediately after the ruling, “I will explain to Mr. Morse he has essentially lost the rights the jury has voted on.”

One juror sided with Morse on all counts, while another joined to make it a 10-2 margin on some decisions over Morse’s fitness.

Senescu after the ruling returned to a point he made in his closing argument that Morse, a veteran of the Vietnam War, lost rights he once fought to preserve. “That says it all,” he said.

The unusual case was brought by Vancouver Health & Rehabilitation Center, where Morse has been living for more than a year. The center’s attorney, Rachel Brooks, argued during the four-day trial that Morse had problems living on his own and managing his medicine and his health.

Concerning his finances, Morse has a $600,000 estate yet never has had a bank account, Brooks argued, and he’s not used to paying bills.

Senescu said that Morse would appeal.

Specifically, a third-party guardian now will decide when and where Morse gets medical care. Financially, Morse cannot enter into a contract, engage in real estate transactions or sue or be sued.

Morse retained the right to vote, make or revoke a will, marry or divorce, drive a vehicle and make decisions regarding social aspects of his life.

A hearing was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. April 27 to decide on a guardian for Morse.

“I don’t think this is the end,” Morse said. “Now it’s up to the Lord.

Full Article and Source:
Guardianship Jury Finds Man, 72, Unable to Care for Self

See Also:
Jury Receives Rare Guardianship Case

72 Year Old Man Takes Guardianship Case to Jury

Editorial: Don't Force Iowa Families to Sign Away Their Rights

Most of the Iowans living in nursing homes and assisted living centers aren't in any position to advocate for themselves. They don't file complaints with state inspectors. They don't call newspaper reporters when they can't get help with a problem. They are too sick.

It's their adult children - if they have them - who try to right any wrongs. Since the Register's Opinion staff started the Aging in Iowa series last year, adult children have contacted us a few times a month concerning problems with a parent's care.

Wes Stevens called recently. His mother, Polly, is an 84-year-old Iowan who had been living at Emeritus at Urbandale, an assisted living center, for more than a year. She was in the dementia unit and needed around-the-clock care. (See the essay, at left, about her family.)

This family's experience illustrates a problem Iowa lawmakers should address: a two-page form Polly's daughter, Deb Pickering, signed when she admitted her mother to the home. It is titled, "Agreement to resolve disputes by binding arbitration."

Wes and Deb considered it just another one of many documents they were asked to sign. Twenty months later, after their mother fell and spent more than a week in a hospital, they now understand what the form means: They can't file a lawsuit against Emeritus. Instead, they must enter "arbitration," which replaces a trial before a judge or jury. A neutral party has the final word on a complaint.

Iowa lawmakers should prohibit residential care facilities from forcing families to sign such arbitration agreements.

Full Editorial and Source:
Don't Force Iowa Families to Sign Away Their Rights

Iowa Ombudsmen's Job Plan Questioned

Iowa's top advocate for seniors in nursing homes wants to have her job performance evaluated by the industry she oversees.

At the same time, the director of the Iowa Department on Aging is telling the state's eight local long-term care ombudsmen that they should not speak out about a recent dramatic cut in the number of state nursing home inspectors.

"That is unconscionable," said John Tapscott, a former state legislator who now advocates for the elderly. "You can't tell our ombudsmen not to speak out on the issues that affect their constituents."

According to federal law, each of the nation's long-term care ombudsmen is to advocate independently for the elderly residents of care facilities - a job that historically has put the ombudsmen at odds with both nursing homes and state regulators.

But new questions are being raised about whether Iowa's ombudsman, Jeanne Yordi, is working independently or advocating effectively for the elderly.

Legislation passed by the Iowa Senate last week calls for the creation of an "advisory committee" that would review and comment on the ombudsman's investigative procedures while participating in the ombudsman's annual performance review.

Full Article and Source:
Iowa Senior Care Advocate's Job Plan, Silence Questioned>

Judge Moves John Q. Hammons Hearing to Nursing Home

The legal dispute over the care of a 92-year-old businessman moved to the nursing home where he lives on Thursday. A probate judge held a hearing at The Manor at Elfindale, where John Q. Hammons lives, rather than the Greene County Judicial Courts Facility.

The hearing was for a lawsuit filed in early March by eight friends of Hammons. The friends say Hammons' guardian, Jacqueline Dowdy, won't let them visit or call Hammons, even though they believe he wants to see them and is well enough to do so. The lawsuit seeks to have Greene County Public Administrator David Yancey appointed to be Hammons' guardian.

Public administrators handle the affairs of people who can't do it themselves and have no one else to do it for him. Hammons and his wife, Juanita, have no children, and Juanita Hammons has long been in a nursing home herself.

After the hearing on Thursday, Probate Judge Michael Cordonnier recessed the Case Management Hearing until 8:30 a.m. on April 7.

Full Article and Source:
Judge Moves John Q. Hammons Guardianship Hearing to Nursing Home

See Also:
John Q. Hammons Guardianship Closed!

KY Gov Signs Two Bills to Protect Elderly

Gov. Steve Beshear held a ceremonial bill signing ceremony for two measures aimed at better protecting elderly and vulnerable adults from abuse, neglect or financial exploitation.

Lawmakers and advocates surrounded Beshear as he signed the adult protection bills that he praised as “a step forward in safeguarding our seniors.”

Beshear said he was disappointed lawmakers failed to pass what was a priority for many of the advocates — a bill to create a registry of people found to have abused or neglected adults, similar to the state’s a child abuse registry. That bill passed the House but died in the Senate.

He and the advocates said they will continue to press for such a law. Meanwhile, they said the bills Beshear signed will provide important protections for adults who are vulnerable because of age or disability.

“This is truly a good day for those of us who work in the field of elder abuse and guardianship,’’ said Becky Smith of GuardiaCare, a nonprofit Louisville agency that helps elderly or disabled adults manage their finances.

House Bill 52, sponsored by Rep. Joni Jenkins, D-Shively, bars people convicted of abusing or neglecting vulnerable adults from managing the affairs of their victims by acting as a guardian or power of attorney. It also prohibits them from inheriting from their victims or serving as executor of their estates.

Full Article and Source:
Governor Steve Beshear Signs 2 Bills to Protect Elderly

Family Not Notified of Man's Death for 11 Days

The poor handling of William Mullins's death suggests a health-care system under siege.

William Mullins didn't have an easy life.

He was born 60 years ago with cerebral palsy and some moderate mental challenges, a somewhat lower-than-normal IQ.

As he grew older and his behaviour became more erratic, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Later still, he developed diabetes and heart problems.

For a time, to his family's despair, he lived on the streets, unwilling or unable to take care of himself.

At times, though, he was able to hold a job as a parking lot attendant.

Although he wasn't yet a senior citizen, he spent his last years in the comfort of an Edmonton care centre, where people remember him fondly as a friendly man who liked music and fresh air, who always preferred to sleep with his windows open, who liked to greet people he knew with a big "Hello." His sisters say his favourite song was Don't Worry, Be Happy.

Yet this isn't a story about the difficult circumstances of Bill Mullins' life -but about the indignity of his death.

On Feb. 11, staff at the nursing home where Mullins lived were concerned enough about his failing health that they called an ambulance.

Mullins was taken to the University of Alberta Hospital and admitted to the intensive care unit. He died the next day.

Nobody from the hospital notified the nursing home. Nobody notified the Office of the Public Guardian or the Public Trustee, who together had control of Mullins's personal and legal affairs. And nobody notified Mullins's two sisters, his next of kin, neither of whom live in Edmonton. For 11 days, his body lay unclaimed in the hospital morgue -lost, like some missing piece of luggage, in a morass of medical bureaucracy.

By the time his sister Heather was finally told what had happened, by the time she arrived in Edmonton to identify her brother's body, his corpse had begun to decompose.

It's a nightmare no family should have to contemplate.

What went wrong? How did poor Bill Mullins get so lost in the system?

The vulnerable man, with his complex medical and psychiatric disabilities, was, legally speaking, a dependent adult, an official ward of the province's Office of the Public Guardian. He'd been in and out of hospital often; even if he couldn't communicate clearly by the time the ambulance got him to hospital, his legal status and contact information for the guardian's office should have been part of his medical file. When he died, the appropriate protocol would have been for the hospital to notify the guardian's office, and for the public guardian, in turn, to notify the next of kin.

Full Article and Source:
A Man Died, and for 11 Days, His Family Wasn't Notified

'So, What Have You Learned as a Legal Intern?'

Source:
Xtranormal

72-Year-Old Man Takes Guardianship Case to Jury

The Vancouver (WA) Columbian reports: “As his attorney tells it, Richard Morse’s trial that starts today is about the balance between government and individual freedom. The 72-year-old man’s nursing home wants to become his legal guardian and take control of his $600,000 estate. Morse believes he’s perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

At issue is whether Morse is incapacitated and doesn’t have the ability to make decisions about his money and his care. Vancouver Health and Rehabilitation Center filed the petition for guardianship in May after Morse was staying there following hospitalization for infected leg wounds."

Full Article and Source:
Washington Man, 72, Takes Guardianship Case to Jury