Saturday, October 20, 2012

Man has lived as John Doe for years, but now his guardian wants mystery solved


His real name isn't known. For years now, he simply has been identified as John D108 Doe.

Those caring for him don't know his age. Or whether he has family. They don't know whether he was abandoned or whether anyone is searching for him. It's not even clear when he went from a man with an identity to someone who no one knows.

Court records show it has been at least four years since the man was found wandering the streets and knocking on doors. But stories passed down to those caring for him indicate it may be closer to eight years ago when he was first found on Detroit's east side.

Police ran his fingerprints and didn't get any hits.

He can't speak beyond a few words. He has been diagnosed with severe mental illness and has lived in a group home in Detroit since 2008. Now, his new guardian and her daughter want the mystery of John D108 Doe solved.

Full Article and Source:
Man has lived as John Doe for years, but now his guardian wants mystery solved

Britney Spears emotionally manipulated in conservatorship, says ex nanny


Washington, Oct 17: Britney Spears' former nanny is all set to testify that the pop singer has been emotionally manipulated throughout her court-ordered conservatorship along with offering shocking details, when she takes the stand this week as a witness for the 'X Factor' judge's former manager Sam Lutfi.

Lourdes Torres, who has spent a great deal of time with the Spears family, is also said to present shocking details when she appears as witness for Lutfi in his ongoing breach of contract, libel and defamation case for comments pop singer's mother Lynne Spears made in a book about her life.

"Lulu is going to be called as a witness by Sam Lutfi's lawyer to testify about what she witnessed when she was a nanny to Britney's two children, in the months after the conservatorship was put in place in 2008," Radar Online quoted a source as saying.

Full Article and Source:
Britney Spears emotionally manipulated in conservatorship, says ex nanny

Friday, October 19, 2012

The Rampant Abuse of Elders by Using Guardianship

It is an often occurrence, that My Elder Advocate is called in to Advocate for a resident in a Nursing Home who has been placed there against their will by a court appointed guardian, and generally is being abused or neglected. In many of these guardianship cases, close family members have been banned from visiting their loved ones by guardians. In other cases nursing homes have been declared guardians and they have pillaged the personal accounts of the people they are supposed to protect.

As the number of seniors increase, so will the number of individuals with cognitive disabilities such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. This trend has produced an increasing demand to invoke guardianship on behalf of incapacitated seniors. However, guardianship - a legal tool which gives one person or entity the power to make personal and/or property decisions for another - has the potential of harming older adults rather than protecting them if not carefully administered. The rising incidence of elder abuse in this country and continuing reports of the failure of courts and the states to prevent exploitation of incapacitated adults by their guardians have long been of concern to My Elder Advocate and other advocates across the country.

Full Article and Source:
The Rampant Abuse of Elders by Using Guardianship

Recommended Blog: Medical Whistleblower

Dr. Janet Parker began her advocacy work with an internship at a residential facility that served children with emotional needs. She went on to attain a Masters in Science in Education (Curriculum Development, Supervision and Administration). Dr. Parker was a trained foster parent and worked with foster child advocacy issues. She worked in humane education as Farm Supervisor at the Massachusetts American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and worked to help develop animal assisted therapy in conjunction with Dr. Leo Bustad’s Delta Society Program at Washington State University. At WSU, she took graduate study in neuroanatomy and neuropharmacology at the Washington State University School of Veterinary Medicine and then went on to complete a doctorate degree in Veterinary Medicine and the practiced clinical veterinary medicine for 10 years. Now retired, she works as a human rights advocate providing information and advocacy support for others.
 
Source: Medical Whistleblower Blog

Thursday, October 18, 2012

The Eli Schutts Case: Companion's Attorney Fires Back With Motion Prompting New Probate Hearing


TORRINGTON—Based on a motion citing false accusations of money being improperly withdrawn from a bank, and asking that two people be allowed to define their own relationship, another probate court hearing is scheduled next week in the case of Litchfield Woods Health Care Center resident Eli Schutts, 86.

This hearing, the nursing home client’s second in two months, will address petitioning attorney Matt LeFevre’s request to remove visitation restrictions imposed on Dr. Schutts’ longtime companion, Edith Johnson, 79, of Bethlehem.

The Litchfield County Times began tracking the case of Dr. Schutts, a former professor of philosophy at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, after Ms. Johnson raised concerns about his care, and about how she was being treated by those she encountered through the probate system. (All the stories can be accessed online at www.countytimes.com.)

Full Article and Source:
The Eli Schutts Case: Companion's Attorney Fires Back With Motion Prompting New Probate Hearing

See Also:
Conservator In, Companion Out, in Torrington Probate Case of Eli Schutts; the Drama Promises to Go On

YouTube: We're More Alike Than Different

People with Down syndrome make great employees, are honest and hardworking, have dreams and aspirations, and have more in common with you and I than we realize. Helping change these perceptions is the goal of the successful campaign from The National Down Syndrome Congress. Source: YouTube: We're More Alike Than Different

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

T.S. Radio: Guest Illinois Attorney Ken Ditkowsky





T.S. Radio was very pleased to have Illinois Attorney Ken Ditkowsky join host Marti Oakley and Co-Host, Linda Kincaid, to discuss the ignoring of the law and statutes in elder abuse cases.

During the disussion, Attorney Ditkowsky defines "due process" in layman's terms and explains the part due process plays (or doesn't!) in unlawful and abusive guardianships and conservatorships.

Mr. Ditkowsky uses the Mary G. Sykes case to illustrate some of the horrific problems with guardianship in Illinois.

LISTEN to the archive of the show

See Also:
"Law 101 and Then Some!"

Attorney Ken Ditkowsky: The Need for an Honest, Comprehensive and Complete Investigation

NAGSA:  Mary G. Sykes, Illinois Victim

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Mary Sudovar: An Unsuspecting Victim?


Life sometimes has unexpected turns that take us to situations we never supposed possibly to become our own. It could never happen to us…not us. I’m sure that is what Mary Sudovar once thought. Never her or her family, she might have thought, if ever a negative consideration crossed this special woman’s mind in the first place. So how did it come to be that the children she so loves are now at odds and the court system is involved?

Thirty-three months ago, Mary had an estate that should have kept her comfortable for her remaining years. She had funds and she had property. Now her money is allegedly gone, her house is sold and the alleged attorney in fact is requesting the court to allow him to take the house sale money as a repayment for a loan he and his wife supposedly made to his mother. So where does that leave the 102 year old Mary Sudovar?

Some might try to argue that Mary is not a victim. I’m not sure what the argument might be. After all, what does one call it when family runs through that much money in that short of a time? And what happens now? Does Mary stay on with family for free? Will there be no more additional charges? If it can be done now, why not before? But what about the private nursing personnel? Who will be picking up the tab for that? Or, will that service end? Will Mary stay or will she go?

Full Article and Source:
Mary Sudovar: An Unsuspecting Victim?
See Also: Mary Sudovar: The Children at War

S. Ark. judge accused of improper conduct, quits


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A district judge in Monticello has resigned after being accused by the state panel that disciplines judges of numerous ethical violations, including being intoxicated while on the bench.

The Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission said Thursday that District Judge Kenneth Harper would face a trial on charges that he broke the terms of a prior censure that required him to get help to overcome alcoholism and refrain from drinking.

Full Article and Source:
S. Ark. judge accused of improper conduct, quits

Assisted living center employee charged with exploitation of elderly


LEON COUNTY, Fla. -- Detectives with the Leon County Sheriff's Office have arrested a man accused of stealing jewelry from residents at a local assisted living center.

The man, 25-year-old Kishsion Thomas, also worked at that center. Detectives say he stole jewelry from at least one elderly living resident and five that were dead.

He was arrested after an employee of a Tallahassee pawn shop, Capital Coin & Diamond, called the sheriff's office. The employee suspected jewelry Thomas sold to the business was stolen.

Full Article and Source:
Assisted living center employee charged with exploitation of elderly

Monday, October 15, 2012

Attorney Ken Ditkowsky: The Need for an Honest, Complete, and Comprehensive Investigation

When the Courts' function properly, the rights of senior citizens are protected; however, there are too many cases - such as Sykes, Gore, Tyler, Wyman et al in Illinois - in which the exploitation of the elderly is obvious and no one is interested in even investigatinig the outrageous conduct that is the hallmark of the protest. How can an abusive estranged husband be appointed as a guardian of his wife (Wyman)? How can a mentally ill grandchild - herself lacking competency - be appointed as a guardian (Gore)? How can a daughter who the alleged incompetent is seeking an order of protection be appointed plenary guardian (Sykes)? How can a common threat of large sums of money not being part of the inventory be ignored? 

In Illinois, we have a comprehensive legislative procedure to protect the elderly from miscreants using the courts to separate a senior from his/her liberty, property, civil rights and human rights. As illustrated by Sykes the entire procedure was and three years later is ignored. Indeed, it is unethical (according the ARDC) to complain. [This letter may generate another ARDC complaint against me even though it is clearly protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.]

What we 'seniors' need is for an honest, complete, and comprehensive investigation of this guardianship situation; and if it is determined that guardianship is a ruse to under color of statute for miscreants to deprive seniors of their liberty, their property, civil rights and human rights as I am many others have charged, the miscreants should suffer the full weight of the law.

~Ken Ditkowsky, Ditkowsky Law Office

See Also:
YouTube: Ken Ditkowsky's Appearance on NorthShore Live: Cooper's Corner

MarySykes.wordpress

NASGA: Mary Sykes, Illinois Victim

Sunday, October 14, 2012

T.S. Radio Tonight!

 
IL Attorney Ken Ditkowsky is on T.S. Radio now!
 

Petition: Justice for Jenny

We ask you to sign this [petition] as a last resort cry for help, in hope that you, as do we, believe that people with physical or mental disabilities have the right to fully participate in all aspects of society. We have exhausted our resources in this matter and are appalled while we witness an individuals human rights violated and freedom of choice and dignity are stripped away by the very people and organizations that are charged with protecting them.

In April of 2008 we took into our employ a young lady with Down's syndrome. Over the past four years she has become a part of our family to the extent of actually residing in our home. She was an integral part of our business team as are all of our employees. She developed relationships and friendships with all of her co-workers and many customers and was well known and loved in our local community.

In March of 2012 she was hit by a car while riding her bicycle. While in the hospital she underwent back surgery which required a stay of more than a week. As her discharge date neared, we learned from hospital staff that her immediate family was not willing to take her in, thus she had nowhere to go. At this point we decided to take her into our home to care for her during her recovery. She stayed in our home from March 19, 2012 until May 16, 2012. We began shortly thereafter to seek services for her that would enable her to stay in our home. The battle that followed was not only unexpected but unbelievable.

The local CSB (Community Services Board) would not provide waiver services to help keep her in the community unless she was homeless, which is a term they themselves could not define. In order to get the services in which she was entitled we were forced to surrender her to the CSB at which time they placed her in a congregate setting. She was traumatized of course because for 28 years she had enjoyed the same freedoms, enjoyed by every other citizen, provided by the Constitution of the United States. She communicated on numerous occasions her expressed desire to leave and return to our home. Her communications expressing that desire to be released were rewarded by the facility staff taking away her phone, computer and denying her access to the facility phone.

When we were finally able to communicate with her again we gave her a number to an attorney that was able to rescue her from the facility. Shortly after coming back to our home she was summoned to a guardianship hearing initiated by her stepfather. Although a continuance was granted, the intent of the hearing was clear as she was hauled off by court order to yet another facility, against her will, to remain in limbo while she waits for her freedom of choice to be fully abolished.

By no fault of her own this individual because she has a disability has been removed from her friends, is no longer employed, enjoys none of the freedoms and opportunities offered by the community and is completely segregated and kept with people that are deemed like her miles away from her home.

SIGN THE 'Justice for Jenny" PETITION

Exeter man charged with bilking 2 elderly widows out of more than $1M


EXETER, N.H. (AP) — An Exeter businessman is facing charges that he bilked two elderly widows out of more than $1 million.

A federal indictment charges Frederick McMenimen with mismanaging the funds and pocketing the money for himself while working as a financial adviser in Portsmouth. He's charged with mail fraud, interstate transportation of goods taken by fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

According to the indictment, McMenimen spent $134,000 on his home mortgage, more than $31,000 for docking and yacht utilities, over $120,000 for his children's private school and college tuition, and about $350,000 in credit card payments.


Full Article and Source:
Exeter man charged with bilking 2 elderly widows out of more than $1M