Venice lawyer charged with stealing over $400K from elderly clients

VENICE — A family whose members said they are victims of a Venice lawyer arrested Tuesday for exploiting the estates of at least three elderly clients said they were going to use the money from their deceased uncle’s estate to pay for their children’s college education in the fall.

The family said they spoke to detectives Friday morning and that estate attorney Adam Miller, 38, of Venice has not been charged in connection with their case yet. A family member, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Miller was placed in charge of their uncle’s estate after he died in 1999.

“All I know is that my children’s trusts are gone, almost $500,000,” the woman said. “My youngest was supposed to start college after summer vacation; my oldest daughter has two small children, and my son is only 10.
“I can’t believe that he did this, I find it so unreal.”

The woman said that even after Raymond Miller — the father of Adam Miller — was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to four years in prison for stealing nearly $1 million from the estate of Holocaust survivor Beila Millet of North Port, her aunt transferred the account to Adam Miller.

The aunt passed away in 2014, the woman said.

“It makes you lose trust; my children are devastated,” the woman said.

The woman said her uncle made his money operating bowling alleys. She said she expected detectives to file charges in connection with their case this week.

On Tuesday, Adam Miller was charged with one count of exploitation of elderly, and three counts of scheme to defraud three different estates. He allegedly misappropriated $408,850 from the estate of a deceased Englewood couple.

Raymond Miller had pleaded no contest to a charge he stole $941,256 from Beila Millet of North Port. She reportedly survived medical experiments in a Nazi concentration camp.

As part of the plea agreement, Raymond Miller was sentenced to four years in prison and was placed on probation until he paid back the money.

Millet had left the money to Israeli hospitals, schools and veterans’ groups when she died at age 93 in 2006. Raymond Miller only disbursed about $122,000 within months, but more than 50 beneficiaries never received their money, which is now gone.

According to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office:

Adam Miller, who was not involved in the 2010 case, also was tapping into the trusts of his clients.

George and Eileen Johnston hired Adam Miller as their trustee and power of attorney in August 2013 to control six financial accounts, but immediately following their deaths (Eileen in 2014, and George in 2015) Adam Miller allegedly began to write and deposit high-dollar checks to himself or his law firm from accounts belonging to the Johnstons’ Trust. The funds were beyond normal attorney’s fees, detectives stated in the report.

Financial records show that Adam Miller received an estimated $130,000 from the Johnstons’ Englewood Bank account from July 2014 until George Johnston died in Febrary 2015. The attorney also received an estimated $24,500 from a Fifth Third Bank account from November 2014 until November 2015. The checks were drawn by Miller or counter withdrawals.

After the sale of the Johnstons’ Englewood home in March 2015, Adam Miller opened an Englewood Bank and Trust account to deposit a check for $264,389.37 under an account titled “George and Eileen Johnston Trust.”

Adam Miller allegedly received another $231,000 from the Englewood bank account from November 2015 to March 2016.

Detectives determined that Adam Miller paid the Johnstons’ beneficiaries only $25,500 after the couple’s deaths. None of Adam Miller’s business or personal bank accounts show the funds being disbursed to beneficiaries, the sheriff’s report said.

Sheriff’s detectives, along with the FBI, executed a search warrant on Adam Miller’s business and home and identified at least two other estates that were allegedly victims of fraud.

The Sheriff’s Office said the investigation is ongoing and additional charges could be filed in the case.

Full Article & Source:
Venice lawyer charged with stealing over $400K from elderly clients

The best legal planning may not be enough to keep you safe from guardianship

BRADENTON, Fla. — Even the best retirement plans may not be enough to keep a stranger from taking over your life under the state’s troubled guardianship system, the I-Team found.

Alice Yaniscavitch said she thought she was making all the right moves in retirement when she went to a lawyer to set up a family trust – a decision she says ended up costing her control over her own life.

The 85-year-old moved in with her daughter Terri McGuire and her son-in-law Mickey in Manatee County after last year selling her home in Cleveland, Tennessee.

“Terri was taking care of me. She’s very good,” Yaniscavitch told I-Team Investigator Adam Walser last month.

At the time, Yaniscavitch was waiting to see if a judge would permanently place her in court-ordered guardianship, which she said she didn’t want.

“It’s my life – not theirs,” said Yaniscavitch.

Yaniscavitch said the thing she feared most was “going to a nursing home.”

“They’re not going to put me in one,” she said.

McGuire and the advocacy groups that she reached out to were concerned when the case first started in late November.

They contacted the Florida Office of Public and Professional Guardians, a watchdog agency set up three years ago to police the state’s broken guardianship system.

So far, the agency hasn’t taken any action in Yaniscavitch’s case.

How did the guardianship start?

Yaniscavitch gave both her daughters – Terri McGuire and Lori Yaniscavitch – powers of attorney over her health care decisions as part of her retirement planning, according to court records.

In November 2017, Yaniscavitch set up an irrevocable family trust, with 90 percent of her money benefitting McGuire, who was taking care of her and the rest going to Lori, according to the trust document obtained by the I-Team.

Tennessee attorney Jeff Miller wrote, witnessed and notarized the trust agreement.

“She knew why she was there. She had a purpose for being there,” said Miller.

Miller said Yaniscavitch wanted to move her assets into a trust to make sure she would be eligible for a future government benefit.

Miller said she also wanted her daughters to avoid going to probate court to settle her estate after her death.

But when Lori Yaniscavitch found out about the trust, she went to court in November, seeking guardianship for her mother.

Lori Yaniscavitch wouldn’t speak to the I-Team at a recent court hearing, but in court documents she alleges her sister was financially exploiting their mother and endangering her health.

When I-Team Investigator Adam Walser asked Alice Yaniscavitch if she felt safe in her daughter Terri’s home, she replied, “Oh, yeah. Definitely.”

Daughter moves to break up trust

Lori’s attorneys asked a judge to remove her mother from Terri’s home and put her in memory care and argued her mother didn’t know what she was doing when she signed the trust document in 2017, court transcripts and documents from the case show.

But Stetson Law Professor Roberta Flowers, director of the Stetson Elder Law Center, said that may be difficult to prove.

“The issue revolves around, under the law, was the person capable at the moment they signed the document,” said Flowers.

“You have to have people who are there when they signed the document who are able to articulate what was going on with that person, how was that person acting so that a judge at some future date can say ‘Oh yeah. Ok. It sounds like that person understood,’” said Flowers.

Miller said he put those safeguards in place when Alice Yaniscavitch signed her trust documents.

“She was fully engaged, fully aware of what she wanted to do,” Miller told the I-Team. “She was the one who spoke out and told me what she wanted and why she wanted it.”

Judge freezes all accounts

But Judge Deno Economou froze Yaniscavitch’s trust account, along with Terri and Mickey McGuire’s bank accounts.

Their funds were frozen before Christmas, according to the court order, but the McGuires hope the Florida Court of Appeals will overturn the judge’s order.

“The allegation is that they have improper funds in that account. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence to support that,” said attorney Marc Soss, who represents the McGuires. “It’s someone trying to second guess the estate planning that Alice put into place because they don’t like it.”

Judge Economou also appointed Anne Ridings as Yaniscavitch’s guardian.

Within a few days of being appointed guardian, Ridings took all of Yaniscavitch’s jewelry for safekeeping.

Terri McGuire showed ABC Action News photos she took of hundreds of pieces of her mother’s jewelry before they were taken.

“Gold watches… I’ve got bracelets, a lot of earrings, diamond earrings,” said Yaniscavitch about the jewelry she had taken from her.

Wedding ring taken off her finger

Yaniscavitch said Ridings even took the wedding ring off her finger, which she has worn for 58 years – even after her husband died.

“Horrible, horrible,” said Yaniscavitch when asked about losing the ring she wore for 58 years –even after her husband died.

“It’s called marshaling the assets,” said Jeff Swartz, a former judge and law professor. “I can understand that the guardian wants to marshal and inventory assets – that’s fine – but taking her wedding band off her finger and not letting her have it back or taking her jewelry and just sticking it away – when maybe she does still wear it because at certain lucid moments she wants her things around her – that’s just not necessary.”

Less than two weeks after the I-Team interviewed Yaniscavitch, her daughter Lori picked her up, saying she was taking her to a hair appointment.

Instead, she moved her into assisted living – even though court transcripts show the judge said earlier that Yaniscavitch should remain in her daughter Terri’s home.

Injured in assisted living

Days later Terri shot a video of her mother at the memory care center, which she shared with the I-Team. In the video, Yaniscavitch complained of arm pain and said she had fallen.

Terri McGuire had her friend, who at the memory care center with her, call 911 for an ambulance to take her mother to a hospital, where doctors diagnosed Yaniscavitch with a fractured vertebra.

Days after Yaniscavitch went to the hospital, guardian Anne Ridings filed an emergency motion asking the judge to limit McGuire’s visits, court records show. The judge denied that request.
Ridings did not respond to the I-Team’s interview requests.

It’s unclear whether Yaniscavitch’s wishes will ultimately be carried out. She has not been in the courtroom to talk to the judge during five hearings so far.

Before she was removed from her home, I-Team Investigator Adam Walser asked Yaniscavitch what would happen if a judge told her she had go to a nursing home.

“I'm not, I'm not,” said Yaniscavitch. “I’d say you’re going to have to put me in jail. There’s no way they’re putting me in a nursing home. I’ve been through it. I’ve seen it. I don't want to be there.”

The judge still hasn’t ruled yet on whether Yaniscavitch will be placed in permanent guardianship.

After Yaniscavitch was released from the hospital, she was taken to a rehabilitation center, where she is currently recovering from her injury.

If you have a story you think the I-Team should investigate, contact adam@abcactionnews.com.

Full Article & Source:
The best legal planning may not be enough to keep you safe from guardianship

Ex-Nevada guardian pleads guilty to exploitation, theft charges

As a guardian, April Parks once controlled hundreds of Southern Nevada’s most vulnerable people.

As an inmate, she pleaded guilty Monday to exploitation, theft and perjury charges. The hearing came more than a year after she was first indicted for swindling many of the elderly and infirm in her care.

In court, she only spoke when agreeing to the terms of her Alford plea — a type of guilty plea that requires a defendant to admit only that prosecutors could prove their case. She shuffled her once bright red hair — now gray — in front of her face, shielding herself from the handful of victim families who came as witnesses.

Parks, now 53, was one of the most active private professional guardians in the region. She often acted as the surrogate decision maker for 50 to 100 elderly and mentally incapacitated people, called wards, at a given time. As guardian, she had full control of their finances, estates and even medical decisions.

She originally faced more than 200 felony counts. On Monday, she pleaded guilty to six: three counts of exploitation, two counts of theft and one count of perjury.

But she still faces a maximum prison sentence of 84 years. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 4.

Parks appeared in court Monday with three co-defendants, who also entered Alford pleas.

“They’re pathetic!” one of Parks’ former wards, Rudy North, yelled in court after the pleas were entered.

Under Parks’ care, North and his wife were taken from their home and put into an assisted living facility in Boulder City. Parks sold nearly all their possessions shortly after moving the couple, North has said.

“I want you to put that in,” North continued in court. “They’re pathetic!”

The man was escorted out of the courtroom. Parks did not look at him.

“Today’s pleas resolve the most significant guardianship exploitation case in Nevada’s history,” Attorney General Adam Laxalt said in a statement Monday.

Throughout the hearing, District Attorney Steve Wolfson sat in a back row of the gallery, silently observing.

“Guardians have a duty to protect their wards, not steal from them and destroy their lives,” Wolfson later said in a statement. “These individuals violated their duty and they will be punished for their crimes.”

Parks’ attorney, Anthony Goldstein, declined to comment after the hearing.

The three other people who entered Alford pleas were Parks’ business partner, Mark Simmons; her husband, Gary Neal Taylor; and her former attorney, Noel Simpson Palmer.

Simmons entered pleas to two counts of exploitation, one count of theft and one count of perjury. Taylor and Simpson Palmer each entered a plea to one count of exploitation. One of Simpson Palmer’s cases was dismissed.

“This is not judicial process,” North’s daughter, Julie Belshe, said as she walked out of court.

Belshe now works as a guardianship reform advocate. She said the last five years fighting for her parents, who now live with her, have been trying.

“This isn’t justice,” she said after the hearing, standing next to her father. “It’s a slap on the wrist. What kind of message is this sending?”

Full Article & Source:
Ex-Nevada guardian pleads guilty to exploitation, theft charges

See Also:
UPDATE: Private guardian April Parks behind bars in Las Vegas 

Family sees first victory in guardianship case

BREAKING: Private Guardian April Parks Found Guilty Of Fraud, Theft, And Conversion
 
Steve Miller: The Story of Elizabeth Indig 
 
Elderly couple fights guardianship system
 
The Vegas Voice: Guardianship, Part 3: NOW GET RESULTS!
 
Steve Miller: Jared Shafer's Clark County Family Court Lackeys Removed From All Guardianship Cases
 
Contact 13 Investigates: Guardian Gouging?
 
Steve Miller on the Removal of Nevada Private Guardian April Parks
 
Couple liberated from guardianship system
 
New Family Court Judge Puts Immediate Stop To Elder Abuse And Exploitation By For-Hire "Guardians" Jared Shafer And April Parks
 
Steve Miller: The Story of Elizabeth Indig

  Steve Miller: A Message From the Son-in-Law of an Exploited Ward of the Clark Co. (Nevada) Family Court
 
Boulder City police investigate guardianship cases
 
Steve Miller: Judge Steel Frees Three "Wards" From Exploitive Court Ordered Guardianship On Same Day
 
Dan Roberts, The Vegas Voice on Private Guardian April Parks: She Had the Dogs Killed
 
Families Caught up in Guardianship Losing Their Homes
 
Steve Miller: "Guardian" April Parks Home and Office Raided by Police and Nevada AG
 
Search warrants served as police investigate guardianship exploitation
  Contact 13: Judge in guardianship cases recuses herself
 
Guardianship Commission to ask for criminal investigations
 
Steve Miller: Embattled Private Guardian April Parks Censured For Exploiting The Elderly, Mastermind Jared Shafer Stays Under The Radar - For Now

Hermon, Maine, group home worker accused of attacking resident

The victim was taken to the hospital Saturday evening and the employee was charged

by Adam Bartow, Executive Producer and Jim Keithley, Reporter 

HERMON, Maine — A person from Bangor who works at a residential group home in Hermon is accused of assaulting a resident at that home.

The Penobscot County Sheriff's Office was called to the home at about 4:50 p.m. on Saturday. When deputies arrived, they determined that the victim needed to be taken to the hospital.

After an investigation, Innocent Muzungu, 26, of Bangor, was charged with intentionally endangering the welfare of a dependent person (Class C felony), misdemeanor assault, and obstructing the report of a crime (Class D misdemeanor).

Muzungu was taken to the Penobscot County Jail.

Waterville resident Leta Miller said when she heard about the assault, she immediately thought of her uncle, who lives in a different group home in Hermon.

Miller said she called her uncle's caregiver when she heard the news.

"I said: 'Is everything okay? What's going on? Are you safe? Is my uncle safe?' And she came back with: 'It wasn't this house.' She stressed that, 'It wasn't this house,' and she said my uncle was safe," Miller said.

Miller said she only gets to speak to her uncle once a week over the phone. She is currently fighting for guardianship.

"He gave me away at my wedding," Miller said. "I miss him so much."

It is unclear whether the group home resident who was assaulted remained hospitalized on Monday.

The Sheriff's Office said it was still investigating the incident.

Maine's Total Coverage contacted the company that authorities said manages the group home where the alleged assault occurred. The company said it has no comment at this time. 

Full Article & Source:
Hermon, Maine, group home worker accused of attacking resident 

Steve Miller: Grand Jury Indicts Four People at the Center of Private Guardianship Abuse Investigation

Today, the Grand Jury returned an indictment against April Parks, Mark Simmons, Gary Neal Taylor and Noel Palmer Simpson in a guardianship exploitation case that has been the focus of an ongoing investigation for activities ranging from 2011 through 2016.

The 123 page indictment explains how April Parks, owner of A Private Professional Guardian, LLC, her office manager, Mark Simmons, her husband, Gary Neal Taylor and her attorney, Noel Palmer Simpson, committed the crimes for which they were indicted. Those crimes include Racketeering (category B felony), Exploitation of an Older or Vulnerable Person (category B felony), Theft (category B and C felonies), Offering False Instrument for Filing or Record (category C felony) and Perjury (category D felony).

Although there were legitimate guardianship activities happening at the company, Parks and Simmons engaged in a pattern of conduct which was illegal and exploitive to the vulnerable people she was charged to protect. The indictment alleges that A Private Professional Guardian, LLC was run as a criminal enterprise, with the goal of maximizing profits at the expense of people they were charged with caring for, disregarding their duties to their wards and to the court.

The investigation, which was a cooperative effort between the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, the Nevada Attorney General’s Office and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has culminated in a multi-defendant indictment which includes a total of 270 counts on seven different felony charges.

Judge Jennifer Togliatti issued “no bail” arrest warrants for Ms. Parks and Mr. Simmons. The judge also issued an arrest warrant with a $200,000 bail amount for Mr. Taylor. A bail amount of $7,500 cash, or a surety bond, was set for Ms. Simpson, who was in court today, and she is scheduled to appear in court at a future date.

“Guardians are appointed to protect and serve their wards, who are some of the most vulnerable members of our community. They are entrusted with every aspect of that person’s life, including their health and finances,” said Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson. “These defendants were affiliated with a private guardianship business, not the Clark County Public Guardian’s office. This business was compensated for their services. These defendants took advantage of helpless individuals who did not have the ability to defend themselves. Today, with this indictment, we are moving toward holding these people accountable for their crimes and seeking justice for the victims.”

“I am proud of my investigators and prosecutors for helping deliver the most significant guardianship exploitation indictment in Nevada’s history,” said Attorney General Adam Laxalt. “Working alongside Sheriff Lombardo and D.A. Wolfson, the Attorney General’s Office presented, and the Grand Jury returned, an indictment of four co-defendants in a 270 count case for exploiting approximately 150 victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is an example of law enforcement collaborating on a trending public safety issue in our Las Vegas valley by aggressively combating guardianship exploitation. This indictment should send a message to court-appointed guardians throughout the state that law enforcement is committed to aggressively protecting our elderly and vulnerable populations.”

“These suspects used a position of trust and authority to prey on disabled and elderly people and systemically bilk them out of their life savings,” said Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo. “The victims were vulnerable and unsuspecting and deserve our protection. Today’s indictment speaks for those victims who are already suffering.”

Breakdown of charges:

April Parks (212 felony charges): one count Racketeering, 33 counts Theft (category B), 19 counts Exploitation of an Older Person, 18 counts Exploitation of an Older Person/Vulnerable Person, nine counts Theft (category C), 74 counts Offering False Instrument for Filing or Record and 58 counts of Perjury

Mark Simmons (134 felony charges): one count Racketeering, 30 counts Theft (category B), 19 counts Exploitation of an Older Person, 18 counts Exploitation of an Older Person/Vulnerable Person, eight counts Theft (category C), and 58 counts of Perjury.

Gary Neal Taylor (7 felony charges): one count Racketeering, 2 counts Theft (category B), 1 counts Exploitation of an Older Person, 2 counts Exploitation of an Older Person/Vulnerable Person, one count Theft (category C)

Noel Palmer Simpson (2 felony charges): one count Theft (category B) and one count Offering False Instrument for Filing or Record.
~SM

MORE INFORMATION ON GUARDIANSHIP FRAUD:
http://www.stevemiller4lasvegas.com/ShaferFinancialRecords2…

http://www.thevegasvoice.net/…/just-in-judge-steel-today-fr…

http://www.stopguardianabusenv.org/…/embattled-private-guar…

http://nasga-stopguardianabuse.blogspot.com/…/steve-miller-…

http://nasga-stopguardianabuse.blogspot.com/…/steve-miller-…

http://nasga-stopguardianabuse.blogspot.com/…/steve-miller-…

https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/…/208874-2016-12-14-breakin…

http://www.americanmafia.com/Insi…/6-15-15_Inside_Vegas.html

http://www.americanmafia.com/Ins…/12-21-15_Inside_Vegas.html

Nevada AG intensifies efforts to fight financial fraud, shield elderly from exploitation

By SANDRA CHEREB
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

CARSON CITY — The Nevada attorney general’s office is intensifying efforts to fight financial fraud and protect the elderly and vulnerable people from exploitation.

The Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee on Thursday approved Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s request to use $1.3 million from the state’s National Mortgage Settlement fund to hire additional prosecutors, supervisors and criminal investigators.

Of the total, $400,000 will be funneled to Legal Aid of Southern Nevada for legal help in guardianship cases.

“Consumer fraud complaints are dramatically on the rise,” Laxalt told the committee.

 

In 2014, the office handled 600 consumer fraud complaints. That number jumped to 952 in 2015. So far this year, 870 complaints have been received.

Such complaints involve complex investigations into mortgages, time shares and exploitation of the elderly, particularly through guardianship arrangements.

“One needs to only turn on the news or pick up the paper to see case after case of guardianship abuse,” said Christine Miller, an attorney with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.

Miller said attorneys assigned to cases early in a guardianship process can verify that people need a guardian and provide oversight to ensure that their interests and finances are protected.

Full Article & Source:
Nevada AG intensifies efforts to fight financial fraud, shield elderly from exploitation

Disbarred Sturgis lawyer accused of stealing $168,000 inheritance from client

The Federal Courthouse in Rapid City.

by Adam Fondren

A disbarred Sturgis-based lawyer is accused of stealing $167,699 from a client who inherited the money from a relative and trying to cover the fraud by lying to a tax preparer, judge and bank employee.

Rena Hymans, a 48-year-old from Vale, was indicted last week in federal court on 30 counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of money laundering and one count of bank fraud. She's accused of embezzling the money and using it to pay for business and personal expenses between May 2017 and July 2019.

The indictment says Hymans went to great lengths to hide the fraud by providing false documents to a tax preparer, making false statements in state court and lying to a bank employee.

Hymans pleaded not guilty to the 41 counts Monday at the federal court in Rapid City, records show. She was released pre-trial.

If convicted, Hymans faces up to 30 years in prison on the bank fraud charge and up to 20 years on each wire fraud and money laundering count

The criminal charges are the result of an investigation by the FBI, IRS and South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigations, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Dakota.

The charges come after Hymans resigned from the South Dakota State Bar on Jan. 22, which means she’s no longer eligible to practice law, according to documents provided by the state court administrator. She previously worked out of Sturgis.

Hymans resigned after learning the state bar was investigating a complaint that accused her of breaking a law that says it’s illegal for attorneys to use clients' money in unauthorized ways. She was also accused of violating professional rules about misconduct and safekeeping property.

“I do not desire to contest or defend against the above-described complaint, allegations or instances of alleged misconduct,” Hymans wrote in her resignation letter.

The South Dakota Supreme Court disbarred Hymans on Feb. 24 without holding a hearing or issuing any opinion since she resigned. The court later ordered Hymans to pay $5,040 — the amount spent investigating her complaint — to the state bar.

DOWNLOAD PDF

Alleged scheme

What follows is alleged in Hymans’ 14-page indictment:

Doris Lauing hired Hymans in November 2016 to represent her relative Leo Drillig in an estate matter related to the death of Lauing’s uncle, Leo Miller. Miller left an inheritance for Drillig — who lives in Germany — so Lauing hired Hymans to serve as Drillig’s personal representative in the U.S.

Hymans deposited $167,699 — the amount of Drillig’s inheritance — in her client trust account in May 2017 and was supposed to immediately transfer the money to Drillig.

But Hymans instead decided to “defraud Drillig and enrich herself,” causing “Drillig’s inheritance to be entirely depleted,” the indictment says.

Hymans transferred the money in her client trust account to her business account and then her personal bank accounts. She concealed the fraud by telling her legal assistant that the transfers were for legal services and providing false documentation to her income tax preparer.

Lauing made multiple attempts to contact and ask Hymans to transfer the inheritance to Drillig, but Hymans never responded. She hired an attorney in September 2018 to help retrieve the funds, but Hymans provided the attorney with false explanations for the delay of the transfer.

The attorney filed a petition at the Meade County Court in January 2020 to force Hymans to turn over the money. Hymans falsely told a judge on Jan. 3 that she was reluctant to give Drillig his money because she was concerned he was trying to hide it in the U.S. The court ordered Hymans to pay Drillig the money minus $2,709, which Hymans said she earned as attorney’s fees.

Hymans made her false statements to the attorney and judge after she had spent all of Drillig’s money.

Hymans deposited a check Jan. 3 to Drillig’s estate from her client trust account knowing that the account had insufficient funds. She called her bank and asked an employee to honor the check, falsely saying she would soon be making a large deposit.

Lauing then attempted to deposit the check but the bank told her Hymans’ client trust account had insufficient funds. She contacted Hymans who sent emails that falsely stated the bank told her she did have enough funds.

Hymans has still not put money into her client trust account so she can pay Drillig.

Full Article & Source:
Disbarred Sturgis lawyer accused of stealing $168,000 inheritance from client

Bond reduced for Venice attorney accused of stealing from estates

SARASOTA — A Sarasota County circuit judge ordered a reduced $407,500 bond for Adam R. Miller, a Venice attorney accused of embezzling over $700,000 from elderly clients’ trust accounts after their deaths, during a hearing on Monday.

The bond had been set at $1.7 million.

Miller was charged with one count of exploitation of the elderly over $50,000, two counts of scheme to defraud over $50,000 and one count of scheme to defraud between $20,000 and $40,000.

Circuit Judge Charles E. Roberts presided over Monday’s hearing.

Full Article & Source:
Bond reduced for Venice attorney accused of stealing from estates

See Also:
Venice lawyer charged with stealing over $400K from elderly clients

Steve Miller: INSIDE VEGAS

Jared E. Shafer

LAS VEGAS - His name sends chills up and down the spines of hundreds of exploited senior citizens, disabled people, and their families.  I'm often asked why private professional guardian, Jared E. Shafer, is still at large after his criminal activities have been exposed time and again on local and national media, and he's been the subject of over four years of criminal investigation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Abuse and Neglect Detail.

The New Yorker Magazine, ABC affiliate KTNV TV Channel 13 News, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal have all done stories on Shafer's exploits. "How the Elderly Lose Their Rights."  "Fraud and embezzlement alleged in guardianship lawsuit." "Clark County's private guardians may protect, or just steal and abuse," are just some of the damning headlines about Shafer, but he remains unscathed.  Why?  I believe I have an answer.

In 1979, then Clark County Commission chairman, Manny Cortez, was approached by his

Catherine Cortez Masto & Manny Cortez

longtime friend, Jared Shafer, who was out of work.  Shafer had resigned as president of Rom-Amer Pharmaceuticals, LTD, a publically traded company that had its anti-aging product banned by the FDA, a dangerous cure all product called Gerovital H3 that was peddled to senior citizens and caused several deaths.  The SEC on March 25, 1977 announced "TRADING SUSPENDED IN ROM-AMER PHARMACEUTICALS, LTD."

Shafer and Cortez' friendship went back a long way, all the way to the 1964 birth of Cortez' daughter, Catherine, who was honored by having Jared Shafer named as her godfather.  But years later, in his time of need, Commissioner Cortez found the perfect job for his unemployed pal based on Shafer's quasi-experience with senior citizens. Cortez appointed Shafer as Clark County's third Public Administrator and Public Guardian (the first two were removed for corruption.)

During his tenure as an appointed public official, Shafer drew the ire of the Los Angeles Times who accused him of alegedly ripping off his elderly or disabled "wards" of the court.  However, the bad press did not affect his continuance as a trusted county employee, and I can't confrim that Cortez was aware of any problems with Shafer's performance.  Shafer held those positions until his retirement in early 2003 when he formed his private guardian service, Professional Fudiciary Service of Nevada, Inc. (PFSN), but then the complaints really started pouring in!  Exploited wards and their families filed complaints with then Clark County District Attorney, David Roger, and with then Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto (yes, Jared Shafer's goddaughter), but nothing happened. (Catherine Cortez Masto was elected United States Senator for Nevada in 2017.)

I can personally attest that then-AG Cortez Masto ignored several complaints against Shafer because I was one of many who filed one.  In the meantime, dozens of complaints were also brought to the attention of the Abuse and Neglect detectives at the LVMPD, but as reported in the recent edition of The New Yorker Magazine, they were also ignored.

According to investigative journalist Rachel Aviv in the October 9, 2017 edition of The New Yorker; "Williams took records from Shafer’s and other guardians’ cases to the Las Vegas police department several times. She tried to explain, she said, that 'this is a racketeering operation that is fee-based. There’s no brown paper bag handed off in an alley. The payoff is the right to bill the estate.' The department repeatedly told her that it was a civil issue, and refused to take a report. In 2006, she submitted a typed statement, listing twenty-three statutes that she thought had been violated, but an officer wrote in the top right corner, 'NOT A POLICE MATTER.' Adam Woodrum, an estate lawyer in Las Vegas, told me that he’s worked with several wards and their families who have brought their complaints to the police. 'They can’t even get their foot in the door,' he said."

Since attorney Woodrum's comments, a hearing was held by the Clark County Commission to take complaints of guardianship fraud. At the April 21, 2015 hearing, LVMPD Lt. James Weiskopf told the County Commission how certain for-hire guardians rob the estates of wards of the court: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFNlNNS-vGs

Lt. Weiskopf's testimony inspired the Nevada Supreme Court in September 2015 to form the Supreme Court Guardianship Commission. At their first hearing, Commissioners inquired as to the police department's response to guardian fraud complaints. The public rallied and told the Commission that such complaints had fallen on deaf ears. LVMPD suddenly became actively involved in guardianship fraud investigations following the Commission's inquiry and the public's comment. With the Commission's encouragement, the LVMPD Abuse and Neglect Detail was energized, and have so far allegedly ignored all complaints dealing with the actions of Jared E. Shafer, and have only gone after the "low hanging fruit," or lesser known private guardians.

Current Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has several times proclaimed that his office is ready and willing to "enthusiastically" prosecute crimes perpetuated by local private guardians - including Jared Shafer - though Wolfson has not mentioned Shafer by name.   However, LVMPD's Abuse and Neglect Detail have so far failed to file any required "Requests for Prosecution" of Shafer with the DA, and continue at a snail's pace with their purported investigation as the exploitation of elderly and disabled Clark County residents continues unabated.  Meanwhile, based on protocol, federal law enforcement is held at bay while local authorities conduct their ad nauseam 'investigation" without requesting federal intervention or assistance.

It's as if someone is running interference for Shafer

For the past four years the same detectives in Abuse and Neglect have discouraged similar complaintants if it involved Shafer's name. Most recently, exploited Shafer ward Jason Hanson, described his encounter with Det. Angie Christensen of Metro's Abuse and Neglect Detail who reportedly told Hanson, "... there was no evidence that Shafer did anything underhanded and was just doing his job like he was supposed to,"  after Hanson, a 28 year old cerebral palsy victim, told her that Shafer sold a 1,200 sq. ft. ADA (Americans with Disability Act) compliant condominium that was left to him by his late father in a gated community for $47,000. The condo was appraised at $170,000.00, but Hanson told Det. Christensen he received a total of only $5,530.74 from the under-market-value sale after waiting over nine years for payment. Nonetheless, Det. Christensen reportedly balked at Hanson's request for help.

As a point of clearification, I am not casting dispersions on the brave officers of the LVMPD. However, I believe it is important to present the information contained in this column if it will help bring justice to those who have been, or are currently, the subject of guardianship abuse.

According to Jason Hanson, Det. Christensen also accused Steve Miller and Becky Olvera Schultz (daughter of guardianship fraud victim Guadalupe Olvera) of ..."not having the complete story and only using parts to help with their own crusades against Shafer."

"The officer said Steve Miller didn't know how to read court documents or was intentionally misreading them to twist my story around," stated Hanson.

"She didn't seem to think Shafer was an upstanding citizen but she seemed to think Miller and Olvera Schultz had some personal grudge against him. She said that Steve and Shafer had once been friends and they had a falling out and since then Steve has wanted to take Shafer down," stated Hanson.  (Shafer and Miller attended the same high school at the same time, but were never friends.)  

Det. Christensen was also assigned to investigate the exploitation of the late Guadalupe Olvera, but allegedly disparaged Mr. Olvera's daughter, Becky Olvera Schultz, in her discussion with Hanson.

In addition to the above mentioned cases, there are many others who have reported that Metro Abuse and Neglect have ignored their complaints against Jared Shafer. 

     Marcy DuDeck and son-in-law Charles Pascal

California resident Charles Pascal told INSIDE VEGAS that on August 5, 2009 he spoke with Detective Colin Haynes of Las Vegas Metro PD to report the kidnapping of Pascal's mother in-law, Marcy DuDeck.
 
Pascal continued, “I tried to tell him that Shafer had bragged to me about the kidnapping, which was carried out by Lance Dudeck (Pascal's brother in law) against an existing Nevada court order. Det. Haynes said the following:  'As a department, Metro doesn’t get involved in guardianship issues.  They are considered to be a family matter.  We (the police) will not be taking a report about your mother in-law’s situation because Ms. Patience Bristol has already informed us your mother in-law is doing fine.  Mr. Shafer had our office check on her condition and she is in good health,"'

"On August 4, 2009, two days before an August 6, Los Angeles evidentiary hearing involving our petition to remove Jared Shafer as guardian was to take place, Marcy DuDeck was kidnapped by her son, Lance DuDeck, from Sunrise Senior Assisted Living in Playa Vista, CA," stated Pascal.  "Her kidnapping was in direct violation of a May 1, 2007 NV court order stating Mrs. Dudeck would remain in California for the rest of her life.  The evidentiary hearing was to deal with facts of Shafer’s negligence, which involved Shafer not paying IRS taxes for the DuDeck estate, refusal to pay HOA association fees, and removing funds from the DuDeck trust without a court order.

During the morning of August 5, 2009, after learning of the taking of Mrs. DuDeck, I (Charles Pascal) contacted Las Vegas Metro Police to file a report that a kidnapping of Marcy DuDeck, in direct violation of a Nevada court order, had taken place.

The officer I spoke with on that morning around 11 a.m.  identified himself as Officer Collin Haynes.  Officer Haynes was very abrupt.  Officer Haynes stated it was the policy of Las Vegas Metro not to take reports concerning guardianship cases because Las Vegas Metro considered guardianships to be strictly a family matter.  Officer Haynes said if I had a dispute with the guardian, Mr. Shafer, I should contact Clark County Family Court.

I tried to explain to Officer Haynes that a court order existed stating Mrs. DuDeck was to remain in California for the rest of her life had been violated by the kidnapping. I also pointed out Marcy’s kidnapping occurred as a direct attempt to block an August 6, 2009 evidentiary hearing.  Haynes didn’t want to listen and wished me a good day.

At approximately 2 PM on August 5, 2009, I visited the West Los Angeles Metro Police to try to get them to investigate the kidnapping of Marcy DuDeck.  I spoke with Officer Charles Phillips.  Officer Phillips listened to everything I had to say.  Officer Phillips asked me to wait outside.  I waited for about 45 minutes.  Officer Phillips returned and told me he had spoken with officer Haynes, who informed him Mrs. DuDeck was in good health and the Las Vegas Metro Police considered the matter to be closed.

On August 6, 2009, California Judge Riva Goetz said no evidentiary hearing could take place because Mrs. DuDeck wasn’t available.  The objective was achieved.  On August 11, 2009, Mr. Shafer called me and bragged that he ordered Lance DuDeck to take Mrs. DuDeck because he considered the California courts to be a bunch of crap, in his words.

  

The key inconsistency I remember is the fact the police refused to take a report from me, but they completed a welfare check on Mrs. DuDeck.  Someone was covering their butts. Marcy died six months later and her weight had dropped from 134 pounds in Los Angeles to 122 pounds at the time of her death," states Pascal.

Pascal then stated, "I received the same reaction from Officer Charles Phillips from West Los Angeles PD who told me he had called Las Vegas Metro and spoke with Officer Haynes.

Next I went to the Nevada Attorney General Cortez Masto.  I never talked with her.  Someone in her office whose last name I remember as Brown told me that the Nevada Attorney General wouldn’t take my report.  In fact this Ms. Brown said Mr. Shafer was highly regarded in the state. 

In 2011, I went to the Nevada state legislature. My contact person who never wanted his name mentioned was Brooks Holcomb. He served one term as Assemblymen.  Becky (Olvera Schultz) had many conversations with him.  Brooks claimed Shafer took $100,000.00 from his mother’s estate while acting as the Administrator.

At the May 2011 meeting, I spoke with the State Senator representing Henderson, Nevada at the time and Attorney Sally Ramm.  Both ladies told me nothing could be done about Shafer and (Clark County Guardianship Hearing Master) Norheim because they were deep in the system. 

Finally I went to the FBI in Los Angeles, who refused to take a report.

California Attorney General Brown, who is now our governor, would not take a report either.

What Rachael Aviv of The New Yorker missed is many families went to the authorities who wouldn’t take a report.  All cases resulted in the statutes of limitation running out.  So as a result, the issue dies not because the guardians were in the right, but because the authorities played deaf and dumb and stalled the case to death,” concluded Pascal.

       Becky Olvera Schultz and father Guadalupe Olvera

Becky Olvera Schultz, whose WW2 veteran father was a victim of Shafer's guardianship, wrote this to INSIDE VEGAS:

“The New Yorker missed a huge point of the problem; they reported it from the wrong angle. Guardian corruption is also about massive fraud and waste committed against the tax payers. Seniors who could have taken care of themselves see their wealth being stripped away through guardian fraud and corruption which forces them on the public dole, causing these seniors end up on Medicaid and Medical.

   

I believe certain people have been high jacking proper coverage of this issue. Certain key officials in NV have brought this problem into the public focus; Attorney General Laxalt, Governor Sandoval and Senator Becky Harris, but the New Yorker did not mention them.

   

I believe some people in Clark County, NV, have been obstructing the prosecution of the key perpetrators who have exploited hundreds of the elderly like my father and the system. These people, including former AG of NV, Catherine Cortez Masto (currently US Senator Masto), have blocked the prosecution of professional guardian Jared Shafer and his attorneys, while going after the much smaller fish like Patience Bristol and April Parks. Mr. Shafer has been exploiting seniors and the system since 1979 when he was a public guardian, but not much damaging info on him was mentioned in the New Yorker article, especially anything about his no contest plea for selling securities without a license in a Utah Federal Court. Him paying 20 grand to settle was enough to prevent him from operating as a fiduciary/guardian, but that type of financial wrong doing didn’t seem to bother any authorities.

   

I personally believe our case was deliberately stripped down in the article. Aviv had informed me and others that the article was to focus on the architect of the guardianship system, Mr. Shafer, and my father's case, but instead it focused on others who did not even own a home to lose and lost a fraction of what many others and my father lost. Nearly half a million was bled from my father's estate during the guardianship proceedings, mainly legal fees going to attorneys for Mr. Shafer. I eventually had to save my father by getting him out of the state, the first to do so. See https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/escape-was-only-option-for-an-old-soldier-trapped-in-guardian-system/

   

In court my father protested needing a guardian and was mocked while the judge blew off his pleas, https://youtu.be/ZixHgeOzko4; the treatment of veterans is especially horrific in this system. Absolutely no respect has been given for those that risked their lives to protect all of our rights. My family has been dealing with this problem for 8 years.

Between 10/16/13 and 10/22/13, I sent 13 emails to Metro’s Colin Haynes, many with attached documents.  I received no call back and no response via email, only “read receipts” verifying he received the emails. I had called Metro previously on 10/16/13 and spoke with Haynes on the phone. He told me to send him information and documents and he gave me his email address. I never heard from him again. Earlier this year I filed a complaint against him for not responding and not sending my information to the Abuse and Neglect unit over 3 years ago; no one got back to me about the complaint either. Later, Sgt. Krumme and Det. Christensen kept harping on how the statute of limitations might have run out, but I told them I originally spoke with Haynes and sent him the same documents 3 years ago that I sent to them so it wasn’t my fault no one acted upon the problem within the time line. It is my belief that the reasons for the statute of limitations running out in most guardianship cases is because of LVMPD refusal to act upon the information they were sent, until it was conveniently too late.  

(Officer Haynes called me in November 2013 to inquire about documents I have that could be useful to his case.  Therefore, I can attest to Ms. Olvera Schultz' timeline.)
Between 5/4/15 and 5/6/15, I sent 13 emails to the AG’s investigator Jaclyn O’Malley’s supervisor, Tony Kotlarz. Then I sent 8 more emails to Jaclyn O’Malley (some copied to Kotlarz) between 5/8/13 and 5/13/15. After a few conversations with them, I never heard back from either one of them. Some time ago, Kotlarz retired and O’Malley set-up office within Metro to work with their detectives.

Between 2015 and 2017, I’ve spoken with the following Metro officers: Detective Brian Santa Rosa, Detective Phil DePalma, Detective Angie Christensen, Sargent Jerome Milton and Sargent Troyce Krumme.

Det. Christensen has been allegedly investigating my father’s case for nearly 2 years. In early August 2017, I received a call from Dr. Einhorn. He was the first qualified professional in CA to interview my father and determined him to be competent. Einhorn wanted to tell me that Det. Christensen had called him and said she might be getting a subpoena for my father’s records. But I’ve never heard back from Einhorn or Metro so I don’t think anything happened. On Aug. 16, 2017, I sent Christensen an email asking her how she even knew about Einhorn because I did not give her his name. I copied the email to Sgt. Krumme and neither one of them responded to me. Christensen had previously told me she would not take 'copies' of any of the doctor's competency reports. I asked, why not? She said 'Because copies can be altered', as if she thought I was going to alter the docs. The issue is Einhorn would have only given her copies too, not the originals.

During all my conservations with Krumme and Christensen, they gave me the impression that they were interviewing all the exploiters and believing the stories they were being told. Apparently Shafer or one of his cronies told them I had no relationship with my parents, which was totally untrue. This really upset me that these officers gave me the impression they were taking the bad guys seriously! These two also spoke about Jason Hanson as if he was mentally deficient, which I found very offensive.

Since October of 2016 I have received a few emails from Krumme and Christensen. The last email I got from Krumme was 7/26/17. He copied it to Christensen and Roger Price, who must be a superior of his. The theme of the email was that they did not want me to discuss Jason’s case with them.  Apparently LVMPD Abuse and Neclect Detail wasn't interested in anyone with information that could help Jason."

                                                                 Jason Hanson

In June 2017,  Jason Hanson asked me (Steve Miller) to be present during his interview with LVMPD Sgt. Jerome Milton and Officer Cynthia Sauchak of the Abuse and Neglect Detail. During the hour long interview, Hanson poured out his heart about how his entire inheritance was stolen from him, giving concise details and often mentioning Jared Shafer as the primary exploiter. At the conclusion of the interview, Officer Sauchak told Jason and I that she "...did not believe any laws had been broken."  This shocking statement inspired me to tell The New Yorker: "Only federal intervention is going to give us peace of mind. 

These are not isolated events. They are just the tip of the iceberg.

Since the publication of the national magazine article, I am happy to say that I have been contacted by a Federal Investigator. Meanwhile, Hanson's exploitation lawsuit is quickly making its way through the Nevada State court system
http://www.americanmafia.com/Inside_Vegas/7-24-17_Inside_Vegas.html.

BACKGROUND: http://www.stevemiller4lasvegas.com/ShaferFinancialRecords2.html

Full Article & Source:
Inside Vegas

Steve Miller: "The New Yorker" Exposes Jared Shafer

October 9, 2017... From "How the Elderly Lose Their Rights" by Rachel Aviv

"Williams took records from Shafer’s and other guardians’ cases to the Las Vegas police department several times. She tried to explain, she said, that “this is a racketeering operation that is fee-based. There’s no brown paper bag handed off in an alley. The payoff is the right to bill the estate.” The department repeatedly told her that it was a civil issue, and refused to take a report. In 2006, she submitted a typed statement, listing twenty-three statutes that she thought had been violated, but an officer wrote in the top right corner, “not a police matter.” Adam Woodrum, an estate lawyer in Las Vegas, told me that he’s worked with several wards and their families who have brought their complaints to the police. “They can’t even get their foot in the door,” he said.

Acting as her own attorney, Williams filed a racketeering suit in federal court against Shafer and the lawyers who represented him. At a hearing before the United States District Court of Central California in 2009, she told the judge, “They are trumping up ways and means to deem people incompetent and take their assets.” The case was dismissed. “The scheme is ingenious,” she told me. “How do you come up with a crime that literally none of the victims can articulate without sounding like they’re nuts? The same insane allegations keep surfacing from people who don’t know each other.”

In 2002, in a petition to the Clark County District Court, a fifty-seven-year-old man complained that his mother had lost her constitutional rights because her kitchen was understocked and a few bills hadn’t been paid. The house they shared was then placed on the market. The son wrote, “If the only showing necessary to sell the home right out from under someone is that their ‘estate’ would benefit, then no house in Clark County is safe, nor any homeowner.” Under the guise of benevolent paternalism, guardians seemed to be creating a kind of capitalist dystopia: people’s quality of life was being destroyed in order to maximize their capital.

When Concetta Mormon, a wealthy woman who owned a Montessori school, became Shafer’s ward because she had aphasia, Shafer sold the school midyear, even though students were enrolled. At a hearing after the sale, Mormon’s daughter, Victoria Cloutier, constantly spoke out of turn. The judge, Robert Lueck, ordered that she be handcuffed and placed in a holding cell while the hearing continued. Two hours later, when Cloutier was allowed to return for the conclusion, the judge told her that she had thirty days in which to vacate her mother’s house. If she didn’t leave, she would be evicted and her belongings would be taken to Goodwill.

The opinions of wards were also disregarded. In 2010, Guadalupe Olvera, a ninety-year-old veteran of the Second World War, repeatedly asked that his daughter and not Shafer be appointed his guardian. “The ward is not to go to court,” Shafer instructed his assistants. When Olvera was finally permitted to attend a hearing, nearly a year after becoming a ward, he expressed his desire to live with his daughter in California, rather than under Shafer’s care. “Why is everybody against that?” he asked Norheim. “I don’t need that man.” Although Nevada’s guardianship law requires that courts favor relatives over professionals, Norheim continued the guardianship, saying, “The priority ship sailed.”

When Olvera’s daughter eventually defied the court’s orders and took her father to live at her seaside home in Northern California, Norheim’s supervisor, Judge Charles Hoskin, issued an arrest warrant for her “immediate arrest and incarceration” without bail. The warrant was for contempt of court, but Norheim said at least five times from the bench that she had “kidnapped” Olvera. At a hearing, Norheim acknowledged that he wasn’t able to send an officer across state lines to arrest the daughter. Shafer said, “Maybe I can.”

Shafer held so much sway in the courtroom that, in 2013, when an attorney complained that the bank account of a ward named Kristina Berger had “no money left and no records to explain where it went,” Shafer told Norheim, “Close the courtroom.” Norheim immediately complied. A dozen people in attendance were forced to leave.

One of Shafer’s former bookkeepers, Lisa Clifton, who was hired in 2012, told me that Shafer used to brag about his political connections, saying, “I wrote the laws.” In 1995, he persuaded the Nevada Senate Committee on Government Affairs to write a bill that allowed the county to receive interest on money that the public guardian invested. “This is what I want you to put in the statute, and I will tell you that you will get a rousing hand from a couple of judges who practice our probate,” he said. At another hearing, he asked the committee to write an amendment permitting public guardians to take control of people’s property in five days, without a court order. “This bill is not ‘Big Brother’ if you trust the person who is doing the job,” he said. (After a senator expressed concern that the law allowed “intervention into somebody’s life without establishing some sort of reason why you are doing it,” the committee declined to recommend it.)

Clifton observed that Shafer almost always took a cynical view of family members: they were never motivated by love or duty, only by avarice. “ ‘They just want the money’—that was his answer to everything,” she told me. “And I’m thinking to myself, Well, when family members die they pass it down to their children. Isn’t that just the normal progression of things?”

After a few months on the job, Clifton was asked to work as a guardian, substituting for an absent employee, though she had never been trained. Her first assignment was to supervise a visit with a man named Alvin Passer, who was dying in the memory-care unit of a nursing home. His partner of eight years, Olive Manoli, was permitted a brief visit to say goodbye. Her visits had been restricted by Shafer—his lawyer told the court that Passer became “agitated and sexually aggressive” in her presence—and she hadn’t seen Passer in months. In a futile attempt to persuade the court to allow her to be with him, Manoli had submitted a collection of love letters, as well as notes from ten people describing her desire to care for Passer for the rest of his life. “I was absolutely appalled,” Clifton said. “She was this very sweet lady, and I said, ‘Go in there and spend as much time with him as you want.’ Tears were rolling down her cheeks.”

The family seemed to have suffered a form of court-sanctioned gaslighting. Passer’s daughter, Joyce, a psychiatric nurse who specialized in geriatrics, had been abruptly removed as her father’s co-guardian, because she appeared “unwilling or (more likely) unable to conduct herself rationally in the Ward’s best interests,” according to motions filed by one of Shafer’s attorneys.

She and Manoli had begged Norheim not to appoint Shafer as guardian. “Sir, he’s abusive,” their lawyer said in court.

“He’s as good as we got, and I trust him completely,” Norheim responded.

Joyce Passer was so confused by the situation that, she said, “I thought I was crazy.” Then she received a call from a blocked number. It was Terry Williams, who did not reveal her identity. She had put together a list of a half-dozen family members who she felt were “ready to receive some kind of verbal support.” She told Passer, “Look, you are not nuts. This is real. Everything you are thinking is true. This has been going on for years.”

Steve Miller, a former member of the Las Vegas City Council, said he assumed that Shafer would be the next indictment after Parks, who is scheduled to go to trial next spring. “All of the disreputable guardians were taking clues from the Shafer example,” he said. But, as the months passed, “I started to think that this  has run its course locally. Only federal intervention is going to give us peace of mind.”

Read the full article in'The New Yorker"