Anne L. Chavis, pleaded guilty to stealing from a disabled veteran under her care while working as a court-appointed conservator. She was sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay $92,000 in restitution to eight clients. The fine represents a fraction of the money she controlled for her clients but never accounted for.
Chavis, a former nurse and active churchgoer, ran a boarding home for disabled veterans before federal officials tapped her to become a conservator. Had they investigated her background, they would have discovered that Chavis had filed for bankruptcy and been accused by the nursing board of neglecting clients at a nursing home while she slept in a patient bed. Instead, they gave her dozens of cases, which were rubber-stamped by judges in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
For years, the Los Angeles County court system failed to notice that she didn't file legally required financial reports. Court officials finally stripped her of her powers. But between $500,000 and $1 million of her clients' money has never been accounted for, said John Mickus, a probate lawyer and conservator whom the court asked to step in.
Mickus said Veterans Affairs officials have agreed to reimburse missing money not covered by financial bonds paid by Chavis' clients because federal law holds them liable.
"They can hardly say they weren't negligent," Mickus said, "because they were giving her new cases at the same time they were citing her for contempt in other cases."
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