A few nuggets we found interesting from today’s Nashville Scene follow-up article posted below.
“Danny’s investments and nest egg are all but spent.”
“Yet David Tate says he had nothing but the best intentions in seeking conservatorship over his brother.”
“In David Tate’s eyes, the winner was the system trying to help his recalcitrant brother, as much as he fought it every step of the way. And in his brother’s estimation, Danny didn’t get much for the money he spent fighting it.”
David Tate doesn’t think Danny’s freedom from an oppressive conservatorship was “worth the money”. We beg to differ. Danny did what he HAD to do under the circumstances. It cost money to pursue his freedom through the court system David Tate so dearly loves. Danny was, and is, entitled to spend his OWN money to defend himself, or any other way he wants. What wasn’t right, was David Tate being allowed to handle his brother’s hard earned cash.
We’re STILL curious to see how he’s going to explain all those checks he wrote when he submits his accounting to the court. And FDT won’t rest until Danny’s got every dime back..and then some!!!
An attorney in Pasadena, Calif., has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $500,000 from his clients' estates, according to prosecutors.
Oscar Cruz Parra, 67, a probate attorney who was arrested in March at his home in San Dimas, Calif., agreed in a plea deal to serve five years in state prison and pay $441,000 in restitution to five former clients. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 15.
On Friday, Parra pleaded guilty to four counts of embezzlement, according to the Los Angeles County, Calif., district attorney's office. He stole the money beginning in 2000, filing false court papers to cover up his actions.
Older people are one of the hottest targets for scams, and lack of financial knowledge makes them all the more vulnerable.
The issue is so important that the North American Securities Administrators Association will soon start a campaign aimed at reducing financial fraud against the elderly.
"A very large number of [elderly] fraud victims are suffering from diminished mental capacity," said Denise Voigt Crawford, association president and Texas state securities commissioner. "It makes them more vulnerable to pitches by fraudsters."
The association's campaign will include the creation of a pocket guide to help doctors determine whether their patient is a victim of investment fraud.
Among the signs are whether a patient is having trouble paying bills because he or she is confused by them or is giving away money he or she can't afford.
The mood was completely different from last December, when an attorney for the Nashville composer, songwriter, former pop-rocker and recovering crack addict had pleaded for him to be restored control of his life. But the strange assortment of spectators wasn't the only thing that had changed. Over the months since, the case had become a cause célébre detailed in a Scene cover story ("Court-Ordered Hell," Jan. 21, 2010). Now there was a TV camera, its lens and the eyes of its viewing audience trained on Judge Kennedy. There was even an observing member of the disciplinary counsel for the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, who requested anonymity and would not speak on the record.
Tate himself, with nine months of hard-won sobriety under his belt, sat composedly in a smart dark-gray suit, his face clean-shaven, his hair neatly parted. After nearly two and a half hours of testimony — and two and a half years of incredibly expensive legal warfare — Judge Kennedy spoke.
"He's the captain of his ship," the judge said, as the room held its breath. "He's the master of his own destiny. The conservatorship served its purpose, and no longer serves a purpose."
Danny told the Scene once that he would only be set loose from the conservatorship after his assets were drained. Intentionally or not, it turned out to be technically almost true.
The absence of process served to Danny at the outset was troubling. So was the ease with which he was made a ward — a state in which a man legally becomes a cipher, a nonentity with no say over his assets. Legal scholars have long warned of the hazards of such deprivation.
So if the ward believes this is wrong, does he fight it (as is his right) with everything he has — which will only double the rate at which he loses his assets?
There is one group, however, that emerges from this story as a clearcut winner: the attorneys. Paul Housch, David's attorney for the conservatorship, has billed roughly $100,000 since October 2007. Danny's attorney, Michael Hoskins, has also run up an expensive tab since he was hired in the fall of 2008 — nearly as much as Housch. At the moment, to pay them, Danny faces the prospect of selling his already flood-gutted Bellevue home.
When it comes to the dead or the elderly, greed knows no legal or ethical boundaries.
I sat in New Britain Probate Court on Thursday morning as a lawyer sought to justify a slick shell game that would pilfer an inheritance from a Southington farmhand and hand it to the Catholic Church. In the process, a choice parcel of Southington farmland would be turned over to a local developer.
The problem is that Josephine Smoron — who died in June of 2009 — made it clear that under no circumstances did she want her farm to be sold to benefit the church.
"Any church or churches which may have been named in prior wills are also intentionally and not inadvertently omitted," Smoron wrote in a 1996 will that left her property to a Middletown man, Sebastian Scirpo, and her farm caretaker, Sam Manzo.
Scirpo died in 2002 and a later will in 2004 handed the entire farm to Manzo, who remains on the property.
All of this would seemingly make it at least somewhat obvious that the farm goes to Manzo — or perhaps to Manzo and members of the Scirpo family.
But this is probate court, where misdeeds pass unchallenged, like ships in the night.
Last May — when Smoron was dying in a nursing home — John Nugent, a local lawyer appointed by probate to watch over her estate, quietly approached Southington Probate Judge Bryan F. Meccariello with a motion to create two trusts containing all of the Polish farmer's property. Upon Smoron's death, the property would go to Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in New Britain, Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in New Britain and Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Southington.
At a court hearing attended only by Meccariello on May 12, 2009, the judge approved creation of the trusts, despite the fact that the action effectively disinherited Manzo. Lawyers for Manzo, Scirpo and Smoron relatives were given no opportunity to raise questions. They weren't even told of the hearing, which took place with Meccariello recording the proceedings and citing case law into the tape recorder.
All of this might have gone unnoticed, except that Manzo got a lawyer and started raising questions, and I started writing about the travesty. Before long, Meccariello recused himself and ordered a new hearing on the matter.
A probate oversight board investigation is underway.
Barry Pontolillo, Manzo's lawyer, told me after the hearing Thursday that the solution to this mess is obvious.
"All we have to do is get the church to realize that greed is one of the seven deadly sins."
I suspect the church knows a great deal about this topic. It's Probate Court that doesn't get it.
From the moment he took a Christmas Eve drive with Robert Powell in 2001 to check out the site for a new juvenile detention center, Michael Conahan made it clear: He was the man in charge.
Over the next seven years he proved true to his word, evidence collected by federal authorities shows. He took the lead role in soliciting more than $700,000 in kickbacks from Powell, prosecutors say, and in developing a scheme to conceal the source of that money, as well as more than $2 million paid by real estate developer Robert Mericle.
It’s long been speculated that Conahan was a key figure in orchestrating the scheme that resulted in charges against himself, former judge Mark Ciavarella, Powell and Mericle. A court document filed Tuesday by federal prosecutors reveals new details about the depth of his involvement.
The document, a reply to dozens of pre-trial motions filed by attorneys for Conahan and Ciavarella, portrays Conahan as a puppet master and Ciavarella as a willing assistant who pulled some of the strings, but who left most of the details to Conahan.
Beverly Rasberry Stone, the operator of Stonecrest Senior Care in Sweetwater, Texas, was indicted on May 11, 2010 on two counts of injury to an elderly person after a resident under her care developed severe bedsores.
The abuse allegations arose after Stone's facility "failed to seek appropriate attention, and (the bedsores) became untreatable". The resident eventually died of unrelated causes and the death is not at issue in the injury charges lodged against the nursing home operator.
Many people move to Arizona for the weather and recreation because it's considered a haven for retirees who want to live out their golden years. But something else is happening here - something haunting.
For Clair's mom, Gloria Horrigan, it was a nightmare. Clair said her mother was taken to a nursing home against her will and not allowed visitors, not even family.
It was a struggle for Robert Brown to bring his wife, Rosemary, home. She was also taken and within a matter of weeks, the family wasn't allowed to see her either.
What happened in both cases started in a Maricopa County Courtroom - right in front of a judge.
The court approved a guardian in both cases. And both times, the guardian was Sun Valley Group of Tempe. Their website states they offer "support for client's physical, social, emotional and mental health." As part of their service, Sun Valley Group also took care of Gloria's personal finances.
But Clair said her mom did not get proper medical treatment and her bills weren't paid. Gloria's house went into foreclosure. “I’m physically sick from seeing what they've done to my mother. My family, my children, everyone has been affected by this,” said Clair.
Rosemary had a similar story. She was depressed and refused medical care. But Robert said under the company's care, she never did, so now family friend and doctor, Marge Butler, is Rosemary's guardian. “The bills were now coming at a ferried pace,” said Marge. In total, Marge said the family spent over a $100,000. That was for just four months of Sun Valley Group's care. It ended when the nursing home thought Rosemary was dying. They finally allowed the family to see her.
As for Gloria, Clair said the company seemed much more interested in her mom's money than her health. Gloria's final bill was just under $500,000 and included charges for an employee to open her mail at $75 an hour. “They are supposed to be her guardian and are supposed to be like her parents and look out for her best interests,” said Clair.
After repeatedly being turned down for an on camera interview, The ABC15 Investigators went to Sun Valley Group's office. They asked us to leave. We then caught up with the owner of Sun Valley, Peter Frenette, at a county courthouse. He was leaving a probate hearing involving fees from a different case. Even after several questions, Frenette would not comment.
The ABC15 Investigators have found more issues plaguing Sun Valley Group. Frenette's wife, Heather, is co-owner, but she is being investigated by the Arizona nursing board. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Organized Crime Unit is also investigating Sun Valley Group. By state law, both investigations are secret.
We also discovered three multi-million dollar lawsuits filed this year against the company for fraud and racketeering. Grant Goodman is the attorney for three former Sun Valley Group clients. “It's more of a criminal enterprise,” said Goodman, “They need to be prosecuted.” He claimed to find a pattern with these cases. “They effectively medicate them to such an extent that they really are non-functional,” said Goodman, “And they do that while they're liquidating their assets.”
The three lawsuits also blame probate court. “The mob isn't this efficient, nor does the mob have the luxury of having a court rubberstamp these proceedings,” said Goodman.
Goodman is not the only one who thinks that way. Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court issued an Administrative Order to investigate probate court. One of the issues is regulating fees.
Hours before releasing a combative order that approved the draining of an 88-year-old widow's life savings, a Maricopa County probate judge sent a draft copy of her ruling to the attorneys who stood to benefit - a violation of the judges' ethics code.
One of those attorneys responded to the March e-mail and even suggested several changes that were incorporated into Pro-Tem Judge Lindsay Ellis' 21-page ruling.
"I could not be happier," attorney Brenda Church replied, upon getting the proposed order.
I guess not. Church's bill for $333,000 was among bills totaling nearly $800,000 about to be approved by Ellis.
Three other attorneys - Lauren Garner and Jerome Elwell who were working for the Sun Valley Group, and Brian Theut, the old lady's guardian ad litem - also received Ellis' draft ruling. None of them reported Ellis to the Commission on Judicial Conduct or notified the attorneys representing Marie Long and her sisters of the improper "ex-parte" communication. Such contacts are a violation of the Arizona Code of Judicial Conduct.
Presiding Probate Judge Karen O'Connor, who twice last year rejected requests to disqualify Ellis from the case due to bias, has ordered a hearing into the matter, which came to light late last week.
A former Rock Hill nursing home office manager is finally answering to charges that she improperly used more than $60,000 belonging to the home's residents.
Melissa Rice Kelly, 39, of Chester was charged in January 2009 with elder exploitation and forgery. Kelly was a business manager for two years for Magnolia Manor at 127 Murrah Drivve.
Kelly pleaded guilty in a York County courtroom to 12 counts of exploitation of a vulnerable adult and one count of breach of trust with fraud intent. Kelly faced a maximum of 70 years in prison on all 13 felony charges.
The judge ordered Kelly to repay Magnolia Manor and placed her on probation for five years and 30 days of public service employment.
David Tate, Attorney Paul Housch, Judge David Randy Kennedy, and others, have committed specific criminal acts when they seized control of Danny Tate’s life and financial estate. I know. I have been a police officer, private investigator, and investigative consultant for more than 48 years. By using multiple fraudulent Durable Powers of Attorney documents, a fraudulent petition for conservatorship, denying Danny his right to notice and any legal assistance, using fraudulent medical opinions, and appointing a guardian ad litem who went right along with the program, they formed an incestuous relationship and used the court system to line their own pockets with Danny’s money. Even worse, now that Danny is absolutely penniless they have ended the Conservatorship but they have not stopped, they also want his house. This entire charade was about money. Danny’s money.
In early 2010 Danny Tate retained my consulting services to assist him in making decisions about his case. I reviewed evidence, documents, court transcripts and records, and spoke with witnesses concerning his case. At the same time, I learned about other cases where various attorneys (including Attorney Housch) had committed similar criminal acts against other unsuspecting people. They have clearly established a continuing pattern of criminal conduct and again used the court system to steal everything from people made helpless by their criminal acts. Judge David Randy Kennedy is the judge on each and every one of those cases.
During my review, I became so offended by what I had learned and discovered, and realizing that I had a duty and obligation, I created a twenty page sworn affidavit and added over 200 pages of supporting documents. On April 2nd, 2010 I personally met with an FBI agent and hand delivered my affidavit to the Nashville office of the FBI along with my written request for a criminal investigation by the public integrity unit. I specifically named names including Judge David Randy Kennedy, the sitting judge of the Probate Division of Davidson County, Tennessee. NASGA, the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse, joined me and became co-petitioner in this action. I am now in the process of adding a supplemental affidavit with additional information and evidence. I will keep you posted.
If anyone has any additional information about Danny’s or any other case please contact me at irarobins@sbcglobal.net or 414-305-8832.
A probate judge dissolved the guardianship that controlled a songwriter's finances while he was addicted to crack. But the judge made no apologies for setting up the guardianship to begin with.
The guardianship has managed his financial and legal affairs for the last three years. The musician's brother became Danny's conservator when Danny was admittedly addicted to crack cocaine. Danny Tate said he is now clean and sober.
Circuit Judge Randy Kennedy ruled that songwriter Danny Tate no longer needs a conservator. The judge gave Danny's brother David, the conservator, 60 days to account for how the money expended has been spent.
During the conservatorship, Danny Tate's bank accounts dwindled to nothing. He's not only paying his own legal fees, he's paying the lawyers his brother hired.
A Nashville songwriter won a 2 1/2 year legal battle Monday to regain control of his life and make all medical, legal and financial decisions for himself, in a case that drew wide attention to problems that can arise when a disabled person is put in the care of a guardian.
The same judge who removed Danny Tate's legal rights in 2007 restored them to the 54-year-old musician who has written a top 10 hit and composed tunes for several popular TV shows.
At a hearing that was packed with Tate's supporters, Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Randy Kennedy ruled that Tate is capable of managing his own affairs.
Kennedy had declared Tate mentally disabled in October 2007 at an "emergency" hearing where Tate was not present nor represented by a lawyer. The songwriter was again declared disabled three weeks later and put into a locked psychiatric ward after he was denied a request for a lawyer.
Advocates for people declared unfit to manage their own affairs and placed in the care of guardians say the songwriter's case is an example of abuses found nationwide. Some of them came to Nashville to monitor the court hearing.
The crowd of about 50, many of them wearing T-shirts that read "Free Danny Tate," applauded when Kennedy issued his ruling from the bench.
"Of course I'm happy. But it's a hollow victory because I'm (financially) wiped out," said Tate, who was one of the writers of "Affair of the Heart," a hit for Rick Springfield in the 1980s. He also has written music played during segments on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Entertainment Tonight."
Tate had been stripped of his rights after his older brother, David Tate, petitioned the court, saying his younger sibling was in the grip of a life-threatening drug addiction and spending between $500-$800 a day on crack cocaine.
David Tate, 60, has maintained that he did what was necessary to save his brother's life.
Danny Tate admits he was addicted to crack cocaine when court proceedings began against him in October 2007, but he maintains that he was a functioning addict who was robbed of his constitutional rights and drained of his life savings.
Kennedy appointed David Tate as the songwriter's conservator, which is Tennessee's name for a guardian. The legal arrangement was supposed to help the songwriter get clean and sober and protect his finances.
The judge restored Danny Tate's rights after three physicians filed a report saying the songwriter was capable of making his own legal, financial and medical decisions. Tate was also able to show that he had tested negative for drugs for nine months.
"I'm delighted," the older brother said after the hearing. "You think this was fun? I lost a brother to drugs."
The two brothers did not talk to each other in court or afterward.
The songwriter testified that his estate had been "plundered" by the legal arrangement. He hasn't accused his brother of stealing his money, only being responsible for a legal battle that cost him his life savings.
Tate had more than $600,000 in a money market account when court proceedings against him began in 2007 and was getting paid $125,000 a year in royalties.
Almost all that money is gone.
Unlike other court battles, where each side pays its own legal fees, a disabled person with money foots the entire bill for the court battle over a conservatorship. Every time a motion was filed against him, the songwriter paid for it.
"I figured he'd be let out when he didn't have another dollar to his name," said Michael Hoskins, a lawyer who now represents the songwriter. He said he would fight attempts to sell the songwriter's house to pay for legal fees.
Families say loved ones are being ripped away by a closed, unfair system.
Putting legal power over a person into a stranger’s hands is supposedly considered a last resort by the court system.
But several local families say that what began as a volunteer program to help the old and vulnerable has evolved into a close-knit alliance of probate judges, attorneys, care providers, and quasi-governmental nonprofit employees. These factions, while doing good in many cases, sometimes rip families apart without giving relatives so much as the courtesy of being present at the hearings where such decisions are made.
“The system is rigged, and the family has nowhere to turn,” said Kathie Seidel, one of a handful of local residents who accuse the probate court and GSI of removing loved ones from their homes unnecessarily.
The residents describe being replaced as guardians in court hearings without being given a chance to defend themselves — and then being required to put up $10,000 bonds in order to be allowed to appeal the decision. Overturning a court’s decision on guardianship can become a maze of dead ends. Families don’t know where to turn, other than to legislators who might change the laws — and that’s been a slow-moving ship.
The families believe the system involves too-cozy relationships between judges, attorneys, caseworkers, and others and is rife with intimidation and retaliatory behavior designed to shut out families that might get in the way.
Attorneys donate money to the election campaigns of probate judges who assign those same attorneys to guardianship cases. Attorneys also donate money to GSI, which in turn shepherds clients to nursing homes and other facilities that want to keep their beds filled. The nonprofit’s funding is based on its number of clients. Its board of directors is mostly composed of attorneys and has included nursing home representatives in the past.
Efforts to expose the system’s flaws and build support for reforms fell on deaf ears in the past, but that might be changing. Four North Texas families traveled to Austin last week to testify at a Texas Senate interim hearing along with other families from around the state. They told their stories to a committee led by Sen. Jane Nelson of Flower Mound, describing secret hearings and retaliation from court-appointed guardians using family members as pawns in power struggles. They lamented an overall lack of regulation.
Senators appeared surprised and concerned about what’s happening in some guardianship cases.
Pushing for reforms nationwide is the National Association to Stop Guardianship Abuse (NASGA), an Indiana-based nonprofit group working to get a federal response to guardianship problems caused by self-policing courts and programs. “Each state is different, and each county has their own procedure, so the only answer is federal,” said Sylvia Rudek, a NASGA board member. “There is no due process. They have ex-parte hearings. There are no civil rights — that’s what makes it federal.”
PICTURE THIS! A knock on the door - the police are there to remove you, and you don't know why; you're not a criminal!
And by the time you find out why, you are no longer in control of your life, liberty or property.
Not until your assets are seized and secured by an unlawful court order which you knew nothing about, do you get the constitutionally required notice telling you to come to court for a hearing.
It wasn't until NASGA member Danny Tate got to court and asked for an adjournment so he could hire a lawyer, that he found out he could not, because he had no money!
Where was the money? In his estranged brother's control - his brother, the "temporary" conservator!
Danny's future was and still is under the control of a judge and his court-appointed guardian/conservator and other appointed "fiduciaries" and experts.
He's fighting back now to escape this awful two-and-a-half-year nightmare.
Guardianship is an ancient law. In Olde England, the King had to provide for the welfare of his subjects. The historical purpose of guardianship - or "lunatic proceedings" - as they were then known, was to protect that person and his/her property. If they became well, their property was returned.
That idea was adopted in America, and also known as "lunatic proceedings" in the early years - with one difference - you rarely get your money back! The "protection" statutes are promulgated under the police power of the state, from its duty to protect its citizens - "parens patriae" (parent of the country)!
Those adjudged to be incapacitated become wards of the State under what are now known as guardianships or conservatorships. A fiduciary - supposedly a person of trust - is appointed by the court to take charge of the person's life, liberty and property. To PROTECT and CONSERVE is the ostensible purpose of the law.
But are these vulnerable people being protected and their property and assets conserved according to law? Not according to NASGA! Unfortunately, guardianship/conservatorship has grown into something very different, more like a feeding frenzy for professionals and for a growing number of nonprofit corporations.
“Guardianizing” an innocent person based on unfounded allegations, false information and exaggeration in the petition, for nefarious purposes, without due process, is becoming increasingly easier due to the lack of monitoring of the state courts. “Incapacitated” now replaces “incompetent” in a growing number of state statutes, thereby exposing even persons with minor or temporary physical disabilities to a complete and potentially permanent loss of life, liberty and property, most often to the day they die. It's like a whirlpool - once you get sucked in, it's hard to get out - even in one of those nasty new "emergency" guardianships! The emergency is supposed to be dealt with on a short-term basis. But not in this case before Nashville Probate judge Randy Kennedy!
Danny Tate, a Nashville musician, was sucked into the sick "protection" machine by an unlawful process: TN law says he should have notice in advance of a "hearing." So what did Judge Kennedy of the Seventh Circuit Court in Nashville, TN, do? On 10/23/07, instead of holding a "hearing," relying on only the unsubstantiated and fraudulent petition of Danny's brother as "evidence" of an "emergency," he issued an order finding Danny to be in need of a "temporary" conservatorship. But even a sworn petition, with nothing more, does not constitute "evidence." Besides, you don't take evidence from only one side in a case. That's sneaky! They have a fancy name for it in the law: "ex parte"! That means "one side without the other," but it really sounds more like "Let's Party!" The other legal words to describe Kennedy's actions are "colorable" and "under color of law."
Without the constitutionally required personal service, Kennedy had no lawful authority to even issue such an order, but Kennedy is unconcerned, because he's obviously been getting away with that kind of thing for a long time, as the only judge in the probate court!
Well, after he appointed Danny Tate's brother to be his "temporary" conservator, and allowed him to grab all Danny's assets, not only could Danny not then hire a lawyer of his choice; he couldn't work, either, because most of his music equipment was confiscated by his brother, along with his assets!
Nice, huh?
In order to finish the job, after the money grab was a done deal, Kennedy had one of his appointees arrange for personal service on Danny, with the assistance of the police, for a hearing at a later date. On 11/14/07, Danny appeared in court and asked for an adjournment of the "hearing" to get a lawyer. Kennedy wouldn't allow it; he forced Danny to proceed without counsel, and without notice or warning Judge Kennedy ordered Danny removed in handcuffs from the courtroom.
How would you like to be hauled into court, there to learn that your money has already been grabbed by your adversary - these proceedings are not supposed to be adversarial, by the way, but they surely are - and you're not able to hire an honest lawyer to protect you? "Honest"? Sure! If the judge appoints a lawyer for you, fuggedaboutit! That lawyer is a team player, and you haven't got a prayer! Danny had a few of those - all paid for from his own assets under his brother's control - before he found an honest lawyer on his own. Michael Hoskins worked seven months without pay because Kennedy initially denied his application for payment - until ten Facebook "Friends" wearing "Free Danny Tate" tee-shirts to court convinced Kennedy otherwise.
Mind you, Danny's money paid his brother's lawyer all along, including a generous up-front $25,000 "retainer." The court-appointed guardian or conservator, if there's enough money/property in the ward's estate, will gladly share it with his friends, hiring lawyers and accountants to help with plundering the estate in the name of "fee billings" until the Ward is indigent, leaving his/her lifetime care, on Medicaid, to the American taxpaupers! That's Medicaid fraud; isn't it?
Danny's "temporary" conservatorship has been "temporary" ever since 2007, but now an appellate court has straightened Kennedy out on that issue, and a final hearing on permanency will be held this morning: Seventh Circuit Probate Court, 1 Public Square in Nashville, TN.
So much for constitutional due process, civil rights, human rights, life, liberty and happiness! How do you get free from this insanity? It's like a rotting cancer, growing out of control, all across the country today.
What happened to NASGA member Danny Tate can happen to anyone! But with the help of Facebook and other "Friends," we hope he will soon be free of his nightmare!
Danny's brother cancelled his health insurance, the insurance on his studio and music equipment, without notice to Danny. Everything was lost in the recent flooding. Most recently, he stopped Danny's support payments to his children. PROTECT and CONSERVE, indeed!
We must question why a judge would knowingly violate the law and individual rights and protections. He/she must be incompetent or corrupt; there is no other explanation.
Something is very wrong when government allows things like this to happen to its citizens, in gross violation of all basic rights and protections.
The protection program as presently operated across the states has now become "THE PROTECTION RACKET"! That's why NASGA has asked Congress to intervene, even before we learned about Danny's story: www.AnOpenLetterToCongress.info.
Please play my favorite YouTube video. Several puppets play the role of judge, guardian, conservator and lawyer in a court hearing where a forced guardianship is occurring.
Sunday, May 23, 2010 Danny Tate Awareness Concert/Flood Relief Concert Tonight!
Date: Sunday, May 23, 2010 Time: 6:00pm - 11:30pm Location: 12th and Porter, Nashville, TN Street: 114 12th Ave. North
The show will feature performances by: Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens; Peter Holsapple of The dB's; Hootie and the Blowfish and formerly of REM; Danny Tate; Kevin Montgomery and the Roadtrippers-featuring Robert Reynolds and Paul Deakin from The Mavericks and Mike McAdam from Steve Earle and the Dukes; Gorilla Baby-featuring John Coleman from Walk the West, and the Cactus Brothers; Jean Anne Chapman; Etta Britt; Jonell Mosser; Tom Kimmel; Chuck Mead of BR549; Garry Talley; Christine Leakey; Templeton Thompson; Mark Luna; Dan Baird formerly of the Georgia Satellites, and many more.
Danny lost his house in the Nashville flood, but would like the proceeds from the concert to go to someone else that has been affected by the flood.
Note: Monday, May 24th&25th - 9am - "Free Danny Tate" supporters will accompany Danny Tate and his lawyer to provide scrutiny on the court. Seventh Circuit Probate Court, 1 Public Square, Nashville.
Source: Facebook: Friends for Danny Tate's Defense
See Also: Danny Tate Awareness Concert Pays it Forward
A few nuggets we found interesting from today’s Nashville Scene follow-up article posted below. 
David Tate doesn’t think Danny’s freedom from an oppressive conservatorship was “worth the money”. We beg to differ. Danny did what he HAD to do under the circumstances. It cost money to pursue his freedom through the court system David Tate so dearly loves. Danny was, and is, entitled to spend his OWN money to defend himself, or any other way he wants. What wasn’t right, was David Tate being allowed to handle his brother’s hard earned cash.
