Ella Card had it made in America. After emigrating to the United States from her native Belize, she earned a masters degree and taught third grade in the New York City Public School system for three decades.
She and her late husband Raymond, who died as a result of taking the recalled painkiller Vioxx, had saved and invested their money wisely, so Card was looking forward to a comfortable retirement.
But her well-laid plans took a terrible detour when she suffered temporary dementia after being struck by a car in 2010. Her two sons, whom she says lost their jobs as corrections officers due to drug abuse, petitioned the Brooklyn Supreme Court for guardianship over her affairs.
And after recovering from her injuries, the 73-year-old widow -- a naturalized U.S. citizen who retains dual citizenship in Belize -- finds herself in an ongoing guardianship nightmare that has now gone international.
On March 16, Brooklyn Judge Betsy Barros held one of five ex parte hearings on Card, appointing a temporary guardian. On April 26, Barros ignored Card's durable power of attorney, irrevocable trust, and two quit claim deeds and read the still-very-much-alive woman's will in open court before declaring her "incapacitated."
"It felt like a hanging. I was the only one sticking up for my mother," Card's 43-year-old daughter Cindy told us. "Every one of them standing there and allowing it knew my mother was not incapacitated."
Card was then placed under the near total control of a court-appointed guardian, The Vera Institute of Justice, located in the same Brooklyn courthouse. The Vera Institute of Justice's website describes it as "an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit center for justice policy and practice." According to IRS records, $16.7 million of its $24 million annual funding comes from government grants.
Card told The Washington Examiner that The Vera Institute of Justice promptly froze all of her assets (valued at approximately $1 million), including her teachers' pension, began collecting rent on the property she owned, and forced her to live in her own home without heat, hot water or access to her own money.
Card petitioned the court to remove the guardianship. Her petition was denied.
Full Article and Source:
Retired NYC School Teacher Fights for her Freedom
5 comments:
The Vera Institute of Justice is this woman's guardian? Oh my!
I am pleased to see this journalist continue with her series.
I am praying for you, Mrs. Card.
Shocking!
Vera? Well, that's a shocker!
Not as shocking as you may think! Look up the guardianship case of Lola McCallister. Vera went thru this ladies money in a year, raked up over $100k in "fees", sold her unmortgaged home to put her in an apartment where she is now paying rent, and used her assetts to pay court fees. The workers will not discuss the particulars, but clearly this is a mechanism to steal from the elderly as they do not have to justify where the money is going, & only have to open their books once a year to te judge nontheless!! This institution is in bed with the judge. They should be fighting for Mrs Card, instead they are continuing to perpetuate the fraud & waste her money with show cause hearings; the workers themselves have said she does not belong in a guardianship, that she is NOT incapacitated. They held one of these hearings in September to FINALLY agree to allow Mrs Card to have money for her own attorney, something she was denied before the case even began. The judge would NOT allow Mrs Card an attorney of her choosing! This is the justice sysytem we are living in now, NOT a democracy, a dictatorship!
LaDonna
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