While Ben Alfano will be much with his children this week, if only in memory, Thanksgiving eve would seem a callous time to render "final" judgment on the draining of the veteran's estate. But as Washington County Circuit Judge Rita Batz Cobb has scheduled the hearing for 11 a.m. Wednesday, let's review the charade that has brought us this far.
Twenty-seven months ago, Cobb dismissed the pleas of Alfano, his four doctors, four of his five children and Cobb's own court visitor, and awarded control of the veteran's life to Chris Farley, a professional guardian.
Farley -- like Alfano's court-appointed attorney, Richard Pagnano -- was enlisted by the Oregon Department of Veteran Affairs, the conservator of Alfano's sizable estate.
Alfano, a 72-year-old amputee with full benefits, would survive only another six months.
As I wrote in a series of February columns, Farley moved the veteran out of the Raleigh Hills Assisted Living facility he loved and eventually into a locked-door dementia-care unit in Gresham, and strenuously isolated him from his children.
Alfano's heart burst, literally, in February 2011, and he died at the VA Medical Center.
As Judy Bridges, the Raleigh Hills administrator, submitted in an affidavit, "I believe with all my heart that the move killed him."
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Steve Duin: Ben Alfano is Still Footing the Bill
Worse than theft of assets - and overbilling is nothing more than theft - is the godawful isolation.
ReplyDeleteFiduciaries - "persons of trust"???
who engage in this nefarious practice should be jailed.
Footing the bill for his own abuse. What a terrible and horrific twist of irony.
ReplyDeleteIt's just so sad that society treates its elderly this way and judges let greedy lawyers and guardians do this.....
ReplyDelete