Florida's Most Vulnerable in Danger of Abuse

Recent newspaper investigations have found rampant abuse and neglect in Florida's assisted-living facilities and now at a rehabilitation center for brain-injured patients in Hardee County. What these stories have in common is an indictment of Florida's regulators. Whether it is due to a lack of resources, regulatory tools or will, the state is failing to protect some of its most vulnerable residents. The result is that the state's frail, elderly and injured are left to try to protect themselves.

The latest scandal involves the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation, a 196-bed for-profit facility that is one of the largest brain-injury centers in the country. This is where patients who often can't make decisions for themselves are sent to recover from traumatic brain injuries. But an investigation by Bloomberg News found that abuse is common at FINR. One patient was so desperate to escape his beatings that he swallowed fishhooks to get transferred out.

Full Article and Source:
Florida's most vulnerable in danger of abuse

See Also:
Abuse of Brain Injured Americans Scandalizes U.S.

Patients Tell of Beatings at Rehabilitation Center

Bank not liable for lawyer’s theft from account

A client whose attorney misappropriated funds from a client account at a bank could not hold the bank liable, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled.

The client argued that the bank should have recognized that the attorney, Morris M. Goldings, was engaged in the misappropriation of client funds based on his unauthorized transfer of $200,000 of his law firm’s IOLTA funds in late 1999 or early 2000, many months before the client wired the $5 million to Goldings’s client account.

“Where the summary judgment record does not reflect whether the law firm’s clients suffered any loss from this unauthorized transfer, this information alone is insufficient to support a reasonable inference that the bank knew that Goldings was using his client account at the bank in July, 2000, to misappropriate funds from his clients,” Justice Ralph D. Gants replied for a unanimous court. “Without such knowledge, the bank did not have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent the misappropriation.”


Full Article and Source:
Bank not liable for lawyer’s theft from account

Florida Ended Death Probe at Private Brain Rehab Center

State regulators ended inquiries into a patient’s death and alleged abuse at the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation last year over doubts about their legal authority.

The 196-bed institute, a closely-held company known as FINR, is one of the largest brain-injury centers in the U.S. and draws patients from around the country.

The Florida Department of Health brought an end to inquiries over the February 2011 death of Melinda Jakobowski, a mentally ill Connecticut woman sent to FINR, after other state regulators had already concluded there were care lapses in her case, according to inter-agency e-mails reviewed by Bloomberg News.

The e-mails also showed a top Department of Health official believed FINR was operating outside its brain-injury license in treating Jakobowski and others who didn’t have such injuries at its facility in Wauchula, 50 miles southeast of Tampa. The department has taken no action against FINR over the alleged unlicensed care.

The state’s decision not to further scrutinize the brain- injury company preceded a second death in Wauchula last year and charges of criminal abuse of FINR residents by employees.

Patients’ families or state agencies have alleged abuse or care failures in five FINR residents’ deaths since 1998, as reported by Bloomberg News last week.

FINR denied the allegations in three of those cases, which led to lawsuits. One resulted in a $5 million verdict against the company and the other two ended in settlements. FINR has declined to comment on the Jakobowski case or the later death, which have not been the subject of any lawsuits.

‘Proactive Approach’

Officials from three Florida agencies will meet tomorrow to discuss cases at FINR, said Victor Johnson, a state Department of Health Official who oversees its brain-injury program.

“All of us have to change the way we have done or responded to these issues in past,” Johnson said. “We want to go with a more proactive approach to respond to these issues with one state response.”

Wayne J. Miller, a lawyer for FINR, said “there is probably no health care provider in the state that has as much oversight.” He said the facility is subject to inspections and regularly visited by police, state agencies, disabled-protection groups, guardians, family members and others. When a problem is identified at FINR it is “immediately evaluated and corrected,” Miller said.

Jakobowski, 24, died five months after the state of Connecticut sent her to FINR. She was found unresponsive in her bed with her hair wrapped around her neck and died later at a Tampa hospital in what was ruled a cardiac arrhythmia.

E-mails Released

Florida released internal e-mails in that case and others to Bloomberg News under an open records law request. Although her name was redacted, Florida officials confirmed Jakobowski is the person referenced in the e-mails.

Three Florida agencies that deal with FINR -- the Department of Children and Families, the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Health -- passed their findings in the case around internally, the e-mails show. None of the agencies believed it had authority to take regulatory action.

An AHCA investigation found that FINR failed to maintain proper supervision of Jakobowski and that she was left alone despite a history of trying to hurt herself. It said in an e- mail that it had no authority to regulate patient treatment -- and sent a request for further investigation to the Department of Health.

Reimbursement Sought

William Reineking, the administrator for the brain-injury program in that department, responded in April 2011 that he might not investigate the case unless his office was reimbursed for its costs.

The case provided evidence “again” that “FINR is treating people not covered by the license,” Reineking said in another e-mail to AHCA the following month.

Although Jakobowski was suffering from mental illness, she was not brain-injured. The health department says it only has the authority to regulate the care of FINR patients under a “transitional living facility” license covering those suffering from traumatic-brain or spinal-cord injuries.

Both the health department and AHCA, which licenses health- care facilities, declined to say why the state has permitted FINR to treat patients at its brain-injury center when they don’t have brain injuries.

Regulatory Gap

Other cases of alleged abuse involving patients who were severely mentally ill or autistic, but not brain-injured, also have fallen into the regulatory gap, the e-mails show.

Full Article and Source:
Florida Ended Death Probe at Private Brain Rehab Center

See Also:
Police Probe Death of State Psychiatric Patient in Florida

New Illinois laws aim to protect the elderly from abuse, neglect and financial exploitation

CHICAGO — New laws signed by Gov. Pat Quinn this weekend are aimed at protecting the elderly in Illinois by increasing oversight of caregivers and making it easier for authorities to respond to cases of abuse or neglect.

One of the new pieces of legislation allows prosecutors to ask a court to freeze a suspect's assets if he is charged with financial exploitation of an elderly person. That's meant to keep a defendant from spending stolen money before restitution is collected.


Full Article and Source:
New Illinois laws aim to protect the elderly from abuse, neglect and financial exploitation

Task force seeks improvement for Alzheimer's cases

By the best estimate, family and friends provide about $2.2 billion worth of unpaid care to people with Alzheimer's disease in Oregon each year. That's a number equal to the hole in Oregon's budget, and it's not likely to improve anytime soon.

In fact, say Alzheimer's experts, the number of patients will grow — estimates put the number at 110,000 by 2025, a 69-percent spike in cases in just over a decade, as baby boomers begin to grey.

To help Oregonians prepare for that increase, a statewide task force unveiled a proposal Monday that focuses on caregivers, state government and the improving quality of care.

The task force is made up of experts in aging populations, physicians and lawyers. The group has the support of the governor and state legislators, and is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' national rollout of its National Alzheimer's Project Act.

"We all need to roll up our sleeves and confront Alzheimer's disease now," said Dr. Jeffrey Kaye, a member of the task force and director of geriatric neurology at the Portland Veterans Administration.


Full Article and Source:
Task force seeks improvement for Alzheimer's cases

4 Choking Deaths Reported At State Nursing Homes In 3 Months

A resident on a soft-food diet at the Lutheran Home in Southbury choked to death in April — the fourth choking death in a state nursing home over three months — after a nursing assistant failed to read the meal instructions and served the resident pieces of ham and a hard cookie, according to a state health inspection report.

The four deaths have prompted calls for more choking-prevention training for nurses and aides at convalescent homes.

Lutheran Home officials told state inspectors that they don't specifically instruct nurses' aides to check the special dietary orders before meals because that is supposed to be part of the aides' certification training. Contacted Monday, the home's administrator said staff members have now been re-educated about dietary protocols.

The Lutheran Home resident suffered from dementia and needed extensive help while eating. The dietary instructions called for ground meat, but the resident was served ham cut into half-inch pieces, according to the state Department of Public Health report.

The resident began coughing and choking during the meal, with a nurse's assistant sitting next to the resident, the report states.

Nurses moved the wheelchair-bound resident into a utility room and administered abdominal thrusts and the Heimlich Maneuver several times. The resident died before medics were able to reach the facility, the report states.

The assistant who served the meal later told inspectors that she "thought the resident was on a regular diet and was unaware the resident required ground meat," the report states.

The assistant admitted that she "did not check the diet slip prior to serving the meal," the inspectors reported.

The director and assistant director of nursing at the Lutheran Home told the health inspectors that nursing assistants aren't given in-service training about checking diet instructions before meals "because it should be part of the nurse's aide certification training," the report states.

The dietary aide who prepared the meal admitted that he knew the resident was on a soft-food diet but put a whole piece of ham on the plate because he "thought it was soft enough to eat," the report states.

After the resident's death, the dining-service manager acknowledged that the pieces of ham on the resident's plate were too big and that the hard cookie should not have been served, the inspectors reported. Ground meat was available at a steam table in the dining hall, the report states.

Todd Gaertner, the Lutheran Home administrator, said the dietary aide and the nurse's assistant were fired.

The state health department fined the Lutheran Home $615 out of a maximum $3,000 penalty. The department lacks the authority to issue significant fines but can revoke a center's license if corrective actions aren't taken.

In this case, the Lutheran Home's plan of correction was approved by the health department. Gaertner said the plan included the staff re-education.

The resident was the fourth nursing-home patient in Connecticut to choke to death between early February and late April. Two of the four residents had intellectual disabilities and were also clients of the state Department of Developmental Services.


Full Article and Source:
4 Choking Deaths Reported At State Nursing Homes In 3 Months

Klobuchar bill that protects seniors passes key test

WILLMAR — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s legislation to protect seniors from neglect or abuse by court-appointed guardians passed the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

The Guardian Accountability and Senior Protection Act would help states improve their oversight of guardians and conservators of seniors and vulnerable adults. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, cosponsored the bill with Klobuchar, a Democrat.

The legislation was approved with a 15-3 vote and will be referred to the full Senate for approval.

The goal is to protect people from being neglected or financially exploited by their guardians.

The issue will grow in importance as the population of seniors doubles in the coming decades, Klobuchar said during the committee hearing on Thursday.

“I know every state has incidences of people getting ripped off millions of dollars when their loved one is supposed to be under the care of a guardian,” she said. “Most guardians do amazing work, good work, but again you have a situation where you have a very few that are causing a lot of harm.”

Full Article and Source:
Klobuchar bill that protects seniors passes key test

Oregon Alzheimer's task force coming to Eugene, Coos Bay

A task force endorsed by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has laid out recommendations for dealing with the approaching wave of Alzheimer's disease cases expected in the state as baby boomers turn 65.

The task force is taking on a $2.2 billion problem.

That's the financial toll they say unpaid, unlicensed caregivers — such as family members — provide to Alzheimer's disease patients.

The task force estimates the state will have 110,000 Alzheimer's patients by 2025, a 69-percent spike in just over a decade.

In January 2015, Oregonians who can't afford fulltime care for their family members and are unwilling to have them civilly committed will be required to receive training if they are appointed as guardians.

>>> Read the state plan

The task force is holding a series of town hall meetings across Oregon:

Eugene - Saturday, August 4th, 10:00 am to noon - Campbell Senior Center, 155 High St, Eugene

Coos Bay - Thursday, August 9th, 4:00 to 6:00 pm - North Bend Community Center, 2222 Broadway Street, North Bend

Bend - Saturday, August 18th, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm - Bend Senior Center, 1600 SE Reed Market Road, Bend

Medford - Wednesday, August 8th, 4:00 to 6:00 pm - Smullin Health Education Center, Rogue Valley Medical Center, 2825 E Barnett Rd, Medford

Pendleton - Thursday, August 16th, 4:00 to 6:00 pm - Pendleton City Hall, 500 SW Dorion Ave, Pendleton

Portland - Saturday, August 25th, 10:00 am to noon - Alzheimer's Association Oregon Chapter, 1650 NW Naito Parkway, Portland

Salem - Thursday, August 30th, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm - Salem Hospital Building C, 875 Oak St SE, Salem (co-sponsored by the Alzheimer's Network of Oregon, based in Salem)

Full Article and Source:
Oregon Alzheimer's task force coming to Eugene, Coos Bay

Abuse of Brain Injured Americans Scandalizes U.S.

Soon after Peter Price arrived at the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation to recover from a brain injury, he pleaded for a rescue.

“Jess, they beat me up,” Price told his sister, Jessica Alopaeus, in May 2009. “You have to get me out of here.”

Staffers at his new home held him down and punched him in the face and groin, Price said. When Alopaeus’s efforts to transfer him stalled, Price said his desperation led him to a step aimed at speeding his release.

He swallowed five fish hooks and 22 AA batteries he’d picked up during a patient outing at Wal-Mart. After emergency surgery to remove the objects, he was allowed to transfer to another facility.

Residents at the Florida Institute have often been abused, neglected and confined, according to 20 current and former patients and their family members, criminal charges, civil complaints and advocates for the disabled.

These sources and over 2,000 pages of court and medical records, police reports, state investigations and autopsies contain an untold history of violence and death at the secluded institute known as FINR, which is located amid cattle ranches and citrus groves in Hardee County, 50 miles southeast of Tampa.

Patients’ families or state agencies have alleged abuse or care lapses in at least five residents’ deaths since 1998, two of them in the last 18 months. Three former employees face criminal charges of abusing FINR patients -- one of whom was allegedly hit repeatedly for two hours in a TV room last September.

Sparse Care

The complaints underscore the problems that 5.3 million brain-injured Americans are having finding adequate care. Their numbers are growing, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as better emergency medicine and vehicle safety mean that fewer die from traffic accidents, bullet wounds and other causes of traumatic brain injuries.

The long-term ills range from memory loss and physical handicaps to the inability to control violent anger or sexual aggression. Yet because insurance benefits for rehabilitation are scarce, less than half of those who need it receive it, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.

Organized as a company and operated for profit since 1992, FINR has become one of the largest brain-injury centers in the country, with 196 beds. Three rival providers say they know of no place bigger. Multi-site operator NeuroRestorative, owned by a holding of buyout firm Vestar Capital Partners, handles more patients.

FINR hasn’t grown by opening its doors to anyone who needs rehabilitation, customers say. Rather, its marketing is focused on the relative few who can pay bills that reach $1,850 a day.

Michigan Mandate

That includes those injured on jobs with generous worker’s compensation benefits, and car-crash victims in Michigan --which mandates unlimited lifetime benefits for automobile injury coverage.

Those who have clashed with the company over the treatment of patients say its efforts to keep costs down and extend the duration of stays take priority over care and rehabilitation.

“All people are to them is a monetary gain,” said Jana Thorpe, a professional guardian who removed one of her wards from the company’s care in 2008. “They don’t care if they do anything for them.”

Full Article and Source:
Abuse of Brain Injured Americans Scandalizes U.S.

Also See:
Patients Tell of Beatings at Rehabilitation Center

Judge William Watkins' Meltdown

The judge went ballistic because he assumed, among other things, that pastor Hage published an article in the local on-line news outlet, PutnamLIVE.com, about Judge Watkins' late payments to the condominium where he lives.

The judge was wrong: it was the publisher of PutnamLIVE, who wrote the article, entirely on his own volition. Judge Watkins screams at the pastor, "I will personally make sure that you will never see a free day in your life! You are going to jail!" While the pastor is silent, the Judge repeatedly screams, "Shut up!"

Source:
YouTube: Putnam County, WV, Family Law Judge, William Watkins, May 23, 2012 MELTDOWN!!!!! and Fathers and Children Coalition

Fireworks in Grand Rapids Filming of "Lawless America - the Movie"

Judge Kevin Cronin agreed to speak at an event in Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 27, 2012. Bill Windsor took his film camera and went to the podium to ask questions of Judge Kevin Cronin. I told Judge Kevin Cronin that he will be one of the stars of Lawless America...The Movie.



Lawless America...The Movie is a documentary film exposing government corruption and judicial corruption in a 143-day road trip to all 50 states. Over 1,200 victims are being filmed.

Full Article and Source:
Fireworks in Grand Rapids as Bill Windsor of Lawless America calls Judge Kevin Cronin a Crook in Front of a TV Studio Filled with Cheering Cictims

See Also:
Lawless America - the Movie and the Filming of the Gary and Sara Harvey Case

CFPB Requests for Information Regarding Senior Financial Exploitation

Section 1013(g)(1) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank Act”) requires the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (“Bureau” or “CFPB”) to facilitate the financial literacy of individuals aged 62 or older (“seniors”), on protection from unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices and on current and future financial choices, including through dissemination of materials on such topics.Show citation box

In furtherance of this mandate, the CFPB's Office for the Financial Protection of Older Americans (“Office for Older Americans”) seeks information on consumer financial products and services, financial literacy efforts, and fraudulent or deceptive practices impacting the lives of older Americans and their families.

Comment Due Date: August 20, 2012

You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CFPB-2012-0018, by any of the following methods:

http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: Monica Jackson, Office of the Executive Secretary, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW., Washington, DC 20552.

Source:
Request for Information Regarding Senior Financial Exploitation

Santa Clara judge reconsiders his early ruling on a trustee excessive fee case

SAN JOSE -- In a case that has already spawned reforms in Santa Clara County's probate court, the battle over a six-figure bill that a trustee charged a brain-damaged San Jose man landed back before a judge Friday.

Judge Franklin Bondonno agreed to re-evaluate the $146,500 he awarded just two months ago to a Los Gatos attorney for defending the trustee's high fees.

Danny Reed, 37, took a bold stand in 2010 and opposed his court-appointed trustee's $108,000 bill for just 4 ½ months' work. When Reed and his public defender challenged those fees, trustee Thomas Thorpe and his attorneys charged more than twice that amount in legal costs to defend their original bills.

Friday's showdown in court was the latest twist in a lengthy battle that has taken on far broader meaning than the average estate dispute. Reed's case was at the heart of "Loss of Trust,'' an investigation published this month by this newspaper that revealed how some Santa Clara County estate and care managers are charging excessive fees and how the court was doing little to stop it.

Reversing his own decision would be extremely rare, but there were signs the judge understood the objections.

In a nod to Reed's pro-bono defense team, Bondonno said Friday the lawyers had "done a terrific job in saying: 'Judge, there's something that just isn't right in how this whole thing played out.' "

Full Article and Source:
Santa Clara judge reconsiders his early ruling on a trustee excessive fee case

See Also:
The Mercury News' "Loss of Trust" Series (Anchor article)

Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules no out-of-county judge for Joan Orie Melvin trial

HARRISBURG -- The state Supreme Court has denied Justice Joan Orie Melvin's request for judge from outside Allegheny County to hear the criminal corruption charges against her.

Justice Melvin's colleagues on the state's highest court responded to her motion in an order issued Tuesday.

Her attorneys had asked that an out-of-county judge be appointed because Justice Melvin previously served in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and because one of her former staff members who allegedly did campaign work is married to another common pleas judge.

Judge Jeffrey A. Manning has twice rejected the request.

Full Article and Source:
Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules no out-of-county judge for Joan Orie Melvin trial

CANHR Releases 'Operation Guardians' Report

Untreated bed sores and infections, residents left for hours lying in their own waste, a resident with maggots in a festering rectal wound. Despite a generation’s worth of state and federal laws to guarantee a satisfactory standard of care in California nursing homes, an alarming number of facilities are failing to deliver decent humane care to their residents. This is the takeaway from CANHR’s hair-raising review of fourteen reports from California’s Operation Guardians, a project of the state Department of Justice’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse. The reports reveal a shameful state of affairs in the reviewed nursing homes that is fostered, in part, by a lack of statewide enforcement from the Department of Public Health (DPH).

Operation Guardians began in 2000 to conduct surprise, on-site inspections of California nursing homes in an effort to protect residents and improve care for elderly and dependent adult residents. (See Operation Guardians description) While the project has scaled back its number of inspections, it still manages to inspect about one new nursing home each month. Each inspection results in a report detailing the facility’s compliance with basic sanitation and quality of care standards. The reports are sent to DPH so it can conduct an independent investigation and issue appropriate enforcement actions. The reports are not made available to the public. CANHR made a Public Records Act request to obtain all reports issued from January 1, 2010 through March 7, 2012 and has subsequently posted the reports to its website. It is believed that CANHR is the first organization to publicly reveal the Operation Guardians reports.




Each of the nursing homes listed below were investigated by Operation Guardians staff between January 1, 2010 and March 7, 2012. If you click on the facility’s name, you will see a summary of the findings as well as a link to the full report and, where available, a supplemental physician’s report.

Bakersfield Healthcare Center - Bakersfield

Braswell's Hampton Manor - Yucaipa

Desert Knolls Convalescent Hospital - Victorville

Evergreen Healthcare Centers of Vallejo - Springs Road (aka. Springs Road Healthcare) – Vallejo

Florin Healthcare Center - Sacramento

Golden Cross Health Care - Pasadena

Motion Picture and Television Fund Skilled Nursing Units - Woodland Hills

Plott Nursing Home - Ontario

Roseville Point Health & Wellness Center - Roseville

Sunrise Convalescent Hospital - Pasadena

Tarzana Health and Rehabilitation Center - Tarzana

Windsor Redding Care Center - Windsor

Winsor House Care Center (aka. Orchard Post Acute Care) – Vacaville

Yuba Skilled Nursing Center - Yuba City

Source:
Operation Guardians - Executive Summary

Press Release: Canhr Releases Attorney General Reports Showing Rampant Abuse and Neglect in Fourteen California Nursing Homes

Attorney General's Description of Operation Guardians

California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform - CANHR

Possible Drug to Fight Alzheimer's / Dementia

A new treatment for Alzheimer's could halt deterioration in people with early symptoms of the disease, a limited human trial has shown. The treatment, called the "most exciting drug in development" by scientists, is currently prescribed to people with immune system problems but could have a significant impact on the quality of life of Alzheimer's sufferers, the trial suggests.

The drug, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), prevented the decline in cognitive skills, memory and the ability to live independently, among patients with mild to moderate symptoms of Alzheimer's. Those who took a placebo continued to decline. The small number of patients who took the highest dose of the drug for three years showed no decline in memory.

Medical experts said the drug could be used to treat Alzheimer's within a decade and was "probably the most exciting drug we know about that is currently in the late stages of research".

Dementia is one of the biggest challenges facing the NHS, with one in three people developing the disease – for which there is no cure – after the age of 65.

IVIg contains antibodies from blood donors and is normally used in the treatment of the immune system and serious infections. In the study of 16 patients carried out by Weill Cornell medical college in New York, the 11 patients taking various doses of the IVIg drug Gammagard showed more positive results than those who were taking a placebo. The five patients who were not initially given the drug declined more slowly after they were switched to Gammagard. The four participants originally given the highest dose and kept on that dose for three years showed no decline in cognition.

Full Article and Source:
Alzheimer's Drug IVIg Could Halt Sufferers' Decline

Pennsylvania Passes UAGPPJA

Laws, even popular and necessary ones, take some time to travel through the system. This fact became apparent again when Pennsylvania passed its version of a model uniform law for guardians with the jaw breaking title of the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act (UAGPPJA). The law will go into effect on Sept. 5, 2012.

In a model of cooperation, Pennsylvania’s law passed the House last year 196-0 and the Pennsylvania Senate this year 49-0. It was supported by the Pennsylvania Association of Elder Law Attorneys (PAELA) to which I belong and by the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
I first wrote about the need for uniform guardianship laws on May 4, 2009. See www.dailylocal.com under search for Colliton and 2009. Why the law is important to average people is because one of the specific problems it deals with is the issue popularly referred to as “Granny snatching.”

Suppose, for instance, you apply for guardianship in Pennsylvania for your mother who has lived here all her life. Another relative or acquaintance, without your knowledge, signs her out of a personal care home or takes her from homeand makes arrangements to transport her out of state. That person files for guardianship in another state. Without a uniform act where each state recognizes the other state’s proceedings, the result could be a nightmare.

Full Article and Source:
COLLITON: ‘Anti-Granny Snatching’ Law Passed in Pa.

KY: Insurance Agent Accused of Bilking Elderly Client Out of $500K Found Dead

The body of a man found hanging earlier this week in a northern Grant County barn has been identified as that of a Kenton County insurance agent who was accused of bilking an elderly client out of more than $500,000, police said Friday.

The body of Raymond Crosby, 49, of Hebron was found late Tuesday afternoon in a barn of the Lloyd Wildlife Management Area, a 1,100-acre recreation area near Crittenden, Kentucky State Police said in a release.

Kenton County police had a felony theft warrant for Crosby's arrest so he could face charges that he stole money from an elderly client, said Detective Andrew Schierberg.

"We believe he misappropriated about $540,000 from one client," Schierberg said.

Full Article and Source:
Man Found Hanged was Accused of Bilking Elderly Client Out of $500,000