NEWPORT NEWS — Friends of Margaret "Jenny" Hatch — a 28-year-old with Down syndrome who is the subject of a contested guardianship case — on Thursday were permitted by a judge to intervene in the case, giving them a chance to win guardianship or argue that Hatch does not need a guardian.
Hatch was before Newport News Circuit Court Judge David Pugh, who ruled on a number of motions in the case.
But the friends, Hampton couple Jim Talbert and Kelly Morris, said they were disappointed that Pugh also granted temporary guardianship to Hatch's mother and stepfather, Julia and Richard Ross.
Since last summer, Hatch has been forced into a group home and been placed under temporary guardianship against her will, according to court records. Jewish Family Service had been the temporary guardian until Thursday, and now there will be a seven-day transition period before the Rosses will be granted the temporary guardianship. Jewish Family Service requested out of the case, because their attorney said they had been badgered by people advocating for Hatch.
Pugh agreed to allow JFS to exit the guardianship case before granting the Rosses temporary guardianship.
Julia Ross declined to comment to the Daily Press. Richard Ross emphasized that it was a temporary decision.
"We want what's best for Jenny," said Richard Ross, who declined further comment.
The case could now go to trial, and a trial date is set for May 1, said Hatch's attorney Robert Brown. The central issue that has yet to be determined is the extent to which Hatch can care for herself, and whether she needs a guardian or a group home. Hatch had been living semi-independently, including at one point for more than a month with Talbert and Morris in 2012. Talbert and Morris now have legal standing in the case to present arguments and evidence.
Full Article & Source:
'Justice for Jenny' Down syndrome guardianship case headed for trial
See Also:
Justice for Jenny
Petition: Justice for Jenny
5 comments:
Praying for Jenny's success!
Legal standing is a big issue. In guardianship / conservatorship cases the family has no standing. In this case 'friends' of the ward have standing to argue their case. The ward has no standing, stripped of rights. Prisoners have more rights and freedom within the facility of their incarceration. How did a good idea established decades ago become so bad and so ugly?
It seems clear that Jenny does not wantn to be with her mother and stepfather.
Why won't the court do what's in her best intrests?
How many Jenny's are there? I believe Jenny needs to have the opportunity to speak what happened to 'in the best interest of the ward'? It is common sense there are levels of incapacity due to developmental issues early on, due to illness and accident and aging. It seems the minute an adult reaches low level capacity issues full blown til death do we part guardianship is Plan A.
Sick and twisted is what this is and it's UNAMERICAN against everything we the people believe in. God Help Jenny.
The main reason Jenny has not been able even to address the court, in numerous hearings, is Clara Swanson, the hand-picked guardian ad litem "for" Jenny.
Swanson not only prevented Jenny from speaking or testifying, she actually tried to prevent her OWN CLIENT from attending the court hearing!
Jenny has been led in and out of the courtroom, surrounded by deputies, like a common criminal, while "her" guardian ad litem looked on in approval.
The GAL also had a duty to object to improper jurisdiction on behalf of "her" client, since the case was filed in Newport News, where the mother lives, not in Hampton, where Jenny lives, and lived for months before and at the time this case was improperly filed in Newport News.
What's the difference between these two jurisdictions? Weeeeeeell, Newport News allows the petitioners (the mother and stepfather) to hand-pick the guardian ad litem "for" Jenny. Hampton does not.
Wonder of wonders, the mother and step-father picked Clara Swanson, for reasons that are now all too apparent. They picked Swanson even though (or more likely, especially BECAUSE) Swanson has a conflict of interest, as a recent member of the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board. The HNNCSB is pushing and funding this guardianship to enforce an ill-advised, unnecessary, extremely expensive ($80,000 a year, according to the GAL "for" Jenny) group home placement.
WHY doesn't Jenny get along with her mother? WHY wasn't Jenny living with her mother when she got in a car accident while riding her bike? WHY did the mother and stepfather, now Jenny's guardians, both well-established, middle class professionals, refuse to take their own daughter home to recuperate in their very nice home in a "good" neighborhood on her release from the hospital?
We'll never know, because this hand-picked judge has never bothered to ask, and this hand-picked GAL never covered that issue in her "reports."
Instead, the GAL has participated in a fraudulent scheme to force Jenny to remain in the group home, where she does not want to live, and to "cure" Jenny of her antipathy toward her mother with the "help" of the so-called professionals on the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board.
So much malpractice, so much malfeasance, so little insurance.
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