Tuesday, November 5, 2013

FL: ABC Action News I-Team: "Incapacitated: Florida's Guardianship Program"

The ABC Action News I-Team first started looking into Florida’s Guardianship Program after we learned 99-year-old William Berchau had been placed in an Alzheimer’s unit by his guardian, despite strong evidence from those who know him best that he didn’t belong there.

We soon began looking at more than 50 other cases involving his guardian, Patricia Johnson, and Florida’s guardianship system.

The I-Team discovered a system that claims to look after wards’ best interests, but has very little oversight outside of the courtroom.

In Florida, guardians are not required to get appraisals before selling wards’ homes, leading to homes often selling far below their actual values (meaning less money is available for wards’ care). Guardians also aren’t required to be accompanied while doing initial inventories of personal possessions. Often, relatives aren’t allowed to review what reportedly came out of their loved ones’ homes.

Guardians use the “honor system” when submitting bills.

Judges, in some cases, have disregarded signed legal documents that delegated powers-of-attorney, medical decision-making and other legal authorities to their relatives before wards were incapacitated.

The I-Team interviewed friends and family members of wards, experts in the guardian field and others to get a deeper sense of what’s going on within this system that remains invisible to most members of the public.

Source:
Incapacitated:  Florida's Guardianship Program

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like the title!

Darlene said...

Yeah, guardians use the "honor system" when submitting bills! Do you trust them? NOT! And the judge approves almost anything they submit. It is a rackett! Please everyone submit your story to ABC.com/guardians

Anonymous said...

Put the Judges under guardianship, they will be safe there!

Sylvia said...

Do You Remember Adele Fletcher?

Dear Gus Bilirakis:

To help refresh your memory, as a Tampa area attorney you assisted your client with improperly guardianizing Adele Fletcher, which resulted in your
client's conviction for felony scheming to defraud.

You did not come to your client's aid during her criminal trial.

Below are your documents that facilitated this fraud, which may assist in refreshing your recall of events:

The document at right provides a summary of the closing days in Adele Fletcher's' life. Please review the information for accuracy and let us know if you have any questions. Pdf: Summary

The two documents below reveal what turned out to be implausible reasons for your claimed need to take away a senior citizen's freedom to live. Pdf: Incapacity page 1 / Incapacity page 2

The next two documents below reflect your "investigation" attested to under penalty of perjury that Adele Fletcher had no money or assets.

You may recall that your meeting with Adele, in her home, to discuss what to do with her inheritance, that added an additional tax liability, to her existing income, and existing accounts with her stock broker, was arranged for you and Fran Lang by Adele's stock broker.

A reasonable assumption that you did not raise during your investigation is that the mere existence of a stock broker in Adele's life points to the presence of assets. Pdf: Indigent page 1 / Indigent page 2

The document below shows that eventually you found Adele Fletcher indeed had money and assets, but by that time the assets previously hidden from the court's knowledge were securely under your control by way of your client Fran Lang. Pdf: Terminate Insolvency

For additional reading about your client's conviction you can review a news article at this web site:
http://www.sptimes.com/.../Pasco/Ex_guardian_gets_prob.shtml

You can also watch a short video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ5GrH5aPMg

The Friends of Adele Fletcher

If you need further assistance please email us at:
AdeleRemembered@gmail.com

http://adeleremembered.mynetworksolutions.com/

Pasco: Ex-guardian gets probation
www.sptimes.com
"She's a despicable person," Pittman said of Lang. "When you steal the money of people who can't even help themselves, what is that?"