Mickey Rooney Stepson Settles Elder Abuse Suit FOR MILLIONS

Mickey Rooney's stepson now concedes he owes the famed actor $2.8 million for allegedly siphoning off a ton of money from Mickey's financial accounts, but there's a GIGANTIC catch.

Christopher Aber and his wife, Christina, have just settled with Mickey's conservators, after allegations they played funny with Mickey's money.  There were also allegations the couple deprived Mickey of food, meds, and even blocked him from leaving his home.

The whole thing escalated when the 93-year-old actor testified before Congress on elder abuse.

So now Christopher and Christina -- who have declared bankruptcy -- have folded.  So how, you ask, can Mickey get $2.8 mil?  Well under the settlement, Christopher and Christina have a homeowner's insurance policy that arguably covers this type of wrongdoing.  So Mickey's lawyers think they can use the settlement to go after the insurance company and get their dough.

Here's the rub.  The insurance company has already made it clear ... it's not paying anything because the alleged abuses were intentional, and that's not covered under the policy.

So Mickey's lawyers are now going to sue the insurance company and demand not only the $2.8 mil but also punitive damages for bad faith denial of coverage.           

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Mickey Rooney Stepson Settles Elder Abuse Suit FOR MILLIONS

See Also:
Elder Abuse Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Mickey Rooney

Court Hears Mickey Rooney's Allegations of Elder Abuse

Judicial panel should have more options

SAN ANTONIO — Judicial misconduct is a serious matter.

The commission that investigates allegations of misconduct against Texas judges deserves greater leeway in the types of disciplinary actions it can take after making findings. Proposition 9 would grant expanded options.

Complaints about Texas judges are reviewed by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which was created in 1965 to handle judicial discipline. About 1,200 complaints are filed each year against Texas judges at all levels of the judicial system. About 6 percent result in disciplinary action.

After investigating a complaint, the judicial commission has the option of taking action or ordering a formal hearing on the more serious cases if warranted. A flaw in the way the commission was established provides a wide range of sanctions in cases heard behind closed doors, but the panel is severely limited on the type of actions involving formal public hearings.

The Texas Constitution limits action taken as a result of a public hearing to a public censure or recommendation of removal or retirement. The options for nonpublic hearings include private or public admonitions, warnings, reprimands or orders to obtain additional training or education.

Limiting the range of sanctions at the disposal of the 13-member judicial conduct commission is a disservice to the process. In 2010, the restrictive nature of the sanctions available permitted Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller to beat the disciplinary action taken against her using this technicality.

Keller was given a public warning for blocking a death-row inmate's last minute appeal on the day of his execution. The commission found Keller failed to properly perform her duties when she closed the appeal court clerk's office at 5 p.m. after she was advised by the defendant's lawyers that they were having computer problems and wanted to file an after-hours appeal.

The appellate judge successfully challenged the public warning the judicial commission issued because it was not one of the sanctions allowed by the state Constitution in cases such as hers. Despite the troubling conduct, which cast the entire Texas judicial system in an unfavorable light nationally, Keller was able to avoid any official censure.

The public's confidence in the judiciary would have been boosted if the commission had taken one of the harsher sanction options open to them — which were to remove her from office or force her into retirement — but that is hindsight.

Texas voters can improve the system so history is not allowed to repeat itself by giving members of State Commission on Judicial Conduct a full range of options on sanctions they can take after judicial investigations.

Proposition 9 provides some much-needed fine-tuning of the rules under which the Commission on Judicial Conduct operates.

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Judicial panel should have more options

Thefts from nursing home trust funds target the elderly

The administrator at the Vicksburg Convalescent Center knew something was wrong when she saw the receipt: a $90 debit from a resident's trust fund account for a pair of designer jeans.

Of all the elderly residents at the 100-bed nursing home, Amy Brown figured, this one was especially unlikely to spend his savings on pricey pants.

Both of his legs had been amputated.

Brown pored over the trust fund books. There were receipts to back up every charge, so audits had found nothing amiss. But she spotted "receipts for things I knew the residents wouldn't buy" — North Face jackets and Ugg boots, hair dryers and makeup, even a baseball bat. "I felt sick," Brown recalls.
Suspicions fell on Lee Martin, an office staffer at the Mississippi facility and an affiliated nursing home across town. Martin was charged in 2012 with billing $101,000 in personal expenses to the trust accounts of 83 residents at the two facilities. She pleaded guilty in August to multiple counts of exploitation of vulnerable adults.

"These (residents) are vulnerable; the nursing home is supposed to take care of them," says Phyllis Foster, 67, whose 89-year-old mother-in-law had funds embezzled by Martin. "I was surprised there wasn't more oversight."

Thousands of residents in U.S. nursing homes and other long-term care institutions for the aged and disabled have had their personal savings raided or mismanaged after relying on the facilities to safeguard the money in special trust fund accounts, a USA TODAY investigation shows.

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Thefts from nursing home trust funds target the elderly

State board recommends public reprimand for Akron judge Oldfield

A state disciplinary board is recommending that Akron Municipal Judge Joy Malek Oldfield receive a public reprimand for failing to recuse herself from cases involving a public defender after the two were found together in a parked car in Copley Township.

The same board found that Oldfield did not use her position to try to stop the arrest of assistant public defender Catherine Loya. It also said it was inconclusive whether the women were engaged in sexual activity when a police officer found them parked at a shopping plaza in the early hours of Feb. 5, 2012.

The findings by the Ohio Board of Grievances and Discipline go to the Ohio Supreme Court for final dispensation.

Oldfield and her attorney, George Jonson, declined comment on the report.

The panel found that Oldfield wanted to help Loya avoid arrest because she believed the attorney was sober and to avoid the “adverse publicity that might be associated with the fact that they were together when the arrest occurred.”

However, the panel concluded a lack of evidence existed that Oldfield sought to use her position to influence the officers at the scene.

A Copley police officer testified that he found the women engaged in sexual activity in the car’s backseat. He said he smelled alcohol on Loya’s breath, and she was arrested.

Oldfield and Loya testified at the judge’s disciplinary hearing in August that they were only talking.
The morning after the incident, Oldfield and Loya conferred with Akron Assistant City Prosecutor Gertrude Wilms and Chief Public Defender Joseph Kodish about it. All agreed to allow Loya to remain assigned to Oldfield’s court.

In the days that followed, Loya lived at Oldfield’s house and was driven to and from work for four days until her driving privileges were restored.

It wasn’t until the Beacon Journal reported on Loya’s arrest and questioned Kodish about the arrangement that Loya was transferred.

The panel determined that Oldfield should have recused herself immediately because the assignment created an “appearance of impropriety.”

Oldfield handled about 50 uncontested pleas involving defendants Loya represented.


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State board recommends public reprimand for Akron judge Oldfield

Judge Tells Living Man That He's Still Legally Dead

Life can be tough, especially when a judge says you're dead in the eyes of the law.

That’s exactly what happened to Ohio resident Donald Eugene Miller Jr. on Monday when a judge upheld a 1994 court ruling declaring the 61-year-old legally dead.

The Courier reports that 19 years ago, a court in Hancock County declared Miller legally dead eight years after he disappeared from his rental home.

As a result, Miller has lost his Social Security number and his driver’s license.

Judge Allan Davis called it a "strange, strange situation," but he also said the court cannot budge in its decision.

"'We've got the obvious here,” Davis said. “A man sitting in the courtroom, he appears to be in good health.”

Each state can make its own laws regarding declaring someone legally dead. Most generally rely on a similar set of criteria: that someone is missing and presumed dead if they can't be located for at least seven years, the absence has been continuous and a genuine effort has been made to locate the person.

Miller said he is a recovering alcoholic and abandoned his rental home while in the throes of his addiction. He said he returned to the court as part of an effort to get his life back together.

"It kind of went further than I ever expected it to," Miller told the court. "I just kind of took off, ended up in different places.”

Technically, Miller can petition to have his Social Security number reinstated in federal court, but his attorney, Francis Marley, told the Courier that Miller does not have the financial resources to pursue a second hearing.

"My client's here on a wing and a prayer today," Marley said.

His ex-wife, Robin Miller, asked for the initial death ruling so that Social Security death benefits could be paid to their two children. She reportedly declined to testify in court on Monday.

"I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still deceased as far as the law is concerned," Davis said.

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Judge Tells Living Man That He's Still Legally Dead

Medicare Drug Program Putting Seniors, People With Disabilities At Risk

Ten years ago, a sharply divided Congress decided to pour billions of dollars into subsidizing the purchase of drugs by elderly and disabled Americans.

The initiative, the biggest expansion of Medicare since its creation in 1965, proved wildly popular. It now serves more than 35 million people, delivering critical medicines to patients who might otherwise be unable to afford them. Its price tag is far lower than expected.

But an investigation by ProPublica has found the program, in its drive to get drugs into patients' hands, has failed to properly monitor safety. An analysis of four years of Medicare prescription records shows that some doctors and other health professionals across the country prescribe large quantities of drugs that are potentially harmful, disorienting or addictive. Federal officials have done little to detect or deter these hazardous prescribing patterns.

Searches through hundreds of millions of records turned up physicians such as the Miami psychiatrist who has given hundreds of elderly dementia patients the same antipsychotic, despite the government's most serious "black box" warning that it increases the risk of death. He believes he has no other options.

Some doctors are using drugs in unapproved ways that may be unsafe or ineffective, records showed. An Oklahoma psychiatrist regularly prescribes the Alzheimer's drug Namenda for autism patients as young as 12; he says he thinks it calms them. Autism experts said there is scant scientific support for this practice.

The data analysis showed widespread prescribing of drugs such as carisoprodol, which was pulled from the European market in 2007. In 2010 alone, health-care professionals wrote more than 500,000 prescriptions for the drug to patients 65 and older. The muscle relaxant, also known as Soma, is on the American Geriatrics Society's list of drugs seniors should avoid.

The data, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, makes public for the first time the prescribing practices and identities of doctors and other health-care providers. The information does not include patient names or the reasons why doctors prescribed particular drugs, so reporters interviewed the physicians to learn their rationales.

Medicare has access to reams of data about its patients, their diagnoses and the medical services they received. It could analyze all of this information to determine whether patients are being prescribed appropriate drugs for their conditions.

But officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services say the job of monitoring prescribing falls to the private health plans that administer the program, not the government. Congress never intended for CMS to second-guess doctors - and didn't give it that authority, officials said.

"CMS's payments don't go to physicians, don't go to pharmacies. They go to plans, which is how our oversight framework has been established," Jonathan Blum, the agency's director of Medicare, said in an interview. The philosophy "really has been to defer to physicians" about whether a drug is medically necessary, he said.

Asked repeatedly to cite which provision in the law limits their oversight of prescribers, CMS officials could not do so.

The Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services has repeatedly criticized CMS for its failure to police the program, known as Part D. In report after report, the inspector general has advised CMS officials to be more vigilant. Yet the agency has rejected several key recommendations as unnecessary or overreaching.

Other experts in prescription drug monitoring also said Medicare should use its data to identify troubling prescribing patterns and take steps to investigate or restrict unsafe practitioners. That's what state Medicaid programs for the poor routinely do.

"For Medicare to just turn a blind eye and refuse to look at data in front of them . . . it's just beyond comprehension," said John Eadie, director of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Center of Excellence at Brandeis University.

"They're putting their patients at risk."

Although Medicare hands responsibility to private insurers, experts say they are ill-equipped for the task. Insurers have access solely to the prescriptions for their members - not to a provider's prescriptions across multiple health plans.

Only Medicare can see that.

"A red flag can turn out to be nothing, or it can turn out to be something really, really horrible," said Kathryn Locatell, a California physician who specializes in geriatrics and elder abuse. "You won't know unless you flag it."

In lawsuits and disciplinary records, state and federal authorities cite a number of reasons that doctors prescribe improperly. Some run mills where patients get prescriptions if they pay cash for a visit. Others have relationships with drug companies that influence what they prescribe. Regulators say some doctors choose inappropriate medications under pressure from families or facilities.

Research also shows that doctors often don't keep up with the latest studies and drug warnings.
ProPublica's examination of Part D data from 2007 through 2010 showed that, in many cases, Medicare failed to act against providers who have been suspended or disciplined by other regulatory authorities.

Doctors barred by state Medicaid programs for questionable prescribing remain able to dole out the same drugs under Medicare. So can dozens of practitioners who have been criminally charged or convicted for problem prescribing, or who have been disciplined by state medical boards.

The Part D records detail 1.1 billion claims in 2010 alone, including prescriptions and refills dispensed. ProPublica has created an online tool, Prescriber Checkup, to allow anyone to search for individual providers and see which drugs they prescribe.

About 70 providers each churned out more than 50,000 prescriptions and refills in 2010, the data show, averaging at least 137 a day.

A few had high tallies because they work in institutional settings, such as nursing homes, or operate busy clinics. In other cases, doctors said they think the prescriptions of their colleagues were attributed to them. They acknowledged in interviews that their numbers should have sparked questions.

Some families say they, too, think Medicare should be paying closer attention.

When 79-year-old Mable "Nanny" Webb's family put her in a nursing home near Fort Worth in 2004 to rehabilitate her back, she came under the care of Adolphus Ray Lewis, who would later become one of Medicare's busiest prescribers.

Records show that the Texas medical board temporarily restricted Lewis's license in 1998 for improper prescribing of painkillers and that he was sued repeatedly for malpractice. But Webb's family didn't know that.

While under Lewis's supervision, Webb developed a urinary tract infection that went untreated and was given a painkiller in doses that were excessive and dangerous for her condition, court testimony shows. Within a month, she died.

Webb's relatives sued. During the 2008 trial, Lewis admitted responsibility for her death, testifying that he had not reduced the dosage ordered by a nurse he supervised.

A jury ordered Lewis to pay $1.6 million in damages to Webb's relatives. They later settled for a lesser amount - one of at least eight malpractice settlements in cases involving Lewis since the mid-1990s, according to court records and interviews.

Yet Lewis continued to prescribe, racking up nearly 99,000 Medicare prescription claims including refills in 2010, fifth-most in the country. He wrote 46,000 more under Medicaid that same year. He declined to comment for this article.

Webb's granddaughter, Michelle Wheeler, said that though it's too late for her family, information about a doctor's drug choices could help others decide who should care for their loved ones.

"Everybody should be able to know that," she said.

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Medicare Drug Program Putting Seniors, People With Disabilities At Risk

Recommended Website: A Breach of Trust: WWII Veteran and Wife

Humana Inc., one of the nation’s largest managed-care companies, was accused in a Federal lawsuit yesterday of misleading health plan members by failing to disclose financial incentives to doctors and case reviewers intended to keep down costs by limiting or denying care.

The suit, filed on behalf of workers in Florida and Texas, asked a United States District Court in Miami to certify a class action on behalf of more than six million customers of Humana health plans nationwide. The suit seeks triple damages under the Federal anti-racketeering law. No amounts were specified.

The plaintiffs say they did not get the health coverage that they thought they were selecting because the company did not disclose incentives to doctors to deny care.

Joseph Sellers, a Washington lawyer who represents the plaintiffs in Miami, said the suit did not question whether managed care was a good idea or whether cost should be a factor. Instead, the suit contends that there was a ”breach of trust” because plan members thought that medical guidelines would solely determine their treatment.

Source:
Humana Sued in Federal Court Over Incentives for Doctors

Victim in guardianship theft struggles to rebound

When Kristina Berger’s mom died of leukemia in the fall of 2008, her already fragile world crumbled.

But the nightmare had only begun for Berger, one of four people who police say were victimized by Patience Bristol, a court-appointed, private guardian accused of stealing nearly $200,000 worth of money and jewelry from her wards.

Las Vegas police arrested Bristol, 38, on Oct. 7. She faces 15 charges in the case, according to police reports.

Berger, 50, suffers from bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, a brain disorder that causes severe shifts in mood. From 2001 until fall 2008, she was under the guardianship of her mother, Margaret Maul.

“I was just in total grief and meltdown,” Berger said of her state following her mother’s death.

She lost control of her life. She struggled with diabetes after her weight shot up to nearly 300 pounds.
After her mother died, Family Court appointed a private guardian for Berger to oversee her financial and personal affairs. The court appointed Bristol, who at the time was employed by Professional Fiduciary Services of Nevada.

“After a year in their care, I was absolutely petrified,” Berger said Thursday.

Bristol tried to convince her that her father, who lives in Seattle, didn’t care about her, and that her sister was trying to steal from her, Berger said.

According to police, Bristol stole at least $47,000 worth of jewelry from Berger’s estate and sold much of it at pawn shops.

Bristol faces three counts of obtaining money under false pretenses and four counts of exploitation of a vulnerable person. She also was charged with eight counts of burglary in connection to the selling of stolen goods, according to police reports.

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Victim in guardianship theft struggles to rebound

Nevada Guardian Patience Bristol Arraigned on Robbery Charges

Sources report Patience Bristol has been arraigned in Las Vegas on charges of stealing over $200,000 of cash and jewelry, as well as other possessions, from her wards. Patience Bristol was brought in as a social worker in 2003 by Jared Shafer, at his company Professional Fiduciary Services of Nevada until last January,when he fired Bristol. Bristol also worked with Keep You Company, an agency which dispatched caregivers, where Shafer was on the board of directors. A witness close to Bristol reports she was taught to rip off the elderly by former public guardian Jared Shafer. Shafer was Clark County Public Guardian for 23 years prior to going into private practice ten years ago. Patience is the only member of the company to be charged, currently, and she is charged with 20 counts so far, although there appears to be a bigger story behind this.

Since 2005 many reports have been made from outraged family members who claim that Patience Bristol and Jared Shafer allegedly ripped off, what is now totaling, millions of dollars from their elderly family members.  At first victim’s families turn to the local authorities only to hear that the police can not do anything for them, as it is a civil matter. Many then have tried to take civil action over the matters but have not returned any results.  Others who have suffered losses at the hands of Bristol and Shafer state that they did not complain against the two due to threats made against them by Shafer and Bristol.

Bristol reportedly been making their way into the homes of many elderly individuals and convincing them that they need a guardian to keep them company. Many have also invited them to be guardians to family members. Whether invited into the home or provoked in, one thing is clear: when Shafer and Bristol enters the individual’s homes they are left with nothing.

In total 66 reports have been made on ripoffreport.com against Patience Bristol and 84 reports have been made so far against Jared Shafer. The company which started in Las Vegas have now have complaints from families of elderly citizens in Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, California, and Washington.

One man made a report on ripoffreport.com claiming that the uncle was assigned by family court to Bristol upon falling ill.  He claims that Bristol isolated his uncle from outside visitors, changed his will to show that she and her son were beneficiaries, and stole many of his possessions, including his car.  It is also claimed that she engaged in questionable sexual acts with a sixteen year who was the daughter of the man that made the report.

But these crimes are not the only that Bristol has allegedly been involved in. A source also claims that she has administered illegal drugs to the elderly, taken over their trust funds, and used their money to fight their families in court if their loved ones take action. Some of the same claims have been made on Jared Shafer.

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Nevada Guardian Patience Bristol Arraigned on Robbery Charges

Court-Appointed Guardian Arrested for Stealing

8 News NOW


LAS VEGAS -- A Las Vegas woman was arrested on 15 counts for taking money from the people she was supposed to be helping in her role as a private guardian.

According to Metro Police, Patience Bristol took thousands of dollars from the accounts of elderly and vulnerable people that a family court judge had appointed her guardian of, and used the money to pay for personal expenses.

In the arrest report, Bristol admitted to officers that she took cash out of the accounts, she set up for her wards, to pay for her mortgage, utility and credit card bills and food for her family, because she had a gambling problem.

She also admitted to police that she gave money to her boyfriend, who is unemployed.

The charges include exploitation of elderly because two of the people she is accused of taking money from were more than 60 years old. In that case, police say she took more $100,000 from that victim.

She is also charged with burglary. According to police, Bristol went to Professional Fiduciary Services of Nevada, a guardianship business where the valuables belonging to two wards were stored, took some jewelry and pawned it. Police say she pawned more than 67 items at nine different pawn stores around southern Nevada.

Her preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 23 at 8 a.m.

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Court-Appointed Guardian Arrested for Stealing

Bar: Lawyer took $500K from dead clients

A La Jolla attorney is facing discipline from the State Bar of California after he allegedly took more than $500,000 from his deceased clients’ estate without the court’s permission, which prompted at least one beneficiary — the American Cancer Society — to sue him.

 

The State Bar claims that James McGowan, 76, paid himself nearly $515,000 from the trust of his client, Henry Thackwell, who died in April 2001, and the estate of Thackwell’s wife, Hildegard Thackwell, who died six months later. According to the bar complaint, McGowan said the money was compensation for legal services rendered, but he has not provided an accounting of the legal work he did on behalf of the trust and estate.

The payments occurred over a span of nine years, according to the bar, which licenses lawyers and regulates their conduct under the auspices of the state Supreme Court. The bar has issued three charges against McGowan, which will be heard by the State Bar Court.

 

State law requires that probate attorneys receive court approval before being paid out of estate funds, which the bar says did not occur with these funds.

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Bar: Lawyer took $500K from dead clients

No Minneapolis cops have been disciplined after 439 complaints

Of 439 cases involving Minneapolis police misconduct handled by a new office created last fall, not one so far has resulted in discipline of a police officer.

Police department officials say those numbers obscure gains made in responding to citizen complaints about police behavior, but skeptics say the few cases of actual discipline confirm that the new system is not working any better than the one it replaced.

“I believe there has been considerable progress,” said Medaria Arradondo, commander of police internal affairs, who reviews complaints along with Michael Browne, director of the new conduct review office.

“The criticism was that it would not improve process and lead to less discipline,” said Teresa Nelson, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota. “The numbers show that those criticisms were accurate.”

The question of how Minneapolis police disciplines its own is facing fresh scrutiny after several recent incidents involving Minneapolis police officers. Two of the incidents involved off-duty officers accused of fighting with black men and using racial slurs in Green Bay, Wis., and Apple Valley, and led Police Chief Janeé Harteau to convene a citizens advisory group this summer.

In addition, the city of Minneapolis made $14 million in payouts for alleged police misconduct between 2006 and 2012, but the Minneapolis Police Department rarely concluded that the officers involved in those cases did anything wrong, according to a Star Tribune analysis.

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No Minneapolis cops have been disciplined after 439 complaints

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Justice for Jean

Please join us October 13th, 2013 as Marty Prehn, Michigan Elder Advocate, reports on his recent meeting with notable individuals.

The meeting was centered around civil rights.  Marty was present at this historic meeting to expose the ongoing abuse of our elderly and the subsequent exploitation that it results in.

Quote:
"October the 5th, 2013 will be one of those historic moments in time that most people will NEVER know about since the main stream media would label it as insignificant since no one was murdered, raped or was a politician involved in public corruption.

However those who were there witnessed the sparks that have started yet another blaze or another phase in the civil rights of ALL Americans to be restored.

I was invited and attended this Benton Harbor Civil Rights Dinner and Conference which allowed many Benton Harbor HEROES to shine along the Benton Harbor Shoreline----at least what shoreline that is left that has not been taken by the Whirlpool Corporation."

 

   5:00 pm PST … 6:00 pm MST … 7:00 pm CST … 8:00 pm EST

 

LISTEN LIVE or listen to the archive later

Guardianship: Time for Accountability

Guardianship abuse seems to be one of the most profitable scams of the day!  Are you safe from it?  Not necessarily.

Professional guardians, and professionals who become guardians, in some states, can isolate the ward (even from family and friends), bill outrageous amounts, sell houses and other property, take over bank accounts and make the ward’s life absolutely miserable as they do.  Don’t believe it?  Neither did many others, until it happened to them.

The public is led to believe they have the right to pick the person they wish to make decisions for them, should they become unable to do so or need some help.  However, in Florida, it appears, judges are allowed to ignore the person’s wishes and place him or her under the care of a professional guardian.  Once that appointment has been made, the family can be completely excluded from the ward’s life.  Worse, if there can be a worse, the ward is completely at the mercy of the guardian for better or for worse.

A guardian should be someone who is looking out for the best interest of the ward — not the ward being a money-making product to be billed to pennilessness.

When a guardian has already been chosen by the person, the courts should not be allowed to ignore that wish and appoint a professional guardian, unless there are some serious extenuating circumstances.

In my opinion, one of the first signs something is terribly wrong with a guardian situation is when the ward is isolated from family and friends.  This action alone suggests there is something to hide.  If not, then why would a guardian worry about the ward associating with all the people that had meant so much to him or her?

People who don’t understand the harm isolation can do, should spend a couple of months alone in a room with no stimulation and the only human contact (and brief words exchanged) being when someone brings a meal and picks up the tray.  That experiment will give you a taste of what many under guardianship go through and what you may one day be looking forward to, if the laws are not changed.

The courts should not have the right to over-ride a person’s wishes, without true cause to do so.  This is a person’s life after all.  And family members and friends should be considered for guardianship prior to any professional being thought of.

Professional guardians should be held to the strictest of standards and there should be no immunity for them not also given to a family member or friend acting in the same capacity.

Guardians should not be allowed to create bills and then sell off the ward’s home and possessions to make payment, as easily as it seems it can be done in many jurisdictions.

Wards should not lose the right to fight for their freedom from guardianship, especially if it is a wrongful one.  As it is, if the guardian has all the say — the ward can be silenced and kept from fighting against an abuse guardianship situation.  How is that right?  Doesn’t that defeat the very purpose of guardianship?

Full Article and Source:
Guardianship: Time for Accountability

Chiropractor convicted of exploiting the elderly

WEST JORDAN — A Utah chiropractor has been convicted of exploiting the elderly.

Brandon Lee Babcock, 38, was convicted by a jury following a five-day trial on six counts of exploitation of a vulnerable adult, all third-degree felonies. He was found not guilty of four other counts.

Babcock, a chiropractor from Cedar Hills, claimed he was able to cure diabetes and other health issues, according to prosecutors. He advertised that potential patients would be given a free consultation with a chance to "opt-out" within 30 days of beginning.

But between Oct. 26, 2010, and Feb. 22, 2012, prosecutors say Babcock charged potential clients tens of thousands of dollars, even though they told him they weren't interested in his program.

Prosecutors outlined 11 cases in court documents, all from victims in their 70s and 80s, who were billed for loans they did not approve.

Babcock is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 25.

Full Article and Source:
Chiropractor convicted of exploiting the elderly