The 5th District Court of Appeals last month reversed a ruling by Probate Judge Dixie Park, concluding that Park had abused her discretion by finding the woman in contempt of court.
Barbara Lockhart, formerly of Alliance, was jailed for around 10 days on the orders of Park after Lockhart missed some court hearings — and failed to provide requested documents — in the guardianship case of an 83-year-old man, according to probate court records. A guardian was seeking to revoke the power of attorney Lockhart held on behalf of the man, and Park had requested records regarding his finances, court records said.
Attorney Jeffrey Jakmides, who handled Lockhart’s appeal, said Lockhart was jailed without bond in October 2013. He noted that the woman — 56 years old during her jail stay — did not have a criminal record.
Lockhart has “recovered from (her jail stay) at this point, at least as much as she can recover from an experience like that, and is just wanting to move forward with her life,” Jakmides said.
Some of the probate court hearings took place in August 2013. Lockhart showed up at a Sept. 17 hearing, and then missed a Sept. 24 hearing, resulting in the contempt charge and Lockhart’s arrest and jailing on Oct. 1. Court records indicate Lockhart thought the last hearing had been continued.
Park set another hearing for Oct. 2, but Lockhart couldn’t provide the requested documents to purge her contempt charge because she was transported directly from the Stark County Jail to the hearing, according to the appeals ruling.
Lockhart was eventually released on Oct. 11 after a motion was filed to suspend the rest of her 30-day jail sentence. She later supplied the court with the financial documents.
During the case, the power of attorney was revoked for Lockhart. Park found that Lockhart put about $12,000 in Social Security and pension funds belonging to the elderly man in an account under her own name.
In court records, Park wrote that Lockhart had admitted she opened the bank account in her name even though she knew the man’s bank accounts had been frozen by the court. The funds were either retained or used for the benefit of Lockhart or the man’s daughter, Park wrote in court records. The judge ordered Lockhart to return $12,239 to the estate.
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Woman Jailed Over Probate Court Case Wins Appeal
With what she had done, I'm amazed that she won the appeal.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, too many judges are overreaching - beyond their allowed authority.
Commingling and expropriating funds is illegal.
ReplyDeleteThe court was right to take immediate action. Missing funds, once dissipated, never reappear.
Any confusion about the court date, and the missing records, could have been cleared up by this defendant before jail became a possibility.
An apology and a promise to turn the records over by the next day probably would have worked just fine.
This lady, like a lot of fiduciaries, just didn't take her responsibility seriously, and counted on the judge to ignore her defalcation.
A victory? Yea!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, you're right, but the common person doesn't understand commingling and they need to have that explained to them. They think the bottom line is they are using that money for their loved ones. And as much as I hate to say it -- the reality is they may be right because any money that gets away from the guardianship is money that can be saved for the person's care instead of being eaten up by the guardianship. I know that sounds somewhat twisted, and I don't mean to condone commingling, but there's that whole other side to it that isn't looked at.
ReplyDelete