Executors of Huguette Clark’s estate claim she was insane

Sure, the famously eccentric copper heiress Huguette Clark chose to live the last 20 years of her life in an unadorned hospital room instead of her three art-filled mansions, and yes she was more interested in her doll collection than her peers — but was she crazy?

That’s the legal stance the executors of her estate are now taking as they seek the return of $105 million in gifts the wealthy recluse gave to doctors and employees in her last decades of life.

After three years of litigation, it’s the first time the executors have used the insanity argument.

The move is “a measure of their desperation,” Lawrence Fox, an attorney for Beth Israel Hospital, said in recent court papers.

Executors would have to prove that she did not have a single “lucid episode” from age 84 until she died in 2011 — even though she closely tracked the 2000 Bush vs. Gore election recount and the stock market, Fox argues.

This current court fight comes eight months after Clark’s 20 distant relatives won a $34.5 million settlement in a separate will contest. Other payouts in that previous estate battle include $85 million to a California arts foundation established in the heiress’ memory, $35 million to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, and a whopping $24.5 million in legal fees.

Now the executors, on behalf of the family, are going after over $100 million that Clark gave away during her lifetime.

The executors’ attorney, John Morken, criticized Fox and the other defendants for seizing on the salacious term “insane.”

Full Article & Source:
Executors of Huguette Clark’s estate claim she was insane

New Blood Test Suggests Possible Breakthrough in Diagnosing Alzheimer's

A new blood test, which has the potential to accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in individuals and significantly advance drug testing and research on the disease, has been developed through grant funding by Cure Alzheimer's Fund.

The test, known as Immunosignature (IS) and developed by a team led by UCLA neurologist Lucas Resrepo, uses a special method of fluorescent tagging of antibodies in the blood to recognize an identifiable binding pattern—or antibody "signature"—associated with Alzheimer's.

In their study to be presented at the 2014 American Academy of Neurology Meeting in Philadelphia, Restrepo and colleagues were able to use the test to distinguish Alzheimer's patients from elderly people without dementia with 95% accuracy.

Full Article and Source:
Diagnosing Alzheimer's: New Blood Test Suggests Possible Breakthrough

Five Traits of the Worst Nursing Facilities

Throughout last summer and most of the fall, Barry Maher, a motivational speaker and author in Corona, California, and his five siblings were on a mission to find the best nursing home for their 91-year-old mother, who has Alzheimer's.

"That's six siblings flying into the Boston area at various times from all over the country, checking out perhaps 40 different places, and a constant stream of phone calls and emails among us," Maher says.

"It was even more traumatic and disruptive than the experts we talked to told us it would be. Aside from a death in the family, it was perhaps the most traumatic thing we've ever gone through."

Like Maher, many people find the search for a nursing home for a parent to be gut-wrenching. There are plenty of safe, ethical nursing and retirement homes and assisted-living communities, but there are also ample awful ones.

Horror stories abound of elder abuse and neglect in nursing homes. In recent years, a few homes throughout the country have been cited by public health officials because family members found their parents – usually Alzheimer's victims – with maggots somewhere on their body, often in a wound.

[If]you want to avoid the worst of the worst nursing homes, what should you look for? Here are five red flags.

1. A history of violations. Nursing homes are highly regulated by public and private agencies at the state and federal levels, but there are plenty of bad players in the industry. The good news is that if you do some research online, it's easy to find out if a home has a reputation for substandard care.

2. A number of severe violations. "The key is quantity versus severity," says Diana Pelella, a senior living advisor with A Place for Mom.

3. High staff turnover. If a nursing home is a revolving door for staff members, that could be a telling sign, according to Pelella.

4. The residents lack independence. If your parent has Alzheimer's or dementia, you don't want him or her wandering in and out of the facility. But you don't want your parent in a prison, either.

5. You feel uneasy in your gut. Sometimes, you just know when a nursing home isn't the place for your parent, says Michael Schulman, a member of the elder planning task force for the American Institute of Certified Personal Accountants.

Full Article and Source:
5 Traits of the Worst Nursing Homes

"Kids for Cash" Documentary Earns Award!

"Kids For Cash" has been honored with the award for Best Human Rights Documentary from the 2014 Documentary Edge Festival in New Zealand.

NASGA asks, "Did they do the same to the elderly?" Former Judge Michael Conahan presided over Grace Connors' guardianship at one time.  He could have helped free Grace and send her home to her loving daughter; but instead, he allowed her continued confinement and isolation at a nursing home until her premature and agonizing death.

 See Grace Connors, California/Pennsylvania Victim

Source:
Kids for Cash Facebook Page

Investigations launched into billing by lawyers appointed as guardians

When a woman in his care fell and was injured, an attorney-guardian billed her $135 to talk to her family about what happened and give her father directions to the hospital.

An attorney-guardian charged seniors with dementia legal fees to buy them Christmas presents with their own money.

And another charged an elderly woman $300 for time the lawyer spent eating cookies with her.

When attorneys are appointed as guardians by the Franklin County Probate Court, they are supposed to look out for the best interests of the vulnerable adults, known as wards.

But a yearlong Dispatch investigation shows otherwise and has prompted criminal investigations and court audits. Among those targeted by the court is Columbus lawyer Paul S. Kormanik, who says he has more wards than any other guardian in the country.

A Dispatch examination of thousands of court records found numerous questionable bills that Kormanik submitted to the court, including more than $1,600 in legal fees to clean out a ward’s house so he could sell it. He hired his own family members to do that job, using the ward’s money to pay them.

He also billed the wards thousands of dollars for opening their mail and taking their telephone calls.

Every bill from Kormanik included this message to the court: “The services required by this ward required substantial legal skills and experience.”

Franklin County Probate Court rules specifically state that guardians cannot submit bills at legal rates for non-legal activities. Even so, court magistrates approved them. After The Dispatch raised questions about Kormanik’s billing practices, Probate Court officials began auditing some of his cases last month.

Full Article & Source:
Investigations launched into billing by lawyers appointed as guardians

Report:  Legal System Fails Many Ohioans

Patricia Conklin, Daughter of Margarita Zelada, Addresses Monterey County Board of Supervisors

Patricia Conklin implores the Monterey County Board of Supervisors to protect her mother, Margarita Zelada, from elder abuse by the Public Guardian. Margarita has been imprisoned and isolated since March 2013. The Public Guardian is seeking authority for forcible chemical restraint.

Source:
Patricia Conklin at Monterey County Board of Supervisors

Report: Legal guardian system fails many Ohioans

COLUMBUS — The court-appointed guardian system created to help Ohio’s elderly and mentally disabled residents and children has failed many it serves and allows unscrupulous guardians to rob their wards of freedom, dignity and money, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The newspaper’s investigation of the system that controls the lives of about 65,000 Ohioans found that even judges overseeing the system say it is broken, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Ohio’s system has ripped apart families, rendered the mentally ill voiceless, and left some elderly Ohioans dying penniless in nursing homes, according to the newspaper.

Probate judges in Ohio’s 88 counties direct the system without detailed state guidelines and often amid overloaded court dockets. The Dispatch’s yearlong investigation showed some lawyers appointed as guardians have been allowed to ignore elderly and mentally ill people while placing them in the lowest-rated nursing home and some lawyers have billed wards for thousands of dollars in questionable legal fees for routine tasks such as paying utility bills.

Other failings found included a severely autistic man whose weight rose to 513 pounds because his guardian — his mother— allowed him to gorge on junk food and microwave dinners despite caseworkers’ warnings. One guardian’s failures also separated an elderly couple married for 45 years in their final year, and an eccentric woman forced into guardianship against her will was left broke and homeless.

The newspaper’s survey of Ohio’s probate courts found that nearly 90 percent do not require credit checks for prospective guardians, and as many as 61 percent don’t require criminal-background checks of guardians entrusted with the assets and care of vulnerable people.

Guardians are required in most counties to submit paper status reports about their wards only every two years and probate courts are not required to independently verify reports. A few counties require monthly visits, but more than three-quarters of the state’s probate courts don’t require guardians to ever meet with their wards.

Full Article & Source:
Report: Legal guardian system fails many Ohioans

New Commission to Regulate Prosecutorial Misconduct

New York State is poised to become the first state in the nation to create a public commission specifically designed to investigate complaints of misconduct by prosecutors and impose discipline upon prosecutors who violate the rules. The commission is modeled after commissions on judicial conduct, which exist in every state, including New York, to regulate the conduct of judges. Given the prosecutor's unique role as a "minister of justice" who occupies a "quasi-judicial" position, the huge costs on the criminal justice system from prosecutorial misconduct, and the abject failure of other mechanisms to discipline prosecutors, it is essential to the integrity of the justice system and the public's confidence that the system functions fairly and accurately, that this commission be created.

The incidence of misconduct by prosecutors in New York and across the country is escalating. Flagrant misconduct by prosecutors has been documented in several recent high-profile cases: late Senator Ted Stevens' conviction was thrown out because of egregious misconduct by federal prosecutors; the Duke Lacrosse prosecutor Michael Nifong was disbarred and jailed because of his misconduct; and prosecutor Ken Anderson, who hid evidence that wrongfully convicted Michael Morton and sent him to jail for 25 years, also was disbarred and jailed. But these cases are the tip of the iceberg. They illustrate the terrible consequences of misconduct that occurs regularly in thousands and thousands of other cases but do not receive the same publicity.

Prosecutors claim that reports of misconduct are exaggerated, and that misconduct is the work of a few bad apples, or a handful of rogue prosecutors. Indeed, some prosecutors in New York even claim that the prosecutor commission has been created to retaliate against the Moreland Commission, which subpoenaed legislators in connection with its investigation into public corruption. But given the extent of misconduct nationally and in New York, and the fact that this proposed commission has been studied for several years, this response by prosecutors is misguided and misinformed. Indeed, in a remarkable opinion by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in which he was joined by several colleagues, Kozinski writes that the culture of prosecution has changed dramatically in recent years; no longer is misconduct by prosecutors the "exception" or "a rare blemish." One of the most pervasive forms of misconduct - hiding favorable evidence that could prove a defendant's innocence -- "has reached epidemic proportions." Judge Kozinski concludes, just as so many courts and commentators have previously concluded, that "some prosecutors turn a blind eye to misconduct because they're more interested in gaining a conviction than achieving a just result."

The increasing incidence of misconduct by prosecutors is not surprising. The phenomenon is closely linked to the post-9/11 legal and political culture of fear, secrecy and repression in which the power of law enforcement, especially of prosecutors, has become much more dominant and aggressive. Prosecutors see themselves almost exclusively as "Accusers and Convicters." This unsettling spectacle has replaced almost completely the prosecutor's other important function to respect the rights of everybody, including defendants, and ensure justice for all persons. In this changed climate, the goal of finding the truth becomes submerged in an overly-aggressive law enforcement culture. In this troubling period of criminal justice, prosecutors get the message that they can prosecute as hard as they want and as far as they want, and there is virtually nothing to stop them. This new climate is manifested by massive and warrantless electronic surveillance, far broader leeway for law enforcement to search, seize and get confessions, a huge increase in drug arrests and prosecutions, a huge increase in the prison population, and more and more legislatively and judicially-created weapons in the hands of prosecutors to help them get convictions.

Full Article & Source:
New Commission to Regulate Prosecutorial Misconduct

Casey Kasem's daughter gets expanded power over dad's health care

 Casey Kasem's daughter Kerri Kasem has been granted expanded authority regarding her ailing father's care, and his wife, Jean Kasem, has been told to cooperate with the effort.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday ordered Jean Kasem to allow a court-appointed doctor to see her husband and also told her to give Kerri Kasem access to her father, the Associated Press reported. Jean Kasem's lawyers were told to find out and, unless ethically bound, share the patriarch's current address with the rest of the family.

While two attorneys from different firms showed up on Jean Kasem's behalf Tuesday, Judge Daniel S. Murphy said, "I'm not sure she's even complying with my order" from last week. Part of that order sought an assessment of Casey Kasem's health.

The judge also gave Kerri Kasem permission to hire unarmed private investigators to look into the situation, if necessary, and to head north to see her dad. Also, his passport was to be surrendered.
Casey Kasem, whose whereabouts were unclear early last week, was found in Washington state late Tuesday, but his three oldest children, Kerri, Mike and Judie, were not notified until after they'd already filed a missing-persons report in Santa Monica on Wednesday. Kerri Kasem said at the time that she'd most recently seen her 82-year-old father at a nursing home in that city.

"This poor man was moved in the middle of the night," Kerri Kasem told People. "This is no vacation. This is a man who has a feeding tube, hooked up to an IV and has dementia. This is not a man who needs to be unfamiliar surroundings."

Full Article & Source:
Casey Kasem's daughter gets expanded power over dad's health care

See Also:
Casey Kasem, Legendary Radio Personality, Has Been Found

Authorities: Casey Kasem found in Washington state

Judge orders investigation into Casey Kasem's whereabouts

Judge rejects conservatorship for Casey Kasem

Casey Kasem Near Death but Alert, Children Suing Wife Jean for Conservatorship NOT Will and Money

Elderly, mentally ill and children trapped in broken court system

Thousands of Ohio’s most vulnerable residents are trapped in a system that was created to protect them but instead allows unscrupulous guardians to rob them of their freedom, dignity and money. Even judges who oversee the system acknowledge that it is broken, that it has ripped apart families, rendered the mentally ill voiceless, and left some elderly Ohioans dying penniless in nursing homes.
Anyone could end up in this system that currently controls the lives of 65,000 Ohioans, especially decisions about medical care and personal finances. And almost anyone can become a guardian — a loved one, a close friend, a stranger, even a felon.
One Columbus lawyer proudly proclaims that he likely is guardian of more wards than anyone in the country — about 400 people.
This system, which is supposed to look out for the health and well-being of the elderly, the mentally disabled and children, is directed by probate judges in 88 counties. And for lack of detailed guidelines from the state, the counties have 88 different ways of overseeing guardians and their wards.
The Ohio Supreme Court recognized the problems and assigned a committee nearly eight years ago to come up with rules. This year, the committee finally put forward a plan that falls far short of national standards and what advocates say is necessary to protect vulnerable Ohioans.
Meanwhile, probate court dockets are overloaded.
The courts also handle other family matters, such as adoptions, marriage licenses, wills and disputes over estates. And the demand for guardianships will grow as the number of people 65 or older in the U.S. doubles by 2050.
Full Article & Source:
Elderly, mentally ill and children trapped in broken court system

I-Team: Illinois nursing homes unseen by cameras

May 8, 2014 (CHICAGO) --In the age where cameras are everywhere, the ABC7 I-Team exposes a place where cameras are not: Illinois nursing homes.

If family members believe a nursing home is hiding abuse, it isn't illegal to put a camera in their loved one's room. But the nursing home can remove the camera, or the patient. Some family members say they fear retaliation if cameras are discovered, so they don't even put them in. Some states are considering laws to allow nursing home cameras, but Illinois isn't one of them.

You can check on your pet and your home through your phone, and we all are watched every day on the streets, but there's a group that remains unseen. In 2012, fearing the worst, the family of 96-year-old nursing home resident Erytha Mayberry put a camera in her room.

"We didn't like what we saw, of course," said Doris Racher, victim's daughter.

What they caught on tape in Oklahoma changed state law there: an aide stuffing latex gloves into Mayberry's mouth and pressing on her chest. She died soon after. The nursing home aide is serving a year in jail. The video outraged the public, prompting Oklahoma to permit voluntary room surveillance cameras in long term care facilities. Only three other states have similar laws.

In west surburban Elmhurst, Rosemary Pulice wishes Illinois allowed cameras.

"I can only think about the information they could have given me about my father," said Pulice.

Pulice became a video advocate in 1991 while her father Frank, a WWII vet, deteriorated in a nursing home.

"I saw marks on his body, he had bruises, he constantly had fevers. My father's thumb was three times the actual size and was black," said Pulice.

As a member of Illinois non-profit "Nursing Home Monitors," Pulice calls on politicians to increase patients' rights. In 2003, former State Rep. Frank Aguilar says his bill died in committee from outside resistance.

"Most of it was associations, lobbyists and representatives of the nursing homes," said Aguilar.

The Healthcare Council of Illinois represents 500 nursing homes in the state and is working to pass a patient's right's bill, but cameras are not part of it.

Full Article & Source:
I-Team: Illinois nursing homes unseen by cameras

Agency calls attention to elderly abuse

 

HARLINGEN — Elder abuse, much like child abuse, is a growing concern among all communities as abuse of the elderly and adults with disabilities has become a recognized problem only in the past few decades.

May is Elder Abuse Prevention Month and the Department of Family and Protective Services is reminding the community to report it if they see it.

According to DFPS Rio Grande Valley statistics, of the 143,306 adults 65 years and older 2,517 of those are confirmed cases of abuse by Adult Protective Services standards in 2013.

John Lennan, regional spokesman for the DFPS, said the Rio Grande Valley has a large elderly population.

“A lot of people don’t know that the Valley has a really big elderly population,” Lennan said. “That is why it’s important to get the word out.”

According to APS, the agency that investigates these cases in adults 65 years or older, abuse may cause various injuries such as scratches, cuts, bruises, burns, broken bones or bedsores. It can also result in confinement, rape or sexual misconduct, and verbal or psychological abuse.

“Everyone needs to know how to recognize the signs of abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation and to report them when you see them,” said Beth Engelking, assistant commissioner for Adult Protective Services at DFPS. “We also need community resources to help the people who are older or who have disabilities when they can no longer help themselves.”

Neglect may cause starvation, dehydration, over- or under-medication, unsanitary living conditions and lack of personal hygiene. Neglected adults may also not have heat, running water, electricity or medical care.

Full Article & Source: 
Agency calls attention to elderly abuse

New Placement gives DCF hostage Justina Pelletier more privileges

CONNECTICUT, May 14, 2014 —  Last Monday, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts moved 15-year old Justina Pelletier across state lines to her new placement at the JRI Susan Wayne Center for Excellence in Thompson, Connecticut. According to the Pelletier family, the move comes as a welcome, but not ideal, change of circumstances for their child, who was removed from their care under highly questionable circumstances last year by the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF). Yesterday, the family emerged hopeful from a meeting with the Wayne Center, after learning that their daughter would have more privileges, education time, and access to her family in the Connecticut facility.

“The people at Susan Wayne were very nice to us and have assured us that Justina will have more time with her family while we wait for her to come home,” says Justina’s older sister Jennifer, age 22. “But it’s still a three hour trip for us to see Justina at her new placement in Connecticut, which is just as far from our house in West Hartford as Justina’s last placement at the Wayside Center in Framingham, Massachusetts.”

At the time Justina was taken into State custody in February 2013, she was also a competitive figure skater. Currently, Justina is wheelchair bound and has lost much of her hair while in State care, going nearly a year without adequate medical treatment for her deadly metabolic disorder at Boston Children’s Hospital’s psychiatric lock down facility. Throughout the process, Jennifer, a West Hartford skating instructor, has been a staunch advocate for her little sister, regularly meeting with State officials and leaders on Justina’s behalf, and only missed one week of visitation.

“Our concerns for Justina’s medical care are still there,” says Jennifer, who questions whether a psychiatric facility is an appropriate placement for a child with such serious medical issues. She points out that the lack of medical specialists working for the Wayne Center means that Justina’s physical therapist will be an outside contractor who is brought in twice per week to work with her sister, which may not be enough.

Full Article & Source:
New Placement gives DCF hostage Justina Pelletier more privileges

See Also:
DCF refuses to let Justina Pelletier be with her Mother on Mother's Day

Shocking Note Apparently Penned by Justina Pelletier to Her Parents

Justina Pelletier's Parents File Emergency Petition With Supreme Court to Gain Custody

Boston Children's Hospital to be Investigated by the MA Department of Public Health Over the Justina Pelletier Case 

Major Update in Justina Pelletier Case; Lawmakers Get Involved, Teen Will Not be Transferred to Foster Care

NJ jury awards $13.2 million to family of nursing home rehab patient who died

A nursing home negligence case in New Jersey ended last week with a $13.2 million award to a former resident's family, lawyers have announced.

The case involved Mary Dwyer, who was admitted to the Alaris Health at Harborview facility in Jersey City for short-term rehabilitation after falling at home and dislocating a shoulder, according to plaintiffs' law firm Stark & Stark. Over the course of about three months, the 87-year-old Dwyer developed large Stage IV ulcers, lost 20 pounds, underwent nine wound debridements, two bone shavings and a colostomy — conditions and treatments that attorneys said were “unnecessary and preventable.” She died on Feb. 27, 2010.

“With adequate staffing and a properly run facility she would have completed her rehab and gone back home,” reads a statement from Stark & Stark. “Instead, she died an undignified death in pain.”
The 180-bed, for-profit facility vigorously denies the charges, calling them “false” and erroneous” in a statement. It also noted that the facility "recently received" a 5-star quality measures rating from the government. Harborview intends to appeal the verdict, which it describes as a “gross miscarriage of justice.”

Full Article & Source:
NJ jury awards $13.2 million to family of nursing home rehab patient who died

Family of grandmother attacked by nurse to file suit against Bronx nursing home

Norma Rosario

The family of a helpless Bronx grandmother who was brutally pushed and bloodied in a Williamsbridge nursing home plans to file a civil suit against the facility, their lawyer told the Daily News.

Norma Rosario suffered the vicious treatment on Jan. 4. — a day before her 73rd birthday — at Bronx Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, which will be named in the suit.

“The family entrusts this lady into their care and look what happens to her,” said attorney Adam Slater, who plans to file the suit in Bronx County Supreme Court on Tuesday. “She winds up with staples in her head.”

Rosemarie Brooks, the nurse who was arrested and criminally charged in the incident, will also be named in the suit, Slater said.

Brooks, 47, was captured on surveillance video violently pushing Rosario out of a room and into a door across the hallway at the Carpenter Ave. nursing home.

Rosario, who suffers from dementia, hit her head against the door and fell to the floor, and had to receive staples to close the laceration, according to a criminal court complaint.

Brooks was charged with endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person and falsifying records. She is due to appear in Bronx criminal court on June 13.

The family accuses the nursing home of breaching its duty.

Full Article & Source:
Family of grandmother attacked by nurse to file suit against Bronx nursing home

The War on the Elderly and Disabled - 18 USCA 4 Report

If you need more convincing as to our own holocaust check out the Alice Gore case. After she was railroaded into one of the nursing home 'death camps' the miscreants mined her teeth for their gold filings!  

Across America this outrage continues! The evening news reports the kidnapping of several hundred children by terrorists, and the anguished statements of our political leaders; however, these same pols are silent as hundreds of elderly and disabled people are kidnapped and herded into abusive guardianships to be ravaged, stripped of their liberty, stripped of their money, and denied all rights of American citizenship.

The hypocrisy is amazing!

 

Our congress has enacted laws to protect the elderly and the disabled; however, except on rare occasions they (the laws) are ignored. Here in Illinois it is not uncommon for elderly people to find themselves under the dominion and control of ultra vires judicial domination that is akin to the gulag or the holocaust. I attached a copy of a brief that Ms. Denison and I filed in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that details how a senior citizen was railroaded into a guardianship, and when her friends and family tried to obtain JUSTICE for her they were thwarted and Ms. Denison and I have had to deal with the problem of being unwelcome whistle blowers who will not adhere to the code of silence.

 

The brief has been filed and is of record. Therefore, the 4th estate can reprint any of the statements made therein without fear of defamation. The miscreants including but not limited to the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Guardian ad Litem Adam Stern, Guardian ad Litem Cynthia Farenga et al cannot censor the content and if you chose to be upset by the kidnapping of hundred of elderly people ****. (Even social media was intimidate by our miscreants - video's of Mary were posted demonstrating that she was very competent and demanding legal representation - legal representation was denied her - Mr. Stern told the Court she did not want to represented. He did this in the fact of handwritten notes smuggled out by Mary! (See Appendix)

The brief deals with a Taliban type assault on the First Amendment and demonstrates how vulnerable American liberties have become. I invite you to do an INDEPENDENT, HONEST, COMPLETE AND COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION. I respectfully you sojourn to the Daley Center, go to the clerk's office on the 12th floor and access the Mary Sykes file 09 P 4585. It is an interesting read, if you also access the guardianship statute 755 ILCS 5/11a - 1 et seq.

 

The first step in any litigation is to check and see if jurisdiction has been obtained. 755 ILCS 5/11a - 10 deals with the method of obtaining jurisdiction. Examine the summons. The form of the summons is not compliant. Look to see if Mary was served with any process. There is no sheriff's return! Worse yet, the address on the summons is a Chicago address - Mary had been forcibly moved to Naperville! Thus, from the file it is apparent that Mary was not before the Court.

 

To make certain that a senior citizen is not railroaded, the statute requires that close relatives be notified 14 days prior to a hearing on competency. The Supreme Court of Illinois has said that such is jurisdictional. The file does not indicate that there was any notification of Mary's younger daughter or her two sisters. In point of fact none of these three individuals was notified and in fact in an effort to keep the proceedings secret Mary's two sisters were not disclosed on the Petition to appoint a guardian for her so as to strip her of her citizenship rights.

 

Mr. Schmiedel (the guardian's attorney) is not ashamed of the fact that there was no incompetency hearing - neither are the guardians. To Hell with the requirement that before a senior can be kidnapped and rendered a non-entity he/she has to be proven incompetent by clear and convincing evidence! All that was necessary was an agreement by the people who count - i.e. the elder cleansers.

  

The long and short is that State and Federal law are ignored as hundreds of senior citizens are taken prisoner and stripped of their liberty, property, and human rights the Administration on the Federal and State level are silent.

 

Full Article and Source:
The War on the Elderly and Disabled

See Also:
NASGA:  Alice Gore, Illinois Victim

NASGA:  Mary Sykes, Illinois Victim

Even though she's been paying rent, woman may be evicted from her home because she’s been hospitalized for too long

Macclenny, Florida woman Janice Crawford has been a patient in either a medical rehab facility or hospital since December 2013. Because of this, she received a letter from the property manager of the apartment complex she lives in explaining that she will have to move out of her apartment unless she returns to it by May 23. As First Coast News reports, it’s a difficult situation, made more difficult by attempts to interpret federal law.

Ms. Crawford has lived at Baker Manor for 12 years. Baker Manor is a privately owned United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) subsidized community. Even though the 57-year-old woman has paid her rent and “never had a problem” at the complex for over a decade, her medical condition, one that has kept her out of her home nearly 180 days, may mean she has to leave. Ms. Crawford received a letter from Baker Manor Business Manager Angela Tanner that read, in part:

“Tenancy may be terminated in response to extended absence or abandonment. Extended absence is when the tenant is absent from the unit for longer than 60 continuous days, or for longer than 180 continuous days for medical reasons.”

Ms. Tanner told FCN, “I don’t want Janice to lose her apartment, it is HUD’s rules and we don’t want to lose HUD funding, we have to comply.” She also mentioned that it’s a decision Baker Manor’s owners have made. Tanner is pointing to HUD Handbook 4350.3: Occupancy Requirements of Subsidized Multifamily Housing Programs (PDF) to make this claim. In fact, the letter quoted above takes the language from this handbook. However, the letter Ms. Tanner sent did not include one crucial sentence that immediately follows it: "Owners may allow exceptions for extenuating circumstances.” FCN’s report was unclear as to whether either Ms. Tanner or Ms. Crawford was aware of that sentence.

One could argue that Ms. Crawford is indeed dealing with, “extenuating circumstances.” Nancy Foss, a friend of Ms. Crawford, told FCN, “I have no idea how they can justify evicting a sick woman. Who, she needs a triple bypass, she is on dialysis and the stress from this is enough to harm her…It’s cruel. This is not something Baker County would do, we’re a family county."

As of FCN’s report, no eviction notices have actually been filed. Ms. Crawford told the station that she will attempt to be back in the apartment before May 23.

Full Article & Source:
Even though she's been paying rent, woman may be evicted from her home because she’s been hospitalized for too long

Tonite on T.S. Radio: Guardian Abuse: Can You Spot the Predator?

In every State, elders and vulnerable adults are targeted by the "protection" industry for profit.

Probate courts can remove all or some of an elder's civil rights, leaving guardians and those who work with them in control the elder's life and assets.

• Loopholes created by the law have allowed a criminal element into a system that has few protections for elders in place.
• There is little or no monitoring in many counties of what happens to elders and their assets under guardianship.
• There is no oversight by any entity outside of the court to ensure that it's proceedings are fair.   

For predators in the business of trafficking elders, it's all about the money.                  

• Tonight, guest Marcia Southwick will be joining me to talk about the people who work under color of law.
• Who are they?
• Who do they target, and why?
• How do they use the court system?
• And how do they find their marks?
• Is there any way to recognize them? And how can you avoid them?                                

Tune in for answers. Calls will be taken during the second half of the show.

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

LISTEN LIVE or listen to the archive later

Illinois Attorney Ken Ditkowsky on his Suspension from the Practice of Law for Four Years

Every lawyer, to obtain his license, takes an oath to defend the Constitution. The oath is not benign, it creates obligation.  The League of Women Voters has a  slogn that captures the obligation:  "DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT!"

Over the centuries, despots have assaulted the Right of the public to speak out, and it is not a surprise that right here in America we have people who are assaulting the First Amendment.   It is also no surprise that we also have some dishonest citizens.   It is also not a surprise that some are in positions of power.    The surprise is that we are not jealous of the bounty that our founding fathers bequeath to us.

   

It is no secret that there are also some perfectly legitimate guardian ships that are well handled, well supervised and very necessary.  These latter guardian-ships are not the subject of our discussion.  However, it is no secret that 'elder cleansing' is a National cottage industry and thousands of senior citizens and disabled people are railroaded each year into un-necessary guardian-ships in which they are reduced to no class citizenship.    (See GAO reports to Congress). This is were the problem lies and that has to be addressed.

In the attached documents I discuss the problem as it relates to me.   I am a voyeur as I have no stake in the specific game, but, in the overall situation I have a huge stake.    I could wind up with Cynthia Farenga or Adam Stern in my future!   In fact any of us could.    

Thus, like it or not - we are all in the same boat.   When Alice Gore was rolled into a 'facility' to have her teeth mined for their gold, it was an offense against each of our rights!    When Mary Sykes' safety deposit box was drilled and the contents (of over a million dollars in gold coins) was looted each of us suffered a loss.   Indeed, when Ms. Wyman was sexually assaulted so was each of us!    18 USCA 4 required each of us to report these felonies to law enforcement!     

My participation in fighting against the War being waged on the elderly and disabled was involuntary.   Adam Stern and Peter Schmiedel recruited me when they threatened me with sanctions if I did my job as a lawyer. 

 

Jerome Larkin recruited me when he demanded that I repent for being outraged at seeing senior citizens robbed of their liberty, their property, their civil rights and their human rights.   My father and his brothers each enlisted in the United States Armed Services to fight when America was attacked in 1941.  When confronted with the cancer of 'elder cleansing' I also had no choice.   

An election is coming up - it is time to remove some of the political elite who foster (or cannot be bothered with fighting elder cleanings) from the offices that they temporarily enjoy and restore them to private employment. 

 

It is time to demand that law enforcement do HONEST intelligent complete and comprehensive investigations of each and every one of these cases.   If criminal activity or ultra vires activity is found the miscreants should be treated to the appropriate remediation.

~Ken Ditkowsky

 

See Also:
Alice Gore, Illinois Victim

Mary Sykes, Illinois Victim

Mug shot taken of former Judge Mark Belinky

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - He once presided over Mahoning County Probate Court.  But on Thursday, former Judge Mark Belinky found himself in the county jail posing for a mug shot.

Earlier that afternoon in Common Pleas Court, Belinky first pleaded not guilty, then changed his plea to guilty of a charge filed in connection with an investigation into his political campaigns.

Belinky appeared before a visiting judge to answer to a bill of information charging him with tampering with records.

A bill of information is usually filed when a defendant agrees to forego the grand jury indictment process.

In most cases, defendants plead guilty to a bill of information, but Belinky first entered a plea of not guilty.

But after some discussion in the courtroom, the former judge changed his plea to guilty.

According to the bill of information, Belinky failed to disclose 2008 campaign contributions, expenditures and loans in amounts ranging from $7,500 to $150,000.  The court document does not list a specific amount.

The crime is a fourth degree felony.

"As part of the plea agreement, the defendant did agree to and did resign from the probate court bench, did agree to and did surrender his license to practice law, and will no longer practice law again," said Atty. Dan Kasaris, Special Prosecutor.

Full Article & Source:
Mug shot taken of former Judge Mark Belinky

Harris County Launches Elder Abuse Prevention Billboard Campaign

(HOUSTON) — The Harris County District Attorney launched an elder abuse prevention billboard campaign Friday.

The new billboards read, “Too precious to neglect. Report elder abuse.”

District Attorney Devon Anderson says elder abuse is underreported and under-recognized. She says its not always physical abuse, noting all of the scams targeting the elderly.

“They may get a phone call from a young person purporting to be a grandchild, with a very staticky connection saying, ‘I am in jail, and I need you to send bond money to me right now.’”

Anderson says it’s important for citizens to pay attention to their neighbors.

“Many of these seniors suffer from disabilities and so they have caregivers that they depend on,” Anderson said. “Unfortunately, some of them have caregivers that abuse them them physically and financially.”

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia says his deputies are ready to arrest anyone who abuses the elderly.

There will be six billboards that will be up for the next month in Harris County.

Full Article & Source:
Harris County Launches Elder Abuse Prevention Billboard Campaign