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| Rana Goodman, The Vegas Voice |
Two people enter; a woman and a man. They approach you and the woman says: “Mr. X, I am an officer of the court. You and your wife need to come with me.
You ask: “Why, what have I done? Go with you where?”
She responds. “You have three choices. I can have you arrested, you can go to the assisted living facility that I have chosen for you, or you can be taken to a mental facility.”
This is what happened to a couple I recently interviewed.
When the couple asked to see a warrant or legal document ordering them to go with her, she simply showed her business card (which identified her as a private guardian) and stated that legal papers would arrive within the next few hours. Those three hours stretched into weeks.
For the three days after this couple were whisked away, their adult daughter frantically tried to locate them. Eventually, a notice was taped on their front door stating that they had been moved to an assisted living facility miles away from their home.
Once the daughter’s finally locates her parents, she learns that an unknown private guardian had been assigned by the family court, without a hearing that included her parents. The court document for this action contained two blatantly false statements: that this daughter (and only child) never sees the parents and is an addict, and that the husband has dementia and can no longer care for his wife.
In my interview with this elderly couple, I found the husband (who has been the primary caregiver for his wife for the last 19 of their 50 years of marriage) to be the most articulate, soft spoken person I have met in a very long time. His only concern was her happiness and well-being knowing that she is now wheelchair bound and in the latter stages of leukemia.
Full Article and Source:
What would you do?
See Also:
A Very Dangerous Law, Part 2
The Pitfalls of Guardianship
7 comments:
Thank you for all you and The Vegas Voice are doing, Ms. Goodman.
Thank you Vegas Voice. You are truly a voice for the elderly.
This is WRONG what is going on in guardianship, family first!!! not and outside guardian. TOTALLY DISGUSTED!!! Thanks Vegas Voice for what you are doing.
Well written! Thank you Rana Goodman and NASGA!
This is not right..The daughter needs to write the white house and all the higher ups and get a very good lawyer. I was told we could not help Walter because we was not family. But I wrote all the higher ups and at least we finally get to see him. We put Walter in rehap at Aumun health care in Newark, Ohio and when they found out Walter had a lot of money and 9 homes rehap turned to long term and was told he was never getting out.The nursing home said they wanted Walters money. Walter was in his right mind when it all first happen but this nursing home has abused him and gave him lots of drugs and he's gets confused now and begs to go home but they sold all his homes. we told the Probate count we would take him home but they just keep saying no. That only his family can help him. So if she gets a lawyer she should be able to help them. She is family. The white house even called me back and tried to help. I called and wrote news papers to and the Tv ch.'s 4,6, and 10 news. 4 news is running story's about all and Columbus Dispatch paper was and may still be running articles and story's on how this is happening every where and something needs to be done to help the people.You can check online to see who to contact. Also Mike Dewine Ohio Attorney General has been trying to help people with all this.You can file a complaint online-800-282-0515- Please try all this for your family need you..!!
Rana, you're my hero!
What I would do now that I know better through my membership with NASGA is refuse and call the cops.
I think people automatically are wired to think if someone looks official, then we must obey.
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