Taisha Lee said her grandmother’s guardianship case was Kafkaesque, lacked due process, and one she believes was pre-determined.
Lee said trouble for her grandmother, Jannie Myers started, when her grandfather, Isaiah Myers, was near death and both her grandparents moved in with her and her husband in September 2012.
Lee said prior to her grandfather’s death, he changed the will and wrote all his children out, leaving their estate, worth a bit more than $300,000, to Lee and another grandchild.
Her grandparents made Lee their power of attorney at about this time.
Lee’s grandfather died in October 2012. On January 11, 2013, Lee’s aunt, Gloria Myers filed a petition with the Montgomery County Orphan’s Court for her mother to be put into guardianship, alleging she was incapacitated and unable to take care of herself.
A call was left at Bowman’s office but was not returned.
Lee said she knew there would be problems right away when the Judge Stanley Ott refused to allow her grandmother to use her own attorney, instead assigned to her Diane Zabowski.
Lee said in August 2013, her then attorney Saul Langsom emerged from a meeting in the judge’s chambers with Judge Ott, Bowman, and Zabowski, and an area attorney named Erin McDevitt, who’d be named guardian, and informed Lee that a deal had been made to place her grandmother into guardianship.
“I was shocked,” Lee told Rebel Pundit, adding that she expected evidence to be heard before taking away her grandmother’s freedom.
Elaine Renoire, of the National Association to Stop Guardianship Abuse (NASGA), said that while such deals are of questionable constitutionality and almost never in the ward’s best interest they are common. In the case of her grandmother, her own lawyer made a deal in a bathroom with the judge to put her grandmother into guardianship.
Lee said the deal only fell apart when her aunt objected to Lee being named guardian of the person, a bureaucratic title which would have allowed Lee to make some decisions though the bulk of the decisions would be left to McDevitt.
Lee said a hearing was finally scheduled on September 17, 2013, but before then Zabowski warned her that if she continued to obstruct the court’s attempts to guardianize her grandmother that Zabowski would attempt to jail her.
“We’ll just say she was always incapacitated,” Lee recalled Zabowski telling her, and suggested she’d get the court to say Lee stole money she spent during the previous year as their power of attorney.
According to the transcripts of the hearing, there were several red flags.....
Full Article and Source:
Guardianship Abuse Moves to Pennsylvania
21 comments:
National pattern of operation detailed in this excellent article by investigative journalist Michael Volpe at Rebel Pundit.
My position based on personal experience and case studies of numerous cases is the system is rigged against the AIP the RESPONDENT of the petition for guardianship in favor of: Team Guardianship.
The goal, many times without notice of hearing, is to establish a guardianship case post haste to ensure all billing will be auto approved by the court.
".......Lee said in August 2013, her then attorney Saul Langsom emerged from a meeting in the judge’s chambers with Judge Ott, Bowman, and Zabowski, and an area attorney named Erin McDevitt, who’d be named guardian, and informed Lee that a deal had been made to place her grandmother into guardianship...."
pre determined is spot on translation the fix is in its a done deal connect the dots oopps these dots are $ follow the money its all about the money people churned into products to feed the greedy probate machine this has been going on for decades no doubt its getting worse by the minute keep in mind these people have you in their sites yes you yes me
What happened to Tashia's grandmother is despicable.
More shocking accounts of what is waiting for us very well put in jerri's comment. I have to admit I am a nervous ship wreck worried my wishes in estate planning won't be recognized by the cartel.
See NASGA's Soapbox page for more information we need before we are blindsided.
http://stopguardianabuse.org/Soapbox.htm
I am pleading with people to take defensive actions now or we'll be reading your story. No time to be in denial our clocks are ticking tick tick tick.........
Just reading this article must have raised my blood pressure 50 points. Thank you Rebel Pundit and NASGA, for spreading awareness.
Guardianship, when there are family and friends available to help the elderly person, is illegal in Pennsylvania. This is the law, with legal decisions that support it.
20 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 5518. In determining whether a person is incapacitated, the court must also make specific findings concerning the respondent’s need for guardianship services in light of existing alternatives, such as the availability of family, friends, and other supports to assist the individual in making decisions, and in light of the existence of any advance directives such as durable powers of attorney or trusts. 20 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 5512.1(a)(3); see also In re Peery, 727 A.2d 539, 541 (Pa. 1999) (a person cannot be incapacitated and in need of guardianship services if his impairment is counterbalanced by friends or family or other supports).
So why are there so many people with family and friends who are forced into guardianships?
An ongoing series? I can't tell you how happy that makes me!
It certainly sounds like this guardianship was fixed from the beginning and family didn't have a chance.
Wow this family went through hell, like so many of us. A person facing a possible guardianship should have the right to have counsel of choice because that's person's future is at stake. This poor lady was doomed when the hearing started.
Praying for this family. What they've been through will haunt them forever.
What about a report of the matter handed out to all the neighbors around the guardian perpetrator(s) homes? I was considering this myself: a deatailed summary of how my siblings stole my mom and everything she had only to pitch her some hell hole.
While the despicable judge can fine/jail you, whatever, what about the rest?
Elaine,
I'm afraid to use my name at this point in the event it could lead to retaliation toward my mom, their prisoner.
I hope this article goes viral. People need to know what guardianship is all about so they can attempt to protect themselves.
Good job, Mr. Volpe.
It's stories like this that should blow the lid off of guardianship!
I've heard the adjective Kafkaesque used before to describe how this industry operates. But since this atypical guardianship abuse occurs in a courtroom, a better description is Gestapo justice. Pennsylvania must be learning from Texas, Florida, Arizona, and the others.
The key in combatting these psycopathic criminals, is to maintain 100% control of impulses AT ALL TIMES. If adrenaline is pumping, you are at 50% of your thought capacity and in a DREADFUL position of being entrapped by the consequences of your behavior.
If you are a type A/ Alpha/ D-Dominance type, do NOTHING without directive and approval of your highest and best judgement which may include another's input.
Nothing wrong with adrenaline and 50% capacity but have redundant, redundant, redundant checks and balances of your impulses when in this postion. Best to lose the battle entirely than lose the greater war, especially if going into a high-threat entrapment scenario. Be careful, there may be an exception but be very careful. --Blessings
Obvious ......
How can you protect yourself?
Anonymous, you can't protect yourself, except to make sure you don't have any money so the vultures aren't interested in you.
Total injustice!!! This railroading people into guardianship must STOP!
Once again, the back room deal results in hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid by the victim to attorneys. My mother was forced to pay losing (but well-entrenched in the industry) attorneys in two different trials, while the judges' rulings that "clients pay their attorneys" apparently only applied to her children who were trying to protect her from such a predatory practice (and who were threatened form the start with being held personally responsible for all attorneys' fees if they continued with their objections). While I understand the concept of forcing the loser to pay all fees, but what do you call the person who is forced to pay the loser's fees? An incapacitated erson in need of protection.
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