Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania

by Michael Volpe

A knock on the door from a bureaucrat has led to nightmare lasting more than two years: leaving the family matriarch alone, isolated, and drugged, her daughter accused of theft, and her other daughter on the brink of being removed from the family home.

In January 2013, Tivia Olson a representative of Montgomery County Aging and Adult Services (MCAAS) showed up on the front door of Lillian Gibson’s home telling her that MCAAS had received a complaint that she was being financially exploited.

Several weeks later, Gibson, who was living in a home she shared with her daughter, Jocelyn “Austin” Gibson, received a letter from Montgomery County Orphan’s Court stating that the elder Gibson was suspected of being incapacitated and a hearing was scheduled to determine if she should be placed into guardianship, the case wound up in the court room of Judge Stanley Ott.

In late February 2013, Gibson hired Gerald Clark, an elder law lawyer, as her attorney but Ott barred Clark from representing her instead appointing Diane Zabowski as her counsel.

In April 2013, Ott ruled Gibson to be incapacitated and placed her in guardianship. Rather than appointing a family member guardian, Ott appointed Kalpana Doshi of Adjustments, Inc., as her guardian.

Kalpana, Zabowski, and MCAAS, didn’t respond to phone calls for comment. Judge Ott’s office has previously told Rebel Pundit that he, as a matter of policy, doesn’t comment on ongoing cases.

Ott made this determination after Robert Slutsky, a local attorney who was acting as the solicitor for MCAAS, accused Gibson’s daughter, Dr. Alvianette Gibson-Kennedy, of misspending $136,000 of her mother’s money, said she was malnourished and being fed a steady diet of junk, and also claimed she was totally incapacitated.

Slutsky, according to a lawsuit filed by the Gibson family, then introduced testimony from Gibson’s family’s long-time physician Gerald Hansen.

Slutsky asked Dr. Hansen, “Do you think Mrs. Gibson could be financially exploited?”

“Yes,” Dr. Hansen replied, though that reply could apply to every human.

Slutsky, an attorney, then listed off a series of ailments which he claimed Gibson suffered from as further evidence she needed to be incapacitated.

Both Alvianette and Austin Gibson denied misspending their mother’s funds and mistreating her in multiple court filings.

“Reverend Kennedy refuted the ‘alleged bank/accounting documentation as being inaccurate and unsubstantiated, that is to say, that no element of the banking documentation was certified either by a CPA or other credible source,” according to a lawsuit filed by the family.

Though Slutsky accused Dr. Kennedy of major theft, his accusation was made strictly in orphan’s court and this evidence has never been presented to the county’s district attorney’s office.

In a previous Rebel Pundit expose from Chicago, the Cook County Public Guardian similarly accused Stacey Willis of theft of more than $30,000 of her mother’s money, but only made that charge during guardianship and didn’t report it criminally.

Initially while in guardianship, Lillian Gibson was allowed to continue to living in the family home she shared with her daughter Austin but in April, after the guardian complained that the elder Gibson missed repeated doctor’s appointments, Gibson was moved to a nursing home, Spring Meadows in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

But Austin Gibson said this is not accurate.

“It was me who missed the appointments not my mother,” she said, something she made note of to several of the players in guardianship.

Full Article & Source:
Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania

See Also:
Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania Part 2

Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania

Boomers Beware of Guardianship Abuse

Harvey Whitten, Pennsylvania Victim