AL Katz Outrage

To imagine that a Holocaust hero of 89 years old, Al Katz, would be forced to live in a deplorable nursing home four minutes from his house with his daughter waiting and wanting to care for him round the clock is unimaginable.  To imagine that the Survivor of seven years of slave labor inflicted by the Nazis and a final death march to Dachau would have nothing left of his sizable estate for his adored great-grandchildren to inherit is likewise unimaginable.  And then to picture that the Holocaust Survivor's daughter would still be settling his estate, worth less than nothing monetarily, with its debts far exceeding its minimal assets, more than seven years after he passed away, with a death threat hanging over her head, is horrifying … and true in the nether world of involuntary professional guardianship.

Over seven years since Al Katz passed on to Heaven, as a Ward of the State of Florida, the repercussions of his disastrous guardianship are unending; and his daughter, Dr. Beverly Newman, who cared for him 24 hours per day during the final months and years of his life, has been habitually mocked in Indianapolis courts for her life-threatening disabilities that restrict virtually all daily activities, especially travel, which risks her life through unrestricted contacts with unseen toxic exposures - pesticides, air fresheners, smoke residues, fumes from vehicles, perfumes, dry cleaning fluids, cleaning agents, and aerosols, to cite a few of the thousands of products to which Beverly, and those like her, are chemically sensitive or allergic.  For Beverly Newman, toxic exposures can kill … easily and quickly … via anaphylaxis, cardiac arrest, or pulmonary distress.

Today, millions of persons in all stages and statuses of life, especially our military troops, have asthma, severe allergies, and/or chemical sensitivities that pose lethal outcomes.  These disabilities, known as Environmental Illnesses, from which Dr. Newman has suffered for well over 30 years, have been denied and ridiculed in the courts of Indianapolis, when Attorney Steven A. Johnson of Merrillville, Indiana, declared in open court on March 4, 2016, before dozens of persons, that:

[Dr.] Newman says she's allergic to everything.  That she has chemical sensitivities ….  Well, let’s talk about then her chemical sensitivities …. She said she’s allergic to about everything.  What was she doing in Meijer?  You know what they sell in Meijer?  You know?  We sell everything.  Who’s, who’s – who goes to a Meijer …. Who is it that’s allergic to everything that goes into a Meijer store.  She’s not allergic to everything.

In September 2017, on appeal for Steven Johnson's public ridicule of Dr. Newman, the Indiana Supreme Court found nothing odious or improper about the scathing derision by Steven A. Johnson representing Meijer stores.

In the same month, September 2017, Indiana's Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush issued an order that reinstated Judge James Joven, who had been removed, pursuant to law, from the Al Katz probate case but was still issuing orders in the case for two weeks after his removal.  One of Judge Joven's orders is essentially a death sentence for Dr. Beverly Newman, requiring her to travel 1200 miles from her home in Florida to the probate court in Indianapolis, against expert medical opinions warning the court of lethal or devastating, irreparable medical consequences to Beverly upon such travel:  

Due to Beverly Newman’s medical disabilities, that are known to be life-threatening and incurable, it is my professional medical opinion … that the toxic exposures present in public places where she would be forced to be in order to travel from Florida to Indiana are likely to jeopardize her health and constitute unacceptable risks to her well-being ….

Environmental illness can cause permanent damage to multiple organ systems and/or death.  Therefore, it is my considered professional opinion that Beverly Newman, a disabled person, should not travel from Florida to Indiana or any other long distances and that Beverly Newman should be granted the full protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Chief Justice Loretta Rush's reinstatement order retroactively erased from the court's record that Judge James Joven had been illegally issuing orders in Al Katz's case for weeks when the judge had no legal jurisdiction in the case.

In the probate court, Indianapolis estate Attorney Robert W. York, a long-time colleague of Judge Joven, has successfully convinced the judge that all of Beverly's proofs of disabilities, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act, should be stricken from the court's record or ignored, including:

1.  expert medical opinion from a federal government physician confirming Beverly Newman's Environmental Illness disabilities

2.   expert medical opinion from a Board Certified physician confirming Dr. Newman's life-threatening disabilities and consequent inability to travel

3.a letter to the court from a nurse and eyewitness to Beverly's disabilities over the course of 20 years

4.a lengthy detailed eyewitness affidavit confirming personal observations of Beverly's disabilities over the course of more than 30 years

5.the official pesticide advance notification registry list of the State of Florida requiring notification to Beverly Newman, pursuant to law, prior to pesticide applications in her area.

Despite all of the objective and expert evidence filed in the probate court, which evidence has all been stricken or ignored upon motions by Robert W. York, York insists that "It remains the Newmans' burden of proof as to any claimed disability of Beverly."

Likewise, Robert W. York, who had previously fired Beverly Newman's husband for refusing to contain reports of serious child abuse known to have occurred, has relentlessly argued that Beverly Newman's health conditions do not require any accommodations under ADA law and that she must travel to Indianapolis on October 25, 2017, for a probate court hearing;  although Robert W. York's motions to the court resulted in the removal of Dr. Newman as a party to her Father's case as of September 11, 2015, and prohibited her from making filings for the past two years.  Once again, the probate court has lost its jurisdiction over Dr. Newman, a Florida resident since 2009, but it continues to issue orders to her and prohibits her from filing responses in the court. 

Disability bigotry … plain and simple … is diffuse in Indiana courts, where the disabled are disbelieved, discredited, and distanced from equal access to the courts, so much so that even deaf persons were denied interpreters at court hearings until a recent federal court ruling against the courts in the State of Indiana made disability accommodations for the deaf mandatory.  Nonetheless, the courts of Indiana are still recalcitrantly ruling against the disabled.

This is my plea for my life ….  Beverly Newman, Ed.D.

This is my plea for the lives of millions of Americans, including our military troops, who suffer from Environmental Illnesses that are progressive, incurable, and life-threatening reactions to unseen toxins. 

This is my plea to you to support us in our battles against disability bigotry in the courts of Indianapolis, Indiana. Stand with us proudly, please. 

End D B

Persons to contact:

loretta.rush@courts.in.gov

richard.payne@courts.in.gov

andrew.mallon@indy.gov

End Disability Bigotry

Source:
AL Katz Outrage