Friday, January 17, 2020

Daughters claim widow of Henry Ford II is being abused by longtime companion

Kate Ford, right, and Frank Chopin
 at the Susan G. Komen Perfect Pink
 Party at Mar-a-Lago in 2015.
(Photo: Meghan McCarthy, Palm Beach Post)
PALM BEACH — During the Christmas holidays, two giant inflatable nutcracker soldiers flanked the entrance to Kathleen DuRoss Ford’s sunshine-hued estate along the Intracoastal Waterway.

But the whimsical decorations, along with a towering Christmas tree and a life-sized Nativity scene, belied the ugly battle being waged for control of not just the sprawling $44 million mansion but of Ford herself.

In a court fight that those involved say could have been plucked from the pages of a British tabloid, Ford’s daughters claim their mother’s longtime companion is abusing the 79-year-old widow of automobile tycoon Henry Ford II.

Having survived a double lung transplant only to be stricken by spinal ailments that left her incontinent and in a wheelchair, the once feisty former model is powerless to combat the physical and emotional cruelty heaped on her by attorney Frank Chopin, her daughters claim in the lawsuit raging in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

While lawsuits to protect the frail and elderly are typically settled quickly, this one has dragged on for more than a year with no end in sight.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer has ruled that Ford is no longer capable of making decisions about her own life or controlling her hundreds of millions in holdings. But, he has yet to rule on the salacious allegations of abuse and financial exploitation or decide who should care for Ford in her final years.

To Ford’s daughters from her first marriage, the decision is clear-cut.

“He just treats her horribly. Disrespectfully. Condescending. Yelling. Physically abusive,” her eldest daughter, Deborah DuRoss Guibord said in court records, explaining why the 77-year-old Chopin should be stripped of his legal hold on her mother.

To shore up her claims, Guibord has enlisted the help of her mother’s sizable team of caretakers.

Chopin screams at Ford, according to testimony from roughly a half-dozen nurses, housekeepers and personal assistants who have attended her. He tilts black back her head, shoves the dozens of pills she takes each day in her mouth and then pours water down her throat, sometimes causing her to choke, they said.

At night, he forbids nurses from touching her, even to turn her or change her wet clothes to prevent her from getting life threatening bed sores, they testified. He removed the phone from her bedroom, and if friends or family call, he tells the staff not to give her the messages. He controls what she eats, what she wears and where she goes, they said.

“He doesn’t treat her with respect, with dignity,” testified Vicky Carrion, who worked as a housekeeper for Ford for about six years before Chopin fired her in March 2018. “I felt that somebody that’s in her last days of their life should be loved and live with dignity and respect. She has none of that there.”

“When you’re giving care, and hands-on care, when you see certain things, you know, that don’t feel right, it’s not acceptable,” registered nurse Denise Gordon said, explaining why she left her year-long job as Ford’s night caregiver in 2018. “Whether it be turning her every couple of hours, changing her, there were just some absurd things that were just not right.”

Chopin, who became Ford’s adviser, confidante, travel companion and eventually her live-in partner in the decades since her fabulously wealthy husband died in 1987, vehemently denies the allegations. He has summoned high-powered medical experts and respected Palm Beach residents to convince Suskauer that the claims are pure fiction.

That Ford has survived more than a dozen years since undergoing a double-lung transplant in 2006 is a testament to the care she has received, testified Dr. Joshua Multack, an intensivist who treated Ford in October 2018 when she was rushed to Good Samaritan Medical Center because she couldn’t breathe. Only about half of lung transplant patients live beyond five years.

Dr. Charles Pu, an internist who specializes in geriatric medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, described Ford’s care as top-notch.

“I will say it is probably in the top 0.1 percent of what I typically see,” said Pu, who has treated Ford at the Harvard-affiliated medical center since 2017. “I would say very few people, very few families can, you know, have this type of care ... You don’t see it very often.”

During the deposition, Pu said he had examined Ford 30 times and never saw any evidence of abuse.

Those who have watched Chopin over the years said his devotion to Ford is extraordinary.

“All of her friends talked about how incredible Frank has been,” testified former Palm Beach Mayor Lesly Smith, who has been friends with Ford since the 1970s when she began dating the automobile tycoon. “If it wasn’t for Frank, Kate would be dead. He’s taken such good care of her.”

Architect Jeffrey Smith, who helped design and renovate Ford’s homes in Palm Beach and England and has vacationed with the couple, made similar comments during a deposition.


 “I don’t think Kate would be alive if it wasn’t for Frank,” said Smith, who isn’t related to the one-time mayor. “He’s dedicated his life to Mrs. Ford. I mean, all my friends — all the men talk like we could not do that for our wives. How can he do that? We all say, ‘No, we couldn’t be that dedicated like he’s done.’”

Attorneys who represent Chopin claim that the legal battle is nothing more than a cash grab by Ford’s spoiled and greedy daughters. They want to get their hands on Ford’s house and the millions she inherited from her late husband.

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Daughters claim widow of Henry Ford II is being abused by longtime companion

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