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| 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.’”
Full Article & Source:
Daughters claim widow of Henry Ford II is being abused by longtime companion
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