CANTON, Mo. (WGEM) -- Lewis County Sheriff David Parrish reported
Wednesday the arrest of the now fired Canton City Collector and
Municipal Court Clerk.
Parrish said La Trisha Crist, 38, was charged with one count of
forgery, a class D felony, two counts of financial exploitation of an
elder/disabled person, a class D felony, and two counts of financial
exploitation of an elder/disabled person, a class E felony.
Sheriff Parrish stated Crist is alleged to have created a false
document related to her role as the clerk in charge of water and sewer
bills in June, 2020.
Parrish added at that time, she allegedly removed herself as the
primary account holder and placed the water bill under the name of a
family member who had been renting a property Crist owned at 116 South
Fifth Street, Canton, Missouri. There was approximately $300.00 owed to
the city of Canton for non-payment.
Parrish reported that Crist then began the process to have the family member sent to a collections agency.
All of these incidents occurred without the authorization of proper city of Canton personnel, Parrish added.
In addition Sheriff Parrish stated in June the Sheriff's Office
received a report that Crist was stealing money from an elderly and
disabled family member.
During this investigation, the Sheriff's Office learned Crist had
been over-seeing the financial matters of the family member since 2017.
After extensive review of various financial records, Parrish reports
that Crist is alleged to have used the family member's debit card,
stimulus check and other credit cards for her own personal gain in
excess of $6000.
Lewis County Assistant Prosecutor, Chelsea Fellinger, filed formal
charges and sought a warrant from the court. A warrant on all counts
was received on December 8.
Crist's bond was set at $5000 with corporate surety allowed by Associate Judge Thomas P. Redington.
The Sheriff's Office was assisted by the Canton Police Department.
Canton Mayor Jarrod Phillips said the city terminated Crist on December 4.
An Erie lawyer has been disbarred after pleading guilty to several felony charges for keeping settlement money from clients.
Robert
Barbato Jr., 32, will no longer be able to practice law in the state
starting Dec. 17. The order was handed down Tuesday by the Disciplinary
Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after Barbato submitted a
verified statement of resignation.
Barbato
entered the guilty plea to a felony count of forgery and four felony
counts of theft Nov. 3. Nine other charges were dropped.
Investigators said Barbato collected settlement-type checks and failed to forward them to his clients.
A
total theft of more than $270,000 was reported between January 2014
and Jan. 29, 2020. He was arraigned on the charges in late February.
The Disciplinary Board placed Barbato on temporary suspension in March.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The pandemic has isolated many people, especially Tennessee senior citizens.
"I
think that's especially true with our elderly population," said senior
advocate Joseph McAnally, with the Office of Family Safety. "They have
fewer interactions with communities, fewer doctor appointments,
religious services."
It's a worry for McAnally because he says since the pandemic, the Office of Family Safety has seen an increase in elder abuse but there are fewer opportunities for people to spot it happening.
"Then you put on top of that the economic hardship of the pandemic
that has resulted in a lot of people losing jobs so you have a lot of
adult children depending on elderly family members more now," McAnally
said.
They've also seen this uptick when it comes to financial exploitation with elderly folks specifically.
"Adult children are getting into a weird place financially because of
COVID and needing help from family," Hunter said, "so they're moving in
with mom dad grandparents who are older adults and then a situation
occurs where older adult is financially supporting child or grandchild
and they're not able to financially able to support themselves to take
care of themselves with the things they need."
Signs of financial
abuse are unusual withdrawals or insufficient fund activity, forged
signatures on documents or confusion of missing funds.
Elder abuse can also be in the form of physical and emotional abuse. Look out for bruises or broken bones.
During
this is a time when everyone is being told to stay home but still, make
sure you check in with your vulnerable relatives, neighbors, and
friends.
Advocates say many of these situations go unreported
because victims are scared or don't want to get their family member in
trouble.
FiftyForward does client check-ins and assessments.
Their "Victory Over Crime" program supports older adults who have been
victimized by crime. If you know of an older adult in need, you can
call them Monday-Friday at 615-743-3416.
In the year of COVID-19, court-ordered adult guardians have faced a
grim reality: their clients, many at a high risk for medical
complications, are getting the virus and passing away.
For Becky Pryor, a longtime guardian and guardianship advocate, a
typical year might include one client death, maybe two. But by October
of 2020, two of her wards had died after a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
By November, three had.
“It’s no joke. This is real,” said Lisa Dillman, a partner at the
elder law firm of Applegate & Dillman. Like Pryor’s guardianship
practice, Dillman’s firm has dealth with more deaths in 2020 than
normal.
Aside from the emotional toll of losing a guardianship client,
another longstanding issue in the guardianship world has been
exacerbated by the pandemic, Pryor said. When a client dies, guardians
are unable to finish their duties, she said, specifically overseeing the
disposition of the body.
Under Indiana law, a guardianship ends at the time of a ward’s death.
While a guardian will have financial and administrative duties to tie
up, Pryor said the statute gives her and other guardians no authority to
oversee post-mortem matters.
Instead, the law lists several other parties who can tend to those
matters, including surviving spouses and powers of attorney, to name a
few. But to Pryor and others working in guardianship, the question is,
what if a spouse or power of attorney isn’t willing or able to do the
job?
To that end, a guardianship task force has recommended that the
Indiana Legislature amend state statute to give guardians authority over
dispositions if necessary. While the concept received general support
in a recent meeting of the Probate Code Study Commission, the question
remained: how do you balance the authority of a guardian with that of
another party, such as a POA?
That issue, Pryor said, is one that must be resolved in order to get a bill passed.
Making the list
Pryor presented the legislative proposal to the Probate Code Study
Commission on behalf of the Working Interdisciplinary Networks of
Guardianship Stakeholders — or WINGS — Indiana Adult Guardianship State
Task Force. The group representing nearly 200 advocacy organizations
proposed amendments to Indiana Code § 29-3-12-1(e) and I.C.
29-2-19-17(2) to allow a guardian to oversee a ward’s disposition.
The former statute provides that “(w)hen a guardianship terminates by
reason of the death of the protected person, the powers of the guardian
cease, except that the guardian may pay the expenses of administration
that are approved by the court and exercise other powers that are
necessary to complete the performance of the guardian’s trust … .” But
under the latter statute, those “other powers” do not include
disposition of a body.
Instead, I.C. 29-2-19-17(2), Indiana’s funeral planning declaration
statute, names 10 individuals, listed in order of priority, who can sign
off on a disposition. Among them are a power of attorney, a surviving
spouse or “any other person willing to act and arrange for the final
disposition of the decedent’s remains … .”
Bennett
Ken Bennett practices guardianship law at Bennett & McClammer in
Indianapolis and is also CEO of the nonprofit CARE, or Center for
At-Risk Elders Inc.. When the issue of disposition has arisen in CARE’s
cases, he said the organization has relied on the “any other person”
provision — number 10 in the list of 10 individuals — to allow CARE to
oversee final disposition.
The problem, though, according to Pryor, is that the number 10 option
comes with a caveat: the individual acting as “any other person” must
“attest in writing that a good faith effort has been made to contact any
living individuals described in subdivisions (1) through (9).”
Guardians are often asked to attest that they do not know of any
other individual who could sign off on disposition, Pryor said, which
may not be the case. An adult under guardianship may have living family
or a power of attorney, she said, but those individuals may have proven
themselves to be unwilling or unable to carry out these duties.
Willing and able
That issue proved to be a sticking point when the Probate Code Study
Commission met in October to discuss the amendments. Under the WINGS
proposal, the funeral planning declaration statute would be amended to
give guardians the second priority spot on the list, bumping powers of
attorney down to the third spot and spouses to the fourth.
Probate attorneys on the commission questioned that move, noting that
powers of attorney generally have greater authority under Indiana law
than guardians. Commissioner and Vincennes lawyer Jeff Kolb opined that
POAs likely knew the incapacitated adult while guardians could be
strangers. Similarly, lawyer and commissioner Jim Martin said a power of
attorney would have to be revoked to give a guardian greater authority.
Pryor did not question their legal arguments, but instead pointed to
what she said is a practical reality: If an adult is under guardianship,
the POA, who is often a family member, likely has been unwilling or
unable to perform their duties. She and other guardians will frequently
petition courts to revoke a POA in those situations, she said.
What’s more, Pryor continued, guardians usually know their clients well and are familiar with their needs and wishes.
Pryor told IL if a client’s spouse is living, they will be consulted
in issues regarding disposition. But if a guardianship was ordered, the
spouse likely was unable to adequately care for their husband or wife.
Two or three?
Pryor said Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, has agreed to carry
legislation in the 2021 session that would make the changes the task
force is seeking. IL was unable to reach Lanane for comment.
The big question that needs to be answered, Pryor told IL, is what
place on the list guardians should take. But there are other statutory
issues that may arise.
Bennett, for example, noted there are conflicts in Indiana law
regarding the authority of a power of attorney and the authority of a
guardian. If a guardianship is in place, he said, the guardian seems to
be the more natural decision-maker.
Additionally, Indianapolis probate lawyer Jeff Dible told the
commission that there are three other lists in Indiana probate law that
track with the list of individuals in the funeral planning declaration
statute. If one list is changed, Dible said, the other three would have
to follow.
Like Pryor and Bennett, Dillman supports the proposal but offered some practical advice if a bill is not passed this year.
“If a client goes and hires a lawyer to do a power of attorney, the
job doesn’t stop there,” Dillman said. “… If the client is not sure what
they want yet, they should appoint someone who has the authority. This
could all be handled in a preplanning situation.”•
In this Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, file photo, singer Britney Spears makes
an appearance in front of the Park MGM hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
Spears wants to be freed from her father. In a recent series of court
maneuvers, Spears has sought greater say over her life and affairs,
which for years have been under the control of a court conservatorship
run mostly by her father, James Spears. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via
AP, File)
Policy changes and pop stars – two topics that aren’t frequently discussed together. With the growing spotlight on Britney Spear’s
contested conservatorship, that is changing. Many in our nation are
getting a first glimpse at a broken system that has ruined lives,
drained bank accounts, and destroyed families across the nation.
Don’t get me wrong;
even Britney will tell you: there’s a time and a place for the court to
examine all evidence, hear all sides and make well-informed judgments on
the appointment of a trusted and qualified conservator to protect those
who cannot protect themselves. It’s been said Britney herself has
agreed that her own conservatorship was initially needed. But her lawyer
is claiming the situation in her case and, all too often in our own
communities, the people who the court claims they are trying to protect
actually find themselves prisoners.
With Spears’ birthday
this week and recent court arguments coming to light, we can all hope
there is a tipping point coming. Not only a time for a change in Britney
Spears’ case but also a time for state and federal lawmakers to
reexamine and fix the problems that have repeatedly been acknowledged by
families, national advocates, the Bar Association, and even theGovernment Accountability Office.
The #FreeBritney
movement has taken hold and captured the attention of the nation and the
world, and my hope is that the same people watching the case unfold
come to see the bigger issue – that this is happening in cities and
counties in each and every one of their backyards.
Multiple petitions to
release Britney Spears from her conservatorship have gained the support
of hundreds of thousands of people. The Twitter hashtag #FreeBrittney
brings up countless tweets in many languages. With Britney’s 39th
birthday on Dec. 2, the timeline is currently flooded with warm wishes
and messages that include hopes that she will be freed from her
conservatorship.
Articles can be found in nearly every media outlet across the web. From People, Page 6, and Vanity Fair
to more traditional news outlets like CNN, ABC News, and NBC. It seems
every outlet is detailing her case. A case that began in 2008 with a
temporary order placing Britney under her father James Spears’ control
during a mental health crisis is now on year 12, with no discernable end
in sight.
As Alabama Today
reported previously in our second in this series, “The American Bar
Association published a study in 2017 on the Restoration of Rights in Adult Guardianship that
found, “an unknown number of adults languish under guardianship” when
they no longer need it, or never did. The authors wrote that
“guardianship is generally permanent, leaving no way out—‘until death do
us part.’ ”
Earlier this week NPR did a story
on conservatorships based on Britney’s case noting that a DOJ study
found that there are an estimated 1.3 million people who are involved in
conservatorship cases in the U.S. They play the tearful audio of the
only time Britney detailed her feelings on her conservatorship publicly.
She compared it to a prison sentence but said even then you know when
you’re going to get out. She went on to say it was like groundhog day.
It was widely reported
that during a November hearing, Brittney’s attorney told the court, “My
client has informed me that she is afraid of her father.” Going on to
say, “She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her
career.” ABC News Reports detail
how Britney is not only not getting a say in choices that affect her
life; her estranged father isn’t even informing her of major decisions
and changes that impact her.
It is unconscionable
that a system designed to protect the vulnerable from being victims is
making so many feel victimized and taking away their rights and their
voices.
The system hasn’t
spared us in Alabama or even Jefferson County, AL. either. We’ve had our
own share of “egregious” violations of civil rights as well as a lack
of transparency and accountability.
In the case that spurred months of investigative journalism and this series by Alabama Today, that of Joann Bashinsky (aka Mrs. B), the Alabama Supreme Court issued a scathing rebuke of Judge Alan King’s actions.
Actions that others say are commonplace in courtrooms around the state.
Emergency orders that went on for long periods of time and wards, or
would be wards, left without representation or their voices heard.
As reported in the Washington Post
the in the case before the Alabama supreme court, “Justices said
Bashinsky’s basic due-process rights were egregiously violated when the
probate court made the emergency decision without giving her time to
obtain counsel after her lawyers were disqualified. The permanent
petition remains pending before the court.
Joann Bashinsky is the widow of Sloan Y. Bashinsky, Sr.
who owned the majority stock in Golden Enterprises, Inc., and who was
the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Golden Flake
Foods. Her personal estate is estimated to be worth $80 million, and her
entire estate was valued at $218 million.
Is the Bashinsky case unique? No. How many more are like it? We
don’t know, but we’re trying to find out. We have heard from others that
Judge King was known to put wards under the supervision of his
handpicked court-ordered conservators, even when family members were
willing and able to fulfill the role.
We don’t know how many
though. As the Government Accountability Office and other watchdog
groups have noted, data on contested conservatorship and/or guardianship
cases is mostly unknown.
I asked the Jefferson
County probate court first in a series of emails and then in an official
public record request, a series of questions about how many cases have
been processed here in the last several years. My request was first
dated June 15, 2020. As of December 7, 2020, I have no answers. The
probate office, in the first 48-hours, did provide a litany of excuses
for not providing the records. First, they stated they needed a judge’s
permission. Specifically, they said they needed Judge King’s permission,
even though he retired prior to my request. Second, the supervisor
blamed the lack of ability to produce a response on the county’s dated
computer system, even though the person at the desk told me that they
used to be able to provide the data. Finally, I was told the delay was
related to staffing shortages. The underlying cause of both the bad
system and the staffing issue was apparently due to a county
commission’s lack of funding. So what can we do? Besides following the
Britney Spears case, we can contact our local, state, and federal
lawmakers about reforming contested conservatorships and making the
system more transparent.
Alabama can adopt
recommendations from the American Bar Association that would address
this problem by making the type of information I’m requesting (the
number of conservatorship and guardianship cases assigned to
county-designated conservators public in both contested and uncontested
cases) and requiring it to be presented to the state and made publicly
available online by county.
The ABA, in a policy statement on the issue,
said among other recommendations, it “encourages the federal government
to provide funding and support for training, research, exchange of
information on practices, consistent collection of data, and development
of state, local and territorial standards regarding adult
guardianship.”
A google search for
“Britney Spears conservatorship” brings up over 2,530,000 hits. I hope
that from her story, there is additional transparency and accountability
for many who don’t have her fame, her wealth, or her legions of fans.
You can help by calling your county commissioners and state legislators
and telling them it is time to protect those who can’t protect
themselves.
More than half of Ohio's COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes
By:
Ron Regan
COLUMBUS — A stunning admission from state health officials: those in
charge of tracking the coronavirus in Ohio claim they have no idea
which nursing homes have had COVID-19 deaths.
Deaths in nursing
homes account for more than half of Ohio's 7,187 COVID-19 deaths. More
than 3,800 nursing home residents have died from COVID-19 and we do not
know where, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
The revelation follows a joint investigation with our partner Scripps station, WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, that first began last August and resulted in a lawsuit
filed in the Ohio Court of Claims seeking health department records
identifying how many have died in the more than 900 individual nursing
homes across the state.
Ohio only released total nursing home
deaths by county, unlike other states including Michigan, Pennsylvania,
Kentucky and Indiana that make pubic the total number of COVID-19 death
by individual facilities.
Jack
Greiner is a Scripps attorney who has filed a motion opposing the
health department's efforts to dismiss the case, arguing that failure to
produce the records "suggests rank incompetence at ODH" adding that
"the statement does not appear to be true" based on additional
information in the form of an affidavit obtained by Scripps.
By failing to report COVID-19 deaths by individual nursing homes, the public has no idea how safe a facility may be.
Paula
Mueller heads up Elderly Advocates, a group that seeks to help families
with loved ones in nursing homes; she says these records should be
released.
"The most important reason that families need this
information to make informed decisions on where they might place a loved
one," Mueller said.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit seeking records in the
public interest continues and it could be at least a month before a
judge rules on our request for information.
ATHENS, Ala.
(AP) — A former Alabama judge who pleaded guilty to felony ethics and
theft charges was sentenced to four years in prison during a hearing
Tuesday.
Douglas
Patterson, who resigned from his job as district judge in Limestone
County in July, also was ordered to pay almost $73,000 in restitution,
and sheriff's deputies took him into custody immediately, news outlets
reported.
After
serving his sentence, Patterson must spend six years on supervised
probation and could be sentenced to additional time in prison if he
fails to comply with its provisions.
Patterson,
38, pleaded guilty in October after being indicted last year on charges
of financial exploitation, theft and using his position for personal
gain. He was was accused of taking more than $47,000 from a juvenile
court fund as judge and stealing from the conservatorship account of a
disabled person while working as a private attorney.
Former
Gov. Robert Bentley appointed Patterson to the judgeship in March 2016,
and he later ran unopposed and won a six-year term.
Sanford Solny accused of reaping $600K in rent on unlawfully obtained homes
By Georgia Kromrei
From left: 161 East 29th Street in East Flatbush, 2 Jardine Place in
Ocean Hill and 163 Montauk Avenue in Cypress Hills (Google Maps)
A former Brooklyn attorney has been indicted for carrying out a
nearly $8 million deed theft scheme, a practice that is not uncommon in
areas with high foreclosure rates.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez accused Sanford Solny of
stealing deeds to eight properties in foreclosure by tricking victims
into handing over their homes. He allegedly collected over $600,000 in
rent from the properties, which are located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, East
New York, Cypress Hills, Flatbush and Ocean Hill. The homes were valued
at $7.8 million.
Solny was served a 63-count indictment for grand larceny, scheme to defraud and possession of stolen property.
“Brooklyn’s valuable real estate market continues to be an attractive
target for fraudsters willing to deceive homeowners,” said Gonzalez.
“These victims, who trusted the defendant to help them avoid
foreclosure, instead allegedly had their homes stolen by him and were
left facing financial ruin.”
The alleged deed thief, who lost his license to practice law in 2012,
just before the alleged scheme began, received homeowners desperate to
avoid foreclosure in his Borough Park office. Solny convinced them he
would sell the properties to a third party in order to save their homes
from foreclosure, and paid the alleged victims between $1,000 and
$18,000 to take control of their properties.
According to Gonzalez, the homeowners believed that after Solny sold
their properties to a third party, the lender would forgive the loan
amount. Instead, Gonzalez alleges that Solny never made any effort to
sell the properties.
In some cases, the alleged victims would sign the deeds over to Solny
directly, believing that doing so was necessary to carry out the short
sale. In other cases, Solny would instruct the homeowners to sign
paperwork they thought was related to the transaction, but instead ceded
ownership of their homes. After the transaction was completed, he
convinced the homeowners to vacate the property.
Solny’s alleged scheme is not an isolated occurrence, especially in minority communities, where foreclosure rates are elevated.
When a foreclosure filing is made public, which happens long before
the lender takes back the keys to the property, homeowners are often met
with a barrage of solicitations from lawyers, real estate brokers and
house flippers with cash offers. The onslaught is such that foreclosure
prevention specialists often struggle to distinguish themselves and
reach the homeowner.
The pressure to sell rather than refinance or seek assistance is
particularly severe in neighborhoods like East New York and Cypress
Hills, where foreclosure rates are higher than the rest of the city. In November, the New York Department of State declared parts of those neighborhoods a “cease and desist zone,” a move that the Long Island Board of Realtors opposed.
Homeowners in parts of East New York and Cypress Hills can now add their
names to a published list, which forbids real estate brokers from
contacting those facing foreclosure without their permission. The
restrictions will be in place until 2025.
OIG has a long history of protecting the health and well-being of HHS
beneficiaries, including residents in long-term care facilities such as
nursing homes, many of whom are seniors. As part of our commitment to
this important work, our oversight agency collects and investigates tips
and complaints about fraud, waste, and abuse in these facilities.
Unfortunately, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a spike in
the number of reports of elder harm and neglect. Also, of great concern
is the rise in the number of bad actors preying on unsuspecting
individuals in our country, including many Medicare and Medicaid
beneficiaries.
As we continue to aggressively investigate those who cheat our
programs or hurt beneficiaries, we want you to know that the public can
effectively advocate for this vulnerable population by reporting patient
safety and fraud concerns. While there are many ways that long-term
care residents can be subject to harm, here are a few:
Harm or Neglect
If residents have bruises, fractures, lacerations, abrasions,
contusions, or other bodily injuries, this may indicate potential
physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect.
Behavioral changes or non-verbal signals that a resident may be in
fear of specific staff or caretakers. This may indicate possible abuse.
Poor hygiene and sanitation practices and delays in transferring ill
residents to hospitals can result from failures in quality of care.
Employees who do not follow COVID-19 health and safety precautions
demonstrate inadequate infection control measures and risk exposing
residents and other staff to the virus.
Fraud
Fraudsters visit facilities and offer medical services in exchange
for Medicare and Medicaid numbers that are then submitted in fraudulent
claims to insurers.
Scammers reach residents via unsolicited telephone calls, television
commercials, and internet pop-up ads attempting to obtain personal
information and commit medical identity theft.
Fraudulent health care providers and prescribers may provide
medically unnecessary treatments and products to residents and bill for
the illegitimate services.
Take the Lead: Report Fraud, Abuse, and Neglect
If a senior is not in urgent danger, but you suspect fraud, abuse, or
neglect has or is occurring, please report your complaint to local law
enforcement, state agencies, including your state Medicaid Fraud Control
Unit (MFCU), or to HHS OIG at tips.hhs.gov.
In addition, should you, or someone you know, be in urgent life
threatening danger, please call 911 for an immediate response. Medical
authorities can address the issue quickly and alert the proper
authorities that a nursing home may be failing to keep residents safe.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (Tribune News Service) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's
top military affairs official abruptly retired over the weekend amid
investigations into dozens of coronavirus deaths at a state-run veterans
home in Chester County and allegations of sexual harassment and
retaliation at a National Guard station in Montgomery County.
Wolf on Saturday announced that Maj. Gen. Anthony Carrelli was retiring
from his cabinet-level position, effective immediately. The
administration would not explain the reasons for his departure.
Carrelli, as adjutant general and head of the Department of Military
and Veterans Affairs, was in charge of the state's National Guard units,
as well as six state-run nursing homes for veterans and their spouses.
Both institutions have faced scrutiny this year.
In August, two Philadelphia-area congresswomen asked Carrelli to
address allegations of misconduct at the Horsham Air Guard Station. The
letter to Carrelli followed an Inquirer report in which the base's
former sexual assault response coordinator said she was unfairly
terminated, and other women described years of rampant sexual harassment
and discrimination.
A National Guard brigadier general from West Virginia is now
investigating the Horsham base, according to people who have recently
been interviewed. Carrelli is a former commander there.
Carrelli's department is also facing an outside investigation into how
it responded to the coronavirus pandemic at the Southeastern Veterans'
Center, where at least 42 people died of COVID-19.
The Inquirer has reported on how the pandemic tore through the 238-bed
home in Chester County, while residents and their families struggled to
get information. Officials were slow to adopt infection-control
procedures and initially discouraged nurses and aides from wearing face
masks.
Employees there told The Inquirer in May that the facility had been
mismanaged for years under Commandant Rohan Blackwood and his senior
staff. Blackwood and his director of nursing were suspended in May as
the state investigation got underway.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale released a report last
week that criticized the nursing home's slow response to the virus.
Carrelli could not immediately be reached Monday about his retirement.
Lyndsay Kensinger, a spokesperson for Wolf, declined to elaborate on
the circumstances of Carrelli's departure, other than to say in an
email: "Maj. Gen. Carrelli's decision to retire last week after 35 years
of public service was not made at the request of the administration."
Wolf has appointed Maj. Gen. Mark Schindler as acting adjutant general.
Carrelli, who was paid $176,760 a year, is a former Air Force fighter
pilot who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was named adjutant general
in January 2016.
MONTGOMERY — Attorney General Steve Marshall announced on Tuesday
that former Limestone County district judge Douglas Lee Patterson has
been sentenced to serve four years in prison.
Patterson pleaded guilty on Oct. 30 to three felony charges: use of
official position or office for personal gain, financial exploitation of
the elderly in the first degree, and theft of property in the third
degree.
He is set to serve four years in prison followed by six years of
supervised probation. Patterson, according to a news release from
Marshall, is required to serve all of the four years in prison, and if
he fails to abide by the terms of probation, he could be ordered to
serve another 12 years in prison. He was also ordered to pay restitution
totaling $72,822 to his victims.
“It is fitting that Patterson has received a stern sentence for his
crimes and that we have brought a measure of justice for his victims,”
said Attorney General Marshall. “He betrayed the citizens of Limestone
County and exploited those who trusted him, stealing from the most
vulnerable among us — children, the disabled and the elderly. This
sentence serves to restore the public confidence in our judicial system
and sends a strong warning that such despicable actions will not be
tolerated, and all will be held equally to account under the law.”
FBI Birmingham Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp Jr. said,
“Everyone, even judges, are subject to the rule of law. The sentence
handed down today demonstrates the FBI’s firm commitment to work with
our law enforcement partners to address public corruption at every level
and hold public officials accountable when they violate the law, their
oath of office and the public’s trust.”
As part of Patterson’s plea agreement, he admitted to stealing
$47,800 from the Limestone County Juvenile Court Services Fund, which
was designated to support the children of Limestone County.
Patterson also admitted in court that, while serving as a private
attorney, he financially exploited Charles Lee Hardy, for whom he served
as a court-appointed conservator. Hardy died in December 2015 and was
left with nothing to inherit to his family.
Patterson also admitted to stealing from another client, Rudolph
Allen, while in private practice. According to Tuesday’s announcement,
Patterson stole $601 from Allen three years after he died in July 2015.
Patterson spent the money on himself rather than turn it over to Allen’s
family.
CLEVELAND — Two Tampa, Fla. men are charged in a nine-count federal
indictment involving the scamming of elderly people throughout the
Northern Ohio district.
John Tyler Pla, 25, and Johnny Lee Palmer, 25, both of Tampa, are
charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, according
to U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman. A federal grand jury sitting in Toledo
returned the indictments.
“Protecting our district’s elderly and
vulnerable populations from scammers and fraudsters is an important part
of the work we do every day at the Justice Department,” Herdman said. “Manipulating and exploiting our district’s elderly in any way, for any reason, will be met with swift prosecution.”
FBI Special Agent Eric B. Smith said his unit is increasingly watching over the elderly to prevent scams.
“The FBI encourages everyone to educate their elderly family and friends on financial scams such as this,” Smith said, referring to the case against the Florida men. “These
two fraudsters played on the heart-strings of grandparents.
Discussions prior to receiving a possible phone call from scammers can
prevent your loved one from being a victim.”
According to the indictment, from July 20 to Aug. 28 this year, the
defendants are accused of conspiring together to orchestrate a “grandparent scam” on elderly victims in Brecksville, Parma, Gates Mills, Lorain, Mansfield, Fairview Park, Westlake and Mentor.
To conduct their alleged scheme, the defendants are accused of
calling elderly victims in these areas claiming to be a relative — such
as a grandson, granddaughter, or an attorney for the relative — and
informing the elderly victim that he or she had been arrested and
needed money for bail.
The indictment states that the conspirators would then arrange for a
purported courier to pick up the money in person. The defendants would
then rent a U-Haul vehicle and travel to the victims’ residence to
collect the money in person. In total, the victims suffered a combined
loss of $383,932.
The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the
Cleveland Division of the FBI and Westlake Police Department. This case
is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian McDonough.
According to Herdman, this case is part of the Justice Department’s
2020 national Money Mule initiative. The Money Mule initiative seeks to
stop the financial exploitation of the nation’s elderly and vulnerable
populations.
Since President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan Elder Abuse
Prevention and Prosecution Act into law, the Department of Justice has
participated in hundreds of enforcement actions in criminal and civil
cases that targeted or disproportionately affected seniors.
In particular, in March, the department announced the largest elder
fraud enforcement action in American history, charging more than 400
defendants in a nationwide elder fraud sweep.
The signs of trouble are clear to J.D. Frazier as he works to help a woman sliding into dementia.
The
state-registered decision-making guide is helping her contact experts
to arrange and protect her assets. But she is easily swayed, and family
members who lost income in the pandemic are on her doorstep. She agreed
with them to cancel her appointment with a lawyer.
Now Frazier is having trouble reaching her.
It’s
an additional toll among older people during the pandemic: Their
diminished social contacts make it less likely that others would notice
problems that could put them at risk of exploitation.
“The pandemic, it’s a perfect storm,” Frazier said.
Elder financial
exploitation ballooned following the 2008 housing bust: everything from
scam calls and con jobs to the most common type of all, family financial
exploitation. And exploitation and fraud are likely ballooning now,
experts say.
“Imagine
22 million people lost their jobs in the last nine months and 10 million
have not regained their job,” said Kristen Lewis, an attorney in
special needs estate planning who helps her clients try to protect their
assets. “People do desperate things.”
The
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector
General said it has seen a spike in elder harm and neglect and is
concerned about the level of fraud. The FBI said in a statement that
fraud in general has increased, driven in part by COVID-19 related
schemes, and that elder fraud was an FBI priority.
It’s nearly impossible to get numbers that tell the true story, however.
Credit: Ben Gray
“About
1 in 23 cases are reported,” said David Blake, a financial forensic
specialist with the Georgia Department of Human Services, in a November
webinar on the subject. “It’s like an iceberg.”
About
90% of perpetrators of elder abuse, neglect or fraud are adult children
or spouses, and often caretakers, Blake said. The acts can range from
unduly pressuring an elder person to give money, or asking at all when
the person has lost their cognitive ability; to outright fraud or
identity theft.
Blake added: “It becomes worse in the pandemic.”
The elderly can also be at risk from other caregivers and from strangers.
In Georgia, a caseworker with the state’s Adult Protective Services was arrested in September on suspicion of stealing money from a Toccoa man he was supposed to be protecting.
The
Federal Trade Commission has warned that social isolation of the
coronavirus lends itself to successful scams. As seniors isolate,
scammers are offering help in running errands or performing tasks, like
landscaping, but taking off with the money. Older people are also
targeted with telephone scams, told a loved ones needs money immediately
to pay a hospital bill, get home from a foreign country, or pay off a
debt.
“My in-laws just
received a call, claiming my daughter was in jail for a car accident
& wanted $16,000,” one reader posted on the commission website. “She
sounded like my daughter.”
Frazier, who is a
quadriplegic, is registered as a “neutral” with the Georgia Office of
Dispute Resolution. He has seen in his work how the psychological stress
of the pandemic plays a double whammy on older people who are
vulnerable.
First, he
said, it isolates them from regular contact with people who might raise
red flags, like church friends. Second, the isolation can become a
stress of its own, possibly muddling a person’s decision-making
abilities when someone comes asking for money, while also making people
yearn for connection.
“And they don’t know how to deal with it, and in many times they can’t, they’ve lost cognitive ability,” he said.
For
some families, he stressed, the helping hand of a relative can work out
well. For troubled ones, though, it can lead to draining the the life
savings of someone who has nothing else to live on.
Lewis, the attorney, said
that of the cases she knows, they’re reported so late in the game that
“maybe 15% of the time” was there anything left to recover for the elder
person.
“One important
way to minimize the risk of this happening is knowing common
characteristics of perpetrators,” she said. “And having a substance
abuse problem is way up on the list. Because people need something to
feed their habit.”
And “during a pandemic,” Lewis added, “people turn to booze or pot for their stress.”
When
the story of fraud and abuse in the pandemic is finally known, “I think
it will be easier for the perpetrators to get away with it,” Lewis
said. “And the dollar amounts will probably be higher.”
As
for Frazier, he is trying to figure out if there’s a way to ensure his
client’s best interests still get served. “The bad news is, this stuff
happens,” he said. “We usually get to people after the damage is done.”
POSSIBLE SIGNS OF FINANCIAL ABUSE
New “person of trust” isolates the victim
Change in status: used to save every penny, now they are withdrawing money every week
They appoint someone new to handle their affairs
Missing jewelry
Quick deeds, of family property or businesses
WHERE TO REPORT IN GEORGIA
If abuse happens in a private home or in the community:
Report to both law enforcement AND Adult Protective Services (APS)
The 13th Court of Appeals has affirmed a former Hidalgo County attorney’s disbarment.
The appellate court issued the ruling on Wednesday in an 89-page memorandum of opinion on remand.
The Commission for Lawyer Discipline took Mark A.
Cantu to trial in 2016 alleging he committed professional misconduct
during bankruptcy proceedings that also involved his wife, Roxanne
Cantu, and a company they owned and controlled called Mar-Rox.
In a 10-2 decision, the jury decided Cantu violated
the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct during those
proceedings by making false statements; taking a position that
unreasonably increased the costs or other burdens of the case; and
knowingly offered or used false evidence, among other violations
including dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation, according to
the ruling.
In 2018, Cantu had secured a victory in the 13th
Court of Appeals that reinstated him and granted him a new trial after
the appellate court ruled that “erroneous” testimony had been allowed
during his ethics trial.
The
Texas Supreme Court, however, reversed that ruling after deciding that
neither the admission of the judge’s testimony nor the admission into
evidence of the judge’s memorandum opinion constituted reversible error.
“The supreme court remanded the case to this Court to consider Cantu’s remaining issues,” the most recent ruling states.
Those issues were numerous and include challenges
to the admission of expert testimony, the jury charge, jury
deliberations, the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence, the
propriety of sanctions based on actions he took in his individual rather
than professional capacity, the trial court’s findings of fact and
conclusions of law, and the award of attorney fees.
The 13th Court of Appeals ruled against each and every one.
“We affirm Cantu’s judgment of disbarment,” the ruling states.
Cantu, his wife and Mar-Rox, their company, filed
for voluntary bankruptcy on May 6, 2008, which was converted to a
Chapter 7 liquidation on June 24, 2009, and a trustee was appointed to
administer the estate.
“At the time of the voluntary bankruptcy filing,
the Cantus owned University Inn [M]otel, Palm Plaza Motel and RV Park,
La Vista Mobile Home Park, and Dominion Apartments. They owned Mar-Rox,
Inc., through which they owned The Atrium, an office building in
McAllen, four restaurants, and several other commercial properties for
real estate holdings valued at about $24 million,” the ruling states.
Personal property owned by the Cantus in their bankruptcy schedules was valued at $3.9 million, according to court records.
“Mr. Cantu owned a successful law practice. At the
time of the voluntary bankruptcy filing, the Cantus had more than $37
million in secured debt and more than $10 million in unsecured debt.
Their company, Mar-Rox Inc., had more than $20 million in debt,” the
ruling states.
As part of those proceedings, Cantu was required to
make statements of his financial affairs under the penalty of perjury
and the Commission for Lawyer Discipline alleged he failed to include
significant assets and transactions.
“Respondent failed to disclose Respondent’s
interests in two contingency fee cases, failed to disclose jewelry sales
of more than $100,000.00 and failed to schedule two life-sized bronze
horses worth about $20,000.00. The horses were placed on property
belonging to Respondent Cantu’s sister in an apparent attempt to conceal
them,” the ruling states.
He also failed to disclose a transfer of $50,000 to
a friend, which was part of a $150,000 settlement as part of a
bankruptcy court claim.
“Cantu was not honest with the Court regarding how that money was spent,” the ruling states.
The court also found Cantu failed to provide
records of his use of estate funds, records of cash withdrawals from the
estates, including withdrawals of cash from the businesses University
Inn and La Vista, which was a violation of bankruptcy court orders
regarding cash collateral.
“Cantu interfered with the sale of estate assets
and failed to turn over assets belonging to the estate. He [interfered]
with the sale of the Atrium building, he interfered with the turnover of
valuable artwork from his offices, [and] he attempted to hide the horse
statues,” the ruling states.
The commission says he made material false oaths
regarding the existence of water damage cases in which Mar-Rox had an
interest, the existence of contingency fee interests, jewelry sales and
the transfer of $50,000 to his friend.
“Throughout the bankruptcy proceeding, Respondent
Cantu disregarded the requirements of the bankruptcy code and
demonstrated a pattern of omission, obfuscation and non-compliance in
violation of his obligations to the court. This pattern of behavior
obstructed the administration of the bankruptcy estate and the [c]ourt,
increased the expense and inconvenience for the trustee, the estate and
the court and otherwise interfered and complicated the bankruptcy case .
. . and its administration,” the ruling states.
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - The Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services have doubled the number of days Medicaid
residents in skilled nursing homes can visit their families.
Days
before the holiday season, residents can now live with their families
for 48 days this year. North Dakota, like many other states, requested
the expansion after getting calls from families.
Visitation in long-term care has been a regular point of contention as we get closer to the holidays.
Families
want to see their loved ones, but the facilities and the federal
organizations that oversee them are trying to prevent the spread. For
the remainder of 2020, residents can stay with their families for an
additional 24 days.
The reason there’s a cap in the first
place is so residents can save their spots in the facilities and for the
organizations to maintain federal funding.
The
Department of Human Services says those interested should talk to their
loved one and discuss the pros and cons. Adding it’s all about giving
people choices.
“This isn’t about the
flexibility that all residents would take up or should take up. But it
really is about giving people the option about whether or not they want
to bring their loved one home,” said ND Medicaid Director Caprice Knapp.
For
those who leave the nursing home, the CMS asks you limit contact with
people and shared items, be cautions with food serving practices, and be
on the lookout for COVID-19 symptoms.
DHS is warning residents may have to quarantine for up to 14 days upon
returning to their skilled nursing facility, even if a rapid test says
they are negative earlier.
Retired Honolulu police chief Louis Kealoha and his then-wife,
Katherine, leave federal court in Honolulu on Oct. 20, 2017. (Caleb
Jones/AP)
By Kim Bellware
What’s
described as the biggest corruption case in Hawaii’s history started
with a stolen mailbox and unspooled into a seven-year legal saga that
concluded Monday with a once-esteemed Honolulu power couple handed 13
and seven-year prison sentences for conspiracy, bank fraud and other
charges.
For
federal public defender Alexander Silvert, who has since retired, it
began in 2013 with a low-level crime and a familiar plea. Gerard Puana,
accused of stealing his niece’s mailbox, insisted he was being framed.
Silvert
was appointed to the case, which he quickly sized up as a loser:
Puana’s accusers were his popular and powerful niece, Katherine Kealoha,
the third-ranking boss in the Honolulu prosecutor’s office, and her
husband, Louis, the Honolulu police chief.
They claimed to have Puana on video committing the crime.
“I took
the case assuming he was guilty but that I could help him avoid being
over-sentenced,” Silvert told The Washington Post. Still, he found the
case unusual from the start. “In my entire career, I’ve never heard of a
charge of a mailbox theft going to federal court.”
Silvert,
and later federal investigators, would reveal how the Kealohas
leveraged their powerful roles in law enforcement to frame Puana and
cover up an array of schemes that fueled a lavish lifestyle at the
expense of those who trusted them most.
Among
the victims was Florence Puana, Katherine’s 100-year-old grandmother;
Puana lost her home of 58 years after Katherine pocketed the money from a
reverse mortgage plot. Before Florence died in February, she wrote a
letter to Katherine that was read in court during sentencing Monday.
“I trusted you,” Florence wrote her granddaughter. “Yet you betrayed me.”
Court
records show the Kealohas’ expenses included Maserati and Mercedes car
payments, a trip to Disneyland and $2,000 concert tickets to see Elton
John. In 2009, Katherine racked up a $23,976 brunch tab at the Sheraton
Waikiki to fete Louis after he was appointed police chief.
To conceal the fraud, Katherine invented a notary
and faked witness signatures on financial documents; she filed bogus
identity-theft claims to deflect negative questions about the couple’s
credit history; she had statements for the reverse mortgage diverted to a
P.O. box that only she could access.
The Puanas
learned of the fraud only because of an administrative error: When the
mortgage debt was sold to a new company several years on, the new
statements were mistakenly sent to the property address instead of the
P.O. box.
Florence
Puana, by then in her 90s, realized that Katherine hadn’t paid off any
of the outstanding balance as promised and that she was about to lose
her home. Alleging elder and financial abuse, the Puanas filed a lawsuit
against Katherine.
Watch your back
Initially,
the lawsuit against the Kealohas didn’t raise eyebrows in the
community, where there was little appetite for seeing a prominent native
Hawaiian couple disgraced.
“The
community adored them — and they were very powerful people,” said Lynn
Kawano, a reporter and anchor for KGMB/KHNL Hawaii News Now. “Not just
because of their titles, but because of their family. Your family name
goes a long way here.”
Kawano, a
Hawaii native, told The Post that she faced pushback in the early days
of covering the case. Some encouraged her to drop the story altogether
and told her and her husband to “watch their backs.”
By
2016, two years after the mailbox arrest, the corruption allegations
were gaining traction, but the community still clung to doubts.
“People
told me, ‘No way is this about a mailbox,' ” Kawano said. The couple’s
supporters found ways to rationalize how even top-ranking public
employees could afford luxury cars, Rolex watches and a home in the tony
suburb of Kahala, considered the “Beverly Hills of Honolulu.”
A
wealthy local lawyer who estimated his income as being three times that
of the Kealohas, encouraged Kawano to keep digging, she recalls. “He
told me, 'I can’t even afford to live in that neighborhood.’ ”
Attention from Honolulu police
Facing
pressure from the lawsuit, the Kealohas devised a countermeasure to
intimidate and discredit Katherine’s uncle, Silvert said.
The couple
told police that Gerard Puana stole their mailbox, worth $380 — a value
that would bump petty theft to a felony charge. Tying in the U.S. mail
would make it a federal case, while their surveillance video (which
would later be revealed as doctored) would easily lock a conviction
against him.
A
felony conviction might silence Puana, or at least provide ammunition
to weaken and discredit him as a witness in the civil trial, Silvert
said.
But
the plan started to fall apart under basic fact-checking. The suspect
in the grainy surveillance footage looked younger and smaller than
Puana. Appraisers and investigators found the Kealohas had lied about
the type of mailbox they owned and falsely claimed one of higher value
in an apparent effort to crack the $300 threshold for felony theft
charges.
Silvert
combed through old photos from Google Maps to prove that the mailbox
that was stolen in the setup was a different brand entirely — and cost
less than $200. Plus, he couldn’t square why that crime would attract so
much attention from Honolulu police.
“There
was a homicide detective assigned to investigate a petty mailbox
theft,” Silvert said. Eventually, he was able to prove that every police
report — from the Kealohas’ initial 911 call to logs the assigned
officers kept — had been falsified.
‘Rue the day’
At
Puana’s theft trial in 2014, the U.S. attorneys in Honolulu planned to
cast him as an embittered schemer in contrast to the Kealohas’ status as
pillars of the community. To undercut that narrative, Silvert opened
with what he calls the “rue the day letter.”
“HOW DARE ANYONE make such MALICIOUS and FALSE STATEMENTS against me!” read a letter Katherine wrote in response to her grandmother’s lawsuit. “They will rue the day that they decided to state these TWISTED LIES!”
“We were
well-prepared for trial thinking we could convince the jury,” Silvert
said. But in the second hour of the trial, the unthinkable happened.
On the stand, Louis, the police chief, introduced prohibited testimony, which caused a mistrial. Silvert and other observers believe it was done on purpose.
“The
chief has a master’s degree in criminal justice and years of
experience. He trains rookie cops on how to testify,” Silvert said.
Kawano,
the reporter, was sitting behind Silvert in the courtroom and recalled
how the federal public defender “threw his arms up and slammed both
fists on the table.”
Silvert
remembers it the same way. Furious, he soon made the unusual move to
reach out to the opposition — the FBI. He hoped that if Puana’s case
didn’t get retried, federal investigators could still expose the
Kealohas.
“When you
meet with the FBI, who I cross-examine and call liars all the time, you
can imagine it was a very difficult meeting,” Silvert said. But the
investigation eventually gained traction.
Honolulu’s
U.S. attorney’s office recused itself, having prosecuted Puana’s case.
Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of California stepped in
and spent five years investigating before securing convictions and
guilty pleas from the Kealohas last year, along with conspiracy and
obstruction convictions against two former police officers in the
Honolulu Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit acting at
Louis’s behest; both were sentenced to prison.
The
Kealohas’ unraveling has been met with sadness and anger. Kawano said
it was a blow to Honolulu’s Hawaiian community but also a hit to the
taxpayers, who will shoulder the “millions” in city and county settlements to the couple’s victims. Together, they are also liable for at least a combined $455,000 in restitution to victims.
“There’s a lot of anger now — how could this have happened? Why was there no oversight?” she said.
Michael Wheat, the special prosecutor from the California U.S. attorney’s office, said the Kealohas’ situation was unique.
“I
don’t think you’d see again where the police department and the
prosecutor’s office is literally the same family,” he told The Post.
The
Kealohas are no longer the family they once were, with some members now
estranged — including Katherine and Louis. After their 2019
convictions, Louis filed for divorce.
Western Cape lawyer Terrence Mouton was convicted in the George magistrate's court on December 3 2020 for stealing R275,000.
by Philani Nombembe
Western Cape lawyer Terrence Mouton will split his time between legal
work and community service for the next five years after
being convicted of theft this week.
The
George magistrate's court sentenced the 40-year-old lawyer on Thursday.
Mouton, who was arrested in October, misappropriated R275,000 from his
law firm’s trust account.
“Mouton,
attached to TJ Mouton Attorneys, received R275,209.99 into his trust
account for the purchase of fixed property from his client on June 24
2015. The funds were not paid towards purchasing the property but were
instead misappropriated,” said Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani.
Mouton
pleaded guilty and the court sentenced him to five years' imprisonment
which was wholly suspended for five years. But stringent conditions were
attached.
“[The] magistrate
ordered Mouton to pay at least R55,041.99 [or more] to the Attorneys
Fidelity Fund per year until the debt is paid in full,” said Hani.
“Furthermore,
Mouton should do 16 hours of community service per month for the entire
duration of the sentence and also was declared unfit to possess a
firearm.”
