Friday, December 16, 2022

77-page guardianship investigation exposes lack of oversight in Florida's system

Concerns include missing jewelry, 18% real estate commission

By: Adam Walser 

CLEARWATER, Fla. — The I-Team has reported for a decade how Florida’s court-appointed professional guardians can control your life, health care decisions and finances and get paid with your assets.  

A scathing new report alleges one former guardian exploited dozens of people under her care called “wards."

In exclusive interviews, we hear from two people working to protect vulnerable seniors and how the flawed system makes that impossible.  

In 2019, professional guardian Traci Hudson was arrested and charged with exploiting an elderly man under her care.

Investigators said she used a half-a-million dollars of his money to buy herself a luxury home, jewelry and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tickets.

Days after her arrest, a judge ordered the Pinellas County Clerk’s office to investigate Hudson’s 45 guardianship cases. 

“What it produced was evidence of flagrant fraud”  

Hudson’s wards had a combined $14 million in assets at the time they entered guardianship.  

“If there are any red flags that are brought to our attention, then we’ll address that at that point in time,” Pinellas County Probate Judge Campbell said during a court hearing days after Hudson’s arrest.  

Three years later, a 77-page report filled with red flags not only exposes problems with Hudson’s cases but also with the guardianship system.

Investigation of Former Pro... by ABC Action News

Hudson declined to be interviewed.  

Her attorney Richard McKyton said he wouldn’t talk about specific allegations in the report but said he doesn't anticipate it will affect her upcoming trial.  

“What it produced was just evidence of flagrant fraud,” said retired Pinellas County Judge Linda Allan. 

Allan, who presided over thousands of guardianship cases, said many guardians receive minimal training. 

Under Florida law, they are only required to pass a background check and complete a 40-hour course.  

“There’s virtually no standards or criteria,” Allan said.  

“There’s very little direct oversight of what the guardian does,” said Pinellas County Clerk of Court Ken Burke, who oversaw the investigation.  “If there were all these safeguards, things like we found in this report would not have been found."

Hudson declined to be interviewed by the Pinellas County Inspector General’s Office.  

Guardian paid for working more than 24 hours a day  

The report shows Hudson was paid more than $406,000 from her wards’ assets in less than three years. 

“The number of hours that were allegedly expended were way out of the norm to come up with that,” Allan said.  

Seven times Hudson billed for working between 25 and 39 hours in a single day.  

Burke said investigators found that Hudson billed for being in California working on behalf of a ward on the same day she billed for visiting local banks and nursing homes.  

“There was not just a single instance, but many instances of billing over 18 hours in a day,” Burked said.  

The report said Hudson billed for working more than 18 hours in a day 83 times. 

Allan said guardians can do that because judges approve payments one case at a time.  

“There should be greater oversight. I just don’t know exactly how to accomplish that,” Allan said.  

Missing jewelry, court documents altered  

“There was jewelry missing, savings bonds worth twenty-some thousand dollars missing… not accounted for,” Burke said.  


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77-page guardianship investigation exposes lack of oversight in Florida's system

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