'You'll get hoodwinked;' Family warns against emergency temporary guardianships

by Danielle DaRos

After getting their father out of a two-year guardianship that was only supposed to last 90 days, daughters Zoraida and Martiza Navarro are reunited with their father Benito (WPEC).

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — When sisters Maritza and Zoraida Navarro initiated an emergency guardianship for their father, they had the best intentions.

After the death of their mother, they worried their elderly father, Benito, was falling for a romance scam and about to lose everything to a woman he barely knew from Peru.

They petitioned the court for an "emergency temporary guardianship," or an ETG, which they believed would be just that: temporary. ETGs are supposed to last for 90 days.

Because Martiza and Zoraida are both medical doctors and were designated power of attorney for their father, they asked the judge to be appointed his guardians. But for some reason, a judge decided to appoint someone else: a professional guardian -- a complete stranger -- to manage Benito's money and medical care.

That was the start of a two-year nightmare for their daughters, who only recently got their father freed.

After getting their father out of a two-year guardianship that was only supposed to last 90 days, daughters Zoraida and Martiza Navarro are reunited with their father Benito (WPEC).

"[ETGs] are supposed to be temporary, but if you don't know the law, you'll get hoodwinked," Zoraida said. "The system is broken. It has to be fixed."

For nearly two years, the CBS12 News I-Team has been investigating Florida's guardianship system. We've shown the loopholes that allow bad actors to exploit the people they are being paid to protect, stealing their money, and isolating their wards from their family.

Court records show the daughters fought the guardianship every step of the way, objecting to the way Benito's money was being spent. They didn't want him to be moved to an assisted living facility, and they didn't want the guardian to put his house in Greenacres up for sale.

But a judge signed off on all of it -- and even extended the emergency "temporary" guardianship for another 90 days, when it was set to expire.

"Once you are in an ETG, an emergency temporary guardianship, it is anything but temporary," said Hillary Hogue, a guardianship reform advocate who sat on the statewide Guardianship Improvement Task Force.

In Florida, there is no limitation in guardianship statute for the number of times an ETG can be extended.

Hogue believes it's too easy for a guardian to claim the emergency conditions still exist, and keep getting paid to manage their ward.

"That is the way to get someone under the control of the court system," Hogue said. "To say they are wandering, to say they don't know their family's names, there's a financial risk of exploitation. That's all the judge needs to read or here, without even meeting the alleged incapacitated person who never goes in front of the judge."

In Benito's case, his ETG was extended three times before a judge decided to make the "emergency" guardian the permanent, or plenary guardian.

"If we didn't have access to him, a stranger could have him medicated, move him out, could keep him from us forever," Zoraida said.

The situation escalated when the daughters received permission from the guardian to take their father out to lunch. In court documents, they state that they observed their father's diminished mobility, swollen legs, and bed sores.

Fearing congestive heart failure could occur, they took Benito to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center for treatment. But because they did not communicate with the guardian right away, they got in trouble with the courts -- were threatened with kidnapping charges -- and were handed a "stay away" order that prevented them from seeing their father.

It took an unusual legal maneuver to turn things around: the daughters filed a notice in court claiming rights to their father's house, and named the judge as a defendant. This forced the judge to recuse herself from the probate case. And when a new judge reviewed the docket, he came to a very different conclusion.

"He said look, I've read this file quite extensively," said Zoraida. "Is there anybody here that these two girls should not be the guardians? Nobody said a peep. Because the gig was up."

The guardian resigned and the new judge appointed Zoraida and Maritza to oversee their father's care. He is now living with them, and says he is happier than ever.

"Being around my two daughters, I"m perfect," Benito said. "The guardianship I had -- no good."

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'You'll get hoodwinked;' Family warns against emergency temporary guardianships