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| Ted Scarborough is about to be escorted by two Macomb County Sheriff’s deputies from a Macomb Probate courtroom to go to jail for violating Judge Sandra Harrison’s order, as attorneys Terry Gilsenan and Elizabeth Ferguson watch. JAMESON COOK — THE MACOMB DAILY |
By Jameson Cook
A former Clinton Township man was jailed by a Macomb County Probate judge for 90 days Tuesday for violating a court order by contacting his fiancee’ in a nursing home under a guardianship and previously submitting a fake letter that was portrayed as written by her.
Ted Scarborough was escorted out of a courtroom to go to the county jail following an at times tumultuous hearing that included allegations he had abused and taken advantage of his fiancee, Judith Tefft, 58. He denied accusations he contacted her and accused the guardian, Terrence Gillsenan, of isolating her from him and her friends. She has been diagnosed with alcohol-induced early-stage dementia.
Scarborough, 58, yelled, “Don’t f——manhandle me,” to two sheriff’s deputies as they escorted him from the Mount Clemens courtroom.
Judge Sandra Harrison jailed Scarborough for civil contempt of court – having contact or having third parties contact Tefft in a nursing home during the past few months. He also submitted a handwritten letter to the judge that was surreptitiously delivered to the unidentified nursing home that the judge determined was written by someone else and Judith appeared to have signed in the nursing home, Harrison said.
“You have continued to contact Judith and answer her phone calls, which you admitted right into the record,” Harrison said while appearing remotely by video. “You had somebody draft up that letter that you sent to me, at this court, pretending to be Judith Tefft asking for you to be appointed her guardian. You committed a fraud on this court.”
Scarborough did not address the letter but responded that Tefft “is calling me. I am not making contact with her. There is a difference there. She is calling me begging me to get her out of there and to help her, and that’s what I have been doing because her family is not doing nothing (sic) to help her.
“This guy (Gilsenan, the guardian) sets me up for failure with this no contact (order). I am concerned about her and her well-being. He is not taking care of her.”
Scarborough said he hasn’t tried to visit Tefft, but his supporters went to the nursing home on Feb. 12 looking for Tefft on behalf of Scarborough, and Scarborough said he accepted a Dec. 22 telephone call from her.
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| Judith Tefft, right, and Judge Sandra Harrison appear from separate locations by video Tuesday in Macomb County Probate Court in Mount Clemens.MACOMB DAILY PHOTO |
Harrison last November jailed Scarborough for 21 days (18 served) for contempt of court: seven days each also for contacting Tefft, lying about the letter and directing an obscenity at the judge in court.
Scarborough, who had been living with Tefft for about 11 years, sought to take over the guardianship, but Harrison ruled he does not have standing.
Harrison pointed out her office has been getting telephone calls from a woman who identifies herself as Scarborough’s girlfriend. Scarborough, who was evicted from Tefft’s former Clinton Township home, says he has been residing in Dryden in Lapeer County.
“I think it’s very interesting you’re still calling her your fiancee,” Harrison said.
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| Attorney Pam Kroll takes notes in court Tuesday. (JAMESON COOK–The Macomb Daily) |
Tefft’s lawyer, Pam Kroll, and Eryn Sherman, an investigator with Adult Protective Services, which petitioned for the guardianship, said in court Tefft has told them Scarborough hit her and she fears him. A friend of Tefft’s told The Macomb Daily that she told her “a couple of times” that Scarborough hit her, and, according to Gilsenan, Tefft’s former neighbor says she fled from her home to the neighbors home because Scaborough struck her.
Attorney Donald Slavin, who was Tefft’s emergency guardian ad litem, said Tefft accused Scarborough of assaulting her and feared him during an April 2022 interview at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township, where she was brought after having a seizure.
Scarborough pleaded guilty to domestic violence in August 2014 on allegations he beat her in June 2014 and was sentenced to time-served, 56 days in the county jail, according to 41B District Court records. A charge of assault by strangulation was dismissed.
Scarborough also was charged with felony stalking on allegations he stalked another woman in 2012 but was found not guilty by a jury following a trial in Macomb Circuit Court in Mount Clemens.
A Personal Protection Order was filed against Scarborough in 2011 in Macomb Circuit Court by a woman whose name is redacted from the report. She accused Scarborough, who was her ex-boyfriend, of showing up at her at work “more than a dozen times” and other locations, calling her at work “more times than I can count,” and telling her and her boyfriend one time, “Your (sic) both done.”
Scarborough on Tuesday denied he ever “punched” or “slapped” Tefft. Regarding his domestic violence admission, he said, “I just manhandled her a little bit.”
Tefft, who was questioned by Kroll on Tuesday, for the most part retracted her accusations against Scarborough and said she did not recall meeting with Kroll four days earlier at the nursing home.
“Are you afraid of Mr. Scarborough?” Kroll asked.
“Sometimes,” Tefft replied.
Tefft emphasized her alcohol use, saying she suffers from seizures from “drinking.”
“Mr. Scarborough has been trying to get me to quit,” Tefft said. “That’s why I get into arguments with him.”
Asked if Scarborough hit her, Tefft said, “Not that I recall. He’s trying to get me to quit drinking. I come from an alcoholic family. And half the time I don’t remember.”
Tefft indicated in two interviews that she “did love” Scarborough but “she was afraid of him because he hit her,” Kroll said.
But on Tuesday, Tefft offered this: “I only say that stuff because he takes away my liquor.”
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| Attorney Terry Gilsenan, the guardian for Judith Tefft, questions Eryn Sherman, second from left, a service specialist from Adult Protective Services on Tuesday in Macomb County Probate Court in Mount Clemens.JAMESON COOK — THE MACOMB DAILY |
Harrison discounted Tefft’s testimony, attributing it to the intimidating presence of Scarborough, whom she could see by video.
“It’s very evident to me that Miss Tefft doesn’t want to say these things in the presence of Mr. Scarborough because she’s afraid of retaliation,” the judge said. “This is classic abuse right here.”
Sharee Smith, a nursing home social worker who accompanied Tefft at the hearing, said she agreed with the judge that Scarborough’s presence was impacting her.
Smith told the judge staff members who take care of Tefft “came to me with things with some concerns about things she said … about the arguments and abuse (by Scarborough) that she experienced in the past due to not signing over money or giving him access to her financial accounts at the bank.”
Gilsenan accuses Scarborough of taking advantage of Tefft and residing in her home. He said Scarborough operated a suspected marijuana-grow facility in a large shed in the backyard.
Tefft’s house off Groesbeck Highway north of Metropolitan Parkway was recently sold for $199,000, of which most of the money will be used to pay for her nursing-home care, Gilsenan said.
Chris Abood, a Scarborough supporter who attended the hearing and claims the guardianship and conservatorship system in Michigan is corrupt, called the allegations against Scarborough “hearsay.”
“They follow a playbook, and the judge goes along with it,” Abood said, adding the system is designed for the guardians and conservators to make money and influence judges.
Gilsenan, who operates a guardianship practice, said, “I’ll hold up my record to anybody.” He said he receives no pay for one-third of his cases and $83 per month for another third of his them.
Tammy Gallagher, a friend of Tefft, said Scarborough “is just trying
to help her” and it might be good for Tefft “to have a chance to be a
citizen again. Maybe it will be good for her” to return home, she said.
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Man protesting fiancee’s guardianship jailed for 90 days by Macomb County probate judge
It appears to me that he got a raw deal. Trying to help someone with an alcohol addiction is a tough job and he might have lost his temper from time to time but did he hit her?
ReplyDeleteLosing ones temper doesn't mean a slap or fist follows it. People get exasperated, especially with addicts.
If she has dementia and it is advanced, she may think in her head that he hit her and it might never have happened at all. Or it might have. Or she might have hit him.
Toral BS spewed by guardians every day to isolate victims. Case closed
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand men will stalk a vulnerable woman for exploitation purposes. He sounds too creepy to me. Otherwise I would agree that he and she are being treated horribly
ReplyDeleteCould really be a lot more complicated to protect this vulnerable person than we know. It's easy to jump on a bandwagon when the reality in front of the court isn't known. Then again, we all know MANY cases where restrictions are unjustly used to shut loved ones out. I will be interested as we learn more.
ReplyDelete