Lawmakers and activists renew fight for guardianship reform

by Anna Liz Nichols

Southfield — Family members who say their loved ones were victimized by predatory guardians in Michigan called for justice Tuesday at a news conference alongside state senators who are seeking to reform the system.

Sisters Chandra Drayton and Olivia McDavid drove from Tennessee to talk about their mother, Ernestine Drayton, who they said was put under a stranger's guardianship in Michigan behind closed doors in 2018.

"It felt like there was a ghost that all of a sudden dropped into our lives and decided the wanted to take our mother from us for no apparent reason," Chandra Drayton said.

Drayton said her mother died just weeks after a judge put her under the care of a guardian with no family members present. She said the guardian changed her mother's end-of-life advance directives to include a do-not-resuscitate order.

"She wasn't even 60 years old," Drayton said. "This is a woman that loved to cook, loved her grandkids. ... My mom was such a strong person."

Several other individuals told stories about relatives' care being usurped and pleaded for the public to recognize that a similar situation could affect anyone's family.

In Michigan, conservators and guardians can be appointed by a judge to manage the property and welfare of those deemed to be incapacitated to act in their own best interest. However, an 18-month Detroit News investigation published in March found evidence that the system, which has little oversight, has failed at offering protections for wards, their property and their families.

At the news conference, GOP state Sens. Ruth Johnson of Holly and Jim Runestad of White Lake detailed their effort to reintroduce bills that stalled and died in the Legislature in 2022. The bills aim to put checks and balances on a system they say has allowed abusive individuals to make money selling off wards' assets and alienating them from family members and proper care.

The bills will incorporate recommendations from the Michigan Attorney General's Elder Abuse Taskforce and address issues raised in The News' investigation, Johnson said.

"I think if these people that are exploiting others taking advantage of stealing their money, stealing their souls, if they can get away with it, they'll continue to," Johnson said. "We have a system that is broken. ... We need accountability. We need transparency. We need to protect our most vulnerable."

The legislation would require courts to have a physician or mental health professional assess a person before a guardian can be appointed and would require a judge's rationale for appointing a professional guardian rather than a family member.

Hearings to appoint guardians or conservators would also have to be recorded by courts and be made available to the public, under the legislation.

The legislation would create requirements for certification for guardians and put limits on the number of wards under an individual guardian's care.

With the proposed certification process, the legislation would ban individuals removed as public administrators by the Attorney General's Office from being appointed as professional guardians or conservators.

At the news conference, families said the reform legislation is critical to helping others avoid what they went through.

After her mother suffered a fall, Christine Abood said she went to an Oakland County courthouse to secure guardianship of her mother, Gloria Sullivan, in 2016, but was advised by an attorney that the judge "never gives guardianship to family."

"The judge did not allow me to speak. It took five minutes. My mother was not allowed to come. They said they didn't want to disturb her," Abood said, recounting the hearing that made a stranger the guardian of her mother.

Abood said her family was allowed supervised visitation with her mother only two times a month as the court-appointed guardian limited her family's ability to visit and call.

"They knew they were doing wrong, and they just would laugh about it, and it was just disgusting," Abood said

Drayton said the laws may not change in time to have an impact on her family, "but there's thousands of more victims and people out here that (are) going through it."

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Lawmakers and activists renew fight for guardianship reform