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by Matt deGrood
Galveston prosecutors charged Rebecca Doxey with stealing from her developmentally disabled nephew. Then officials in Brazoria County kept her as his sole legal guardian.
It is a case that has upset at least one family member, but guardianship advocates said it is the latest example of how backlogged courts and a patchwork county-by-county system are leaving some of the state's most vulnerable residents at risk for victimization.
Now it is up to a judge to decide whether Doxey, 69, can remain in charge of Nicholas Whitney, whose family urged her to look after as relatives died or were not able to meet his needs. The judge must weigh all this as Whitney's sister is now fighting to gain legal control over her brother and has become a driving force behind legal challenges to her aunt's guardianship.
The case is the latest test of a state guardianship program sometimes drenched in fraught family feuds, a program that must try to protect tens of thousands of disabled residents across Texas. Advocates say these problems are particularly acute in Texas' smaller counties, where these nuanced cases come barreling at staffs that are often inexperienced, judges whose dockets are jammed with cases and at times poor communications between jurisdictions.
Courts in smaller counties often "don’t have intensive guardianship sections, so they don’t have specialized staff to work on the cases,” said Terry Hammond, the executive director of the Texas Guardianship Association, a nonprofit organization. "You could visit Texas in 1870 or 2023 and see largely the same guardian program we had in place.”
Accusations of fraud
Nicholas Whitney’s father died in 2006, leaving his
mother as his sole surviving parent, said his sister, Adrianne Whitney.
His mother was in poor health, so the family gathered together to
discuss who might care for him. Adrianne Whitney was fresh out of
college at the time, living in New York, and his aunt, Rebecca Doxey, was the family member who agreed to do it.
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Nicholas Whitney is at the center of a legal fight between and his sister, Adrianne, right, and his legal guardian. Courtesy Adrianne Whitney |
To become a guardian, a person must be appointed by a judge to manage all legal and financial aspects for someone the court has deemed declared incapacitated, usually because of a disability. Around 55,000 Texans fall under the state’s guardianship program, Hammond said.
The decision to place someone under a guardian can be hugely consequential, according to a 2022 report from Disability Rights Texas, an advocacy group for Texans with disabilities.
“Even in the most well-intentioned cases, a person can still lose complete independence for the rest of their life,” the report said. “This loss of self and civil rights is why it is important that mechanisms for ending guardianships are accessible and effective, and guarantee due process.”
Between 2016 and 2017, Whitney’s grandparents, Carol and Vernon Whitney, died and left a trust with just under $100,000 to care for him, Adrianne Whitney said.
The money became the root of the trouble, Adrienne Whitney said.
Adrianne Whitney said she filed a complaint in Galveston County, saying Doxey wrote herself a $40,000 check in 2019 from the trust as a loan. Doxey apparently told the family she filed a lien against her own home as collateral. But there is no proof the lien ever existed and was never filed in the county, meaning the loan had no backing, according to Adrianne Whitney and the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies first began investigating Doxey in May 2022 when someone reported an allegation of fraud, according to Maj. Ray Nolen of the sheriff’s office. A family member told investigators Doxey submitted fraudulent paperwork for a property lien in Galveston County, using money from her ward’s trust, Nolen said.
An attorney for Disability Rights Texas, Taft Robinson, is listed as Nicholas Whitney’s attorney, according to Brazoria County court records. Officials with the organization declined to comment about the case.
Matthew Edquist, an attorney previously appointed to represent Nicholas Whitney, said he'd come to believe Doxey was the best person to care for him, despite the allegations she's facing in Galveston County.
None of the allegations relate to the care of Nicholas Whitney or say he is being harmed under Doxey's oversight.
Doxey, for her part, has repaid the money, with interest, said Tad Nelson, Doxey’s criminal defense attorney.
System needs communication improvements, lawyer says
The repayment does not resolve the guardianship issue, however.
The case is further complicated by the fact that the guardianship issue is playing out in Brazoria County and the criminal case involving the alleged loan rests in Galveston County.
Doxey's case was moved to different courts in Brazoria County. The previous court’s coordinator, Donna Norsworthy, did not respond to a request for comment about why the case had been moved.
The change in venue came days after Norsworthy said Judge Thomas Pfeiffer learned about Doxey’s indictment, and that he planned to address the matter soon.
“If anyone had known an indictment was going on, that would have been taken into consideration,” she said.
Whitney’s appointed attorneys and emails Adrianne Whitney shared with the Chronicle show the courts had the information about the charges, but it is not known if it was seen by anyone in authority.
“The Galveston allegations and the police report were made a part of the record in Brazoria County last fall,” said Edquist. “And the Galveston PD records were provided to all.”
Adrianne Whitney sent emails to the court’s investigator April 2022, raising questions about Doxey’s conduct in Galveston County on March 30, including a copy of the grand jury indictment against her. She included a Dec. 6 letter her attorney Chase Chapman sent, informing them of Doxey’s arrest.
“Rebecca obviously cannot fulfill her duties as guardian while in jail,” Chapman wrote in the Dec. 6 email. “Do you all agree to Adrianne being named temporary guardian while Rebecca is in jail? This is an emergency situation so your immediate response would be appreciated.”
The court’s investigator never responded to any of Whitney’s emails, she said.
A judge is expected to rule on the matter soon.
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A Texas woman is accused of stealing from her disabled nephew. She was appointed his guardian anyway.
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