National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse: Former Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle sentenced to probation in case that sparked scandal

Friday, July 28, 2023

Former Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle sentenced to probation in case that sparked scandal

Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel/TNS

by Christopher Cann

Rebecca Fierle, the former Orlando guardian whose role in the death of a ward sparked outrage that led to changes to Florida state law, was adjudicated guilty of neglect on Friday and sentenced to four years of probation.

Circuit Judge Samantha Ward said incarceration is not appropriate considering Fierle has no prior record. Fierle must also complete 100 hours of community service, and is not permitted to associate with any guardianship.

Before handing down the sentence in a Hillsborough County courtroom Ward called the case “a very sad situation for everyone.”

“The reality is what she did was wrong,” Ward said.

Statewide Prosecutor Cass Castillo, who asked the judge to give Fierle one year in a county jail, did not wish to comment on the sentence.

Fierle’s attorney Ted Yates also did not comment.

In February, Fierle entered an open plea of no contest to neglect of an elderly person, a third-degree felony carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Her charge of aggravated abuse of an elderly or disabled adult was dismissed.

As part of the plea, Fierle will never again be able to work as a professional guardian. Guardians are appointed by judges to make all legal, financial and medical decisions for people deemed medically incapacitated.

Fierle was accused of abusing her power by wrongfully filing a do not resuscitate order (DNR) on behalf of Steven Stryker, a chronically ill Tampa man, and capping his feeding tube against his wishes. Stryker, 75, aspirated and died five days after the tube was capped on May 13, 2019.

His death sparked multiple investigations, and Fierle was removed or forced to resign from hundreds of other guardianship cases. In many of them, she had filed DNRs on behalf of clients without their families’ knowledge or against their wishes.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) arrested her in February 2020.

Investigations also found she was double billing both her client’s assets and healthcare facilities. An audit by the Orange County Comptroller’s office in discovered Fierle had billed AdventHealth almost $4 million between 2009 and 2019 for services she provided to Stryker and well over 600 other vulnerable patients as a guardian.

This pushed AdventHealth to implement a policy change that bans the hospital from paying private guardians to take on clients.

FDLE agents further discovered the cremated remains of 10 people and one pet inside Fierle’s Orlando office.

The same year Fierle was arrested, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis enacted a bill that requires guardians to get a judge’s approval before signing a DNR — a direct result of her case and the media coverage that followed.

Central Florida judges also used the Fierle case to create requirements for DNR hearings, including the demand that medical evidence from a doctor and testimony from any available next of kin be provided before an order is granted.

How Orlando guardian’s scandal shaped new oversight process for DNRs

During Fierle’s trial last August, hospital staff and Stryker’s daughter testified. Multiple witnesses told jurors Stryker had a clear wish to live and continue his treatment that was denied by Fierle, who made decisions she said would preserve his quality of life rather than prolong it.

Some healthcare workers said Fierle’s decision to cap his feeding tube in an attempt to get him accepted in an assisted living facility had no medical benefit and posed a risk of choking and death.

Stryker had a history of dementia and suffered from multiple conditions including one that required him to use a feeding tube. He was also a registered sex offender, which in combination with his feeding tube had made placement in an assisted living facility difficult, hospital staff told jurors.

Fierle was appointed as Stryker’s guardian in 2018 while he was being treated in AdventHealth Orlando. Under her care, Stryker stayed in multiple hospitals and assisted living facilities. In April 2019, he was admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa where he later died.

Stryker’s daughter, Kim Stryker, said she fought for Fierle to step down as his guardian in the weeks leading up to his death. Eventually, Fierle agreed, but when Kim Stryker called her father to tell him, hospital staff informed her that he was dead.

And though investigators said Fierle’s DNR prevented St. Joseph staffers from performing lifesaving measures for Stryker, a judge ruled to exclude it from the trial. Fierle’s attorneys argued the DNR did not cause treatment to be withheld from Stryker.

The case ended in a mistrial and was slated for a re-trial before the plea resolution.

Rebecca Fierle mistrial: Advocates disappointed by hung jury in Orlando guardian’s case

On Friday four people, including two lawyers who had known Fierle for over a decade as well as two of her children, spoke kindly of Fierle both as a family member and as a professional guardian.

Thomas Moss met Fierle in 2003 on an emergency guardianship case as her attorney, and he has worked on hundreds of cases with her. Moss called Fierle “one of the best” professional guardians he had ever met, adding that she kept “diligent records.” He said he had also referred to other lawyers.

Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Cass Castillo pointed out that Fierle had hired Moss, who then collected fees from the cases.

Lawyer Harry Hackney said much of his practice involved guardianship and that he met Fierle at least 20 years ago. Fierle’s attorney asked Hackney if he wrote a letter to the judge saying Rebecca was “one of the best, if not the best … guardian he ever worked with.” Hackney said “undoubtedly.”

Castillo said considering Fierle’s discipline and being stripped of her wards, “It’s pretty hard to imagine that she could be the best.”

In closing, Castillo said, “The real crime here is a loss of due process … Mr. Stryker had expressed a desire to live as long as he could … and the defendant deprived him of that right.”

Yates, Fierle’s attorney, countered by saying the state could not point to one statute that Fierle was in violation of when she was the guardian of Stryker.

In June, a victim impact statement was given by Angela Woodhull, a private investigator whose mother died “suddenly” while she was a ward under Fierle’s care.

Woodhull wrote that despite “extensive evidence” of “a myriad of abuses, exploitation of the elderly, neglect, and Medicaid fraud in more than 625 guardianship cases… the State of Florida has chosen to prosecute Fierle for just one mere case and one count of elder abuse and neglect.”

Woodhull added, “I was told by the prosecutor, ‘Well, at least she’ll never be anyone’s guardian ever again.’ This, I fear, is a grave travesty of justice.”

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