By Douglas Hanks
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| Miami resident Ela De Los Dolores Avila wants the judge to set her free from her court-appointed guardian. "I don’t want her," she said. "I get sick every time she comes here." BY PEDRO PORTAL |
Ela Avila, the 90-year-old Miami woman fighting a court-ordered guardian overseeing her house and finances, lost her latest bid for independence on Tuesday after a doctor said her mental state didn’t merit a change. Avila, featured in a recent Miami Herald article about her guardianship case, remains under court supervision for most major decisions.
Circuit Court Judge Bertila Soto agreed to restore Avila’s right to vote and the ability to make decisions about her social interactions. The judge did not grant a request by Avila’s children to end a professional guardian’s role as custodian of Avila’s finances and assets, including the grandmother’s Little Havana home, which is facing foreclosure.
“It’s not that I am restoring her rights,” Soto said during the morning video hearing. “I am restoring two rights.”
Avila’s court case began in 2021 when her daughter, Rosa Hernandez, launched the guardianship proceedings after raising concerns that her brother, Rogelio Hernandez, was not providing proper care to their mother while living with Avila, according to a summary by Soto at a June 14 hearing.
Based on court-ordered evaluations by medical professionals, Soto ruled last year that Avila did not have the mental capacity to make decisions for herself and appointed an independent guardian, Zaidis Alvarez, to oversee her financial affairs and living conditions.
That includes trying to resolve ongoing foreclosure proceedings for a mortgage that became overdue before the guardianship proceedings began.
The process could cost Avila, with Alvarez submitting to the court a $21,000 bill for her guardianship services in the case.
Most of the fees come from an attorney helping Alvarez in the contentious guardianship case. Last year, an elder-abuse case worker briefly intervened in the matter. Alvarez has also been pressing Rogelio Hernandez to pay court-ordered rent for living in his mother’s house. Hernandez said he’s paying too many household expenses to afford rent.
Soto last year approved listing Avila’s house for sale over her objections. That decision was put on hold as the judge considers a proposal backed by the family to pay off the debt with a reverse mortgage that would let Avila remain in her home.
Foreclosure proceedings continue, and Soto set a hearing to consider next steps on the house for later this month.
Avila did not speak during Tuesday’s proceedings, except to grant her permission for the Herald to watch what would otherwise be a confidential hearing. “I don’t have any problem at all,” Avila said in Spanish through a court translator. “It’s fine.”
Children are aligned in support
While once fighting, the two Avila children are now united in asking Soto to lift their mother’s guardianship.
Two medical professionals vouched for Avila’s mental state: a nurse practitioner wrote in a form in December that Avila had the “full capacity to live independently,” and a nurse working for the elder-abuse unit in the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said Avila “responded to all questions correctly and clearly” in a May 17, 2022, interview.
The Herald obtained those reports from records requests with the State Attorney’s Office and from Avila’s family, but the bulk of the mental evaluations conducted under court order remain confidential. That includes the report prepared by Dr. Emilio Mantero-Atienza at Soto’s request for the Tuesday hearing.
Horacio Sosa, the lawyer representing Avila’s children, said he was withdrawing their motion to lift the guardianship based on the doctor’s findings.
“Without going into the details of the report, the report states that Ms. Avila is not in the position to regain her capacity,” Sosa said.
Avila’s court-appointed lawyer, Lee Harrison Griffis, asked Soto for a slight loosening of the guardianship order to restore Avila’s right to vote and her ability to make decisions on her “social environment” and who she wants in her house as caregivers and for support.
Soto agreed to the request. “Based on my interactions with Ms. Avila and her family, I don’t have any issue with [that],” Soto said.
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Woman, 90, fighting guardianship loses bid for independence after court-ordered exam
The horrors of Guardianship, remind me of Cuba, dismentleling of families, isolation, denied iniablerable rights, misappropriation of funds, trafficking to fraud homes, inheritence, gaslighting, many suffered neglected care, mandated supervision and have died alone, war like crimes in my opinion, this should never be happening, is un American and unconstitutional. I pray she gets a Judge who is human and takes his Oath seriously.
ReplyDeleteThis should prove that the judge and lawyers are just after her money
ReplyDeleteReverse Mortgages have significant upfront fees, then add in the court appointed guardian who wants to be paid and she could be looking at at least 30,000 dollars in costs, plus whatever backpay for the mortgage is required. In California, In Home Supportive Services might have granted her children the opportunity to be her caregiver with the State paying them an actual hourly wage for monthly tasks.
ReplyDelete