Pass Senate bills to end probate system actions that cause abuse, abandonment, exploitation

Being tied to something as well-known as “Disney” provides for interesting conversations. Mention “probate court” and eyes glaze over. My stepson, Brad Disney Lund, the grandson of Walt Disney, and our family have been in protracted probate cases for more than 13 years. Brad won his Arizona case, our family vindicated of any wrongdoing, but the people we met and what we learned about the probate system in the United States revealed a nightmare worse than any evil portrayed in fantasy. (Deposit Photos)

Being connected to something as well-known as “Disney” provides for interesting conversations. Mention “probate court” and eyes glaze over. The connection to one has made me all too familiar with the other. My stepson, Brad Disney Lund, the grandson of Walt Disney, and our family have been in protracted probate cases for over 13 years. Brad won his Arizona case, our family vindicated of any wrongdoing, but the people we met and what we learned about the probate system in our country revealed a nightmare worse than any evil portrayed in fantasy. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals called the probate court in our case “The Most Unhappy Place on Earth.”

These real-life experiences invoke questions of how this is even legal in America. When compared, the pattern of practice across the country becomes obvious. The Department of Justice has years of documented physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, physical abandonment, and financial exploitation from probate actions. More accounts are found with a simple internet search.

People being denied due process, stripped of every dime they saved, robbed of pensions, restricted of precious time with loved ones, drugged and left to develop bedsores, pushed into declining health ultimately to die penniless and often alone, motivated me to seek change. Which is why two probate reform bills, SB1291 and SB1038, are in our Legislature this session. Both bills have garnered immense bipartisan support, are vitally important and must become law.

Arizona law allows for a simple medical evaluation, it could be by a registered nurse or physician assistant, to place someone under a court order. There is no requirement for an evaluation from your long-time personal physician, or someone specifically trained in detecting mental and physical incapacity to perform this evaluation that will remove you of every right you ever had. A stranger is able to determine if a person stands to lose their civil rights and be reclassified as a “ward” in a court action where limited evidence is required.

Enter the dystopian reality of families legally prevented from seeing loved ones, sedation to keep the ward “calm,” liquidation of assets and personal belongings, a likely change of residence to fit the needs of the guardian who now bills the ward for every aspect of care, for example $25 to open and $25 to read each piece of mail – even junk mail. The ward loses the right to vote, to drive, to see whomever they choose, to live where they choose, the ability to choose their own doctor and make healthcare decisions. Essentially, all individual decision-making is forfeited and given to the guardian, a stranger, appointed by the courts in most cases.

When a guardian is appointed, it usually means that a conservator over their estate is also appointed. Probate does not require great wealth or being elderly. Owning your home, having a 401K or IRA, other assets, Social Security or pension will do. It can start with getting sick or having an injury with an unexpected hospitalization, a bank account problem, or a family squabble over who takes care of someone, or who gets the house and remaining retirement savings after mom and dad are gone.

These events trigger the idea that there is a need for an intervention in the care or financial management of the individual, which ushers in the court-appointed attorneys, fiduciaries and guardians. With relatively minimal effort, an individual’s civil rights are removed, their life no longer under their control. Then there is the money that is filtered through probate cases. So much money.

The money running through the probate system makes it ripe for corruption. The United States is estimated to have 1.3 million active probate cases, including over $50 billion under management, with a staggering $16.9 billion drained from retirement accounts, family trusts, and lifetime savings of Baby Boomers alone. In many cases it is the court-appointed players receiving these funds, nicknamed “probate pirates” due to their ease at liquidating assets while staying in the gray zone of legality. One recent article said the current probate system “… irreparably damages entire generations of innocent families.”

Not surprisingly, the abusers in the system are trying hard to push back on SB1291 and SB1038 by lobbying to water down these bills. They should not be allowed to deny the Constitutional protections against what is happening in the probate courts to protect their status quo. Every citizen should be concerned that our rights are so easily eliminated and all that we hold dear and planned for, wiped away. It is incumbent on the Arizona Legislature to pass and Gov. Katie Hobbs to sign into law, SB1291 and SB1038.

Sherry Lund of Paradise Valley is the founder of Protecting Liberty 5-14, a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting the rights guaranteed in the 5th and 14th Amendments and has spent over a decade advocating nationwide for victims of probate abuse.

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Pass Senate bills to end probate system actions that cause abuse, abandonment, exploitation

I-Team: Bedridden man in group home told police he had not eaten in days; agency investigates elder abuse claims

Nevada state office investigates allegations about vulnerable, elderly adults

 

by: David Charns

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A recent allegation of elder abuse and neglect involved a man telling police he had not eaten in three days, documents obtained by the I-Team said. The case began with a report made to Adult Protective Services (APS), a state program investigating claims of suspected abandonment, abuse, exploitation, isolation or neglect.

A team of investigators and social workers is tasked with keeping our parents and grandparents safe, including any vulnerable adult who is entrusted into another person’s care.

The office, formerly known as the Elder Protective Services program, classifies a vulnerable adult as someone who is in the care of another person between between the ages of 18 and 59. A person older than 60 is considered an older person when it comes to the state definition.

In one case, a supervisor informed APS about an allegation at an independent group home in Las Vegas. According to an arrest report for the homeowner, one man in the home was “bedridden and unable to care for himself” and begged “for food and stated that he [had] not eaten for three days.”

The home’s owner, Salome Rosales, is charged with four counts of abuse and neglect of an older or vulnerable person, court documents said. The report said one resident told police the home is full of tenants with “memory loss” who “need additional medical care.”

One resident told police she had fallen off her bed and broke a finger and “did not get any medical attention at the time of the fall,” according to the report.

“Even just one case of elder abuse needs to be considered a problem,” Tammy Seaver, social services chief with APS, said. “I think one of the most important things you could do is to make sure our vulnerable population is protected and receiving the care that they so deserve.”

Last year, APS responded to more than 9,000 allegations involving adults over the age of 60. 

Reports to APS can come in several forms. Oftentimes, a family member will report an allegation. Mandated reporters, including doctors, hospital employees, social workers and musical therapists, are required to report any suspicions.

But, not all cases move forward.

“If a client does not want us to pursue, we cannot go further into the investigation,” Seaver said.

Data obtained by the I-Team shows out of more than 6,600 closed cases statewide last year, APS found 565 cases of substantiated abuse, 442 cases of exploitation and 258 cases of neglect. The total number of cases was slightly higher year-over-year from fiscal year 2020 to 2019, Seaver said.

“It’s starting to be talked about more, and people understand that there are problems out there that need to be reported,” she said.

If criminal charges are warranted in Southern Nevada, APS will forward the case to Metro Police.

Rosales remains out on bail with the stipulation she not house any elderly adults.

APS has two phone numbers to make a report:

• Clark County: (702) 486-6930
• Statewide: (888) 729-0571
  

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I-Team: Bedridden man in group home told police he had not eaten in days; agency investigates elder abuse claims

Maryland Lawyer Disbarred For Neglecting Ten Clients

The Maryland capitol.

Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

• Breached duties of competence, communication, safekeeping of property
• Told clients to not contact him about cases

A Maryland lawyer found to have breached numerous ethics rules in his representation of ten clients was ordered disbarred by the state high court.

Mohamed Alpha Bah’s “pattern of neglect and abandonment” caused “personal and financial harm to his clients and their businesses,” the Maryland Court of Appeals said in an April 10 opinion.

The court disbarred Baltimore, Md., attorney in March after affirming a hearing judge’s findings, and issued the opinion to explain its reasoning.

From 2015 to 2017, Bah agreed to represent the clients in various matters, including employment discrimination, a trademark application, and an eviction proceeding.

But in nine of those cases, he failed to deposit the thousands of dollars in fees paid to him into an attorney trust account until earned, the court said. Bah admitted as much in response to a bar counsel complaint, it said.

The court cited as an example a $500 “filing fee” Bah collected from a client that he never deposited but used for his “personal benefit,” which the court called “deceitful and dishonest.”

The hearing judge assigned to his case found that he failed to inform his clients of the status of their cases and failed to consult with or respond to his clients, the appeals court said.

In one case, for example, Bah amended a fee agreement without getting the client’s written consent, it said.

The hearing judge entered a default judgment against Bah in 2019, concluding he violated his duties relating to competence, scope of representation, diligence, communication,safekeeping of property, terminating representation, and expediting litigation.

The appeals court affirmed the hearing judge’s findings, noting that Bah didn’t appear for oral argument.

It found he abandoned seven of his clients, collecting fees before completing the work. In 10 of the matters, he didn’t respond to requests for information from the clients, and “even sent a mass email directing his clients not to contact him regarding the status of their matters,” the court said.

Bah has intentionally failed to comply with requests for information including his financial records and bank account information, it said.

Aside from failing to present any mitigating factors on his own behalf, according to the court, Bah has never acknowledged the wrongful nature of his conduct or shown remorse, and has displayed “complete indifference” to making restitution to a number of clients.

No contact information for Bah could be located.

The case is Atty. Griev. Comm’n of Md. v. Bah, 2020 BL 134041, Md., No. Misc. Docket AG No. 3, 4/10/20.

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Maryland Lawyer Disbarred For Neglecting Ten Clients

Wife and son 'dumped American man with dementia in UK car park'

An American man with dementia was flown from his Los Angeles home to Britain and allegedly left in a car park by his wife and son, according to court documents in the US seen by the BBC.
Roger Curry, 76, was allegedly abandoned without identification in the car park of Hereford bus station on 7 November 2015.

In court papers filed in Los Angeles by the LA public guardian’s office, and seen by the BBC’s Panorama programme, it is claimed: “In late 2015 Mr Curry was taken surreptitiously to England by his wife Mary Curry and his son Kevin Curry and abandoned there.”

Curry was found at the bus station in the company of two men who flagged down a passing ambulance. As paramedics assessed him, one of the men, described as having an American accent, left the scene.

Curry appeared to have been well looked after and was wearing new clothing from Tesco. He was taken into the care of a nursing home, and police and social services spent months trying to confirm his identity.

Though he gave the name Roger Curry to staff caring for him, police did not know whether it was his real name. He told doctors and care home staff he was not from the area and had been “training” nearby, leading police to contact veterans’ organisations in case he was a former serviceman.

An international appeal was launched and in March last year West Mercia police said they were anxious to trace the man with the American accent who vanished after a member of the public stepped in to help.

Following that appeal, a viewer came forward after having found a old photograph on the internet showing what looked like a younger version of the man now in care. The photo came from a 1958 yearbook for Edmonds high school in Washington state and showed an 18-year-old student called Roger Curry.

BBC investigators linked the Roger Curry of the yearbook to a burnt-out house in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles. Neighbours identified Curry as a former nurse who was married with two children, and told BBC investigators how the family home had burned down in the middle of the night.

At one point, it seems, Curry and his wife, who was said to be ill, were camping out in the yard of their burnt-out home, Panorama reported. Three months later, Roger Curry was found in Hereford, the programme claimed.

Eight months after that, Curry was flown back to the US where he is now under the care of authorities in Los Angeles.

Curry’s son Kevin told Panorama he had nothing to do with the apparent abandonment of his father.

He told the programme that his father became ill when they were visiting England on holiday and he asked a friend to take him to hospital. The programme said he did not explain why he had left his father in England for eight months.

As part of the investigation, a 50-year-old man from Taunton, Somerset, was arrested on suspicion of kidnap and was bailed. He has not been charged.

Because of the high cost of care in the US, elderly people are sometimes abandoned at hospitals in a practice called granny-dumping.

The Panorama investigation airs on BBC One at 8.30pm on Monday.

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Wife and son 'dumped American man with dementia in UK car park'

“The Right Care at the Right Time: Ensuring Person-Centered Care for Individuals with Serious Illness.”

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“The Right Care at the Right Time: Ensuring Person-Centered Care for Individuals with Serious Illness.”

Alameda County: Assisted living reform advocates hope new director will overhaul state's licensing agency

The California agency criticized for its botched closure of a Castro Valley assisted living home is on the hunt for a new director -- and it must choose from a pool of state workers unless Gov. Jerry Brown appoints an outside figure.

 

An internal hire is unlikely to satisfy senior advocates demanding a major shake-up at the Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing Division.

"They need an overhaul of that department," said Patricia McGinnis, director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. "Unless they have a complete change of attitude, unless they have a complete change of guard, I don't see how things are going to be any different."

The agency drew outrage last month for allowing more than a dozen frail residents to be left at Valley Springs Manor without proper care after the state had ordered the home closed. An internal review is now looking into what went wrong.

It was the previous head of the division, Jeffrey Hiratsuka, who initiated formal proceedings in May to revoke the license of the Castro Valley facility and ban its owners from ever running such a home again.

That was after complaints by residents and advocates against Valley Springs and a sister home in Oakland began mounting last year. The complaints led to unannounced state inspections that discovered numerous violations and forced the ouster of the homes' longtime administrator, according to state records.

Hiratsuka, who could not be reached for comment, retired this summer after fours years directing the division and a total of 12 years working in its Sacramento headquarters. A staff newsletter commended the 61-year-old for guiding "the program through some of the worst economic and budget times ever experienced in the state."

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Alameda County: Assisted living reform advocates hope new director will overhaul state's licensing agency

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Castro Valley care home patients abandoned

Cooks, Caregivers Struggled to Aid Abandoned Care Home Patients

Maurice Rowland knew that the closure notice stuck on the front door of his workplace meant the assisted-living residential facility was to be closed Thursday night because of a license revocation.

But why, he wondered, were 19 of the center's 32 residents still there - some with Alzheimer's, others with what he believed to be schizophrenia, all of them hungry and wanting dinner.

Almost all the caregivers had left. The manager and owners were nowhere to be found. Rowland was the cook, hired three months earlier to prepare meals for the residents at Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley.

"I didn't know what was going on, but I couldn't just leave them there," Rowland said Tuesday from his Hayward home. "We had built a friendship. So I did the best I could."

Over the next 40 hours, Rowland and two caregivers - none of whom had been scheduled to work or asked by management to stay - frantically cooked, cleaned and bathed the residents, gave them their medications, and helped them in and out of their beds and wheelchairs. But they were in over their heads, and there were medication foul-ups. Residents became ill, and Rowland and the caregivers called 911 six or seven times, he said, before emergency responders finally took the last of the residents Saturday.

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Cook, Caregivers Struggled to Aid Center's Residents

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Castro Valley Care Home Patients Abandoned

Castro Valley care home patients abandoned

Fourteen sick and elderly patients were abandoned at a Castro Valley assisted living facility when the staff apparently walked out Thursday after the state ordered the home closed, Alameda County sheriff's deputies said.

Paramedics called to Valley Manor Residential Care at 17926 Apricot Way on Saturday afternoon found a notice on the door from the state Department of Social Services ordering the site to be closed as of Oct. 24.

Inside, they found the patients, many of them bedridden, attended by only a handful of staff members.

"Thursday came around, and the majority of the staff left and the majority of the patients remained," said sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson.

The staff members who stayed, including a cook, a janitor and what is believed to be a single caretaker, "stayed because they felt bad for the patients," Nelson said. "They weren't getting paid or anything."

The patients all were taken by ambulance to other centers in the county, and none seemed to be suffering additional health problems from their abandonment.

The transport wasn't easy, Nelson added.

"We had people who were bedridden, in wheelchairs, amputees and people with mental problems. It ran the gamut," he said.

Deputies are still trying to determine how many people were at the center when it closed to ensure that none of the patients had wandered off on their own, Nelson said.

As of Saturday night, sheriff's investigators had not been in touch with the center's owners or the state officials responsible for the closure.

"Right now we have a lot more questions than answers," Nelson said. "There's a question of what happens when the state closes a home, whether they send anyone in afterward to see what happened."

The incident is being treated as a criminal case, and the investigation is continuing.

"All we know is that 14 people were left here today that shouldn't have been there by themselves," Nelson said.

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Castro Valley care home patients abandoned