San Francisco Turns to Conservatorship in Drug Crisis: A Study of Diana Staros’ Case

By: Sakchi Khandelwal

In the face of an escalating drug crisis, San Francisco city leaders are reconsidering conservatorship as more than a last resort in treating individuals with severe drug addictions. A powerful illustration of the potential efficacy of this approach is the heartbreaking case of Diana Staros. Staros, a young woman who lost her life to the ravages of meth and fentanyl addiction, might have been saved by the forceful intervention that conservatorship provides, according to her grieving mother, Alison Monroe.

California’s Conservatorship Law Expansion
On January 1, California expanded its conservatorship law via Senate Bill 43. Previously, the law only covered individuals suffering from mental illnesses or alcoholism who were incapable of looking after themselves. The recent amendment includes those battling drug addictions. The San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging is in the process of preparing for the implementation of this change, increasing staffing and coordinating with partners.

Response from City Leadership
Mayor London Breed has been vocal in her advocacy for swift action to alleviate the plight of those ensnared in the grip of addiction. “We must act now,” says Breed, a statement reflecting the urgency of the situation. But despite the mayor’s fervent push, the approach has its detractors.
Opposition and Challenges

Critics argue that involuntary treatment is not the answer. In their view, resources would be better directed towards improving mental health services and providing housing. The Bay Area counties of Contra Costa, Marin, and Santa Clara, are either delaying the implementation of the expanded conservatorship law or have yet to establish a clear timetable. These counties face their own unique challenges in grappling with the drug crisis, reflecting the complexity of the issue at hand.

In the midst of these debates, the memory of Diana Staros serves as a stark reminder of what is at stake. As the city gears up to apply the new law, the question remains: Can conservatorship be the lifeline for those teetering on the brink of self-destruction due to drug addiction?

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San Francisco Turns to Conservatorship in Drug Crisis: A Study of Diana Staros’ Case

Cher's Son Elijah Blue Allman Looks Clean-cut in First Sighting Since Conservatorship Victory

By:Whitney Vasquez

Cher's son Elijah Blue Allman reemerged for the first time since a judge denied his famous mother's conservatorship request, RadarOnline.com has learned. The 47-year-old broke cover and appeared clean-cut in a recent Instagram picture, posted to his social media just ten days after Cher's petition for sole conservatorship over Elijah was shut down.

Sharing a black and white photo of himself, Cher's child with the late singer Gregg Allman appeared in a dark-colored shirt and light cargo bottoms. Accessorizing with sunglasses and a necklace, Elijah flaunted his signature feathered locks and bare face.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life," Cher's son captioned the picture, quoting author Henry David Thoreau's book Walden.

Elijah looked relaxed in the photo, keeping his hands strategically in his pockets after calling off his divorce from Marieangela King. Cher's petition for immediate temporary conservatorship over Elijah was dismissed earlier this month after the If I Could Turn Back Time singer’s lawyers argued that it was “a life and death decision.”

Elijah argued that he was not adequately served papers and needed additional time to prepare for the January 5 hearing. The judge agreed, moving the temporary hearing to January 29.

Cher urged that Elijah needed a conservator due to his “severe mental health and substance abuse issues." However, he denied her claims, stating he was 90 days sober.

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Cher's Son Elijah Blue Allman Looks Clean-cut in First Sighting Since Conservatorship Victory

New California law addressing mental illness, addiction among homeless delayed by Valley counties. Here's why

 by MARIJKE ROWLAND

Community Medical Center's CareLink Mobile Outreach Team leaves water and snacks at an empty encampment in Stockton hoping their patient returns to find the supplies on Nov. 9, 2023.
Vivienne Aguilar/CVJC

Historic changes to California’s conservatorship law, which will expand who can be placed in involuntary care and treatment in an attempt to address the state’s ongoing homelessness crisis, will have to wait in the Central Valley.

The board of supervisors in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties have opted to defer the new law, which otherwise would have gone into effect in January. Officials in both counties will now have an additional two years to comply with the changes.

The bill from Sen. Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this October, represents the first major changes to the state’s landmark 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act. Signed by then Gov. Ronald Reagan, the legislation upended how California dealt with the “gravely disabled” and ended the state’s previous practice of warehousing those with mental illnesses in state hospitals or psychiatric facilities.

Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties are joined by other Central Valley counties, including Kings, Merced, Fresno, Sacramento and Kern, as with much of the state in postponing implementation. Once enacted, the law will give officials greater leeway in who can be placed in involuntary short-term psychiatric holds, longer detention and treatment programs.

Currently, only those deemed “gravely disabled” can be placed in involuntary mental health care or conservatorship, including 5150 holds initiated by law enforcement or health providers that detain people in psychiatric facilities for 72-hours.

The new law expands that definition to include “severe substance use disorder” without any accompanying mental illness. It also broadens the criteria for those with existing mental health disorders to include those who cannot provide for their “personal safety or necessary medical care.” Previously only those who could not provide for their own food, clothing and shelter could be eligible for involuntary care.

While groups like the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) California and California State Association of Psychiatrists have supported the bill, its signing was not without controversy. Disability Rights California, Human Rights Watch and other disability and mental health organizations have argued it would infringe on the civil rights of an already vulnerable population, and could lead to more mass involuntary conservatorships.

The behavioral health services directors for both Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties successfully asked their supervisors for more time to implement the changes. They cited worries of insufficient capacities at county behavioral health facilities, area emergency rooms and drug treatment facilities among the reasons for the additional two-year window.

Stanislaus County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Director Tony Vartan told the board last week that the changes would have an impact beyond his department. Law enforcement, courts, hospitals and other mental health providers in the region will also have to grapple with the new expanded definition of “gravely disabled.”

He said without sufficient existing treatment programs or care facilities, it would force “hospitals to be stuck with a lot of patients in an involuntary hold,” which could mean less beds for other sick or injured patients.

The California Hospitals Association has reached out to county administrators across the state, including in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, urging them to delay implementation.

In San Joaquin County, Behavioral Health Director Genevieve Valentine said the extra time is needed to build-out infrastructure and staffing. While statewide it is predicted the changes will result in an about 10% conservatorship increase, Valentine said in San Joaquin County they expect an increase of 20% to 25% because of the need in the region.

“I would hate to rush something when someone’s life is at risk — when their civil rights are at risk,” Valentine said. “I want to make sure in San Joaquin County we are very strategic in how we put this into place.”

She called the law another “tool” in their toolkit to help deal with the state’s mental health challenges, particularly among its homeless population. The passage of SB 43 follows the state’s implementation of the CARE Act, which established specialized courts (called CARE Courts) in each county. County mental health providers, first responders, family members and others can petition the court to give individuals with mental illness voluntary services and treatment.

New psychiatric facility planned

Stanislaus County is part of a seven-country pilot program that launched its CARE Court this October. The rest of the state has until December 2024 to finalize the new courts.

While the two laws are not related, they both represent significant changes to how the state handles those with severe mental health disorders in an effort to address California’s ongoing homeless crisis.

To implement SB 43, San Joaquin County officials plan to build a new from-the-ground-up psychiatric facility across from the existing county general hospital. If approved and funded, the up to 90-bed facility would begin construction this coming summer.

In Stanislaus County, supervisors have asked Vartan to return to the board in January to give a more detailed timeline, and possibly earlier deadline, for SB 43’s implementation.

“I look at this as a godsend,” said Supervisor Terry Withrow during last week’s board meeting. “We’re talking about saving lives…I can’t think of a better way for us to spend our time and resources than to try to get this thing up and running as quickly as possible.”

The governor has also been vocal in his displeasure in what he called the “slow-walking” of the new conservatorship criteria. Most counties have opted to delay implementation, which was allowed in the act, with San Francisco and San Luis Obispo counties the only ones so far indicating they’d be ready for the changes by Jan. 1.

“We can’t afford to wait,” Newsom told reporters last week. “The state has done its job; it’s time for the counties to do their job. … They have to understand people are dying on their watch.”

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New California law addressing mental illness, addiction among homeless delayed by Valley counties. Here's why

County program could ease conservatorship process for some people with severe mental illness, addiction

San Diego County Board of Supervisors agreed to pursue an expanded conservatorship program that could be in place some time next year.

(Rob Nikolewski / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles are cities that can adopt pilot programs that can place more people into conservatorship

By Gary Warth

San Diego County is pursuing a pilot program that would make it easier for judges to order some homeless people with mental health issues into conservatorship, a step that could lead to them to treatment they otherwise would not voluntarily accept.

Because of its strict requirements, they program isn’t expect to apply to many people. However, some concerns already have been raised about how it would affect the civil rights of people with mental health issues, although none of those concerns were voiced when the Board of Supervisors approved the program at a Oct. 29 meeting.

San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco counties have an option to create the program under Senate Bill 40, written by State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October. It was brought to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on the recommendations of Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Nathan Fletcher.

The supervisors’ vote directed the county to develop a pilot program as outlined by SB 40 and report back with recommendations for implementing it within one year.

In San Diego County, 43 percent of homeless people surveyed during the 2018 annual Point-in-Time Count stated they had mental health issues. Another 14 percent acknowledged having substance abuse issues, and 9 percent said they abused alcohol.

The bill is focused on helping a small percentage of homeless people so deeply affected by addiction or mental issues that they cannot make their own decisions responsibly. In certain cases, a judge can appoint a guardian or protector as a conservator for six months to make choices for the person that could lead to housing and treatment.

The new program identifies specific reasons why a person may be placed under a conservator, while existing law requires people to be gravely disabled, defined in part as being in danger of seriously harming themselves.

“We will utilize every available tool to address the issues of behavioral health and homelessness,” Fletcher said in advance of the board’s vote in support of the program, which was passed without discussion on the consent calendar.

Fletcher said the county hopes to build a regional, coordinated, integrated behavioral health system that prevents people from needing a conservator, but the new program could be helpful until then.

“Our ultimate success as a region should be judged on keeping people out of that situation, but in the interim we will utilize every option that can provide help to those most in need,” he said.

There is a high bar for eligibility in the program under the bill, which requires people to have been diagnosed with serious mental illness and substance-use disorder. They also must have had at least eight involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations under state Welfare and Institutions code 5150 over 12 months.

Deacon Jim Vargas, president and CEO of Father Joe’s Villages, said there is a need for such a program, but it must be be respectful of people’s civil rights.

“I just want to make sure that any measure that’s adopted is one that’s compassionate and not a matter of criminalizing the issue,” he said. “The core challenge is, these individuals out on the street can’t help themselves. We need to make sure there is a balance where we don’t take away civil rights, but we compassionately and effectively address those issue.”

The bill amends similar bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year. Senate Bill 1045 allowed the three counties to have expanded conservatorship programs, but with the additional requirement that people had to have been ordered into assisted outpatient treatment.

Under Laura’s Law in California, the treatment can be ordered for people who have severe untreated mental illness and a history of violence or repeated hospitalizations.

Because of those restrictions, an analysis of SB 1045 in San Diego County found only eight people would be eligible for the conservatorship program, said Tim McClain, group communication manager for the county’s Health and Human Services Agency. More are expected to be eligible for the program under SB 40 guidelines, but just how many is not known, he said.

Only San Francisco County voted to create a program under SB 1045. Although it was expected to affect only five people in that area, it was considered a controversial move and was met with protests.

About two dozen people, including representatives of the Coalition on Homelessness, disability rights groups and medical professionals, disrupted an April town hall meeting where Wiener and other legislators had appeared to discuss the bill.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Western Center on Law and Poverty and Disability Rights California sent a letter opposing the bill to Newsom in September. No members of any of those groups spoke against it in San Diego.

Homeless advocate Martha Sullivan and former state Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña co-wrote a commentary against the program that appeared this month in The San Diego Union-Tribune. The two cited an analysis of SB 40 that estimated it would assist only up to 100 people in all three counties and doesn’t provide any housing or services for people beyond six months.

Bob McElroy, president and CEO of the nonprofit homeless service provider Alpha Project, saw merit in the program, if done right.

“You have to have either institutionalized care or assisted living care. somebody who knows these populations and has training with these folks,” he said about the need facing some people on the street.

Homeless advocate Michael McConnell also said he said he saw a need for getting mental health treatment to people on the street, but was cautious to endorse the plan.

“I think the execution is what’s going to be super important,” he said. “I’m on the fence about whether we should implement laws like this or not. We haven’t tried hard enough to house these folks, and now we’re going to say we failed. But if we do this, I certainly support the very conservative, narrow definition of who it applies to.”

Linda Mimms, a San Diego advocate for reforms to mental health policies, said she was encouraged by many things the county is doing, but saw problems with the proposed conservatorship program.
“The actual idea of it is great,” she said before quickly adding that more resources for mental health patients are needed statewide for the program to be effective.

She also has criticized for the program for taking a punitive rather than medical approach to mental health by requiring 5150 holds for people.

“We’re criminalizing neurological illness in order to get treatment,” she said.

Vargas said the move is a step in the right direction in helping a specific population get off the street.

“This is a serious issue we have as a society,” he said. “As a society, I think we’re not doing enough to care for those individuals.”

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County program could ease conservatorship process for some people with severe mental illness, addiction

State senator proposes guardianship for adults with severe mental illness, addiction

A Washington state senator who says he’s heard from “literally hundreds of parents” of adult children who are struggling with mental illness or addiction wants to allow families to petition for temporary guardianship.

Republican Sen. Steve O’Ban unveiled his proposed guardianship program Tuesday outside a Pierce County crisis center. He was joined by two fellow Republicans who offered their own ideas to address the state’s mental health crisis.

“We need to empower parents and other loved ones to have the authority to rescue that adult child who needs that care and is not getting it,” said O’Ban, the ranking Republican on the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee.

Guardianship is typically associated with older or disabled adults who can no longer make decisions for themselves and are found by the courts to be incapacitated. Under the law, it’s designed to be a last resort.

Jerri Clark, of the group Mothers of the Mentally Ill, said some sort of limited guardianship makes sense.

“But it needsto be responsive to the reality of mental illness which is not a static condition,” Clark said.

Under O’Ban’s proposed law, immediate family members could ask a court to give them guardianship of a “gravely disabled” loved one for up to one year. During that time, the family could make treatment decisions on behalf of the individual. Mental health professionals could also make a referral for guardianship.

O’Ban said his proposal was modeled off a mental health “conservatorship” program in Los Angeles County.

Asked whether guardianship might interfere with the civil rights of the individual, O’Ban said: “I don’t think that violates their civil liberties any more than helping your 85-year-old grandmother get the care that she needs but doesn’t understand she needs.”

Democratic state Rep. Laurie Jinkins, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and works on mental health issues, said she was open to considering O’Ban’s proposal during the 2019 Legislative session, but wasn’t sure it would pass constitutional muster.

“I have a feeling that there’s going to be a lot of devil in the details,” Jinkins said.

Jinkins noted that Washington recently passed an “assisted outpatient treatment” law that allows courts to supervise the treatment of patients who are in the community, as opposed to in a state hospital.

Another mental health proposal from Senate Republicans, who are currently in the minority in the state legislature, is to provide at-risk students access to mental health appointments at school through telemedicine.

“We have to look at how we’re delivering care in the schools and re-think how it’s being done,” said Sen. Randi Becker (R-Eatonville), who plans to sponsor a telemedicine bill in 2019.

Sen. John Braun, the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, also said he would urge the Legislature to send voters a $500 million bond measure to build more psychiatric beds in the community.

“We have a real problem here and it’s a problem that will take, frankly, years to fix,” Braun said, adding that an infusion of cash would speed the timeline for building more capacity in the community.

Jinkins called Braun's bond proposal “an interesting idea,” but said she’d like the Legislature to commit to mental health funding without going to voters.

“It would be best for us to be able to pay for these facilities within our current budget,” Jinkins said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have signaled that mental health will be a top issue during the 2019 Legislative session. Governor Jay Inslee and legislative Democrats are expected to unveil their own proposals to shore up the mental health system in the coming months.

In May, Inslee, a Democrat, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers called for a five-year plan to move civil, or non-criminal, patients out of the state hospitals and into new 16-bed community-based facilities that have yet to be built.

Bringing urgency to that plan is the fact Western State Hospital recently lost federal certification and with it approximately $53 million a year in funding. In recent weeks, there has been a series of high profile assaults of staff by patients at the 850-bed, century-old hospital.

“That’s another example of this crisis that impacts our state,” O’Ban said.

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State senator proposes guardianship for adults with severe mental illness, addiction

Using and abusing

Older adults can fall prey to addiction

Mike Scott was concerned when his mother-in-law suddenly couldn’t keep track of her money.

Her husband recently died of Alzheimer’s disease, and now it seemed she was showing early signs as well. Scott and his wife, Susan, decided their family would start devoting more time to helping her at home.

“Matt and his girlfriend would go over there under the pretense of cleaning her house,” Scott said of his son. “And they were really cleaning house.”

In Vermilion County, 18 percent of residents are aged 65 and older, according to 2016 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This is higher than the U.S.’s percentage of the same age group — less than 15 percent.

The elderly community in Vermilion County is prominent, in part because of the local Veterans Affairs medical center. In a recent Danville City Council meeting, a community member expressed concerns of growing violence and drug use saying, “This is supposed to be a town for retired people.”

Apart from age, the county also has a higher rate of overdose from opioids — about 17 deaths this year compared to Illinois’ average of 13, as shown by a national study from the University of Wisconsin.

Matthew Scott said there was a time he would do anything not to get sick from withdrawal symptoms.

After serving five years in the Marine Corps, he struggled to adjust to civilian life, and eventually turned to heroin when he lost his job.

Then he lost a lot more.

EMPTY BOTTLES, EMPTY BANKS

“I remember thinking that it would be so easy to take her debit card or checkbook,” Matthew said of his grandmother. “It was never in my nature to steal before.”

His father agreed that addiction had turned him into a different person.

“That isn't what the old Matt would have done, that was the Heroin Matt,” Mike said.

Stealing and addiction go hand-in-hand, according to professionals like Susan Perkins. She serves as a clinical director for the Prairie Center, a local treatment center for those with substance abuse and addiction.

Working there for 22 years, she’s seen firsthand the popular drugs that change through the decades.

The '90s were simpler, mostly DUIs and marijuana. Then it was crack cocaine, then methamphetamine. Prescription pills started popping up in the late 2000s, and are still commonly abused. Heroin rose to the local scene around 2010.

Several years later is when Matthew starting using.

He vividly remembers one day in 2015. He was doing chores at his grandmother's house when she gave him her checkbook and sent him to the Family Dollar store to run errands. He used the checks to buy cigarettes and traded them for heroin.

Soon after, Matthew was charged with exploitation of the elderly.

Money isn’t the only thing drug users steal from older adults. Amy Brown, CEO of the CRIS Healthy Aging Center, said one of the services her organization offers is pill-counting.

“Sometimes they may forget to take their medication,” she said. “But if the bottle is empty and their prescription was filled yesterday, that’s obviously a problem.”

The National Institute on Drug Abuse states that people age 65 and older account for more than 30 percent of outpatient spending on prescription medicine, even though these adults make up less than 15 percent of the total U.S. population. These prescription medications can include legal opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone.

The sheer quantity of painkillers that older adults have access to makes them vulnerable targets.

In total, Matthew Scott said he overdosed nine times. The first eight times were eight consecutive days in a row, then one more time months later.

He was arrested several times, and eventually went to rehab. His time in jail taught him it’s actually easier to go through withdrawal behind bars.

“In jail, the mental anguish at least goes away because you know you can’t get it (heroin),” he said.

Subconsciously, he believes that’s the reason the last time he stole from his family, he specifically stole from his mother’s account.

“I knew she would press charges.”

UNDER-REPORTED

Matthew’s father, who is an alderman on the Georgetown City Council, admits he was reluctant to call the police on his son.

“To be honest, when Matt stole and pawned my tools, that’s not even what bothered me,” Mike Scott said. “I had just worked to put three guys away for doing drugs, and I didn’t even know my son was in the next room shooting up.”

There are several reasons why medication theft and exploitation of the elderly are potentially under-reported crimes. Most obvious, older adults may not even know their medication or money has been stolen. Or, similar to what Mike Scott experienced, they may not want to send a family member to jail, especially if that person is their child or grandchild.

A representative from the American Association of Retired Persons said the organization doesn’t even keep data on this issue.

Danville Public Safety Director Larry Thomason said police work with CRIS Healthy Aging Center when dealing with crimes of this nature.

“Certainly we encourage people to report to police,” he said. “Count a fresh prescription, and make a visual check so you know what 30 pills looks like and what 100 pills looks like.

“Today it’s too easy to use various medications for various purposes.”

From late August to mid-October of this year, the Danville police blotter shows at least two reports of medication theft and one report of exploitation of the elderly.

ROCK BOTTOM

Mike Scott said when Matthew was away in jail and rehab, his grandmother asked about him constantly.

“You tell him I still love him,” Mike recalls her saying.

While Alzheimer’s has since affected the now 79-year-old woman, Matthew said he can still feel his grandmother's affection toward him.

“She talks about forgiveness and I know what she’s referring to,” he said. “The pain of hurting people — of hurting my grandma — it didn’t sink in until after I was clean.”

Matthew, now 32, said it’s been 10 months since he last used drugs, and he credits much of that accomplishment to the support from his family, community and staff at the Prairie Center.

He said everyone has a different rock bottom. For him, it was that he didn’t have anything left; he lost his car and his house, and his wife eventually moved to Indiana with their children.

After one visit, Matthew’s middle son told his grandpa Mike Scott, “I didn’t think I was ever going to see him again.”

Both Scott men consider that moment the turning point in Matthew’s life.

“The best thing we did was put him in jail,” Mike said.

A year ago, he was hesitant to call the police on his son. Now, he wouldn't think twice.

“Don’t wait to call the police,” he advises other parents and grandparents. “You’re killing them.”

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Using and abusing

Terry Nolan, prominent Muskegon attorney, sentenced for cocaine use

MUSKEGON, MI – Terry Joel Nolan, one of Muskegon’s highest-profile attorneys, pleaded guilty as charged Tuesday to using cocaine.

There was no plea or sentencing agreement with the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office, and no sentence-cap commitment from the judge. Sentencing by Muskegon County Circuit Judge Annette R. Smedley was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. July 24.

Nolan, 55, of Norton Shores pleaded guilty Tuesday morning, June 18, to cocaine use with a double penalty as a second or subsequent offense. That’s a high-court misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison.

Because it’s not a felony, there are no state sentencing guidelines. That will leave the sentencing decision completely up to Smedley.

At some point after sentencing, the State Bar of Michigan will decide on suspending Nolan’s license to practice law. Some suspension is expected, with the length of time being up to the bar’s Attorney Discipline Board.

The Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office is legally required to notify the State Bar about Nolan’s conviction now that he has pleaded guilty. Nolan’s attorney, Edward G. Anderson, said he also has notified the bar about the plea.

Nolan is already prohibited from practicing law on an interim basis. The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board on May 6 temporarily placed Nolan’s law license on “inactive status” with the sole exception of the Maurice Darnell Clemons murder case, which concluded with Clemons’ sentencing Monday, June 17.

“I’ve been in recovery for a long time. I had a very brief relapse,” Nolan said after his plea. “I got right back in the (recovery) program, and I’m going to do the best I can to help anybody else with this kind of a problem. That’s my goal, to use my experience and the platform to try to help other people if I can.”

Legally speaking, “whatever the consequences are, I’m just going to accept,” Nolan said. “I’m doing what I have to do to take care of myself, and doing the best I can to help out my two former associates.” Attorneys Matthew Kacel and Kevin Wistrom, Nolan’s former associates, have been taking many of the cases Nolan formerly handled.

Nolan previously lost his law license for seven years over earlier convictions, regaining it only in late 2009. Since that time, until his arrest this year, he was active as a criminal-defense attorney.

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Terry Nolan, prominent Muskegon attorney, sentenced for cocaine use

Illinois judges seeking assistance at faster pace

SPRINGFIELD — The cocaine-induced death of a downstate Illinois judge in March and the arrest last month of a colleague on drug-related charges comes at a time when more attorneys than ever are seeking help for mental health issues and addiction problems.

According to the most recent annual report of the Illinois Lawyers Assistance Program, which helps find treatment for attorneys, 299 new cases were opened during the most recent fiscal year, the most of any time in the agency's 32-year history.

Janet Piper Voss, executive director of the assistance program, attributes the increase to a rise in awareness of the program and an acceptance that treatment is a better option than hiding problems.
But, she said, judges often are a different breed.

"They are very concerned about letting anyone know there is a problem," Voss said. "And they tend to be more isolated in their work setting."

Joe Christ, 49, had been an associate judge in St. Clair County for less than a month before he died of a cocaine overdose in March. The Illinois State University graduate was a county prosecutor for nearly two decades before his elevation to the bench.

Christ's body was recovered at a hunting lodge in Pike County owned by the parents of St. Clair County Circuit Judge Michael Cook, 45, who has since been charged with possessing a weapon while using a controlled substance and misdemeanor possession of heroin.

According to a review of disciplinary action against judges at the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, the behavior of the two men would be considered among the most egregious when compared to cases going back for decades.

Since 1973, there have been 82 cases filed against wayward judges by the inquiry board.
Of them, only one other judge was connected to a drug-related crime.

In October 1996, Cook County Associate Judge Frank Edwards was nabbed for transporting marijuana at an airport in Belize.

A review of inquiry board documents shows 12 judges have been penalized over the past 40 years for allegations of alcohol abuse. Of those, cases against five judges were filed in the past decade.

Other inquiry board findings center on issues ranging from the attempted use of judicial clout to the mistreatment of people in their courtrooms.

In 2006, for example, the board opened an inquiry into Logan County Associate Judge Donald Behle, who was accused of having dated a woman while presiding over her divorce and child custody case.

He also faced an allegation that he contacted a witness in a case in which he was the presiding judge.
The case was closed in 2007 after Behle resigned from office.

Among the highest-profile cases of the inquiry board was the 1997 censure of James Heiple, the chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.

Heiple was accused of trying to use his position to keep from being charged with a traffic violation.
But those cases affected judges who remained in office after they were investigated.

Once a judge leaves office, the inquiry board loses jurisdiction over the case. That means a judge accused of a drug-related crime might not be investigated by board.

"There could be others because they left (the job,)" said Kathy Twine, executive director of the Judicial Inquiry Board.

Former Sangamon County Associate Judge Philip Schickendanz serves as an example. He resigned in 1990 after being convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol and cocaine possession.

He eventually was stripped of his law license by a separate agency, the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

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Illinois judges seeking assistance at faster pace

NY Woman Accused of Financial Exploitation

A Rochester woman has been charged with multiple felonies in Olmsted County District Court after authorities say she spent more than $17,000 of another woman's money.

Theresa Anne Kuhn, 49, faces two counts of financial exploitation-vulnerable adult, and one count of financial transaction card fraud. She's scheduled to make her first appearance May 9.

Investigators were assigned to the case after a social worker alerted Rochester police to the transactions allegedly made by Kuhn, who had power of attorney for the 76-year-old woman. According to the criminal complaint, the older woman spent about six weeks during 2012 in a senior care services facility, where she was diagnosed with dementia.

During that period, the complaint says, Kuhn made cash withdrawals of $11,289 on the woman's bank accounts, as well as credit card charges of $6,039. When police spoke to Kuhn, she allegedly admitted that none of the money or charges went to benefit the victim. The report says she admitted to gambling and shopping sprees with the cash; the charges allegedly were for clothing and liquor, and to pay her taxes.

Two of the counts are punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine, or both. The other charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail, a $3,000 fine, or both.

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Woman Accused of Financial Exploitation