Alan Miller commentary: Guardian series touched many lives

The old man was among several people who approached me after a recent speech about the day-to-day operations of The Dispatch.

He waited patiently for his turn and then stuck out his hand to shake mine. And with the grip of someone half his age, he held tight and pulled me close.

The man talked about how important the newspaper had been to him and his family during his long life — nearly 80 years, I’d guess. He said the paper is full of information people need to know, and he complimented The Dispatch staff for its work.

Almost as an afterthought, as he squeezed my hand tighter, he offered one more comment:

“I’ve been the beneficiary of your staff’s good reporting,” he said. “That series you did on guardianships — I was one of those people. I was trapped, and I’m a free man now because of what The Dispatch reported.”

We know intuitively that what we do affects lives, but we don’t always know who or how.

The man slipped away before I could ask for more details, but he was talking about the 2014 series titled “Unguarded,” which found gaping holes in how probate courts across the state monitor guardians they appoint for some of Ohio’s most vulnerable residents — the very young and very old, and those with mental disabilities, who are unable to look out for themselves.

The stories, available online at Dispatch.com/unguarded, caused state legislators, probate judges and the Ohio Supreme Court to enact reforms to the guardianship system.

Attorney General Mike DeWine also created guidelines in a handbook that is required to be available to every guardian in the state.

These changes undoubtedly have helped and will help others like the man who said he had been a ward who felt trapped by his guardian.

At the other end of the spectrum of lives affected by this series was a Columbus lawyer who once boasted that with nearly 400 people in his care, he was guardian to more wards than any other.

And he was stealing from some of them. He pleaded guilty in August to four counts of theft from an elderly or disabled person, one count of theft and five counts of tampering with records.

The 65-year-old lawyer was scheduled to be sentenced this week, and faced a maximum of 23 years in prison.

On Oct. 5, the day he was to appear in court on a contempt charge for not following an order to pay back some of his victims, he was found dead of apparent suicide at his Upper Arlington home.

After his death, his heartbroken family issued a statement taking The Dispatch to task for the stories that led to the charges against him.

We were stunned and saddened by his death.

We seek the truth, and what follows revelations of truth is up those who read it. The reactions sometimes can be as shocking as they are profound.

For one man, a series of stories resulted in criminal charges. For another, it resulted in freedom.

Alan D. Miller is editor of The Dispatch.

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Alan Miller commentary: Guardian series touched many lives

New Guardianship Rules Start Today in Ohio

Court-appointed guardians across Ohio will all have to follow the same set of basic requirements starting June 1 as they manage the affairs of Ohioans who are deemed unable to care for themselves — children, the elderly and people with mental disabilities.

The new rules require training, monitoring and background checks and say that guardians must meet with their wards at least every three months.

A court-appointed committee had studied the issue for more than eight years before releasing a draft set of rules for guardians last spring — just as The Dispatch published an investigation in May that revealed how the state’s patchwork quilt of local rules has failed Ohioans.

The series, “Unguarded,” available online at Dispatch.com/unguarded, found widespread problems with the way some guardians were managing the care of their wards, including instances of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation.

The court pulled back the draft after receiving more than 100 pages of comments, prompted in part by the Dispatch series.

The committee work started in 2007 after national news stories raised an alarm about the lack of oversight in guardianship cases. While Ohio was one of the first states to form a committee to study the issue, much of the rest of the country raced ahead with comprehensive state standards.

Julia Nack is one of the state’s few certified master guardians and the director of the volunteer guardianship program at the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging. She both commented on the draft rules and was part of the committee tasked with redrafting the rules based on that feedback.

Ohio Supreme Court:  New Guardianship Rules Start June 1

Investigations launched into billing by lawyers appointed as guardians

When a woman in his care fell and was injured, an attorney-guardian billed her $135 to talk to her family about what happened and give her father directions to the hospital.

An attorney-guardian charged seniors with dementia legal fees to buy them Christmas presents with their own money.

And another charged an elderly woman $300 for time the lawyer spent eating cookies with her.

When attorneys are appointed as guardians by the Franklin County Probate Court, they are supposed to look out for the best interests of the vulnerable adults, known as wards.

But a yearlong Dispatch investigation shows otherwise and has prompted criminal investigations and court audits. Among those targeted by the court is Columbus lawyer Paul S. Kormanik, who says he has more wards than any other guardian in the country.

A Dispatch examination of thousands of court records found numerous questionable bills that Kormanik submitted to the court, including more than $1,600 in legal fees to clean out a ward’s house so he could sell it. He hired his own family members to do that job, using the ward’s money to pay them.

He also billed the wards thousands of dollars for opening their mail and taking their telephone calls.

Every bill from Kormanik included this message to the court: “The services required by this ward required substantial legal skills and experience.”

Franklin County Probate Court rules specifically state that guardians cannot submit bills at legal rates for non-legal activities. Even so, court magistrates approved them. After The Dispatch raised questions about Kormanik’s billing practices, Probate Court officials began auditing some of his cases last month.

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Investigations launched into billing by lawyers appointed as guardians

Report:  Legal System Fails Many Ohioans

Report: Legal guardian system fails many Ohioans

COLUMBUS — The court-appointed guardian system created to help Ohio’s elderly and mentally disabled residents and children has failed many it serves and allows unscrupulous guardians to rob their wards of freedom, dignity and money, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The newspaper’s investigation of the system that controls the lives of about 65,000 Ohioans found that even judges overseeing the system say it is broken, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Ohio’s system has ripped apart families, rendered the mentally ill voiceless, and left some elderly Ohioans dying penniless in nursing homes, according to the newspaper.

Probate judges in Ohio’s 88 counties direct the system without detailed state guidelines and often amid overloaded court dockets. The Dispatch’s yearlong investigation showed some lawyers appointed as guardians have been allowed to ignore elderly and mentally ill people while placing them in the lowest-rated nursing home and some lawyers have billed wards for thousands of dollars in questionable legal fees for routine tasks such as paying utility bills.

Other failings found included a severely autistic man whose weight rose to 513 pounds because his guardian — his mother— allowed him to gorge on junk food and microwave dinners despite caseworkers’ warnings. One guardian’s failures also separated an elderly couple married for 45 years in their final year, and an eccentric woman forced into guardianship against her will was left broke and homeless.

The newspaper’s survey of Ohio’s probate courts found that nearly 90 percent do not require credit checks for prospective guardians, and as many as 61 percent don’t require criminal-background checks of guardians entrusted with the assets and care of vulnerable people.

Guardians are required in most counties to submit paper status reports about their wards only every two years and probate courts are not required to independently verify reports. A few counties require monthly visits, but more than three-quarters of the state’s probate courts don’t require guardians to ever meet with their wards.

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Report: Legal guardian system fails many Ohioans

Elderly, mentally ill and children trapped in broken court system

Thousands of Ohio’s most vulnerable residents are trapped in a system that was created to protect them but instead allows unscrupulous guardians to rob them of their freedom, dignity and money. Even judges who oversee the system acknowledge that it is broken, that it has ripped apart families, rendered the mentally ill voiceless, and left some elderly Ohioans dying penniless in nursing homes.
Anyone could end up in this system that currently controls the lives of 65,000 Ohioans, especially decisions about medical care and personal finances. And almost anyone can become a guardian — a loved one, a close friend, a stranger, even a felon.
One Columbus lawyer proudly proclaims that he likely is guardian of more wards than anyone in the country — about 400 people.
This system, which is supposed to look out for the health and well-being of the elderly, the mentally disabled and children, is directed by probate judges in 88 counties. And for lack of detailed guidelines from the state, the counties have 88 different ways of overseeing guardians and their wards.
The Ohio Supreme Court recognized the problems and assigned a committee nearly eight years ago to come up with rules. This year, the committee finally put forward a plan that falls far short of national standards and what advocates say is necessary to protect vulnerable Ohioans.
Meanwhile, probate court dockets are overloaded.
The courts also handle other family matters, such as adoptions, marriage licenses, wills and disputes over estates. And the demand for guardianships will grow as the number of people 65 or older in the U.S. doubles by 2050.
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Elderly, mentally ill and children trapped in broken court system