Tonight on Marti Oakley's TS Radio Network: Recapping the Whistleblower Summit!

4:00 pm PST…5:00 pm MST…6:00 pm CST…7:00 pm EST
A special time and day for this show! We have been busy! Tonight we will recap the Summit and then move on to the latest BS piece of legislation that is being shopped around to convince the public that Congress actually intends to address the issue of predatory guardians and the abuse of the elderly.

The Federal Guardianship Accountability Act-S 591 and HR 4174 are the latest examples of the attempts to convince the public that congress intends to do anything other than to continue the cash incentivized programs that target the elderly.

Coz will be updating on the latest in a huge Wisconsin case that we have been working on and also on the progress made on the cases in Alaska.

We will also have a guest the last half of the show who has been victimized in this predatory system, who must remain anonymous for fear of retaliation for speaking out.

LISTEN to the show LIVE or listen to the archive later

Congress Attacks Elder Guardianship Abuse After Criminal Investigation

HOUSTON - After a court-appointed guardian successfully moved a Schenectady, New York trial Judge to replace him as the trustee of his brother's special needs trust, John Scott appealed and lost.

Now he’s petitioning to either re-argue or appeal.

Trouble ensued when, as trustee of a $2 million fund, Mr. Scott disputed paying a court appointed evaluator's estimated $20,000 fee as well as requests to fund limousine service to take his anxiety-challenged brother James Scott to and from the grocery store and medical appointments, according to a press release.

According to the court appointed guardian Kathleen Toombs, however, it was a mere car service, not a limousine, that was enlisted temporarily to comfortably and reliably transport the brother during winter months.

Although an appellate court overturned an order requiring the payment of court evaluator fees, it upheld the transportation fees and the removal of Mr. Scott as trustee of his brother James' trust.

"John was the person who handled these logistics for no cost until the guardianship was imposed and the relationship frayed," said John Scott’s attorney Paul O’Brien of the Falcon, Jacobson & Gertler law firm.

Mr. Scott in New York isn’t the first to sue over the actions of court-appointed guardians, evaluators and even judges. Plaintiffs in states, including Texas, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, have increasingly cried afoul in recent years and as a result U.S. Representatives Darren Soto, Charlie Crist and Gus Bilirakis of Florida as well as Debbie Dingell of Michigan re-introduced HR 4174 on Aug. 7 to assist states in guardianship oversight.

"There have been cases nationwide that pushed the bill to the forefront of the House agenda," said Oriana Pina, communications director for Congressman Soto.

The House bill is identical to the Guardianship Accountability Act, which is pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

HR 4174 comes on the heels of a criminal investigation in Florida of court appointed guardian Rebecca Fierle who resigned last month.

“In Orlando, we saw firsthand the abuse of a former guardian, which led to a preventable death," said Congressman Soto. "We owe it to our seniors and to those living with disabilities to provide protections from ill-intended bad actors who abuse the system that's designed to provide a better quality of life."

For example, in Ohio, a racketeering lawsuit filed in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas alleges that despite the recommendation of a court-appointed officer, a convicted felon was appointed the guardian of 85 year old Fourough Saghafi Bakhtiar. As reported in the Southeast Texas Record last week, a divorce was subsequently imposed against the wishes of Ms. Saghafi Bakhtiar’s 88 year old elderly husband, Dr. Mehdi Saghafi, according to court records.

“Guardianship abuses are resulting in seniors literally being held against their will, isolated from family members and friends, their assets liquidated and drained by unscrupulous people gaming a broken system,” said Congressman Crist.

In April, the Honorable U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas remanded  Plaintiff Sherry Johnston's federal lawsuit, alleging elder guardian abuse of her elderly mother, to state court.

Full Article & Source:
Congress Attacks Elder Guardianship Abuse After Criminal Investigation

Darren Soto, Gus Bilirakis, Charlie Crist file bill to tighten guardianships

ByScott Powers
 

Following an alarming congressional report and a series of stories investigated by the Orlando Sentinel, a bipartisan trio of Florida lawmakers, Darren Soto, Gus Bilirakis, and Charlie Crist, announced Wednesday they filed a bill to tighten protections for mostly-disabled, mostly-elderly people under control of legal guardians.

“In Orlando, we saw firsthand the abuse of a former guardian which led to a preventable death,” Soto stated in a news release, referencing a case that crossed over into the Tampa Bay market as well, brought to light this summer by the Sentinel’s reporting.

“We owe it to our seniors and to those living with disabilities to provide protections from ill-intended bad actors who abuse the system designed to provide a better quality of life. Guardianship is a critical resource that gives Americans support when they need it most,” Soto continued. “This bipartisan legislation will empower the good guardians and allow them to continue serving those in need while combating against fraud and abuse.”

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan joined Soto, Bilirakis, and Crist in sponsoring the House’s Guardianship Accountability Act. It has not yet been assigned a bill number.

Theirs is a companion bill Senate Bill 591, filed by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat. They are chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

The bill is intended to create further oversight and create data collection measures to hold guardians accountable. A news release from Soto’s office cites recent reports of “fraud cases and financial exploitation from guardians toward vulnerable populations.”

Those include cases highlighted in stories published by the Sentinel this summer, including at least one case that resulted in death. That reporting began with the case of court-appointed guardian Rebecca Fierle and her ward, 75-year-old Steven Stryker of Cocoa, who died in a Tampa hospital under a “do not resuscitate” order Fierle had filed against his wishes. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has launched a criminal investigation.

The news release from Soto’s office also referenced a year-long investigation by the Senate Aging Committee. Its report, “Ensuring Trust: Strengthening State Efforts to Overhaul the Guardianship Process and Protect Older Americans” made numerous reform recommendations to protect patients.

Bilirakis cited cases in his district.

“It is said that the strength of a society can be judged based upon how it treats its most vulnerable populations. We’ve seen from recent examples in the news, and alarming rates of elder abuse throughout Pasco and Pinellas counties, that guardianship is an area where we can and must do better in order to ensure the protection of our seniors,” Bilirakis stated in the release. “Following the recommendations from the Senate Special Committee on Aging, I am proud to be part of this bipartisan initiative that provides additional resources, strengthens protections and improves intergovernmental coordination in order to achieve this paramount objective.”

Crist referred to the worst of guardian cases as a “legal form of kidnapping” and cited an incident leading to death, presumably that of Stryker.

“Guardianship abuses are resulting in seniors literally being held against their will, isolated from family members and friends, their assets liquidated and drained by unscrupulous people gaming a broken system,” Crist stated.“ This legal form of kidnapping is happening in communities across the country, in many cases with little or no recourse available, and recently in Florida directly resulting in death. This legislation brings federal resources to bear, providing the missing transparency needed to understand where problems exist with a better ability for stakeholders to track outcomes across disparate state court systems nationwide.”

Full Article & Source:
Darren Soto, Gus Bilirakis, Charlie Crist file bill to tighten guardianships

Federal judge to decide whether to remand case against Harris County judge back to state court

HOUSTON – As the U.S. Senate considers the Guardianship Accountability Act, a federal judge in Houston is considering the responses to an order for supplemental briefing in a case against a Harris County judge over the 2014 death of a woman in a nursing home.

U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, on the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, issued the briefing on Jan. 14 in the lawsuit filed by Sherry Johnston against Harris County Probate Judge Christine Butts and David Dexel.

The order stated that the case presented some state-law issues that were unresolved.

“Dexel and Johnston were involved in guardianship proceedings before Judge Butts in the Harris County Probate Court," Rosenthal said. "Under Texas law, Johnston was an interested person in that proceeding.”

The judge ordered both parties to explain whether the case should be remanded to the 253rd Judicial District Court for Liberty County in regards to the state-law issues by Jan. 28.

Both parties responded within the set deadline.

Johnston's attorney stated in a pleading that “the court’s identification of the questions at stake here and acknowledgment that federal court is not the best forum to decide them on behalf of the State of Texas is further argument for remand to the 253rd District Court of Liberty County, Texas from which the case was removed.”

As previously reported by the SE Texas Record, Johnston sued Butts in 2016 over allegations that her elderly mother, Willie Jo Mills, suffered broken bones and a rapid, preventable decline, which contributed to malnutrition and her death in a nursing home when Mills was a ward of the state under guardianship.

"A ward is typically a senior citizen experiencing cognitive decline or a younger adult with physical or developmental disabilities," the SE Texas Record previously reported.

Rosenthal allowed Johnston to proceed in federal court against Butts in the adult guardianship claim.
 
The press release stated that "before her death, Johnston’s mother, Ms. Mills, was among the estimated 48,468 Texans conscripted to live under the thumb of a court-appointed guardian in 254 counties, according to the Office of Court Administration, and once appointed by a probate judge, guardians are empowered to sedate the guardianized citizen with physician-prescribed psychotropic drugs, to deny the citizen choice of food, health insurance, medical care and even visits with friends, disability advocates, adult children and other concerned loved ones by imposing visitation costs and residency in locked care centers."

While the case is being considered, the Senate Finance Committee in Washington, D.C. is evaluating the proposed Guardianship Accountability Act before making a final decision regarding the financial impacts of the law, that could, per the release, "impact the 98 million Americans nationwide that are expected to reach age 65 and older by 2060."

The Guardianship Accountability Act was introduced by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine on Nov. 28, 2018.

Full Article & Source:
Federal judge to decide whether to remand case against Harris County judge back to state court