A woman has been charged with second-degree murder in the 2021 cold-case death of a man she was supposed to be caring for.
Joseph Woodward, 38, died at his home under suspicious
circumstances. He was malnourished and seemed to show signs of neglect,
but through the years there wasn’t sufficient evidence to make an
arrest.
Until this week, when the Columbia Police Department arrested Nancy
Bass Ledger. The department said in a release that there was an
extensive investigation and upon re-examining the evidence, detectives
were able to pin down the information they needed to charge Ledger.
“Our team has worked tirelessly to seek
justice for Joseph Woodward and his family. This arrest marks a
significant step forward in resolving this tragic case,” Chief Adrien
Fortenberry said in a release. “We hope this brings some measure of
closure to those affected by this crime.”
Ledger is being held at the Marion County Jail.
Authorities are asking that anyone who might have information pertaining to this case give them a call at 601-736-8204.
COLUMBIA, Miss. (WDAM) - Two people are behind bars after exploiting an elderly man out of more than $6,000 in Columbia, MS.
The
Columbia Police Department said its Major Crimes Bureau opened an
investigation on May 21, 2024, after they received a complaint about
missing funds from the 82-year-old victim’s banking account. Detective
David Thompson headed the investigation.
During
the investigation, Thompson said he discovered a series of checks made
out to individuals identified as Joseph Elwood Duncan and Crystal Lynn
Buckley. He explained that these checks were written for various amounts
over a one-month period, and further investigation showed a pattern of
financial exploitation.
The police
said Duncan and Buckly had deceived a vulnerable adult, which resulted
in the loss of more than $6,000 within a few weeks.
Columbia police arrested Duncan and Buckley on charges related to financial exploitation and fraud against the elderly.
Thompson said this is an ongoing investigation, and the accused may face additional charges at a later date.
Anyone
with information related to this case or other instances of financial
exploitation is encouraged to contact the Columbia Police Department at
601-736-8225.
Consider Jackson attorney Harry Rosenthal as the king of conservatorships.
By his own estimate, he has been a conservator for more than 100
vulnerable individuals. Hinds County Chancery Court records show he’s
continuing to handle a dozen conservatorships.
Though it’s not known how much the attorney receives in each case, in
Hinds County alone, Rosenthal’s income from being a conservator could
be substantial.
The average salary for a non-family member conservator is
$51,214 per year in Mississippi, according to the research blog
salary.com. ZipRecruiter,
which says it gets its salary estimates from employer job postings and
third party data sources, puts the average salary in Mississippi at
$47,787.
State Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, who helped craft changes to
the conservatorship law, said most appointed conservators are family
members, and they aren’t paid a lot of money.
The law allows a family member to be paid fees set by a judge for their service.
Professional conservators are entitled to reasonable fees, but
the judge decides what is reasonable and must approve the amount before
the conservator can be paid. Money for the conservator comes from the
account of the person under a conservatorship. If a person under a
conservator has little or no financial assets, the judge can appoint a
public guardian/conservator who is paid from public funds.
Some attorneys say the new law makes it difficult for ordinary
citizens to file conservatorship petitions without the assistance of
attorneys.
Elder law experts say the cost of obtaining a conservatorship over
someone can be expensive with the hiring of attorneys or attorneys to
represent the individual, family members and interested parties. There
are also court and other fees involved with a conservatorship petition.
Rosenthal told the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a
part of Mississippi Today, that most of the wards for whom he has served
as conservator were once clients in criminal cases.
More than 30 years ago, the attorney provided $12,000 in bail money
to try to help white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith get out of jail
after he was indicted and arrested for the third time in the
assassination of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers.
Although Jewish, a group of people Beckwith disparaged, Rosenthal,
82, has said he provided the money to Beckwith because he believed his
speedy trial rights were being violated after two previous trials in
1964 ended in hung juries.
In 1994, 30 years after his previous trials, Beckwith was convicted
in Hinds County Circuit Court of Evers’ murder and sentenced to life in
prison. Beckwith died in 2001 in custody.
Thirty-four years ago, Rosenthal filed the petition to become conservator for Gary Gordineer in Hinds County Chancery Court.
“I’ve had him for more than 30 years and I still have him,” Rosenthal
said recently. In February, Rosenthal filed an annual accounting report
of Gordineer’s assets, a court docket report shows.
Rosenthal said he knew Gordineer, Gordineer’s father and other family
members. He said the younger Gordineer had been a criminal client.
Rosenthal said he once had Gordineer, who is a veteran, in a home with
his mother but now has him in a nursing home.
No family member of Gordineer could be reached for comment.
Rosenthal is also listed as conservator in another case, dating to 1989 involving Howard Ruffin Jr.
Ruffin’s niece, Erica Porter, said she has been his caregiver for the
100% disabled veteran the last four years. Other than her, Ruffin has
little or no family alive, she said. “I’m all he has.”
In her four years of caring for Ruffin, she said she had never heard
from Rosenthal until recently when she went to his office to request
more money than the $700 a month she receives for Ruffin’s care.
Porter said Rosenthal denied her request.
“My first time talking to him was actually last week,” Porter
said recently of Rosenthal. “We haven’t heard from him or nothing.”
Rosenthal said everyone wants to spend a ward’s money.
“If you are a conservator or guardian, the money belongs to the
person you are trying to protect, and the laws of the state of
Mississippi say you are supposed to conserve and build upon the money,
if possible,” he said.
Most of Rosenthal’s conservatorship cases in Hinds County occurred before an updated law went into effect three years ago.
About 2,500 conservatorship cases have been filed in Mississippi since then.
The updated law, known as the Mississippi Guard and Protect Act,
seeks to protect the rights of those unable to take care of themselves,
said Beam, who co-chaired the 26-member committee that came up with the
recommendations. It was the first update of the guardian and
conservatorship law in 30 years.
The law distinguishes guardianship of the person from conservator of
the estate, clarifies the role of a guardian/conservator in a ward’s
life, specifies the basis for appointing a guardian/conservator through
improved medical evaluation forms, encourages individualized planning
and use of the least restrictive alternative. It also creates
accountability between the guardian/conservator and the courts to
prevent fraud and abuse.
The law also mandates wellbeing reports.
The updated law applies to cases filed after Jan. 1, 2020, but a
judge has the authority to apply the new law to older cases if no rights
are violated.
In a 2021 state Supreme Court appeal, Hattiesburg attorney Carol
Bustin said that, for decades, courts have treated conservatorships as
mere ministerial actions and the imposition of conservatorships as
matters of petitioners’ rights.
Unless someone is a party in a conservatorship case, court records in
cases like those of Gordineer and Ruffin are sealed, except for the
brief descriptions placed on the court docket.
Rosenthal said some things in the new law look good on paper, but accountability isn’t being strictly enforced.
The sister of one of Rosenthal’s wards questions the lawyer’s accountability.
“I think the rule, or unofficial rule, should be to talk to
family members before they put people into a court-appointed
conservatorship to make sure there is no one who can take over the
responsibility,” said Linda Taylor of Memphis, whose brother, Edward
Redmond, was one of Rosenthal’s wards.
At one point, Rosenthal had Redmond living in a facility in south Mississippi, according to Taylor.
But Rosenthal was forced by court order to move Redmond to Jackson to be closer to family.
Taylor said her brother initially was able to spend time with family.
“In August 2019, however, Rosenthal forbade us to take him away
from his assisted living residence to spend time with him. He even
claimed he had a warrant out for my brother Robert’s arrest because he
had violated that order and picked Edward up once, anyway.”
Redmond, a Marine veteran, was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic in
the 1980s and became addicted to drugs. He was determined to be 100%
disabled by the VA hospital. Redmond’s parents became guardians over his
military and Social Security benefits.
In 1994, Redmond’s parents agreed to let Rosenthal become his
guardian without fully understanding what they were consenting to,
according to Taylor. She said she and another sister in Texas didn’t
know anything about what was going on with their brother until after
Rosenthal had already been court appointed guardian/conservator.
At one point, Redmond was allowed to live with Taylor and her husband
in Memphis on a trial basis. During that time, Redmond overcame his
addiction for a while. He had a great testimony about his victory over
drugs. Rosenthal forced Redmond to move back to Jackson for unexplained
reasons.
Taylor said her brother was moved over the years to different
locations throughout the state of Mississippi, and that all of those
places Rosenthal chose were not approved by the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
Rosenthal said he won’t apologize for the care Redmond received in
Jackson. Taylor wanted too much money for keeping Redmond, he said. “I’m
not ashamed of what happened. I had a tremendous problem with her
trying to get his money.”
Taylor said the family requested to have guardianship over Edward
while allowing Rosenthal to continue being conservator over his money.
“Rosenthal refused,” she said. “The record speaks for itself.”
This project was produced by the Mississippi Center for
Investigative Reporting, now part of Mississippi Today, in partnership
with the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
1.3 million people in the United States are living under a legal system
that allows someone else, often unrelated, to make personal, financial
and medical decisions for them.
by Jimmie E. Gates
Opal Smith of Columbia, Mississippi, is picturing enjoying a glass of wine prior to being put under a conservatorship in 2013. Credit: Photo courtesy of Nancy DeVoe
Opal K. Smith celebrated her 93rd birthday in March under a
conservatorship that for the past eight years has left her with no
control over her finances or where she lives.
She is one of the 1.3 million people in the United States living
under a legal system that allows someone else, often unrelated, to make
personal, financial and medical decisions for them.
Her conservator has her living in an assisted living facility in Hattiesburg, about 35 miles from her home of Columbia.
When reached via phone, Opal wouldn’t comment on the matter.
However, in a court affidavit, she said: “I want out of this
conservatorship now and into a home of my own in or near Columbia,
Mississippi.”
Opal wants to go home and live with a sitter, and so do some family
members, including her daughter, Nancy DeVoe, and Nancy’s husband, John.
But Smith’s two other daughters filed the initial conservatorship
petition in 2015 after her husband died, saying Smith was experiencing
memory decline.
The fight over her conservatorship stretches from Mississippi to England.
In their petition to create a conservatorship over Opal, Nancy’s
two sisters — Jill Kendrick Weber, then of Columbia, and Elizabeth
Houser of Little Rock — blamed her for initiating the conservatorship.
Neither could be reached for comment.
But their 2015 conservatorship petition said that, for approximately
the last five years of their father’s life, Weber provided assistance
and care for her parents as needed, and was motivated by their best
interest.
Subsequent to their father’s death, the sisters said Nancy traveled
to Mississippi from her residence in the United Kingdom in an attempt to
control Opal and her assets.
They alleged Nancy engaged Opal in conduct and activities out of
character for her and not in her best interest. They said Nancy procured
a debit card in Opal’s name and compelled her to execute contracts and
documents she was not capable of understanding.
Further, they said a physician had indicated Opal was unable to make
informed decisions regarding her personal finances, health care, or
other serious decisions pertaining to herself or her family.
“Accordingly, the petitioners contend that the Ward, Opal K. Smith,
by reason of mental weakness, is incapable of managing her own estate,”
the petition said.
Nancy said she never attempted to control her mother or her assets,
nor did she engage her mother in any activities or conduct that a
reasonable person could contend were out of character for her or not in
her best interest. She also said she didn’t compel her mother to execute
any contracts or documents.
John and Nancy DeVoe said the constitution mandates no one be
deprived of liberty or property without due process of law. A
conservatorship decree, they said, always deprives the individual of
property and, in many cases, of liberty.
“Opal never had a chance to testify, present evidence, confront her
accusers, or call witnesses,” they said in court papers opposing the
ongoing conservatorship.
Conservatorships are responsible for $50 billion in assets, according to a 2018 report by the National Council on Disability.
The Mississippi Administrative Office of Courts reports that 2,481
conservatorship petitions were filed between January 2019 and this past
February. The figures include conservatorship petitions for both minors
and adults.
In Mississippi, some court records appear to show prior to a 2020
update in guardian and conservatorship laws, that some judges didn’t
expend much effort investigating conservatorship cases before approving
petitions.
The Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting viewed court
dockets from multiple counties, and records show in some cases,
conservatorship petitions were approved the same day they were filed.
Attorney George Dickerman,
an elder law expert and author in Riverside, California, said
conservatorships should be a last resort, only when no reasonable
alternatives are available.
Dickerman said sometimes an older person will need assistance but
will not voluntarily agree to accept it. He said a conservatorship can
be necessary when a perpetrator manipulates an older person and
wrongfully takes money or property.
But Dickerman also said some unscrupulous individuals will use conservatorships as a license to steal.
Across the country, there is a hodgepodge of state laws when it comes
to conservatorships, and often there are no requirements to record all
financial transactions through a state’s software application. And there
is no national database tracking the number of conservatorships in the
country.
The data available on conservatorships and the conditions them varies
from state to state. And there is no mandate on a state or federal
level for standardized requirements to become a conservator.
Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam, a former chancery judge,
played an integral role in updating the state guardian and
conservatorship law that took effect Jan. 1, 2020.
Beam told the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting there
was a time when conservators — often family members of the person under
conservatorship — would seek court approval to spend money on such
things as swimming pools, four-wheelers and lavish vacations.
She said the goal of the updated law is to protect people with large
estates as well as those with only Social Security benefits. It covers
minors, older people and other adults unable to care for themselves.
There is a computer system now that allows courts to better manage cases, she said.
“It’s a lot easier to control money going out than trying to claw it back.”
The FBI elder fraud report
for 2022 said total losses reported by those 60 and older were $3.1
billion, an increase of 84% from 2021. Although the average loss per
victim was $35,101, more than 5,400 victims each lost more than
$100,000.
“Our oath is to administer justice regardless of rich or poor,” Beam
said. “We want to make sure we administer justice. We are doing what we
have to do to protect an individual’s assets. We used to just focus on
assets. We now have a wellness report that the court can require for the
elderly.”
In most states, a judge decides whether to establish a
conservatorship after a petition is filed stating why a person can’t
manage his or her financial affairs or make appropriate decisions
concerning personal care.
The Family Caregivers Alliance
says a conservatorship is supposed to provide a higher degree of
protection than alternatives, such as powers of attorneys, trusts and
health care directives, due to court oversight.
Government agencies and human rights organizations report older
people are more likely to experience neglect, both mental and physical,
and more likely to have their assets broken up and sold off piece by
piece.
In Mississippi, the Department of Human Service reported 4,252 cases
to its adult protective services. Of those, it initiated 4,110
investigations in 2022. August had the highest number — 407.
Opal Smith on her 93rd birthday in March at the facility in Hattiesburg where she is assigned as part of her conservatorship. Credit: Photo courtesy of Nancy DeVoe
In
September 2015, when Smith was put under a conservatorship, all three
sisters were in town to see their father before he died. After his
death, Nancy and her sisters disagreed about what to do about their
mother. Nancy said any discussion should include their mother and
opposed the conservatorship.
Her sisters initially were appointed co-conservators for their
mother. However, a Lamar County chancery judge later replaced them with a
third-party conservator because of a dispute.
Smith’s conservator has changed three more times, and, since 2015,
the fees drawn from her account to pay conservators total more than
$160,000, according to the DeVoes. In court records, Smith’s estate was
valued at almost $900,000 in 2021.
The DeVoes’ opposition to the conservatorship has led to a
contentious court fight that could almost mirror that of Brittany
Spears, who was under a conservatorship from 2008 until 2021.
In 2016, John and Nancy were ordered to post $10,000 bonds each
before they could file any additional opposition to the conservatorship.
On. Jan. 30, Lamar County Chancery Judge Chad Smith, no relation to
Opal Smith, ordered John DeVoe to pay $8,397.43 into Opal’s
conservatorship account, fined Nancy $10,000 for contempt, and fired
Opal’s lawyer because he said it was a conflict for the lawyer to
represent both Nancy and Opal.
Nancy DeVoe had opposed the approval of $43,747,82 from Opal’s
account to her conservator and ex-conservator in a January order. Chad
Smith said in court papers that he had ordered and reiterated she was
prohibited from seeking relief until she had posted the bond, which led
to her being fined for contempt “due to her contemptuous conduct,” Judge
Smith wrote in the Jan. 30 order.
“Nancy shall reimburse the conservatorship $10,000 in attorney’s
fees. The amount represents the fees expended by the conservator
litigating meritless opposition by Nancy during the time period
requested,” he wrote.
Chad Smith warned that any future unsuccessful legal challenge
resulting in the conservator incurring legal fees will result in the
fees and expenses being imposed against those presenting an unsuccessful
challenge.
The DeVoes, who live in England, have filed a court motion seeking to remove Chad Smith from Opal Smith’s case.
Chad Smith is the second judge to handle Opal Smith’s conservatorship
case. The previous judge, M. Ronald Doleac, retired in 2018 after not
seeking reelection.
The DeVoes maintain in court papers that Doleac granted a
conservatorship petition on Smith despite insufficient process and
without notice, evidence, or opportunity to defend. And they said the
conservatorship letter was issued the same day, naming Opal’s daughters,
Houser and Weber, co-conservators, which they say was a violation of
the law.
A typical docket report of a successful Mississippi conservatorship
case should show, before the judgment or decree is filed: a sworn
petition, summons issued to the target of the conservatorship and a
relative, two sworn certificates from licensed physicians or a physician
and a licensed psychologist and an entry showing a hearing was held at
least seven days after the petition.
After the decree, the docket report should show the letters of
conservatorship were issued and entry of a bond securing the performance
of the fiduciary duties owed by the conservator to the target and an
inventory of the newly created conservatorship estate, to be filed once
each year during the term of the conservatorship.
Most conservatorship records in Mississippi are sealed from viewing
for anyone not a party to the case. A judge has the discretion whether
to make public any documents in a case.
According to a transcript from a July 2022 hearing in Opal’s case,
attorney Carol Bustin of Hattiesburg, representing Nancy and Opal,
argued that “due process requires fairness. It requires that everybody
have their day in court, and Opal Smith never had her day in court.
There was never any testimony. She never testified as to whether she
wanted this conservatorship or whether she agreed with it, or why she
didn’t agree with it.”
Attorney Larry Buffington of Collins, a former chancery judge,
represented Opal’s other two daughters. Buffington said at the July
hearing, “Maybe I did it wrong for 20 years, but I don’t know that I
ever conducted a hearing unless there was a request from somebody on a
conservatorship. Most of those actually were done in chambers.”
In a court order, Chad Smith said Doleac initially set the matter for
a hearing on Aug. 10, 2015, but continued it until Sept. 15, 2015.
Doleac then scheduled a trial for Nov. 3, 2015.
What occurred isn’t documented. Chad Smith said state law doesn’t
require a record to be made of the trial and that a judge has the
discretion to decide what evidence to hear.
In August 2016, Doleac replaced the daughters, without their
opposition, as conservators, replacing them with attorney Derek
Arrington. Seven months later, Doleac appointed Arrington’s law partner,
G. Neil Rogers, as substitute conservator.
Judge Smith, who took over the case in 2019, granted Rogers’ request
in 2021 to withdraw as conservator and appointed attorney William
Andrews III as his substitute. He also named Andrews to serve as
Opal’s guardian, meaning he was given responsibility for Smith’s care
and wellbeing as well as control of her finances.
Doleac wouldn’t address the Opal Smith case specifically but said
there is a process for the DeVoes to appeal the case, which they did in
2021. A three-judge panel of the state high court denied the request in
January 2022 without comment.
John DeVoe said that with them being in England, it has been
difficult to find a lawyer to handle their appeal. He said some lawyers
they contacted expressed reservations about taking the case since it
would be going against a judge.
The DeVoes filed the paperwork themselves seeking Smith’s removal
from the case to the state Supreme Court. The motion was filed with the
court April 18. It has yet to be decided.
“You can’t be on the bench and not be criticized,” Doleac said in a
phone interview. “We have an excellent judiciary in the state. I have
never seen anyone take a shortcut.”
This project was produced by the Mississippi Center for
Investigative Reporting, now part of Mississippi Today, in partnership
with the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
En español
| Family members in Mississippi who need to hire a caregiver for their
loved ones will soon have a new way to screen out people who have the
potential to do them harm.
A new AARP-backed law,
which takes effect July 1, will create the state’s first vulnerable
person abuse registry, similar to a sex offender registry. Those
convicted of abusing, neglecting or exploiting a vulnerable person —
including older adults unable to care for themselves and anyone living
in a nursing home — must register with the state Department of Public
Safety or face additional penalties.
Under the law, care
facilities such as nursing homes will be able to check the registry to
screen current employees or when hiring new workers. Members of the
public can request access when hiring a caregiver for a vulnerable
person.
Roughly 1 in 10 Americans 60 and older have experienced
some form of elder abuse, which can include physical, emotional and
financial abuse, according to the National Council on Aging. Those who
are socially isolated or have dementia are especially at risk.
“AARP
Mississippi supported the Mississippi Vulnerable Person Abuse Registry
to help families protect their loved ones in care facilities or at
home,” said AARP Mississippi State Director Kimberly L. Campbell. “This
is another tool that family caregivers can use to keep their loved ones
safe.”
A lawyer who acknowledged to the court that he did not check a public
database to determine the status of a nursing director’s license must
pay attorneys’ fees after losing a whistleblower case, a federal judge
has ruled.
Mississippi attorney Cameron Jehl originally filed a whistleblower
lawsuit against GGNSC Southaven LLC — also known as Golden Living Center
— in April 2019, seeking more than $30 million in damages. The
allegations centered on the alleged lack of a multistate nursing license
by the facility’s former director of nursing, Lionelle Trofort, who
worked at the facility from April 23, 2013, to March 4, 2014, according
to court documents.
Jehl alleged that Golden Living, a 140-bed nursing home in Southaven,
MS, near the Tennessee border, filed approximately 1,393 Medicare and
Medicaid claims during that period that were fraudulently submitted.
Under the False Claim Act, the civil penalty for each alleged violation is between $5,000 and $10,000.
Court documents show that Trofort worked as a travel nurse beginning
in 2010 in Arizona, Arkansas and Mississippi while holding a multistate
nursing license issued by Virginia, which court records indicate she
considered her place of residence. Virginia, though, revoked Trofort’s
license on Feb. 28, 2013, but reinstated it on March 20, 2013, after
submitting a declaration to the state’s nursing board declaring Virginia
as her permanent residence.
Documents from the case adjudicated in the US District Court for the
Northern District of Mississippi show that she began working at Golden
Living on April 23, 2013, and the facility confirmed on April 24, 2013,
that she held a valid, multi-state nursing license.
Jehl, while pursuing an unrelated wrongful death case, discovered
notice of the revocation of Trofort’s license. However, US District
Judge Neal B. Biggers Jr., wrote in his ruling awarding fees to Golden
Living, that Jehl filed his whistleblower suit against Golden Living
without checking whether Trofort’s license had been reinstated.
“This court finds that because the relator’s allegation was ‘bereft
of any objective factual support,’ the action ‘clearly had no chance of
success,’ and therefore the claim is frivolous under the [False Claim’s
Act] fee-shifting provision,” Biggers wrote in his March 28 ruling.
Biggers’ original ruling in favor of Golden Living was issued in
March 2022. Jehl appealed that ruling to the US 5th Circuit Court of
Appeals, which upheld that decision in December 2022. The fight then
moved back to the Mississippi court over attorneys’ fees.
Neither Golden Living nor Jehl responded to requests for comment on Friday by McKnights Long-Term Care News.
Court documents do not show what amount of attorneys’ fees Jehl will be responsible for paying to Golden Living.
Photo: Joseph McCarty and Karen McCarty(Jones County Sheriff's Department)
By Emily Blackmarr
UPDATE: According to the Jones County Sheriff’s Department, the victims were vulnerable adults in their 30s and 40s.
JONES
COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) - Two people have been charged in connection to a
vulnerable adult abuse investigation in Jones County.
According
to the Jones County Sheriff’s Department, Karen McCarty is charged with
one count of grand larceny, two counts of exploitation of a vulnerable
person and one count of abuse or neglect of a vulnerable person. Joseph
McCarty is charged with kidnapping and felonious infliction of severe
mental anguish upon a vulnerable person.
JCSD
Investigator Denny Graham said the case started as a possible burglary
investigation. He said a vulnerable couple, a man and woman, moved from a
nursing home into the Lone Oaks Apartments and were being cared for by a
third party, who had known one of the residents from the past.
Graham said the couple later became sick
and had to be placed back into a nursing home. The items in the couple’s
home were later reported missing, which lead to the initial burglary
investigation.
The investigator said
medical personnel who were involved in the couple’s care; however,
reached out to him about the case. He said the case then evolved into an
investigation of allegations of neglect, primarily of a vulnerable man,
and exploration.
According to court
records, The vulnerable couple alleges that Karen, their primary
caregiver, went into the apartment with a key she possessed and stole
the entire contents of the apartment while they were being admitted into
a nursing home for long-term care in March. The couple estimated the
value of the items stolen to be approximately $3,585.
The
records said that the man was bed-bound due to being paralyzed from
Spinal Bifida. He claims Karen took his Social Security money to pay his
bills and then told him “there was never any money left over.” Since
Karen had been his caregiver from August 2021 to March 2022, the victim
estimated she stole approximately $3,363.
The records also claim that Karen
allegedly (from August 2021 to March 2022), willfully, intentionally and
“unlawfully and felonious” failed to provide adequate care to the man.
The
records said Karen allegedly allowed the vulnerable victim to
constantly remain on urine-soaked pads in the same position without care
for hours at a time, causing the wound to worsen to the point of muscle
and bone exposure to infection.
Moreover,
according to court records, the vulnerable woman claimed that Joseph
allegedly exposed himself to her while she was in Karen’s apartment
around Christmas. She said Joseph never touched her, but he allegedly
touched himself in front of her while the two of them were alone, which
made her feel scared and upset due to past trauma.
The two suspects were arrested on May 16 and made their initial appearance in Jones County Justice Court, but later bonded out.
Jones County Sheriff Joe Berlin said,
“this is one of the most disturbing cases of abuse and neglect of
vulnerable persons that we have ever worked.”
“JCSD
investigator Denny Graham has been painstakingly investigating all of
the components of the crimes committed by Karen McCarty and Joseph
McCarty,” added Berlin. “The term ‘horrific’ doesn’t even begin to
describe the physical conditions of the two victims in this case...”
The medical director for more than a dozen hospice providers in Mississippi supplied them with a steady stream of patients over the course of a decade, federal prosecutors said.
There was just one problem: Many of those patients weren’t dying.
Dr. Scott Nelson, a licensed physician from Cleveland, Mississippi, is accused of funneling patients to various hospices to help the owners defraud Medicare and Medicaid out of at least $15 million. A federal jury found him guilty of health care fraud after a two-week trial in the Northern District of Mississippi, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release on Tuesday, April 5.
Defense attorneys representing Nelson did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on April 6.
“Just to enrich himself, Dr. Nelson fraudulently prescribed hospice care for a steady stream of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries who he knew were not dying, ignoring the fact that under this end-of-life status they would not be eligible for curative services,” Special Agent in Charge Tamala E. Miles said in the release.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said the alleged scheme violated patients’ trust, adding they shouldn’t “have to worry about being pawns in a get-rich-quick scheme.”
Nelson was indicted in 2017 alongside three owners of the hospices for which he was the medical director. The four of them were accused of concocting and executing the alleged fraud scheme from at least 2005 until 2015.
According to the indictment, Nelson’s job was to certify patients for hospice at one of several facilities in the Mississippi Delta. The owners of those facilities are then accused of submitting fraudulent claims for reimbursement of services to Medicare and Medicaid on behalf of those patients.
Prosecutors said the hospice owners often brought three or four patients at a time to Nelson’s office in Cleveland, located about 120 miles northwest of Jackson, Mississippi.
“In almost all cases, the patients had no idea they were being placed on hospice and multiple patients testified at trial that Dr. Nelson did not explain hospice to them and did not tell them he was referring them to hospice care,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Nelson signed medical records on their behalf that allowed the hospice owners to bill Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary medical care, prosecutors said.
The hospice owners received more than $15 million from the government based on his bogus patient referrals, according to the Justice Department. Prosecutors said Nelson was paid $442,000 in medical director fees from at least 14 hospice providers between 2009 and 2014.
All three of the hospice owners named with Nelson in the indictment pleaded guilty before his case went to trial on March 21.
Court filings show Nelson submitted a plea deal in 2019 that a judge later rejected.
According to the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure, Nelson’s medical license is still active. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 27.
Ryan Peters was just 7 years old in 1991
when his father, Michael, suffered a traumatic brain injury. Michael,
the agent and owner of several McDonald’s franchises in Mississippi, was
a passenger in a car that left the road and hit a tree. A branch came
through the window and broke Michael’s neck, destroying his frontal lobe
and leaving him both paralyzed and in a coma. He partially recovered
with treatment and rehabilitation, but lived in a non verbal and
dependent state for the next 29 years, until his death in June 2020.
JONES COUNTY, Miss. (WHLT) – A Jones County woman has been charged with exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
Investigators said Kelsey Bradshaw was a caretaker of an elderly
person. She allegedly used the person’s credit card for unauthorized
purchases.
According to deputies, Bradshaw charged more than $6,000 on the
victim’s credit card over the last several months. She was arrested on
October 22, 2021.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed papers Wednesday seeking to dismiss a lawsuit in a family feud over the care and finances of her 88-year-old father because he has died.
“William O. Fitch departed this life on September 22, 2021,” the
attorney general wrote in the court papers filed that day in Marshall
County Chancery Court.
Lynn Fitch has been in a court dispute with her 80-year-old stepmother, Aleita Fitch.
Chancery court records show Aleita Fitch filed a lawsuit against Lynn
Fitch on April 1. That was after the attorney general moved her father
from an Oxford hospital in late March without his wife’s permission to
another hospital before finally transferring him to a nursing home, said
Aleita Fitch’s attorney, Ray Hill. Aleita Fitch was not able to visit
her husband for 78 days and did not know where he was, Hill said.
An obituary for Bill Fitch on
the Holly Springs Funeral Home website Thursday initially did not list
Aleita Fitch among the family members, but her name was added later.
Hill said the attorney general sent state “bodyguards” unannounced to
Aleita Fitch’s home, the family farm and the hospital where Bill Fitch
was being treated, and they took money, firearms and personal belongings
from the house without permission.
Lynn Fitch said in court documents that she did not want her
stepmother knowing where Bill Fitch was being treated because Aleita
Fitch was emotionally and verbally abusive.
John Mayo, the attorney general’s personal lawyer, said the decision
to move him was made after consulting her father’s physician. A hospital
staffer filed a vulnerable adult complaint against Aleita Fitch after
voicing concerns about her mistreatment of her husband, the lawyer said.
When Lynn Fitch visited her father in the hospital, “he appeared
confused, delirious and malnourished, had limited mobility, and was
generally unable to care for himself,” the attorney general’s lawyer
wrote in a court document.
She said Aleita Fitch failed to tell her and her sister about a
stroke and heart attack their father had in January. Bill Fitch also was
diagnosed with dementia, and that was not disclosed to his daughters.
Aleita Fitch said Lynn Fitch had been making business decisions for
her husband, including the decision to shut down operations at Fitch
Farms, a hunting retreat where guests can stay in the home of
Confederate general and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan,
Nathan Bedford Forrest. Bill Fitch purchased the Forrest home in
Hernando, moved it 40 miles (64 kilometers) to Fitch Farms and restored
it.
Lynn Fitch said in court documents she did not seek sole control over
her father’s finances but wanted a conservator appointed to prevent
Aleita Fitch’s “squandering and endangerment” of assets.
A former Mississippi County funeral homeowner has been charged with
financial exploitation of the elderly after selling pre-need funerals
without a proper license.
Charles R. “Ricky” Penrod, of East Prairie, was charged Friday with
financial exploitation of an elderly person or person with a disability.
He was taken into custody Monday and bonded out on a $25,000 cash or
surety bond.
According to a probable cause statement, Penrod, the former owner of
Shelby Funeral Home in East Prairie, was not licensed to sell pre-need
contracts or provide services for pre-need contracts after Oct. 31,
2009. On April 19, 2016, Penrod’s funeral director license was revoked,
and Shelby Funeral Home's ownership was assumed by new owner Lonnie
Ponder on April 4, 2016.
Court documents from Mississippi County Circuit Court between the
State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors v. Shelby Funeral Home,
Inc., states Shelby Funeral Home was administratively dissolved as of
Feb. 13, 2004. The court document also states Penrod engaged in pre-need
services from Dec. 31, 2009, through the date of the order, which was
dated July 24, 2014.
According to the probable cause statement, there was an interview
with Ponder on March 26, 2020. Ponder confirmed he took possession of
the funeral home in 2016 after assuming the debt incurred by Penrod.
Ponder told officers over time that he located at least 100 pre-need
contracts, sold by Penrod, that had not been funded. Ponder also said
there could be more unfunded contracts but would not know until he is
contacted by the purchaser's family of the pre-need contract following a
death.
Ponder also told officers he serviced 18 funerals in which families
had provided a copy of a pre-need contract sold by Penrod. According to
Ponder, he received no money from Penrod for the contracts, and he only
asked the families to pay the inflationary costs of the funeral.
Ponder said he was trying to do the right thing by paying the funeral
costs, stating his costs for those funerals was about $140,000.
Some of the pre-need contracts written by Penrod were after the sale
of Shelby Funeral Home in April of 2016. Ponder told officers there was
no money available to fund the pre-need accounts Penrod had written,
providing 68 unfunded pre-need accounts.
The total dollar amount not transferred to Ponder by Penrod when
taking ownership of Shelby Funeral Home was $268,040.10, with
potentially more funds identified upon a death and the families coming
forward.
According to the probable cause statement, Penrod stated the money
from the pre-need accounts was garnished by the IRS because he didn’t
put the money in the right place.
Sergeant J.S. Stoelting, a Missouri State Highway Patrol
investigator, asked Penrod if he was ever licensed to sell pre-need
contracts, to which Penrod replied, “yeah, at one time.”
Stoelting then asked Penrod if he continued to sell pre-need
contracts after losing his license, and Penrod replied, “probably,”
stating he couldn’t put the money into an account or the IRS would
garnish it. Penrod told Stoelting everyone knew about the missing money,
even the state.
Stoelting explained to Penrod that he sold numerous people a pre-need
funeral without a proper license, to which Penrod replied, “I know.”
Stoelting also confronted Penrod that people wrote him a check that
he cashed at McDonald’s Grocery Store, and the money is gone. Penrod
asked, “for how much money?”
The investigator told Penrod they were still totaling it up, and
Penrod replied, “They won’t cash a check that big.” Stoelting then
informed Penrod he had copies of the cashed checks, with one for around
$9,000.
Penrod was asked about one specific pre-need account for $9,532.25
that was purchased from him on July 7, 2014. The check was cashed by
Penrod, and the family later learned of the missing pre-need money from
Ponder.
A complaint was filed with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office on
Jan. 19, 2020, after learning of the missing money. A letter, dated Feb.
11, 2020, was also written to the Attorney General requesting Penrod
repay the money, $397 per month for two years. As of Sept. 23, 2020,
there was no money returned to the family.
Stoelting asked Penrod when the last time was he sold a pre-need
contract, to which he replied, “2014 or 2015.” Penrod told investigators
when he received the money, he would cash the checks to keep the IRS
from getting it so he could pay his bills, such as his electric and
mortgage.
Penrod told officers that no one else was at fault for the mess but him, and “if the files are wrong, I’m responsible.”
Penrod will be arraigned at 10 a.m. Friday in Mississippi County.
Attorney George "Dow" Yoder III is led into Jones County Justice Court on Wednesday.
(Photo by Mark Thornton)
Former special assistant prosecutor charged with burglary
•
The
term “criminal lawyer” took on a different meaning with an arrest the
Jones County Sheriff’s Department made on Monday afternoon.
George
“Dow” Yoder III, 49, of Canton — a former state and federal prosecutor
who has worked as a defense attorney in several high-profile cases in
Jones County — is behind bars facing a felony charge.
He
was booked into the Jones County Adult Detention Center charged with
burglary of a dwelling after being caught in a home on Rocky Creek Cove,
just outside of Ellisville, Sgt. J.D. Carter of the JCSD said.
Yoder was in the living room of the
residence when the home owner confronted him and told him to leave,
according to the report. Yoder then went outside and walked around the
shed and the home owner, who had already called law enforcement, told
Yoder to get off the property. Deputies arrested Yoder nearby a short
time later.
“He didn’t steal anything,” Carter said, “but it’s not known what he would have done if he hadn’t been confronted.”
The
suspect was not making sense with his explanations of why he was there,
a source close to the case said, but there was no evidence he was
intoxicated.
“I have no idea
what I’ve been accused of,” Yoder said Wednesday at his initial
appearance in Jones County Justice Court. “I’ve been unable to make
bond.”
Judge David Lyons responded, “That’s because I hadn’t set bond yet.”
Lyons
set Yoder’s bond at $5,000. Yoder waived the reading of the indictment
and the reading of the ways to make bond, saying, “I understand my
rights.”
When the judge asked
if he had any questions, Yoder said, “I’m not sure I got all of the
questions. I‘m unsure of how I can communicate while I’m in the custody
of the Jones County Sheriff’s Department,” saying that his
constitutional right was being denied.
He
went on to say that “no burglary occurred” and that “no criminal
charges are being pursued” by the home owner. Yoder told the judge that
the resident worked with his aunt for 30 years in Hattiesburg and “no
crime occurred.”
That’s a
matter that will have to be discussed in another setting, Lyons said,
explaining that the purpose of the initial hearing was to tell Yoder
what he was charged with and to set a bond. The defendant said he
understood.
Yoder ignored questions from a reporter
who was trying to get his side of the story as he was being escorted
from the jail to the courtroom.
Yoder’s
address is in Canton and his law practice is in Ridgeland, but he had
reportedly been staying with family members near where he was arrested. A
check of Yoder’s criminal history shows that he was arrested in Marion
County on Dec. 27 for violation of a protective order.
Yoder
was a candidate for the state Court of Appeals in 2016 after serving as
ADA in Madison County and he was special assistant U.S. Attorney in the
Jackson Division of the Southern District Court.
He
represented James Barnett in a civil suit that was settled with the
City of Laurel after two officers were accused of beating his client
after a high-speed pursuit into Jasper County in 2018.
Yoder has also represented several defendants in criminal cases in Jones County Circuit Court in recent years.
Two arrested in elderly abuse case (Source: Warren County Sheriff's Department)
By China Lee
VICKSBURG,
Miss. (WLBT) - A second woman has been arrested after a disturbing
video surfaced on social media showing an elderly woman being abused.
Warren
County Sheriff Martin Pace said that Monique Weimer, 31, of Vicksburg
turned herself in to Detective Stacy Rollison at the Warren County
Sheriff Department Tuesday.
Weimer is charged with Accessory Before The Fact to Inflicting Physical Pain or injury on a Vulnerable Person.
She
had her initial court appearance in justice court. Her bail was set
this afternoon in Justice Court at $50,000. But she remains in police
custody at the Warren County Jail.
A Texas woman surrendered earlier this week.
Sheriff
Pace says Myesha Wills, 30, of Arlington, TX was accompanied by her
attorney on May 28th when she surrendered to the Warren County Sheriff’s
Department.
Wills is charged with felonious infliction of physical pain or injury on a vulnerable person.
Updated: Police have been reviewing surveillance
video in their investigation of a Monday morning shooting that
critically wounded a Mississippi judge.
Interim Meridian Police Chief Lewis Robbins said on Tuesday that the
shooting was “personal” and directed toward the judge, the Meridian Star
reports in a separate story.
“We are continuing to follow leads. We are continuing to investigate.
We are continuing to look at suspects in reference to this shooting,”
Robbins told the Meridian Star. “We’re doing everything that we can to
bring this to a closure.”
Smith was ambushed and shot in the back with a high-powered rifle,
according to a Facebook post by Chancery Court Judge Larry Primeaux. The
Mississippi Clarion Ledger had coverage in a separate story.
Smith became a judge in January 2019. He presided in chancery court,
which handles divorces, child custody cases, adoptions and
guardianships. Before becoming a judge, Smith was a prosecutor in youth
court and county court.
Primeaux said at a county meeting on Monday that Smith had undergone
surgery and was expected to be transferred to the University of
Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, according to the Meridian Star.
“Judge Smith is a decent, fair person and he certainly did not deserve this,” Primeaux said.
In his Facebook post, Primeaux said Smith “has several surgeries ahead” and his injuries are serous.
Marine veteran Edward Redmond sometimes wanders the streets of Jackson, battling schizophrenia and addiction.
“It
seems as if the devil wants him dead,” his sister, Linda Taylor, told a
Veterans Affairs official in a March 28 email, “but his constitution
and our prayers are keeping him here.”
And like so
many other Mississippians struggling with mental illness whose families
have reached a breaking point as caregivers, Redmond wound up in a
succession of personal care homes, some of them poorly run.
Dr.
Joy Houston, program director of psychiatric emergency services for the
University of Mississippi Medical Center, said if Mississippi were
seamless in how it treated those suffering from mental illness, patients
could easily transition from hospital care to homes where they could
receive outpatient support.
Instead, many end up in personal care homes, which act as modern-day boarding homes.
When
an ombudsman visited the Horizon Personal Care Home at 438 Clifton St.
in Jackson on Nov. 19, 2014, she reported that a man living there had
punched other residents, chasing one of them down the street with a
two-by-four and threatening to kill her. Shortly after this, the man
moved to another home.
Nine months later,
inspectors visited Horizon and found residents in “immediate jeopardy,”
living in 89-degree heat with roaches, mold and a kitchen ceiling
leaking water.
Inspectors halted use of the home, which had been licensed to Wanda George Latham.
Rather than halting operations, she opened up a personal care home on 825 S. Plaza St. in Jackson, this time without a license.
Three days after Christmas in 2016, the state Department of Health won an injunction against Latham to keep her from operating.
That
same year, a Hinds County grand jury indicted Pebla “Pebbles” Jones
Wright, the owner of a personal care home, on a charge of felony
exploitation of a vulnerable person, accusing her of taking $12,000 from
a patient and attempting to steal another $2,900. The case is still
pending.
Two years ago, a Purvis man was convicted
of sexual battery of a vulnerable person at a personal care home in
Lamar County, where he worked as a maintenance worker.
Attorney
General Jim Hood’s Vulnerable Persons Unit — which saw state lawmakers
sweep $500,000 from its budget last year — investigated and prosecuted
the case.
In 2017, the unit received 3,151
complaints and opened 231 investigations, five of which resulted in
convictions. Most of the complaints involved nursing homes.
Hood has long complained about the lack of regulation of personal care homes.
'They pop up like weeds'
State
law requires personal care homes to be licensed if they house more than
three people, and the state Department of Health, which since 2014 has
seen Mississippi lawmakers slash more than $48 million from its special
and general funds, is responsible for inspecting those homes.
Despite that law, an untold number of personal care homes in Mississippi operate without licenses and without oversight.
The
Health Department puts out a list of licensed homes, which number 18 in
Jackson alone (half of which are assisted living facilities).
Unlicensed
homes far outnumber the licensed ones in west Jackson, and these homes
continue to multiply. “They pop up like weeds,” Houston said.
Each day, Gateway Rescue Mission, which sits on the
western edge of downtown Jackson, serves a hot lunch to the homeless and
what Executive Director Rex Baker calls the “almost homeless” — those
living in nearby personal care homes.
“A year or two ago, we would be lucky if we broke 100 (meals) for lunch,” he said. “Now we’re breaking 200.”
Some personal care homes operate in good faith, but
many don’t, he said, and that’s one reason why an increasing number from
these homes are showing up at Gateway.
Stewpot Community Services has also seen an increase in hot lunches.
“We
are serving about 200 people at lunchtime nearly every day,” said
Executive Director Jill Barnes-Buckley. “Often, this translates into
about 300 plates of food with seconds.”
Of the
2,000 or so people recorded as homeless in Jackson, at least a fourth
are struggling with mental illness — 100 of them who have just been
released from psychiatric hospitals or facilities, she said.
Since
she took over as executive director for Stewpot Community Services 17
months ago, “I’ve seen an increase in those coming around who have
mental illness or substance abuse issues,” she said. “A significant
number of them come from personal care homes.”
She said Stewpot winds up being an entry point to connect them with mental health services.
At
a time when mental health needs are increasing, mental health resources
are declining, she said. “There are not enough resources to help
everyone who has mental issues.”
Living with schizophrenia
Nationwide,
more than 43 million Americans over the past year have battled mental
illness, but the story that often goes untold is the struggle of their
families.
Mental health experts say helping a loved one suffering any long-term disease strains caregivers.
“Families need to get support,” said Houston. “Caregiver burden and burnout is a very real thing.”
Redmond's parents were among those who could no longer care for their mentally ill son.
In 1966, Redmond became the first black male student to attend what had been the all-white Provine High School.
When his mother took him to register, a white student yelled at him, “Hey, n-----, we’re going to make it hard for you.”
“He wanted to go back,” recalled his mother, Mariah. “I told him, ‘Keep walking. Don’t pay any attention.’”
After
he finished high school, he joined the Marines, when the fighting of
the Vietnam War was fiercest. During that time, he was stationed in
Okinawa.
But he was unable to realize his dream of becoming an aviator, leaving him disappointed and angry.
When
he returned home on furlough, “we were all surrounding him and hugging
him,” his mother recalled. “He was just standing there.”
After he came out of what seemed like a trance, he told his family that his mind had left his body and started traveling.
“We were just shocked,” his mother recalled. “He would withdraw from us and not have too much to say.”
After he finished his time in the Marines, he married. He became more withdrawn, and his marriage ended after only a few years.
“That broke his heart,” his mother recalled. “He told me, ‘I don’t want to live anymore.’”
She
saw her son going downhill and eventually using drugs. “We had him
admitted into the VA hospital (in the 1980s),” she said. “They detected
he was schizophrenic.”
He became a 100 percent
disabled veteran after being diagnosed as suffering from paranoid
schizophrenia. She became the guardian over his military benefits, and
her late husband, the Rev. Jessie Redmond, served then as guardian over
his Social Security benefits.
But as her son’s mental illness worsened, they could no longer care for their son.
In 1994, they agreed to let Jackson lawyer Harry Rosenthal become guardian of their son, Edward Redmond.
After that, Redmond stayed briefly with his sister, Taylor, and her husband, Franco.
He
said he got Redmond off crack and put him to work in a bakery in
Memphis, where the couple operates the Right Stuff Health Ministries.
He
had a radio show on nutrition, and Redmond called in one night, saying
he was healthier now that he was free from both legal and illegal drugs,
"thanks to God and to you."
Rosenthal said he didn’t let Redmond stay because Franco wanted $3,000 a month to keep Redmond.
Taylor and Franco responded that the upkeep for Redmond was expensive, given his needs.
As
the decades passed, he bounced from place to place across Mississippi,
spending time in psychiatric wards, hospitals, jails, motels and
personal care homes.
When his parents visited him at one of those homes in Florence in 2003, they were horrified.
When the
caretaker of the home "mentioned that the place was a prostitution,
drug addiction place," his mother recalled, "we took him home with us."
After
he cut his hand and it wouldn't stop bleeding, Redmond went to the G.V.
"Sonny" Montgomery VA Medical Center in Jackson, only to be moved back
into a personal care home, she said.
"That was the true beginning of the end," his mother recalled, her son going from "slop house" to "slop house."
Nowhere to turn
When the Redmond's family complained to VA officials in 2005, they went and interviewed him.
"Mr.
Redmond appeared to be clean and happy with his guardian," Joe J.
Adair, director of the regional office of the Department of Veteran
Affairs, wrote in a letter. "He indicated that he was happy where he was
living and had no complaints with his guardian."
Rosenthal
said that Redmond has received good care over the years but has had
problems because of his behavior and his felony conviction.
“My
goal is to have Edward put into VA nursing home,” he said. “The reason
they don’t take him is because of his behavioral pattern. I’m constantly
preventing him from being arrested.”
Redmond has been repeatedly arrested for shoplifting.
Rosenthal
said he put Redmond in a Gulf Coast nursing home but after arrests on
shoplifting charges, he moved Redmond to a personal care home in Kiln.
“He was real happy there and participated in the drug program at the VA,” Rosenthal said.
But Taylor said the family was far from happy, calling the place “below dump status.”
The Redmond family asked Rosenthal to return Redmond to the Jackson area, where the family could visit him more easily.
Rosenthal
said he moved Redmond to Brookdale Residential Home in Clinton, paying
$4,754. He also purchased $2,762 in furniture from an estate sale.
Taylor called the furniture “pieces of crap. It was all scratched up and pitiful.”
Rosenthal
disagreed, saying he purchased couches, other furniture and a
television. He said all those items belong to Redmond and are in storage
now.
Redmond stayed several months at Brookdale until he “misbehaved,” Rosenthal said.
Afterward,
he put Redmond in a personal care home in west Jackson, which sat next
door to one the Health Department shut down before.
When
the family learned where he was, his sister, Taylor, said the family
would call the home early in the morning, only to find out he had eaten
breakfast and had left “to go down to the bus station area.”
She said that concerned them because Redmond is so vulnerable, using a walker.
When
Taylor’s husband, Franco, visited the home, he said he saw "weeds all
around. There was a dog chained on the porch. It stunk, and people were
laying in the gutter.”
He said Redmond “gave up on
the world when he came out of the war. If he can get enough beer,
cigarettes and hot dogs, that’s all he wants.”
Last month, Redmond somehow made it from that personal care home to the VA Medical Center in Jackson.
What stunned family members was how much it seemed that Redmond’s health had deteriorated over the past year or so.
Family
members told the Clarion Ledger they were also upset because many of
the places that Redmond had stayed over the years were not VA-approved
places.
The family pushed for Redmond to be moved into a VA-approved assisted living home, and Rosenthal agreed.
He said he has always tried to accommodate the family’s wishes, if possible.
He said the real source of his conflict with the family is “they have always wanted his money. That’s the problem.”
Taylor disagreed, saying, “Our family’s concern for Edward is motivated out of genuine love."
Edward's
sister, Celia Burse, and her husband, Pastor Jimmie Burse, said Edward,
who is missing many of his top front teeth, needs dental care, physical
therapy and a daily assistant but that he hasn’t been receiving these
like he should.
Rosenthal said Redmond has received good care over the years. “He’s a good guy,” he said. “I get along with him.”
The
family is hoping to regain guardianship of Redmond through the courts.
So far, the VA has sided with Rosenthal, who serves as guardian. The VA,
however, did recently appoint someone else to handle Redmond's money.
Celia Burse said there needs to be a “war cry for the mentally disturbed in this city, state and country. Can you hear it?”
