A Minot man has been sentenced to serve 30 days of a 10 year sentence
with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation after pleading
guilty to the financial exploitation of a family member.
Todd Behm, 54, Minot, appeared before North Central District Judge
Douglas Mattson on Thursday for his sentencing, after entering a change
of plea to guilty to exploitation of an eligible adult-position of
trust/business relationship-deception-over $50,000, a Class A felony.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, Minot Police received a
report on May 10, 2023, of the financial exploitation of a family
member by Behm. At the time of the report, the victim was considered an
eligible adult, suffered from dementia and resided in a memory care
facility.
Behm was in a position of trust and confidence with the victim,
according to the affidavit of probable cause, and was involved in a
business relationship. The reporting party said Behm told him he had
borrowed $150,000 from the victim’s bank account in order to pay his
taxes. The reporting party became concerned over the victim’s finances
which funded their long-term care, and found several questionable
transactions. These transactions included the $150,000 check written to
Behm in February 2023, and $171,000 worth of checks and electronic funds
transferred to Behm, his children or his business between May 2018 and
April 2023.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, some checks written to
Behm had “owes me” written on the memo line, and that there were no
reasonable explanations for the checks and transfers. When the report
was filed, the $150,000 “borrowed” by Behm had not been repaid. It was
noted in the affidavit that Behm made several extravagant personal
purchases over that time period, including a new vehicle, custom paint
jobs on a boat and jet skis, along with various trips and vacation
experiences which Behm bragged about on social media.
Mattson sentenced Behm to serve 10 years with the Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation, with all but 30 days suspended and
credit for three days already served. Behm was ordered to complete three
years of supervised probation upon release, and to have no dealings
with the victim’s finances. Restitution has been reserved pending a
hearing at a later date.
The office will license and maintain a
registry of professional guardians and conservators, set regulations and
policies, oversee legal and disciplinary actions, and manage state
funding.
By Grant Coursey
BISMARCK — The North Dakota House of Representatives overwhelmingly
voted Monday, April 21, to create an Office of Guardianship and
Conservatorship.
Senate Bill 2029
passed the House with a 92-1 vote. It previously passed the Senate with a much narrower 24-23 vote.
Amendments in the House would make the proposed office an independent entity, while the version
passed by the Senate
would have had the office under the judiciary branch budget.
Making
the office an independent entity addresses concerns raised in the
Senate that housing the Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship under
the Judicial branch could create a conflict of interest. Guardians and
conservators are appointed to cases by the courts, and their primary
function is to work with the courts.
Existing
guardianship and conservatorship programs
will stay under the agencies that currently manage them until
they can eventually be moved under the new office. The deadline for
those programs to be moved under is April 1, 2026, according to
testimony from Rep. Karla Rose Hanson, D-Fargo, in the House
Appropriations Committee.
Otherwise, the purpose of the office remains largely the same as laid
out in the Senate version of the bill. The office will license and
maintain a registry of professional guardians and conservators, set
regulations and policies, oversee legal and disciplinary actions, and
manage state funding for guardianship and conservatorship programs.
Supporters
of the bill say reform for guardianships and conservatorships has been a
long time coming, and the bill will provide much-needed oversight and
accountability for guardianships and conservatorships. They say it will
hopefully work to solve the shortage of guardians and conservators in
the state.
Opponents of the bill have said it will hamper existing
guardians and conservators with unnecessary hoops to jump through and
that adequate oversight already exists.
The bill will now return to the Senate for a vote of concurrence before it can be sent to the governor.
Senate Bill 2029 still needs to pass the House and receive the governor’s signature before becoming law.
Sen. Paul Thomas, R-Velva, speaks on Senate Bill 2029, related to guardianship and conservatorship, at the North Dakota state Capitol on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025.Tom Stromme / The Bismarck Tribune
By Grant Coursey
BISMARCK — The North Dakota Senate on Friday narrowly passed a bill to create an Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship.
Senate Bill 2029 still needs to pass the House and receive the governor’s signature before becoming law.
The bill would create an Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship
with broad powers to oversee such matters statewide. The office would
license and maintain a registry of professional guardians and
conservators, set regulations and policies, oversee legal and
disciplinary actions, and manage state funding for guardianship and
conservatorship programs. The North Dakota Supreme Court would create a
committee to supervise the office.
After amendments in both the
Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee, the bill
appropriates just over $15 million to pay for the OGC for the 2025-27
biennium.
The bill was brought forward as the result of an interim
committee on the subject and would overhaul the way guardianships and
conservatorships are overseen, something supporters say the Judiciary
has been working toward for more than a decade.
Supporters of the
bill say it would address the “lack of accountability and cohesiveness
of guardianship programs and funding” in the state and address the
state’s shortage of guardians and conservators.
Opponents of the
bill are concerned that having the Judiciary oversee the OGC, when
guardians and conservators are appointed to cases by the courts and
their primary function is to work with the courts, would create a
conflict of interest. They say the office would be better placed under
the department of Health and Human Services and say the OGC is
“overkill” because there are already mechanisms in place to hold
guardians and conservators accountable
The bill received
recommendations to pass from both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the
Senate Appropriations Committee and passed the floor with a vote of
24-23.
The bill would create an Office of
Guardianship and Conservatorship to license and maintain a registry of
professional guardians and conservators, among other duties.
Sen.
Diane Larson, R-Bismarck, looks over amendments to a bill during a
hearing about Senate Bill 2029, which proposes an Office of Guardianship
and Conservatorship, in the Peace Garden Room at the North Dakota
Capitol on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
By Grant Coursey / The Bismarck Tribune
BISMARCK — North Dakota legislators heard testimony on a bill that
would overhaul the way guardianships and conservatorships are overseen —
something the judiciary has been working toward for more than a decade.
Senate Bill 2029
would create an Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship with
broad powers to oversee such matters statewide. The office would license
and maintain a registry of professional guardians and conservators, set
regulations and policies, oversee legal and disciplinary actions, and
manage state funding for guardianship and conservatorship programs.
Those in support of the bill believe it will address the shortage of
guardians and conservators facing North Dakota while enforcing greater
accountability. Those in opposition to the bill are concerned it will
syphon funds from existing programs.
Chief Justice Jon Jensen said
the creation of the Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship was a
main priority of the legislative session for the state Supreme Court
during his recent
State of the Judiciary address.
According to South Central District Judge Cynthia Feland,
who testified in favor of the bill, the state currently has no licensing
program for professional guardians and conservators, making it
difficult to monitor who is claiming to be a professional and what their
qualifications are.
South
Central District Judge Cynthia Feland gives testimony during a hearing
about Senate Bill 2029, which proposes an Office of Guardianship and
Conservatorship, in the Peace Garden Room at the North Dakota Capitol on
Monday, Jan. 13, 2025.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
President of the Guardianship Association of North Dakota Margo
Haut, who testified against the bill, said that guardians are already
required to obtain a national certification from the Center of
Guardianship Certification and must be certified by the state courts
system to act as a guardian in North Dakota.
Feland said the
licensing component of the bill is important because complaints against
guardians and conservators are handled on a case-by-case basis in the
court system. Feland said this has created instances in which a
professional guardian is removed from a case for misconduct without any
mechanism to investigate other cases they are handling. The proposed
bill would fix this, according to the judge.
“If we now have a
procedure for licensing and we can remove them, then notification goes
throughout the state to all of the district courts that this person's
license has been revoked,” she said.
If a guardian’s license is
revoked, Feland said the Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship
would be able to find other guardians to step in and take over the cases
from the de-licensed guardian.
Donna Byzewski is the program director of the corporate guardianship
program for people with intellectual disabilities at Catholic Charities
North Dakota. She said during her neutral testimony that she was
concerned the budgets of guardianship services would be devastated by
legal costs when guardians were brought before the proposed office's
review board.
Byzewski did, however, say the bill would give the
court tools to protect people in the case of exploitation or neglect by a
guardian and remove the offending guardian in a timely manner,
something that has taken months -- if not years -- to accomplish
previously.
Feland said the judiciary is already preparing to implement the office should the bill pass.
“I
don't wait for this stuff to pass. We're doing it now. So as we are
speaking right now, we are actually putting together the rules for the
Supreme Court to create these things” Feland said. “This is a problem
that's been there for over a decade and is getting worse. So the best
way, then, to resolve it is to start doing these things right away.”
NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — Elder abuse happens all year, but it is more noticeable during the winter months.
Leaders from Adult Protective Services say their reports for fiscal
year 2024 were 4,731, which is up more than 200 from fiscal year 2023.
Ali Brown, an investigator with the Adult Protective Services, says
self-neglect and financial exploitation were the most common
allegations. Social isolation is also one of the most significant risk
factors.
Brown says they see abuse coming from all types of communities, from
rural farmsteads to nursing homes. Elders are also victims of scams like
cryptocurrency and romance.
Brown says not to trust people online or on the phone for who they
say they are because scammers are skilled at manipulating people.
“They make it seem urgent. They make it so you don’t tell anybody
else. They may be pretending to be a detective, they may be pretending
to be the IRS, there are a variety of scams that are out there,” said
Brown.
Brown says they already have received calls of abuse, neglect, and exploitation in 2025.
North
Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced that funding
assistance is now available to help with the legal costs of gaining
guardianship as a kinship caregiver.
Offered through the HHS
Kinship-ND program, caregivers can apply to receive up to $2,500 to help
complete the initial guardianship process. Caregivers must be receiving
Kinship-ND services before applying for funds.
Kinship caregivers
are adults who provide full-time care, nurturing support, protection
and care for children who cannot remain safely in their parents’ home.
These caregivers can be a grandparent, aunt, uncle, godparent, older
sibling, extended family member or someone who shares a close
relationship with a child (also known as fictive kin).
Today there
are more than 765 North Dakota caregivers who provide care to more than
1,325 children in a kinship care arrangement.
“We are happy that
funds are now available to help kinship caregivers provide safe and
stable homes in familiar environments,” HHS Children and Family Services
Director Cory Pedersen said. “Kinship care is one of the best ways to
keep families connected and at the same time ensure the safety and
well-being of children.”
For more information and to apply for kinship caregiver guardianship establishment funds, email kinship@nd.gov or call (701) 328-1453, 711 (TTY).
A Stanley woman appeared in North Central District Court on Thursday to
plead guilty and be sentenced to supervised probation for exploiting a
position of trust in her role as a co-guardian of her elderly father.
Johnna E. Westby, 60, Stanley, entered her change of plea before
Judge Gary Lee, pleading guilty in connection to complaints brought by
her family members and investigators with the Bureau of Criminal
Investigation.
According to court documents, the matter related to the estate of the
late Myron Johnson of Stanley. Before his death, Johnson’s daughters
petitioned the court for an emergency guardianship, which was granted by
District Judge Stacy Louser on Nov. 10, 2021. Of his four daughters,
two were eventually named co-guardians, Mallory Johnson and Johnna
Westby.
Westby was elevated to the position by her sister due to living
closer to their father, which made her more available to make financial
and business decisions on his behalf.
Westby aroused her sister’s suspicions after wire transferring
$40,000 of her father’s money that she said was for the purchase of a
truck to pull his boat. It was eventually discovered that the money had
been used to pay off an auto loan for Johnna’s son Joshua Westby, who
was under the impression his mother had gotten the money out of her own
personal retirement account.
The
BCI determined that between three banking and trust accounts, $79,593
was spent with no known benefit to Myron Johnson. Transactions ranged
from purchases for clothing, jewelry, toys and home supplies to rent
payments and ATM debits..
Lee deferred imposition of sentence for Westby, imposing three years
of supervised probation. Westby will be required to pay $2,025 in court
fines and fees along with $77,100 in restitution to her father’s estate.
Blake Hankey represented a defendant and accuser in a case, a conflict that a prosecutor said he lied about. Hankey disputed claims that he made "false statements" in the case.
Blake Hankey.Forum News Service photo
By April Baumgarten
FARGO — A candidate for a judge post in Fargo once faced disciplinary
action for representing both the victim and the alleged perpetrator in
an assault and terrorizing case — a conflict that a prosecutor said he
lied about.
However, the candidate for judge, Blake Hankey, disputed that he lied about the situation.
Hankey, a lawyer who wants to take over for
East Central District Judge Steven Marquart
, was reprimanded in 2012 by the North Dakota Disciplinary Board
and state Supreme Court. He was ordered to pay $7,160 for the
disciplinary proceeding costs.
The action came after Meredith Larson, a Grand Forks County prosecutor at the time, filed a complaint against Hankey.
According to the North Dakota Supreme Court ruling:
Hankey represented a defendant and an accuser in a 2011 case in which
the defendant was accused of aggravated assault and terrorizing. Hankey
did not tell Larson he was representing the two clients. When
confronted about it, Hankey “falsely told (Larson) that he had cleared
any conflict with his law partners,” the ruling said.
A hearing
panel of the North Dakota Disciplinary Board found Hankey violated
attorney rules surrounding conflicts of interest, meaning he should not
have represented both clients. However, the panel found his “false
statement” did not violate rules of conduct since it didn’t benefit him.
The panel also ruled he didn’t have to tell Larson that he was
representing the accuser in the case.
The state Supreme Court said
in its ruling Hankey violated ethical rules when he made the “false
statement,” ultimately reversing the hearing panel's decision on that
matter.
Larson was unavailable for comment Thursday, June 9.
Hankey,
who also is mayor of Harwood, North Dakota, acknowledged the incident
in a recent interview with The Forum. The attorney of nearly 20 years
said he has learned from it.
“I figured this would come up and I've accepted it,” he said.
Hankey
explained that the victim in the case, the girlfriend of the man
accused, asked Hankey to represent her boyfriend. The woman told Hankey
she lied to police and asked if he would represent her if the charges
against her boyfriend were dismissed, Hankey said.
“So it wasn't going to be at the same time,” he said. “It was going to kind of be an either-or.”
Hankey said he cleared the representation of the two clients with one
of his partners and had the clients sign conflict-of-interest waivers.
The woman also faced eviction, so Hankey drafted a letter for her regarding that and a collections matter, he said.
Hankey
said he told Larson he didn’t represent the woman in the criminal
matter but acknowledged representing the woman in civil cases.
Hankey
disputed claims he lied about checking with his partner to determine
whether he could represent the two clients. He said he cleared it with
his most senior management partner, but not both.
“I think that is
really important,” he said. “It makes it sound like I just blatantly
lied to her and I made this up when I had cleared it with our most
senior partner.”
Hankey eventually withdrew from the case and
refunded his retainer to the two clients. He also said he complied with
the process.
“There were no bad intentions going into this,” he said.
The
two clients said they were happy with Hankey’s services and that he did
not cause them injury, according to the hearing panel's transcripts and
the state Supreme Court's ruling. The defendant said Hankey did the
best he could under the circumstances, according to the transcripts.
Hankey called the incident isolated, noting he hasn't faced disciplinary action since.
Hankey
has practiced in a wide variety of areas, including criminal defense,
family law and personal injury. He said he is dedicated to his
community, adding that being a judge is his dream job.
“I'll work
harder than anybody else," he said. "I will do everything and anything I
can in my power to be the absolute best judge that I can be.”
Marquart
announced earlier this year he would not seek reelection. Hankey is
running against attorneys Jay Greenwood, David Chapman and Connie
Cleveland. The Forum found no records of attorney discipline for
Greenwood, Chapman and Cleveland in North Dakota.
The top two vote-getters in Tuesday's primary election will move on to the general election in November.
If elected judge, Hankey would have to step down as mayor of Harwood.
"They (state court judges) are constrained as to what they can do. They can't leave a vulnerable adult with no assistance or help," said Sally Holewa, North Dakota state court administrator.
By David Olson
JAMESTOWN, N.D. — A North Dakota guardianship service tied to a
couple who were convicted of misusing a client's financial card and who
were found in a civil case to have mishandled a family trust is still
handling guardianship cases.
That is largely because when it comes
to finding guardians, judges in North Dakota have few options to choose
from, according to a high-ranking official in the state court system.
Guardians
serve a critical role in making financial and medical decisions for
people who judges have found cannot make such decisions for themselves.
"They
(state court judges) are constrained as to what they can do. They can't
leave a vulnerable adult with no assistance or help," said Sally
Holewa, North Dakota state court administrator.
Holewa said a federal criminal case and recent civil case in state court underscore the challenges judges face.
In the federal case, Tim and Delyte Koropatnicki, who are husband and
wife and live in the Pingree area, were convicted in 2015 of charges
relating to the misuse of a client's electronic benefit transfer card
through a Jamestown-area company that Delyte Koropatnicki founded called
DKK Guardianship and Conservatorship Services.
In that case, Tim
Koropatnicki pleaded guilty to one felony count of unauthorized use of
benefits and Delyte Koropatnicki pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count
of conversion of public money, property or records.
In the civil
case in state court, the pair are in the process of appealing a civil
judgment of more than $800,000 after a judge ruled the couple and other
defendants named in the case, including DKK Guardianship and
Conservatorship Services, committed a breach of trust and behaved
fraudulently in the handling of a family trust.
After the
Koropatnickis were charged in federal court in 2014, state judges
removed DKK Guardianship and Conservatorship Services from a number of
guardianship cases, court records show.
However, because of a shortage of private guardianship services, many guardianship cases were given back to DKK, Holewa said.
She
added that even if the civil judgment against the Koropatnickis and DKK
is upheld on appeal, it's likely judges will continue to allow the
company to handle guardianship cases, simply because there are no
alternatives.
Contacted by phone and asked whether she or her
husband had any comment, Delyte Koropatnicki declined to comment on the
federal criminal case, or the civil case now before the North Dakota
Supreme Court.
However, she told The Forum she can confirm there
is a shortage of businesses willing to take on guardianship cases in the
state and she said filling that need is the aim of the business she
founded and co-owns.
"There is a definite need and you try to do your job. That's what we were trying to do," Delyte Koropatnicki said.
'Serious improprieties'
After Tim and Delyte Koropatnicki were convicted in U.S.
District Court in 2015 of knowingly converting a client's benefit
transfer card for their own use they were sentenced in April of 2015 to
18 months probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of community
service.
They were also ordered to pay $6,630 in restitution to the federal government.
As
a condition of probation, the Koropatnickis were prohibited from
serving in any capacity over the financial affairs of any person for the
duration of their probation, though Delyte Koropatnicki was allowed
during that probation period to continue guardianship of people she had
maintained a longstanding fiduciary relationship with.
In March of
2018, Lana Hylden of Park River, filed a civil suit in Stutsman County
District Court alleging the Koropatnickis and DKK Guardianship and
Conservatorship Services caused damages in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars by mishandling the administration of a trust established by
Hylden's mother, the late Janice Hofmann.
The suit also claimed
the couple charged dubious fees to the trust, which the suit claimed the
Koropatnickis did nothing to earn.
The Koropatnickis filed papers in court denying the claims and asked that the suit be dismissed.
In
November 2021, state District Judge Tristan Van de Streek found that
the Koropatnickis had violated their federal probation by continuing to
engage in transactions involving the Hofmann family's trust and that the
Hofmann family lost $150,000 in rental income on land the family owned
because of how the Koropatnickis administered the trust.
In his findings and order of judgment, Judge Van de Streek wrote:
"The
court concludes there were serious improprieties by defendants which
not only bolster the conclusion that they committed a breach of trust,
but also behaved fraudulently."
The judge also noted that Tim
Koropatnicki rented the Hofmann family's land for below-market prices to
a man Tim Koropatnicki did personal business with.
In his
judgement, Judge Van de Streek awarded Hylden $264,957 in damages. He
also ordered the reimbursement and trebling of $86,450 in fees the
defendants had collected from the Hofmann family trust, for a total
additional award of $259,350.
The judge also directed that
$155,325 be set aside and that it ultimately be awarded to Hylden, or
returned to the defendants, depending on the outcome of efforts to
mitigate tax issues arising from the defendants' handling of the
financial affairs of Janice Hofmann, who died in 2017.
The total dollar amount defendants are responsible for stands at more than $843,000, according to court records.
The civil judgment has been appealed to the North Dakota Supreme Court.
'Only game in town'
DKK Guardianship and Conservatorship Services has about 180
open guardianship cases and two conservatorship cases under its purview,
according to Holewa.
What state officials don't know is how many
individuals have DKK as their representative payee for things like
Social Security checks, or veterans benefits, she said.
One reason
judges returned guardianship cases to DKK after taking them away was
because replacement guardians had a hard time performing their duties
due to the fact DKK remained the ward's representative payee for things
like Social Security, according to Holewa.
"It's a total
disconnect," she said. "For the most part, they (federal agencies)
operate by their rules and we operate under ours. DKK was able to
rebuild their clientele because there were no other options in the
guardianship area."
"In many instances, they (DKK) ended up
getting cases back at some point, or new cases, because they are the
only game in town," Holewa said. "If there is no other viable option
brought forth, judges are limited. They have to rule on what is in front
of them, so even though they have concerns about the agency, if the
petitioner isn't bringing forth anyone and they know there are no other
entities in the state willing to take the case, then they're caught in
this bind where the ward is in desperate need of help and can't go
without a guardian. It's a real dilemma."
A message left with the Social Security Administration seeking comment for this story was not returned.
Historical perspective
Until the 1980s, every county in North Dakota had a public
administrator who was elected and whose job was to be the guardian of
last resort for adult wards who had no one to turn to for guardianship
services.
That system has since unraveled and North Dakota judges
now often turn to private guardianship services when a relative cannot
be found who is willing to take on the job.
Around the year 2013,
North Dakota officials talked about setting up a guardianship division
in state government, but opted instead to establish something called
PASS funding, which provides limited funding to pay professional
guardians, Holewa said.
Funding for PASS is capped at 120 cases,
though Holewa said the program has helped to attract a new professional
guardianship services company to North Dakota and she said Lutheran
Social Services of Minnesota has picked up a few guardianship cases as
well.
Sally Holewa, North Dakota state court administrator
Forum file photo
About nine professional guardianship services companies operate in
the state, according to information from the North Dakota court system.
At
the start of the year, North Dakota had about 3,300 active adult
guardianship cases and of those about 1,053 were managed by professional
guardians.
The rest, or about 2,000 cases, involved a family member who is a guardian.
Still,
the demand for professional guardianship services remains greater than
the supply, according to Holewa, who said North Dakota lawmakers are
continuing to look for ways to close the gap.
Since 2013, that
effort has received guidance from a guardianship work group established
by North Dakota Supreme Court Justice Gerald VandeWalle.
The work
group includes judicial officials as well as representatives from the
state Department of Human Services, the Association of Counties, the
North Dakota Guardianship Association and attorneys who practice in the
area of guardianships and conservatorships.
The group has been
working to strengthen the protections afforded to wards and to clarify
aspects of the guardianship and conservatorship statutes, said Holewa
who is a member of the work group.
In the North Dakota
Legislature's 2021 session, a bill was introduced in the House that
would have established an independent commission on guardianships.
However, that bill was defeated in the House.
North Dakota state Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, speaks at a news conference on Sept. 21, 2021, in Fargo.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Tim Mathern, a longtime Democratic state senator, is an
advocate for establishing a single state entity dedicated to improving
the delivery of guardianship services, asserting it would help
legislators make better decisions in that area.
"Right now, five
different entities come to the Legislature and they all have a different
slant on the need and a different slant on who should be funded," he
said, adding that he believes that "kind of mix of testimony" leads to
underfunding.
Mathern, of Fargo, called the situation a triple
problem that involves a complex mix of guardianship types, finding
individuals willing to become guardians and the legal cost of getting a
guardianship established.
"It is the responsibility of the
Legislature to pay these costs in many of these cases. So, that's the
struggle before us," said Mathern, who added that establishing an
independent state office to deal with guardianship issues would be
advantageous in the same way it was helpful to establish a public
defender system to provide legal representation for indigent defendants.
'Short of people everywhere'
Sen. Judy Lee, R-West Fargo
Submitted photo
Sen. Judy Lee, R-West Fargo, another long-serving legislator,
said the issue of meeting North Dakota's guardianship needs is a
longstanding one with no clear solutions.
"The problem right now isn't even finding money, it's finding people to do it," Lee said.
"Compensation
can be increased and people might still not want to deal with this,"
Lee said, likening the dearth of people willing to handle guardianship
services to the general workforce shortage facing businesses and
community organizations across the country.
"We're short of people everywhere," Lee said.
Cynthia
Feland, a state district court judge and chair of the guardianship work
group, provided testimony to the Legislature in 2021, before House
members voted to nix the idea of creating an independent state office to
address guardianship needs.
In her testimony, Feland noted that
over the past several legislative sessions lawmakers passed significant
statutory amendments to improve and strengthen procedures in
guardianship and conservatorship cases.
She stressed, however,
that the need for guardianship services continues to outpace the supply
and Feland said a subgroup of the guardianship work group came to the
conclusion that an independent state agency was the best option among
several outlined in a 2012 report that emerged from a legislative study
on guardianship needs.
Feland told lawmakers that professionals in
both the medical and long-term care fields have expressed shock over
how many individuals have no one in their life to turn to for
assistance.
She said a survey of care facilities found that about
124 individuals were in need of a guardian, but no one was available to
serve in the role.
"Most difficult are those situations where a
guardian has been removed due to exploitation issues, or in some
instances death, with no mechanism for identifying a replacement,"
Feland said.
"In the direst situations," she added, "professional
guardians have stepped up and agreed to take on the case without being
provided any additional compensation."
In North Dakota, the word
"ward," as it applies to an adult, is someone who the court has found
incompetent, a legal term that means a person is not able to make normal
adult decisions in a rational manner.
Someone can only be declared incompetent and in need of a guardian through a court process.
Adults who have no one willing or able to be their guardian generally have a professional guardian appointed to assist them.
Decades ago, that would have been the county public administrator in North Dakota.
Today,
it is usually a private guardianship service, which may be partly paid
for through a combination of PASS funds, money the ward has, and dollars
from veterans funds or Social Security funds, if the ward is eligible
for such payments.
If a ward is developmentally disabled, Catholic
Charities becomes their guardian and the funding comes from a contract
that agency has with the state.
However, there is a waiting list
for both Catholic Charities and private guardianship services, because
there isn't enough funding for either system, Holewa said.
Judge
Feland said the importance of fixing the guardianship shortage cannot be
overstated and she said even though the Legislature declined to
establish a guardianship commission in its last session she is hopeful
the idea will eventually catch on with lawmakers.
"I was very
disappointed that the legislation did not pass, because while it would
not have fixed the problem overnight, it definitely would have put us on
that track to be able to address this issue in a meaningful fashion,"
Feland told The Forum.
She added that when it comes to fighting for a guardianship commission, she's not admitting defeat.
"I'm trying to figure out if I need to tweak it somehow," Feland said.
A man facing criminal charges
in McLean County of construction fraud and elderly exploitation has been
ordered to stop doing business in North Dakota.
Attorney
General Wayne Stenehjem has issued a cease-and-desist order banning
George Williamson Stewart. The state says Stewart, who uses addresses in
Minot and Mesa, Arizona, does not have a contractor's license and has
violated the state’s consumer fraud and contractor licensing laws.
Stewart,
who does business as Stewart Home Improvements, is charged in McLean
County with felony construction fraud and seven felony counts of
exploiting adults in the age range of 72-87. He also faces misdemeanor
counts of not having a contractor's license or a transient merchant's
license. The fraud charge carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in
prison; the other felonies a maximum of five years apiece.
Stewart
is accused of soliciting advance payments from elderly people in North
Dakota to treat their roofs with sealant, and then using a different
product than advertised.
"Stewart’s
claims about the product he was hawking and the duration of the
supposed protection varied depending on the amount of advance payment he
was able to take from the victim," the Attorney General's Office said
in a statement.
Court documents indicate Stewart
allegedly defrauded people out of as much as $50,000 in total.
Investigators allege he has run similar scams in other states, Canada
and New Zealand.
Stewart was
charged Wednesday, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Court
documents do not list an attorney for him, and a telephone listing for
his company couldn't immediately be found.
Separately, Stenehjem issued a
cease-and-desist order banning John Moser III, of Minot, from conducting
further business in the state. Moser does business as J3 Construction.
The
attorney general's Consumer Protection division has obtained civil
judgments against Moser banning him from engaging in contracting work or
obtaining a contractor’s license, but defrauded consumers remain
unpaid, according to Stenehejem. Court documents don't list an attorney
for Moser.
(Fargo, ND) -- A Fargo caregiver is being charged for assault involving the person they were looking after.
On August 3rd, Fargo Police officers were sent to Maple View Memory
Care off 36 Ave. S., for a report of an assault of a patient by a care
giver which occurred earlier that day.
Late Wednesday, officers arrested 59-year-old Rachel Cooper at her
residence in Fargo for Endangering a Vulnerable Adult. Cooper had been
under investigation since the incident in early August.
Thursday morning, authorities were notified the victim had died. An
autopsy will be completed to determine whether or not the injuries they
sustained on August 3rd contributed to their death.
Any change in charges will be determined by the State’s Attorney’s Office.
Two men accused of using
deceptive tactics and intimidation in a construction fraud scheme in
McLean County were sentenced Monday to 15 months in prison and have paid
more than $700,000 in restitution.
Bartley
Gorman Jr., 56, of Minot, pleaded guilty to illegal control of an
enterprise and exploitation of a vulnerable adult, court records show.
Sean Gorman, 27, also of Minot, pleaded guilty to exploitation,
construction fraud and operating without construction or merchant
licenses.
The
men were charged in late 2019. Authorities said Sean Gorman used
deceptive tactics and intimidation to get a Garrison man to pay $42,000
for work he didn't request and that Gorman started without approval.
Sean
Gorman and Bartley Gorman “victimized elderly or vulnerable people
using residential construction fraud,” an affidavit filed by McLean
County State’s Attorney Ladd Erickson states. The two did “deceptive and
fraudulent work” on home improvements for an elderly widow, charging
her $6,700 for the work. Sean Gorman allegedly attempted to steal
$65,000 from another woman, asking for payment after starting an asphalt
project she thought was warranty work. Sean Gorman used “threats and
extortion,” the affidavit states, in an effort to get the woman to turn
over a car and a camper as a down payment.
South Central District Judge James Hill suspended half of the 30-month
jail sentence he ordered for each man, court records show. Bartley
Gorman paid $63,000 in restitution and Sean Gorman paid $42,000 in
restitution as part of the plea agreement. They've also paid $666,000 to
McKenzie County victims who were discovered during the investigation.
They must spend two years on supervised probation after their incarceration.
Sean
Gorman is charged with five more construction fraud and exploitation
felonies in two other cases, court records show. He is scheduled for
change of plea hearings on Feb. 12. The restitution agreement also
covers those cases.
The two
are alleged to be part of a crime ring known as Travelers, Irish
Travelers and several other names, according to a McLean County court
affidavit. In North Dakota, they've concentrated their efforts on
construction scams in the rural areas of oil-producing counties,
according to information from North Dakota Attorney General Wayne
Stenehjem.
Defense
attorney James Ochs, who represents Sean Gorman, did not immediately
respond to a request for comment. Jesse Walstad, attorney for Bartley
Gorman, declined comment.
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - The Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services have doubled the number of days Medicaid
residents in skilled nursing homes can visit their families.
Days
before the holiday season, residents can now live with their families
for 48 days this year. North Dakota, like many other states, requested
the expansion after getting calls from families.
Visitation in long-term care has been a regular point of contention as we get closer to the holidays.
Families
want to see their loved ones, but the facilities and the federal
organizations that oversee them are trying to prevent the spread. For
the remainder of 2020, residents can stay with their families for an
additional 24 days.
The reason there’s a cap in the first
place is so residents can save their spots in the facilities and for the
organizations to maintain federal funding.
The
Department of Human Services says those interested should talk to their
loved one and discuss the pros and cons. Adding it’s all about giving
people choices.
“This isn’t about the
flexibility that all residents would take up or should take up. But it
really is about giving people the option about whether or not they want
to bring their loved one home,” said ND Medicaid Director Caprice Knapp.
For
those who leave the nursing home, the CMS asks you limit contact with
people and shared items, be cautions with food serving practices, and be
on the lookout for COVID-19 symptoms.
DHS is warning residents may have to quarantine for up to 14 days upon
returning to their skilled nursing facility, even if a rapid test says
they are negative earlier.
Seniors lose an estimated $2.9 billion every year from financial
exploitation, according to the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
One North Dakota man is out a lot of money and his family wants to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.
“Back in 2012 a company came out to my house, contacted my uncle about doing work at his property,” said Danielle Levey.
That’s how the long list of charges began to add up.
Danielle Levey’s 86-year-old uncle, who asked not to be identified,
got coaxed into fixing his roof, windows and adding siding on to his
home.
“Family came out and saw the work that was done, saw that it was
sub-par, and then when we heard the prices, we were all outraged,” said
Danielle.
The sticker price was $82,000.
A family member contacted the company and told them to not contact
their uncle ever again. The family would go out to check on the property
periodically to make sure no one else showed up to try and scam him.
Five years later — it happened again.
“You can’t really see that they did anything but when you look at the
invoice’s a lot of them were sealing the roof and installing lightning
rods,” said Danielle.
Invoices of things that were never done and costing their uncle another $50,000, this time around.
She said it would still be going on if the bank hadn’t caught on.
“The bank noticed transactions of large sums coming out of his
account. There were transactions in the spring and the fall. The bank
called adult protective services,” she said.
Which brought them to the culprit.
Exploitation of a Vulnerable Adult and Construction Fraud are among
the many charges Sean Gorman faces in McLean County, and this isn’t the
first time his name has come up in construction fraud.
In 2015, Gorman was wanted for questioning in a similar incident.
This time around, a warrant was issued for his arrest and earlier this
week he turned himself in.
“It seems like its a couple of individuals, it’s not just this guy by
himself. There’s different family members or other people that work
alongside these people,” she said.
Gorman is out on bond and expected to be in court on Dec. 18. Until then Danielle wants others to be cautious.
“I just want people to know that if you see or hear of this company,
or see these people around that they just need to be aware. And when it
comes to an elderly person, then they aren’t going to call and see if
they got a contractor’s license. They don’t know to do that,” said
Danielle.
We reached out to Gorman’s attorney but did not hear back.
Danielle said she hopes her uncle can get some of his money back
through restitution, but most importantly, they just want to move on.
McLean County Sheriff’s Department is also warning that there may still be others who are targeting people with the same scam.
On May 31, 2002, 18-year-old Brenden Flynn was involved in an auto
accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was med-flighted to a
hospital in Syracuse, New York.
Shortly thereafter, he was transferred to Park Ridge Hospital near
Rochester, where doctors notified his mother, MaryJo Flynn, that Brenden
had a zero chance of recovery or having any meaningful “quality of
life.” They suggested ending his life.
If Brenden were to survive, his doctors said, he would be in a
nursing home for the rest of his life. Brenden’s mother, not wanting to
make the decision to end her son’s life so quickly, asked the doctors to
continue treating him.
On September 9, 2019, 20-year-old Brandon Fuller was involved in an
auto accident and experienced a traumatic brain injury and was
med-flighted to Sanford Medical Center, located in Bismarck, North
Dakota.
Shortly thereafter, doctors informed his mother, Amanda King, that
Brandon was “brain dead” and had a zero chance of recovery or any
meaningful “quality of life” and suggested ending his life. Brandon’s
mother, not wanting to make the decision to end her son’s life so
quickly, asked the doctors to continue treating him.
Brenden Flynn was afforded more time. Today, Brenden is happily
married to his wife of ten years, Nicole, and they have four beautiful
children.
Brandon Fuller was not afforded more time. His mother’s requests were denied. Today, Brandon Fuller is dead.
In response to the death of my sister, Terri Schiavo, in March 2005,
my family established the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network, which
provides a 24/7 National Crisis Lifeline service for families to call if
a family member or at-risk patient is having life-sustaining care
either denied or withdrawn. Since its inception, the service has
assisted on average nearly 20 patients and families in crisis per month,
including Brandon Fuller’s mother.
Sadly, it has become disturbingly evident that we are witnessing a
deterioration of our health care system, one by which treatment
decisions made in the best interest of the patient—as determined by
their family—are rapidly abandoned for those made in the best interest
of the hospital.
Sanford Medical Center refused King’s request for additional time
after the hospital’s ethics committee agreed with their doctor that
Brandon was not going to improve. As a result, within a week of
Brandon’s brain injury a day and time were scheduled to remove his
ventilator. However, Brandon died before this could take place, as a
consequence of the hospital’s refusal to treat his blood pressure, which
was unstable due to his medical condition.
WILLISTON, N.D. -- A judge on Tuesday
dismissed a charge of exploitation of a vulnerable adult just before
testimony was set to begin in the trial of a woman accused of stealing
thousands of dollars from an elderly woman she was helping to care for.
Prosecutors asked
Northwest District Judge Paul Jacobson to dismiss the charge. Nathan
Madden, assistant state’s attorney for Williams County, said July 17
that he had received new information Monday evening that made it
impossible for the prosecution to continue its case against Sandra
Steinberg. He said he couldn’t elaborate on what that information was.
Steinberg,
50, was charged in April 2017 with exploitation of a vulnerable adult, a
class B felony. Police claimed that she wrote checks, made ATM
withdrawals and took money from oil royalty checks she was supposed to
deposit.
In a motion to dismiss the charge filed Tuesday in
Northwest District Court, Madden gave only “prosecutorial discretion” as
the reason for seeking to drop the charge. The motion asked to have the
charge dismissed with prejudice, meaning it could not be re-filed.
During opening arguments in the trial for a woman accused of stealing money from an elderly woman, the defense and prosecution offered vastly different pictures of the relationship between the two women.
Sandra Steinberg, 50, was charged in April 2017 with exploitation of a vulnerable adult, a class B felony. Police and prosecutors claim that Steinberg stole thousands of dollars, including money from oil royalties, from an elderly woman she had been helping to care for.
In his opening statement, Nathan Madden, assistant state’s attorney for Williams County, said the woman Steinberg is accused of stealing from was 74 and barely able to leave home. He said the woman trusted Steinberg enough to add her to her checking account, and that eventually, Steinberg took thousands of dollars from that account.
“Once (Steinberg) started realizing the oilfield checks started coming in, you’re going to see a spike in the money coming out of (the elderly woman’s) account,” Madden told the jury.
Madden said the elderly woman wrote some checks to Steinberg but that Steinberg also wrote out checks to herself in the woman’s name, used the woman’s account to pay her utility bills and that she would deposit part of oil royalty checks while keeping money for herself.
According to police, Steinberg stole $9,500 in oil royalties from last August 2016 through March 2017. She also allegedly withdrew about $5,200 from the woman’s bank account, and wrote several unauthorized checks totaling more than $900.
During his opening statement, though, defense attorney Kevin Chapman said the woman wasn’t vulnerable and that while Steinberg had helped the woman, she hadn’t been an official caretaker, wasn’t in a position of trust and didn’t have power of attorney.
“There was nothing like that,” Chapman said. “They had a joint banking account that they both had the authority to operate out of.”
He said the pair were joint owners of the account, and that they became financially intertwined, but that there was no contract limiting what Steinberg was supposed to use money for.
Chapman also disputed that the woman met the legal definition of a vulnerable adult, saying she was able to drive when she and Steinberg became friends.
He said the woman had done well on a mental acuity test and while she had arthritis and limited mobility, that didn’t meet the legal standard.
“The state tries to equate limited mobility with that, but that’s simply not sufficient,” Chapman told the jury.
Steinberg’s trial had previously been set for April, but was delayed. Also in April, a judge rejected a plea deal between Steinberg and prosecutors. That deal would have given Steinberg a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
Monday was mostly taken up with jury selection, with questioning from attorneys lasting until after 2:30 p.m. and the jury being seated around 3:15 p.m. Testimony from prosecution witnesses is supposed to begin at 9 a.m. today.
BISMARCK, N.D. – Authorities have
dropped a second charge against a Bismarck woman accused of abusing and
exploiting her elderly mother during protests against the Dakota Access
oil pipeline in North Dakota.
Authorities last week dismissed a charge of felony
exploitation of a vulnerable adult against Kathleen Bennett, saying the
case had become too difficult to prove, The Bismarck Tribune reported . A
defense attorney said Bennett's mother died a few months ago.
Bennett, 59, was accused of leaving her 82-year-old
mother with dementia tied to a chair in a protest camp in North Dakota
while she attended demonstrations in December 2016. Protesters were
trying to block construction of the oil pipeline, which is operated by
Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners.
Bennett's mother was taken to a hospital during a blizzard. Hospital staff said she was frail and malnourished.
The exploitation charge resulted from Bennett allegedly
using $1,200 of her mother's money without consent to rent hotel rooms,
buy meals and pay legal fees while her mother was hospitalized.
Bennett had also been charged in Morton County with
endangering a vulnerable adult, but the defense and prosecution agreed
in November to dismiss that case with $2,050 in fines forfeited from
Bennett's bond.
"The victim is deceased and the case became difficult
to prove once the Morton County companion case was dismissed," Burleigh
County Assistant State's Attorney Marina Spahr said in court documents.
It's not clear when her mother, Mary Trujillo, died.
She had been living with family in Nevada. Defense attorney William
Kirschner said Trujillo's death happened a few months ago, but he did
not have an exact date.
A former Stanley woman has gained a new perspective on the importance
of medical directives after spending more than a year under
guardianships that she says worsened her health.
Kathy Miller, now of Wisconsin, said she
prepared power of attorney documents, but failure to secure those
documents in event of emergency triggered a series of events that she
looks back on now as a tragedy.
Her ex-husband, Paul Miller of Billings, Mont., said the family’s
lack of legal knowledge about guardianships contributed to the missteps
that put Kathy in an unfortunate position.
“If I had to do it over again, I would have consulted a lawyer,” he said. “There are things I could have done.”
Kathy Miller, who has multiple sclerosis, said she was hospitalized
in March 2015 in Stanley after a fall. She also was found to be
seriously ill with an infection. A friend inquired with the local social
services agency about obtaining guardianship.
Paul Miller, who then was separated but not divorced from Kathy, said
he objected to the friend having guardianship but asked social services
to locate a nurse to care for Kathy once released from the hospital.
The county social service director at the time, Bryan Quigley, obtained
guardianship on March 5, 2015, from the court, which had received input
from him, from Kathy’s friend and from Kathy’s mother.
Because of medical and other privacy issues, people and facilities
associated with Kathy’s guardianship and care weren’t able to publicly
comment. However, court records show the emergency, 60-day guardianship
allowed Quigley to terminate Kathy’s financial accounts, evict people
from her property and restrict her contact with other people, if deemed
necessary.
Kathy Miller said she had paperwork giving a friend – not the friend
who sought guardianship – durable power of attorney. However, he was
unable to locate his document for several months and was barred from
entering her home to obtain her copy.
Paul Miller said the family trusted the guardian and believed it was
in Kathy’s best interest when her guardian moved her for a short time
into a nursing home and then into an assisted-living apartment with a
caregiver. Last month, the caregiver received a jail sentence for
possession of drug paraphernalia and was ordered to undergo a chemical
dependency evaluation. While she had been under his care, Kathy Miller
said, a blood test showed methamphetamine in her system, although she
says she has never used the drug.
Miller was sent to the State Hospital in Jamestown. The doctor gave
her medicine for a bipolar mental illness, a diagnosis Kathy insists was
inaccurate. Her stay was limited by the court to 45 days, so upon her
release, she was placed in a nursing home in that part of the state.
“There was no therapy. I was in a locked ward, and I was allowed out for meals,”
she said. Phone calls to and from family, including her son and
daughter, were restricted. Paul Miller said when his phone calls were
allowed, they were restricted to 15 minutes once a week.
“One of the reasons why I was not allowed to
talk to her more is I was ‘interfering with her rehabilitation,’ which
basically, from what I understand, was nonexistent,” Paul Miller said.
Miller said he began to develop concerns about Kathy’s care in September 2015. He said Kathy’s situation wasn’t the “least restrictive”
environment required by law, and a judge directed Kathy be removed from
the locked ward as soon as possible. Although the family had vehemently
opposed Quigley’s continuation as guardian at the September hearing,
the judge ruled in December to continue the guardianship.
Paul Miller said Quigley had offered to step down and allow him to
assume guardianship. However, he was unfamiliar with what needed to be
done before he went into court in September, and the arrangement he
proposed was rejected as unsuitable.
Initially, the family was unaware that Kathy could ask for a review to have guardianship removed.
“Quigley and the judge never made Kathy
aware of that option and we were told in court on September 22 that it
could not be reviewed for one year and Quigley had the control,”
Paul Miller said. The attorney hired by the family fought a good fight
in court but declined to fight further once the judge made his decision,
Miller said.
“I begged for us to put in for a change, and everyone acted as though it could not be done,” he said.
Objecting to the rules and medical decisions, Kathy Miller admits she
wasn’t a compliant nursing home resident, but she can’t say for sure
what prompted her guardian to return her to the State Hospital last
February.
That also was about the time that Paul Miller’s research of
guardianship law and investigation of Kathy’s case discovered an error
that he believes should have disqualified the guardianship. From June
through December 2015, decisions about Kathy’s care had been made
despite a fictitious “Joe Schmow” listed
as the dependent in the paperwork. Some decisions also were being made
on Kathy’s behalf during a period in which the guardianship had lapsed
and not yet been renewed, Paul Miller said.
Last February, a relative in Wisconsin stepped forward to offer to
assume guardianship and provide care. Eager to release Kathy from her
existing guardianship, the family agreed to the plan, which was approved
by the court last April.
Kathy said the arrangement in Wisconsin proved to be ill-advised.
Conditions and care were such that she was hospitalized about six weeks
later with e coli, life-threatening blood clots and other ailments.
Hospital medical staff declined to recognize the guardianship, citing
technical issues with the filing in Wisconsin, and turned medical
decisions over to Kathy’s son.
A competency test was conducted that found her to be neither bipolar
nor requiring guardianship, Kathy Miller said. She now lives in a
Wisconsin apartment with full-time caregivers.
Her health has declined since 2015, though.
“My MS has gotten really, really aggressive,” she said.
Also due to costs associated with the past year and a half of medical
care, she lost her house in Stanley and saw her financial accounts
drained. Paul Miller said his health insurance would have covered some
of her care had it been tapped. An application was made to cover her
second stay in the State Hospital but it was denied as medically
unnecessary, he said.
The Millers believe their trials of the past year were unnecessary
and might never have happened had they better educated themselves about
their options early on.
“She was competent the entire time and never should have been placed in guardianship,” Paul Miller said. “All that was ever really needed was for me to have a power of attorney when we were married.”
