Florida’s elderly guardians operate with little oversight, ‘shocking’ state audit finds

By Carol Marbin Miller

Oversight performed by the state agency created to police Florida’s long-troubled professional guardians is so poor that one of the state’s top auditors likened it to allowing students to grade themselves. 

A stinging report from Florida auditors concluded last month that the Department of Elder Affairs’ Office of Public and Professional Guardians had virtually no method for overseeing the 566 professional guardians registered with the state between July 2022 and January 2024, the audit’s time frame. The OPPG, as it is called, also failed to meet internal timelines for initiating investigations into complaints about guardians.

The findings, part of a report released last month, echo the conclusions of a similar audit conducted four years earlier, also by the state Auditor General. In comments before a joint committee of senators and representatives in the Legislature last week, Deputy Auditor General Matthew Tracy said of the report: “To be honest, in some respects it was worse the second time around.” 

Perhaps the most damning finding: The OPPG does no meaningful routine oversight. Instead, oversight “consisted only of a self-monitoring questionnaire that private professional guardians had the option to complete upon registration renewal.” The questionnaire asked, among a few other things: “basic identifying information” of the guardian, number of open guardianship cases, number of employees and number of wards. 

The form also required that guardians swear that they “perform the function of a professional guardian with reasonable skill,” and that the information they provided was truthful. 

“Basically, it was like grading their own tests in the schools,” Tracy said in his remarks Feb. 18.

The agency’s lapses, Tracy said, amounted to “thwarting the intent of state law and the public’s ability to assess the fitness of a guardian.” 

Anyone can file a petition in probate court in Florida seeking to declare an adult incompetent to handle their own affairs, though, typically, such petitions are submitted by family members worried their elderly relatives can no longer care for themselves. If a panel of three medical or psychological experts agree, an adult can be placed in a guardianship and stripped of many, if not all, of their rights, including the right to vote, marry, write checks, or decide where to live. 

Wards of the state typically are placed in guardianships with close relatives. But if no family members live in the state, or if there is conflict among them, or with the ward, judges can appoint professional guardians to oversee the ward’s interests.

The audit listed the kinds of misdeeds alleged in recent complaints: Stealing the property of wards of the state, and mishandling their funds. Opening fraudulent bank and credit card accounts in the names of wards, and “colluding with attorneys to profit off ward assets.” Phonying up legal and medical records. Acting against the wishes of wards. 

The report also cited complaints regarding guardians “not providing critical daily needs, removing a ward from their home against their wishes and without court approval, and isolating wards from family and friends.” 

State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a Boca Raton Republican who sits on the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee and heard Tracy’s remarks, said the audit and others “chilled me to the bone.”

“I cannot imagine how the state allows guardians to submit their own evaluations and not be accountable to those in their care,” she said. Gossett-Seidman said she and other members of the committee, which includes members from both the House and Senate, intend to “hold these agencies accountable and review our statutes to strengthen them. Besides wasting taxpayer money, we are putting vulnerable populations at risk. In short, I am appalled.” 

Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, a Gainesville Democrat, called Tracy’s remarks to the committee “almost an indictment of a report.” 

Sen. Jay Collins, a Tampa Republican who is one of two lawmakers who chairs the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, called the report “shocking.”

Collins said the report on guardians was one of several the committee reviewed that involved agencies that had been criticized for the same failings again and again. “We saw many instances of repeat offenders,” Collins said. “People who are just doing this year over year. That’s a problem where they are not taking seriously their fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers. This is money granted by the state. Accountability has to go hand in hand with that.” 

In a letter to the Auditor General that is included in the report, the Department of Elder Affairs’ Secretary, Michelle Branham, acknowledged many of the audit’s findings, and said that most of the improvements either were in the works or would be initiated. 

As to the agency’s poor oversight of guardians, Branham wrote that OPPG “agrees with the Auditor General’s finding that a monitoring tool which promotes a more robust compliance assessment is needed,” She called development of such an instrument “a top priority,” and vowed that it would be done before the end of the budget year.

The agency also vowed to include information about all substantiated complaints against guardians on OPPG’s website. 

Only Maine has a higher percentage than Florida of residents aged 65 or older, with 23 percent to Florida’s 22 percent, according to a May 2024 report by a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

A history of abuse 

For decades, though, Florida has had difficulty protecting incapacitated elders from their own appointed protectors. 

A task force created by the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers in 2021 to recommend reforms to the state’s guardianship system heard of numerous abuses, the Florida Bar reported: A mother who took money from her disabled daughter to pay for “lavish” family vacations. A lawyer working as a guardian who paid himself hundreds of thousands in legal fees. A guardian who paid her friends to perform services and collected commissions from selling products to her ward.

More recently, the Miami-Dade Inspector General reported that the Guardianship Program of Dade County had allowed multiple conflicts of interest in the sale of homes owned by elders declared incompetent. 

In one 2015 sale, investigators found an investment company bought the home of a ward for $125,000, then sold it weeks later for $149,000 to the girlfriend of the Guardianship Program property coordinator who helped manage the sale. The couple ended up living there, the Miami Herald reported. 

One of the Guardianship Program’s board members had been a title agent in four property sales involving wards of the program, reported WLRN, which sparked the investigation with a 2023 series on alleged self-dealing among program insiders.

The state Auditor General’s report on the OPPG reserved its strongest criticism for the agency’s woeful oversight system. The audit’s first finding: “Contrary to State law, the OPPG had not developed and implemented an effective monitoring tool to ensure that private professional guardians complied with OPPG standards of practice designed to ensure that wards receive appropriate care and treatment, are safe, and their assets are protected.” 

Lawmakers set aside $18.6 million to the OPPG during the 2023 budget year, which paid for a staff of 11 full-time employees and funded public guardians for 4,294 wards spread across sixteen public guardian offices across the state – including two in Miami-Dade, the Guardianship Program of Dade County and The Guardianship Care Group. 

Between July 2022 and January 2024, the OPPG received 174 complaints against professional guardians, including 138 against guardians who don’t work for one of the 16 public guardians, the audit said. 

“As evidenced by the number and nature of complaints against private professional guardians, effective monitoring of private professional guardians is necessary to promote compliance with OPPG standards of practice and to ensure that wards receive appropriate care and treatment, are safe, and have their assets protected,” the audit said.

The audit added, though, that “the OPPG did not effectively monitor private professional guardians for compliance with OPPG standards of practice.” 

Not only was the brief questionnaire that the OPPG used instead of a “monitoring tool” optional, and without any verification, the audit said, “the OPPG neither compiled the self-reported information for analysis nor analyzed any of the submitted data for indications of noncompliance with the standards of practice.” 

The audit concluded “it is critical that the OPPG establish a robust monitoring tool that effectively evaluates private professional guardian compliance with the standards of practice and, consequently, reduces the risk that wards may not receive appropriate care and treatment, be safely cared for, and have their assets adequately protected.” 

Inaccurate website information 

The Auditor General also criticized OPPG for failing to comply with a state law requiring the agency to maintain a searchable website enabling consumers to evaluate prospective guardians, calling such data “critical information necessary to assess the fitness of a guardian.” The site was to, among other things, specify whether guardians meet requirements for education and bonding, and detail substantiated complaints and professional discipline.

For the 12 guardians who were disciplined during the audit’s time frame, though, the website displayed inaccurate information for seven of them, the audit said, showing only seven of 28 substantiated complaints. One guardian, referred to only as “Guardian A,” had been the subject of 15 substantiated complaints. The website only showed two. 

Among the substantiated complaints not reflected on the website: selling a ward’s car and donating the ward’s possessions to charity without a judge’s order, and isolating wards from their family and friends.

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Florida’s elderly guardians operate with little oversight, ‘shocking’ state audit finds

AG Nessel Intervenes in Wayne County Guardianship Case, Reminding Attorneys and Professional Guardians of Their Responsibility to Safeguard Vulnerable Adults

November 03, 2022

LANSING – Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a notice to intervene on behalf of the people of the State of Michigan in a Wayne County guardianship case. This action comes three years after the first intervention in a Macomb County guardianship case. 

In October 2021, Patricia Dudek was appointed guardian and conservator for an individual with a $30,000 yearly income who also received an inheritance of about $42,000.

Dudek’s own accounting illustrates that between October 2021 and June 2022 she billed the protected person about $79,000 for less than a year’s work. Within about five weeks of receiving the protected individual’s $42,000 inheritance and before any assets were filed with the probate court, Dudek paid herself more than the protected individual’s entire inheritance, including charging for work she had not yet performed.  

A fiduciary is an individual or organization who has a legal duty to act in the best interest of someone else with a duty to act with the highest degree of honesty and loyalty toward the protected person, including the duties of undivided loyalty, care and prudence in actions. Dudek charged her legal hourly rate of $350 for guardianship and conservator services and billed the protected person with more than 630 pages of text via emails. Dudekisaccused of breaching her duty as follows:

• Charging excessive and duplicative fees.
• Billing for services she represented would be free.
• Failing to guide the protected person to services he could afford.
• Failing to submit a bond as required by the court for her conservator work.
• Paying herself before services were provided. 
• Failing to send the protected person or any other interested person (e.g., the protected person’s wife or his niece) information related to her services, billing practices, or copies of monthly bills. 
• Failing to provide the protected person and the probate court with bills consistent with the court rules that require a “brief description of the services.”

These allegations follow a 2020 suspension for 90 days of Ms. Dudek’s license to practice law for among other things, charging a client an excessive fee.

“While most guardians and conservators work tirelessly for modest pay to ensure those under their supervision are well cared for, this case serves as additional notice that my office will not hesitate to challenge anyone who breaches their duty of loyalty to the most vulnerable among us,” said Nessel. “My continued thanks to Lakeshore Legal Aid who brought this case to our attention and all those working with the Elder Abuse Task Force to improve Michigan’s guardianship and conservatorship system.”

Any individual who believes they or a loved one have been taken advantage of by an attorney serving as a guardian or a conservator may file a grievance with the Attorney Grievance Commission.

If the guardian or conservator is not an attorney and the file is still open with the probate court, the complaint should be directed to the probate court where the guardian or conservator is serving.

The Attorney General’s Notice of Intervention and Objections to Dudek’s Amended Final Account of Fiduciary can be read here.

Source:
AG Nessel Intervenes in Wayne County Guardianship Case, Reminding Attorneys and Professional Guardians of Their Responsibility to Safeguard Vulnerable Adults

Britney Spears would fare better in Florida

We represent professional guardians in the Florida State Guardianship Association, and the case of Britney Spears has raised a fitting opportunity to explain what a voluntary guardianship means in the state of Florida. Voluntary guardianships in Florida are guardianships of property only. No rights of the person are delegated to the guardian, so that medical treatment, choosing a residence, choosing to work or socialize are all left to the discretion and decision-making of the individual.

What the person under guardianship relinquishes is the financial aspect. The professional guardian pays bills, manages debts and handles physical property like arranging for pest control or contracting renovations. Under voluntary guardianship, the person under guardianship must have capacity documented by his or her physician and fully understand that the guardian will serve as fiduciary. Both parties can back out at any time. If Ms. Spears’ guardianship was indeed voluntary, had it been a Florida matter, she could have left her guardianship freely.

Carlos McDonald, president, and Pam Wiener, board member, of the Florida State Guardianship Association

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Britney Spears would fare better in Florida

Florida watchdog allowed 8 professional guardians who violated state law to continue practicing

'Mitigating circumstances' cited in letters

Florida’s professional guardians have been in the headlines this past year and under arrest for stealing, abuse and neglect.

By: Adam Walser

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s professional guardians have been in the headlines this past year and under arrest for stealing, abuse and neglect.

But the I-Team has uncovered that even when the state’s own investigators found guardians broke the law, they continued with business as usual.

Teresa Kennedy provided us with a 2018 video showing a reunion with her aunt Lillie White, herself and her mother Jane Kennedy at an assisted living facility where White was placed by her court-appointed guardian.

White, a retired school administrator who once sang at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, brightened up as she sang a hearty rendition of “All of Me” with her niece during the visit.

White’s guardian banned most of her family from contacting her years ago.

“We didn't know where she was for two years and then we found her through private investigators in November 2018,” said Kennedy.

After a family dispute over money, a judge appointed a professional guardian to care for White.
“I never thought anything like this could've happened,” White said, in the 2018 video.

White was removed from her home in August 2016 and taken to an assisted living facility.

“They’re saying you don't want to see your sister Jane. Do you want to see her?” Kennedy asked her aunt in the video.

“See how lies can get out? Oh my goodness,” said White. “I've always wanted to see her.”

But before Lillie's family tracked her down, they contacted the Florida Office of Public and Professional Guardians (OPPG).

That’s the watchdog agency set up to investigate complaints against guardians.

“I finally received a call from the inspector general's office saying 'we're opening up an investigation.' So I was very excited,” said Kennedy.

That call came in 2017, about a year after she filed a complaint, but she heard nothing more until almost two years later.

“Every month, I'm calling and saying another year, another week, another month. Where's the report?” said Kennedy.

The I-Team obtained that report showing investigators found Lillie's guardian was not registered as a professional guardian with the state and had billed White’s bank account for attorney fees that were not allowed.

But despite finding problems, the state’s watchdog did not take any disciplinary action.

In a letter to White’s guardian, Department of Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom said her conduct was “mitigated by the complexity of the family relationships.”

“I was so angry when I got the OPPG letter,” said Kennedy.

The I-Team uncovered eight other cases in which investigators found guardians violating the law. But the state never moved to take away the license of any of those guardians, each time ruling the problem had been "mitigated".

One guardian was cited for paying a concierge dentist $73,000 for unnecessary visits.

Investigators found another guardian charged a person under her care hourly fees for a caretaker to accompany the ward on a cruise without getting permission from the court.

Another guardian billed a woman’s estate for providing care services using a side business he owned without telling the court, which is also a violation of the state guardianship law.

Those guardians' actions were all mitigated by taking 16 hours of continuing education courses

Kathleen Zagaros complained to the state after her mother's guardian ignored her mother's advanced care directives, then requested a do not resuscitate order.

“She wanted all measures done. She appointed me as her surrogate healthcare provider. And they were ignored by the guardian,” Zagaros said.

The investigator substantiated that allegation. But a letter to the guardian dated October 14, 2019, said the conduct was mitigated by the actions of the guardian to honor veterans at Arlington National Cemetery.

Click to read

What does that mean?

The state did not take any disciplinary action against the guardian because she bought five wreaths for $150 through an organization that lays wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery.

Department of Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom, who oversees OPPG, declined an on-camera interview but provided the following statement by email:

“The Department of Elder Affairs is committed to transparency and education regarding this process. Several factors are used to appropriately determine disciplinary actions regarding complaints received against professional guardians. In cases where evidence of intent to cause harm is found, the Department will refer the matter to law enforcement. We are thankful to have the ongoing partnership of Representative Colleen Burton and Leader Kathleen Passidomo to make revisions to existing law to help ensure the Department has more tools to hold bad actors accountable.”

A guardianship reform bill sponsored by those lawmakers was passed during the 2020 legislative session. It was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis and took effect July 1.

At least five guardians have been charged with crimes since the OPPG was created, but OPPG has not been able to substantiate which of those cases they referred to law enforcement.

“OPPG to date has been there to protect guardians and not the senior. It's very, very clear,” said Kennedy.

We first spoke to Kennedy about her case in early March, before the pandemic shutdown. We followed up with her recently and she says she’s still not allowed to have any contact with her aunt, including phone calls.

“People who do have loved ones in nursing homes right now during COVID-19 might get a little sense of it, not being able to hug their mother, having to talk to them through the window. But at least they can do that. We can’t,” Kennedy said.

She has filed a new complaint with OPPG involving her aunt’s guardian and is hoping her last reunion with her aunt Lillie in 2018 won't be her last.

Full Article & Source:
Florida watchdog allowed 8 professional guardians who violated state law to continue practicing

Florida lawmakers refused to pay to investigate more guardians

By Jason Garcia

In the three years since Florida lawmakers ordered a small state agency to begin investigating professional guardians, it has struggled to find enough money to do the job.

Altogether, the Office of Professional and Public Guardians says it has been allocated $150,000 to pay for professional guardian investigations since 2016. It hasn’t been enough, and a backlog of incomplete probes has been building.

So this year, the agency asked for a little bit more -- $97,488, to be exact.

It was a rounding error in the context of Florida’s $91 billion budget. It amounted to asking for less than one-one thousandth of 1 percent of the state’s general revenue.

The Florida Legislature chose not to fund it.

The decision has infuriated advocates for the vulnerable senior citizens and disabled people who have been declared unable to care for themselves and are put at the mercy of the professional guardians who are given control over their lives -- and their money.

There are currently 75 investigations that haven’t yet been completed because of a lack of funding, said Sharon Bock, the elected clerk and comptroller for Palm Beach County whose office works with the state guardianship office on the probes.

“That means there are 75 wards out there who are vulnerable, and could be continually exploited, while we fight for a sliver of adequate funding,” she said.

State Rep. MaryLynn Magar, a Republican from Palm Beach County, chaired the House committee in charge of health-care spending, which refused to include the funding request in its budget. She did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails asking her why.

A spokesman for House Speaker Jose Oliva, a Republican from Miami, said legislators felt they had given the state’s guardianship office enough money already. He pointed out that the Legislature gave OPPG an extra $2.5 million in this year’s budget -- although that money is supposed to be used on additional public guardians to care for elderly and disabled wards who are too poor to pay for a professional guardian. There are more than 450 people unable to care for themselves on the waitlist for a public guardian.

"OPPG, it was felt by both the House and the Senate, could utilize less than 5 percent of that money to conduct the investigations,” said Fred Piccolo, the Oliva spokesman. “To allege resources were unavailable is simply untrue.”

When someone believes a professional guardian is abusing or exploiting the ward they were appointed to care for, they can file a complaint with OPPG. The state agency then does a preliminary screening and, if the complaint appears to have merit, it passes it on to one of a half-dozen county clerks’ offices around the state to conduct a full investigation. The scandal surrounding disgraced Orlando-based professional guardian Rebecca Fierle, who is now under criminal investigation after filing Do Not Resuscitate orders against the wishes of her wards, erupted after one such complaint was investigated by the clerk and comptroller in Okaloosa County.

Thorough probes are expensive. During the state’s 2017-18 fiscal year, OPPG, working with the alliance of clerks’ offices, says it investigated 128 cases statewide at an average cost of $1,289 per case. And the workload is growing as more baby boomers become infirm, more are placed into guardianship -- and more complaints are filed.

Activists were optimistic the agency would get money for investigations this year. Newly elected Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis included the $97,488 request in the proposed budget he recommended to the Legislature.

There didn’t appear to be anyone lobbying against it. Representatives for the Elder Law and Real Property, Probate and Trust Law sections of the Florida Bar, two of the most influential interest groups when it comes to guardianship law, said they did not oppose the request.

“We would never want them [OPPG] to not be funded,” said Gina Rossi-Scheiman, the executive director of the Florida State Guardianship Association, which represents professional guardians. “We want them to be fully able to do their job.”

The Florida Senate included the money in its budget. But the Florida House did not. And when the two chambers came together to work out a final budget -- a process known as “budget conference” -- the Senate dropped the issue early in the negotiations.

There was never any public discussion of the decision, as most of the Legislature’s budget conference decisions were made in private. The public meetings were formalities in which one side read out a list of decisions; meetings of the health-care budget conference committee -- which was responsible for more than $37 billion in spending -- lasted about 10 minutes each.

Budget conference is “always kind of done behind closed doors,” said Shannon Miller, a Gainesville attorney who co-chairs the legislative committee for the Elder Law Section of the Florida Bar. “We don’t have a lot of access to that process.”

The choice to not to spend an extra $97,488 on additional guardianship investigations was just one of thousands of spending decisions the Legislature made while building a $91 billion state budget. They also chose to spend $250,000 to subsidize a professional golf tournament at an Ocala development owned by a major Republican Party donor and $1 million to help build a facility for luxury corporate jet manufacturer Learjet Inc. (DeSantis vetoed the money for the golf tournament but approved the money for the Learjet facility.)

State Sen. Aaron Bean, a Republican from Nassau County who oversaw health-care spending in the Senate, said lawmakers don’t necessarily oppose spending an extra $97,488 to investigate allegations against professional guardians. But he said there’s an emphasis on finding common ground quickly during the final, frenetic days of session.

“There’s just so many things happening at once,” Bean said. “I don’t think it’s that we didn’t want it, it’s just that we’re trying to line up with the house and trying to get out of there.”

Full Article & Source:
Florida lawmakers refused to pay to investigate more guardians

Conflict between a journalist and AGs office may highlight shortcomings in MI Elder Abuse Task Force

Attribution: Provided by Chris Abood

 

This note, written by an elder rights activist and signed by Division Chief Scott Teter, is the latest issue of contention between Teter, journalist Gretchen Rachel Hammond, and some members of the community of people trying to reform guardianship practices in Michigan. Teter denies telling activist Chris Abood to tell Hammond to "back off on Facebook."

While elderly Michiganders and their families struggle with a probate guardianship system that many allege is rife with abuse, a journalist who has been investigating Oakland County’s probate courts claims that members of Attorney General Dana Nessel’s staff have interfered with her work.

According to reporter Gretchen Rachel Hammond, Nessel’s communications director Kelly Rossman-McKinney called Hammond’s former editor to have her barred from a March press conference--and, more recently, an elder rights’ activist forwarded a note signed by Teter to Hammond. Among other things, the note includes the crossed-off line: “Back off on Facebook.”

Hammond also told me that, in her opinion, neither the attorney general nor the new task force have shown a commitment to investigating and holding probate judges or professional guardians accountable for ignoring existing laws designed to protect vulnerable adults from having their rights taken away from them.

For their part, both Scott Teter, a division chief in the AG’s office and the person coordinating the new task force, and Rossman-McKinney deny taking any action to interfere with Hammond’s work or discourage her from exercising her First Amendment rights. 

Teter further said that, by refusing to provide his office with details about 30 seniors whom she alleges are being held in unlicensed nursing facilities, Hammond is actually endangering the people she’s trying to help.

The most recent incident in the conflict between Hammond and Teter specifically was sparked by a handwritten note, signed by Teter, which was originally written down by elder rights activist Chris Abood during an event earlier this month at Madonna University in Livonia. 

Abood, who told me that her mother died after being placed under a guardian by Oakland County Probate Judge Linda Hallmark, first met Teter during a March 12 meeting between Teter, reporter Hammond and her team of investigators, and other self-reported victims of guardianship abuse along with other members of the attorney general’s staff.

According to a March 14 email from Hammond to Teter, during that meeting Hammond and her team showed Teter samples of redacted documents from their nine-month review of “nearly 3,000 court dockets belonging to former Public Administrator Jon B. Munger and Public Administrators Thomas Brennan Fraser, John Yun and Jennifer Carney,” in cases presided over by Oakland County probate judges including Linda Hallmark.

According to Hammond’s email, during their March 12 meeting her team presented Teter and his team with evidence indicating a pattern of Oakland County probate courts and professional guardians ignoring the law and victimizing senior citizens and their families alike. Hammond said her team found a pattern of guardianships being appointed without medical evidence being presented; wards and would-be wards being discouraged from attending hearings about their cases; judges ignoring family members’ existing durable powers of attorney and granting guardianship instead to for-profit, private guardians; and wards being placed in unlicensed nursing care facilities, including “two homes in which either the kitchen or refrigerator had been padlocked shut.”

Hammond’s March 14 email was in response a March 12 email from Teter in which he requested specific information about the sale of a home Hammond alleged was sold at more than $100,000 below market value. In addition, Teter wrote, “we are looking for the most egregious case that involved either the guardian ad litum ignoring the ward (who isn’t incapacitated) or one of the Cases that had the [durable power of attorney] that was ignored” in order to investigate and take action. 

Teter’s March 12 email doesn’t mention Hammond’s evidence of seniors being kept in unlicensed facilities or ask for help investigating those allegations. (During a June 24 interview with me, Teter said that he had asked Hammond for details about the unlicensed facilities during their meeting, and that to date he has “... exhausted probably 40 man hours of staff time trying to find people that were ... placed in non-licensed foster homes.”)

Unlicensed nursing facilities aren’t mentioned in the note that Abood said she took down while talking to Teter.

“I spoke with him and I said... What do you want me to say to Gretchen?,” Abood remembered. “He said, ‘Okay, what I need from her is a case, a file number and a name.’” The note, as taken down by Abood according to what she said was Teter’s instruction, asks for a case name and file number, “specific incidence when abuses criminal,” the file number for houses sold under value, and “... moving property to a small group of people.”

The note also contains the sentence, “Back off on Facebook,” which both Abood and Teter agree that Teter crossed out when he took the note from her to sign it. “He said to tell her to back off on Facebook. And I'm thinking, what's he doing looking at her Facebook? And then, when he got the card to sign it, he crossed it off even though he said it. And he said, ‘Well, I don't want it to come from me. Let it come from you.’”

Teter denies the allegation. “I don't instruct people on what to do on Facebook,” he said, “and so when she wrote that down, I said, ‘No. I'm not telling her what to do or what not to do on Facebook. That's entirely up to you.’”

The disputed note isn’t the first time that Hammond alleges that a member of the attorney general’s staff has attempted to or actually interfered with her work. Hammond also claims that, prior to the March 25 press conference announcing the new Elder Abuse Task Force, Kelly Rossman-McKinney from the attorney general’s office called Hammond’s then-editor at The Detroit Free Press to bar her from the press conference. 

Rossman-McKinney denied the allegation in a June 24 email. The editor, Mark Rochester, declined to comment on the matter in a June 25 email.

Hammond also said that, contrary to Teter’s claim that she hasn’t attempted to alert authorities about the plight of senior citizens being kept in unlicensed facilities, she had in fact reached out to Detective Sgt. Sunshine Ponzetti of the Michigan State Police.

According to Hammond, “The last conversation I had with Ponzetti was around March 19, when I offered to send her a flash drive with all the evidence I had if she provided me with an address to which to send it. She said she would consult with her colleagues and let me know,” but never followed up. Michigan State Police spokesperson Lt. Mike Shaw told me that “we are unable to comment on ongoing investigations,” including whether or not an investigation is taking place.

Hammond said that her nine-month investigation into guardianship abuse at Oakland County’s probate courts will be published soon. In the meantime, Attorney General Nessel admitted in a recent interview with WXYZ that the guardianship system needs to be reformed, but failed to say whether or not either probate judges or professional guardians will face investigation. While talking with me on June 24, Teter said he is “absolutely” committed to investigating past behaviors and pursuing any appropriate disciplinary measures allowed by law.

For her part, Hammond isn’t reassured. “Everything I’ve seen in the past 12 months is that the majority of these crimes have been committed by probate attorneys and endorsed by probate judges,” she said. “I’m glad to see (AG Nessel) saying something that’s never been said before in terms of guardianship being reformed, but I don’t see any evidence that she’s putting consequences to people who have perpetrated abuses in the past.”

Report Elder Abuse – Including Issues With Professional Guardians and Probate Judges.

To report elder abuse, including issues with professional guardians or local probate judges, contact the Attorney General’s office at: 800-242-2873. Click here to learn more about the Elder Abuse Task Force, including locations, dates, and times for Attorney General Nessel’s Listening Tour to hear from senior citizens, family members, and the wider community.

Full Article & Source:
Conflict between a journalist and AGs office may highlight shortcomings in MI Elder Abuse Task Force

Gov. DeSantis: 'There doesn't seem to be anybody held accountable,' describing guardianship oversight

I-Team investigation sparks call for action

SPRING HILL, Fla. — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is reacting to an ABC Action News I-Team investigation into the state’s troubled guardianship system.

THE PRICE OF PROTECTION

DeSantis oversaw interrogations of terrorism suspects in the Middle East and at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base when he was a military attorney.

Part of his job was making sure everyone played by the rules.

Now, the governor says he intends to hold professional guardians to a similar standard and take action against those who exploit seniors.

“Our seniors, unfortunately, are targets of fraud in a variety of contexts,” DeSantis said. “What troubled me about some of the issues you guys raised was obviously bad things are happening, but there doesn't seem to be anybody held accountable."

Last week, the I-Team reported the state watchdog set up by legislators in 2016 has handed out only 19 warning letters.
 
They cited guardians for taking property, depositing checks made out to people in their care into personal accounts and failing to disclose past criminal histories.

Despite those serious violations, that state watchdog — the Office of Public and Professional Guardians — has never revoked a guardian's registration.

Among the issues reported to the office was a case involving a local realtor who asked a court to put an elderly beach hotel owner she barely knows into guardianship.

She stated in court documents that she felt the senior citizen was being exploited because she sold part of her property to a relative at too low of a price.

In another case, a court-appointed guardian took the wedding ring off an 85-year-old widow's finger.
Alice Yaniscavitch said the thing she feared the most was going to a nursing home, and she planned ahead of time to avoid it.

But under guardianship, she ended up being moved into a home anyway, as her daughter questioned a trust authored and notarized by an attorney.

It's unclear how many of Florida's 550 registered guardians are under investigation by the state's watchdog, but the agency says it has 132 open investigations into alleged wrongdoing.

“I think that you've had over a hundred and thirty some cases and nothing has happened to anybody. That just doesn't strike me as being acceptable,” Gov. DeSantis said.

That's a concern shared by Pinellas County Circuit Judge Linda Allan, who presided over thousands of guardianship cases during six years as a probate court judge.

“I would like to see some type of higher level of governmental oversight,” Allan said.

Governor DeSantis says he plans to provide just that.

“Whether there needs to be new legal authorities, we're looking at that, but at the end of the day, we want to be on the side of Florida seniors,” he said.

If you have a story you’d like the I-Team to investigate, contact us at adam@abcactionnews.com

Full Article & Source:
Gov. DeSantis: 'There doesn't seem to be anybody held accountable,' describing guardianship oversight

Guardians from Hell: Part 2 Update into Investigation of systemic guardianship abuse in Northern Michigan

Part 1: Guardians From Hell

After the above article was published detailing elder abuse by professional guardians in Northern Michigan, I visited the Oakland County Probate Court to watch a June 27 hearing on a petition for visitation brought by Mimi Brun who has not seen her mother Virginia Wahab for the two-years since Mimi’s power of attorney was tossed out Wahab had been assigned a professional guardian Jon Munger.What is happening in Oakland County is systemic and in literally hundreds of pages of documents I have already collected, I am seeing the same pattern in multiple cases involving at least six professional attorney/guardians there and three out of the four judges.

The guardians are alerted to a new admission by a nursing home with whom they have a downstream relationship. The nursing home then files a petition for guardianship which is granted by an Oakland County judge regardless of an existing power of attorney or whether or not the senior or his/her/their family is represented by counsel. The guardian then immediately halts visitation by the family members. In complete control of his ward’s medical and financial life, he proceeds to strip the estate, sell the house at far below market cost and bill the ward thousands. Within months, the ward has been declared both incapacitated and destitute. The guardian then applies for Medicaid benefits on behalf of the nursing home. Both the guardian and the nursing home make a tremendous profit while the ward is left to rot, often in a substandard facility.

In the Wahab case, detailed in the article, the reason that Munger had been assigned was stated as a past due-bill owed Lourdes and a need for the organization to apply for Medicaid benefits for Wahab. There is no Michigan statute that allows for a petition to be made or a guardian to be assigned because a nursing facility is owed money. 

Munger has kept Wahab at Lourdes in almost total isolation. However, on the 27th, she had been brought to the court while her daughter’s petition was heard. Wahab was surrounded by at least five Lourdes staff members including the organization’s CEO Maureen Comer. As soon as Munger saw my media badge, he left the court. He was instead represented by his attorney Joseph Ehrlich. Neither would answer any of my questions.

Once mother and daughter were finally together, both were in tears. Wahab repeated, again and again, that she wanted to go home with her daughter; that she did not want to remain at Lourdes any more.

Less than two minutes passed before Ehrlich suddenly barged toward the two and violently ripped the wheel chair from Brun. Virginia was visibly jolted by the experience.

“My turn,” Ehrlich said.

There was a court security camera directly behind us. The incident was witnessed by a half-dozen people. Brun screamed in pain and rage and tried to push Ehrlich away from her mother. He was smiling as a Lourdes aide quickly took Wahab back in to the court room. Even though Ehrlich was neither Wahab’s guardian nor an employee at Lourdes he would later state in a police report that he had been “asked by Lourdes staff to retrieve Virginia.”

In that same report, Ehrlich charged Brun with assault. The report stated that the court’s cameras were not functioning during the incident. Two of the witness statements are missing. Fortunately, I had my own camera rolling. Following a subpoena, that footage is now in the hands of Brun’s attorney.

In court, Brun’s attorney argued that there was no legal reason to keep the two apart and that their love was clearly evident. When Ehrlich addressed presiding Judge Linda Hallmark, his statements made during a 20-minute monologue were replete with inaccuracies including the date that Munger received guardianship. He stated it as June 19, 2016. It was actually ten days later. Yet, Hallmark refused to grant the visitation. Ehrlich instead called for and was granted an evidentiary hearing July 30. Wahab was immediately transported back to Lourdes. Neither she nor her daughter were permitted to speak.

June 27 was petition day at the Oakland County Court. As soon as people saw my press badge, I was approached by at least 15-20 different families all begging me to write about their case. It was as if I had carried a loaf of bread into a village of starving people. Midway through the morning, I was escorted out of the building by at least a half-dozen sheriff’s deputies who were acting on orders of the courts judicial attorney Ryan Deel’s claims that I had not been given permission by the clerk of the court to be there.

I don’t think they were concerned about such an action any more than the Detroit AG Bill Schuette, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder or Oakland County’s senators and house reps were interested in commenting about the issue. They know what I know I know – that the story will go away because it isn’t considered worthy of mass-media attention. The simple truth of American culture is that if my story had been about a 9-year-old girl and not a 94-year-old woman, this would be all over the internet and OpEds across national print and online outlets would be apoplectic in their demand that something be done about Oakland County.

The truth no one wants to admit is that this country has been and will always be a place for the young. It does not serve you to be old in America. Now that the boomers are gathering for what has been termed a “silver tsunami,” the gravy train presently running smack through the center of the Oakland County Probate Court is about to become endless in length.

These boomers face the same fate as Wahab and countless others before them because we are not at a place in America where people are given a chance to look beyond the news that is told because it is popular and focus on the news that must be told because it isn’t.

So here is the news that isn’t. Here is what we do not want to know:

According to an Oakland County case load report, total dispositions of guardianship and conservatorship cases numbered over 1,900 in 2017 alone.

An anonymous source inside Oakland County Probate told me that Munger has had well over 1,600 wards from past and present cases.

I’m going to carry on regardless. If I have to I’ll bet the farm on getting this story finished and the word out about these Probate Courts because something has to be done and someone has to try.

www.gretchenrachelhammond.com

“There was an emperor who asked a shepherd’s boy, ‘How many seconds in eternity?’ The shepherd’s boy replied ‘There’s this mountain of pure diamond. It takes an hour to climb it, and an hour to go around it! Every hundred years, a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on the diamond mountain. And when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed!’ You must think that’s a heck of a long time. Personally, I think that’s a heck of a bird.”

Full Article & Source:
Guardians from Hell: Part 2 Update into Investigation of systemic guardianship abuse in Northern Michigan

New Yorker Article Highlights Abuses in the Guardianship System

Serious problems with the public guardianship system in the United States can lead to elder abuse, according to an in-depth article in The New Yorker titled “How the Elderly Lose their Rights.” Court-appointed guardians can take control of an elderly person’s finances and life and become wealthy while doing so. One expert interviewed describes the guardianship system as “a morass, a total mess.”
 
If an adult becomes incapable of making responsible decisions due to a mental disability, the court will appoint a substitute decision maker, often called a "guardian," but in some states called a "conservator" or other term. Guardianship is a legal relationship between a competent adult (the "guardian") and a person who because of incapacity is no longer able to take care of his or her own affairs (the "ward"). A public guardian is appointed by the court to serve wards when no family member or private guardian is available.

The New Yorker article, written by staff writer Rachel Aviv, focuses on a Nevada couple who came under the control of public guardian April Parks. As guardian for hundreds of wards, Ms. Parks, took over their lives, sold their belongings, and charged their estates hundreds of dollars an hour while doing so. Over her 12 years as a public guardian, Ms. Parks built relationships with hospitals and medical providers to refer patients to her and found doctors who were willing to declare patients incompetent. Families often found out too late that their loved one was under guardianship and beyond their legal control.

Ms. Parks was just one part of a system that fails to protect vulnerable elderly individuals the way it is meant to, Aviv suggests. The couple in the article lost their home and freedom and were moved around to various assisted living facilities and medicated. After the couple’s daughter notified the media, Ms. Parks was finally removed from the case. She was eventually investigated and indicted for perjury and theft related to her business dealings. Unfortunately, according to the article, other public guardians who are abusing the system are still working.

ElderLawAnswers previously reported on the growing number of stories of seniors who become confused and overwhelmed after losing control of their lives to a guardian they don't know. In response to such abuses, some states have begun making reforms. In March 2016, Florida’s governor signed a law creating an Office of Public and Professional Guardians that is required to create standard practices and rules for public guardians. Nevada has also enacted a number of reforms, including requiring that individuals subject to guardianship be represented by an attorney, that are set to go into effect in 2018. And in a rare display of bipartisanship, Congress recently passed and sent to the President a bill that empowers federal officials to investigate and prosecute unscrupulous guardians and conservators appointed by state courts.

While there isn't a foolproof way to prevent someone from preying on you or a loved one, there may be steps you can take to reduce the chances. A power of attorney allows a person you appoint (and trust) to act in place of you for financial purposes when and if you ever become incapacitated. Having a power of attorney in place may lessen the need for a guardian.

To find out what you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones, consult with an elder law attorney. To find one near you, go here: https://www.elderlawanswers.com/elder-law-attorneys

To read the New Yorker article, click here.

Full Article & Source:
New Yorker Article Highlights Abuses in the Guardianship System

Question raised about conflict of interest for lawyers

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Should New Mexico attorneys petition the court for people seeking professional guardians or conservators when they also represent the prospective guardian or conservator company in other matters?

That’s among the sticky ethical questions that guardianship commission Chairwoman Wendy York has posed to the state’s chief disciplinary counsel, William Slease, for an opinion.

York announced at a Friday commission meeting in Albuquerque that her research on guardianship issues has raised questions about potential conflicts of interest and other ethical issues that can arise in cases involving third-party corporate guardians and conservators.

“I wanted to know whether our current rules address this issue,” York said.

Attorneys play a major role in guardianship/conservator cases, which are cloaked in secrecy under state law. All records, except for a brief court docket sheet summarizing actions in the case, are sealed. All hearings in the case are sequestered.

To file a guardianship request, a petitioner, often a family member, typically needs an attorney. Judges often rely on the petitioner and his or her attorney to recommend a guardian or conservator for appointment.

At times, those companies’ attorneys also represent the petitioner.

A petitioner’s attorney, for example, might be reticent to challenge or try to remove a guardian or conservator on behalf of a client if that same lawyer also represents the guardianship company in other cases. Sometimes clients aren’t told about such potential conflicts beforehand and find themselves having to hire a new attorney.

Adds York, now a private mediator, “I think the guidance (from the chief disciplinary counsel) might be helpful.”

Full Article & Source:
Question raised about conflict of interest for lawyers

Court-appointed guardian accused of stealing appears in court

Click to Watch Video

LAS VEGAS - A woman accused of scamming hundreds of thousands of dollars from senior citizens and vulnerable adults appeared in court Monday.

April Parks pleaded not guilty. She faces 212 felony counts of racketeering, theft and exploitation over a five-year period.

Some of her alleged victims say this day couldn't have come soon enough.

April Parks, along with her husband and another business partner, ran a private professional guardian LLC.

Guardians take care of wards of the court -- people who are found unable to no longer care for themselves.

A 270-count indictment from the Clark County District Attorney's Office says Parks and her company did everything but take care of the people.

"It had ruined our life," said Rudy North.

North, 80, says he lost everything after April Parks came to his door in 2013.

"Her and her partner called themselves the officer of the court," North said.

Confused, that's what North says he was, when Parks gave him three choices.

"My wife and I go to a psychiatric ward. Two, go to jail or three, to an assisted living facility."

He and his wife chose the third option.

It took their daughter, Julie Belshe, four frantic days to find out where her parents had disappeared to.

"She actually walked into my parents' home and took them out of their house and said she was an officer of the court and took them without notifying me," Belshe said.

During that time, Parks gained control of the couple's assets. It took Julie Belshe nearly two years to get her parents released from Parks' guardianship.

Parks pleaded "not guilty" to 232 felony charges of racketeering, theft, exploitation, perjury and fraud.

The 123-page indictment alleges she was the ringleader of a scam that bilked $550,000 from the Norths and 148 other victims.

In the indictment, Parks is only one on the hook for exploiting about $1,500 in fees for fraudulent services, but North says she stole a lot more.

"She took over a million dollars of my assets, that's cash, gold, silver, and in furnishings and artwork," North said.

Now, Parks is behind bars after fleeing to Pennsylvania last year.

It's a moment many victims thought they would never see.

"She's where she belongs," North said.

District Attorney Steve Wolfson says he will seek restitution for the victims. But, he cautions there is a low likelihood of regaining any significant portion of these families' assets. He says many, if not most, of the victims outlined in the complaint have died.

Full Article & Source:
Court-appointed guardian accused of stealing appears in court

Hearing reset for former court-appointed guardian in Vegas

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A court hearing was reset in Las Vegas for a former court-appointed financial guardian accused of siphoning more than $550,000 out of accounts of people assigned to her business as wards of the court.

A court official said Monday that April Parks is due to have another lawyer when she appears again in court on Wednesday.

PREVIOUS STORY: Private guardian April Parks behind bars in Las Vegas

Parks is being held at the Clark County jail following her arrest in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on a massive 270-count criminal indictment filed March 8.

It alleges that more than 150 victims lost money to Parks, her employee Mark Simmons, and Parks' friend, Gary Neil Taylor, through overbilling by her business, called A Private Professional Guardian.

They're accused of racketeering, theft and exploitation of a vulnerable person.

Full Article & Source:
Hearing reset for former court-appointed guardian in Vegas

UPDATE: Private guardian April Parks behind bars in Las Vegas

UPDATE APRIL 5: April Lynn Parks was a private, professional guardian appointed by Clark County Family Court to protect hundreds of vulnerable people.

Parks admitted to Contact 13's Darcy Spears on camera in 2015 that she made major mistakes with her client's money, including in one case, charging an elderly woman $108 for a pair of stretch pants.

Parks was the ringleader of a small group employed by her. They've all been indicted for draining the accounts of those they were supposed to care for while isolating them from their families.

Parks faces more than 200 felony criminal charges for racketeering, theft, exploitation and perjury.

She was arrested in Pennsylvania on March 8, extradited to Las Vegas and booked into Clark County Detention Center Tuesday.

Contact 13's investigation helped lead the way for reform in the guardianship system and the criminal case against Parks.

That came just in time as we uncovered in court documents that Parks was about to expand her business and hire more staff. She'd gotten a contract with Valley Health System's six Las Vegas hospitals, which would make her the first choice to refer patients for guardianship services.  

There's no telling how many of those potential referrals could have fallen victim to the alleged crimes Parks and her associates are charged with. Valley Health Systems declined to comment.

Contact 13 requested an on-camera interview with April Parks at the jail but haven't heard back. And we tried to reach her attorney but his voicemail was full.

UPDATE MARCH 27: Mark Simmons is now behind bars in Las Vegas. Simmons faces 134 felony criminal charges including racketeering, exploitation of the elderly and theft. 

He was extradited from Indiana and booked into Clark County Detention Center this weekend. He is scheduled to appear before a judge on Wednesday. 

UPDATE MARCH 14: Private for profit guardian April Parks is now behind bars. She and three others were indicted last week for running a criminal enterprise involving theft and exploitation.

Court records show Parks disregarded her duty as a guardian, treating the vulnerable as "cash cows."

In one example, Parks and her business partner Mark Simmons profited from a scam where they bought Christmas gifts for their wards, such as popcorn, socks and other small items. When the wards received the gifts, they were charged at a hourly rate of $100 per hour.

Clients were also billed when Parks' husband Gary Taylor drove to the courthouse and waited in line to file papers that could have been submitted online.

UPDATE MARCH 09: April Parks was arrested by local police in East Goshen Township, PA.

The Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department charged Parks with being a fugitive from justice and she was arraigned.  Her bail was set at $500,000 dollars.  Parks was remanded to Chester County Prison pending extradition to Clark County, Nevada.

ORIGINAL STORY

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) -- What started with a Contact 13 investigation has led to hundreds of felony charges against four suspects for the way authorities say they treated people in their care.

This is the latest move in cases involving more than 150 victims and nearly $560,000 in stolen money.

It's the most significant guardianship exploitation indictment in Nevada's history -- so says Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt in what authorities hope will wipe out a long-standing crime wave in our state.

Cheers and fist pumps erupted in the Regional Justice Center lobby from a crowd of people who haven't had much to celebrate over the last few years.

On Wednesday, they went from victim to victor as April Parks, the woman who they say stole everything from their loved ones, was indicted.

"Today, law enforcement sends a clear message to those who take advantage of our most vulnerable citizens," said Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson.

Contact 13 first exposed April Lynn Parks in early 2015 when she told Darcy Spears, "I do it because I love it," in reference to her work as a private, professional guardian.

Guardians are appointed by the court to protect and serve their wards. They're entrusted with every aspect of a person's life, including their health care and their money.

"I can't imagine a class of people more susceptible to criminals than wards of a court," said Wolfson.

Parks, her husband Gary Taylor, her attorney Noel Palmer Simpson and her office manager Mark Simmons are together facing 270 felony counts of perjury, racketeering, filing false records, theft and exploitation.

The charges involve more than 150 victims who've lost more than half a million dollars.

Authorities say Parks and her co-defendants used a position of trust and authority to prey on disabled, vulnerable people ranging in age from 40 to 90, and systematically bilk them out of their life savings.

"I've never been so happy in my life! All the thousands of hours and dollars I put into this was not in vain," said Elizabeth Indig, whose mother was one of Parks' wards.

So were Julie Belshe's parents -- Rudy and Rennie North. Contact 13 broke their story in February 2015.

"When I reached out to you I was very traumatized," said Belshe. "I didn't know what to do!"

As for Wednesday's indictments, Belshe says, "It restored my faith in the people, in the justice system -- that there are good people in our system that are working and they're on our side -- the citizens' side. Because you start to think, who's going to believe me? Because you tell these stories and they're unbelievable!"

"I really think this is going to send a very strong message to the other guardians and the attorneys and the judges who aided and abetted her in this," said Indig. "And I think maybe Nevada will be clean of this crime and people can move here and retire without fear of losing everything."

Contact 13 will have more on the Family Court system's role in all this as the report continues on Thursday.

As of late Wednesday afternoon, all four defendants had been arrested in law enforcement actions across the country.

April Parks was arrested by local police in East Goshen Township, PA.

The Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department charged Parks with being a fugitive from justice and she was arraigned.  Her bail was set at $500,000.00 dollars.  Parks was remanded to Chester County Prison pending extradition to Clark County, Nevada.

Full Article & Source:
UPDATE: Private guardian April Parks behind bars in Las Vegas

In many cases, guardians meet a need

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Professionals who are regular participants in New Mexico’s guardian/ conservator court system say they are a necessary part of protecting the rights of the elderly from unscrupulous or abusive relatives and outsiders.

To be certain, there are many elderly people who are unable to fend for themselves, have no close relatives and need a court-appointed guardian relationship.

Ruth Pregenzer, whose law firm deals extensively with elder issues, told the Journal, “Guardian and conservatorships have grown up to meet a need,” a reference to the aging baby boomer generation.

 “We’re not living anymore in a society where families take care of each other,” she said. “Oftentimes, families are all over the country.”

There are many kind and trustworthy lawyers, guardians, conservators and caretakers who operate with compassion and good intentions within New Mexico’s elder care system. In addition, cases involving elders often include courtroom discussion of their mental competence and medical conditions that must, under law, be kept confidential.

As for some families’ contention that there is a cottage industry of for-profit professionals who control much of the business within a tightknit group, Nancy Oriola, CEO of elder care firm Decades LLC, told the Journal, “I believe that the professionals who refer Decades make a conscious effort to not engage in the activity you describe.”

“We rotate the work of all professionals we hire — be it attorneys, Realtors, caregiving agencies, estate liquidators, etc.,” she said.

According to a 2013 task force report prepared for the New Mexico Senate, there could be as many as 10,000 guardianships and conservatorships active in the state courts.

During an interview in her chambers recently, 2nd Judicial District Judge Shannon Bacon indicated the number is much higher now.

Referring to the 10 civil court judges who handle those cases in Albuquerque, Bacon said, “Eight of the 10 have over 1,000 (total) cases each.”

Full Article & Source:
In many cases, guardians meet a need

Florida guardian charges big bucks to protect ward with Alzheimer's living in Hungary

SARASOTA, Fla. - A grieving daughter is fighting against a system that was designed to protect her dad.

She regrets the decision of turning to Florida's professional guardian system for help.

She says that decision cost her father's estate a million dollars, and as the I-Team found out, the guardian was racking up those bills, when her father was living thousands of miles away.

“He was an immigrant, came here with one little suitcase and worked himself into millions of dollars,” said Mercedes Gyorgy, describing her father Akos Gyorgy.

He earned millions as a Sarasota real estate broker, eventually owning 8 homes in three countries..
But his family says his estranged wife exploited him when he got alzheimer's disease.

They asked for the court to appoint a guardian to protect him and his assets, but now believe that was bad decision.

“We turned to the courts to stop the financial abuse, and after that, over a million dollars has been spent on this guardianship,” Mercedes Gyorgy said.

On Wednesday, she asked the court to release her late father's remaining assets to his estate, but the guardian and the guardian’s attorney are fighting against that.

“In the first two months of the case, one attorney billed $30,000,” Mercedes said.

And some of those bills came while her father was not even around.

He had disappeared while his Emergency Temporary Guardian was supposed to be protecting him.

“I Called the police. They never called the police. They never called the police and said this man was missing,” Mercedes said.

In a court document filed weeks later, it was revealed that Akos Gyorgy, who was incapacitated, managed to catch a cab from Sarasota to Orlando, then flew to Frankfort, before catching another flight to Budapest Hungary.

Gyorgy was originally from Hungary, as was his estranged wife.

Mercedes says her father met her when his friend placed an ad in a Hungarian newspaper seeking a new bride for him, after his first wife died of cancer.

He lived there for five years, which family members contend was out of the Sarasota court-appointed guardian’s jurisdiction.

While the guardian supposed to protect him from his estranged wife, she made multiple trips to Hungary to visit him.

So did the guardian.

On one visit, he billed his ward nearly $24,000 for a first class plane ticket, lodging at a 5-star hotel, and other expenses.

“It was a vacation for sure,” Mercedes said.

And that's not all.

The court allowed the guardian to use the ward’s money to buy him a $200,000 home in Hungary just weeks before he died.

“It's a crazy case, but unfortunately, it's not that out of the norm with what's been going on in guardianship in the state of Florida,” said Mark Soss, who represents Gyorgy’s family.

The judge says he's taking all of the testimony under advisement and will rule in the near future when the remainder of the ward's assets will be transferred back to the ward's family.

If you have a story you’d like to see investigated, contact the I-Team at adam@abcactionnews.com

Full Article & Source:
Florida guardian charges big bucks to protect ward with Alzheimer's living in Hungary

Local 10 News viewer claims guardian not acting in best interest of father

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. - Florida ranks as one of the top states with a large elderly population and professional guardianship is a booming business, especially in the tri-county area.

Florida law designed guardianship to protect vulnerable seniors. However, some families accuse guardians and their attorneys of not working in the ward's best interest.

The Call Christina team explored the lightly regulated industry and efforts to reform it, beginning with a Century Village man who called Christina for help.

During the course of a months-long Call Christina investigation into a complaint about professional guardian Elizabeth Savitt, her husband, a Palm Beach County Judge, was reassigned.

In an email to Local 10 News, a spokesman for the Chief Judge stated, "Judge Martin Colin is now presiding in the Circuit Civil division at the main courthouse. This change took effect on Monday, February 15, 2016. In addition, the change is permanent as Judge Colin has indicated he does not intend to seek re-election. The Chief Judge is a proponent of transparency in government and wanted to be proactive in addressing concerns expressed by the media and the public. The move of Judge Colin to Circuit Civil division was one of the initiatives implemented by the court."

"We'd lock the doors. We'd get in his car. We'd go out; food shopping, doctors. My father lived here. I moved in 107 right next to each other," James Vassallo told Local 10 News investigative reporter Christina Vazquez.

Vassallo said he and his dad Albert did everything together.

Noting Albert's odd behavior over the years combined with a legal battle with his siblings over missing money from his father's bank account, Vassallo asked the Palm Beach County Court to intervene. His attorney urged him to hire a professional guardian, recommending Elizabeth Savitt.

"I said great," Vassallo said.

Now Vassallo said things are not so great, claiming the guardian fees and legal bills are out of control. In the six-month period from August 2014 to February 2015, the bills totaled $65,000, and they continue to grow.

"This is what you call a legal way of robbing people and they're getting away with it," Vassallo said.

Citing continual family discord, the court removed Vassallo as his father's trustee, making Savitt the sole decision-maker in all of Albert's affairs.

Now Vassallo is appealing the ruling, citing Savitt's personal financial worthiness in her guardianship application with Florida's Department of Elder Affairs.

"If I knew she had a lien, foreclosure, a judgment against her," Vassallo said during a court hearing in front of Judge David French.

Savitt's 2015 guardianship application with the Department of Elder Affairs revealed a pending home foreclosure case, and a FICO credit score below 600.

"Are you financially fit to be a guardian?" Local 10 asked Savitt after she emerged from another guardianship hearing.

Savitt did not answer the question, but in a response to the Department of Elder Affairs Savitt stated, "the loan was made under improper conditions and circumstances," and she said she hoped the court will negate the delinquent loan status. Records show the court issued a final judgment of foreclosure in November of 2014 and Savitt later paid off the loan.

 Last fall at a different guardianship hearing, Savitt requested the judge to sign off on her invoice for payment.

"You took funds?" Judge Krista Marx asked while questioning Savitt's payday advance.

"It happens every single morning in here, that people come in and ask forgiveness instead of permission," Marx said.

The judge then signed off on Savitt's motion for payment, but opposing attorney Bruce Rosenwater questioned the practice.

"We have a motion to remove the guardian. We have a motion for sanctions. We have a motion for surcharge," Rosenwater said to the court. The ward in this case has since died and there are no more issues in court relating to the guardianship.

Exiting the courtroom after the hearing, Savitt slipped past Local 10 as she was escorted down a hallway reserved for judges by a Palm Beach County Sheriff. A judge she is not, although her husband, Judge Martin Colin, is.

At the time, Colin served in the Probate division, the same court division Savitt's clients are in and often heard arguments from attorneys representing Savitt in court.

Colin never presided over any of his wife's cases, however last month he was reassigned and now hears cases in the Civil division.

For Vassallo, who is appealing his removal as trustee, the odds may be stacked against removing Savitt as his father's guardian.

"Getting out of one of these guardianships is harder than going to the moon. It just doesn't happen," Sam Sugar said.

Sugar is a retired physician and founder of Americans Against Abusive Probate Guardianship. His organization wants laws changed protecting the elderly against abusive guardians. Sponsoring seminars nationwide, he hears from others with stories similar to James'.

"Litigate, medicate and take the estate. The cases are all the same," Sugar said. "They involve emergency temporary guardianships, favoritism by the judge toward certain guardians and lawyers and ultimately the rape of the estate."

Last February, Gov. Rick Scott signed HB-5 into law adding additional protections to make it difficult for guardians to seize control of their wards' assets.

This legislative session, state Sen. Nancy Detert was successful in getting SB 232 passed. Her bill establishes a "complaint department" for families and those in guardianships.

The bill also certifies and supervises court-appointed guardians. As of now those decisions are left to the individual courts and vary from county to county. The bill now goes to Scott for his signature to become law.

In an email to Local 10, a spokesman for the Chief Judge also said, "the information listed on the Court's web site is accurate, Judge Martin Colin is now presiding in the Circuit Civil division at the main courthouse. This change took effect on Monday, February 15, 2016. In addition, the change is permanent as Judge Colin has indicated he does not intend to seek re-election. Between now and the end of his term, the Chief Judge does anticipate the need to rotate Judge Colin."

"The Chief Judge is a proponent of transparency in government and wanted to be proactive in addressing concerns expressed by the media and the public. The move of Judge Colin to Circuit Civil division was one of the initiatives implemented by the court. Other initiatives include the following:

 In-house training for probate Judges and court staff;

 The establishment of a Guardianship Wheel which will provide for random assignment of professional guardians to cases;

 Standardization of bill practices for Guardians and Attorneys; and

 Recusal of the current South County Judges from Ms. Savitt's cases."

In a statement, Savitt told Local 10, "all concerns brought by James Vassallo were brought out in open court and are meritless." With respect to her credit report that accompanied her application for guardianship, she said, "all the years that I have been a professional guardian there has been no finding that I have not duly performed my duties to a Ward of mine as a result of my financial condition."

Savitt also said she is "debt free."

"You haven't seen your father?" Vazquez asked Vassallo.

"Haven't seen my father in six months," Vassallo said.

"You have to miss him?" Vazquez said.

"I do I miss him a lot," Vassallo said.

Full Article & Source:
Local 10 News viewer claims guardian not acting in best interest of father

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