New charges, new investigation involving embattled former professional guardians

I-Team has investigate both cases for months

By: Adam Walser

OCALA, Fla. -- Disgraced former professional guardian Rebecca Fierle was arrested and is facing two felony charges after an eight-month police investigation.

Her arrest comes at the same time a Pinellas County judge ordered auditors to open a new investigation into another guardian -- Traci Hudson -- who is accused of stealing money from an elderly man.

After spending the night in jail, Fierle wouldn’t answer reporters’ questions Tuesday morning, as she walked out of the Marion County Jail after posting bond.

Fierle was arrested Monday night for aggravated abuse of an elderly person and neglect of an elderly person.

Both crimes are felonies.

The charges involve the death of Steven Stryker, a man under her care who died at St. Joseph's Hospital last May after investigators say Fierle plugged his feeding tube and ordered a do not resuscitate order against his wishes.

Fierle wouldn't answer our questions either in July after a judge removed her from nearly 100 cases.

The Price of Protection

The allegations against Fierle were first brought up in a July report for the Florida Office of Public and Professional Guardians.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody wouldn't say why it took eight months to arrest Fierle.
A spokesperson told the I-Team it is still an active, ongoing investigation.

Documents we obtained show investigators didn’t interview the hospital staff at St. Joseph’s until September, about four months after Stryker’s death.

The arrest warrant was signed by a judge February 10, the day of Fierle’s arrest at one of her homes in Ocala.

She will stand trial on the charges in Hillsborough County, but an arraignment date has not yet been set.

In Pinellas County, a judge ordered the Office of Inspector General to investigate embattled former professional guardian Traci Hudson for "concerns about the care and well-being of people and property under her care."

Hudson was arrested in November, accused of stealing more than $500,000 as the power of attorney for an elderly man.

The order is a reversal for Judge Pam Campbell, who previously said she believed it was an isolated incident.

“None of us, and we've all conferred about it, are aware of any kinds of improprieties in the guardianship cases,” she said in November, at a hearing following Hudson’s arrest.

Hudson is scheduled to appear in court in April on that criminal case. An arraignment hearing for Fierle will be set in the next 30 days.

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New charges, new investigation involving embattled former professional guardians

Bill would require coroner notification in nursing home deaths

Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen

By Sandy Hodson

Caleb Connor says he has seen horrific cases of elderly abuse and neglect in his legal career, as he and his firm specialize in representing nursing home patients and their families – including a case in which the cause of death was listed by the nursing home director as heart failure when the victim had a bedsore big enough to push a fist into it.

But a bill pending before the General Assembly this year would reverse a law from 1996 that gives nursing home personnel the ability to sign death certificates. The bill would require long-term care facilities to notify the county coroner’s office when there are deaths.

“Many nursing home residents die of natural causes. (But) sadly, in our state and across the country, we have seen terrible cases of what looks like abuse or neglect of nursing home residents,” said Melanie McNeil, Georgia’s long-term care ombudsman.

A coroner’s investigation could exonerate nursing home staff, and identify for prosecution those who neglect and abuse patients, McNeil said.

“If the perpetrator is not prosecuted, he or she is free to continue to abuse and neglect nursing home residents,” she said.

Connor called the measure, House Bill 262, “a step in the right direction.”

Even if a coroner just spot checks, having an independent professional evaluate a body to confirm cause of death could have a huge impact and serve as a deterrent to abuse and neglect, said Connor, whose firm has offices in Augusta and Aiken County.

Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen has pushed for the bill’s passage since the last session of the General Assembly. He’s hopeful it will pass this year and become law.

Although it would increase a coroner’s workload, several coroners in Georgia also support the bill, said Bowen, who is president of the Georgia Coroners Association. There are many good nursing homes providing quality care in Georgia, but coroners could catch the cases that are falling between the cracks, he said.

Last April, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services reported there are an average of 7,100 nursing home patients who suffer a serious adverse health event each year. More than 100,000 more patients suffer less serious adverse events. More than half of those life-threatening and endangering events could have been prevented.

William Loomer, who leads the local Crimes Against the Vulnerable and Elderly task force, said his team is seeing an increase in nursing home reports of possible neglect and abuse.

Though most of the homes in CAVE’s jurisdiction provide great care, “self-regulation will always be a concern,” Loomer said.

“Nursing homes often conduct their own in-house investigations of potentially criminal allegations, and law enforcement is never notified,” Loomer said. “The success of this bill would not only ensure that an impartial investigation of every nursing home death is conducted by the coroner, but I believe it would increase public confidence in the nursing home’s practices in the long run.”

The Georgia Health Care Association and Georgia Center for Assisted Living is on top of the bill, said Devon Barill, the communications director for the organization of long-term assisted living facilities.

“GHCA is aware of HB 262 and has had substantive conversations with the GBI and Georgia Coroners Association regarding reporting requirements and how they may be further defined and clarified,” she said. “We will continue to remain engaged with all parties on this issue.”



Full Article & Source:
Bill would require coroner notification in nursing home deaths

Financial Exploitation of Elderly a Crime of Increasing Opportunity

America’s oldest citizens always have been at risk for financial exploitation and abuse. But as people live longer, the window of opportunity for such crimes widens.

From July 1, 2016, until June 30, 2017, the Tennessee Department of Health Services’ Adult Protective Services division hotline fielded about 20,000 calls from people reporting the abuse, neglect or financial exploitation of an older person. The number to report suspected abuse or exploitation is 1-APS-TENN (1-888-277-8366).

“This type of crime is expanding and getting worse for no other reason than people are living longer,” said Lt. David Sloan, who directs the economic crime division of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.

October is Fraud and Financial Awareness Month. Last year, family members, friends and clergy reported 32 percent of the cases of financial exploitation against an elderly person in Tennessee. The vast majority of cases (61 percent) were reported by professionals such as physicians and social workers.

One reason for the disparity is that many primary caregivers are family members and also the person taking advantage of a vulnerable elder.

“There are a lot of good caregivers out there that step up and help with the finances,” said Renee Bouchillon, who directs the Adult Protective Services division. “Unfortunately, there also some bad actors out there.”

That’s literally an apt description. Sloan says that caregivers exploiting an older adult, whether a family member, a friend, or someone hired to provide care, typically follow the same script: Separate the older person from other family while gaining their trust.

“They make the elderly person believe they are the only one who cares,” Sloan said. “They get the elderly person to sign over documents, give them power of attorney, and they raid the person’s bank account.”

The Adult Protective Services division only investigates financial exploitation cases involving government money, such as misuse of a person’s Social Security check. Bouchillon says certain criteria has to be met for the caregiver, whether family or not, including knowing of the victim’s advanced age and/or reduction in mental ability; and being aware the person cannot function independently.

“The alleged perpetrator is usually a family member,” she said. “It’s very heartbreaking.”

Often, the older adult won’t want the perpetrator punished, she said, adding, “They love their grandson. If they say, `That’s fine for my grandson to take my Social Security check and do whatever they want,’ there’s nothing we can do. We have to walk away sometimes.”

Warning signs that someone is taking advantage of an elderly person financially include a sudden change in financial condition, unexplained ATM activity or an uptick in withdrawals, unpaid bills, and a drastic change in the person’s quality of life.

Sloan says if a caregiver is telling a relative or friends the person is unavailable, that’s a major red flag.

“If they’re not allowing access to the person, then usually something is going on,” he said. “A lot of times we get involved a little late. We find out the victim had a half-million dollars in the bank and everything’s gone.

“We’re working a case now where the caregiver has bought four or five vehicles. We’ve had cases where the house has been sold and the victim is moved in with (perpetrator) or some other less desirable area.”

A few years ago, Sloan says, they closed down a couple of single-family residences that had been made into makeshift nursing homes where older people were being financially exploited and not cared for properly.

Sloan says when they catch these criminals, the ones who have not engaged in any physical abuse, but only financial exploitation, usually get probation and are ordered to make restitution.

“Some of these suspects actually believe they deserve the money because, `Look how much I’ve done for the person,’” he said. “And let’s not beat around the bush: It’s a rarity when the victim receives even a fraction in restitution of what was taken.”

Sloan’s best advice for people with older loved ones living on their own is to keep closer tabs and thus narrow that window of opportunity for stealing – be it by blood relatives with evil intent or cold-hearted strangers.

“If you’re only checking on them once every three months,” he said, “you might want to consider doing it more often.”

Full Article & Source:
Financial Exploitation of Elderly a Crime of Increasing Opportunity

The Perfect Crime

Hundreds of millions of dollars legally stolen from wealthy Las Vegas retirees and disabled residents!

All Complaints Against Jared Shafer Dropped
No Further Charges Pending - LVMPD

"Your case was concluded and closed last week with no criminal findings." - Sgt. Troyce Krumme,10/31/2017
 
"This case has already been processed in criminal court." - Sgt. Jerome Milton,11/7/2017

INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
November 13, 2017

LAS VEGAS - "Its completely legal in Nevada." Those were the words of CBS Sixty Minutes senior producer Bob Anderson in September 2014, after spending the entire summer filming a comprehensive Sixty Minutes segment on guardianship fraud in Las Vegas.

Anderson came to Sin City in response to my November 13, 2013 AmericanMafia INSIDE VEGAS column "The Grave Robbers," the story of the bilking of the estate of the late Leann Peccole: http://www.americanmafia.com/Inside_Vegas/11-18-13_Inside_Vegas.html

Sixty Minutes reportedly followed private guardian Jared E. Shafer around town, took statements from several of his victims, and interviewed Shafer's former assistant Patience Bristol in the Nevada State Prison. In the meantime, a cadre of CBS attorneys were researching NRS Chapter 159, the Guardianship Laws of Nevada, many authored or sponsored by Jared Shafer - https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-159.html - laws designed with no teeth or criminal penalties.

Several weeks prior to the October 2014 scheduled airing of Bob Anderson's Sixty Minutes segment, I received a call from him with the shocking news that the segment had been canceled. Anderson told me that his network's attorneys determined that everything Shafer does to his wards of the court is completely legal in Nevada as long as its approved by a Clark County Family Court Judge, and to the best of their knowledge, no Nevada laws were broken, so there was nothing to report.

I responded that that was the main story, for over thirty years Jared Shafer has participated in the drafting and passing of laws that decriminalized almost every immoral action a private guardian could imagine doing to his or her ward in order to enrich himself and his attorneys. I explained that Shafer, through his political advertising company, Signs of Nevada, Inc, and his fiduciary business PFSN, Inc., was very instrumental in picking and choosing what lawmakers and judges would win or lose local and state elections, and faithfully do his bidding after they won election or re-election with the help of his portable signs. Nonetheless, Anderson apologized, and I have scarcely heard from him since.
Shafer's political advertising signs

The CBS attorneys may have missed something.

According to a legal scholar consulted by INSIDE VEGAS, "The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has a war chest of criminal statutes they can charge the subject perpetrator(s) with, including, but not limited to: Nevada Revised Statutes 207.400 (Racketeering); 205.380 (Obtaining Money Under False Pretences); 200.5092, 200.5099 (Exploitation of Older/Vulnerable Person); 205.060 (Burglary); 205.0832 and 205.0835 (Theft). In addition, it can be argued that many more sections of NRS chapters 199, 200 and 205 are applicable to the perpetrator conduct currently masquerading as legal guardianship in Nevada."

"LVMPD, Nevada Attorney General, and the Clark County District Attorney have had these statutes and others at their disposal for decades. Together, they form a virtual arsenal of applicable criminal statutes, found in three separate chapters of the NRS, appropriately referred to as Crimes Against Public Justice, Crimes Against the Person, and Crimes Against Property."


During the years following Anderson's scuttled report, numbers of citizens have taken their complaints against Shafer to the local office of the FBI, the Nevada Attorney General, or to the Las Vegas Metro Police Abuse and Neglect Detail - to no avail. Recently, several of those who filed complaints against Shafer with LVMPD received the disappointing news that their complaints had been dropped with no Requests for Prosecution filed with the Clark County District Attorney or Nevada Attorney General. However, this may be a blessing in disguise because the lack of local criminal investigation and prosecution opens the door for the FBI and other federal agencies to step in, something federal law enforcement avoids doing unless called upon by local authorities while active local investigations are going on.

Though the LVMPD does deserve praise for requesting prosecution of the "low hanging fruit," specifically private guardians Patience Bristol, April Parks, and attorney Noel Simpson (Shafer's proteges), the police refused taking action against the mastermind who for over thirty years enabled the bilking of hundreds of millions of dollars from wealthy local seniors and disabled persons who had the misfortune of falling prey to the Clark County Family Court system and their cartel of ultra greedy for-hire court appointed "guardians" and their lawyers. Notice I mentioned "wealthy," because poor people are not afforded the luxury of court sanctioned guardianship. Some believe the arrests of Patience Bristol, April Parks, and Noel Simpson indicated they were used as fall guys to distract attention from their mentor, Shafer, and make it look as though Metro was doing their job during their three year long cursory "investigation" of the guardianship racket.
The Last Time The Feds Intervened
Interestingly, this is not the first time I have predicted federal intervention in a politically charged local scam. In the early 2000's, an adult night club was busy paying off local politicians to turn their backs and allow the continuing beating and robbing of club patrons. The club, the Crazy Horse Too, was caught paying $5,000 per month to then-LV City Councilman Michael McDonald, and throwing lavish political fund raisers for then-Clark County District Attorney candidate, David Roger. The payoffs became so blatant that the Las Vegas Weekly, a subsidiary of the Las Vegas Sun, wrote this about our then-DA:


https://lasvegasweekly.com/news/archive/2007/may/14/the-rise-and-fall-of-crazy-horse-too/
In October 2002, one week after I broke the story of the crippling of Kansas tourist Kirk Henry over a disputed $80 Crazy Horse Too bar tab, I received a call from LV Metro Police Lt. John Alamshaw. He told me that Metro had completed thorough investigations of fifteen Crazy Horse Too employees, and filed five Requests for Prosecution with outgoing DA Stewart Bell. He said it would now be up to Bell, or his successor David Roger, to prosecute the thugs who beat and robbed Henry and so many other hapless Crazy Horse Too victims. I looked forward to the long awaited justice, and the closure of the strip club before anyone else could be harmed.


David Roger, now a partner in the law firm that once represented
the Crazy Horse Too, and once employed Family Court
Guardianship Commissioner Jon Norheim
In December 2002, I interviewed outgoing DA Stewart Bell and asked him about the five LVMPD Requests for Prosecution. He told me that he found probable cause to prosecute all the Crazy Horse Too employees named in the police complaints, but since he was leaving office to become a Clark County District Court Judge, his elected successor David Roger (above) would be the one to act on the police Requests for Prosecution with Bell's full recommendation that Roger proceed with the prosecutions.

On January 6, 2003, David Roger was sworn in as Clark County District Attorney. On January 7, the new DA discarded all five Requests for Prosecution of Crazy Horse Too employees which infuriated the dedicated street cops who conducted the investigation.

During that time, Kirk Henry was in the hospital trying to recover from the beating that left him a quadriplegic, and in 2017 took his life. When I reported that Roger had dropped all the Requests for Prosecution, I received a call from Mr. Henry. He asked for my suggestion as to how to proceed legally against the Crazy Horse Too. I recommended he hire recently retired U.S. Federal Prosecutors Stan Hunterton and Donald Campbell who had opened law offices in Las Vegas. I told Henry that I believed the two attorneys still had connections with the U.S. Dept of Justice, and might be able to inspire FBI investigations and federal criminal prosecution.
Three years after DA David Roger dropped all complaints, the FBI had succeeded in getting fifteen Crazy Horse Too employees and the club's owner convicted of federal felony crimes.

Skip forward to the present day. In the case of the botched LVMPD investigations of Jared Shafer, certain police officers, not the DA, are the weak link in the chain of justice. For over three years, these officers have ignored all mention of Shafer and kept the feds at bay, possibly on purpose. Current Clark Co. DA Steve Wolfson has said he would "enthusiastically" prosecute any private guardian brought to him for prosecution by the police, but no such requests were forthcoming while certain detectives bided their time.

Even with overwhelming evidence of guardianship fraud having occurred and state Racketeering charges appropriate, it appears to many observers that a favor has been done to keep Jared Shafer out of the headlines. A favor that only a few detectives in the LVMPD Abuse and Neglect Detail could have rendered. However, if my suspicions are correct, that favor may be about to backfire!

As was the case with the Crazy Horse Too and a compromised DA dropping all Requests for Prosecution, today its not the DA or state AG who may be compromised in the case of Jared Shafer, its the police officers who the DA and AG rely upon to do their job who may have dropped the ball, and possibly stalled justice for at least three years. You see, the DA or AG cannot do the work of police and initiate investigations. Both prosecutorial agencies must rely upon local police to bring Requests for Prosecution documents before they can act.

We have one of the finest police departments in the nation, and it is out of character for me to criticize the service provided by our dedicated police officers, but in the case of Jared Shafer being brought to justice, I have no other choice.

I believe that some Metro Abuse and Neglect officers are obliged to Shafer. My suspicions are based on the comments and possible actions of at least one Abuse and Neglect Detail detective. She reportedly criticized one of Shafer's victims for firing a Legal Aid Society pro-bono attorney who had refused to sue Shafer and his cronies, and again reportedly criticized the victim for hiring a new private attorney who filed the needed lawsuits. The same detective also reportedly criticized myself and Becky Schultz, daughter of Shafer's victim Guadalupe Olvera, falsely saying we were motivated by personal grudges against Shafer. The detective reportedly claimed that I was a life long friend of Shafer, and that we had a recent falling out, therefore I was trying to settle a score by writing about him. But the best evidence I have to date that the Abuse and Neglect Detail has been compromised is that confidential information only they possess was provided to Shafer's attorney. The attorney filed court papers in October 2017 identifying LVMPD as the source of private information about a plaintiff in a lawsuit against his client Jared Shafer, and the attorney had the information entered onto the record (against the wishes of the plaintiff's attorney).

Based on the above, I have reluctantly stopped recommending that victims of guardianship abuse and exploitation file complaints with this LVMPD detail, and that victims wait for a federal investigation to begin before providing additional information. I believe information given LVMPD Abuse and Neglect detectives in complaints against Shafer has been shared with him or his lawyers thereby further damaging exploited wards and their loved ones.

That said (painfully), I am looking forward to a new chapter in this ad nauseam story, a chapter where uncompromised federal criminal investigators take over from local authorities as they did in 2003, and bring about long awaited justice.

The coast is finally clear to go after the mastermind in a federal venue. A strong legal example can now be set.


MORE INFORMATION: http://www.stevemiller4lasvegas.com/ShaferFinancialRecords2.html

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The Perfect Crime