Rebecca
Fierle, the former professional guardian currently under criminal
investigation, violated state laws and guidelines in her handling of
incapacitated clients, a state agency determined in late July, according
to public records released this week.
In
a pair of letters to Fierle dated July 29, four days after she resigned
from all cases statewide, the state’s Department of Elder Affairs wrote
that she had “failed persons served by guardianship and the families
who entrusted their loved ones to [her] care.”
Because Fierle is no longer a guardian, the agency doesn’t plan to take any action against her.
Among
those the agency found Fierle failed was Steven Stryker, the
75-year-old man who died in a Tampa hospital after staff said they were
prevented from attempting to save his life due to a “do not resuscitate”
order the Orlando guardian filed against his wishes.
In a letter concerning Fierle’s guardianship of Stryker, Elder Affairs found several violations:
She violated state law by “not allowing persons who were determined to
be incapacitated to be treated humanely, with dignity and respect, and
to protect them against abuse, neglect, and exploration.”
She
violated another statute by “not acting within the scope of the
authority granted by the court and as provided by law, and by not acting
in good faith.”
She broke with guardianship standards by “not
knowing the extent of [her] powers and the limitations of authority
granted ... by the Court" and “by withholding or withdrawing medical
treatment against the Ward’s expressed wishes.”
She also
“failed to gather and document information and seek the court’s order or
direction when the best interest of your business were in direct
conflict with the ward’s wishes.”
“Your
conduct negatively impacted the integrity of the Florida Guardianship
System and you defamed good and ethical guardianship and the honest,
skilled, and compassionate public and professional guardians throughout
the state of Florida,” the agency wrote.
In
the second letter, Elder Affairs listed other violations, including
that Fierle had mishandled a ward’s special needs trust account and
purchased “large dollar amounts of gift cards” against the ward’s
interest. It was unclear which of Fierle’s hundreds of wards the letter
was concerning.
The letter also didn’t make clear what the gift cards were used for.
Elder
Affairs’ findings were based on investigations by the state’s Office of
Public and Professional Guardians, which handles complaints against
guardians. The agency was “unable to substantiate” allegations against
Fierle in three investigations it concluded after Stryker’s May 9 death,
records show.
“Your
conduct negatively impacted the integrity of the Florida Guardianship
System and you defamed good and ethical guardianship and the honest,
skilled, and compassionate public and professional guardians throughout
the state of Florida,” the agency wrote.
The
investigations by OPPG are separate from criminal probes of Fierle
currently being conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
and the state’s Office of Attorney General.
“During
the course of the investigation, your state registration was
voluntarily revoked, which is tantamount to a permanent revocation. You
are no longer registered as a professional guardian, therefore, the OPPG
considers this administrative matter closed,” the late-July letters
said.
The
scandal surrounding the Orlando-based guardian, which has embroiled the
state’s guardianship system and led officials including Gov. Ron
DeSantis to promise changes, began with an investigation into Stryker’s
death by the Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller.
That
agency, which was investigating on the behalf of OPPG as part of the
Clerks’ Statewide Investigations of Professional Guardians Alliance,
found Fierle violated standards requiring wards to be “treated humanely,
with dignity and respect, and to be protected against abuse.”
The
agency also cited criminal statutes, including aggravated manslaughter
of an elderly person or disabled adult and neglect of an elderly person
or disabled adult.
Fierle is not currently facing any criminal charges.
She and an attorney representing her did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A
judge has threatened to hold AdventHealth officials in contempt of
court, writing that the Central Florida hospital company failed to hand
over records related to its financial relationship with Rebecca Fierle, the former professional guardian currently under criminal investigation.
Circuit
Judge Janet C. Thorpe ordered AdventHealth on July 10 to produce
documents involving Fierle. During a hearing the next day, an attorney
for the hospital system told the judge that AdventHealth paid the
court-appointed guardian to provide services for roughly 50 patients —
an arrangement which was not disclosed to the court.
In
an order dated Tuesday, Thorpe wrote that AdventHealth had only
“partially complied” with her order to produce the documents, which were
to be given to Wynter A. Solomon-Cuthbert, a court monitor assigned to
investigate the disgraced guardian.
The
hospital company still had not given Solomon-Cuthbert all checks and
invoices for payments made to Fierle and her various business entities,
Thorpe’s order said. AdventHealth also failed to provide a list “of all
patients receiving services from Rebecca Fierle, referred to by
AdventHealth as 'permanent’ or 'forever’ patients,” the judge wrote.
“You
are hereby ordered, within 5 days of entry [of] this order, to submit
the listed documents ... or to show cause why you should not be held in
contempt for failing to do so,” Thorpe wrote, emphasizing the contempt
threat in bold type.
Court
records show Thorpe set a hearing earlier in August to let AdventHealth
explain why the company should not be held in contempt for failing to
comply with her order from July. A transcript of that hearing, which was
not publicly noticed in advance, was not immediately available.
AdventHealth spokesman Bryan Malenius told the Orlando Sentinel the company had complied with Thorpe’s orders.
“We
have responded to all requests from the court and are in the process of
re-sending and providing additional documents the court has requested,”
Malenius said.
He
said the hospital company uses the term “forever patients” to describe
“patients who have no family or friends willing to assume guardianship,
and as an absolute last resort, a professional guardian may be appointed
by the court.”
During
the July 11 hearing, AdventHealth attorney Troy A. Kishbaugh told
Thorpe the company thought it should not be responsible for paying
private guardians, who are typically compensated for their time from
their clients’ funds or by the state.
“You
shouldn’t be,” Thorpe told him, according to the transcript. “All
payments to guardians come through the court based on the statutes. ... I
haven’t seen your payments come through to me.”
“They don’t,” Kishbaugh responded.
“That’s a problem, sir,” the judge said.
A
review by the Orange County Comptroller’s office of 30 of Fierle’s
cases found the guardian appeared to have entered into a contract with
AdventHealth without telling the judge — a potential violation of
Florida law, which says guardians may not “have any interest, financial
or otherwise, direct or indirect, in any business transaction or
activity with the guardianship.”
The death of one of Fierle’s clients, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, sparked a scandal that has embroiled Florida’s guardianship program
and led to increased scrutiny over how guardians are appointed to make
legal, financial and medical decisions for minors and incapacitated
adults, known as wards.
Stryker
died at at a Tampa hospital after staff could not perform life-saving
procedures because of a “do not resuscitate” order Fierle filed against
his wishes, according to an investigation by the Okaloosa County Clerk
of Circuit Court and Comptroller.
After
details of the Stryker case came to light, Thorpe sought Fierle’s
removal from all 95 cases the guardian then had pending in Orange
County. Eighteen of those cases involved wards who were AdventHealth
patients when petitions to place them under guardianship were filed,
more than any other care provider, according to data compiled by the
Sentinel.
Fierle, who is not currently facing charges and has resigned from all cases statewide, is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a separate Medicaid fraud probe by the state’s Office of Attorney General. Earlier this month, authorities found the cremated remains of nine people when they searched the Orlando office for Fierle’s business, Geriatric Management.
HOUSTON - After a court-appointed guardian successfully moved a
Schenectady, New York trial Judge to replace him as the trustee of his
brother's special needs trust, John Scott appealed and lost.
Now he’s petitioning to either re-argue or appeal.
Trouble ensued when, as trustee of a $2 million fund, Mr. Scott
disputed paying a court appointed evaluator's estimated $20,000 fee as
well as requests to fund limousine service to take his
anxiety-challenged brother James Scott to and from the grocery store and
medical appointments, according to a press release.
According to the court appointed guardian Kathleen Toombs, however,
it was a mere car service, not a limousine, that was enlisted
temporarily to comfortably and reliably transport the brother during
winter months.
Although an appellate court overturned an order requiring the
payment of court evaluator fees, it upheld the transportation fees and
the removal of Mr. Scott as trustee of his brother James' trust.
"John was the person who handled these logistics for no cost until
the guardianship was imposed and the relationship frayed," said John
Scott’s attorney Paul O’Brien of the Falcon, Jacobson & Gertler law
firm.
Mr. Scott in New York isn’t the first to sue over the actions of
court-appointed guardians, evaluators and even judges. Plaintiffs in
states, including Texas, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, have increasingly
cried afoul in recent years and as a result U.S. Representatives Darren
Soto, Charlie Crist and Gus Bilirakis of Florida as well as Debbie
Dingell of Michigan re-introduced HR 4174 on Aug. 7 to assist states in
guardianship oversight.
"There have been cases nationwide that pushed the bill to the
forefront of the House agenda," said Oriana Pina, communications
director for Congressman Soto.
The House bill is identical to the Guardianship Accountability Act, which is pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
HR 4174 comes on the heels of a criminal investigation in Florida of
court appointed guardian Rebecca Fierle who resigned last month.
“In Orlando, we saw firsthand the abuse of a former guardian, which
led to a preventable death," said Congressman Soto. "We owe it to our
seniors and to those living with disabilities to provide protections
from ill-intended bad actors who abuse the system that's designed to
provide a better quality of life."
For example, in Ohio, a racketeering lawsuit filed in Cuyahoga
County Court of Common Pleas alleges that despite the recommendation of a
court-appointed officer, a convicted felon was appointed the guardian
of 85 year old Fourough Saghafi Bakhtiar. As reported in the Southeast
Texas Record last week, a divorce was subsequently imposed against the
wishes of Ms. Saghafi Bakhtiar’s 88 year old elderly husband, Dr. Mehdi
Saghafi, according to court records.
“Guardianship abuses are resulting in seniors literally being held
against their will, isolated from family members and friends, their
assets liquidated and drained by unscrupulous people gaming a broken
system,” said Congressman Crist.
In April, the Honorable U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the
Southern District of Texas remanded Plaintiff Sherry Johnston's
federal lawsuit, alleging elder guardian abuse of her elderly mother, to
state court.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The I-Team has uncovered mass resignations at the
state watchdog assigned to investigate guardianship abuse — news that
comes in the wake of a criminal investigation into a former guardian
accused of killing a man under her care.
Seven employees at the
Office of Public & Professional Guardians have resigned since April,
according to records obtained by I-Team Investigator Adam Walser.
The majority of those resignations came after an I-Team report in
July about embattled former professional guardian Rebecca Fierle, who is
under criminal investigation for accusations she caused the death of a
man under her care by issuing a "Do Not Resuscitate" order without
permission.
Last month, the Department of Elder Affairs confirmed
the resignation of Carol Berkowitz, the former director of OPPG who
departed on July 12 — the same day as the I-Team’s report on Fierle.
But
when the I-Team asked about other resignations, a department
spokeswoman denied there had been mass departures from the office.
At
the time, Elder Affairs spokeswoman Ashley Chambers told an ABC Action
News reporter for the Tallahassee bureau that concerns about
resignations were rumors.
But three weeks later — after the I-Team
requested all resignation letters — Chambers confirmed the mass
departures late Friday afternoon.
Internal agency records show
Deputy Director Amelia Milton, Senior Staff Attorney Michael McKeon, the
statewide public guardian manager, a guardian registrar and staff
assistants also resigned from their positions
Geriatric Management, Rebecca Fierle’s business at the corner of
Hillcrest Street and Altaloma Avenue just northeast of downtown Orlando.
(Jeff Weiner / Orlando Sentinel)
The
cremated remains of nine people were found by law enforcement officers
who searched the Orlando office of disgraced former professional
guardian Rebecca Fierle this week, the state’s Office of Attorney
General said Wednesday.
“As
this investigation continues, we will be focusing on whose cremains are
in the urns, medical records that identify the cause of death, how long
the cremains have been in the target’s office and much more,” Kylie
Mason, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Ashley Moody, said in a
statement. “As this is a very active criminal investigation, we cannot
comment further at this time.”
The
Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Orange County Sheriff’s
Office executed a search warrant Monday at 1646 Hillcrest St., a small
converted house northeast of downtown Orlando that serves as an office
for Fierle’s business, Geriatric Management.
FDLE
launched a criminal probe into the court-appointed decision maker last
month, after a state investigation found one of her incapacitated
clients, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, died at a Tampa hospital in May
following Fierle’s refusal to remove a “do not resuscitate” order she
filed against his wishes.
FDLE
spokesman Jeremy Burns confirmed the agency found cremated remains at
Fierle’s office but could not provide more details and directed inquires
to the attorney general’s office.
Fierle is not currently facing criminal charges. Her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Rebecca Fierle
It
is not uncommon for guardians to temporarily have the cremated remains
of dead clients until a final resting place is found, said Gina
Rossi-Scheiman, executive director of the Florida State Guardianship Association, a statewide organization of about 580 members, including guardians, attorneys and others associated with guardianship cases.
Guardians are responsible for incapacitated people who may be homeless or indigent with no family to claim them.
“In
most of these cases, the reason a professional guardian or a public
guardian has been assigned is because there is nobody for the
individual,” Rossi-Scheiman said. “At times, you’re the only person in
somebody’s life.”
If the deceased ward left no instructions and no family member exists or is available, Florida law gives guardians legal authority over the remains.
Rossi-Scheiman
said, in her experience as a guardian, she’s had to pick up a ward’s
remains from a cremation company to send to a family member because no
one else could do it. Guardians are tasked with making end-of-life
decisions for wards, including prepaid burial plans and funeral
arrangements with families, she said.
“It’s
possible for you to be in possession of someone’s remains because
you’re caring for that person and making sure they’re put in the proper
place where somebody needs to be laid to rest, whatever those wishes
are,” Rossi-Scheiman said.
Rossi-Scheiman did not want to comment on Fierle’s case, but said “everybody is concerned.”
“We’re waiting to see what happens,” she said.
Investigators
with the Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller found
hospital staff could not perform life-saving procedures on Stryker
because of the DNR. Fierle told investigators she routinely filed DNRs
on the behalf of clients. Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe, in seeking
Fierle’s removal from 95 Orange County cases in July, found that Fierle
had “abused her authority” by doing so without permission from the court
or families. Fierle has since resigned from all of her cases statewide.
Fierle
told investigators she filed a DNR on Stryker because it was “an issue
of quality of life rather than quantity,” wrote Andrew Thurman, an
auditor and investigator for the Okaloosa Clerk. His report alleged
Fierle’s decision amounted to "the removal of care necessary to maintain
the ward’s physical health” and cited criminal statues.
ORLANDO, Fla. — The
cremated remains of nine people were found in the office of an embattled
professional guardian linked to the death of a 75-year-old Florida
client, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said.
Moody revealed the discovery Wednesday in an interview with The News Service of Florida.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Orange County Sheriff’s
Office executed a search warrant at Rebecca Fierle's Orlando office
Monday.
"Alarmingly, we found items that are cause for concern
and will intensify our investigation. We found nine cremains. We are now
in the process of identifying those and furthering the investigation,"
Moody said.
A Central Florida attorney told WESH 2 News that it’s
not uncommon for wards to have the remains of the people they are
caring for.
Fierle is facing a criminal investigation and the
governor has ordered a complete review of the Department of Elder
Affairs' Office of Public and Professional Guardians.
That followed revelations that Fierle signed 'Do Not Resuscitate,' or DNR orders, for most of her wards.
Court
records reviewed by WESH 2 News show Fierle has handled more than 800
Guardian cases in nine local counties over two decades.
Fierle’s wards were individuals who are physically or mentally incapacitated and are appointed a guardian.
Fierle
has resigned from all of her guardian cases in 14 counties writing, "I
will not be seeking reappointment in any cases, nor will I seek future
appointments as a guardian."
The controversy over Fierle’s actions
began after the death of a man who hospital workers would not treat
because investigators say Fierle filed a "do not resuscitate" order
without consent from his family.
"Anytime you have allegations
where Do Not Resuscitates, DNR's, were executed in an unlawful manner,
and then you conduct a search warrant and find multiple actual urns with
remains in the office, that is concerning in an investigation. So, this
will only help us in the investigation. Certainly, we will continue our
efforts and make sure the necessary witnesses are interviewed and
develop a full case," Moody said.
Jack Meagher says his court-appointed guardian, Rebecca Fierle, doesn't
respect his wishes, and he doesn't need someone to make decisions for
him.
As
Florida’s guardianship program is under increased scrutiny with the
revelation that a client died after his Orlando guardian filed a “do not
resuscitate” order against his wishes, federal lawmakers on Wednesday
filed bipartisan legislation to expand protections for incapacitated
people.
The
Guardianship Accountability Act would expand oversight and data
collection “to hold guardians accountable” by creating a national
resource center and expanding background checks and communication
between local, state and federal organizations, U.S. Rep. Darren Soto’s
office said in a statement.
“It
is our duty in Congress to speak up and protect the most vulnerable
members of our communities,” said Soto, D-Kissimmee, in a statement. “In
Orlando, we saw firsthand the abuse of a former guardian which led to a
preventable death. We owe it to our seniors and to those living with
disabilities to provide protections from ill-intended bad actors who
abuse the system designed to provide a better quality of life."
The
scandal in Florida was sparked by the death of 75-year-old Steven
Stryker, a ward of Orlando professional guardian Rebecca Fierle. Despite
Stryker’s stated desire to live, corroborated by his daughter and a
psychiatrist, Stryker died after Fierle refused to rescind a DNR order
she had filed, which prevented staff at a Tampa hospital from attempting
to save his life, a state investigation found.
It
has since emerged that Fierle routinely filed DNRs on behalf of her
wards without court approval. She resigned as a professional guardian
statewide as judges across Central Florida launched removal proceedings
against her after details of the Stryker case, first reported by the
Orlando Sentinel, came to light. Fierle is currently under criminal
investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Soto
was joined by fellow Florida congressmen U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St.
Petersburg, and Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor; Michigan Democratic U.S.
Rep. Debbie Dingell; and U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican,
and Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, in introducing the act.
“Guardianship
abuses are resulting in seniors literally being held against their
will, isolated from family members and friends, their assets liquidated
and drained by unscrupulous people gaming a broken system,” Crist said
in a statement. “... This legislation brings federal resources to bear,
providing the missing transparency needed to understand where problems
exist with a better ability for stakeholders to track outcomes across
disparate state court systems nationwide.”
Said
Bilirakis: “It is said that the strength of a society can be judged
based upon how it treats its most vulnerable populations. We’ve seen
from recent examples in the news, and alarming rates of elder abuse
throughout Pasco and Pinellas counties, that guardianship is an area
where we can and must do better in order to ensure the protection of our
seniors.”
CRESTVIEW — An Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller
investigation of embattled guardian Rebecca Fierle found she may have
violated the law when she filed a do not resuscitate order without her
ward’s, the family’s or the court’s permission.
Her ward,
75-year-old Steven Stryker, died May 13 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in
Tampa. He had a chronic condition that required him to have an EGD
periodically to allow him to eat solid foods. However, medical staff
were prevented from attempting to rescue him when he began choking
because of Fierle’s DNR order.
Okaloosa County is one of six
clerk’s offices in Florida accredited to do investigations for the
Clerk’s Statewide Investigations of Professional Guardians Alliance. It
issued its investigative report July 9 that includes a finding the
Fierle committed aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person or
disabled adult, a first-degree felony.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has opened its own investigation into Fierle.
“We
certainly don’t want to speak for the FDLE,” said JD Peacock, Okaloosa
County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. “This is what we
think they may look into. Our report speaks for itself.”
Clerk
investigator Andrew Thurman spoke to the embattled Fierle, who lives in
Orlando. A guardian for at least 10 years, Fierle resigned July 25 from
all 450 of her court-appointed guardianships in 13 counties.
Elaine
Renoire, president of the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse,
said many of its members have complained about Fierle for years but that
the complaints fell on deaf ears.
“How many complaints does it
take?” Renoire asked. “Does it take a death? Apparently it does take a
death. Life and death decisions should go to the court and a judge
should decide.”
Fierle told the Okaloosa investigator that
“because she was the court-appointed guardian, she had the authority to
decide on end of life care and life-saving procedures.”
During her interview, she said she understood Stryker was
estranged from his daughter and son. She said it was “difficult” to find
places to accept and treat Stryker because he was a registered sex
offender. Fierle mentioned that a DNR “was an issue of quality of life
rather than quantity” and she filed them regularly.
Fierle also
claimed she discussed life-saving care with Stryker and that “he agreed
to the DNR being in place,” the report said, contradicting statements
made by his daughter’s, a Tampa doctor and a friend to the Okaloosa
investigator.
Kim Stryker, who lives in Washington, D.C., filed a complaint May 9
with the Florida Department of Elder Affairs’ Office of Public and
Professional Guardians. In her complaint, she said her father expressed a
desire to live but Fierle refused to remove the DNR. She said, “If not
for Fierle’s actions her father would still be alive.”
She
characterized Fierle as “callous and disrespectful,” and provided an
email she received from Fierle on May 15. Fierle said it wasn’t her
responsibility to inform her of her father’s death and that final
arrangements “can be handled by you and your brother. That is not a task
I handle if there is family.” She said they could submit the funeral
home invoice to her, which funds in her guardianship account would
cover.
Steven Stryker’s daughter also admitted to the Okaloosa
investigator she did keep her father “at a distance” because of his past
sex offender issues.
Dr. Kirtikumar Pandya, a licensed
psychiatrist who examined Stryker at St. Joseph’s Hospital determined
“he had the ability to decide that he wanted to live.” Pandya said
Stryker “wanted to be resuscitated and wanted to be alive.” He called
Fiele’s DNR “not rational” and requested the hospital “rescind the DNR.”
Based
on the Okaloosa investigative report, Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe in
Orlando, stripped Fierle of her oversight of 98 wards there at a hearing
July 11.
“It’s awfully pompous for you to make a decision of what quality of life somebody else values,” Thorpe told Fierle.
Additional
fallout included Gov. Ron DeSantis vowing to “vigorously” investigate
Florida’s guardianship program and directing the state’s Department of
Elder Affairs to do the same.
“There’s going to be action taken
whether it’s administratively or legislative,” he said at a press
conference. “I think something needs to be done.”
Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom said he would work with DeSantis on reforms.
“The
governor and I will pursue legislative changes to grant the Department
of Elder Affairs the necessary oversight authority to guarantee our
ability to ensure that neglect and abuse to the frailest of the frail
never occurs again,” Prudom said in a statement. “Something needs to be —
and will be — done.”
More than 20 years ago, Rebecca Fierle began to make a name for herself as a protector of vulnerable seniors.
As
an employee of the Senior Resource Alliance in the mid-1990s, Fierle
coordinated a program with Orange County Fire Rescue to help find
elderly people in need of services such as Meals on Wheels or assistance
with grocery shopping or housekeeping.
“I’ve
called the abuse hotline three times since we started,” Fierle said in a
1997 Sentinel story about the program. “We’ve found two cases of
neglect and one financial exploitation case."
Rebecca Fierle
That
image of Fierle, now 50, as a watchdog for seniors stands in stark
contrast to the investigations and complaints swirling around her today.
Her
work as a professional guardian is the subject of a state
investigation, an audit by the Orange County Comptroller and an ongoing
criminal probe.
The
question is how she cared for the hundreds of sick or disabled people,
many of them elderly, declared incapacitated by a judge and in need of
someone to handle their medical decisions, financial affairs or both.
In
one case, a man died in May after she refused to lift a do not
resuscitate order that he said he did not want — a desire corroborated
by the man’s family and a hospital psychiatrist, according to the
Clerks’ Statewide Investigations of Professional Guardians Alliance
review.
Some
families have told the Sentinel that they also question the care their
relatives received after a judge declared them incapacitated, taking
away nearly all of their rights to make their own decisions, and handed
their affairs over to Fierle.
One
woman said her mother died after she did not receive cancer treatment.
Another woman said she found a DNR order in her grandmother’s nursing
home file that the family did not know about and that a court never
approved. And a mental health counselor who served on a court committee
to determine whether people should have their rights taken away said she
resigned from that role over concerns about Fierle’s work. But the
complaint the counselor sent to the court and state office that oversees
professional guardians was only acknowledged months ago, more than
three years after she sent it.
Other
families of the incapacitated people Fierle served, or wards as they
are called in court, have expressed surprise about the allegations
against her.
Dena
Nazarchuk Grantham said Fierle was her brother’s guardian and brought
peace of mind and was helpful during a tumultuous time for her family.
“[My
brother] kept trying to tell me she wasn’t what she pretended to be,”
Nazarchuk Grantham said. “It just blows my mind. She was very kind with
me. … I’m hurt.”
The
two images of Fierle — one as a person seen by judges, attorneys and
some families as a devoted guardian and the other as the person who sits
at the center of what could be one of Florida’s most complicated and
bizarre elder abuse cases — collided last month at an Orlando hearing in
front of Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe.
The
judge revoked all DNR orders and advanced directives put in place by
Fierle in her Orange County cases as a precaution after the
circumstances of Steven Stryker’s death came to light.
“Rebecca
Fierle has been a professional guardian for a long time. I rely on our
professional guardians tremendously for what they carry,” Thorpe said,
adding: “This is an extraordinary hearing that is being held on an
expedited basis because of the circumstances we find ourselves in.”
Fierle and her attorney did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Geriatric
Management, Rebecca Fierle’s business at the corner of Hillcrest Street
and Altaloma Avenue just northeast of downtown Orlando. (Jeff Weiner /
Orlando Sentinel)
Fierle
earned a degree in psychology and a certificate in gerontology from the
University of Central Florida in December 1996, just before venturing
out to start a business of her own. She left her job at the Senior
Resource Alliance in 1997, according to an application she filed in
Seminole County court.
By
December 2000 she completed the required 40 hours of training required
to become a professional guardian and alerted the clerk that she would
begin to take on guardianship cases, according to documents in her
Orange County guardianship file.
She
incorporated Geriatric Management Inc. in 2003 and, in addition to
guardianship, the company specialized in helping people qualify for
Medicaid benefits to cover nursing home stays and other services,
according to the company web site.
No
one came to the door when a reporter twice visited Geriatric
Management, which is in a small converted house just northeast of
downtown Orlando.
Fierle
listed more than 500 people for whom she served as guardian, including
168 current cases in 10 counties and one out of state in North Carolina,
on an application she filed in Seminole County earlier this year. Exact
counts of her caseload varies because the Orange County auditors found
her accounting of cases listed in Orange to contain duplicate case
numbers and omissions of some cases.
An
attorney for AdventHealth, who appeared at the July 11 hearing, told
Judge Thorpe that Fierle had taken on about 50 former patients at the
hospital as wards and that the hospital paid her for her services,
according to a transcript of the hearing.
AdventHealth
spokesman Bryan Malenius told the Sentinel that the hospital cannot
discharge a patient, even after their medical treatment is complete,
unless the patient has a safe place to go. And in cases when that person
is unable to make decisions for themselves and when no family steps in
to help, the hospital recommends guardianship as a last resort.
Typically,
the hospital asks the Department of Children and Families Services to
step in, but it often declines, Malenius said. A DCF spokeswoman did not
respond to questions from the Sentinel.
And
waiting for a public guardian to be appointed can take months, leaving a
professional guardian as the most expedient way to move patients from
the hospital to a nursing home or other setting.
“Petitioning
the court to appoint an emergency guardian is a last resort 100 percent
of the time, after the state has declined assistance and extensive
efforts to find family members or friends willing to fulfill this role,”
Malenius said in an e-mail. “Even after a petition for guardianship has
been filed, we continue to search for family or friends willing to
serve as guardians.”
Fierle
registered a company with the state called Geriatric Management
Hospital Consultation in 2018, but it’s unclear if that’s the company
she used to bill AdventHealth. Also unclear is whether she had other
arrangements with other facilities.
The
comptroller’s office found she inadvertently included bills she
intended for the hospital in some court files. For example, in one case
the auditors found a bill for the hospital where she was charging $120
an hour. That’s higher than the maximum of $65 an hour professional
guardians are allowed to charge wards for her services under court
rules.
The audit said Fierle should have disclosed her payment arrangement with AdventHealth to the court, but never did.
“If
the fees are billed to Florida Hospital, this creates the potential for
fees to be reimbursed multiple times or a separate financial
arrangement exists,” the audit report said. “All financial arrangements
should be reported to the court.”
That
same audit also found other questionable transactions, such as Fierle
using her wards’ money for services provided by a family member or
people she knew.
In
2013, Fierle used her father’s auto shop Mickeys Place for Automotive
Repair to fix a ward’s car. The Orlando shop is now closed and Fierle’s
father, Michael Dobbins, could not be reached for comment.
Fierle
hired Steve Richardson for services such as lawn maintenance and
changing locks at wards’ houses despite not disclosing to the court
their previous relationship. Fierle used to have legal authority over
the property of Richardson’s mother, court records show. The
comptroller’s report also noted Fierle is currently “the Trustee for a
family trust where the service provider currently has an ownership
interest in property with the Professional Guardian as Trustee.” Calls
to Richardson were not returned.
In
a state Department of Elder Affairs registration document filed with
the court last year, Fierle listed “none” under the area to detail any
employees she had.
But
the audit reported that multiple employees were billing wards for
services, though they weren’t registered as guardians with the state and
so did not undergo the required background checks.
Guardianship is big business in Florida. But it’s not always so easy to find a guardian to take on some of the hardest cases.
The
wards can be difficult or uncooperative because of severe mental
illness or other health problems. It’s not unusual for the patients’
families to be in disagreement with or estranged from the ward.
One
person familiar with Fierle’s work, who asked not to be identified
because the person wasn’t authorized to speak about the matter, said she
was known for taking on some of the most difficult cases.
In
the July 11 hearing, Judge Thorpe and attorneys for the wards and
Fierle alluded to how hard it can be to find enough guardians to take on
people in need, according to the transcript.
“...
Where are you going to find people to take these cases?” Harry Hackney,
Fierle’s attorney, asked the judge when it became clear nearly 100
cases would be removed from Fierle.
“I mean, it’s a real problem,” Thorpe replied. “We don’t have that many [guardians].”
Thorpe
also pointed out that public guardians, or those funded by the state
who take on cases of people who are indigent, are limited to 40 cases at
a time. But there is no limit for professional guardians.
Fierle, by some counts, had more than three times that many across multiple counties.
“We overloaded her,” Thorpe said.
Some
families of wards told the Sentinel that Fierle was cordial when she
first took on their cases, but then they often had limited contact with
her.
Someone from Fierle’s office, not Fierle herself, would often be the point of contact with family members.
Christine
Tibbetts Morrison, whose mother Connie Tibbetts was under Fierle’s care
before dying in 2017, said one of Fierle’s assistants called to ask her
how she felt about her mother receiving chemotherapy for multiple
myeloma cancer.
Despite
Tibbetts Morrison telling the assistant her mother was still capable of
making that decision, Tibbetts did not receive cancer treatment.
In
a statement through her attorney, Fierle said she called her ward’s
daughter to discuss treatment and Tibbetts Morrison “agreed that
aggressive treatment of her cancer should not be pursued under the
circumstances,” a claim Tibbetts Morrison wholeheartedly denies.
“At
first I was relieved,” Tibbetts Morrison said. “My mother was going to
have a roof over her head, she was going to get the medical care she
needed. It was better than being on the street. But something wasn’t
right with this guardian.”
Fierle
has kept a low profile in recent weeks, appearing in court only twice —
most recently in Hillsborough County — with her long red hair pulled
into a neat bun and sunglasses resting atop her head as she politely
answered a judge’s questions. At three hearings within the past three
weeks — in Seminole, Brevard and Volusia — she was a no-show.
On July 25, Fierle resigned from all her cases statewide.
Amid
a criminal investigation into former professional guardian Rebecca
Fierle, a judge has ordered the release to law enforcement of
confidential information concerning the client whose death sparked the
scandal that has embroiled the state’s guardianship program.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed last week it had launched a criminal probeinto Rebecca Fierle, the Orlando-based guardian who has resigned from all cases statewide in which she was the court-appointed decision maker for incapacitated people, known as wards.
Court
records show Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe on Thursday ordered the
release to authorities of information regarding the case of Steven Stryker,
75, who died at a Tampa hospital after staff could not perform
life-saving procedures because of a DNR filed against his wishes by
Fierle, his guardian.
Thorpe’s
July 29 order came after a court monitor in the Ninth Judicial Circuit
brought up concerns to the court regarding “possible criminal activity”
by Fierle in Stryker’s case, the judge’s one-page order indicates. It
directs the court monitor to turn the information over to “the proper
law enforcement agency.”
“The
Court finds that it is necessary to release confidential information in
the possession of the guardian monitor in order to facilitate a
criminal investigation," Thorpe wrote, according to court records.
It’s
unclear if the judge’s latest ruling was confined to Stryker’s case.
One-page orders were also filed in the cases of other former Fierle
wards on Thursday, but were sealed from public view.
An
earlier state investigation conducted by the Okaloosa County Clerk of
Circuit Court and Comptroller found Fierle refused to remove the DNR
despite Stryker’s desire for life-saving actions, and that her claims
about his final wishes contradicted his daughter, friend and a
psychiatrist.
“The
ward had never previously expressed a desire to die, and it seems
unlikely that, as soon as he was appointed a guardian, he would suddenly
be unwilling to tolerate a condition that he had been dealing with for
many years,” wrote Andrew Thurman, an auditor and investigator under the
Okaloosa Clerk’s inspector general department, in the investigative
report.
Fierle
told investigators she filed a DNR on Stryker because it was “an issue
of quality of life rather than quantity,” and said she regularly filed
DNRs for her wards, Thurman wrote.
Investigators
alleged in the report that Fierle’s decision amounted to “the removal
of care necessary to maintain the ward’s physical health” and cited
criminal statues.
“The
removal of this necessary care directly resulted in the ward’s death,”
Thurman wrote in the report. “Fla. Stat. states ‘A person who causes the
death of any elderly person or disabled adult by culpable negligence
... commits aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person or disabled
adult, a felony of the first degree.’”
Fierle is not currently facing any criminal charges.
Thorpe
sought to remove Fierle from 95 Orange County cases after finding the
guardian had “abused her powers” by requesting that incapacitated
clients not receive medical treatment if their heart or breathing
stopped, without permission from the court or the wards’ families.
State Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom on Friday announced “immediate” changes
to improve the agency’s response time for complaints, though his office
has not yet given specifics. The news came hours after the Orlando
Sentinel reported that a 2016 complaint against Fierle had sat ignored for more than two years.
Former member Marci Elliott talks about her resignation from the
Guardianship Examining Committee, which she says was prompted by Rebecca
Fierle’s mistreatment
Before
her rights were taken away, 71-year-old Connie Rae Tibbetts tried to
convince a mental health counselor that she could still take care of
herself.
“I
miss walking,” Tibbetts told Marci Elliott on May 6, 2016, according to
court records provided by Elliott. “I’m a person. I have a life.”
Elliott
was a member of Orange County’s Guardianship Examining Committee, a
group made up of medical professionals and other experts who determine
whether someone is incapacitated, meaning they can’t care for themselves
or their property.
Based
on her evaluation and statements from Tibbetts’ estranged children,
Elliott determined Tibbetts needed to be under constant supervision,
which cleared the way for Rebecca Fierle to become her court-appointed
guardian.
It
was a decision Elliott would later regret — so much so that she
resigned from the guardianship committee seven months after examining
Tibbetts.
Rebecca Fierle
“I
cannot continue to participate in any kind of action that could
possibly put another human being under Rebecca Fierle’s control,”
Elliott wrote in a Dec. 4, 2016, letter to Frederick Lauten, at the time
the chief judge for the Orange-Osceola circuit, and Circuit Judge Jose
Rodriguez. “I can no longer stand by and be silent.”
Nearly two and a half years later, another person under Fierle’s guardianship, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, died
after a “do not resuscitate” order the Orlando-based professional
guardian filed against his wishes prevented hospital staff from
performing life-saving procedures, according to a state investigation.
Fierle has since been forced to resign from nearly 100 cases in Orange
County alone, and dozens more statewide.
On
Thursday night, Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman Jeremy
Burns confirmed Fierle is currently the subject of an active criminal
investigation.
Elliott
and Tibbetts’ daughter, Christine Tibbetts Morrison, both said they
complained to the court and a state agency that Fierle had lied to them
about Tibbetts’ care — falsely claiming the cancer-stricken woman had
rejected treatment — and ignored her medical needs before she died at
age 72 on March 25, 2017.
Nothing
ever came of it until about three months ago, when an investigation
into their complaint was opened on April 3 by the Okaloosa County Clerk
of Court — more than two years after Tibbetts’ death.
Elliott called Stryker a “sacrificial lamb” whose death put scrutiny on years of allegations against Fierle.
“A
man has apparently died, and that didn’t have to happen,” she said.
“There were plenty of warnings from lots of people. I’m not the only
person.”
In
her first public statement since the scandal surrounding Stryker’s
death erupted, Fierle, through her attorney, Harry Hackney, denied
mishandling Tibbetts’ care.
“I am sorry that their expectations were not met, but it was not for lack of my trying to accommodate them,” Fierle said.
Connie
Rae Tibbetts didn't get the care she needed from her guardian, an
expert and her daughter say (Courtesy of Christine Tibbetts Morrison)
‘Judges are in the dark’
During
the nine months Tibbetts was under Fierle’s guardianship, Elliott and
Tibbetts Morrison complained to judges and Florida’s then newly formed
Office of Public and Professional Guardians.
In
a Sept. 22, 2016, letter provided by Elliott, then-OPPG Director Jason
B. Nelson thanked the mental health counselor for contacting the agency
regarding Tibbetts’ guardianship case. The office would “have a role in
reviewing complaints against professional guardians,” but until it was
fully operational, Nelson recommended Elliott also contact the Ninth
Circuit’s chief judge, hire a lawyer or call the Florida Abuse hotline
if she suspected Tibbetts was being abused, neglected or exploited.
Elliott
received an email from Okaloosa County Clerk of Court inspector general
investigator Andrew Thurman three months ago indicating that her 2016
complaint had finally been opened that month.
“I sincerely apologize for the long delay, but the case was with another office and was just recently sent to us,” Thurman said.
Neither
the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, which oversees OPPG, nor the
Florida Department of Children and Families, which operates the abuse
hotline, could immediately comment on the reason for the long delay in
addressing the complaint Elliott filed. Ninth Judicial Circuit
spokeswoman Karen Levey said a staff member received complaints in
Tibbetts’ case and directed them to OPPG.
OPPG
is in charge of forwarding complaints against guardians to the Clerks’
Statewide Investigations of Professional Guardians Alliance, which
handled the probe of Stryker’s death.
Elliott
says she called the hotline and both she and Tibbetts’ daughter sent
letters to Lauten and Rodriguez, who was the judge on Tibbetts’ case.
Rodriguez,
who is now retired, said Elliott’s resignation from the guardianship
committee did raise a red flag for him, but the dispute seemed to be
about personal issues between Fierle and Elliott. The complaint
submitted at the time did not rise to the level of probable cause needed
to intervene, Rodriguez said, unlike the probable cause Circuit Judge
Janet C. Thorpe found when she sought to remove Fierle from all of her
Orange County cases earlier this month.
“I
don’t think it’s appropriate for the court to meddle in matters of
personality,” he said. “On these issues, we walk a tight rope because if
we start opening investigations on everything, we will never do what we
need to do.”
He said it did prompt him to take a closer look when he was assigned Fierle’s guardianship cases.
“Judges
are in the dark,” Rodriguez said. “We’re supposed to be absolute
neutral, passive observers who rule on cases brought before us, however
in guardianship cases, we are given the task to hold lawyers and
guardians accountable. This is one of those cases where you just don’t
have any idea when you’re sitting on the bench of what’s happening
around you until it may be too late.”
Lauten
said he did not remember the complaint regarding Fierle and Tibbetts
because he got “thousands” of complaints during his tenure as chief
judge, which ended last month. Part of the problem with guardianship
cases is there are not enough resources to properly monitor hundreds of
cases at a time, he said.
“We
got one [new] judge from the Legislature last year, despite the fact
that we were certified for two,” Lauten said, renewing his call to
increase funding for the court system. “We need more judicial labor.”
‘She was a human being’
During
Elliott’s evaluation of Tibbetts at Sanjean Facility Care, a 34-bed
assisted living facility off Michigan Street in south Orlando, the woman
pleaded to be in "a place where I can be a human being.”
“I’m literally in a prison here,” Tibbetts said, according to Elliott’s report.
The
psychotherapist found Tibbetts to be pleasant but ultimately confused —
about her life, about where she was living, about her family. Tibbetts’
children told Elliott their mother was homeless and a chronic
alcoholic, who had been arrested several times for trespassing and had
been diagnosed with dementia, depression, a personality disorder and
other mental illnesses through the years.
In
an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Tibbetts Morrison, 51, said she
was always “two steps behind” in trying to get help for the mother who
had been cruel to her and her brothers growing up in their dysfunctional
household.
“She drove away her kids and ended up homeless after a lot of years of struggle,” she said. “I had not seen her in 20 years.”
Then,
she was contacted by a social worker at Winter Park Memorial Hospital.
After getting kicked out of the homeless shelter, Tibbetts had been
checking into the hospital to get a bed for the night and take care of
her health issues, her daughter said.
The
social worker asked Tibbetts Morrison if she would like to be her
mother’s guardian, but she said she was hesitant because she lived in
North Carolina.
“Finally
I got my mother on the telephone and asked, ‘Would you like me to be
your guardian if I can arrange it?’” Tibbetts Morrison said. “My mother
said, ‘No, I can run my own life,’ and hung up on me.”
The
hospital discharged Tibbetts before a decision was made, Tibbetts
Morrison said. A few months later, she got a call in April 2016 telling
her Rebecca Fierle was petitioning to be her mother’s guardian. She felt
relieved that her mother would have shelter and medical care.
During
the competency examination, Marci Elliott had given Tibbetts her card,
in case she had any questions. Elliott said she was surprised when,
weeks later, Tibbetts called her asking when she was going to get a
counselor and medical care for her toothache and vein problems — after
Fierle was supposed to be managing and overseeing the elderly woman’s
care.
“The
calls continued with her sounding like she was still in the dark,”
Elliott said. “She said she kept calling Ms. Fierle and ... she would
never get a return call.”
Elliott finally contacted Fierle.
“[Rebecca]
said Ms. Tibbetts was forgetful, but that everything was moving along
just fine,” Elliott said. “I felt better after that chat, but then
Connie would call with the same complaint.”
Tibbetts
Morrison said she tried to work with Fierle and her employees at
Geriatric Management for months to bring her mother up to North
Carolina, by visiting assisted living facilities near her home and
offering to pay for part of the housing expenses. But often her
questions went unanswered, and the move never happened, she said.
Connie Rae Tibbetts (Family photo)
“It was like pulling teeth to get any information,” she said.
In
the statement provided by her attorney, Fierle said she “worked
diligently to try to relocate Ms. Tibbetts to North Carolina so she
could be closer to her family.”
“Her
condition declined before arrangements could be made (A suitable
facility that would take her had to be located and then permission
obtained from the court)," Fierle said. “She could not be moved once her
condition declined. The family was advised of this.”
Fierle said she called Tibbetts Morrison to discuss cancer treatment for her mother’s multiple myeloma.
“The
daughter agreed that aggressive treatment of her cancer should not be
pursued under the circumstances,” Fierle said in a statement. “As I
recall, the daughter said this type of cancer ran in the family. That is
not a decision I made alone.”
But
Tibbetts Morrison said Fierle told her Tibbetts was refusing medical
care, including cancer treatment. Before her death, Tibbetts denied
refusing medical treatment to both her daughter and Elliott, both said.
“When
I ... mentioned Rebecca claimed she refused to go to medical
appointments, Connie’s comment was, ‘Why would I refuse to go to a
doctor? Why would I refuse to do something to fix my body?’” Elliott
said.
Tibbetts’ daughter said she was never asked to make a decision about her mother’s treatment.
“One
of Rebecca’s assistants called me and just said, ‘How do you feel about
chemotherapy?’” Tibbetts Morrison said. “I told her I would think twice
about it for myself, but it’s not for me to decide because my mother’s
still alive and she’s in charge of her own life. It was like this
hypothetical conversation. I was never told I was making a decision
about my mother’s care.”
In
the weeks leading up to her death, Tibbetts had no appetite, likely
because of the cancer, but her daughter noted she hadn’t been placed on
intravenous fluids. Photos of a death certificate provided by Tibbetts
Morrison show her mother’s cause of death as malnutrition and multiple
myeloma.
“She’d been overweight her whole life, but she was skin and bones,” Tibbetts Morrison said.
Fierle
said through her attorney that she is “not a healthcare professional"
and she consults with physicians regarding care for her wards.
“I
do not independently make medical decisions regarding IV drips or
appropriate medical care,” the guardian said. “I do know from my many
years of experience working with the elderly that they often lose their
appetites and ‘fail to thrive.’”
Tibbetts
Morrison said she knows her mother alienated her family and caused them
pain, but she deserved humane treatment at the end of her life.
“I
think she would have several more years had she gotten proper medical
care, maybe some time for grace and healing, but they didn’t really do
anything to help her,” Tibbetts Morrison said. “She was mentally ill,
but she was a human being and she deserved better care at the end of her
life.”
