Isolated by guardianship

By Mardi Link and Luca Powell

George Pappas and his daughter, Mary Hilliard, in a photo taken in the 1950s and preserved in a family photo album.
Maria Sterlini/Special to the Record-Eagle

BAD AXE — It was June 2021 and by the way she describes it, every bone in Maria Sterlini’s body told her the solution to a family emergency seemed obvious.

Five years earlier, a Huron County probate court judge deemed Sterlini’s cousin, Mary Hilliard, 68, incapacitated because of a mental health diagnosis. In 2016, the judge appointed Hilliard’s elderly mother, Rita Sniecikowski, as guardian.

But then last summer Sniecikowski, 83, was hospitalized, throwing Hilliard’s life into disarray. Hilliard’s family lost control of her care — and have since felt isolated from her.

Sterlini said she wanted to keep her family together, yet at times it seemed to her as if those in positions of authority did just the opposite.

A public guardian and staff with Adult Protective Services supported Hilliard’s emergency placement in an adult foster care home, while Sterlini and another close relative said they thought Hilliard should live with family.

This case came to light last August when Record-Eagle reporters began examining probate court records in 10 Michigan counties, as part of an ongoing probe of the state’s guardianship system.

Reporters learned, among other findings, problems can arise when family members, a judge, and social service agency staff all contend they are acting in the best interests of a vulnerable person, but disagree on what those best interests are.

Hilliard became a resident of Lauren Osantoski’s AFC in Bad Axe on June 9, 2021, and has had scant contact with some members of her family since.

“This doesn’t make sense to me,” Sterlini said. “I don’t understand why the family wasn’t included in this decision. We never wanted her in a foster care home.”

Sterlini said she and Hilliard’s father, George Pappas, of Harbor Springs, can count on one hand the number of times they’ve spoken with Hilliard in the past year.

The public guardian contends the frequency of communication is what Hilliard wants, while Sterlini and Pappas expressed concern the AFC’s phone policy, trauma experienced by Hilliard when her mother was hospitalized or stonewalling by caretakers could be responsible.

Calls to the foster care home by a reporter seeking to speak with Hilliard went to voicemail and were not returned. Osantoski, owner of the AFC home, did not return calls seeking comment. County officials confirmed the facility does not allow individual cellphones, providing instead access to a house phone.

Ashley Kidd, a case worker with Huron County’s Public Guardian office, which now oversees Hilliard’s case, said limited contact is what Hilliard has so far preferred.

“Mary does have all of their phone numbers and she is allowed to call if she wants to,” Kidd said. “She doesn’t always want that communication, at least not right at the moment.”

Pappas, 96, who owns a car and drives short distances but cannot make the 460-mile trip from Harbor Springs to Bad Axe and back, said he last spoke with his daughter in mid-April.

Sterlini and Pappas said they tried to make a conference call to Hilliard on April 24, Greek Easter, a holiday of special significance for the family, who are members of the Greek Orthodox Church. The call went to voicemail and wasn’t returned, Sterlini said.

Pappas is himself no stranger to the control a third-party court-appointment can exert over a person’s life. In 2021, an Emmet County Probate Court judge appointed him a conservator, the decision went awry and continues to be the subject of extensive reporting by the Record-Eagle.

“I feel like Mary has been stolen from us by all these people,” Pappas said, of staff with social service agencies and the probate court. “I can’t even get with her anymore on the telephone.”

Worth saving

Maria “Dolly” Sterlini, 74, lives 130 miles south of Bad Axe in Canton. When Hilliard’s mother was hospitalized, Sterlini, who lives alone, said she’d hoped Hilliard could come live with her.

Sterlini and Hilliard have always been close, Sterlini said, growing up as they did just blocks from one another in a Detroit suburb. Hilliard is artistically talented, Sterlini said, recalling summer afternoons the two spent together, painting and drawing.

“Mary is the most beautiful, heartfelt person you ever want to know,” Sterlini said. “There’s never been a cross word between us. She’s like my little sister. And she’s worth saving.”

Hilliard is one of more than 130,000 adults in Michigan who a probate judge has determined requires help managing their medical, housing or financial affairs and as a result have a court-ordered guardian, conservator or both.

When Huron County Probate Court Judge David Clabeusch appointed Hilliard’s mother as her guardian, he also appointed the county’s Public Guardian, Stephen Allen, as her co-guardian and later, her conservator. Jacilyn Geiger took over in the role when Allen retired in 2020.

Guardians make medical and housing decisions, conservators handle finances, which in Hilliard’s case included $643 in monthly social security disability benefits, records show, and $76 a month from Veterans Affairs.

A court-appointed attorney met with Hilliard on July 6, 2016, court records show, and reported back to the court that Hilliard did not drive, cook or grocery shop, but had easily recited her age, birthday and address.

The attorney said in her report that Hilliard questioned whether her mental health diagnosis was still accurate.

Sterlini said she also has questions about Hilliard’s diagnosis and treatment; annual guardian reports filed in 2017 and 2018 by Sniecikowski state Hilliard saw a psychiatrist twice annually for treatment and prescription medication refills.

Doubly Victimized

Pappas said he feels like his family has been doubly victimized by a system that has long failed to care for the state’s most vulnerable residents.

Decades of reform attempts by governors, attorneys general and legislators have so far failed to alter the Michigan judiciary, which controls guardianship and conservatorship in the state’s probate courts.

But it is family members and other “persons of interest” — and not the court — who bear the responsibility of making sure appointed guardians and conservators protect the people they are assigned to serve.

Pappas and Sterlini are listed as “persons of interest” in Hilliard’s case, records show, and after APS placed Hilliard in the AFC home, Sterlini fought Hilliard’s guardianship in court.

On Aug. 6, 2021, Sterlini filed a petition in Huron County Probate Court, seeking to have herself appointed Hilliard’s guardian. The court appointed a guardian ad litem who met with Hilliard and reported back to the court, but never met with or mentioned Sterlini, records show, even though Sterlini was the petitioner.

Hilliard attended the Aug. 10, 2021 petition hearing, where Judge Clabuesch asked her where she preferred to live, at the Osantoski home or with Sterlini — who the family knows as “Dolly.”

In hundreds of pages of documents the Record-Eagle reviewed for this story, the transcript of this hearing is the only time Hilliard’s voice was evident.

“The Osantoski home is a — what’s, what is it?” Hilliard asked the judge.

“Right there, where you are,” the judge said.

“Oh, oh, oh, oh. Lauren’s,” Hilliard said.

“Lauren’s,” the judge confirmed. “Do you —”

“I, I, I think I’ll go with Dolly,” Hilliard said.

The judge asked again whether Hilliard wanted to live with Dolly and the transcript shows Hilliard said living with Dolly would alleviate pressure on her mother.

When the judge responded that he didn’t want to know about Hilliard’s mother, he wanted to know which place was best for her, Hilliard said she couldn’t make up her mind.

“All right. That’s fine,” the judge said. “That’s a sign of somebody being incapacitated.”

Sterlini’s petition was denied, court records show, the public guardian retained its appointment as co-guardian and conservator and Hilliard stayed at the AFC home.

Sniecikowski, after being hospitalized, did not return to the apartment she shared with her daughter and, records show, now lives in a nursing home. In October the court removed her as Hilliard’s co-guardian.

A Difficult Spot

In Michigan there are a handful of counties, like Huron, in the state’s thumb, which fund public guardian offices and employ staff to accept probate court appointments. Their jobs are difficult and, records show, frequently underfunded.

A county public guardian is different from a public administrator, which most counties in Michigan have. Public administrators are attorneys who handle estates when there are no heirs on record. The state also has an overall public administrator, Katharyn Barron, who acts as “person of interest” for vulnerable people who’ve been appointed a guardian or conservator, and have no family of record.

“As a county-funded office, we don’t turn down any cases,” Kidd, employed by the county’s public guardian office since 2017, explained. “We are having a growing number of people who are on our caseload and now live outside the county as there’s a lack of appropriate housing available in our area.”

Vulnerable adults the public guardian office is appointed to serve all once lived in Huron County, Kidd said, and many still do, though others are placed in facilities as far away as Rose City (117 miles), Grand Rapids (204 miles), Berrien County (260 miles) and Detroit (113 miles).

A fact Sterlini said makes placement of Hilliard into a sought-after spot in the county, instead of with family, all the more inexplicable.

The county’s public guardian office has a full-time staff of four, Kidd said, who are responsible for the well-being of about 270 people. Kidd confirmed she and others in the office have had repeated communications with Sterlini and Pappas.

“Dolly does have the right to petition the court if she feels there is a more appropriate placement or a guardianship alternative of her being the guardian,” Kidd said, of Hilliard’s case. “I get where Dolly is coming from. We empathize that she wants her family close to her. Unfortunately, it just hasn’t ever gone that way due to Mary’s wishes.”

Kidd said the staff all know Hilliard and see her frequently. Osantoski’s AFC is near the public guardian’s office and Kidd said a dozen other people the office serves as guardian or conservator also live there.

Osantoski’s AFC is one of the only facilities in the area that accepts emergency placements like Hilliard’s, whose situation was first investigated by Adult Protective Services after Sniecikowski expressed concern for her daughter to a hospital social worker.

That doesn’t explain why Sterlini and Pappas weren’t informed, or why faulty information stating Hilliard was in danger of becoming homeless, was included in an APS log documenting the complaint.

Records show Sterlini began communicating with the public guardian’s office in 2019, asking to be kept informed about Hilliard’s care. Pappas said he wasn’t initially informed his daughter was placed in an AFC home, either.

Instead, when Pappas learned his ex-wife was hospitalized and he couldn’t reach his daughter, he called police.

Records show officers from Bad Axe Police Department visited Osantoski’s AFC for a welfare check and found Hilliard safe, happy and in good health. The involvement of law enforcement, however, prompted another alarming entry in the APS complaint log.

This entry, dated June 23, 2021, referenced a call to APS from Osantoski.

“Lauren stated Mary’s dad called her on Friday night,” the entry states. “No one knew she had a father. He called police and had them come out to check on Mary ‘cause Lauren would not release any information.”

If Pappas wanted to speak with his daughter, the APS log states, he had to go through the public guardian.

Kidd said the public guardian’s office is in a difficult spot – Sterlini and Pappas would like Hilliard to live with family, while by law public guardian staff must respect Hilliard’s wishes and according to Kidd, that means staying at Osantoski’s.

“She would do OK in a home setting with family or whatnot, if that was something she desired,” Kidd said, of Hilliard. “She’s been very happy where she’s at. She has not expressed wanting to go anywhere else.”

Pappas previously expressed concern about the care Hilliard is receiving there, and while state records with the Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs show the facility is in compliance, there have also been regulatory violations.

Since October of 2019 the facility has been the subject of six special investigations by LARA licensing consultants – none have substantiated allegations or recommended the facility’s license be reviewed.

“The residents are going to be afraid to tell you the truth for fear of what will happen to them when you leave,” stated one complainant, whose name LARA redacted.

Adult foster care homes in Michigan are required to be licensed by LARA, and many of these facilities draw all or a large portion of their residents from placements by social service organizations, like APS or community mental health.

Previous reporting by the Record-Eagle has found it is common for residents of AFC homes to be appointed guardians, conservators or both. AFC home residents are often elderly, developmentally disabled, mentally ill or struggle with memory issues.

Pappas said last year he was unable to speak with his daughter on Father’s Day, and is hopeful when he calls on June 19, the result will be different.

Pappas kept a tally of his attempts to talk with his daughter, jotting down on a yellow legal pad repeated denials and excuses, including, “we’re eating lunch,” or “It’s Sunday.”

Phone calls are the only way Pappas can communicate with his daughter, he said, since he is unable to drive to the AFC home and, while he sends cards and letters, she doesn’t write back.

“That is something that we have addressed with the home,” Kidd said, reiterating Hilliard has phone numbers of family members and can make outgoing calls if she wants.

Sterlini has continued to communicate with the public guardian’s office. For example, in October she emailed the office to ask whether Hilliard received the hot pink hat, scarf and gloves Sterlini sent to her for the winter.

Last year, during one of several visits a Record-Eagle reporter made to Pappas’ apartment in Harbor Springs, Pappas put the handset for his landline on speakerphone, called Osantoski’s AFC, gave his name and asked to speak with his daughter.

The staff member who answered the phone said Pappas had to call Hilliard’s guardian.

When Pappas asked for the name of the guardian and their phone number, the call was disconnected.

Full Article & Source:

Isolated by guardianship 

 

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A guardianship gone wrong 

 

Michigan’s guardianship system leaves vulnerable exposed

A guardianship gone wrong

By MARDI LINK and LUCA POWELL

SUTTONS BAY – The story begins at Martha Rothaug’s upright Yamaha.

It was June 2016. Martha, a former concert pianist, was becoming increasingly forgetful, struggling to play songs she once knew by heart. A doctor told Martha’s daughter, Jen Rodgers, the misplayed keys could be an early sign of dementia.

For Martha — “Marty” to family and friends — at stake was not only her health and where she would live in the final years of her life, but control of her $1.8 million estate.

The family’s accumulated wealth was far above average, yet their problem will sound familiar to many — an aging parent who wants to live independently; adult children who disagree about their parent’s care.

Particularly alarming in this case, however, is that Marty, 78, had planned for such an eventuality, consulting with an attorney on a 40-page estate plan she signed more than a decade before a doctor flagged the memory issues.

Jen was the person Marty trusted to handle her end-of-life care and decision-making. In 2007 and again in 2014, Marty put those wishes in writing.

“I nominate Jennifer A. Rodgers to serve as Guardian over my person and Conservator over my estate if a protective order over my person or estate is commenced after the execution of this power of attorney,” a document Marty signed and notarized Sept. 26, 2014 states.

But in March 2017, a state worker cited unsubstantiated complaints about Jen in a court petition. A Leelanau County Probate Court judge responded by appointing Jill Case, a woman neither Jen nor Marty had ever met, to be Marty’s guardian and conservator.

This decision by Judge Larry Nelson gave Case control over where Marty lived, how her money was spent and who could visit her. It also sparked a legal battle that would fester for years, occupy two northern Michigan probate courts, temporarily separate a mother from her daughter and rack up thousands in attorneys fees.

Jen, who previously shared part of this story with the Northern Express, said she tries not to dwell on the past, but that’s not easy.

“I still don’t understand why we couldn’t have worked together as a family,” she said.

A family divided

Marty has a son, Simeon Rodgers, Jen’s older brother who lives in Ohio.

Court documents show in the mid-2000s, Marty and Simeon became estranged after the family’s once successful metal fabrication company fell on hard times.

A resulting bankruptcy forced the sale of Marty’s Lake Leelanau home and in 2007, she sued Simeon in the Common Pleas Court of Montgomery County, Ohio, for breach of contract. Simeon counter-sued for defamation and infliction of emotional distress, court records show, and several months later, Marty wrote her son out of her will.

Simeon says Jen manipulated their mother into changing her will, that his lawsuit was a standard response and not intended to be punitive.

“My sister engineered all that,” Simeon said, of being removed from his mother’s will. “When you are sued, do you know the law well enough to know you always file a countersuit? You always do.”

Jen disputes Simeon’s characterization of her. In 2015, records show Simeon and Marty did begin to try to repair their relationship.

By then Marty had moved to Suttons Bay and soon after loaned Jen money so she could purchase her own home nearby.

Jen worked as a traveling surgical technician and she recalled that for the next several years, the two women’s lives adhered to a predictable schedule.

Jen would go to Florida in the winter for work, Martha would visit for a few weeks and then Jen would return to Michigan every spring. During the rest of the year, mother and daughter saw each other several times a week, going out to dinner, sharing home decorating ideas and visiting each other’s homes to watch HGTV.

This changed abruptly in March 2017.

While Jen was in Florida, Simeon’s adult son, Spencer Rodgers, paid Martha a visit.

The APS complaint

“No one lives with Martha. No one has been assigned to care for her. She has rotting food in her fridge. Jennifer has had no regular physical contact for 4 years with Martha.”

These words anchor a March 3, 2017 investigation report by Adult Protective Services, filed after staff at the state agency received a complaint from Spencer.

After that, things happened fast.

An APS worker, Michelle Hagerman, interviewed Simeon about what Spencer said he found in Marty’s refrigerator. In her investigative report, Hagerman made broad conclusions about Marty and Jen’s relationship, many of which court officials found later to be false or unsubstantiated.

The report stated Marty wasn’t taking her medications, and suggested Jen was not only neglecting Marty but was preying on her financially — observations which Simeon continues to contend were true.

The APS report stated Jen borrowed money from Marty and wasn’t paying it back, and that Jen “might” have taken out a $150,000 loan against Marty’s house in Marty’s name.

It’s unclear how Jen could have done this while also not having any regular physical contact with her mother in four years — a non sequitur in the report Hagerman didn’t explain.

Instead, Hagerman filed an emergency petition in Leelanau County’s probate court, seeking to have a judge appoint a temporary guardian for Marty.

Emergency guardianship petitions are designed to protect vulnerable adults who are in immediate danger. When a probate court register receives such a petition, he or she often schedules a hearing within a few days. Emergency petitions filed “ex parte,” as it was in Marty’s case, means an opposing party — in this case, Jen — doesn’t have to be notified.

“At this point, I’m a perpetrator,” Jen said, of how she believed the court and the state viewed her. “I was panicking. I should have caught a plane. But I didn’t know the magnitude of what was getting ready to happen.”

If Jen had booked a flight home, she said she could have shown Nelson a folder of documents proving the APS complaint was false.

There were notes from Marty’s doctor stating Jen should do what she could to help her mother maintain her independence. Paperwork from a service Jen arranged to assess Marty’s driving ability, as well as cost estimates from a home health care agency — tasks Jen completed before leaving for Florida.

Finally, Jen could have explained how the $60,000 real estate loan was so she could live near her mother.

Hagerman spoke with Simeon and Spencer, but didn’t interview Jen. Consequently, none of the above information was in Hagerman’s investigation report.

Four days after the emergency petition was filed, Nelson signed it. And appointed Case — who Hagerman suggested — as Marty’s temporary guardian.

Losing Control

In family disputes, it’s not unusual for a judge to see an unrelated third party as an objective solution.

It is unusual, however, for a judge to override signed durable power of attorney and patient advocate documents, which the law says must be followed unless a judge decides there are extenuating circumstances.

“If I have trust documents or a durable power of attorney before me, it’s very, very rare that I will override them,” said Melanie Stanton, who served as Grand Traverse County’s probate court judge from 2013 to 2021.

Judges do have the power to override these documents when they suspect abuse or neglect. A transcript of the emergency hearing shows Nelson appeared to be under the impression that Jen was angling for her mother’s money.

That suspicion was amplified by Hagerman, who testified — without evidence, the transcript shows — that Marty’s dementia may have affected earlier decision-making.

Judges often defer to recommendations from APS investigators. They also rely heavily on a type of court-appointed attorney called a “guardian ad litem,” assigned to meet with a vulnerable person like Marty and report their findings to the court.

The guardian ad litem in Marty’s case was Traverse City attorney Mattias Johnson. The court asked Johnson to review documents, meet with Marty and offer an opinion on whether the order granting temporary guardianship should be made permanent.

Johnson in his April 4, 2017 report described Marty as charming and well-dressed, and her home as beautiful and tidy. He acknowledged Simeon’s removal from Marty’s will and the legal documents naming Jen as her mother’s choice of decision-maker and beneficiary.

Johnson spoke with Marty’s financial manager, John Schubert who confirmed Marty’s substantial investments and stated Jen was helpful to Marty in financial matters and nothing she did struck him as untoward.

Johnson then recommended continuation of the outside guardian.

“While it is of yet unclear whether there has been any actual impropriety, GAL believes that the appearance of impropriety lends itself to continuing with a third party management of Martha’s finances and health decisions,” Johnson wrote in his report to the court.

Nelson, who declined comment for this story, entered an order May 17, 2017, making Case’s role as Marty’s guardian and conservator a permanent appointment.

Background Checks

Case appeared to have the right credentials to make decisions about the health, housing and financial needs of an elderly person showing signs of vulnerability.

She worked for Grand Traverse County’s Commission on Aging and her county personnel records show she passed FBI, Michigan State Police and state Department of Health and Human Services criminal background checks.

Probate courts differ from one county to the next on whether to conduct background checks on people they appoint. Emmet County, for example, asks the sheriff’s office to do it, Oakland County requires a background check and a credit check to be on its approved guardianship list and Grand Traverse County doesn’t conduct any background checks at all.

Judges and staff don’t have the time or the resources, Stanton said, and even if they did, they can’t access LEIN, the nationwide law enforcement intelligence network’s database that contains records of criminal offenses.

There’s no record of a criminal background check on Case by the Leelanau Probate Court, though if there had been a check, it’s not likely it would have noted civil infractions — records show Case’s paycheck years before was garnished by a debt collector.

Case had also been cited at her Commission on Aging job by COA Director Georgia Durga for unprofessional and inappropriate conduct, bullying and violating the county’s violence in the workplace policy.

“It is my expectation you will cease using bullying tactics as detailed above,” Durga wrote to Case in a 2010 corrective action form. “From this day forward I do not expect to receive any additional complaints from other employees/departments regarding your behavior. When you meet with me, I want you to bring solutions on how to coach employees to make them successful, not ways to remove them from their positions.”

Five years later, in 2015, Durga suspended Case for behavior which she said made another employee feel threatened; the five-day suspension was later vacated by a county administrator who labeled it a she-said, she-said accusation.

Following her appointment as Marty’s guardian and conservator, court records show Case communicated frequently with Simeon’s family, and positioned herself as a gatekeeper between Jen and Marty.

Records show Case told Spencer to unplug Marty’s home phone, then allowed Jen 15-minute phone calls with her mother and short, twice-weekly supervised visits. Jen could come to Marty’s home as long as she didn’t go anywhere but the kitchen, living room or dining room.

When Jen took her mother outside in July and to a nearby orchard, Case reported it to the judge.

“(H)er visits were to be supervised and that an aide needed to be with her mom at all times,” Case wrote, in a July 13, 2017 report to Judge Nelson. “She was not to take her mom outside without an aide.”

Case soon paid thousands for Marty’s care, hiring two women — Monica Bradford and Kathy Bower — to stay with Marty around the clock, either in her home or theirs. Canceled checks show, in April and May of 2017, Case paid Bradford and another woman, Anne Cole, $22,780 from Martha’s estate.

Case also moved Marty’s investment portfolio away from Schubert, Marty’s longtime financial adviser, to someone new, locking Jen out of monitoring transactions on her mother’s accounts.

This concerned Schubert enough, a guardian ad litem report shows, for a colleague of Schubert to file a suspicious activity report. Schubert did not return calls seeking comment, regarding the result of that SAR.

“Ms. Case was withdrawing large (in the mid-five-digit range) sums of money, something Marty had never done,” a GAL report filed with the court states. “When the advisor and his business partner questioned the Conservator about this, she moved the account to another investment firm.”

Near the end of summer in 2017, Case moved Marty out of her home and into an assisted living facility, the Highlands, in Northport. Court documents show Case didn’t tell Jen about the move. When Jen learned of it, these same records show Case refused to tell Jen where her mother was.

The move infuriated Jen, but according to court records, it also upset Marty.

“Martha asked why I was doing this to her,” Case wrote, in her report to Judge Nelson. “I reminded her that she has a disease and that the doctor said she needed 24/7 care. I told her that it was my job to make these decisions to look out for what is her best interest in where she lives.”

Case appeared to view a Mother’s Day gift to Marty from Jen — fleece-lined Crocs the color of Pepto Bismol that Jen mailed to her mother — as something nefarious.

Shortly after Mother’s Day in May 2017, Case filled out the paperwork for a personal protective order against Jen, stating in the application that recent mail and other communication from Jen was upsetting Marty.

PPOs are court documents mandating separation between alleged victims and their suspected abusers. They are signed by a judge and violators can be arrested.

“It cemented her control,” Jen said. “If I didn’t contest it, I would have never seen my mother again.”

Fighting Back

Jen said she tried to fight back against the court actions involving her mother, from the emergency guardianship petition by APS, to Johnson’s guardian ad litem report, to the PPO, but was unable to stop what she later referred to as a runaway guardianship train.

Jen said she remembers feeling angry and powerless until she hired her own lawyer, Andrew Shotwell of Smith & Johnson Attorneys P.C., a Traverse City firm. Records show Martha’s sister-in-law Lynne Hackenberger also had concerns about Marty’s guardianship and hired Traverse City attorney, Adam Lett, to contest Case’s appointment.

In December 2017, Case moved Marty from the Highlands in Northport to French Manor, an assisted living facility in Grand Traverse County. By changing the county Marty lived in, Case also changed probate court jurisdictions. Stanton, not Nelson, presided over Grand Traverse County’s probate court.

Stanton responded to petitions by Shotwell and Lett by revoking the PPO and assigning a new guardian ad litem, Traverse City attorney Janet Mistele, whose lengthy reports to the judge read like a spy novel.

“Despite Marty’s extensive estate planning, when APS received a referral from Simeon’s son alleging financial exploitation and physical neglect of Marty, rather than doing a proper fact-based investigation and attempting to confirm or dispel information from and about Marty’s daughter, APS accepted as true hearsay and other unverified information provided by members of Marty’s previously estranged family,” Mistele said.

Simeon maintains the accusations investigated by APS were legitimate and only a change of venue kept Jen from being investigated by law enforcement, a characterization Mistele in her report found no evidence of and Jen vehemently denies.

“It should be noted,” Mistele said, “that as to the allegation of financial exploitation, two separate prosecutors (Leelanau and Grand Traverse) have apparently reviewed the case and declined criminal charges based upon prior informal business dealings between mother and daughter.”

Mistele in her report also said she was “very disturbed” by photos posted on social media of Case, Hagerman, Bradford and Bower socializing and recommended Case be removed or allowed to resign as Marty’s guardian and conservator.

Lett flagged concerns about improper communications between Case, Matthias Johnson and Judge Nelson. Johnson on June 8, 2017 sent a private note to Nelson, copying Hagerman and Case, about Jen’s efforts to terminate the PPO. Communications outside of court with the judge that don’t include all parties are banned under the Judicial Code of Conduct.

Lett also lambasted Case’s relocation of Marty.

“Hiding the ward from family and friends is not among the powers of a Guardian,” Lett wrote in a court filing. “This woman believes she does not answer to anybody. That cannot be true.”

Case’s reputation with the court began to fall apart. She missed multiple filing deadlines and no-showed court hearings, not only in Marty’s case, but for seven other guardianships to which she’d been appointed.

Case was not criminally charged, though Judge Stanton took an unusual step and issued bench warrants for Case’s arrest. No arrest was made and Case’s accountings were later submitted and accepted by the court.

APS filed petitions to remove Case from all eight guardianship cases, which Stanton signed. Discipline came for Case at her COA job, when a subsequent COA director, Cindy Kienlen, ordered her suspension, as well as an apology to Judge Stanton.

Case refused, then filed retirement paperwork.

Case declined repeated requests for comment, stating she felt previous media accounts of Marty’s guardianship did not portray her fairly.

A note in her COA personnel file, from an interview Kienlen conducted with Case, provides some insight into Case’s actions.

“You stated that after taking over the first guardianship you quickly became overwhelmed by the amount of work required in the Guardianship and Conservatorship process,” Kienlen wrote, in a Sept. 18, 2018 letter to Case. “You denied receiving the mailings of bench warrants and subpoenas for your appearance at court. This is highly suspect that all mail and communication were not received by you, especially since Amanda (Probate Court Register Amanda Flowers) reported that none of the letters mailed to you were returned to the court.”

On Dec. 6, 2018, records show Jen filed a complaint with Michigan’s Attorney Grievance Commission against Johnson for his ex parte communications with the judge.

The Grievance Commission investigated, records show, though did not take further action. Johnson did not return a request for comment, though records show he responded to the complaint with an explanation and an apology.

Nearly everyone involved in the case sent ex parte communications to Judge Nelson, Johnson said, and this was his first-ever guardian ad litem assignment.

“I understand the seriousness of this offense and the repercussions that it could have had and that was not my intention,” Johnson’s Feb. 14, 2019 response states. “I would like to apologize to Ms. Rodgers for this error, to the Court for in any way placing them in a difficult situation, and to the commission for this action.”

Michelle Hagerman, the APS worker who triggered Marty’s guardianship and recommended Case, was “reassigned” to another state department more “suitable” for her, a court filing states.

Stanton appointed a different professional guardian to take over Marty’s case. Jen said this new guardian was expensive — she charged $70 an hour – but it was worth it.

Case, according to court documents, was providing her services at no cost.

Unanswered questions

Marty Rothaug died Oct. 14, 2020 and Jen says she believes stress from the guardianship proceedings hastened her death.

“It killed my mother,” Jen said, adding she agreed to share her story publicly, in hopes it might educate other families about guardianship and conservatorship and prevent them from experiencing similar grief.

Unanswered questions still keep her up at night, she said, even today more than five years later.

How did a key to Marty’s safety deposit box end up in the parking lot of Huntington Bank, where it was found by a staff member? Jen said her mother’s most valuable pieces of jewelry were later accounted for, though she’d like to know what happened to her father’s watches.

How could caregivers hired by Case burn through $125,000 of Marty’s life savings in only eight months? Who is supposed to vet those expenses?

And finally, how is it that Case, with her garnishments and COA disciplinary record, was appointed at all?

“They felt Jill Case was a better person to take care of her than her own daughter,” Rodgers said. “That’s the courts.”

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A guardianship gone wrong

 

See Also: 

Michigan’s guardianship system leaves vulnerable exposed

 

New book among first to examine how people with disabilities can take legal, decision-making lead in lives

LAWRENCE — For decades, increasing numbers of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have lived their adult lives under legal guardianships. A new book co-authored by University of Kansas and Syracuse University researchers is among the first to explore a fundamentally new way of empowering people with disabilities to retain legal agency while still receiving necessary assistance: supported decision-making.

“Supported Decision-Making: Theory, Research, and Practice to Enhance Self-Determination and Quality of Life” comprehensively examines supported decision-making and how it can be applied in policy and practice for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Published by Cambridge University Press, the text was authored by Karrie Shogren, professor and senior scientist and director of the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities; Michael Wehmeyer, Ross and Mariana Beach Distinguished Professor in Special Education and director of the Beach Center on Disability; and Jonathan Martinis and Peter Blanck of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, New York.

“Supported decision-making is receiving increased attention in the U.S. and internationally. Essentially, it’s all about providing alternative models to plenary guardianship that can enhance self-determination and quality of life,” Shogren said. “The wholesale removal of legal rights under traditional plenary guardianship modes can be problematic, and we need alternatives that fully engage people with disabilities in decisions about their lives.”

Research has shown that people with disabilities can be effectively supported to engage in decision-making about their education, employment, health care and legal matters. Further, this can lead to enhanced quality of life. The new book examines how individuals with disabilities and their families and support providers can use supported decision-making as a framework to enable people with disabilities to be fully engaged in the decision-making process and empower them to identify the people who will support them in that process.

The text summarizes research in supported decision-making and practical applications both within the United States and from other countries. The book highlights ongoing research to develop intervention and assessment strategies to enable support decision-making in practice.  The legal section gives an outline of the frameworks to establish supported decision-making as an alternative to legal guardianships. Examples of legislation in various jurisdictions, including Texas and Delaware, are highlighted.

“It’s exciting to see the concept of supported decision-making gain traction in the U.S.,” Shogren said. “By focusing on legal, policy, research and practice implications, we can build the systemic supports to make supported decision-making a reality, and we attempt to target all of these areas in this text.”

The book’s practical application section includes guidelines and suggestions for how supported decision-making can be implemented, in practice, by individuals, their families, support providers and communities, even in states or jurisdictions where there is not legal precedent. Specifically, the practical applications provide guidance and recommendations for how families, individuals, communities, schools and support providers can work together across the lifespan to plan for and implement supported decision-making models. Guidelines for establishing legal and financial tools as well as community supports are covered as well, with an emphasis on the importance of thinking about all aspects of life in which decisions are made.

“I think this can help families who are wondering about what this kind of arrangement would look like in practice and enable the creation of more tools and resources that can be used to build systems of supports for people with disabilities across the life course,” Shogren said. “Supported decision-making cuts across multiple areas and can help us think about how we work across sectors without limiting or artificially restricting an individual’s potential.”

“Supported Decision Making” is part of a Cambridge University Press series on disability law and policy edited by Peter Blanck, who is also an author on this text. The book aims to provide a new way of looking at disability while also providing a roadmap for states, families, attorneys, policymakers, caregivers and others.

“The predominant model of legal guardianship is rooted in an antiquated understanding of disability. Supported decision-making is rooted in new ways of understanding disability that recognize the interaction of the person and the environment and focus on identifying and building the right system of supports to enable a person to fully participate in their lives and communities without artificially restricting their rights,” Shogren said. “We all need supports. People with disabilities may need more supports in some areas of life, but we just need to be creative in devising these supports while ensuring the person has agency over the decisions in their lives.”

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. The university's mission is to lift students and society by educating leaders, building healthy communities and making discoveries that change the world. The KU News Service is the central public relations office for the Lawrence campus.

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New book among first to examine how people with disabilities can take legal, decision-making lead in lives