Suit: Ex-pros­e­cutor worked for judge in Texas woman's case

By Associated Press Texas

MIDLAND, Texas — A Texas woman found guilty of drug possession has sued over the decades-old conviction, claiming her case was one of more than 300 tainted by a prosecutor who was simultaneously doing legal work for the judges hearing those cases.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday by Erma Wilson is part of the continued fallout from Weldon Petty's years working for the Midland County District Attorney’s Office while also being paid as a law clerk for judges before whom he argued criminal cases.

Wilson was charged with drug possession in 2000 and maintained her innocence through a trial and unsuccessful appeal of her conviction. In the lawsuit, she alleges that Petty drafted important decisions for the judge overseeing her case while also advising his fellow prosecutors on it, violating her civil rights.

Wilson, who now lives in Austin with her family, said the felony conviction scuttled her dreams of becoming a nurse and made it more difficult to support her children. She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

Petty, who retired as a prosecutor in 2019, declined to comment, saying over the phone that he was not aware of the lawsuit. A lawyer for Midland County, which is 330 miles (351 kilometers) west of Dallas, said they have not been served with the suit and don't comment on pending litigation.

Petty’s dual roles were brought to light last year in reporting by USA Today, which showed that the cases in which he worked for both prosecutors and judges included that of death-row prisoner Clinton Young.

Texas' top criminal court threw out Young's murder conviction last year and the state's high civil court disbarred Petty.

Court records state that during an evidentiary hearing in Young’s appeal, Petty refused to testify about his paid work for the judge, citing a constitutional privilege against self-incrimination.

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Suit: Ex-pros­e­cutor worked for judge in Texas woman's case

Walt Disney’s Grandson Continues Fight for $200 Million Inheritance With New Help

Credit: Disney

As Walt Disney’s Grandson Bradford Lund continues in his fight for his $200 million inheritance, he’s received new help in the process: a letter to the California Supreme Court in support of his case from the leading probate court watch-dog group Spectrum Institute.

The non-profit organization, which focuses in part on probate court reform, filed an amicus letter asking the California Supreme Court to support Lund’s right to appeal order by probate Judge David Cowan — who he says violated his due process rights concerning his inheritance and wrongly appointed him a legal guardian to monitor and approve his legal decisions.

Credit: Credit: Disney/Whosay

For those who have not been following along with this story, Judge Cowan, the judge appointed to Lund’s case in probate court, claimed Lund had Down Syndrome from the bench, even after being presented with DNA evidence proving the opposite. The judge also ruled Lund to be “unfit” to receive his $200 million inheritance from Walt Disney and appointed him a temporary guardian to make all of his legal decisions, all without a hearing.

“Replacing a litigant with a GAL (guardian ad litem or legal guardian) infringes on the constitutional right of a litigant to manage his own litigation,” Spectrum wrote in its amicus brief supporting Lund’s petition for review by the California Supreme Court. “The appointment of a guardian ad litem deprives the litigant of the right to control the litigation and subjects him to possible stigmatization.”

Lanny J. Davis, a co-counsel in the federal civil rights and anti-disabilities discrimination case filed against Judge David Cowan three weeks ago in LA federal district court, welcomed the Spectrum Institute’s filing, saying: “All Mr. Lund is asking for is a chance to have his day in court to challenge the probate court’s final decision to appoint a GAL (guardian ad litem), depriving him of his right to his own counsel and due process…It’s hard to see Judge Cowan’s decision to appoint and instruct the GAL as anything other than a final, effective decision and, thus, subject to appeal.”

LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 12: Bradford Lund (R), Bob Wilson (C), AFP PHOTO John T. BARR/mn (JOHN T. BARR/AFP via Getty Images)

Via email, Davis told Inside The Magic exclusively: “It is time that the sunshine of transparency and accountability be applied to the probate process. Decisions by a probate judge must be accountable–no one is above the law, no one is above the constitution, and there is no such thing as alternative facts. The truth matters. We ask the California Supreme Court only for Brad Lund, finally, to get his day in court subject to due process standards in Judge Cowan’s courtroom.”

As we previously reported, Lund has been fighting for many years to get his Disney inheritance, including undergoing a 10-day trial in 2016 brought on by “disgruntled relatives” who had claimed Lund needed a limited guardianship.

During the comprehensive trial, Lund was examined by two court-appointed physicians, one court-appointed expert, and by Superior Court Judge Robert Oberbillig in open court–who rejected the family’s claims that Lund needed guardianship and ruled that Lund was “not incapacitated.”

However, Judge Cowan looked beyond this court ruling and DNA evidence, proving Lund does not have Down Syndrome, and instead stated from the bench: “Do I want to give 200 million dollars, effectively, to someone who may suffer, on some level, from Down syndrome? The answer is no.”

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Walt Disney’s Grandson Continues Fight for $200 Million Inheritance With New Help

Walt Disney’s Grandson Sues Judge Claiming He Has Down Syndrome Without Evidence, Blocking $200 Million Inheritance

Credit: Disney/Whosay

by Sean Sposato

In a national telephonic press conference today by attorney Lanny Davis, a legal representative for Walt Disney’s grandson Bradford D. Lund, the announcement was made of another count added to their previously filed U.S. Civil Rights Act complaint against Superior Court Judge David J. Cowan and the entire Los Angeles County Superior Court.

For those who have not been following along with this story, Judge Cowan recently claimed Lund had Down Syndrome from the bench, even after being presented with DNA evidence proving the opposite. The judge also ruled Lund to be “unfit” to receive his $200 million inheritance from Walt Disney and appointed him a temporary guardian to make all of his legal decisions, all without a hearing, and now Davis and his team of lawyers are trying to fight back against the rogue rulings of the legal authority.

LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 12: Bradford Lund (R), Bob Wilson (C), AFP PHOTO John T. BARR/mn (JOHN T. BARR/AFP via Getty Images)

In the complaint, attorney Lanny Davis alleges that the probate court’s action is “all too reminiscent of a perspective where facts do not matter but alternative facts do, where the constitution does not matter…”

The alternative facts Davis is referencing come from a 2016 court decision by Superior Court Judge Robert Oberbillig, from a 10-day trial brought on by “disgruntled relatives” against Lund. The trial came after 7 years of litigation concerning whether Lund needed a limited guardianship–during which, Lund was examined by two court-appointed physicians, one court-appointed expert, and by the judge himself in open court.

From the investigation, Judge Oberbillig rejected the family’s claims that Lund needed guardianship and ruled that Lund was “not incapacitated.” However, Judge Cowan looked beyond this court ruling and DNA evidence, proving Lund does not have Down Syndrome, and instead stated from the bench: “Do I want to give 200 million dollars, effectively, to someone who may suffer, on some level, from Down syndrome? The answer is no.”

Source: NBC News

From this statement, Lund’s legal team announced the new Count 6, which alleges that Judge Cowan and the LA Court violated an anti-discrimination law when Judge Cowan made this “indisputably false” statement and “perception.” They claim this resulted in discrimination against Lund and his loss of freedom regarding the right to counsel and property rights without due process of law.
Additionally, the complaint also alleges Judge Cowan and the Los Angeles Superior Court violated the rights of Brad Lund by violating the US Civil Rights Act, due process rights, and anti-discrimination law.

During today’s press conference call, the legal team would not discuss specifically what damages they are seeking in the case. However, Sandra Slaton, the lead counsel of Lund’s legal team, revealed this is not so much about the damages but the fact that constitutional rights of many citizens, just like Lund’s, are violated quite often in probate court. Ultimately, at this time, their team hopes to challenge the power of not only Cowan but all judges in probate court. All of which, who are given tremendous discretion in the handling of inheritance and will and testament in the court system.

For those wondering, the fight isn’t completely over for Lund’s $200 million inheritance. However, more legal battles are ahead for the grandson of Walt Disney, who should have received his portion of his mother’s trust fund when he was 35, which was 15 years ago. Lund is now 50-years-old.

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Walt Disney’s Grandson Sues Judge Claiming He Has Down Syndrome Without Evidence, Blocking $200 Million Inheritance

Walt Disney’s grandson locked in legal battle for personal freedom, millions in inheritance – Crime News

By Rosemarie Block

Leisure visionary Walt Disney couldn’t have imagined the wrestle that grandson Bradford Lund has endured attempting to assert his share of the household fortune.

For 15 years, Lund, 50, has battled estranged relations, trustees and probate court docket officers, attempting to point out he’s mentally match to handle an inheritance value a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars}. He’s needed to show again and again that he doesn’t have Down syndrome, that he can deal with such a large infusion of funds.

Now he’s preventing not only for cash, however for his freedom, after a Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom choose appointed a guardian to briefly make all his authorized choices.

“Do I wish to give 200 million {dollars}, successfully, to somebody who could undergo, on some degree, from Down syndrome? The reply is not any,” Decide David Cowan mentioned from the bench, refusing later to retract the assertion even after he was given DNA proof that Lund doesn’t have Down syndrome.

Disney’s grandson has discovered himself trapped in a probate system prone to predatory guardians, trustees, fiduciaries and others who command massive salaries for his or her illustration — all paid by the shopper.

The court docket probate system is, amongst different issues, supposed to guard the aged and disabled from being victimized by relations and others. However it’s a system that incentivizes abuse. The longer the shopper is deemed incapable of managing his or her personal affairs, the longer the guardian, attorneys and others receives a commission. And the shopper will get no say over the place they reside, who they see and the way their cash is spent.

Grandson sues choose

Lund, nevertheless, is preventing again.

In a uncommon transfer, his legal professionals — Sandra Slaton of Scottsdale, Arizona,  former White Home counsel Lanny Davis and Joseph Busch III of Newport Seaside — have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing Cowan of appointing the guardian with out due course of.

Suing a choose is nearly by no means performed. However Davis, a former member of the federal Privateness and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, mentioned his workforce had no selection.

“This criticism alleges that Cowan rendered a judgment from the bench that adversely impacts a person in such a considerable approach, depriving him of life and liberty with no truthful trial,” Davis mentioned.

Within the 31-page lawsuit, Lund’s legal professionals wrote: “The choice by Decide Cowan to nominate a (guardian advert litem) … with no listening to … and totally ignoring constitutional necessities of due strategy of regulation is all too paying homage to a perspective the place details don’t matter however various details do.”

U.S. cartoonist Walt Disney and household out strolling within the June sunshine, his daughter Sharon is at far left, his daughter Diane at left, and his spouse Lillian at proper, England, June. 24, 1949. (AP Photograph)

Household historical past

How Lund obtained here’s a story with extra twists and turns than a Matterhorn bobsled.

Considered one of Lund’s essential opponents is his twin sister, Michelle Lund. Brad and Michelle have been born in 1970 to Disney’s daughter, Sharon Disney Lund. The twins attended special-needs colleges as kids reportedly for studying impairments.

When Lund was 19, his mom created a belief fund — now valued at $400 million — for him, Michelle and their sister, Victoria. Sharon Lund appointed 4 trustees: Diane Disney Miller, her sister; Invoice Lund, father to the three kids; Ron Gother, Sharon’s belief lawyer; and First Interstate Financial institution, the company trustee.

The grandchildren have been to obtain a part of their shares at ages 35, 40 and 45, with the rest stored within the belief and given to them as gradual earnings.

As years handed, Lund’s mom died, as did his sister Victoria. And among the trustees resigned, whereas others with no household connections took their locations.

When Brad Lund turned 35, the trustees voted in opposition to paying him a portion of his inheritance, saying they didn’t imagine he was financially and mentally competent.

4 years later, Michelle Lund suffered a mind aneurysm following an alleged drug overdose, however she obtained her share of the cash as scheduled.

Courtroom order sought

Additionally in 2009, Michelle Lund and her two half-sisters sought an order in Arizona court docket that will place Brad Lund underneath a guardian to make his authorized choices due to “persistent deficits and psychological problems.”

Thus started a seven-year case in Arizona, which led to a 10-day non-jury trial earlier than Decide Robert H. Oberbillig. Oberbillig declared Lund mentally able to dealing with his personal affairs.

As a part of the Arizona case, two docs and a neuropsychologist examined Lund and decided he already was getting sufficient assist to handle his life and assets. After a prolonged examination on the witness stand, Oberbillig dominated in 2016 that Lund proved he isn’t incapacitated and didn’t want a guardian.

His trustees already had denied Lund’s subsequent scheduled inheritance fee at age 40. Their membership had modified once more, with First Republic Belief Co. taking up as the company trustee.

Authorized struggle strikes

Whereas the Arizona case was nonetheless underway, Lund filed for a court docket petition in Los Angeles County to take away his trustees for numerous violations. It’s via that case that Decide Cowan in the end entered the image.

The choose was offered with a settlement settlement between Lund and his trustees, through which he would pay them $14.5 million in alternate for his or her removing and alternative. Cowan authorized the cash alternate however wouldn’t permit Lund to interchange the trustees, Davis mentioned. Cowan then appointed the short-term guardian advert litem.

“When a choose comes to a decision, even a short lived one, all we allege is the elemental proper to due course of,” Davis mentioned.

Cowan’s lawyer, Matthew Inexperienced, declined remark.

Lund’s workforce turned to the federal court docket as a result of state appellate justices wouldn’t rule on a short lived appointment.

Davis is not any stranger to such controversy.

He served as particular counsel to then-President Invoice Clinton within the late 1990s and represented President Donald Trump’s former private lawyer, Michael Cohen. Cohen pleaded responsible to tax fraud, violating marketing campaign finance legal guidelines and different federal crimes in 2018.

However authorized specialists say Davis is dealing with a excessive mountain in focusing on Cowan and alleging that state regulation permitting the choose’s actions is unconstitutional.

“Judges usually have immunity on choices they make, even when they’re lifeless fallacious,” mentioned Mario Mainero, a professor on the Dale E. Fowler College of Legislation at Chapman College in Orange. “You don’t get to sue judges.”

One exception, Mainero mentioned, is for civil rights violations through which somebody is looking for reduction and never damages in opposition to the choose, as is Lund.

But it surely’s nonetheless no stroll within the household park.

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Walt Disney’s grandson locked in legal battle for personal freedom, millions in inheritance – Crime News

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Walt Disney’s Grandson Sues Judge in Battle Over $200 Million Inheritance

Walt Disney’s Grandson Sues Judge in Battle Over $200 Million Inheritance

Walt Disney’s grandson, Bradford Lund, filed a civil rights lawsuit Thursday against a judge who Lund says violated his constitutional rights as part of a long-running legal battle over a $200 million inheritance.

According to the lawsuit, Lund’s estranged family members “alleged that he was incapacitated and needed a guardianship and conservatorship” as their way of keeping him from receiving his half of the $400 million left to him and his sister. After a seven-year legal battle in Arizona led to a 10-day day trial, Lund says he was victorious “in all respects and was found to have capacity, resulting in a dismissal of that case.”

Lund’s estranged family appealed but an appellate court affirmed the decision. Walt Disney’s grandson and his estranged family appeared to be close to a settlement last year but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Cowan did not approve the settlement agreement and instead, on Sept. 27, 2019, appointed a guardian over Lund.

This order was not appealable under California law.

“The decision by Judge Cowan to appoint a (guardian) without a hearing,” the new lawsuit states, “and utterly ignoring constitutional requirements of due process of law is all too reminiscent of a perspective where facts do not matter but alternative facts do, where the constitution does not matter and where the rule of law is set aside and replaced by the rule of subjective, fact-free decision-making.”

Lund believes his incompetence needs to be proven, not the other way around, and argues, “Judge Cowan reversed the burden of proof and required Mr. Lund to prove that he was not incompetent.”

The federal lawsuit is seeking a declaratory judgment saying Judge Cowan violated Lund’s constitutional rights.

A clerk for Judge Cowan said “no comment” when contacted by TheWrap.

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Walt Disney’s Grandson Sues Judge in Battle Over $200 Million Inheritance

California Public Health Agency Can’t Duck Federal Lawsuit

by Maria Dinzeo

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that California’s byzantine public health bureaucracy must face a lawsuit by elderly Medi-Cal patients claiming it fails to enforce laws prohibiting nursing homes from dumping them into hospitals to free up space for more profitable residents.

Bruce Anderson languished for over a year in Sutter General Hospital after he was sent there by Norwood Pines Care Center. Anderson’s traumatic brain injury and resulting behavioral issues put him at greater risk for falls. Anthony Chicotel, an attorney with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, said Norwood Pines saw an opportunity to unload him.

“Bruce literally just sat in bed. He never went outside. He was drugged and it was a really sad situation,” Chicotel said in a phone interview Wednesday evening.

Though Anderson appealed his involuntary hospital transfer under the Nursing Home Reform Act and won, the state refuses to enforce its own readmission orders, creating a system that incentivizes nursing homes to break the law and ignore hearing decisions without consequences.

Anderson was finally sent to a nursing home, but only after Chicotel asked a friend who works in nursing home administration to accept him.

Anderson was one of three men who sued the California Health Department in 2015 alongside California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam ruled that Anderson and his co-plaintiffs had alleged a concrete injury and could proceed with their lawsuit, which has been stuck in legal limbo while the Ninth Circuit sorted out whether they had the right to sue.

Last year, the appellate court sent the case back to Gilliam, who dismissed it in 2016, overturning his decision that the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act does not give individuals the right to sue states for failing to enforce the law.

Attorney Matthew Borden of Braun Hagey & Borden, who represents the three patients and CANHR, said Wednesday that Gilliam’s order recognized the “Kafkaesque nightmare” his clients have been through.

“I have clients who are actually worse off having gone and availed themselves of the process they have the right under federal law to use to get readmitted after they’ve been unjustly kicked out,” Borden said. “That piece of paper is worth nothing because of the way the state has orchestrated itself. I think the ruling today is good because it vindicates our legal theory that the processes that the state has are just simply not effective. They’re tantamount to nothing.”

Essentially, the California California Department of Health Care Services says that once it issues an order for nursing home readmission, it no longer has jurisdiction and “has no authority to enforce its own orders.”

For Borden and his clients, the red tape is maddening.

“This is an easy problem to solve. All you have to do is commit to enforcing the orders. It’s just that they don’t want to enforce these orders,” Borden said, listing a half-dozen ways the state could intervene; by cutting of Midi-Cal funding or imposing fines that eliminate the financial incentive for nursing facilities to dump their neediest patients.

Chicotel said he believes that most of the time, nursing homes initiate hospital transfers for legitimate medical reasons, though he has seen some cases of transfers made for phony reasons.

“But once they’re in the hospital, they see their opportunity to permanently get rid of them,” he said.

Chicotel said he would hope that even if Gilliam dismissed the case again, that health and human services secretary Mark Gahly would want to resolve the issue.

“I would think the people who run these state agencies, Dr. Gahly in particular, would see this is a terrible outcome for nursing home residents and want to do something regardless,” Chicotel said.

While he is happy about Gilliam’s ruling, he knows the case faces a tough slog through the court system.

“We went to state multiple times and tried to work with them to find solutions and were basically told to get lost,” Chicotel said. “We’ve wasted four plus years on this litigation when the solutions are pretty simple. I’m hoping the state doesn’t want to wait that long. I’m hopeful the new leadership will be more amenable.”

Borden said plaintiff John Wilson, who had ALS, died while the case was on appeal. Plaintiff Robert Austin has accepted a temporary transfer to a nursing home, but it is located 400 miles away from his sister.

“He would very much like to return back to the Sacramento area to the facility near his sister,” Borden said. “There are a whole litany of people who could step in as additional plaintiffs because it’s a recurring story. It’s happening over and over again. Which is why we’re trying to get the state to do something or take the case to trial and get a judgment against them where there’s an injunction.”

California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform is exploring the option of legislation in 2020 that could force the state into compliance sooner.

A California’s Health and Human Services Agency spokesperson said in an email the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

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California Public Health Agency Can’t Duck Federal Lawsuit

Ban on required arbitration by nursing homes delayed

A rule prohibiting nursing homes from requiring a signed arbitration agreement as a condition for being admitted as a resident is being delayed pending a federal lawsuit in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE (AP) — A rule prohibiting nursing homes from requiring a signed arbitration agreement as a condition for being admitted as a resident is being delayed pending a federal lawsuit in Fayetteville.

Court documents filed Friday by the U.S. Justice Department and Springdale nursing homes The Maples at Har-Ber Meadows and Springdale Health and Rehabilitation Center say implementation of the rule will be postponed from Monday until Dec. 31 so the lawsuit by the two nursing homes can proceed.

The filing first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says a request by the nursing homes for a temporary injunction to block the rule is no longer necessary.

The lawsuit filed in September seeking to overturn the rule says it violates the Federal Arbitration Act and that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services exceeded their authority in adopting the measure.

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Ban on required arbitration by nursing homes delayed