A
judge has revoked any “do not resuscitate” orders in nearly 100 cases
involving an Orlando guardian accused of filing them on the behalf of
incapacitated clients without permission.
State investigators havedetermined at least one person died
in a Tampa hospital after staff could not perform life-saving
procedures because of a “do not resuscitate” order filed by his
guardian, Rebecca Fierle, against his wishes.
Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe sought the removal
of Fierle from 98 cases after finding that she “abused her powers” by
requesting that clients not receive medical treatment if their heart or
breathing stopped — without permission from their families or the court.
Guardians are court-appointed decision-makers for minors and adults
with mental and physical disabilities, known as wards.
At
a hearing last Thursday, Fierle resigned from all her cases in Orange
and Osceola counties, court records show. Thorpe has since ordered all
advanced directives signed by Fierle for her wards, including DNR
orders, revoked.
“Any future Do Not Resuscitate Orders or Advance Directives must be approved by the Court,” Thorpe said in her order.
The
investigation released by Florida’s Office of Public and Professional
Guardians concluded Fierle refused to remove a DNR order she had filed
on 75-year-old Steven Stryker of Cocoa, despite Stryker’s desire for life-saving actions and concerns from his daughter, a 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,” Andrew Thurman, an investigator with the Okaloosa County
Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller, wrote in the report.
Medical
records confirmed St. Joseph’s Hospital staff did not perform
“life-saving procedures” on Stryker because of his guardian’s order,
Thurmansaid. A spokeswoman for the hospital could not immediately comment on Stryker’s case because of patient privacy concerns.
Thorpe
also denied a motion to disqualify herself from the cases. Fierle’s
attorneys had requested the judge step aside, claiming the guardian “has
a well-founded fear that she will not receive a fair trial or hearing.”
“Fierle
has no knowledge or notice of what witnesses or evidence the Court has
relied upon to make its findings, or if the evidence relied upon was
under oath, or what witnesses and evidence will be brought forward at
the hearing,” the motion for Thorpe’s disqualification said.
Neither Fierle nor her attorney have responded to multiple requests for comment.
“I have been working in the elderly and disabled industry in the Central
Florida area for over 20 years,” Rebecca Fierle wrote on the website
for her practice, which was taken down Thursday. “My experience helps my
clients and their families tremendously.”
By Monivette Cordeiro
A
judge is seeking the removal of a guardian from close to 100 cases
after finding she “abused her powers” by requesting that incapacitated
clients not receive medical treatment if their heart or breathing
stopped — without permission from their families.
In
an unusual move, Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe filed a “notice for
removal” against Rebecca Fierle in 98 cases at once last week, after
determining Fierle had filed numerous “do not resuscitate” orders on
behalf of her wards without permission from their families or the court,
records show.
Florida
law allows a guardian to be appointed by a judge for minors and adults
with mental or physical disabilities, who are known as wards. The
guardian, who is usually a lawyer, makes all the determinations for the
ward, including legal, financial, estate, housing and medical decisions.
Thorpe
held a hearing on Fierle’s removal Thursday afternoon, attended by
attorneys representing many of her wards, but news outlets were not
allowed inside and the outcome was not immediately clear.
In
early July, a guardianship court monitor was appointed to the case to
investigate “abuse neglect, threatened harm and exploitation,” according
to court records. The findings of the investigation were not made
public Thursday.
Thorpe
also wants Fierle removed for allegedly compensating herself as a
Medicaid caseworker for her wards, which included receiving payments
from hospitals and other facilities without disclosing those payments to
the judge, court records said.
Fierle
also “failed to disclose related interests and employees” and violated
practice standards for professional guardians, including considering the
ward’s preferences when making medical treatment and end-of-life
decisions, Thorpe said.
“The
Court finds that Ms. Fierle has abused her powers, developed conflict
of interest with the Ward, and become a disqualified person, thereby
establishing grounds for removal as guardian of the person and/or
property of the ward,” Thorpe wrote in the removal notice.
Attorneys
for Fierle filed a motion Wednesday to disqualify Thorpe from the cases
because the guardian “has a well-founded fear that she will not receive
a fair trial or hearing.”
“Fierle
has no knowledge or notice of what witnesses or evidence the Court has
relied upon to make its findings, or if the evidence relied upon was
under oath, or what witnesses and evidence will be brought forward at
the hearing,” the motion said.
Fierle and her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On
the website for her practice, Fierle said she was a “professional
guardian,” as well as a “certified geriatric care manager for over 10
years.” The site was taken down Thursday.
“I
have been working in the elderly and disabled industry in the Central
Florida area for over 20 years,” Fierle wrote on the website. “My
experience helps my clients and their families tremendously.”
A
Delaware County woman accused of financially exploiting elderly people
for whom she served as a court-appointed guardian failed to come to a
Philadelphia City Hall courtroom on Tuesday for a hearing on how she
spent a Northeast Philadelphia woman's funds. Her attorney also didn't
appear.
Gloria
Byars, 57, of Aldan, had been removed as guardian of about 100 elderly
clients in the region after past convictions for fraud, passing bad
checks, and forgery came to light.
Orphans' Court Judge John Herron said at the hearing Tuesday that Byars must repay about $35,000 to the estate of Estelle Segal.
The
judge was angry that Byars did not come to the proceeding, and said he
was "frankly shocked" at the absence of her lawyer, Sharon Alexander. "I
don't understand a practicing lawyer intentionally failing to appear at
a hearing and failing to ask for a continuance," he said.
Herron held the hearing with lawyer James Tyler, who was appointed as Segal's executor after her February death.
Byars' record was chronicled in a March 30 Inquirer and Daily News article highlighting
a lack of state requirements, including background checks, for
guardians who manage the affairs of people deemed incapacitated. The
article featured the case of a Fox Chase couple, Edmund and Margareta
Berg, for whom Byars also had been appointed guardian.
Herron
in May had ordered Byars to pay $63,079 to the Bergs, including $34,112
for improper expenditures. Byars has not paid any of that money.
Despite that order, Byars spent tens of thousands of dollars on a July
14 wedding reception at the Manor House at Prophecy Creek Park in Ambler.
Byars
already was married to Leon DeShields, 57, and had asked guests to
a "vow renewal," according to the invitation. Copies of the Manor House
bills obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News show the planned reception
for 163 adults and 34 children cost about $35,000 for meals, hors
d'oeuvres, a shrimp-and-clam station, a dessert station, a patio tent,
and facility charges.
Heidi Austin, a niece of the Bergs', said she was "disgusted" to learn about the reception.
"It
has been a challenging year and a half, and still the woman is free to
spend all the money she stole from the elderly," Austin wrote in an
email. "My uncle just turned 90, and I would at least like to tell him
that there is justice in this world before he leaves it."
Austin
discovered Byars' fraudulent past and through an attorney brought it to
Herron's attention. As a result, Philadelphia now requires that a state
criminal history report be submitted for proposed guardians.
The new requirements mirrored recommendations proposed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's Orphans' Court Procedural Rules Committee. In June, the justices approved new statewide rules requiring background checks; they take effect next June.
At
Tuesday's hearing, Tyler said that Byars' lawyer had emailed him Aug.
16 and said she was aware of the hearing date but was going to be out of
the country.
In his review, Tyler said he found that Byars had not accounted for $35,405 that she had spent of Segal's funds.
"Essentially," the judge said in court, it appears that Byars "converted [the $35,405] to her own uses and purposes."
Byars
has not been criminally charged in any guardianship cases. Herron
earlier this year referred the Segal and Berg matters to the District
Attorney's Offices in Philadelphia and Delaware County. The office of
State Sen. Art Haywood (D., Montgomery-Phila.) referred another case to
the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.
Gloria Byars
(center) walks inside Philadelphia City Hall before entering Orphans
Court Judge John Herron’s courtroom Monday, May 14, 2018. At right is
her attorney, Sharon Alexander; at left is an assistant.
A Delaware County woman removed as court-appointed guardian for about
100 elderly clients in the region was berated by a Philadelphia judge
Monday for repeatedly failing to follow his orders, being nine months
late in filing a report he requested, and failing to show up at two
hearings last month.
“She has failed over and over
and over again to comply with the orders of this court,” Orphans’ Court
Judge John Herron said of Gloria Byars, 57, of Aldan, who has been
accused by family members of financially exploiting their elderly
relatives. She arrived at the afternoon hearing a few minutes late,
walking with a cane.
Byars, who has a criminal background of fraud, bad checks, and forgery, was the subject of a March 30 Inquirer and Daily News article highlighting
the lack of state requirements, including background checks, for
guardians who manage the affairs of people deemed incapacitated.
After
her convictions became known to Herron last year and the judge learned
that she was doling out work to her husband’s company without disclosing
it, the judge removed her from the 34 cases to which he had appointed
her, and ordered her to provide reports of how she had spent her
clients’ assets.
Earlier this year, the
other two Orphans’ Court judges removed Byars from their remaining
cases, as did judges in Montgomery and Delaware Counties. In all, she
was removed from about 100 guardianship cases.
Monday’s hearing dealt with
the estate of a former Northeast Philadelphia woman, Estelle Segal, who
died in February in a Bucks County nursing home at age 83. Byars, who
operated Global Guardian Services in Lansdowne, had failed to file a
report of how she had spent Segal’s assets as ordered Aug. 10 by Herron
and had not appeared at an April 2 hearing to explain herself.
Herron, in an April 4 decree, wrote that $127,607 was unaccounted for
in Segal’s estate. He sentenced Byars to five months in jail for
contempt of court, but suspended the sentence pending Monday’s hearing.
On
Monday, Byars and her attorney, Sharon Alexander, told the judge they
would immediately file a final account of Byars’ expenditures. They said
Byars had missed the April 2 hearing and another on April 24 because of
illness.
Herron’s threat of jail time remains pending the outcome of a June 6 hearing to review Byars’ expenditures in Segal’s estate.
After Monday’s hearing, Byars and Alexander declined to comment.
The April 24 hearing was to explain disputed expenditures in the estates of a former Fox Chase couple, Edmund and Margareta Berg.
The judge Thursday issued a decree ordering Byars to pay $63,079 — in
part to reimburse the Bergs for $34,113 in improper expenditures and
$4,487 in guardianship fees she paid to herself, and to pay $24,479 in
legal fees and costs incurred by Margareta Berg’s brother, Josef
Wituschek.
In
a harshly worded opinion Thursday, Herron wrote that Byars’ “misconduct
ranged from mismanagement of the estates of her wards in the best of
cases, to misappropriation of their assets in the worst.”
Herron
also lambasted the Philadelphia Corp. for Aging, which had recommended
Byars for most of her city guardianships, writing that “the court is
deeply disappointed in PCA and disturbed by its lack of due diligence in
examining the history and fitness of [Byars] to serve as guardian
before nominating her.”
Added
Herron: “PCA’s utter failure to conduct even the most elementary
assessment of [Byars’] fitness to serve resulted in her appointment to
nearly all of her 91 former cases in Philadelphia.”
He
added that although Byars “is only one bad apple, that one bad apple
has imposed an astronomical administrative burden” on the court’s small
legal staff, which has “had to go to extraordinary lengths to remediate
her misconduct and find suitable successor guardians for each ward.”
The agency’s lack of vetting of Byars “has shaken the public’s faith in the guardianship system,” Herron wrote.
Byars
has not been criminally charged in any guardianship cases. Herron wrote
in his decree Thursday that the matters of the Bergs and Segal “have
both been referred to the district attorneys of Philadelphia and
Delaware Counties for appropriate review.”
Unlike 18 other states,
Pennsylvania does not require professional guardians to undergo
criminal background checks, although the revelations of Byars’
fraudulent past have spurred some changes.
In
Philadelphia, guardians now must affirm that they have not been
convicted of any crime involving fraud, deceit, or financial misconduct.
Also, an individual or agency, such as PCA, now must submit a
Pennsylvania State Police criminal history report for a proposed
guardian. And if the guardian resided within the last five years in one
or more other states, a criminal history report from each of those
states is required.
The petitioner
also must submit a statement of the guardian’s certifications, caseload,
and counties where the guardian has served. The new city requirements
are similar to proposed changes recommended in December by the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Orphans’ Court Procedural Rules Committee to the Supreme Court justices, who would decide whether to adopt them statewide.
Changes also are
being proposed in the legislature. State Rep. Mark Gillen (R., Berks) on
April 9 introduced a bill requiring criminal background checks for
prospective guardians and prohibiting felons from serving. State Sens.
Art Haywood (D., Montgomery-Phila.) and Judith Schwank (D.,
Berks) are working on a Senate amendment to another bill to require
background checks and certification for guardians.
“The court
sincerely hopes that the discovery of [Byars’] malfeasance will serve as
a clarion call to make the larger changes necessary to protect
incapacitated Pennsylvanians,” Herron wrote in Thursday’s opinion.
Abbey Porter, a
PCA spokeswoman, said in a statement Monday: “PCA acknowledges the
court’s new procedure concerning its appointment of guardians … [and]
endorses the position that criminal history is only one of the criteria
that may be relevant to the screening of potential guardians, and looks
forward to its role in the development of these standards.”
MARK C. PSORAS / For The InquirerHeidi
Austin, with her father, Josef Wituschek, displays a photo of guardian
Gloria Byars from Byars’ Facebook page during an interview last year in
Wituschek’s home in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia.
Relatives of Edmund and Margareta Berg were shocked to learn, a
little more than a year ago, that the court-appointed guardian handling
the Fox Chase couple’s finances had a record of fraud, bad checks, and
forgery.
Around that time, Marie Frisby
began questioning the guardian appointed to help her husband, Hank. They
contend that his bills weren’t being paid and, as a result, they had to
sell their home in Wyncote, Montgomery County.
Meanwhile, Nu Vuong, a
naturalized U.S. citizen who doesn’t speak English, had been moved by
her guardian from her Kensington home to a Delaware County nursing
facility where no one spoke her language.
In each case, the guardian was the same woman, Gloria Byars of Aldan, Delaware County.
Questions about Byars’
financial management led judges to remove Byars last year as guardian of
the Bergs and Hank Frisby. She has since been removed from about 100
cases in Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Delaware Counties.
The experiences of the Bergs, Frisby, and Vuong demonstrate how
well-meaning relatives can be swept away by a guardian who may not be
acting in a person’s best interests. And Byars’ criminal record
underscores what some advocates say is a broader issue: a lack of
oversight in a beleaguered system responsible for caring for thousands
of often elderly Pennsylvanians.
“We
do have a crisis with professional guardians,” Philadelphia Orphans’
Court Administrative Judge Matthew Carrafiello said at a February
hearing at which he ordered Byars removed from all her remaining
guardianships. “We just don’t have enough.”
Nationwide,
guardians oversee an estimated 1.3 million adults and $50 billion of
their assets, said Brenda Uekert, principal court research consultant at
the National Center for State Courts. And as the population ages, the
demand for them is likely to grow.
In
Philadelphia, about 6,800 adults are under guardianship care, many of
whom are overseen by family members. Five lawyers also regularly serve
as guardians, and others on an occasional basis, as well as about 17
non-attorney professional guardians, like Byars.
Any interested person or agency may petition a court to
appoint a guardian. A judge then holds a hearing to determine if the
person is “incapacitated” — unable to manage his or her own personal or
financial affairs. Once appointed, a guardian is paid through that
person’s assets or income. Their fees vary: Some could charge $100 an
hour, observers say, but they also could make much less overseeing a
poor client’s finances.
Guardians
must file with the court regular reports of the assets, income, and
expenditures they manage. But otherwise, they are generally left alone.
The
only legal requirement to become a guardian in Pennsylvania is the
ability to read and write in English. And that in turn opened the door
to applicants like Byars.
Philadelphia
judges appointed her to 93 cases from 2015 until last summer, in most
cases based on a recommendation by the Philadelphia Corporation for
Aging. The nonprofit, which provides home care to more than 21,000 and
helps thousands more through its tip line, is supposed to act as a
watchdog for the city’s most vulnerable citizens.
But
an attorney for the agency told a judge at a hearing last year that PCA
did not know about Byars’ convictions for fraud and bad checks — a past
that a simple Google search would have uncovered.
Abbey
Porter, an agency spokeswoman, declined to discuss why PCA had
recommended Byars and whether the agency had conducted a background
check. She wrote by email that PCA is “aware of the complexities and
challenges of the guardianship system, including the ‘vetting’ of
guardians.”
Byars,
57, has not been charged for her role in any guardianship cases. She
repeatedly has declined to speak to the Inquirer and Daily News, when
approached in person or through phone calls and letters left at her
office and home. Lawyers representing her also have declined to comment.
Diane
Menio, executive director of the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and
Interests of the Elderly (CARIE), in Philadelphia, said Byars’ record
shows agencies and courts need more due diligence in choosing guardians.
“Someone
convicted of financial crimes is certainly not someone who you want
managing an incapacitated person’s finances,” said Menio. “This whole
thing is based on trust.”
‘Unbelievable’
Court
records show that in 2005, Byars was charged in Virginia
with defrauding several people by using their discarded credit-card
convenience checks, fished out from post-office trash cans. She pleaded
guilty that October and was later sentenced to 37 months in federal
prison and ordered to pay $29,503 in restitution.
After
completing her term in December 2007, which included stints in a
halfway house and on home confinement, Byars, who had once lived in
Camden, moved to Delaware County. Her supervised release, which ended in
December 2010, barred her from working in a job that required her to
handle money or have access to financial accounts.
At some point, she began working for Robert Stump, a guardian and owner of RES Consulting in Havertown. According to one LinkedIn account, she worked there from 2008 to 2016. Stump did not return calls seeking comment.
The
same LinkedIn account says Byars received an associate of arts degree
in business administration from Kaplan University in 1981. A spokeswoman
for Kaplan, headquartered in Chicago, said the university, which offers
online courses, has no record of Byars’ taking classes.
In 2016, Byars branched out on her own, opening Global Guardian Services in Lansdowne, Delaware County.
That
Dec. 6, Byars was appointed guardian for the Bergs, upon PCA’s
recommendation. The couple, both in their 80s, didn’t want to leave
their house on Borbeck Avenue, which they bought in 1961, relatives
said.
But
in late December, Margareta Berg was discharged from a hospital and —
without the knowledge of her brother, Josef Wituschek — moved to a
Montgomery County rehab facility. A panicked Wituschek and his daughter,
Heidi Austin, then tried to call Byars, only to learn that she was in
Spain, they said.
That
January, Byars moved the Bergs into a Montgomery County nursing home,
then in February 2017 had their Fox Chase house cleaned out to sell it.
An
accounting filed by Byars last year said she collected $4,487.50 in
guardianship fees from the Bergs from January to July, a sum that
consisted of monthly fees of $100 or $200, plus $2,000 for her to
oversee the two-day cleanout of their house. (It’s unclear how much she
made from all of her guardian cases, but court records show that she
finally paid off her restitution in the federal fraud case by February
2017.)
After Byars sought court approval to sell the house, Wituschek hired a
lawyer. Attorney Daniel McElhatton learned that the company Byars had
hired to clean the house, DEPCO LLC, was owned by Byars’ husband, Leon
DeShields.
Mark C. Psoras / For The Inquirer
Heidi
Austin displays a photo on her phone of her aunt and uncle,
Margareta
and Edmund Berg, as her father, Josef Wituschek (center),
stands with
her. At right is Wituschek’s attorney, Daniel McElhatton.
The
lawyer says he found it “unbelievable” that Byars didn’t disclose the
conflict of interest. He opposed the sale of the house and an $11,000
payment to DEPCO, alerted Orphans’ Court Judge John Herron to Byars’
criminal convictions, and asked the judge to remove her as guardian.
At
a hearing in July 2017, Herron scolded Byars for failing to disclose
the conflict and for not getting his approval to pay DEPCO. “It was
self-dealing and should not have happened, and it should be refunded
immediately,” the judge said.
McElhatton
also questioned thousands of dollars in other withdrawals Byars had
made from the Bergs’ accounts. Byars said she paid $5,000 in cash to the
Bergs’ nursing home, but didn’t get a receipt – a step Herron called
“negligent” and “reckless.”
Herron
ordered Byars removed as the Bergs’ guardian and as guardian of 31
other active cases. He appointed Wituschek as successor guardian for the
Bergs. Wituschek had previously not been able to serve because he was
mourning the death of his wife.
Byars
has since reimbursed the Bergs the $11,000 paid to her husband’s
cleaning company, $5,200 for an unexplained cashier’s check she wrote
from their account, and an additional $900 she collected from an auction
of valuables from the cleanout of the Bergs’ house. The family is still
questioning other expenses and items they suspect are missing.
At
the July hearing, Byars’ then-attorney Robert Feliciani III, said she
had 113 active guardianships, mostly in Philadelphia and Montgomery
County.
Sam
Brooks, an elder law attorney at Community Legal Services of
Philadelphia, said other professional guardians at times carry caseloads
as large or larger. A manageable caseload is closer to 40, he said, but
to make a profit, guardians deal in volume, he said.
“There’s
no money in it, for the most part, unless you have a person who’s
incapacitated who has a substantial estate,” said Menio, the advocacy
center director.
Guardians
can still make money from low-income clients. They are assured $100 a
month if the person is in a nursing home and receives medical
assistance. They also can petition the court to sell a person’s house,
then request compensation from the sale.
Billed for a birthday party
Hank
Frisby was a Philadelphia police officer from 1960 to 1980, rising to
the rank of sergeant. He then served full time in the Pennsylvania Air
National Guard, and later in Montgomery County’s human resources
department.
In
early 2016, though, he was separated from his wife, Marie. After a
nurse who was taking care of him at his Wyncote home suspected he was
being abused by a relative, the nurse contacted the Montgomery County
Office of Aging and Adult Services.
That
March, Montgomery County Senior Judge Stanley Ott deemed Hank Frisby
incapacitated after finding that he suffered from dementia and had
problems paying his bills. The Office of Aging had recommended Stump’s
company, RES Consulting, and Byars, who at the time was still working
for Stump, was appointed his guardian, court records show.
While
the Frisbys agree that his finances weren’t in the best of shape, they
say that in the ensuing months, Byars didn’t pay his mortgage,
real-estate taxes, or income taxes.
But
she threw him a birthday party. In June 2016, he was invited to a party
that Byars threw for him and other clients at her home. The party
included an ice cream truck, a live band, food, alcohol, and boxes of
sheet cake, including one for him, Hank Frisby said.
“I didn’t know anybody there,” Hank Frisby, now 79, said in an interview. “I stayed a couple of hours and left.”
He thought it was nice, he said, until he later saw a $750 charge on his account for being at the party for six hours.
Later
that year, the Frisbys reunited, and Marie Frisby realized the state of
his finances. In December 2016, their house was targeted for
foreclosure.
Julie Shaw/Staff
Hank and
Marie Frisby in March 2018 in their Philadelphia apartment, where they
moved after having to sell their Montgomery County house.
They sold the house in May, then moved to the River Park section of Philadelphia.
Marie
Frisby, 70, said she has seen no indication of how Byars spent her
husband’s pension checks, totaling $80,000 a year, to his benefit —
except once, when she bought a stair lift for him at the Wyncote house.
She also said Byars wouldn’t let her see her husband’s bank statements.
“We had no charges about how much she paid anybody, just her fees on what she charged us to do for us,” she said.
Concerned,
she had filed a petition in court to have Byars removed as guardian,
contending Byars was failing to pay her husband’s bills. With the help
of a lawyer, Diane Zabowski, the Frisbys got Byars replaced as guardian
in June.
State
Sen. Art Haywood, the Democratic minority chair of the Aging and Youth
committee, said Thursday that Marie Frisby will be meeting April 5 with a
staffer in his office to see if there is any recourse for her husband.
Haywood, a former Wyncote neighbor of the Frisbys, said he found it
“outrageous” that they had to sell their home.
Haywood,
who represents parts of Montgomery County and Philadelphia, said his
staff is looking into the process of how guardians are appointed and
removed.
‘My mom is not a prisoner’
Vuong’s
son, Hue Quach, experienced similar outrage. On May 26, 2016, Byars was
appointed Vuong’s guardian. A week later, she transferred Vuong, then
73, to a Delaware County nursing home without telling her son.
Courtesy of family
Nu Vuong
“Not
only did she put my mom in this [nursing home] without telling me, she
prohibited me from going in and seeing my mom” without Byars’
permission, he said in an interview.
Quach
said his mother cried when he was allowed to visit her because no one
in the nursing home could understand her — she speaks Vietnamese and
Chinese.
He said he told Byars: “‘My mom is not a prisoner. She did nothing wrong.'”
Quach
then petitioned the court to be his mother’s guardian. At a July 2016
hearing, Judge George Overton appointed Quach co-guardian. Quach then
moved his mother to a South Jersey nursing home that has staff and
residents who speak Chinese.
Byars has since been removed from that case — and the others in surrounding counties.
The
final two removals came March 20 in Delaware County. The Orphans’ Court
clerk there, Mary Walk, said the office began reviewing Byars’ cases
after learning about her removals in other counties, but found no
evidence of malfeasance in the two cases.
At
the February hearing, Carrafiello, the Philadelphia Orphans’ Court
administrative judge, had said he was unaware of any malfeasance in
Byars’ caseload in his court. But he stripped her from the cases because
he concluded she was no longer up to the task of being a guardian.
Montgomery County officials declined to discuss why she was removed from cases there.
Calls for improvement
Unlike 18 other states, Pennsylvania does not require professional guardians to undergo criminal background checks.
A state Supreme Court Elder Law Task Force had
in November 2014 recommended that all guardians be required to undergo
criminal background checks in a wide-ranging report that examined
problems in the guardianship system, issues of elder abuse and neglect,
and access to the justice system for elders.
That decision would fall to the state’s Supreme Court justices. The court’s Orphans’ Court Procedural Rules Committee at
an April 20 meeting will be considering the issue of instituting
background checks, said Northampton County Orphans’ Court Judge Emil
Giordano, a committee member. His county already bars felons from
serving as professional guardians.
State Rep. Mark
Gillen (R., Berks) said in a March 23 interview that he soon would
introduce a bill requiring criminal background checks for prospective
guardians and prohibiting felons from serving.
Other legislators
also have been trying to improve the system. State Sen. Stewart
Greenleaf (R., Montgomery), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, last
year reintroduced a bill that would, among other things, require court
approval for any guardian fees.
Keelin S. Barry, a
Philadelphia lawyer who served on the task force and whose office
provides guardianship and elder law services, said “there is a huge
shortage” of people willing to serve as guardians, but a great need.
“The elderly population
has exploded,” said Barry, who was appointed to replace Byars as
guardian for Hank Frisby. “And people who in the past would have taken
care of their older family member, now have moved across the city or
across the country and are not able to take care of that person
anymore.”
