Guardianship Abuse Victim May Once Again Be Victimized

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December 16, 2021, 21:12 GMT 

Karilyn Montanti (photo
courtesy of Christine Montanti)

Karilyn Montanti’s assertions of isolation and elder abuse, is one example of the reports of numerous other individuals placed into involuntary guardianship

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, December 16, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Guardianship abuse victim Karilyn Montanti addressed the media recently; last month she spoke out publicly about her ordeal and shared intimate details of her guardianship experience, which she asserted to consist of abuse, captivity and isolation. Ms. Montanti, a 77-year-old woman and current resident of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, was recently released from her assisted living facility in Broward County and relocated to Royal Palm Beach after the Court completely dismissed the guardianship proceeding.

Karilyn Montanti, Christine Montanti
(photo courtesy Christine Montanti)

Karilyn Montanti’s assertions of isolation and elder abuse, is one example of the reports of numerous other individuals placed into involuntary guardianship who make similar complaints of what is taking place in the Broward County’s Elder Care System. These complaints by others, who claim they are victims of guardianship abuse, have been covered by news media in both New York and Florida, and many other states around the country. The media reported on the pattern of corruption and negligence of Karilyn Montanti’s asserted by her against her health care surrogate, court appointed attorney, and court appointed geriatric care manager in a television report on NBC New York which aired on August 7th, 2021.

During her ordeal, Karilyn’s was never permitted to address the court to voice her repeated pleas. Neither the court or Karilyn’s court appointed attorney acquiesced to her request to address the court directly, and in fact, as set forth in court documents, went to great lengths to build a record as to why she should not be permitted to be heard in court. Because of these repeated prior refusals to be heard, Ms. Montanti was eager to finally have the opportunity to address the judge in court on Thursday, December 16th 2021 for a hearing seeking to disqualify her newly retained attorney, Ron Denman. Karilyn was hopeful that her testimony about how she personally selected her new counsel and about how happy she is with her new representation, will finally free her from the court process, and allow her to tell her story about her experience with what she considers to be guardianship abuse and unwarranted isolation.

Unfortunately, Karilyn Montanti, who was unable to attend the scheduled hearing on Thursday, December 16th 2021 due to her recent hospitalization, a devastating occurrence, was denied a continuance of the hearing or her desperate desire to testify and have her voice heard in court for the first time in her three-year ordeal. Despite her attorney, Ronald Denman having sought an emergency postponement of the hearing so that she could appear, the judge denied the postponement and ordered that Denman could no longer represent her further in her fight to regain her rights, so that can continue choose her own residence and stay in Royal Palm Beach, and so that she can continue to have unfettered access to her friends and family.

Due to the court’s ruling that disqualifies Mr. Denman from protecting Karilyn’s interests, despite representing Karilyn’s desire to the court, she now fears this ruling will assure her continued incapacity, which came about after her prior court appointed attorney presented an agreed order of incapacity to the court without her knowledge, authorization, or consent. Karilyn is also fearful that the disqualification of her attorney of choice will lead to a continued denial of her access to the courts, and will once again be subject her to the isolation, abuse and deprivation of her individual rights that she maintains she suffered over the last several years in the Broward County, Florida guardianship system.

Guardianship abuse victim Karilyn Montanti speaks out:
vimeo.com/651707844

Broward County Case Number: PRC180004278
www.browardclerk.orgNorah Lawlor
Lawlor Media Group, Inc.

 

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Guardianship Abuse Victim May Once Again Be Victimized 

 

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Guardianship Abuse Victim Blows the Lid on Guardianship Scandal

 

Guardianship Abuse Victim Blows the Lid on Guardianship Scandal

News Provided By

Lawlor Media Group, Inc.

November 30, 2021, 20:06 GMT 

 

Guardianship Abuse Victim Karilyn Montanti speaks out and blows the lid on guardianship abuse within the guardianship and court systems

Karilyn Montanti
(photo courtesy of
Christine Montanti

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, November 30, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Guardianship Abuse Victim Karilyn Montanti speaks out and blows the lid on guardianship abuse within the guardianship and court systems as she addresses the media for the first time publicly to help free her from further exploitation and being held as a prisoner in guardianship abuse captivity. Karilyn Montanti a 77-year-old woman and former resident of California was essentially relocated to Florida against her will by her oldest daughter and was thrown into a corrupt guardianship system where she has been subject to abuse and exploitation.

Karilyn Montanti’s victimization is not just an isolated and tragic event but is a national crisis that is happening to many aging adults at the hands of morally and mentally unfit court appointed guardians, health care surrogates and geriatric care managers. These individuals have been entrusted with protecting the interests of vulnerable adults but instead are engaging in abuse for the sole purpose of financially exploiting them and misappropriating their funds, while further incapacitating the elder.

Karilyn Montanti,
Christine Montanti
(photo courtesy
Christine Montanti)

Oftentimes, these court appointed individuals overmedicate the elder to make them appear sicker than they are to gain total control of their money, and, in many instances, the elder dies due to the physical and mental abuse. This outrageous conduct is widespread and, unbelievably, a common fate awaits the defenseless victims: they are isolated, medicated and fortunes liquidated. Although not an elder, the recent case of Britney Spears has brought national attention to the problem of conservatorship abuse taking place in this country and which is growing.

When a dispute arises among family members, some courts will use “geriatric care managers” to protect the interests of the elder. Remarkably, a number of these care managers have unwarranted familiarity with judges that preside over these cases and are given a great deal of discretion. Essentially, they then have the ability to play God over the day-to-day decisions of the elder. They will align themselves with the family members who are in control of the aging adult’s money and will immediately take the side of the family member who has control of the trust, so they can excessively bill the trust in exchange for providing a favorable outcome in court.

What is heartbreaking about Karilyn’s story is she was placed in a jail-like atmosphere and essentially cut off from communication with the outside world. The abuse has taken place at two assisted living facilities in Broward County where she was isolated without any access to a telephone, a computer and was blocked from seeing her family and only grandchild. She was not allowed to receive calls, letters, packages, food delivery or permitted to go outside the facility, not even on her balcony. Virtually, all of her property and money has been taken away from her. Karilyn was even forced to spend holidays and her birthday alone this year. Prisoners have more rights than she does!

What is even more outrageous is over the past year and a half Karilyn was overmedicated several times and suffered disabling symptoms while under the care and supervision of a health care surrogate, court appointed care manager and court appointed attorney. In addition, she was being denied her right to see her treating doctor. How could this happen when she has three individuals who are being paid from her own money, allegedly for the sole purpose of protecting her interests and ensuring her medical needs are being met? Karilyn’s freedom and basic liberties have been stripped away leaving her isolated causing severe emotional distress and suffering. Due to this isolation, and blocking and denying her right to see doctors, she has lost substantial weight (three clothing sizes) and looks as if she has aged 20 years in four months.

Karilyn has been repeatedly denied the opportunity to be heard before the court with respect to her own wishes and to have an evidentiary hearing to determine her capacity. Her numerous requests to appear in court have been denied by the court and the same attorney who was appointed to protect her interests. Since she was deprived of the right to be heard, she has decided to speak out publicly for the first time to reveal intimate details of her guardianship-type captivity in the hopes that she will find justice not only for herself but for many other victims of guardianship abuse. Karilyn has recently filed a Suggestion of Capacity Motion through her new attorney whom she personally selected so she can have her rights restored.

#standupforkarilyn #freemom

Broward County Case Number: PRC180004278
www.browardclerk.org

Norah Lawlor
Lawlor Media Group, Inc.
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Guardianship abuse victim Karilyn Montanti speaks out and blows the lid on her guardianship abuse captivity

 

Full Article & Source:

Guardianship Abuse Victim Blows the Lid on Guardianship Scandal

Hospitals seek dismissal of lawsuit by family of man whose death sparked Florida guardianship scandal

By Monivette Cordeiro

Attorneys for two hospitals asked an Orange County judge Wednesday to dismiss for a second time a negligence lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died while under the care of former Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle.

The hospitals, AdventHealth Orlando and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, say the allegations against them by the family of Steven Stryker are improper and fail to comply with Florida’s medical negligence claim requirements. A different judge dismissed AdventHealth from the initial complaint last September for similar reasons, though the family has since re-filed.

Attorneys for Stryker’s family argued that their claims don’t relate directly to medical care but to the negligent decisions each hospital made regarding Fierle, who signed a “do not resuscitate” order against Stryker’s wishes and the protests of his daughter, health-care surrogate and psychiatrist.

The 75-year-old Navy veteran died in May 2019 at St. Joseph’s Hospital after medical staff were unable to attempt to save his life because of the order. His death led to Fierle’s arrest and pushed lawmakers to reform Florida’s troubled guardianship system amid a statewide scandal.

Circuit Judge Denise Kim Beamer did not make a ruling during a Wednesday virtual hearing.

Stryker was a patient at AdventHealth in 2018 when the hospital asked a judge to declare him incapacitated and appoint Fierle to make all his decisions instead of Stryker’s chosen health-care surrogate and friend, Linda Lanier.

Lanier has told the Orlando Sentinel that AdventHealth seemed determined to put Stryker into guardianship and get him discharged from the hospital, despite her efforts to find him a new place to live.

Without a judge’s approval, Fierle was improperly billing AdventHealth for providing services to Stryker — one of almost 700 vulnerable patients who received services from Fierle to the tune of nearly $4 million over a decade, according to an audit by the office of Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond.

“Our claims are based on AdventHealth’s decision to partner with an unfit profession guardian, Ms. Fierle, who had been paid millions of dollars by AdventHealth over the years,” said Lance Curry, an attorney for Stryker’s family. “AdventHealth picked ... that unfit guardian who’s purportedly supposed to serve [Mr. Stryker’s] best interests. But what did she do? Immediately after being picked by AdventHealth, she discharged him from the hospital, violated his rights, abused him and ultimately led to his death.”

But AdventHealth’s attorney J. Charles Ingram countered that the hospital only recommended Fierle. A judge ultimately appointed her as Stryker’s guardian.

“The need for a safe discharge was the only duty AdventHealth had to Mr. Stryker,” Ingram said.

Months after being discharged from AdventHealth, Stryker was a patient at St. Joseph’s when Fierle authorized a DNR order on his behalf despite him stating “several times” that he wanted to live, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. She also insisted his feeding tube be capped even though medical staff warned her he could choke and die.

Stryker died May 13, 2019 after aspirating and going into cardiac arrest.

St. Joseph’s risk management director failed to seek court intervention or call the authorities despite having concerns about Fierle’s behavior after an ethics consultation, said Robin Treto, another attorney for Stryker’s family.

“We’re not critical of doctors carrying out of any of the decisions of Ms. Fierle,” Treto said. “We’re critical of an [attorney’s] decision to ultimately not intervene.”

Andy Bolin, an attorney for St. Joseph’s, argued the allegations brought by Stryker’s family fit the definition of a medical negligence claim, which has requirements that the plaintiffs have not complied with. Under Florida law, claimants have to conduct an investigation to find “reasonable grounds” for the complaint with a corroborating opinion by a medical expert before filing the lawsuit, as well as give 90 days’ notice to the defendants.

“There is no escaping the fact that at its very core, the plaintiff’s allegations sound like medical malpractice,” Bolin said.

Fierle, who is also named in the lawsuit, has pleaded not guilty to the charges she faces in her criminal prosecution.

Full Article & Source:

Hospitals seek dismissal of lawsuit by family of man whose death sparked Florida guardianship scandal

Florida’s guardianship system for elders needs guarding of its own | Editorial

The latest revelations about Rebecca Fierle — the woman at the center of the guardianship scandal — are shocking.

The Orange County comptroller’s office this week produced a report that shows Fierle was representing the interests of hundreds of elders without the oversight of a judge.

She was double-billing for her services, according to the report, presenting AdventHealth with bills totaling nearly $4 million over the past decade. Again, some of that was on behalf of vulnerable adults a judge may never have authorized her to represent.

The comptroller’s findings — the number of elderly people involved, and the amount of money improperly billed and paid — are breathtaking.

Let’s not forget, Fierle is the guardian who is accused of signing a “do not resuscitate” order against the will of one of her wards, 75-year-old Steven Stryker of Tampa. Stryker subsequently died, and doctors weren’t authorized to help him.

We don’t know if Fierle, who has not been charged with a crime, was a single rogue guardian among the many who help elderly people with personal affairs they can no longer handle on their own.

We do know that it’s essential that Gov. Ron DeSantis leads the charge in getting to the bottom of that essential question: Is this a case of one bad apple, or is this a symptom of a broken system that allows the type of elder and financial abuses outlined in recent Sentinel reports and in this week’s report by Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond?

DeSantis’ staff is meeting Monday in Tallahassee with representatives from the courts and clerks office, Department of Elder Affairs, state attorney’s office, guardianship associations and lawmakers who have advocated elder law reform.

They need to act with urgency in finding and patching cracks in the guardian system. A state with so many elderly people can’t afford to have a faulty system that gives so much power — even that of life and death — over the wards in their care.

Yes, the state took steps in 2015 to improve the system for assigning guardians to someone.

One law was intended to stop the practice of “trolling,” where professional guardians descended on nursing homes to sway elderly patients into signing away their rights.

But as the Sentinel’s reporting has demonstrated, the system remains vulnerable to abuse.

For starters — and maybe foremost — how did Fierle manage to get paid for services on behalf of people she may not have been authorized to represent?

And how could an organization as large and sophisticated as AdventHealth pay bills submitted by Fierle without knowing whether she was authorized to submit those bills on behalf of a ward? And at an hourly rate double what’s allowed by law?

It’s possible AdventHealth is a victim here, too, by paying bills it shouldn’t have. For its part, AdventHealth said in a statement it was “surprised and dismayed” by the comptroller’s findings.

Another problem: It’s far too easy for guardians to authorize DNR orders.

These forms offer individuals the dignity to die on their own terms, but in Florida this only requires signatures from the doctor and patient or legal guardian on an official document.

Signing someone’s rent check because you manage their financial affairs is one thing. But signing what could amount to a person’s death order should require judicial oversight.

We also need more public guardians to take on the cases for those who can’t afford to hire a guardian in the open market. That’s going to require more money. Public guardians got a recent pay increase in the last session — $3,000 a year per client. It’s still not enough. Increase their pay, again.

Finally, our state needs to have a centralized database to track guardians and their wards.

Many professional guardians, like Fierle, represent clients from all across the state. Keeping track by going through each circuit court makes no sense.

Palm Beach County has already done the heavy lifting of creating a database. Make it mandatory that professional guardians use this system for their audits so judicial oversight can cut across county lines.

There’s likely a lot more that needs to be done. So do it.

Do what it takes to protect our must vulnerable neighbors from the bad apples.

Full Article & Source:
Florida’s guardianship system for elders needs guarding of its own | Editorial

Top 3 Tips to Protect Your Loved Ones in the Wake of the Rebecca Fierle Guardianship Scandal

Per AARP, an estimated 1.3 million American adults are under guardianship, with approximately 85% being over age 65. In the wake of revelations that professional guardian, Rebecca Fierle, signed Do Not Resuscitate orders for a plethora of elderly wards in her care without knowledge or approval by family members, you may be wondering how to protect your family in the event that guardianship is necessary or appropriate.

The first tip is that FAMILY IS BEST. Rebecca Fierle aside, there are dedicated and wonderful professional guardians who serve an important function in the guardianship system. However, wherever possible, select a family member to serve as guardian. Two family members can also be appointed as co-guardians to ease the burden on any one family member. Family members have intimate knowledge of the ward’s likes, dislikes, preferences, and medical history that can be critically important in the long-run.

The second tip is to BE REPRESENTED. The Court will appoint a lawyer for the ward. However, you can (and should) hire your own lawyer to participate in the process and to keep the family involved in making decisions that are truly in the best interest of the ward. Court appointed lawyers are not compensated unless a guardianship is established. This is not always in the best interest of the ward but you need a lawyer to participate and seek less restrictive means where appropriate. This leads me to my third and most important tip:

BE AN ADVOCATE. Whether through your lawyer or individually, effective communication and active participation is necessary to protect your loved one. Do not sit on the sidelines and assume that the professional guardian or family guardian has everything handled properly. Seek out copies of relevant records and ask questions. As we’ve learned from the Rebecca Fierle scandal, your active participation could be a matter of life or death for your loved one. While the investigation is ongoing in the Fierle matter, the media has reported that the Attorney General is investigating Medicare fraud and financial exploitation. The cremated remains of 9 wards were found in Ms. Fierle’s office by local law enforcement and conflicts of interest between a local hospital and an examining committee member charged with determining whether a person lacks capacity and requires guardianship in the first place abound. Stay vigilant and part of the process to ensure the safety of your elderly family member.

Full Article & Source:
Top 3 Tips to Protect Your Loved Ones in the Wake of the Rebecca Fierle Guardianship Scandal