Ex-guardian Rebecca Fierle violated laws in handling of ward who died, state agency concludes

By Jeff Weiner

Rebecca Fierle, the former professional guardian currently under criminal investigation, violated state laws and guidelines in her handling of incapacitated clients, a state agency determined in late July, according to public records released this week.

In a pair of letters to Fierle dated July 29, four days after she resigned from all cases statewide, the state’s Department of Elder Affairs wrote that she had “failed persons served by guardianship and the families who entrusted their loved ones to [her] care.”

Because Fierle is no longer a guardian, the agency doesn’t plan to take any action against her.

Among those the agency found Fierle failed was Steven Stryker, the 75-year-old man who died in a Tampa hospital after staff said they were prevented from attempting to save his life due to a “do not resuscitate” order the Orlando guardian filed against his wishes.

In a letter concerning Fierle’s guardianship of Stryker, Elder Affairs found several violations:

• She violated state law by “not allowing persons who were determined to be incapacitated to be treated humanely, with dignity and respect, and to protect them against abuse, neglect, and exploration.”
• She violated another statute by “not acting within the scope of the authority granted by the court and as provided by law, and by not acting in good faith.”
• She broke with guardianship standards by “not knowing the extent of [her] powers and the limitations of authority granted ... by the Court" and “by withholding or withdrawing medical treatment against the Ward’s expressed wishes.”
• She also “failed to gather and document information and seek the court’s order or direction when the best interest of your business were in direct conflict with the ward’s wishes.”

“Your conduct negatively impacted the integrity of the Florida Guardianship System and you defamed good and ethical guardianship and the honest, skilled, and compassionate public and professional guardians throughout the state of Florida,” the agency wrote.

In the second letter, Elder Affairs listed other violations, including that Fierle had mishandled a ward’s special needs trust account and purchased “large dollar amounts of gift cards” against the ward’s interest. It was unclear which of Fierle’s hundreds of wards the letter was concerning.

The letter also didn’t make clear what the gift cards were used for.

Elder Affairs’ findings were based on investigations by the state’s Office of Public and Professional Guardians, which handles complaints against guardians. The agency was “unable to substantiate” allegations against Fierle in three investigations it concluded after Stryker’s May 9 death, records show.

“Your conduct negatively impacted the integrity of the Florida Guardianship System and you defamed good and ethical guardianship and the honest, skilled, and compassionate public and professional guardians throughout the state of Florida,” the agency wrote.

The investigations by OPPG are separate from criminal probes of Fierle currently being conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state’s Office of Attorney General.

“During the course of the investigation, your state registration was voluntarily revoked, which is tantamount to a permanent revocation. You are no longer registered as a professional guardian, therefore, the OPPG considers this administrative matter closed,” the late-July letters said.

The scandal surrounding the Orlando-based guardian, which has embroiled the state’s guardianship system and led officials including Gov. Ron DeSantis to promise changes, began with an investigation into Stryker’s death by the Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller.

That agency, which was investigating on the behalf of OPPG as part of the Clerks’ Statewide Investigations of Professional Guardians Alliance, found Fierle violated standards requiring wards to be “treated humanely, with dignity and respect, and to be protected against abuse.”

The agency also cited criminal statutes, including aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person or disabled adult and neglect of an elderly person or disabled adult.

Fierle is not currently facing any criminal charges. 

She and an attorney representing her did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Ex-guardian Rebecca Fierle violated laws in handling of ward who died, state agency concludes

State confirms mass resignations at Florida watchdog office overseeing guardianship abuse

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The I-Team has uncovered mass resignations at the state watchdog assigned to investigate guardianship abuse — news that comes in the wake of a criminal investigation into a former guardian accused of killing a man under her care.

Seven employees at the Office of Public & Professional Guardians have resigned since April, according to records obtained by I-Team Investigator Adam Walser.

The majority of those resignations came after an I-Team report in July about embattled former professional guardian Rebecca Fierle, who is under criminal investigation for accusations she caused the death of a man under her care by issuing a "Do Not Resuscitate" order without permission.

Last month, the Department of Elder Affairs confirmed the resignation of Carol Berkowitz, the former director of OPPG who departed on July 12 — the same day as the I-Team’s report on Fierle.

But when the I-Team asked about other resignations, a department spokeswoman denied there had been mass departures from the office.

At the time, Elder Affairs spokeswoman Ashley Chambers told an ABC Action News reporter for the Tallahassee bureau that concerns about resignations were rumors.

But three weeks later — after the I-Team requested all resignation letters — Chambers confirmed the mass departures late Friday afternoon.

Internal agency records show Deputy Director Amelia Milton, Senior Staff Attorney Michael McKeon, the statewide public guardian manager, a guardian registrar and staff assistants also resigned from their positions

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State confirms mass resignations at Florida watchdog office overseeing guardianship abuse

Cremated remains of 9 people found at Orlando office of disgraced former guardian Rebecca Fierle

Geriatric Management, Rebecca Fierle’s business at the corner of Hillcrest Street and Altaloma Avenue just northeast of downtown Orlando. (Jeff Weiner / Orlando Sentinel)

The cremated remains of nine people were found by law enforcement officers who searched the Orlando office of disgraced former professional guardian Rebecca Fierle this week, the state’s Office of Attorney General said Wednesday.

“As this investigation continues, we will be focusing on whose cremains are in the urns, medical records that identify the cause of death, how long the cremains have been in the target’s office and much more,” Kylie Mason, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Ashley Moody, said in a statement. “As this is a very active criminal investigation, we cannot comment further at this time.”

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant Monday at 1646 Hillcrest St., a small converted house northeast of downtown Orlando that serves as an office for Fierle’s business, Geriatric Management.

FDLE launched a criminal probe into the court-appointed decision maker last month, after a state investigation found one of her incapacitated clients, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, died at a Tampa hospital in May following Fierle’s refusal to remove a “do not resuscitate” order she filed against his wishes.

FDLE spokesman Jeremy Burns confirmed the agency found cremated remains at Fierle’s office but could not provide more details and directed inquires to the attorney general’s office.

Fierle is not currently facing criminal charges. Her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Rebecca Fierle

It is not uncommon for guardians to temporarily have the cremated remains of dead clients until a final resting place is found, said Gina Rossi-Scheiman, executive director of the Florida State Guardianship Association, a statewide organization of about 580 members, including guardians, attorneys and others associated with guardianship cases.

Guardians are responsible for incapacitated people who may be homeless or indigent with no family to claim them.

“In most of these cases, the reason a professional guardian or a public guardian has been assigned is because there is nobody for the individual,” Rossi-Scheiman said. “At times, you’re the only person in somebody’s life.”

If the deceased ward left no instructions and no family member exists or is available, Florida law gives guardians legal authority over the remains.

Rossi-Scheiman said, in her experience as a guardian, she’s had to pick up a ward’s remains from a cremation company to send to a family member because no one else could do it. Guardians are tasked with making end-of-life decisions for wards, including prepaid burial plans and funeral arrangements with families, she said.

“It’s possible for you to be in possession of someone’s remains because you’re caring for that person and making sure they’re put in the proper place where somebody needs to be laid to rest, whatever those wishes are,” Rossi-Scheiman said.

Rossi-Scheiman did not want to comment on Fierle’s case, but said “everybody is concerned.”

“We’re waiting to see what happens,” she said.

Investigators with the Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller found hospital staff could not perform life-saving procedures on Stryker because of the DNR. Fierle told investigators she routinely filed DNRs on the behalf of clients. Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe, in seeking Fierle’s removal from 95 Orange County cases in July, found that Fierle had “abused her authority” by doing so without permission from the court or families. Fierle has since resigned from all of her cases statewide.

Fierle told investigators she filed a DNR on Stryker because it was “an issue of quality of life rather than quantity,” wrote Andrew Thurman, an auditor and investigator for the Okaloosa Clerk. His report alleged Fierle’s decision amounted to "the removal of care necessary to maintain the ward’s physical health” and cited criminal statues.

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Cremated remains of 9 people found at Orlando office of disgraced former guardian Rebecca Fierle

Cremated remains of 9 people found in office of embattled Central Florida guardian

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The cremated remains of nine people were found in the office of an embattled professional guardian linked to the death of a 75-year-old Florida client, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said.

Moody revealed the discovery Wednesday in an interview with The News Service of Florida.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Orange County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Rebecca Fierle's Orlando office Monday.

"Alarmingly, we found items that are cause for concern and will intensify our investigation. We found nine cremains. We are now in the process of identifying those and furthering the investigation," Moody said.

A Central Florida attorney told WESH 2 News that it’s not uncommon for wards to have the remains of the people they are caring for.

Fierle is facing a criminal investigation and the governor has ordered a complete review of the Department of Elder Affairs' Office of Public and Professional Guardians.

That followed revelations that Fierle signed 'Do Not Resuscitate,' or DNR orders, for most of her wards.

Court records reviewed by WESH 2 News show Fierle has handled more than 800 Guardian cases in nine local counties over two decades.

Fierle’s wards were individuals who are physically or mentally incapacitated and are appointed a guardian.

Fierle has resigned from all of her guardian cases in 14 counties writing, "I will not be seeking reappointment in any cases, nor will I seek future appointments as a guardian."

The controversy over Fierle’s actions began after the death of a man who hospital workers would not treat because investigators say Fierle filed a "do not resuscitate" order without consent from his family.

"Anytime you have allegations where Do Not Resuscitates, DNR's, were executed in an unlawful manner, and then you conduct a search warrant and find multiple actual urns with remains in the office, that is concerning in an investigation. So, this will only help us in the investigation. Certainly, we will continue our efforts and make sure the necessary witnesses are interviewed and develop a full case," Moody said.

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Cremated remains of 9 people found in office of embattled Central Florida guardian

Federal legislation filed to address guardianship issues as scandal embroils Florida’s troubled program

Jack Meagher says his court-appointed guardian, Rebecca Fierle, doesn't respect his wishes, and he doesn't need someone to make decisions for him.

As Florida’s guardianship program is under increased scrutiny with the revelation that a client died after his Orlando guardian filed a “do not resuscitate” order against his wishes, federal lawmakers on Wednesday filed bipartisan legislation to expand protections for incapacitated people.

The Guardianship Accountability Act would expand oversight and data collection “to hold guardians accountable” by creating a national resource center and expanding background checks and communication between local, state and federal organizations, U.S. Rep. Darren Soto’s office said in a statement.

“It is our duty in Congress to speak up and protect the most vulnerable members of our communities,” said Soto, D-Kissimmee, in a statement. “In Orlando, we saw firsthand the abuse of a former guardian which led to a preventable death. We owe it to our seniors and to those living with disabilities to provide protections from ill-intended bad actors who abuse the system designed to provide a better quality of life."

The scandal in Florida was sparked by the death of 75-year-old Steven Stryker, a ward of Orlando professional guardian Rebecca Fierle. Despite Stryker’s stated desire to live, corroborated by his daughter and a psychiatrist, Stryker died after Fierle refused to rescind a DNR order she had filed, which prevented staff at a Tampa hospital from attempting to save his life, a state investigation found.

It has since emerged that Fierle routinely filed DNRs on behalf of her wards without court approval. She resigned as a professional guardian statewide as judges across Central Florida launched removal proceedings against her after details of the Stryker case, first reported by the Orlando Sentinel, came to light. Fierle is currently under criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

State agents searched the Orlando office of Fierle’s company, Geriatric Management, on Monday, finding the cremated remains of nine people, according to the state’s Office of Attorney General.

Soto was joined by fellow Florida congressmen U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, and Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor; Michigan Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell; and U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, in introducing the act.

“Guardianship abuses are resulting in seniors literally being held against their will, isolated from family members and friends, their assets liquidated and drained by unscrupulous people gaming a broken system,” Crist said in a statement. “... This legislation brings federal resources to bear, providing the missing transparency needed to understand where problems exist with a better ability for stakeholders to track outcomes across disparate state court systems nationwide.”

Said Bilirakis: “It is said that the strength of a society can be judged based upon how it treats its most vulnerable populations. We’ve seen from recent examples in the news, and alarming rates of elder abuse throughout Pasco and Pinellas counties, that guardianship is an area where we can and must do better in order to ensure the protection of our seniors.”

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Federal legislation filed to address guardianship issues as scandal embroils Florida’s troubled program

Guardian care reform eyed

CRESTVIEW — An Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller investigation of embattled guardian Rebecca Fierle found she may have violated the law when she filed a do not resuscitate order without her ward’s, the family’s or the court’s permission.

Her ward, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, died May 13 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa. He had a chronic condition that required him to have an EGD periodically to allow him to eat solid foods. However, medical staff were prevented from attempting to rescue him when he began choking because of Fierle’s DNR order.

Okaloosa County is one of six clerk’s offices in Florida accredited to do investigations for the Clerk’s Statewide Investigations of Professional Guardians Alliance. It issued its investigative report July 9 that includes a finding the Fierle committed aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person or disabled adult, a first-degree felony.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has opened its own investigation into Fierle.

“We certainly don’t want to speak for the FDLE,” said JD Peacock, Okaloosa County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. “This is what we think they may look into. Our report speaks for itself.”

Clerk investigator Andrew Thurman spoke to the embattled Fierle, who lives in Orlando. A guardian for at least 10 years, Fierle resigned July 25 from all 450 of her court-appointed guardianships in 13 counties.

Elaine Renoire, president of the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse, said many of its members have complained about Fierle for years but that the complaints fell on deaf ears.

“How many complaints does it take?” Renoire asked. “Does it take a death? Apparently it does take a death. Life and death decisions should go to the court and a judge should decide.”

Fierle told the Okaloosa investigator that “because she was the court-appointed guardian, she had the authority to decide on end of life care and life-saving procedures.”

During her interview, she said she understood Stryker was estranged from his daughter and son. She said it was “difficult” to find places to accept and treat Stryker because he was a registered sex offender. Fierle mentioned that a DNR “was an issue of quality of life rather than quantity” and she filed them regularly.

Fierle also claimed she discussed life-saving care with Stryker and that “he agreed to the DNR being in place,” the report said, contradicting statements made by his daughter’s, a Tampa doctor and a friend to the Okaloosa investigator.

Kim Stryker, who lives in Washington, D.C., filed a complaint May 9 with the Florida Department of Elder Affairs’ Office of Public and Professional Guardians. In her complaint, she said her father expressed a desire to live but Fierle refused to remove the DNR. She said, “If not for Fierle’s actions her father would still be alive.”

She characterized Fierle as “callous and disrespectful,” and provided an email she received from Fierle on May 15. Fierle said it wasn’t her responsibility to inform her of her father’s death and that final arrangements “can be handled by you and your brother. That is not a task I handle if there is family.” She said they could submit the funeral home invoice to her, which funds in her guardianship account would cover.

Steven Stryker’s daughter also admitted to the Okaloosa investigator she did keep her father “at a distance” because of his past sex offender issues.

Dr. Kirtikumar Pandya, a licensed psychiatrist who examined Stryker at St. Joseph’s Hospital determined “he had the ability to decide that he wanted to live.” Pandya said Stryker “wanted to be resuscitated and wanted to be alive.” He called Fiele’s DNR “not rational” and requested the hospital “rescind the DNR.”

Based on the Okaloosa investigative report, Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe in Orlando, stripped Fierle of her oversight of 98 wards there at a hearing July 11.

“It’s awfully pompous for you to make a decision of what quality of life somebody else values,” Thorpe told Fierle.

Additional fallout included Gov. Ron DeSantis vowing to “vigorously” investigate Florida’s guardianship program and directing the state’s Department of Elder Affairs to do the same.

“There’s going to be action taken whether it’s administratively or legislative,” he said at a press conference. “I think something needs to be done.”

Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom said he would work with DeSantis on reforms.
“The governor and I will pursue legislative changes to grant the Department of Elder Affairs the necessary oversight authority to guarantee our ability to ensure that neglect and abuse to the frailest of the frail never occurs again,” Prudom said in a statement. “Something needs to be — and will be — done.”

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Guardian care reform eyed

Florida professional guardian Rebecca Fierle: Devoted or dangerous? | Exclusive

More than 20 years ago, Rebecca Fierle began to make a name for herself as a protector of vulnerable seniors.

As an employee of the Senior Resource Alliance in the mid-1990s, Fierle coordinated a program with Orange County Fire Rescue to help find elderly people in need of services such as Meals on Wheels or assistance with grocery shopping or housekeeping.

“I’ve called the abuse hotline three times since we started,” Fierle said in a 1997 Sentinel story about the program. “We’ve found two cases of neglect and one financial exploitation case."

Rebecca Fierle

That image of Fierle, now 50, as a watchdog for seniors stands in stark contrast to the investigations and complaints swirling around her today.

Her work as a professional guardian is the subject of a state investigation, an audit by the Orange County Comptroller and an ongoing criminal probe.

The question is how she cared for the hundreds of sick or disabled people, many of them elderly, declared incapacitated by a judge and in need of someone to handle their medical decisions, financial affairs or both.

In one case, a man died in May after she refused to lift a do not resuscitate order that he said he did not want — a desire corroborated by the man’s family and a hospital psychiatrist, according to the Clerks’ Statewide Investigations of Professional Guardians Alliance review.

Some families have told the Sentinel that they also question the care their relatives received after a judge declared them incapacitated, taking away nearly all of their rights to make their own decisions, and handed their affairs over to Fierle.

One woman said her mother died after she did not receive cancer treatment. Another woman said she found a DNR order in her grandmother’s nursing home file that the family did not know about and that a court never approved. And a mental health counselor who served on a court committee to determine whether people should have their rights taken away said she resigned from that role over concerns about Fierle’s work. But the complaint the counselor sent to the court and state office that oversees professional guardians was only acknowledged months ago, more than three years after she sent it.

Other families of the incapacitated people Fierle served, or wards as they are called in court, have expressed surprise about the allegations against her.

Dena Nazarchuk Grantham said Fierle was her brother’s guardian and brought peace of mind and was helpful during a tumultuous time for her family.

“[My brother] kept trying to tell me she wasn’t what she pretended to be,” Nazarchuk Grantham said. “It just blows my mind. She was very kind with me. … I’m hurt.”

The two images of Fierle — one as a person seen by judges, attorneys and some families as a devoted guardian and the other as the person who sits at the center of what could be one of Florida’s most complicated and bizarre elder abuse cases — collided last month at an Orlando hearing in front of Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe.

The judge revoked all DNR orders and advanced directives put in place by Fierle in her Orange County cases as a precaution after the circumstances of Steven Stryker’s death came to light.

“Rebecca Fierle has been a professional guardian for a long time. I rely on our professional guardians tremendously for what they carry,” Thorpe said, adding: “This is an extraordinary hearing that is being held on an expedited basis because of the circumstances we find ourselves in.”

Fierle and her attorney did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Geriatric Management, Rebecca Fierle’s business at the corner of Hillcrest Street and Altaloma Avenue just northeast of downtown Orlando. (Jeff Weiner / Orlando Sentinel)

Fierle earned a degree in psychology and a certificate in gerontology from the University of Central Florida in December 1996, just before venturing out to start a business of her own. She left her job at the Senior Resource Alliance in 1997, according to an application she filed in Seminole County court.

By December 2000 she completed the required 40 hours of training required to become a professional guardian and alerted the clerk that she would begin to take on guardianship cases, according to documents in her Orange County guardianship file.

She incorporated Geriatric Management Inc. in 2003 and, in addition to guardianship, the company specialized in helping people qualify for Medicaid benefits to cover nursing home stays and other services, according to the company web site.

No one came to the door when a reporter twice visited Geriatric Management, which is in a small converted house just northeast of downtown Orlando.

Fierle listed more than 500 people for whom she served as guardian, including 168 current cases in 10 counties and one out of state in North Carolina, on an application she filed in Seminole County earlier this year. Exact counts of her caseload varies because the Orange County auditors found her accounting of cases listed in Orange to contain duplicate case numbers and omissions of some cases.

An attorney for AdventHealth, who appeared at the July 11 hearing, told Judge Thorpe that Fierle had taken on about 50 former patients at the hospital as wards and that the hospital paid her for her services, according to a transcript of the hearing.

AdventHealth spokesman Bryan Malenius told the Sentinel that the hospital cannot discharge a patient, even after their medical treatment is complete, unless the patient has a safe place to go. And in cases when that person is unable to make decisions for themselves and when no family steps in to help, the hospital recommends guardianship as a last resort.

Typically, the hospital asks the Department of Children and Families Services to step in, but it often declines, Malenius said. A DCF spokeswoman did not respond to questions from the Sentinel.

And waiting for a public guardian to be appointed can take months, leaving a professional guardian as the most expedient way to move patients from the hospital to a nursing home or other setting.

“Petitioning the court to appoint an emergency guardian is a last resort 100 percent of the time, after the state has declined assistance and extensive efforts to find family members or friends willing to fulfill this role,” Malenius said in an e-mail. “Even after a petition for guardianship has been filed, we continue to search for family or friends willing to serve as guardians.”

Fierle registered a company with the state called Geriatric Management Hospital Consultation in 2018, but it’s unclear if that’s the company she used to bill AdventHealth. Also unclear is whether she had other arrangements with other facilities.

The comptroller’s office found she inadvertently included bills she intended for the hospital in some court files. For example, in one case the auditors found a bill for the hospital where she was charging $120 an hour. That’s higher than the maximum of $65 an hour professional guardians are allowed to charge wards for her services under court rules.

The audit said Fierle should have disclosed her payment arrangement with AdventHealth to the court, but never did.

“If the fees are billed to Florida Hospital, this creates the potential for fees to be reimbursed multiple times or a separate financial arrangement exists,” the audit report said. “All financial arrangements should be reported to the court.”

That same audit also found other questionable transactions, such as Fierle using her wards’ money for services provided by a family member or people she knew.

In 2013, Fierle used her father’s auto shop Mickeys Place for Automotive Repair to fix a ward’s car. The Orlando shop is now closed and Fierle’s father, Michael Dobbins, could not be reached for comment.

Fierle hired Steve Richardson for services such as lawn maintenance and changing locks at wards’ houses despite not disclosing to the court their previous relationship. Fierle used to have legal authority over the property of Richardson’s mother, court records show. The comptroller’s report also noted Fierle is currently “the Trustee for a family trust where the service provider currently has an ownership interest in property with the Professional Guardian as Trustee.” Calls to Richardson were not returned.

In a state Department of Elder Affairs registration document filed with the court last year, Fierle listed “none” under the area to detail any employees she had.

But the audit reported that multiple employees were billing wards for services, though they weren’t registered as guardians with the state and so did not undergo the required background checks.

Guardianship is big business in Florida. But it’s not always so easy to find a guardian to take on some of the hardest cases.

The wards can be difficult or uncooperative because of severe mental illness or other health problems. It’s not unusual for the patients’ families to be in disagreement with or estranged from the ward.

One person familiar with Fierle’s work, who asked not to be identified because the person wasn’t authorized to speak about the matter, said she was known for taking on some of the most difficult cases.

In the July 11 hearing, Judge Thorpe and attorneys for the wards and Fierle alluded to how hard it can be to find enough guardians to take on people in need, according to the transcript.

“... Where are you going to find people to take these cases?” Harry Hackney, Fierle’s attorney, asked the judge when it became clear nearly 100 cases would be removed from Fierle.

“I mean, it’s a real problem,” Thorpe replied. “We don’t have that many [guardians].”

Thorpe also pointed out that public guardians, or those funded by the state who take on cases of people who are indigent, are limited to 40 cases at a time. But there is no limit for professional guardians.

Fierle, by some counts, had more than three times that many across multiple counties.

“We overloaded her,” Thorpe said.

Some families of wards told the Sentinel that Fierle was cordial when she first took on their cases, but then they often had limited contact with her.

Someone from Fierle’s office, not Fierle herself, would often be the point of contact with family members.

Christine Tibbetts Morrison, whose mother Connie Tibbetts was under Fierle’s care before dying in 2017, said one of Fierle’s assistants called to ask her how she felt about her mother receiving chemotherapy for multiple myeloma cancer.

Despite Tibbetts Morrison telling the assistant her mother was still capable of making that decision, Tibbetts did not receive cancer treatment.

In a statement through her attorney, Fierle said she called her ward’s daughter to discuss treatment and Tibbetts Morrison “agreed that aggressive treatment of her cancer should not be pursued under the circumstances,” a claim Tibbetts Morrison wholeheartedly denies.

“At first I was relieved,” Tibbetts Morrison said. “My mother was going to have a roof over her head, she was going to get the medical care she needed. It was better than being on the street. But something wasn’t right with this guardian.”

Fierle has kept a low profile in recent weeks, appearing in court only twice — most recently in Hillsborough County — with her long red hair pulled into a neat bun and sunglasses resting atop her head as she politely answered a judge’s questions. At three hearings within the past three weeks — in Seminole, Brevard and Volusia — she was a no-show.

On July 25, Fierle resigned from all her cases statewide.

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Florida professional guardian Rebecca Fierle: Devoted or dangerous? | Exclusive

Judge releases confidential information to authorities investigating former Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle

Rebecca Fierle

Amid a criminal investigation into former professional guardian Rebecca Fierle, a judge has ordered the release to law enforcement of confidential information concerning the client whose death sparked the scandal that has embroiled the state’s guardianship program.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed last week it had launched a criminal probe into Rebecca Fierle, the Orlando-based guardian who has resigned from all cases statewide in which she was the court-appointed decision maker for incapacitated people, known as wards.

Court records show Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe on Thursday ordered the release to authorities of information regarding the case of Steven Stryker, 75, who died at a Tampa hospital after staff could not perform life-saving procedures because of a DNR filed against his wishes by Fierle, his guardian.

Thorpe’s July 29 order came after a court monitor in the Ninth Judicial Circuit brought up concerns to the court regarding “possible criminal activity” by Fierle in Stryker’s case, the judge’s one-page order indicates. It directs the court monitor to turn the information over to “the proper law enforcement agency.”

“The Court finds that it is necessary to release confidential information in the possession of the guardian monitor in order to facilitate a criminal investigation," Thorpe wrote, according to court records.

It’s unclear if the judge’s latest ruling was confined to Stryker’s case. One-page orders were also filed in the cases of other former Fierle wards on Thursday, but were sealed from public view.

An earlier state investigation conducted by the Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller found Fierle refused to remove the DNR despite Stryker’s desire for life-saving actions, and that her claims about his final wishes contradicted his daughter, friend and a psychiatrist.

“The ward had never previously expressed a desire to die, and it seems unlikely that, as soon as he was appointed a guardian, he would suddenly be unwilling to tolerate a condition that he had been dealing with for many years,” wrote Andrew Thurman, an auditor and investigator under the Okaloosa Clerk’s inspector general department, in the investigative report.

Fierle told investigators she filed a DNR on Stryker because it was “an issue of quality of life rather than quantity,” and said she regularly filed DNRs for her wards, Thurman wrote.

Investigators alleged in the report that Fierle’s decision amounted to “the removal of care necessary to maintain the ward’s physical health” and cited criminal statues.

“The removal of this necessary care directly resulted in the ward’s death,” Thurman wrote in the report. “Fla. Stat. states ‘A person who causes the death of any elderly person or disabled adult by culpable negligence ... commits aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person or disabled adult, a felony of the first degree.’”

Fierle is not currently facing any criminal charges.

Thorpe sought to remove Fierle from 95 Orange County cases after finding the guardian had “abused her powers” by requesting that incapacitated clients not receive medical treatment if their heart or breathing stopped, without permission from the court or the wards’ families.

State Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom on Friday announced “immediate” changes to improve the agency’s response time for complaints, though his office has not yet given specifics. The news came hours after the Orlando Sentinel reported that a 2016 complaint against Fierle had sat ignored for more than two years.

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Judge releases confidential information to authorities investigating former Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle

Expert’s complaint against Florida guardian Rebecca Fierle was ignored for years before scandal erupted | Exclusive

Former member Marci Elliott talks about her resignation from the Guardianship Examining Committee, which she says was prompted by Rebecca Fierle’s mistreatment

Before her rights were taken away, 71-year-old Connie Rae Tibbetts tried to convince a mental health counselor that she could still take care of herself.

“I miss walking,” Tibbetts told Marci Elliott on May 6, 2016, according to court records provided by Elliott. “I’m a person. I have a life.”

Elliott was a member of Orange County’s Guardianship Examining Committee, a group made up of medical professionals and other experts who determine whether someone is incapacitated, meaning they can’t care for themselves or their property.

Based on her evaluation and statements from Tibbetts’ estranged children, Elliott determined Tibbetts needed to be under constant supervision, which cleared the way for Rebecca Fierle to become her court-appointed guardian.

It was a decision Elliott would later regret — so much so that she resigned from the guardianship committee seven months after examining Tibbetts.

Rebecca Fierle

“I cannot continue to participate in any kind of action that could possibly put another human being under Rebecca Fierle’s control,” Elliott wrote in a Dec. 4, 2016, letter to Frederick Lauten, at the time the chief judge for the Orange-Osceola circuit, and Circuit Judge Jose Rodriguez. “I can no longer stand by and be silent.”

Nearly two and a half years later, another person under Fierle’s guardianship, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, died after a “do not resuscitate” order the Orlando-based professional guardian filed against his wishes prevented hospital staff from performing life-saving procedures, according to a state investigation. Fierle has since been forced to resign from nearly 100 cases in Orange County alone, and dozens more statewide.

On Thursday night, Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman Jeremy Burns confirmed Fierle is currently the subject of an active criminal investigation.

Elliott and Tibbetts’ daughter, Christine Tibbetts Morrison, both said they complained to the court and a state agency that Fierle had lied to them about Tibbetts’ care — falsely claiming the cancer-stricken woman had rejected treatment — and ignored her medical needs before she died at age 72 on March 25, 2017.

Nothing ever came of it until about three months ago, when an investigation into their complaint was opened on April 3 by the Okaloosa County Clerk of Court — more than two years after Tibbetts’ death.

Elliott called Stryker a “sacrificial lamb” whose death put scrutiny on years of allegations against Fierle.

“A man has apparently died, and that didn’t have to happen,” she said. “There were plenty of warnings from lots of people. I’m not the only person.”

In her first public statement since the scandal surrounding Stryker’s death erupted, Fierle, through her attorney, Harry Hackney, denied mishandling Tibbetts’ care.

“I am sorry that their expectations were not met, but it was not for lack of my trying to accommodate them,” Fierle said.

Connie Rae Tibbetts didn't get the care she needed from her guardian, an expert and her daughter say (Courtesy of Christine Tibbetts Morrison)

‘Judges are in the dark’

During the nine months Tibbetts was under Fierle’s guardianship, Elliott and Tibbetts Morrison complained to judges and Florida’s then newly formed Office of Public and Professional Guardians.

In a Sept. 22, 2016, letter provided by Elliott, then-OPPG Director Jason B. Nelson thanked the mental health counselor for contacting the agency regarding Tibbetts’ guardianship case. The office would “have a role in reviewing complaints against professional guardians,” but until it was fully operational, Nelson recommended Elliott also contact the Ninth Circuit’s chief judge, hire a lawyer or call the Florida Abuse hotline if she suspected Tibbetts was being abused, neglected or exploited.

Elliott received an email from Okaloosa County Clerk of Court inspector general investigator Andrew Thurman three months ago indicating that her 2016 complaint had finally been opened that month.

“I sincerely apologize for the long delay, but the case was with another office and was just recently sent to us,” Thurman said.

Neither the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, which oversees OPPG, nor the Florida Department of Children and Families, which operates the abuse hotline, could immediately comment on the reason for the long delay in addressing the complaint Elliott filed. Ninth Judicial Circuit spokeswoman Karen Levey said a staff member received complaints in Tibbetts’ case and directed them to OPPG.

OPPG is in charge of forwarding complaints against guardians to the Clerks’ Statewide Investigations of Professional Guardians Alliance, which handled the probe of Stryker’s death.

Elliott says she called the hotline and both she and Tibbetts’ daughter sent letters to Lauten and Rodriguez, who was the judge on Tibbetts’ case.

Rodriguez, who is now retired, said Elliott’s resignation from the guardianship committee did raise a red flag for him, but the dispute seemed to be about personal issues between Fierle and Elliott. The complaint submitted at the time did not rise to the level of probable cause needed to intervene, Rodriguez said, unlike the probable cause Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe found when she sought to remove Fierle from all of her Orange County cases earlier this month.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for the court to meddle in matters of personality,” he said. “On these issues, we walk a tight rope because if we start opening investigations on everything, we will never do what we need to do.”

He said it did prompt him to take a closer look when he was assigned Fierle’s guardianship cases.

“Judges are in the dark,” Rodriguez said. “We’re supposed to be absolute neutral, passive observers who rule on cases brought before us, however in guardianship cases, we are given the task to hold lawyers and guardians accountable. This is one of those cases where you just don’t have any idea when you’re sitting on the bench of what’s happening around you until it may be too late.”

Lauten said he did not remember the complaint regarding Fierle and Tibbetts because he got “thousands” of complaints during his tenure as chief judge, which ended last month. Part of the problem with guardianship cases is there are not enough resources to properly monitor hundreds of cases at a time, he said.

“We got one [new] judge from the Legislature last year, despite the fact that we were certified for two,” Lauten said, renewing his call to increase funding for the court system. “We need more judicial labor.”

‘She was a human being’

During Elliott’s evaluation of Tibbetts at Sanjean Facility Care, a 34-bed assisted living facility off Michigan Street in south Orlando, the woman pleaded to be in "a place where I can be a human being.”

“I’m literally in a prison here,” Tibbetts said, according to Elliott’s report.

The psychotherapist found Tibbetts to be pleasant but ultimately confused — about her life, about where she was living, about her family. Tibbetts’ children told Elliott their mother was homeless and a chronic alcoholic, who had been arrested several times for trespassing and had been diagnosed with dementia, depression, a personality disorder and other mental illnesses through the years.

In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Tibbetts Morrison, 51, said she was always “two steps behind” in trying to get help for the mother who had been cruel to her and her brothers growing up in their dysfunctional household.

“She drove away her kids and ended up homeless after a lot of years of struggle,” she said. “I had not seen her in 20 years.”

Then, she was contacted by a social worker at Winter Park Memorial Hospital. After getting kicked out of the homeless shelter, Tibbetts had been checking into the hospital to get a bed for the night and take care of her health issues, her daughter said.

The social worker asked Tibbetts Morrison if she would like to be her mother’s guardian, but she said she was hesitant because she lived in North Carolina.

“Finally I got my mother on the telephone and asked, ‘Would you like me to be your guardian if I can arrange it?’” Tibbetts Morrison said. “My mother said, ‘No, I can run my own life,’ and hung up on me.”

The hospital discharged Tibbetts before a decision was made, Tibbetts Morrison said. A few months later, she got a call in April 2016 telling her Rebecca Fierle was petitioning to be her mother’s guardian. She felt relieved that her mother would have shelter and medical care.

During the competency examination, Marci Elliott had given Tibbetts her card, in case she had any questions. Elliott said she was surprised when, weeks later, Tibbetts called her asking when she was going to get a counselor and medical care for her toothache and vein problems — after Fierle was supposed to be managing and overseeing the elderly woman’s care.

“The calls continued with her sounding like she was still in the dark,” Elliott said. “She said she kept calling Ms. Fierle and ... she would never get a return call.”

Elliott finally contacted Fierle.

“[Rebecca] said Ms. Tibbetts was forgetful, but that everything was moving along just fine,” Elliott said. “I felt better after that chat, but then Connie would call with the same complaint.”

Tibbetts Morrison said she tried to work with Fierle and her employees at Geriatric Management for months to bring her mother up to North Carolina, by visiting assisted living facilities near her home and offering to pay for part of the housing expenses. But often her questions went unanswered, and the move never happened, she said.

Connie Rae Tibbetts (Family photo)

“It was like pulling teeth to get any information,” she said.

In the statement provided by her attorney, Fierle said she “worked diligently to try to relocate Ms. Tibbetts to North Carolina so she could be closer to her family.”

“Her condition declined before arrangements could be made (A suitable facility that would take her had to be located and then permission obtained from the court)," Fierle said. “She could not be moved once her condition declined. The family was advised of this.”

Fierle said she called Tibbetts Morrison to discuss cancer treatment for her mother’s multiple myeloma.

“The daughter agreed that aggressive treatment of her cancer should not be pursued under the circumstances,” Fierle said in a statement. “As I recall, the daughter said this type of cancer ran in the family. That is not a decision I made alone.”

But Tibbetts Morrison said Fierle told her Tibbetts was refusing medical care, including cancer treatment. Before her death, Tibbetts denied refusing medical treatment to both her daughter and Elliott, both said.

“When I ... mentioned Rebecca claimed she refused to go to medical appointments, Connie’s comment was, ‘Why would I refuse to go to a doctor? Why would I refuse to do something to fix my body?’” Elliott said.

Tibbetts’ daughter said she was never asked to make a decision about her mother’s treatment.

“One of Rebecca’s assistants called me and just said, ‘How do you feel about chemotherapy?’” Tibbetts Morrison said. “I told her I would think twice about it for myself, but it’s not for me to decide because my mother’s still alive and she’s in charge of her own life. It was like this hypothetical conversation. I was never told I was making a decision about my mother’s care.”

In the weeks leading up to her death, Tibbetts had no appetite, likely because of the cancer, but her daughter noted she hadn’t been placed on intravenous fluids. Photos of a death certificate provided by Tibbetts Morrison show her mother’s cause of death as malnutrition and multiple myeloma.

“She’d been overweight her whole life, but she was skin and bones,” Tibbetts Morrison said.

Fierle said through her attorney that she is “not a healthcare professional" and she consults with physicians regarding care for her wards.

“I do not independently make medical decisions regarding IV drips or appropriate medical care,” the guardian said. “I do know from my many years of experience working with the elderly that they often lose their appetites and ‘fail to thrive.’”

Tibbetts Morrison said she knows her mother alienated her family and caused them pain, but she deserved humane treatment at the end of her life.

“I think she would have several more years had she gotten proper medical care, maybe some time for grace and healing, but they didn’t really do anything to help her,” Tibbetts Morrison said. “She was mentally ill, but she was a human being and she deserved better care at the end of her life.”

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Expert’s complaint against Florida guardian Rebecca Fierle was ignored for years before scandal erupted | Exclusive

Central Florida guardian is a no show in Volusia County court

By Adrianna Iwasinski

DeLAND, Fla. - A Central Florida professional guardian under a state criminal investigation failed to appear in a Volusia County courtroom Monday afternoon for a case management conference on seven guardianship cases she had filed in that county.

Instead, Rebecca Fierle's attorneys showed up and asked the judge to order the proceedings to be closed to the public. Also in the courtroom, were two investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which has launched a criminal investigation into Fierle.

Judge Margaret Hudson granted the motion, but not before ordering that successor guardians needed to be placed in Fierle's three guardianship cases where the people are still alive.

News 6 has spent two weeks trying to get Fierle to answer the question of why she ordered do not resuscitate orders in cases in which people wanted to live.

Time after time, News 6 went to Fierle's geriatric management office in Orlando, to get results for the people who say they are her victims.

Even those coming to visit the office, located on Hillcrest Street, refused to talk or answer our questions about the investigation ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The staff locked the door during each and every one of our visits. So News 6 called the office, sent messages to Fierle's social media accounts and called and emailed her attorneys multiple times. No one ever returned our requests for comment.

News 6 also went to Fierle's home in Ocala to see if she was there. No one answered the door.

Last week, Fierle was in a Hillsborough County courtroom facing a judge to answer questions about a guardianship she had in that county.

But she refused to answer any questions from a Tampa television reporter when approached outside the courthouse after her hearing.

On July 12, News 6 talked with the daughter of Steven Stryker. Her father's death is at the center of a state criminal investigation.

State investigators say Fierle placed a do not resuscitate order on Steven Stryker, despite his wishes. He choked and died when the DNR prevented hospital staff from performing life-saving measures.

"He didn't deserve this," Kim Stryker said from her home outside Washington D.C. "He specifically expressed that he did not want to have a DNR on his health records."

As a result of the state investigation, an Orange County judge removed and revoked almost 100 do not resuscitate orders from cases handled by Fierle, stating she abused her power.

A week later, Fierle resigned from more than 30 cases in Seminole County.

While Fierle did not attend the closed hearing, some of her former clients did.

"The can of worms is just opening up for her," said Jack Meagher, a former ward of Fierle's.

The Florida Department of Elder Affairs, and more specifically, its Office of Public and Professional Guardians, is the group that is supposed to train, appoint and monitor the more than 500 registered guardians statewide. Three years ago, a law was passed, giving that office the power to investigate complaints made against any of those guardians and to partner with the courts to do so.

Under the statewide investigation alliance, the OPPG could refer a case to an investigator with the inspector general's office or one of the six court clerk's offices located across the state, which could then issue written reprimands or letters of concern.

They also have the power to suspend or revoke a professional guardian's registration.

But OPPG Executive Director Carol Berkowitz submitted her letter of resignation two weeks ago, just days after a state report revealed guardian Fierle placed do not resuscitate orders against the wishes of one of her wards.

The latest annual report by the Office of Public and Professional Guardians says the office received more than 140 legally sufficient complaints against registered professional guardians in 2018, and about half that number in 2017.

In Fierle's case, the OPPG gave her a written reprimand twice before. But her guardianship was kept in place until this month, when she was removed and effectively resigned from all her cases.

On Friday, the head of the Department of Elder Affairs Richard Prudom announced his department has made immediate administrative changes to try to improve response times on complaints. He said he will pursue legislative changes to ensure that neglect and abuse such as this never occurs again. 
At the same time the state was investigating, so was the Orange County comptroller's office.

"This whole guardianship system has been set up to protect people," Phil Diamond, the Orange County comptroller said. "It protects you if you are elderly and can't take care of yourself. It is supposed to protect you if you are a minor and you can't take care of yourself and that's the whole point of having guardians and our concern is that's not what happened here."

Diamond said his office was asked by a court monitor with the 9th Circuit Court to step in and investigate.

He said his audit department reviewed 30 cases in one week and discovered Fierle failed to provide receipts for reported work, failed to report businesses she worked with that had familial ties
and failed to report to the court nearly 70 cases in which she was a guardian.

"What's disturbing is to see vulnerable people not taken care of the way they should be," Diamond said. "There's a reason for all the rules that are in place to protect people, and if the rules aren't being followed, it means people could be taken advantage of. It means they might not be taken care of and that really defeats the purpose of a guardianship."

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Central Florida guardian is a no show in Volusia County court

FDLE: Professional guardian accused of causing death under criminal investigation

By: Adam Walser , Erin Smith

ORLANDO, Fla. — A professional guardian under fire for allegedly causing the death of a man who was under her care by issuing a "Do Not Resuscitate" order without permission is now the subject of a criminal investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed to ABC Action News on Friday.

The FDLE opened a criminal investigation into professional guardian Rebecca Fierle on July 25, according to FDLE spokeswoman Jessica Cary.

Cary said the investigation is being run out of the FDLE’s Orlando office in cooperation with law enforcement partners statewide.

Citing the active investigation, the agency would not say what potential crimes it is investigating or whether the probe involves the death of Steven Stryker.

Earlier this month, a state investigation recommended criminal charges against Fierle for withholding medical care from Stryker.

That investigation found Fierle capped off Stryker's feeding tube and signed a DNR order without permission. Stryker choked to death at St. Joseph's Hospital days later after doctors there told her to rescind that order.

In the wake of Stryker’s death, an Orange County judge removed Fierle from 98 cases and she later resigned from 40 other guardianship cases in Seminole, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

I-Team Investigator Adam Walser caught up with Fierle Wednesday after a court hearing for another guardianship case in Hillsborough County, but she refused to answer any questions about what happened to Stryker or how she handles her cases.

As a professional guardian, Fierle is appointed by the courts to care for those who a judge rules are unable to care for themselves.

If you have a story you’d like the I-Team to investigate, email adam@abcactionnews.com. 

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FDLE: Professional guardian accused of causing death under criminal investigation 

Florida Elder Affairs chief announces ‘immediate’ changes as embattled Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle resigns from all cases

Gerald Manczak, a ward of Rebecca Fierle, said this "do not resuscitate" order was filed without his permission by the professional guardian. (Monivette Cordeiro / Orlando Sentinel)

The head of Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs announced “immediate” changes to improve the agency’s response times for complaints in the wake of revelations that an Orlando-based professional guardian had filed unauthorized “do not resuscitate" orders on the behalf of numerous incapacitated clients. 

In a letter to the department Thursday, professional guardian Rebecca Fierle resigned from all her cases statewide, writing that she would not seek to be reappointed to any cases already taken from her or seek to be appointed as a guardian again in the future.

“Please be advised that I am hereby resigning as a registered professional guardian in the state of Florida,” Fierle wrote in the letter, which was first reported by the Associated Press. “I have instructed all of the attorneys with whom I work to file registrations as guardian on my behalf in all cases.”

In a statement, Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom said Fierle “failed... families who entrusted their loved ones to her care. We will continue to work with law enforcement and the courts to hold bad actors who violate the trust of our most vulnerable citizens and their families accountable.”

Prudom said he and Gov. Ron DeSantis would seek legislative changes to grant the department “the necessary oversight authority to guarantee our ability to ensure that neglect and abuse to the frailest of the frail never occurs again.”

In the meantime, Prudom said he had made unspecified changes “to improve our response time and thoroughly and expeditiously review complaints we have received. If complaints are received that demonstrate legally sufficient evidence of abuse, neglect or malfeasance, we refer those complaints to the appropriate authorities.”

He added: “Something needs to be—and will be—done.”

Prudom’s announcement came only hours after the Orlando Sentinel in the latest of several exclusive reports revealed that a 2016 complaint against Fierle — by a former member of Orange County’s Guardianship Examining Committee who alleged the guardian lied about a ward’s care and ignored her medical needs — had sat ignored for more than two years, until it was opened for investigation in April.

The latest developments come as a transcript of a recent court hearing obtained Friday by the Orlando Sentinel shed new light on how frequently Fierle used DNRs.

“Almost every case had a DNR,” Lori D. Loftis of the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel told Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe during the July 11 hearing. The hearing was closed to the public but the Orlando Sentinel obtained a transcript late Friday.

The transcript also revealed that Fierle’s resignation from 95 cases she had in Orange County at the time was only temporary. The parties agreed to appoint emergency guardians for Fierle’s wards until a full hearing, to be held 30 days after the initial hearing on Fierle’s removal.

It’s unclear if the hearing will still be held in light of Fierle’s letter to the Department of Elder Affairs.

“The exact timing of the appointment of successors and my discharges are not entirely in my control because I rely on my attorneys to prepare the resignations and judges to accept them and appoint successors,” Fierle wrote.

Rebecca Fierle

However, at Loftis’ urging, Thorpe revoked all advanced directives signed by the professional guardian — “there are to be no DNRs or plug-pulling,” she said. Loftis told Thorpe she had seen 90 cases involving Fierle and “probably 88 out of 90 had DNRs.”

During the hearing, Thorpe also said she had discovered that Fierle had not been personally bonded since 2013. Professional guardians are required to obtain a $50,000 bond to cover any liability. Thorpe said Fierle had transferred the bonding to a corporation that dissolved in 2014.

“And so as of right now, she’s a disqualified person,” Thorpe said. “And it’s mandatory that the Court shall remove her.”

The firestorm surrounding Fierle began after the death of Steven Stryker, a 75-year-old Cocoa man to whom Fierle had been appointed as a guardian. Investigators with the Okaloosa County Clerk of Court found that Stryker died at a Tampa hospital after staff could not perform life-saving procedures because of a DNR order Fierle filed against his wishes.

On Thursday, Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman Jeremy Burns confirmed the agency has launched “an active criminal investigation into” Fierle, though he could not confirm if the investigation was related to the Stryker’s death.

In a notice that prompted the July 11 hearing, Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe found Fierle had “abused her powers” by requesting that incapacitated clients not receive medical treatment if their heart or breathing stopped.

During the hearing, an attorney for AdventHealth told Thorpe the hospital system had paid Fierle for her services as a guardian to roughly 50 patients. An Orange County Comptroller’s review of 30 cases where Fierle was appointed guardian found Fierle may have entered into a contract with the health-care company formerly known as Florida Hospital that was not disclosed to the court — a potential violation.

“We pay for various services,” attorney Troy A. Kishbaugh told Thorpe, according to the transcript. “We suspected in many instances that AdventHealth should not be responsible for paying for guardians.”

"You shouldn't be," Thorpe told him. "All payments to guardians come through the court based on the statutes. ... I haven't seen your payments come through to me."

"They don't," Kishbaugh answered.

"That's a problem, sir," the judge said.

The guardian needed to get permission from the court to receive funds from another party, Thorpe said.

 Guardians are court-appointed decision makers who determine legal, financial, housing and medical choices for minors and adults with mental and physical disabilities, known as wards.

At the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Justice Center in Brevard County Friday, Fierle’s attorney Laura Sterling told Chief Judge Lisa Davidson that guardian Manda Wright would be available for appointment in two cases where Fierle had petitioned to start guardianship proceedings.

J. Rudi Trader, the court-appointed attorney for both wards, asked Wright before the judge if she was in any way associated with Fierle.

“No,” Wright responded.

Davidson said she felt the substitution of Wright for Fierle is “appropriate under the circumstances.”

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Florida Elder Affairs chief announces ‘immediate’ changes as embattled Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle resigns from all cases