Federal judge to decide whether to remand case against Harris County judge back to state court

HOUSTON – As the U.S. Senate considers the Guardianship Accountability Act, a federal judge in Houston is considering the responses to an order for supplemental briefing in a case against a Harris County judge over the 2014 death of a woman in a nursing home.

U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, on the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, issued the briefing on Jan. 14 in the lawsuit filed by Sherry Johnston against Harris County Probate Judge Christine Butts and David Dexel.

The order stated that the case presented some state-law issues that were unresolved.

“Dexel and Johnston were involved in guardianship proceedings before Judge Butts in the Harris County Probate Court," Rosenthal said. "Under Texas law, Johnston was an interested person in that proceeding.”

The judge ordered both parties to explain whether the case should be remanded to the 253rd Judicial District Court for Liberty County in regards to the state-law issues by Jan. 28.

Both parties responded within the set deadline.

Johnston's attorney stated in a pleading that “the court’s identification of the questions at stake here and acknowledgment that federal court is not the best forum to decide them on behalf of the State of Texas is further argument for remand to the 253rd District Court of Liberty County, Texas from which the case was removed.”

As previously reported by the SE Texas Record, Johnston sued Butts in 2016 over allegations that her elderly mother, Willie Jo Mills, suffered broken bones and a rapid, preventable decline, which contributed to malnutrition and her death in a nursing home when Mills was a ward of the state under guardianship.

"A ward is typically a senior citizen experiencing cognitive decline or a younger adult with physical or developmental disabilities," the SE Texas Record previously reported.

Rosenthal allowed Johnston to proceed in federal court against Butts in the adult guardianship claim.
 
The press release stated that "before her death, Johnston’s mother, Ms. Mills, was among the estimated 48,468 Texans conscripted to live under the thumb of a court-appointed guardian in 254 counties, according to the Office of Court Administration, and once appointed by a probate judge, guardians are empowered to sedate the guardianized citizen with physician-prescribed psychotropic drugs, to deny the citizen choice of food, health insurance, medical care and even visits with friends, disability advocates, adult children and other concerned loved ones by imposing visitation costs and residency in locked care centers."

While the case is being considered, the Senate Finance Committee in Washington, D.C. is evaluating the proposed Guardianship Accountability Act before making a final decision regarding the financial impacts of the law, that could, per the release, "impact the 98 million Americans nationwide that are expected to reach age 65 and older by 2060."

The Guardianship Accountability Act was introduced by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine on Nov. 28, 2018.

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Federal judge to decide whether to remand case against Harris County judge back to state court

14 Lies That Our Psychiatry Professors in Medical School Taught Us

Dr. Gary Kohls

Myth # 1:

“The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) tests all new psychiatric drugs”

False. Actually the FDA only reviews studies that were designed, administered, secretly performed and paid for by the multinational profit-driven drug companies. The studies are frequently farmed out by the pharmaceutical companies by well-paid research firms, in whose interest it is to find positive results for their corporate employers. Unsurprisingly, such research policies virtually guarantee fraudulent results.
Myth # 2:

“FDA approval means that a psychotropic drug is effective long-term”

False. Actually, FDA approval doesn’t even mean that psychiatric drugs have been proven to be safe – either short-term or long-term! The notion that FDA approval means that a psych drug has been proven to be effective is also a false one, for most such drugs are never tested – prior to marketing – for longer than a few months (and most psych patients take their drugs for years). The pharmaceutical industry pays many psychiatric “researchers” – often academic psychiatrists (with east access to compliant, chronic, already drugged-up patients) who have financial or professional conflicts of interest – some of them even sitting on FDA advisory committees who attempt to “fast track” psych drugs through the approval process. For each new drug application, the FDA only receives 1 or 2 of the “best” studies (out of many) that purport to show short-term effectiveness. The negative studies are shelved and not revealed to the FDA. In the case of the SSRI drugs, animal lab studies typically lasted only hours, days or weeks and the human clinical studies only lasted, on average, 4- 6 weeks, far too short to draw any valid conclusions about long-term effectiveness or safety!

Hence the FDA, prescribing physicians and patient-victims should not have been “surprised” by the resulting epidemic of SSRI drug-induced adverse reactions that are silently plaguing the nation. Indeed, many SSRI trials have shown that those drugs are barely more effective than placebo (albeit statistically significant!) with unaffordable economic costs and serious health risks, some of which are life-threatening and known to be capable of causing brain damage.
Myth # 3:

 “FDA approval means that a psychotropic drug is safe long-term”

False. Actually, the SSRIs and the “anti-psychotic” drugs are usually tested in human trials for only a couple of months before being granted marketing approval by the FDA. And the drug companies are only required to report 1 or 2 studies (even if many other studies on the same drug showed negative, even disastrous,  results). Drug companies obviously prefer that the black box and fine print warnings associated with their drugs are ignored by both consumers and prescribers. One only has to note how small the print is on the commercials.

In our fast-paced shop-until-you-drop consumer society, we super-busy prescribing physicians and physician assistants have never been fully aware of the multitude of dangerous, potentially fatal adverse psych drug effects that include addiction, mania, psychosis, suicidality, worsening depression, worsening anxiety, insomnia, akathisia, brain damage, dementia, homicidality, violence, etc, etc.
But when was the last time anybody heard the FDA or Big Pharma apologize for the damage they did in the past? And when was the last time there were significant punishments (other than writs slaps and “chump change” multimillion dollar fines) or prison time for the CEOs of the guilty multibillion dollar drug companies?  (Continue Reading)

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14 Lies That Our Psychiatry Professors in Medical School Taught Us