Protective Care

A 70-year-old Grand Rapids woman accused of taking more than $20,000 from three adults in her care might have victimized more than 25 people, the Wood County corporation counsel said.

Myrna M. Trickey has her next court appearance scheduled for April 14. She previously pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of theft in a business setting. If convicted, she faces a maximum of six years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each count.

According to the criminal complaint, Trickey, who operated a business called Protective Care in Grand Rapids, was the court-appointed guardian for three adults described as at risk -- defined by state law as having a condition that substantially impairs the person. Her responsibilities included managing their money and handling their financial affairs.

Trickey wrote 67 checks, totaling more than $10,000, to herself on the account of one of her wards, according to the complaint. Authorities said she wrote 32 checks, totaling more than $10,000 on the second person's account and 27 checks, totaling $2,500, on the third person's account. The money was taken during a period of more than four years.

Full Article and Source:
Woman accused of stealing from dozens of clients

Caregiver Arrested for Fleecing

A woman accused of stealing more than $100,000 in money and jewelry from an elderly couple she was supposed to be taking care of got the couple to lend her much of the money, according to court records.

Daisy Lee Joubert has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of financial elder abuse, according to court records.

She was arrested March 25 on accusations she stole from Ileen and Norman Jonas, who live at the Sun City Palm Desert Community. They are in poor health and require around-the-clock care, according to a declaration in support of an arrest warrant.

Joubert is accused of forging checks on their bank account and took jewelry and other items from their home and pawned them.

Full Article and Source:
Woman arrested on suspicion of financial elder abuse of Sun City resident

More information:
Caretaker accused of fleecing $100K from senior couple

Ageism Bill

In an already tough economy, some say they're facing an extra hurdle in their quest for jobs. They're older, and they say potential employers often hold that against them.

During a hearing at the Indiana Statehouse, some of those workers testified about their struggles.

Jim Hand is 54, and an unemployed auto worker. Hal Goldman is 74, and looking for work as a business consultant. They've both been looking for work for months.

Goldman: "They would ask my age during the interview, and I refused to answer. They also asked me a question about how long I planned to work."

Hand: "It's awful. I mean, it's absolutely awful because I kind of feel like my future is slipping through my fingers."

Hand and Goldman each testified at the Statehouse in favor of a bill that would toughen the state's age discrimination law.

Paul Chase of AARP Indiana: "It would actually create a remedy. People right now have a right to bring a discrimination claim, but they don't have a remedy, a meaningful remedy. All the Indiana Department of Labor can do is issue a finding of fact that the discrimination occurred. But to a person who's been terminated or not been hired, it doesn't do anything to help them in terms of the economic damage that they may have suffered."

Full Article and Source:
Older workers lobby for ageism bill

More information:
Workers seek protection from age discrimination

Opponents knock age discrimination bill

Preying on the Elderly

TX - Police arrested a self-proclaimed gypsy they say conned an elderly couple out of thousands of dollars.

Police say Danny Groffo and his alleged accomplice, Kathleen Frank, convinced a west Houston couple to pay them $500 for some minor home repairs, but ended up bilking them out of $24,000. Frank, who also claims to be a gypsy, is still at large, investigators said.

District Attorney Valerie Turner: “They don’t steal with guns or with force; they steal with their brains and with their mouths. Their victims may be physically feeble, unable to take care of work around their house, and are more willing to trust folks. It’s sad.”

Turner said the original fee proposed by Groffo and Frank to fix cracks in the couple’s driveway and to power wash a fence was fair, but each day they kept jacking up the price. Plus, the work wasn’t getting done. “They raised the price by tens of thousands of dollars.”

The elderly couple said they were too afraid to get out of the deal because the suspects became aggressive and were scaring them.

One day, the suspects allegedly forced the woman of the house to withdraw $8,000 from her bank while they kept an eye on her from a Whataburger across the street.

“What is frustrating about this case is that the woman felt intimidated. She was shaking, she was nervous and she feared for her and her husband’s safety,” Turner said.

One of the last payments the couple made was with a $5,000 check, which ended up giving investigators a break in the case.

An investigator from HPD’s Major Offenders Division learned the $5,000 check was cashed inside a bar near the Hempstead Highway. That’s how police were able to identify the suspects.

Turner : “I am willing to bet there are other victims out there, and just like this couple, they are too embarrassed to report it to the police. Hopefully, by seeing this story, they’ll see that they weren’t the only ones that were taken advantage of.”

If you have information that can help police, call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

Source:
Police arrest self-proclaimed gypsy accused of preying on the elderly

Dumping Grounds for Mentally Ill

Ivory Jackson had Alzheimer's, but that wasn't what killed him. At 77, he was smashed in the face with a clock radio as he lay in his nursing home bed.

Jackson's roommate - a mentally ill man nearly 30 years younger - was arrested and charged with the killing. Police found him sitting next to the nurse's station, blood on his hands, clothes and shoes. Inside their room, the ceiling was spattered with blood.

"Why didn't they do what they needed to do to protect my dad?" wondered Jackson's stepson, Russell Smith.

Over the past several years, nursing homes have become dumping grounds for young and middle-age people with mental illness, according to Associated Press interviews and an analysis of data from all 50 states. That has proved a prescription for violence, as Jackson's case and others across the country illustrate.

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VIEWPOINTS: Nursing homes dumping grounds for mentally ill

Some Money Returned - Investigation Continues

The state has returned donated money amounting to more than $27,000 that had been taken out of Jasper County wards’ accounts by Rita Hunter, former public administrator.

Gretchen Long, attorney for Angie Casavecchia, the new public administrator: “There is more coming.”

The office is working on the return of about $85,000 that was taken from wards’ accounts and sent to state health-care agencies in the last weeks of Hunter’s tenure at the end of last year.

Hunter also is the subject of an investigation that was launched after it was learned that all the wards’ records had been taken from the public administrator’s files, and that computer files on the wards had been erased before Casavecchia took over on Jan. 1. Hunter later returned about 30 boxes of files, and additional materials were taken from her house as a result of a search warrant.

Full Article and Source:
Some county wards’ money returned by state agencies

See also:
Probate Judge Orders Return of Money

Hunter Removed Client Files

Class Action Filed

Lawyer Permanently Disbarred

The Ohio Supreme Court has disbarred a Warren attorney who took money from clients.

In a 7-0 decision, the justices noted that George N. Kafantaris, “repeatedly misappropriated funds from two different clients, and incredibly, in one instance, continued taking those funds while under suspension. Respondent callously disregarded his client’s interests. Furthermore, his actions show disrespect for the judicial system as a whole.”

The decision lined up with the state’s Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline, which earlier recommended Kafantaris be disbarred permanently for misappropriating funds from two clients and for filing a false affidavit, according to documents.

Full Article and Source:
Top Ohio court disbars attorney permanently

Mother of Guardian Lied

Diane Merrifield, the mother of a man convicted of sexually molesting and murdering his girlfriend's 2-year-old child, lied to a Child Protective Services investigator who was trying to locate Logan Goodall days before his 2005 death.

The revelation came during a pretrial hearing in the civil lawsuit filed by Jeremy Goodall, Logan's father, against the state Department of Health and Human Resources and Diane Merrifield. Dr. John Merrifield, Diane's husband and father of Michael Merrifield, was also named in the lawsuit, but he settled with Logan's estate for $775,000 in November 2007.

A Putnam County jury in January 2008 convicted Michael Merrifield of first-degree murder, child neglect resulting in death, and sexual abuse by a guardian. He is serving a life sentence without the chance of parole at Mount Olive.

Logan Goodall died on Sept. 6, 2005, of injuries that were consistent with repeated physical and sexual assaults, the state medical examiner's autopsy concluded.

In April 2008, John Merrifield pleaded no contest to gross neglect creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death and was sentenced to five years on home confinement.

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Merrifield's mother lied to CPS just days before Logan's death

Ten Years of Financial Abuse

Leroy Newton, Erna's only child, is an investment banker in California. Erna trusted his knowledge and advice. The next thing she knew, her house, her stocks and all her worldly goods were the property of her son. Far before her death.

She appealed his creation of a trust that kept her from accessing her own money, and she won.

She changed her house back into her name, and waited for her other assets to be returned.

Sadly, there was a lack of follow through by the Clackamas County Oregon lower court, "administrative neglect" it's called. The court documents from Erna's "win" were never filed, and therefore left her son a window to finalize his takeover.

When Erna learned of this mishap, she appealed to the court to uphold the decision in her favor, and she was denied. Next, a trustee was assigned to Erna's inheritance without her ever being declared "Incompetent".

Eight years later, now recovering from a stroke, Erna has spent herself into debt defending her right to her own property. Her son has fought her all the way.

Finally, in November of 2007, the Oregon State of Appeals court agreed to allow the documents to be submitted, and the case revisited.

Erna filed the paperwork in January 2008 and her son's attorney drug his feet in responding, receiving two extensions after defaulting, and even missing the extension deadline by three days. His paperwork was accepted, nonetheless.

Erna's a survivor, and she's vowed not to let her son get the best of her. She intends to see justice served.

Full Article and Source:
Elderly Woman Suffering Ten Years of Financial Abuse Looks for Justice