A 64-year-old former attorney who practiced in Vista before he was disbarred in July pled not guilty Monday to charges of embezzlement, grand theft and financial elder abuse for allegedly stealing settlements and retainer fees from clients.
David Gilbert Ronquillo faces five years and eight months in state prison if convicted, said Paul Levikow, spokesman for the district attorney's office. Ronquillo was being held Monday at the South Bay Detention Center in Chula Vista on $50,000 bail, said Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Dort.
According to State Bar court documents, Ronquillo misappropriated about $125,000 from two clients.
In 2005, Ronquillo procured a $235,606 insurance settlement for a Canadian man who lost his wife and was himself injured in a 1999 Needles car accident, State Bar Judge Richard Platel said in his decision to inactivate the lawyer's bar membership. Ronquillo never paid the client his $115,066 portion of the settlement and instead used the money to run his practice, Platel found.
In 2007, a San Diego client gave Ronquillo a $10,000 retainer fee to defend him in a civil action, Platel said.
The suit was quickly dismissed, and Ronquillo, who only earned $1,000 in the case, never returned the $9,000 balance to his client, Platel said.
The State Bar had previously disciplined Ronquillo in 2004, suspending his membership for 30 days and placing him on probation for repeatedly issuing personal and business checks from his client's trust accounts, according to State Bar records.
Full Article and Source:
Disbarred Vista Lawyer Accused of Stealing Client's Settlement
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Caretaker Accused of Fraud, Trial Begins
Caretaker Sandra Gayle convinced a retired Springfield pathologist that Gayle and her family were the only ones she could trust — then took “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from the woman, a prosecutor said. Tuesday.
Assistant state’s attorney Karen Tharp said in opening statements in Gayle’s trial on financial exploitation charges that Gayle, 65, “gifted” more than $300,000 from the 93-year-old doctor’s bank account to herself and her family members. Gayle also paid personal bills with the doctor’s money, Tharp said.
Defense attorney Jason Vincent said the evidence will show that Gayle, who began caring for the physician in January 2004, did everything on the up-and-up.
Vincent said the doctor had a financial adviser, an attorney and an accountant, and “Gayle would take her (the doctor) to their offices and lay everything out for them.”
“It was (the doctor’s) decision to do these giftings, not Sandra Gayle’s,” he said.
Gayle is accused of financial exploitation of the elderly and financial exploitation of a disabled person. She allegedly took money from the victim, who has no known heirs and assets of at least $2 million, between Nov. 24, 2004, and April 12, 2007. Gayle received free room and board at the woman’s house while drawing a salary of $1,344 a week.
Vincent said that amounted to little more than $8.50 an hour, considering that Gayle was on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
He said there was no gifting after the doctor was diagnosed with dementia in June 2007.
Full Article and Source:
Trial Begins for Caretaker Accused of Fraud
Assistant state’s attorney Karen Tharp said in opening statements in Gayle’s trial on financial exploitation charges that Gayle, 65, “gifted” more than $300,000 from the 93-year-old doctor’s bank account to herself and her family members. Gayle also paid personal bills with the doctor’s money, Tharp said.
Defense attorney Jason Vincent said the evidence will show that Gayle, who began caring for the physician in January 2004, did everything on the up-and-up.
Vincent said the doctor had a financial adviser, an attorney and an accountant, and “Gayle would take her (the doctor) to their offices and lay everything out for them.”
“It was (the doctor’s) decision to do these giftings, not Sandra Gayle’s,” he said.
Gayle is accused of financial exploitation of the elderly and financial exploitation of a disabled person. She allegedly took money from the victim, who has no known heirs and assets of at least $2 million, between Nov. 24, 2004, and April 12, 2007. Gayle received free room and board at the woman’s house while drawing a salary of $1,344 a week.
Vincent said that amounted to little more than $8.50 an hour, considering that Gayle was on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
He said there was no gifting after the doctor was diagnosed with dementia in June 2007.
Full Article and Source:
Trial Begins for Caretaker Accused of Fraud
Long Term Care Symposium
"It's more dangerous to be a home health aide than it is to be a coal miner(1)." Howard Gleckman, senior research associate at the Urban Institute, said that as he described the state of home health care in the U.S. at Genworth Financial's Fourth Annual Long Term Care Symposium on Monday, September 14, in Washington, D.C.
Genworth Financial's Long Term Care Symposium is held annually to discuss and evaluate public policy issues surrounding the state of long term care across the nation. As Congress addresses healthcare reform and its many components, this year's event emphasized the neeed for anational long term care strategy including funding, education and support for the caregiver. Additionally, the event served to highlight the viability of numerous legislative proposals in the support of caregivers aimed at helping to solve the nation's long term care challenges.
Part of the emotional strain facing many home care givers results from low wages paid for providing such services. According to Genworth's "A Workforce to Care for our Aging" 2008 white paper, 19% of home care aides and 16% of nursing home aides are compensated at a level insufficient for them to rise above the poverty line.
Full Press Release and Source:
Caregiving, Long Term Care Policy Proposal Bring Advocates Together
Genworth Financial's Long Term Care Symposium is held annually to discuss and evaluate public policy issues surrounding the state of long term care across the nation. As Congress addresses healthcare reform and its many components, this year's event emphasized the neeed for anational long term care strategy including funding, education and support for the caregiver. Additionally, the event served to highlight the viability of numerous legislative proposals in the support of caregivers aimed at helping to solve the nation's long term care challenges.
Part of the emotional strain facing many home care givers results from low wages paid for providing such services. According to Genworth's "A Workforce to Care for our Aging" 2008 white paper, 19% of home care aides and 16% of nursing home aides are compensated at a level insufficient for them to rise above the poverty line.
Full Press Release and Source:
Caregiving, Long Term Care Policy Proposal Bring Advocates Together
Nurse Who Stole From Medicaid Sentenced
A registered nurse has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay almost $135,000 in restitution to a home health agency for stealing from the Medicaid program, officials said.
Carol Lynn Glover pleaded guilty in May to one count of theft in connection with health care. Authorities said Glover worked for Nurses By Prescription Inc., a nursing service in Amarillo, and submitted false time sheets indicating she had provided care for a patient when she hadn't provided that level of care.
In addition to falsifying time sheets, officials said Glover also forged the signature of the patient's guardian.
Full Article and Source:
Nurse Who Stole From Medicaid Sentenced
Carol Lynn Glover pleaded guilty in May to one count of theft in connection with health care. Authorities said Glover worked for Nurses By Prescription Inc., a nursing service in Amarillo, and submitted false time sheets indicating she had provided care for a patient when she hadn't provided that level of care.
In addition to falsifying time sheets, officials said Glover also forged the signature of the patient's guardian.
Full Article and Source:
Nurse Who Stole From Medicaid Sentenced
Arrested and Charged
The Port Orange Police Department arrested a man Wednesday who they say swindled thousands of dollars from an 86-year-old.Investigators say Harold McBride solicited the 86-year-old victim for his lawn service approximately three months ago and bank records show he was able to obtain approximately $24,163.00 from the victim.
Full Article and Source:
Cops: Elderly Woman Bilked out of $24K
Friday, September 25, 2009
Group of 20 Fights Against Judicial Immunity for Conahan and Ciavarella
In a legal brief filed Tuesday, 20 legal scholars and former judges argued that granting former Luzerne County judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. judicial immunity from civil suits in the kids-for-cash scandal would make a "mockery" of a legal doctrine designed to protect judicial independence and integrity.Ciavarella and Conahan, accused of accepting $2.8 million in kickbacks for sending juveniles to two for-profit detention centers, have claimed judicial immunity in civil-rights suits filed by hundreds of those juveniles in U.S. District Court.
The former judges claim they cannot be held liable because the legal doctrine of judicial immunity protects them from civil suits stemming from their official actions.
But in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Tuesday, 20 legal scholars and former judges argue judicial immunity was never intended to protect judges from claims stemming from allegedly criminal activity.
Friend of the Court Motion
Friend of the Court Brief
Conahan's Motion for Immunity
Ciavarella's Motion for Immunity
Full Aricle and Source:
Group of 20 Argues Against Immunity for Ciavarella, Conahan
See also:
Conahan Linked to 1990's Cocaine Probe
NASGA Member Attends Hearings
Jack Straw Gets 15 Years
A federal judge has handed a 15-year prison sentence to a Waterloo insurance agent convicted of fraud in the bilking of elderly clients.U.S. District Judge Linda Reade opted to go beyond the maximum recommended sentence when she sentenced Jack Straw on Tuesday.
Reade said sentencing guidelines didn't address the hardship Straw caused for his victims. The guidelines recommended a punishment in the neighborhood of eight to 10 years.
Straw was accused of bilking clients out of at least $1 million. He pleaded guilty in February to seven fraud and money laundering charges.
Full Article and Source:
Man Gets 15 Years For Bilking Elderly
See also:
Attorney Asking for Leniency
Clancys Facing 30 Years
Joseph Clancy called Eloise Mudway "the old bitch."
Cynthia Clancy told a co-worker not to bother calling 911 if Mudway should fall ill.
"Just let her die," she said, according to trial testimony.
The words stung the Clancys when a jury heard them in a courtroom last week, and the same words, no doubt, aided the jury in finding the couple guilty Monday of grand theft from a person over the age of 65.
The Clancys now face up to 30 years in prison when they return to court for sentencing Oct. 22.
Full Article and Source:
Pasco Couple Faces Up to 30 Years for Bilking Elderly Woman
See also:
Pasco County Couple Convicted of Stealing From Elderly Woman
Jury to Decide Tomorrow
Cynthia Clancy told a co-worker not to bother calling 911 if Mudway should fall ill.
"Just let her die," she said, according to trial testimony.
The words stung the Clancys when a jury heard them in a courtroom last week, and the same words, no doubt, aided the jury in finding the couple guilty Monday of grand theft from a person over the age of 65.
The Clancys now face up to 30 years in prison when they return to court for sentencing Oct. 22.
Full Article and Source:
Pasco Couple Faces Up to 30 Years for Bilking Elderly Woman
See also:
Pasco County Couple Convicted of Stealing From Elderly Woman
Jury to Decide Tomorrow
AZ: Calling All Lawyers
Economists are saying the recession is either ending or has already ended, but that is not yet evident in the waiting rooms of agencies that provide free legal services to people with low incomes.
Legal assistance agencies are working hard to help people in multiple ways, but they cannot adequately keep up with the demand. Their waiting rooms are now always full and often overflowing.
This is because the same economy that has wrought unprecedented foreclosures and double-digit unemployment has also rendered many attorneys, who in the recent past consistently donated many hours of free service, less able to do so.
Brian Wargo, a reporter for In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication of the Las Vegas Sun, wrote last week about the scope of this problem. Among those he interviewed was Lynn Etkins, a director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.
“It is overwhelming,” Etkins told Wargo, “Our lobby is filled with clients ranging from victims of domestic violence to people losing their homes and jobs.” Of the center’s staff, Etkins said, “We are swamped and everybody has a maximum caseload. We do not see any letup with the economic crisis so far as clients are concerned.”
Full Article and Source:
Calling All Lawyers
Legal assistance agencies are working hard to help people in multiple ways, but they cannot adequately keep up with the demand. Their waiting rooms are now always full and often overflowing.
This is because the same economy that has wrought unprecedented foreclosures and double-digit unemployment has also rendered many attorneys, who in the recent past consistently donated many hours of free service, less able to do so.
Brian Wargo, a reporter for In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication of the Las Vegas Sun, wrote last week about the scope of this problem. Among those he interviewed was Lynn Etkins, a director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.
“It is overwhelming,” Etkins told Wargo, “Our lobby is filled with clients ranging from victims of domestic violence to people losing their homes and jobs.” Of the center’s staff, Etkins said, “We are swamped and everybody has a maximum caseload. We do not see any letup with the economic crisis so far as clients are concerned.”
Full Article and Source:
Calling All Lawyers
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