Nashville Woman's Plight Leads Senate to Amend Guardian Law

The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to amend the state guardianship law to require disclosure of any criminal record by individuals seeking to become conservators.

The bill was prompted by the case of Jewell Tinnon, 82, of Nashville, who was placed in a conservatorship after a request by two of her grandchildren. Her story was featured in Sunday’s Tennessean as part of an examination of conservatorships, which are intended to protect those no longer able to care for themselves.

While Tinnon was under court-ordered control, her house, car and all her possessions were sold off, with the proceeds going to pay legal and other fees. The judge overseeing the case, 7th Circuit Probate Court Judge David “Randy” Kennedy, eventually released her from the conservatorship after she obtained medical exams showing her competency. But with her assets gone, she is now living in government-subsidized public housing.

State Sen. Mae Beavers, a Mt. Juliet Republican and the Senate sponsor, said the bill also would give judges considering a conservatorship petition greater discretion on who was responsible to pay lawyers’ fees and other costs related to the case.

She said that under the current law, only the target or ward of the conservatorship can be charged the fees. The new provision would allow a judge to charge other parties, such as someone who filed a frivolous or unwarranted petition.

The House version of the bill filed by state Rep. Gary Odom, a Nashville Democrat, is scheduled for a vote Monday.

Full Article and Source:
Nashville Woman's Plight Leads Senate to Amend Guardian Law

CA State Mental Hospitals Plagued by Peril

When Garth Webb was sent to Napa State Hospital, his parents were relieved.

The bellboy and amateur composer from Sebastopol had been in the throes of bipolar disorder when he was charged with threatening the lives of co-workers. His family encouraged him to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, thinking that in a mental hospital he would get the treatment he needed.

Instead, Webb and his parents say, he was repeatedly brutalized. His main tormentor, a patient in the room next door, assaulted him several times, wrapping him in a headlock and sexually abusing him.

Soon after, the same man strangled a psychiatric worker on the hospital grounds.

"Since I've been here, that's what I've witnessed ... these random acts of violence," Webb, now 31, said in an interview from the hospital. "It was a rude awakening."

Webb's ordeal offers a window on the failings of a six-year effort to improve conditions in California's public mental hospitals at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Under pressure from higher-ups to place the fewest possible restrictions on patients, hospital staff members grew reluctant to take assertive action against violent or unruly ones, according to state records and interviews with hospital officials, employees, patients and their families.

Paperwork intended to document progress toward about 360 separate objectives left staff members with far less time for patients and less flexibility to craft suitable treatments.

"They have succeeded in putting in all these measures and employing people to count their forms," said Mel Hunter, former executive director of Atascadero, who left the hospital in 2007 because of his objections to the changes. "But in terms of reduction in cost, reduction in time served in treatment and reduction in violence, it's a failure."

The architect of the reforms was Nirbhay Singh, a Virginia-based consultant.

Singh came to the United States in 1987 from New Zealand, where he had served as psychology director at an institution for the mentally retarded. He became a professor of psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University and developed specialties in "person-centered" care — designed to build on a patient's strengths — and "positive behavior support."

Singh had scant experience treating psychiatric patients, let alone the sort of dangerous offenders who fill the state hospitals. He specialized in research on the developmentally disabled, particularly children, and published articles about Buddhist-inspired mindfulness and alternative treatments, such as using the herb kava as a calming agent.

Yet Singh had at least one qualification that appealed to California officials: He was well-acquainted with the Justice Department lawyers who were scrutinizing the state hospitals. They had hired him 21 times over the years, mostly to advise them on problems with care at centers for the developmentally disabled.

Full Article and Source:
California State Mental Hospitals Plagued by Peril

Tape Shows Developmentally Disabled Teen Being Shocked 31 Times

A jury in Dedham, Mass., saw video this week of an 18-year-old being tied down and shocked 31 times as he screamed in pain.

The footage was presented by lawyers of Andre McCollins, who is suing the Judge Rotenberg Center for developmentally disabled students, which treated him in part by attaching electrodes to his body and shocking him.

The incident recorded on video took place in 2002 after McCollins refused to take off his coat, according to MyFox Boston.

The station reports that lawyers for the center fought to keep the public from seeing the video, but a judge denied their request.

WARNING: The video below is not suitable for everyone.

Graphic video of teen being restrained, shocked played in court: MyFoxBOSTON.com

Full Article and Source:
Judge Rotenberg Center Trial: Tape Shows Teen Being Shocked 31 Times (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

Disbarred AZ Attorney Claims He's a Victim of Corruption

Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is speaking out for the first time about being disbarred.

Protesters clashed with supporters at Thomas' news conference.

A judge ruled to disbar him for pursuing politically motivated investigations with no probable cause.

A state bar panel found him in violation of more than two dozen rules of ethics.

He insists he's the victim of corruption.

"Arizona, after what happened yesterday, has become Mexico," said Thomas at the news conference. "The people of this community need to understand what happened yesterday when my law license was targeted."

Thomas said he was an honest prosecutor who was unjustly smeared and tarnished.

The sanctions against him and his two prosecutors are set to begin in a month, but they could be delayed if Thomas appeals to the state Supreme Court.

Source:
Disbarred Arizona Attorney Claims He's a Victim of Corruption

Florida Supreme Court to Judges: No Lobbying

Stung by public reaction to judges who lobbied state lawmakers into a $50 million courthouse many have dubbed a “Taj Mahal," the Florida Supreme Court has established new rules that would muzzle individual judges who try to have their way with the Legislature.

And some judges are not happy. The state’s circuit court judges have formally asked the state’s highest court to rescind the rules and at least engage in a public discussion of rules that would constrain their right to speak out in public. Judges at the Fifth District Court of Appeal also have filed a formal objection to a provision that would establish term limits on chief judges.

The rules, approved by a sharply divided court in February, would prevent individual judges from taking their budget requests and suggestions for changing the law directly to lawmakers without first getting approval from the Supreme Court and administrative committees who oversee the budget.

In addition, the state’s highest court has imposed an 8-year term limit on the service of all chief judges and requires them to be selected on the basis of their managerial, administrative and leadership skills.

Justices Barbara Pariente, Jorge Labarga, Ricky Polston and James Perry voted for all of the rules while Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justice Peggy Quince concurred with part of the decision but objected to term limits. Justice Fred Lewis dissented from the entire opinion.

“The majority in many ways takes the court system backward to recreate circumstances similar to those found by the citizens of Florida to be unworkable and abusive over 40 years ago," Lewis wrote.”

Full Article and Source:
Florida Supreme Court to Judges: No Lobbying

Former CCAAA Employee Sentenced for Stealing From Elderly Woman

A former employee of the Clearfield County Area Agency on Aging accused of taking thousands of dollars from an elderly woman pleaded guilty Tuesday during plea and sentencing court in Clearfield County.

Jodie Lorraine Yarger, 45, Brisbin, pleaded guilty to five counts each of forgery and theft by unlawful taking. She was sentenced to 60 days to one year in jail and four years consecutive probation. A condition of the plea agreement was that she pay $10,000 of the restitution prior to sentencing. She owes and additional $2,536. She is prohibited from being employed as a social worker.

The charges stem from incidents that occurred between Jan. 2005 and Sept. 2010. During this time Yarger was employed by the CCAAA as Director of Long Term Care Services. She was hired in Dec. 1999.

Prior to sentencing Judge Fredric J. Ammerman stated that he had received a letter from the victim’s children which “paints a pretty pathetic picture”. Yarger was trusted and she stole the victim’s money. What made it worse, Ammerman noted was that she was working for the CCAAA at the time.

Full Article and Source:
Former CCAAA Employee Sentenced for Stealing From Elderly Woman

Courts Look to Law to Prevent Fiduciary Theft

Chancery Courts in Harrison and Hinds County are following required safeguards to protect the assets of children and vulnerable adults because, they confirm, attorneys in their jurisdictions either stole or improperly spent millions of dollars entrusted to them.

In Gulfport, attorney Woodrow W. “Woody” Pringle III stole at least $2.4 million from accounts he managed for children and vulnerable adults, a forensic accounting shows. He spent some of the cash on a house in Windemere, Fla, where he lived with his third wife, and on travel expenses to and from Florida to Gulfport, according to the records.

Pringle committed suicide in December 2010 in a hotel room at the Orlando Ritz-Carlton, overdosing on alcohol and pain killers, after Harrison County Chancery Clerk John McAdams discovered the attorney had falsified bank records for a veteran’s guardianship account. A forensic accounting has since revealed the extent of his thievery from numerous accounts he oversaw.

In Jackson, attorney William J. Brown embezzled or misappropriated almost $1.7 million from a guardianship, a Chancery Court judge determined in March.

The two cases have one thing in common: Neither attorney was filing the annual accountings that state law requires for guardianships, conservatorships and estate accounts overseen by chancery court, court officials concede. Chancery clerks are responsible under state law for turning over a list each year of guardians and conservators who are delinquent in filing the accountings required by state law. Once judges have the list, they are supposed to demand the accountings and hold in contempt any account administrators who fail to produce them.

In the Pringle and Brown cases, attorneys also have noted, banks have in some cases failed to follow court orders that restrict spending of funds from the court-supervised accounts.

Full Article and Source:
Courts Look to Law to Prevent Another Pringle Incident

See Also:
Editorial - Trust Must Be Restored

Introducing the Administration for Community Living

"For too long, too many Americans have faced the impossible choice between moving to an institution or living at home without the long-term services and supports they need. The goal of the new Administration for Community Living will be to help people with disabilities and older Americans live productive, satisfying lives."
- Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

All Americans - including people with disabilities and seniors - should be able to live at home with the supports they need, participating in communities that value their contributions. To help meet these needs, HHS is creating a new organization, the Administration for Community Living (ACL) with the goal of increasing access to community supports and full participation, while focusing attention and resources on the unique needs of older Americans and people with disabilities.

The ACL will include the efforts and achievements of the Administration on Aging, the Office on Disability and the Administration on Developmental Disabilities in a single agency, with enhanced policy and program support for both cross-cutting initiatives and efforts focused on the unique needs of individual groups such as children with developmental disabilities, adults with physical disabilities, or seniors, including seniors with Alzheimer's.

Source:
Introducing the Administration for Community Living

TX: Ethics, Judicial Conduct Agencies Get Lawmaker's Scrutiny

State lawmakers on Tuesday blasted the secrecy of a state agency that polices misconduct by Texas judges and seemed receptive to a proposal for more public disclosure and enforcement of ethics laws that govern legislators and other public officials.

The Sunset Advisory Commission did not formally vote on the recommended changes for the state Commission on Judicial Conduct or the Texas Ethics Commission. But panelists made it clear during a daylong public hearing at the Capitol that they are leaning toward reforms.

The 12-member commission, made up of five senators, five House members and two public members, periodically measures the performance of state agencies to determine whether they should continue operating or be merged or closed.

Texas Ethics Commission staff recommended strengthening the agency's enforcement abilities, reducing penalties for minor paperwork mistakes and making more disclosure documents available to the public online.

Sunset commission chairman Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, at several points seemed to support many of the proposed changes, which were endorsed by a parade of government-watchdog advocates and citizens.

If the panel eventually supports the staff recommendations, the ethics commission could end up with its first-ever enforcement division and greater power to subpoena records to investigate complaints.

"We feel it's in the public's interest to have an open situation where there's daylight all through the transactions we have," said Tom Ramsay, a retired lawmaker from East Texas who chairs the ethics commission.

Even so, changing ethics laws at the Capitol has been difficult in the past. The commission was created two decades ago after a legislative influence-peddling scandal. No matter how much support reforms might seem to have at a meeting, approval can be derailed after lawmakers ponder whether they really want to give an agency more power to bust them for violations.

Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, questioned whether the changes might be misperceived by the public.

"Some of us are concerned that the watchdog groups are ... going to holler that we're watering down the ethics rules," he said.

Full Article and Source:
Ethics, Judicial Conduct Agencies Get Lawmakers' Scrutiny

Watch the Sunset Advisory Commission Hearing