Linda Kincaid Reports: Monterey Counsel and Public Guardian Strip Woman of Constitutional Rights

There is no joy or thanksgiving for  Margarita Zelade this holiday season. Margarita is confined and isolated by order of Deputy Public Guardian  Jennifer Empasis. Empasis allows Margarita no contact with loved ones or advocates.

Since March 25, 2013, Empasis kept Margarita in false imprisonment and isolated from contact with her only child. After violating Margarita’s right to visitation for seven months, Senior Deputy Public Guardian Teri Scarlett allowed Margarita three one-hour visits with daughter Patricia Conklin.

On October 31, November 7, and November 15, Margarita was brought to an outdoor location where she sat near a noisy road that made conversation difficult. At least two guards were present at each visit. They often interrupted the conversation, barking orders at Patricia.

During those brief visits, Margarita clung to Patricia sobbing and begging for her liberty.

'The most important thing for any person is their liberty. I want my liberty. I am in prison.'

Margarita repeatedly asked Patricia why they were separated. Patricia explained that she had been in jail, accused of abusing Margarita. Margarita responded:

'They lie. They lie!

They are thieves and liars.'

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Monterey County Counsel and Public Guardian Strip Woman of Constitutional Rights

Relative: Ohio Amish Girl in Chemo Case Doing Well

An Amish girl with leukemia spent time at a natural cancer treatment center in Central America after she left home with her parents in Ohio to avoid being forced to resume chemotherapy treatments, the girl's grandfather said.

Sarah Hershberger, who recently turned 11, her parents and the couple's baby daughter now are in hiding in the United States, Isaac Keim said.

The family left the small Amish community where they live in rural northeast Ohio just days before a state appeals court appointed a guardian in October to take over medical decisions for Sarah, said Keim, who told the Akron Beacon Journal that he accompanied them to the unnamed clinic.

The Hershbergers have been fighting Doctors at Akron's Children's Hospital in court for months after the parents decided to halt the treatments because they were making Sarah sick.

Doctors say her leukemia is treatable, but say she will die within a year without chemotherapy. The hospital sought to force treatment after the family opted to try natural medicines, such as herbs and vitamins.

The family has appealed the court decision that gave an attorney who's also a registered nurse limited guardianship over Sarah. They don't plan on returning until the ruling is reversed.

Full Aricle and Source:
Relative:  Ohio Amish Girl in Chemo Case Doing Well

See Also:
Unclear if Amish Girl Resumed Chemo Amid Fight With Hospital, Whereabouts Unknown

Feds: Washington State DSHS Neglected Disabled to Cut Costs, May Owe $16 M

In an attempt to save money, Washington state has been illegally denying needed services to two dozen developmentally disabled residents for more than two years, according to a recently completed federal review.

The move was meant to save more than $1 million. But breaking the law may cost the state $16 million — and may have done irreparable damage to the residents, advocates say.

The review found the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) broke the law at least 41,231 times by deciding in 2011 to take away services such as physical therapy, personal-care training and recreation from 27 of the residents at Spokane County’s Lakeland Village.

In a Nov. 7 letter to state officials, Carol Peverly of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cited requirements that federally funded long-term care facilities provide the specialized services residents need.

“After a review of all evidence and correspondence, we find that Lakeland Village nursing facility is not in compliance,” Peverly wrote, adding that the removal of services “violated federal law, and as a consequence the state has received (federal funds) in error.”

Peverly wrote that the feds want their money back, and also plan to examine other DSHS facilities.

Full Article and Source:
Feds: DSHS neglected disabled to cut costs, may owe $16M

Outrage Over Financial Exploitation of Elderly Drives California Lawyer

Beverly Hills, CA: After 45 years practicing law, Phil Brown could go golfing and forget about coming to the office every day. Instead, he says he can’t wait to get to work every morning. His focus for almost a decade now has been financial elder abuse.

He often sees situations so egregious, so despicable, that he’s on a mission to see the perpetrators held in check. “You want to eat these people up,” says Brown, in a remarkably calm and measured tone. “You’re outraged each time you get a new case.

“I am really not a hard-assed lawyer. I would rather talk to the opposing lawyer and talk things out and avoid stress for my clients,” says Brown.

“Just getting near a courtroom is very stressful for all parties, and if you can avoid it, that is good thing. However, there are times when it is going to happen.”

Sadly, as Brown explains, it is often family members who advise a parent to turn over a bank account for safekeeping, then bleed it dry or perhaps take advantage of a frail and failing mind to obtain title to a property. “It’s quite like stealing,” says Brown.

Frequently, it’s a third party who calls out the perpetrator and saves the senior from financial ruin, or from a set of circumstances the victim never would have approved of or wanted.

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Outrage Over Financial Exploitation of Elderly Drives California Lawyer

Former Conservator John E. Clemmons Gets Potential Break on Prison Sentence

Over the strong protest of the court official who first caught him stealing from a helpless ward, suspended Nashville attorney John E. Clemmons has won approval for a plea deal that could get him out of prison in five years and four months.

In a 30-minute session before Rutherford Circuit Judge David Bragg, Rutherford Chancery Court Clerk and Master John Bratcher said he was cut out of the negotiations leading to the plea arrangement and that it amounted to a travesty of justice.

It was Bratcher, in his role as clerk and master, who first discovered that Clemmons was, without court authorization, taking money from the accounts of wards who had been entrusted to him.

Since that discovery and subsequent criminal investigations, Clemmons has admitted to stealing at least $1.4 million from four wards. He has pleaded guilty to three counts of theft of more than $60,000 in Davidson County and one count of theft of more than $60,000 in the Rutherford case. He also has entered a guilty plea in Davidson to TennCare fraud and perjury.

Clemmons’ case comes amid growing concern about the handling of conservatorships in Tennessee. Earlier this year, the General Assembly, after recommendations from the Tennessee Bar Association, approved the first major changes in the state’s conservatorship laws in a decade.

Under the plea deal unveiled Friday, a decision on just how Clemmons will serve an 8-year sentence for stealing about $120,000 from his ward Russell Church of Murfreesboro will be deferred until Clemmons gets out of prison on the charges he has pleaded to in Davidson County. Under his 18-year sentence in Davidson County, he could apply for parole after serving five years and four months.
Under Bragg’s ruling, Clemmons pending motion to serve out those eight years under alternative sentencing, such as home detention, or to get quick probation will be put on hold until his release on the Davidson charges.

Handcuffed and wearing an orange prison jump suit, Clemmons, 66, told Judge Bragg in a barely audible voice that he understood the plea deal and had agreed to it.

“He stole over $100,000 from a helpless man,” Bratcher said, barely holding back anger. “He stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from wards in Davidson and he’s been doing it for 10 years.”

Full Article and Source:
Former conservator Clemmons gets potential break on prison sentence

See Also:
Nashville Lawyer Admits to Stealing  $1.3 million, Gets 18 years in Prison

Woman Accused of Bilking Elderly Dementia Patient

A Santa Barbara woman was jailed on a variety of felony charges Thursday after she allegedly abused and stole large sums of money from an 80-year-old city resident with dementia, according to the  Santa Barbara Police Department. 

Rosemary Rebekah Baugh, 57, was arrested at her State Street home, culminating an 11-month investigation, said Sgt. Riley Harwood.

She was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail  on charges of grand theft, financial elder abuse, and elder neglect, with bail set at $650,000, Harwood said.

The investigation began after relatives of the victim, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, came to Santa Barbara in December 2012.

"They found him malnourished, filthy, and living in squalor," Harwood said.

Baugh is a longtime acquaintance of the victim, whose name was not released, and he had at times given her gifts of cash to help with her rent and expenses, Harwood said.

After the death of the victim's only local relative, Baugh assumed the role of caregiver for him.

Full Article and Source:
Woman Accused of Bilking Elderly Dementia Patient

Former Judge, Andrea Peterman, Pleads Guilty in Theft Case

Andrea Peterman will spend the next decade under the supervision of law enforcement officers who used to call her “your Honor” and “judge.”

Peterman, who had served as both Crawford County’s chief magistrate judge and Probate Court clerk, was sentenced Monday morning to serve 160 to 180 days in a state detention center, with the remainder of her 10-year sentence on probation.

In a plea deal, Peterman agreed to plead guilty to a count of fiduciary theft from Crawford County Probate Court and a count of violating her oath of office as the county’s elected chief magistrate judge.

She pleaded guilty in a courtroom with many co-workers in attendance. On her way in to plead guilty, she exchanged hugs with a female deputy.

District Attorney David Cooke told Senior Superior Court Judge Tracy Moulton Jr. that “Ms. Peterman admitted essentially she’d been taking money from the till and using that for family expenses.”

Peterman responded with a firm voice to questions from Moulton about her understanding of the plea agreement, but she said nothing else. Her attorney, Michael Chidester, said Peterman took his advice about her financial problems and wishes she had done so sooner.

“She’s truly remorseful for what has occurred,” Chidester told the judge.

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2013/11/25/2797203/former-crawford-county-judge-gets.html#storylink=cpy

Full Article and Source:
Former Crawford County Judge Pleads Guilty in Theft Case

Unclear if Amish Girl Resumed Chemo Amid Fight With Hospital, Whereabouts Unknown

A 10-year-old Amish girl with leukemia and her parents haven't contacted a guardian appointed two months ago to make medical decisions for the girl after her parents stopped her chemotherapy treatments, the guardian's attorney said Wednesday.

It's unclear whether the girl has resumed treatments, and there are indications that the family has left its farm in rural northeast Ohio.

The girl, Sarah Hershberger, has not restarted treatments at Akron Children's Hospital, said Clair Dickinson, the guardian's attorney. He said it's not known whether she is undergoing chemotherapy anywhere else.

Doctors at the Akron hospital believe Sarah's leukemia is treatable but say she will die without chemotherapy. The hospital went to court after the family decided to stop chemotherapy and treat Sarah with natural medicines, such as herbs and vitamins.

An appeals court ruling in October gave an attorney who's also a registered nurse limited guardianship over Sarah and the power to make medical decisions for her. The court said the beliefs and convictions of her parents can't outweigh the rights of the state to protect the child.

The family has appealed the decision to both the appeals court and the Ohio Supreme Court.

Full Article and Source:
Attorney:  Unclear if Amish Girl Resumed Chemo Amid Fight With Hospital, Whereabouts Unknown

See Also:
Ohio Appeals Court Again Sides With Hospital Seeking to Send Amish Girl Back to Chemotherapy

Growing Old....

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