At 100 Years Old, Judge Jean Murrel Capers is Still Trying to do it Her Way

I saw the judge moments before she saw me.

Her eyes where shut and she was waving her hands in the air. She was passionately singing along with a group of a dozen seniors. It was a song from the 1940s that I had never heard. The joyful noise created by the lively group wasn't what you would call easy listening, but the room was warm and inviting. The afternoon sing-along session at Judson Manor felt like a retirement home tribute to a bygone era.

When she finally spotted me, Judge Jean Murrell Capers smiled and hurriedly reached for her walker. The sudden movement made this former tennis champ appear unsteady, though. Sometimes, she still attempts to move too fast. Her mind and her body have yet to come to a firm agreement on the realities of her age.

She turned 100 years old Friday, and I visited to write a festive column about the event. The judge was beautiful as ever. She appeared happy. I told her as much.

But moments into our conversation she told me that my observation couldn't be further from the truth. She said she was depressed and considers herself a "kidnapping victim" and an "unhappy ward" of the county.

The judge can be fairly dramatic, and her humor sometimes runs surprisingly dark, but the smile had left her face. I could tell she was serious. She was about to teach me another important lesson.

It is a lesson about a final fight for dignity and the independence of a senior citizen who has outlived everyone in her circle except Alice Murrell Rose, her 96-year-old "baby sister."

Life as the judge knew it ended last month. That's when people who care about this Cleveland treasure realized that she needed help, even if she did not accept that fact. They sought that help at Cuyahoga County Probate Court, which appointed a guardian for her.

At an instant, the former Cleveland Municipal Court judge's decision-making authority was taken away and given to someone else. Her guardian now approves decisions as basic as where she lives and when she can venture out into public.

That's what the former Cleveland Municipal Court judge now wrestles with after a lifetime of complete control and making decisions for others. She is not used to decisions being made for her. She is used to coming and going as she wants.

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At 100 Years Old, Judge Jean Murrel Capers is Still Trying to do it Her Way:  Phillip Morris

Drugs That May Cause Memory Loss

For a long time doctors dismissed  forgetfulness and mental confusion as a normal part of aging. But scientists now know that memory loss as you get older is by no means inevitable. Indeed, the brain can grow new brain cells and reshape their connections throughout life.

Most people are familiar with at least some of the things that can impair memory, including alcohol and drug abuse, heavy cigarette smoking, head injuries, stroke, sleep deprivation, severe stress, vitamin B12 deficiency, and illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease and depression.

But what many people don't realize is that many commonly prescribed drugs also can interfere with memory. Here are 10 of the top types of offenders.

1. Antianxiety drugs
2. Cholesterol drugs
3. Antiseizure drugs
4. Antidepressant drugs
5. Narcotic painkillers
6.  Parkinson's drugs
7. Hypertension drugs
8. Sleeping aids
9. Incontinence drugs
10. Antihistamines

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Drugs That May Cause Memory Loss

Former PA Public Defender Suspended From Practice

A former public defender has been suspended from practicing law for allegations that he violated the Rules of Professional Conduct for Pennsylvania lawyers.

According to a state Supreme Court order on disciplinary action against local attorney Ronald Langella, he has been suspended from the Pennsylvania Bar for five years. The case went before the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and the suspension decision was made Jan. 15.

Langella was dismissed from his public defender position in 2008, but McKean County officials declined at the time to say why. He maintained a private practice in Bradford after his dismissal.
According to a legal notice published in Tuesday’s edition of The Era, his suspension is effective Feb. 14.

Langella has been accused of violating the rules in six ways. According to court records, he failed to “act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client,” failed to “keep the client reasonably informed about the status of the matter,” failed to “promptly comply with reasonable requests for information,” failed to “take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect a client’s interests” after the end of representation of that client, failed to communicate the fees to a client whom the lawyer has no regularly represented and failed to hold a client’s “funds and property separate from the lawyer’s own property.”

Langella, who was already serving a private reprimand and five-year probationary period due to a previous disciplinary case, failed to comply with his probation conditions by failing to file monthly reports on his oversight of his IOLTA accounts — accounts that hold money for clients or third parties — and failing to pay the court costs and restitution, according to court records.

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Former Public Defender Suspended From Practice

Read the Suspension Order

Court develops guardianship program

In response to the increased number of indigent county residents in need of guardianship assistance, Shelby County Probate Judge William R. Zimmerman and his staff, Chief Deputy Clerk Patricia Rosengarten and Deputy Clerk Carla Busse, have developed a volunteer guardianship program.

A guardianship becomes necessary when an adult becomes incompetent and no longer is able to make medical and personal decisions. The volunteer program will assist these individuals by coordinating appointment of guardians. To be eligible, the incompetent adult must be indigent, a resident of a local nursing home, and have no family members available to be a guardian.

The Probate Court has recruited local attorneys and social workers to serve as volunteers in this program. All volunteers have completed a BCI and FBI background check. To date, the following attorneys and social workers have agreed to participate in the program: Rich Wallace, Jim Thieman, Tonya Thieman, William R. Zimmerman Jr., Joseph Chrisman, Curtis Henschen and Kathy Lindsey.

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Court develops guardianship program

Volunteers needed to help victims of financial exploitation and scams

If you have good people skills and can volunteer four hours a week, then your services are needed to help the Seniors vs. Crime program. This program is offered as a special project of the Florida Attorney General, which needs volunteers to take complaints from seniors who feel that they are victims of financial exploitation and scams.

Volunteers are especially needed in the West Palm Beach area.

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Volunteers needed to help victims of financial exploitation and scams

Lawyer appeals discipline for comments about judge

WATERBURY — A Connecticut lawyer facing a four-month suspension of his law license for criticizing a state judge has been granted a stay of the punishment while he appeals to the state Appellate Court.

The Register Citizen of Torrington reports that Robert Serafinowicz's license was to be suspended Jan. 2, but a state judge in Waterbury granted a stay citing the length of the suspension.

Serafinowicz filed a complaint against Judge Burton Kaplan after an Ansonia police officer he represented was acquitted of stealing a garden hose. Serafinowicz said Kaplan "plays favorites," is "a disgrace to the bench" and doesn't give people a "fair shake."

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Lawyer appeals discipline for comments about judge

The Taking of Marie Winkelman 1-2-3

Who is Marie Winkelman? Marie is the author of a book about her experiences as a Holocaust survivor in Poland titled "Keeping a Promise:  To Tell My Story of Survival in Warsaw During WWII."

“On December 4th, 2013, a beautiful and brilliant 88-year-old Holocaust Survivor named Marie Winkelman was put into guardianship in the Sarasota, Florida Probate Court – without a hearing – based upon a mediation agreement,” states Beverly Newman, President of the Al Katz Center.
Marie is the second victim of elder abuse in Sarasota County, Florida. The first was Al Katz, the father of Beverly Newman, another Holocaust Survivor.

The similarity of the two cases is striking and presents a pattern of what some believe constitutes “judicial cronyism.” It is a system that takes the liberty and property of its victims – usually the elderly.

“Marie is a recent resident of Bird Key who still lives independently and keeps her home in immaculate condition. The mediation agreement was prepared by Federal Mediator Gary H. Larsen, which Marie did not see until after the mediation. Her fortune of many millions, which she earned through decades of hard work and prudent investments, is now in the hands of a company named Sabal Trust Company with which she has never had any contact. Through the mediated agreement, she is given a monthly allowance of her own money, despite the fact she has always spent her money judiciously,” notes Newman.

What makes Marie’s case different is the possible collusion to have Marie found incompetent not by strangers but by Robert Szychowski who is married to Marie’s step-daughter Corinne. This is the highest form of betrayal by the one person Marie trusted the most. She trusted Szychowski so much she signed a Durable Power of Attorney (POA) giving Szychowski control over every aspect of her life and wellbeing.  Marie made Szychowski her “attorney-in-fact” (my Agent) granting him “The power to exercise or perform any act, power, duty, right or obligation whatsoever…”

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The Taking of Marie Winkelman 1-2-3

See Also:
NASGA:  Marie Winkelman, Florida Victim

The Secret meeting that changed Holocaust Survivor Marie Winkelman’s life – Hopefully not Forever!

 

Cloaked in secrecy, a mediation meeting in a lawyer’s office was held on November 25, 2013, under order of the Sarasota County Probate Court, to determine whether or not 89-year-old Holocaust Survivor Marie Winkelman was or was not capacitated and if or if not she needed to be put into Florida’s vast guardianship system, which controls the lives of scores of thousands of elders. This is the third part of an investigative series on Marie’s guardianship case. Please go here to read Part I and Part II.

Although Marie escaped death in the Warsaw Ghetto, where everyone in her large family (except one baby) was murdered, she has thus far not been able to be freed from a guardianship where most believe she never belonged.

What could possibly go wrong with court-ordered mediation?

The litany of answers to this question is nearly endless, beginning with something akin to “blackmail,” as one of the participants in Marie’s mediation described the circumstances under which the fateful Mediated Settlement Agreement was signed after hours of lawyer talk. Unlike litigation in an open courtroom, with a precise record made of the day’s actions and discussions, under oath or not, mediation is the antithesis of due process. There is no record even allowed of the mediation proceedings. A confidentiality statement must be signed by every participant. No judge is present, and the public is excluded. No witnesses testify. No evidence is presented. No appeal is possible once an agreement has been signed by all of the participants.

So how can you mediate someone’s incapacity, which, of necessity, requires due process protections?

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The Secret meeting that changed Holocaust Survivor Marie Winkelman’s life – Hopefully not Forever!

See Also:
Marie Winkelman's Case Demands Litigation, Not Mediation, To Protect Her Life, Liberty and Property

Arrest made in 2007 nursing home death

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A cold case from 2007 came to a surprising end Monday.

The death of 84-year-old Marcelline Vale went unsolved for almost seven years until Monday, when her alleged killer confessed to the story.

David Satterfield, 34, is now charged with Vale's murder.

Police say Satterfield turned himself in Monday after asking police for a ride to the homicide office. He told police he was a certified medical technician working rounds at Parkway Medical Center the night of July 4, 2007, when he said he injected Vale with a large amount of insulin, knowing she wasn't a diabetic. Vale died four days later of an insulin overdose. WHAS11 asked detectives why Satterfield decided to come clean after almost seven years.

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Arrest made in 2007 nursing home death