Detroit judge deemed too mentally ill to sit on bench

Judge Brenda Sanders suffers serious mental illness, making her unfit to sit on Detroit's 36th District Court, a fact-finder ruled. Her attorney says she should keep her seat and seek treatment.

The state's Judicial Tenure Commission will decide next month whether to seek removal of Detroit District Court Judge Brenda Sanders, deemed too "psychotic" and "delusional" to sit on the bench, following a disciplinary hearing.

"Sadly, the evidence clearly proves that (Sanders) is psychotic and clearly seriously mentally ill," retired Wayne County Michael Sapala said in his ruling issued earlier this week. Sapala sat as the fact-finder during a three-day hearing in December on the troubled judge.

"Her mental disorders render her unfit to sit as a judge. Her illness prevents her from being able to properly perform judicial duties."

The nine-member judicial tenure commission will hear final arguments Feb. 9 and issue their findings in March. The Michigan Supreme Court will make the final decision.

Sanders, who has been on the 36th District Court bench since 2008, came under scrutiny in December 2013 when she wrote U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade a rambling letter, insisting that her fellow judges were being murdered for bringing attention to wrongdoing at the court.

"I believe they were murdered because they spoke out against some of the wrongs that were committed at the court," she wrote in her letter, now part of the public record. "A newspaper tried to name me as a suspect in one of the murders. I was at work on the day of the crime."

She later identified the newspaper as the Detroit Free Press. The newspaper has never written about Sanders as a suspect in a murder.

She also alleged that the Michigan Supreme Court was targeting her and had evicted her from her home.

A psychiatrist who examined the letter determined that "her insight and judgment are too impaired because of her delusions to render opinions not only in court, but elsewhere, but particularly in court as a judge." The tenure commission sought to have her examined by the psychiatrist but she failed to show up for three appointments.

Sapala also ruled that Sanders violated court rules when she took a lengthy medical leave in September 2013 saying she was "100 percent" disabled because of knee problems that required surgery. That surgery never took place. She did not return to the bench, and she was suspended without pay in July 2014.

Paul Fischer, the commission's executive director who presented the evidence against Sanders, called it "a very sad case."

It's unclear what impact, if any, Sander's illness might have on cases she handled before she left the bench. Fischer said the discipline was based on the letter to McQuade and other matters unrelated to her court docket. Litigants who might want to challenge her rulings would need to follow the appellate process and take their cases to higher courts.

Sanders is living with family in South Carolina and did not attend the hearing in December. She could not be reached for comment. Her attorney, Cyril Hall, said Sanders was "amenable" to treatment for her mental illness and should not be removed from the bench.

"There are a number of judges out there taking medication," Hall said. "This is a person we're just going to throw away because of mental illness. That's just totally wrong."

Should she be removed, Gov. Rick Snyder would appoint a replacement.

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Detroit judge deemed too mentally ill to sit on bench

Girl's guardian charged with welfare fraud, theft

Steve Sells

ANDERSON — Charges of welfare fraud, theft and perjury were filed against Steve Sells this week.

He’s the 58-year-old grandfather and legal guardian of a 16-year-old teenage girl who was found starved and severely abused at a home in the 3400 block of Forest Terrace early last month.

The latest charges stem from an investigation by the Social Security Administration into how Supplemental Security Income Program, or SSI, benefits collected by Sells were spent.

From January 2008 to December 2014, he allegedly collected more than $55,590 in SSI benefits to care for the girl who suffers from undisclosed physical and developmental disorders. Investigators say the money was deposited in accounts at the Madison County Federal Credit Union, Independent Federal Credit Union and Mainsource Bank.

“Due to the condition in which the beneficiary was found, these benefits were misused by Sells and not used for the care and support of the beneficiary,” according to a probable cause affidavit He was charged by local officials with two counts of Class C felony welfare fraud, two counts of Level 6 theft and one count of Class D felony perjury, according to court documents.

The girl was found by medics on Dec. 1 not breathing and without a pulse, weighing less than 40 pounds and covered with feces. She’s currently recovering at St. Vincent Indianapolis Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital.

Jennifer Sells, the girl’s biological mother, said the girl is awake, alert, and can get out of bed, Fox59 reported Wednesday.

Sells and his wife, Joetta, are currently being held responsible for her condition.

Steve Sells was charged with 12 felony counts ranging from neglect to battery for his alleged role in the girl’s abuse. Authorities say the girl was kept locked in a room at  the home day and night since 2011. She was fed little and the conditions were unsanitary, police records show. Witnesses told police that Sells attacked and battered the girl, according to the probable cause affidavit.

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Girl's guardian charged with welfare fraud, theft

Wichita police: Scammers bilk thousands of dollars from elderly couple

A couple in their 80s is out several thousand dollars after scammers convinced them to part with money in exchange for a “jackpot” of more than $20 million, police said Thursday.

An 81-year-old woman called police Wednesday to report a check they had received wasn’t honored by their bank, Lt. James Espinoza said. She said she and her 82-year-old husband had been corresponding since October with a business calling itself American Family Publishers.

The scammers used telephone conversations and official-looking documents to persuade the couple to send several checks totaling more than $9,000 in exchange for a purported $20 million, Espinoza said.

“This wasn’t one of your ‘one phone call trying to get your money’ ” scams, he said.

Robbie Namee, trade practice specialist with the Better Business Bureau, said the case sounds like a classic lottery scam: The caller says the recipient has won a large sum of money, but they need to send a small fee so the money can be released. Or to pay taxes on the prize. Or for some other reason.

“It breaks my heart,” Namee said when she learned how much money the couple had lost.

Scammers hunt for victims, she said, and once they find someone who falls for their pitch, they look for other ways to extract additional money.

“People preying on the elderly is very shameful — very wrong,” Espinoza said.

An investigation into the scam is in its early stages, he said.

The scam is a reminder of an old but valid statement, Espinoza said: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Residents with elderly parents should keep an eye out to make sure they’re not being victimized by scammers, he said.

“Any time you’re contacted regarding a contest you never entered to begin with, it should be a red flag,” Namee said. “If you have to pay a fee to win money, that’s another red flag.”

If you’re being asked to send money out of state or out of the country to someone you don’t know, she said, “check it out.” Chances are, it’s a scam.

If there’s a quick deadline for accepting the money, she said, it’s another red flag.

“I hate seeing seniors getting caught up” in scams like this one, Namee said.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article5620752.html#storylink=cpy

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Wichita police: Scammers bilk thousands of dollars from elderly couple

2 Years After Car Crash, Man in 'Minimally Conscious State' Suddenly Speaks

A man in Italy who was in what doctors call a "minimally conscious state" for nearly two years unexpectedly regained full consciousness and the ability to talk, according to a new report of his case.

The man woke up after he was given a drug normally used as a sedative before surgery and other medical procedures, the case report showed.

The 43-year-old man was admitted to a hospital after a car accident, and was in a coma for 40 days. People who are comatose are completely unconscious — they have no sleep/wake cycles, and do not respond to their surroundings in any way.

The man awoke from the coma but remained in a "minimally conscious state," which means that although he remained largely unable to communicate or move, he was able to voluntarily open and close his eyes, and reach for and touch objects. He also had a sleep-wake cycle.

When he was discharged from the hospital 10 months later, he still did not talk or communicate with other people, nor did he respond to simple commands asking him to, for instance, close his eyes.
Over the next year, the man's cognitive ability started to decline; his movements became abnormally slow; and he began to engage in aimless, repetitive behaviors, such as clapping.

But then, about two years after the accident, the man's doctors wanted to examine his brain using a CT scan. To do the scan, they gave the man a mild sedative called midazolam. [7 Mind-Bending Facts About Dreams]
A few minutes later, the man began to talk and interact with others.

"He talked by cellphone with his aunt and congratulated his brother when he was informed of his graduation; he recognized the road leading to his home," the researchers who treated the man wrote in the case report. However, the man did not remember the accident, and he was not aware of the way it had affected his health, they wrote.

This is the first report of midazolam having an "awakening" effect, the researchers said.

However, the effect wore off after about two hours, and the man returned to his previous state, unresponsive to the environment, according to the study.

To see whether it was indeed the drug that caused the brief improvement in the man's condition, the researchers gave the man midazolam again. Several minutes following the administration, the patient began to interact with his brother and answered questions the researchers asked him. He was also able to calculate simple math problems, such as 100 minus 7, as well as read and understand simple sentences, such as "Close your eyes."

This time around, the researchers scanned the man's brain before, during and after the administration of midazolam, and identified the locations within the brain that were affected by the drug. They found that those regions previously had been linked to the symptoms of catatonia, which is a state of unresponsiveness to stimuli that is often associated with schizophrenia.

Moreover, the researchers noted, patients with catatonia have been reported to respond to midazolam in the past. The symptoms of the man in this report were similar to those of catatonic patients, which may mean that he was indeed catatonic and therefore responded to the drug, according to the study.

However, it is not completely clear whether the patient did indeed suffer from catatonia or whether his condition merely included certain catatonic symptoms, the researchers wrote.

Although midazolam was effective as a short-term method of treating the man's symptoms, the researchers said they could not keep giving it to him. Usually, the drug is given only to people in intensive-care units, where they can be monitored continuously, said Dr. Maria Chiara Carboncini, medical director of the Brain Injury Unit in the University Hospital of Pisa's Department of Neuroscience in Italy, who treated the patient and was a co-author of the report.

The researchers tried treating the man with another drug called lorazepam, which belongs to the same class of drugs as midazolam but can be administered more easily, as the patient does not have to be monitored continuously, Carboncini told Live Science.

However, after several days of therapy with lorazepam, the man became agitated and aggressive. His doctors switched him to carbamazepine, a drug used to treat people with epilepsy. This drug allowed the man to "maintain the improvement of his ability to interact and communicate with people," Carboncini said.

The study was published in the November issue of the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.

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2 Years After Car Crash, Man in 'Minimally Conscious State' Suddenly Speaks

Connecticut Supreme Court upholds ruling that teen must undergo chemo

The Connecticut Supreme Court upheld a prior ruling Thursday that a 17-year-old cancer patient cannot refuse chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The state argued that the teen lacked competency extended to maturity and that they did not believe she understood the severity of her prognosis. Her mother and her mother's lawyer said they expect to go back to trial court to more fully explore the mature minor argument.

The teen, who is identified in court documents as “Cassandra C.,” but was identified by police as Cassandra Callender in a November missing persons report, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in September. At the time, doctors at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) recommended she receive chemotherapy.

Cassandra ran away after two treatments in November and, with the support of her mother, refused any more when she returned. After the hospital reported Cassandra’s mother, Jackie Fortin, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) took temporary custody of the teen, and her mother was ordered to cooperate with medical care administered under the agency’s supervision.

The teen believes the chemotherapy will do more damage to her body than the cancer will, according to the Hartford Courant. Doctors have said the teen has an 80 to 85 percent chance of living -- with six months of chemotherapy treatment, according to Fox News’ legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr.

After the arguments Thursday, Fortin said she would not allow her daughter to die. The single mother said she and her daughter want to seek alternative treatments that don't include putting the "poison" of chemotherapy into her daughter's body.

"This is her decision and her rights, which is what we are here fighting about," Fortin said. "We should have choices about what to do with our bodies."

Fortin and her lawyer said they are considering the next step after losing the case.

The teen’s doctors testified at a trial court hearing after which the DCF was authorized to make medical decisions on her behalf. The teen and her mother appealed the ruling, claiming it violates their constitutional right and that the state should recognize the “mature minor doctrine.”

The doctrine permits a minor who exhibits the maturity of an adult to make decisions reserved for those who attained the age of majority, meaning 18. Cassandra turns 18 in September. Johnson, who himself battled Hodgkin's disease at age 18, disagrees that it should apply to Cassandra.

“The family is wrong on the law, and wrong on the ethics, and wrong on the humanity,” he told Fox & Friends’ Peter Doocy.

“Wrong on the law, first of all, the state of Connecticut has an obligation to preserve life of an infant. The state of Connecticut has an obligation to prevent suicide. If she does not get this treatment, this is a form of suicide, and frankly the American Civil Liberties Union is complicit in her death if she dies,” Johnson said.

Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that affects the body’s lymphatic system, specifically the white blood cells that help the body fight infection and disease. A form of chemotherapy, radiation therapy or a combination of the two is typically used to treat Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation.

Prior to the ruling, Johnson said the state’s Supreme Court will have to decide whether to send the case back down to a lower court for another hearing to determine the competency of the mother and of the child in terms of making the decision to halt treatment.

“Do 16- and 17-year-old children have the judgment, the perspective, the discretion, the experience to be making these life and death decisions? I say they do not,” Johnson said.

Fortin told the Hartford Courant that even prior to her diagnosis, Cassandra would have opted not to undergo chemotherapy.

“This is her decision, and she’s very intelligent enough to make this decision on her own,” Fortin said. “She does not want poisons in her body, and she does not want to be forced through the state or the government to force her to do such a thing. And right now, at this moment, she is being forced chemo upon her against her wish.”

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Connecticut Supreme Court upholds ruling that teen must undergo chemo

Health aide charged with stealing from Corning man

An Elmira woman was charged this week with stealing more than $2,000 from an elderly man who was in her care.

Tara Girardi, 28, a home health aide who lives on Allen Street in Elmira, was charged with fourth degree grand larceny.

The theft was reported by a family member of the victim, Corning police said. Some of the missing money has been recovered but not all of it, police said.

Girardi appeared in City of Corning Court on Tuesday and was released on her own recognizance. She turned herself in and is cooperating with the investigation, police said. Girardi will return to court Jan. 13.

Girardi is also under indictment for petit larceny in Chemung County on charges she stole money from a recycling firm where she was employed.

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Health aide charged with stealing from Corning man

WFTS - INCAPACITATED: Behind the Scenes

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Cops: Woman in apartment under daughter may have died in '13

GLOVERSVILLE, N.Y. — Authorities say a 94-year-old woman's badly decomposed body may have been in her upstate New York apartment for more than a year before being discovered, despite her daughter living just above her.

Police and prosecutors in Fulton County tell local media that Hope Ruller may have died in her first-floor apartment in Gloversville as long as 14 months ago before being discovered Dec. 29 after police received a request from a relative to check on her welfare.

Officials say her daughter lived in the two-story home's upstairs apartment along with an adult son.
Officials say an autopsy was conducted but a cause of death couldn't be determined because of the body's severely decomposed condition.

Police say Ruller's death is being treated as suspicious. No arrests have been made, but police say their investigation is continuing.

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Cops: Woman in apartment under daughter may have died in '13

Linda Kincaid Reports: Family’s 3rd request to sheriff for elder abuse, sexual assault investigation

Sheriff John McMahon

In 2010, Jean Swope was taken from her home and hidden from family at Wildwood Canyon Villa, an assisted living facility in San Bernardino County, CA. Wildwood kept Jean in a locked unit and told family,

She is allowed no visitors and no phone calls.

Family begged the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for help. Documents filed with the court show that sheriff’s deputies aided the abusers and threatened Jean’s family. Jean’s daughter said she was afraid to be in San Bernardino County. A family friend said he was followed.

With Jean’s death, she is no longer in danger of abuse or retaliation. However, the abusers remain at large and free to continue abusing. Jean’s daughter says she is especially concerned about the possibility that a sexual predator may continue to abuse.

On December 23, 2014, Jean’s family sent the following letter to Sheriff John McMahon.

Sheriff McMahon,

RE: Third Request to Investigate Possible Repeated Sexual Assaults

In July 2010, we reported physical, mental, and financial abuse of my mom. SBCSD did nothing to help. Rather, a Deputy Grant Ward and a Sergeant Paul Morrison aided and abetted the abuse. My mom remained imprisoned and forcibly isolated.

In June 2011, we again reported physical and mental abuse of my mom. Captain Hamblin wrote that my mom was in a safe and well cared for state. My mom remained imprisoned and forcibly isolated.

In September 2013, I submitted excerpts of documents to Chief Bill Lenew, and I requested an investigation of possible repeated sexual assaults on my mom by a male caregiver at Wildwood Canyon Villa. Chief Lenew did not respond to my request. To our knowledge, there has been no investigation.

In August 2014, I submitted directly to you extensive evidence of physical, mental, and financial abuse, and evidence of repeated sexual assaults. To our knowledge, there has been no review of those documents and no investigation.

On November 26, 2014, we took the deposition of the male caregiver we suspect of repeatedly sexually assaulting my mom, possibly several times a week, for many months in 2011 and 2012. Our counsel asked, Did you sexually assault Carol Hahn? The deponent exercised his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination, and he refused to answer the question. The deponent also exercised his Fifth Amendment right concerning any employment from 2007 forward. Our counsel learned that the male caregiver worked for a number of assisted living facilities and inhome care services in San Bernardino.

On December 15, 2014, I wrote to directly to you with my second request for an investigation of possible repeated sexual assaults on my mom by a male caregiver at Wildwood Canyon Villa. That letter included indicators of sexual assault that were excerpted from documents created by VITAS hospice nurse Sandra Coggins, RN. You have not responded to that letter.

This letter is my third request for an investigation of possible repeated sexual assaults on my mom by a male caregiver at Wildwood Canyon Villa. This letter includes indicators of sexual assault that were excerpted from documents created by VITAS hospice physician Victoria Rains, MD. My next letter will include indicators of sexual assault from documents created by physicians at Kaiser Fontana Emergency Room.

To our knowledge, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has not conducted any investigation into the possibility of repeated sexual assaults against my mom. To our knowledge, your Department has not taken any action to protect other vulnerable elders in San Bernardino County.

Readers who suspect a loved on my have been sexually abused by a male caregiver can contact this Examiner at condorchick@gmail.com

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Family’s 3rd request to sheriff for elder abuse, sexual assault investigation