Hollywood broker cleared in elderly exploitation case

A Hollywood stockbroker convicted of conning a 95-year-old woman into signing over her $10 million estate was exonerated Wednesday by an appeals court.

Cynthia Franke, 54, began serving a seven-year prison term in 2013 following her conviction, but the Fourth District Court of Appeal determined that the jury got it wrong.

"Because the state's evidence was not inconsistent with her theory of innocence, we reverse," the appeals court ruled.

Franke was overcome with emotion during a telephone interview Wednesday, saying only that she feels "better now." She served less than two months in prison before being released on bond pending the outcome of her appeal.

Franke and Mary Teris had been friends for 30 years. Franke had prepared a special needs trust for Teris' two sons in 1996.

In 2008, Teris asked Franke to change her trust, ultimately having a lawyer switch the trustee and beneficiary to Franke. Teris then named a co-trustee so that Franke could avoid a conflict of interest.

But Teris, now 101, allegedly suffered from dementia, and Franke was accused of taking advantage of her condition to enrich herself.

Franke and her husband, Tyrone Javellana, were charged, tried, convicted and sentenced together. But Javellana's conviction was overturned in June. He faced a related accusation involving Teris' sister, but that charge was dropped last month.

"It is a huge relief," Javellana said Wednesday. "It was six years of an unbelievable nightmare that's been lifted off our shoulders."

Franke's friend and colleague, Alicia Brown Beloyan, said Franke was in tears much of the day. "It's not sinking into her mind that this is over after six years," she said.

After the charges were filed, Franke lost her job with the Laidlaw and Company brokerage firm and was stripped of her license as a broker. She has not decided what to do with her career, Javellana said.

"We're not certain what her next step will be, but at least this exoneration clears her name," he said.

Full Article & Source:
Hollywood broker cleared in elderly exploitation case

Tooele banker took $43K from elderly woman's account, police say

TOOELE — A Zions Bank employee has been arrested for allegedly stealing more than than $43,000 from a 90-year-old woman's account over the past year.

Stephanie Huber Bennett, 44, of Tooele, was arrested for investigation of 22 counts of exploitation of an elderly adult and 22 counts of forgery. Investigators believe Bennett, a teller at Zions Bank in Tooele from 2006 up until the time the alleged fraud was discovered, withdrew $43,700 since January from the account of a 90-year-old customer.

The elderly woman, "with the help of a family member, reported that after reviewing the victim’s account, suspicious withdrawals were found," according to a statement from Tooele police, who began investigating on Dec. 9.

"Zions Bank was contacted and assisted with video and other documents showing the transactions were all made by the arrestee. Zions Bank investigators found video showing the arrestee was alone in the lobby when the transactions were made," according to a probable cause statement from Tooele police. "The arrestee stated she has assisted the victim with many financial transactions."

Zions Bank released a statement saying Bennett is no longer an employee as of Dec. 10.

"We are unable to discuss specifics regarding this situation. However, we are working closely with the Tooele City Police Department in (its) investigation," according to the bank's statement.

A relative at Bennett's home Tuesday said they had no comment about the case.

"There's more financial exploitation going on in the community than people really realize," said Debbie Booth of Adult Protective Services. "With a bank employee, it makes it all the more egregious, I think as far as we're concerned, because a bank employee is usually the people that you trust."

Booth said having a conversation with elderly parents about money can be important since exploitation, particularly of older women, is common. Many times the perpetrator is a relative or friend.

"It's a really sensitive topic, but it just takes asking Mom if she's OK or asking her, 'Mom, how are your finances? Are you able to share that information with me?'" she said, adding that banks often offer services that can help family members monitor bank accounts.

"They're not necessarily on the bank account, but they can monitor things," she said.

Tooele police detectives said their investigation is ongoing to determine if there are other victims in the case. Anyone who believes there has been suspicious activity with their financial accounts can contact Toole police at 435-882-8900.

Full Article & Source:
Tooele banker took $43K from elderly woman's account, police say

Elderly financial exploitation arrests made in Joplin

JOPLIN, Mo.
Josh Harrison, 41, of Carthage and William Lovell, 29, of Liberty were arrested by Joplin police. They were taken into custody for not having a business license and property destruction. Harrison is charged with financial exploitation of the elderly. Lovell also has two Newton County warrants.

Officers say they had the woman pay $270 upfront to work on her driveway. They came back a week later and asked for another $150 to finish the project. Both men are being held in the Joplin City Jail.

Police advise people to not pay in advance, and not to pay in full until the project is completed. Also check with the city to see if your contractors are licensed and bonded.

Full Article & Source:
Elderly financial exploitation arrests made in Joplin

Lyon County, administrator to pay $2.1 million for stolen items

By Carri Geer Thevenot
Las Vegas Review-Journal

 

Lyon County and former Public Administrator Richard Glover must pay $2.1 million to the heirs of a man whose Wellington home was looted after his death in May 2006, a federal jury ruled Tuesday.

"It's been a really long haul," Las Vegas resident Richard Mathis said after hearing the verdict.

The verdict stemmed from a civil rights lawsuit filed by Mathis and his two brothers, Anthony and James, who accused Glover of illegally seizing and stealing nearly $1 million of heirlooms and other property from the home of their 85-year-old father, Joe, shortly after his death.

Anthony Mathis, who lives in Vermont, and Richard Mathis came to court Tuesday afternoon to hear the jury's verdict. Glover also came to court, but he and his attorneys declined to comment.

Later, as Richard Mathis left the federal courthouse in Las Vegas, juror Kristine Anderson approached him and said, "I hope you guys are able to move on now."

Anderson told the Review-Journal that jurors wanted to hold Lyon County accountable for failing to have written policies to guide its public administrator, and for failing to protect its citizens.

"The family clearly wasn't notified that the property was going to be removed from the home," she said.

The jury's verdict included about $1.6 million in damages against Lyon County and $180,000 in damages against Glover for emotional distress, as well as about $217,00 in damages against both defendants for stolen property. In addition, the jury ordered Glover to pay $100,000 in punitive damages.

"I hope that this'll teach Lyon County not to do this to somebody again, but I don't think it will," Richard Mathis said.

The Mathis brothers had sought a $4.5 million verdict. Their attorneys argued that the stolen property included $800,000 worth of opals.

"It's hard to value property that's missing," Anthony Mathis said.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon presided over the trial, which began Nov. 2.

"At its core, this case is about a Nevada county that was deliberately indifferent to the constitutional rights of its citizens," attorneys for the Mathis brothers wrote in their trial brief. "The evidence in this case shows that Lyon County has elected numerous public administrators that have overtly violated the constitutional rights of Lyon County citizens for more than a decade."

Glover was investigated but never faced criminal charges related to the missing Mathis property.

However, records show he was charged with a crime in connection with the estate of Carl Liberty and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in 2010.

Joe Mathis' six children, including three daughters, were raised in Smith Valley, where the western Nevada town of Wellington is located.

Full Article & Source:
Lyon County, administrator to pay $2.1 million for stolen items

Legal representation urged for adult guardianships in Nevada

By Colton Lochhead
Las Vegas Review-Journal

 

A committee tasked with fixing the state's guardianship program wrangled Tuesday with the concept of legal representation and how it might apply to state's guardianship courts.

Several members at a meeting of the Nevada Supreme Court Commission to Study the Administration of Guardianships threw heavy support behind the idea of mandating attorney representation for those facing adult guardianships.

While attorney representation is a right given to anyone facing criminal charges, the infirm and elderly in the state who are facing the loss of many of their constitutional rights that comes with a guardianship are not guaranteed the same right.

"One of the most important things we need to do is make sure the people who are losing their rights have legal counsel," said Sally Ramm, of the state's Aging and Disability services.

Chief Justice James Hardesty, who chairs the commission, said he thinks many of the problems that he has heard from family members who feel that their loved one was taken advantage of could have been solved if the ward was given an attorney from the beginning of the process.

Hardesty had a simple recommendation for the panel.

"(Wards) are entitled to an attorney and I think they should have one appointed," he said.

The biggest hurdle for the panel is finding out the best way to fund such representation, and a subcommittee will discuss the most feasible way to do so.

The concept isn't so foreign to some parts of the state, though.

Judge Frances Doherty, who oversees Washoe County's guardianship cases, said that Northern Nevada county has been providing attorney representation to those under guardianship, often referred to as wards, through the county's senior legal aid program for the past two years.

If the panel fails to provide that representation to the thousands of other wards throughout the state, Doherty said, the commission might have been formed for naught.

"We would fall short so significantly as a commission if we failed to affirm the right of the individual facing guardianship in the adult arena to have their own attorney," Doherty said.

The panel was formed after longstanding problems with the system — which handles thousands of guardianship cases in Clark County each year — were exposed in a series of Las Vegas Review-Journal articles in April. Highlighted cases showed a lack of oversight by the courts that left infirm and incapacitated people vulnerable to financial abuse.

The panel was originally supposed to provide recommendations to the state Legislature by the new year, but the Supreme Court recently extended the commission's length by an additional six months.

Full Article & Source:
Legal representation urged for adult guardianships in Nevada

Family: Video shows veteran's calls for help ignored by nurses

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. (WSB-TV.com) — Family of a World War II veteran is suing the Atlanta-based nursing home where he died.

They say a hidden camera, installed at Northeast Atlanta Health and Rehabilitation Center, shows the elderly man’s repeated calls for help were ignored.

Tim Demsey says his father, James Dempsey, was nervous about spending the night at the facility, so the family installed a nanny camera facing the man’s bed. Only his family and his father knew the camera existed, according to Dempsey.

The family of the 89-year-old says he was supposed to be at the assisted living facility for a short time. He died at the facility in February 2014.

“We would have just thought it was natural causes and everything was done that should have been done and he passed away in his sleep,” Dempsey told Channel 2’s Rachel Stockman.

Dempsey says he got the real story when he took the hidden camera home and reviewed the video.

“Shock, dismay, we’ve seen these people everyday,” he said.

On six occasions in the video from the morning he died, Dempsey can be seen pressing the “call/help light button from his bed.”

He can also be seen yelling, “help, help, help,” and appears to be pointing to his heart.

At one point a nurse on the video says, “you gotta stop putting the light on. What do you want now?”

A nurse also tells him, “you’re having anxiety that’s all, you just need to calm down.”

“You would never thought that people would just let a person die,” Dempsey said.

About two hours after the initial call light, the nurses are seen administering CPR for several minutes and then the video shows the paramedics arriving – by then it is too late.

The son filed a lawsuit against the facility, which is owned by one of the largest nursing home operators in the country, Atlanta-based Sava Senior care.

“The biggest problem to me is the attempt to cover it up,” said Michael Prieto, who represents the Dempsey family.

“If they made a mistake then a person of integrity stands up and says I made mistake and you deal with the consequences that certainly hasn’t happened in this case,” Prieto said.

Since Monday, Channel 2 Action News has called the company and their attorneys for comment but have not heard back.

Full Article & Source:
Family: Video shows veteran's calls for help ignored by nurses

Guardianship Commission to ask for criminal investigations

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) - Amid tears and calls for criminal prosecutions, the Nevada Supreme Court Guardianship Commission took substantial action today.

Chief investigator Darcy Spears was there to see the unprecedented steps in fixing a broken system.

When it comes to your civil rights, being put under guardianship is worse than being sent to prison.  Those words from a judge who sits on the commission.

Plus, the state Supreme Court's chief justice called some of what's been going on in our guardianship system just plain crazy.

One of those crazy things is how people can be deemed incompetent by a physician's assistant.  The same physician's assistant whose name appears on case after case handled by private guardian April Parks.

"Later my aunt was examined by a neurologist who determined she was competent," Brenda Ralphs told the commission, through tears.  "My aunt was victimized based on a defective document and incorrect diagnosis by an unqualified person!"

Brenda Ralphs found our Contact 13 investigation online, then flew in from Seattle to share her aunt's story with the guardianship commission.

She told commission members she fought to free her 92-year-old aunt, Barbara Lasco, from an unnecessary guardianship, but succeeded only after Parks and her lawyer drained nearly $20,000 from Lasco's accounts.

"This whole mess was unnecessary and expensive and it was emotionally devastating for my aunt--a proud and competent woman who was reduced to asking for her own money to go to the hairdresser, like a child asking for an allowance!"

After hearing that, Chief Justice Hardesty addressed what we've been asking about for months--what's being done to hold private guardians accountable for exploiting the people they're supposed to protect?

The commission unanimously voted to send a letter to all sheriffs and district attorneys in the state, as well as the Attorney General, asking them to prosecute misconduct and seek restitution for people subject to unjust guardianships.

The commission also voted to establish a bill of rights for people under guardianship and to ensure they have legal counsel.

They will also create a permanent guardianship commission to keep tabs on reform.

Full Article & Source:
Guardianship Commission to ask for criminal investigations

N.J. Supreme Court suspends ex-Hasbrouck Heights mayor from law practice after 'unfair' loan deal with elderly client

The state Supreme Court has suspended a former mayor of Hasbrouck Heights from the practice of law after finding that he abused an elderly client, borrowing most of her life savings with an “unfair” loan agreement and repaying only a fraction before she died.

The court imposed a one-year suspension Wednesday on William J. Torre, a Republican who served as the borough's mayor from 1996 to 2004.

The state Office of Attorney Ethics had recommended a three-month suspension. But the Supreme Court called Torre’s conduct “egregious” and increased his penalty to 12 months.

In a 6-0 decision, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner indicated that it was one of the longest suspensions ever imposed on a lawyer who borrowed money from a client, which is generally discouraged in New Jersey.

The court added that Torre’s case should serve as a warning to all lawyers that abusing the elderly carries “serious consequences” such as suspension or disbarment.

“At all times, an attorney's duty of loyalty is to the client, and not the lawyer's personal financial interests,” Rabner wrote.

“A one-year suspension is warranted to protect the public and guard against elder abuse by lawyers, and to help preserve confidence in the bar,” the court said.

In June 2008, Torre borrowed around $89,000, or 70 percent of the woman’s assets. The woman, identified in court papers as M.D., was 86 years old at the time. A longtime friend of Torre and his family, M.D. had given the former mayor power of attorney and relied on him and employees at his private practice to run errands and help manage her affairs.

According to a note Torre prepared and M.D. signed, the $89,000 loan was to be repaid in two months. But nearly a year later, Torre had paid back only $10,000. The Supreme Court said the arrangement also was troubling in other ways: Torre’s loan was not secured or collateralized, and state rules on attorney conduct required him to advise M.D. in writing that she should consult another lawyer prior to signing the loan agreement with him, but there was no evidence that happened, the court found.

M.D. eventually sued Torre to collect her funds. In November 2009, she also filed an ethics complaint against him. She died a month after that.

Rabner wrote that Torre “caused substantial harm to a vulnerable, eighty-six-year-old victim.”
“Rather than be able to enjoy her twilight years in peace, she was forced to file a lawsuit to try to recoup her life savings,” he wrote.

Torre’s attorney, Raymond F. Flood, said: “Bill Torre and myself understand and accept the decision of the Supreme Court, and he intends to repay the money that he borrowed.”

Shortly before her death in 2009, M.D. won a court judgment against Torre for around $90,000. Torre, who has repaid around $44,500 so far, or around half of the loan, told the Supreme Court he intends to pay the rest to M.D.’s estate in increments until December 2017.

Flood added that “Bill Torre has an outstanding reputation in the legal community.” Torre over the years has represented the Sports and Exposition Authority, the City of Hackensack and several Bergen County lawmakers. He has served as chairman of the Anti Drug Council of Hasbrouck Heights, according to a biography on his law firm’s website. Torre did not return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday.

Safeguarding the elderly from abuse has been a priority for Rabner, who created a statewide program in 2013 through which lawyers and other members of the public volunteer to become court-appointed monitors for older residents, assisting them with financial and medical decisions. The chief justice has promoted the program in public remarks and says the need is growing because demographic trends show the state’s population is getting older on average.

State judges appoint more than 2,000 such guardians each year, a number that is expected to rise, Rabner said.

A spokesman for the New Jersey chapter of the AARP, Jeff Abramo, declined to comment on the case but said “more must be done to enact and enforce laws that fully fund adult protective services and make it a criminal offense, with enhanced penalties, to abuse, neglect, or exploit a vulnerable individual.”

Full Article & Source:
N.J. Supreme Court suspends ex-Hasbrouck Heights mayor from law practice after 'unfair' loan deal with elderly client

NJ: Should Nursing Homes be Required to Have More Aides? Legislation Says Yes

In a move intended to improve the treatment and safety inside New Jersey's nursing homes, a state Assembly panel Monday approved a bill that would set minimum staffing standards for certified nursing assistants.

The bill targets the professionals on whom residents rely the most to meet their basic needs — from eating, bathing, dressing and administering medications.

Nursing homes would have to require one nursing assistant be on duty for every eight residents on the day shift, for every 10 on the late day shift, and one for every 16 residents on the overnight shift.

The Assembly Human Services Committee voted 4-2 to pass the bill (A4636) despite the objections of nursing home operators, who argued quotas would interfere with daily managerial decisions they make based on the specific medical and emotional needs of residents.

Industry officials said passing a law won't change the fact that assistants or "CNA's" are in short supply in New Jersey and nationally.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 1.4 million certified nursing assistants nationwide whose median salary was $25,000 last year, although some made as little as $18,790.

Generally, a nursing aide is required to have 75 hours of training.

Annual turnover in the field is among the highest in any industry - exceeding 100 percent in some years because the work is difficult and pay isn't competitive, according to a 2004 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The report said 1.2 million more nursing assistants would be needed to keep up for the demand for care as the baby boomer population ages.

Full Article and Source:
NJ Assembly Panel Acts to Create Staffing Quota