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| Peter Falk |
When Catherine Falk asked to see her ailing father, her stepmother shut the door in her face. When Kerri Kasem arrived to take her dying father to a hospital, her stepmother met her in the driveway — and hurled raw hamburger at her.
The confrontations sparked headlines because the women's fathers were well-known public figures — actor Peter Falk and legendary DJ Casey Kasem. Both died while costly family legal squabbles raged over the visitation rights of their daughters and other relatives.
"It cost me $400,000 to see my father," Kerri Kasem recalled recently as she rushed to catch a flight to New Mexico and testify before the Legislature in Santa Fe. Her Kasem Cares Foundation is backing a bill she said would make it easier for friends and relatives to visit ailing elders.
"I don't want others to go through what we went through," says Kasem, 43, "emotionally and financially."
On the same day, Catherine Falk, 44, was heading to Utah and a legislative appearance to promote a similar visitation bill supported by the Catherine Falk Organization.
Though Falk and Kasem work independently, they've become a powerful one-two punch for reforming visitation laws, stumping for change in more than 30 states. Falk says her proposed legislation is now being considered in 10 states; Kasem's bill has already been adopted in three — California, Iowa and Texas.
The two agree their efforts are getting notice because of their celebrity fathers, and have little problem with such an advantage. "This isn't the Casey Kasem Bill, or the Mickey Rooney Bill, or the B.B. King Bill," Kasem said, referring to other personalities who went through similar elder battles. "It's the Visitation Rights Bill, and it affects thousands in the U.S."
Kasem and Falk are contacted regularly by people with horror stories to share, such as the Colorado woman who described her mother's common-law husband as an abusive alcoholic who prevented the rest of the family from seeing her, then beat her. The mother ended up in a rehab facility after a fall and the daughter was not allowed to visit. Not long after, the daughter learned her mother had died.
Though the coroner was called, she said, there was no autopsy and her mother's body was cremated.
"I do not know where her remains are," the woman said.
The Falk and Kasem bills focus on visitation rights and seek to
provide intervention for seniors being physically or financially abused.
The ultimate goal is a uniform federal law, since the bills vary state
to state in language and differ in respect to guardianships.
Catherine Falk, daughter of Peter Falk, testifies before state lawmakers in Washington state. (Ted S. Warren / Associated Press)
California's
Legislature, for example, unanimously approved a Kasem-backed bill that
enables courts to order conservators to allow phone calls, mail and
visits from relatives. Previously, a long and costly fight was likely
when adult children challenged a conservator who was forbidding family
contact.
Though similar, Falk's legislation sets legal standards
for conservators, including a duty to inform relatives of a subject's
illness or death, and allows "reasonable visitation" access. Disputes
would be resolved in a streamlined court process to determine whether
such a visit would be harmful to the senior. Conservators could also be
fined for failing to act.
But not everyone thinks the proposed laws are necessary, or even a good thing.
At
a January legislative hearing on Kasem's bill in Washington state,
Megan Farr, an attorney representing the elder law section of the State
Bar Assn., said the state had sufficient existing statutes to address
isolation and abuse. And Steve Lindstrom, from the Washington Assn. of
Professional Guardians, cautioned lawmakers not to "overly complicate
what is already a fundamentally good law."
Celebrity DJ Casey Kasem and wife Jean Kasem in 1987.(Associated Press)
Falk said she was never notified when her father began suffering from advanced
dementia,
possibly related to Alzheimer's disease, and then she was barred from
visiting. When he died at the age of 83, she and her sister said they
learned of his death from the media and were never informed when he was
buried at Westwood Memorial Park.
The stepmother, Shera Danese
Falk, said in court that she had taken proper care of her husband as his
appointed caregiver, with nurses subbing for her around the clock when
she was away. She argued that Peter Falk had a strained relationship
with his daughter dating back to a 1992 lawsuit when she demanded her
father pay her college expenses, as required by his divorcee agreement
with Alyce Falk. Catherine admitted they had a falling out over the suit
but had since reconciled.
Kasem's situation was extreme enough that it made headlines.
Her
father, the legendary DJ and longtime "American Top 40" host, was
removed from a Santa Monica hospital in 2014 by second wife Jean Kasem,
an actress who had a small role in the TV comedy "Cheers." Disconnected
from a feeding tube and barely able to walk or speak, Casey Kasem was
taken to Las Vegas, then to Washington state and a hospital in Gig
Harbor, near Tacoma. There, at age 82, he died from complications of
Lewy body dementia, similar to Parkinson's.
That
followed a drawn-out legal challenge and an odd encounter at a home in
Port Orchard, Wash., where Casey Kasem had been taken. Kerri Kasem said
when she arrived with an ambulance and court order to see her father and
take him for a welfare check, Jean Kasem threw a pound of wrapped,
uncooked hamburger at her, according to court records. "In the name of
King David," Jean reportedly yelled. "I threw a piece of raw meat into
the street in exchange for my husband to the wild rabid dogs."
Later,
Jean Kasem reportedly flew the celebrated DJ's body to Canada and then
Norway, where he was buried — the end of an eight-month, 8,000-mile
odyssey.
The Los Angeles district attorney's office
investigated Jean Kasem for neglect and elder abuse, but concluded there
wasn't enough evidence to support criminal charges. Deputy Dist. Atty.
Belle Chen stated in a memo that Jean Kasem had made "continuous efforts
to ensure that Mr. Kasem was medically supervised." Relocating him to
Washington was an effort to protect his privacy, Chen said.
Peter
Falk and Casey Kasem are remembered by stars on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame. But their daughters are hoping for a more lasting tribute — 50 new
state laws in their honor.
"What happened was wrong," said Catherine Falk, "but that would help make it right."
Anderson is a special correspondent based in Seattle.
Full Article & Source:
These children of celebrity dads are taking their stepmoms to court
