7 South Florida attorneys, one accused of stealing $625,000, disciplined by the state

An attorney charged with ripping off $625,000 and a former Miami-Dade assistant state attorney are among the South Florida attorneys on the latest Florida Bar discipline report.

Also, amid obnoxious behavior in a condominium dispute, an attorney threw in a little religious instruction, with “Take some time this weekend to commune with the Lord, because you will need all the help you can get.”

The Florida Supreme Court, which does the disciplining, frowned on such unsolicited spiritual advice as well as other actions detailed below.

The term “disciplinary revocation” appears a few times in these cases. An attorney can apply for this legal version of throwing in the towel during the discipline process. If disciplinary revocation is granted by the state Supreme Court, the attorney is disbarred, in effect, usually for five years before the attorney can reapply for readmission.

The discipline case goes away without any finding of guilt or acquittal. Any alleged criminal acts involved in the discipline case, however, can be prosecuted in criminal court, as in one of the cases that follows.

In alphabetical order:

▪ Fort Lauderdale’s Mary Catherine Bonner, practicing also as Kate Bonner (admitted to practice in 1979) starts her suspension Wednesday. A complaint with the Bar was filed by Florida Department of Corrections inmate Tracy Collier accusing Bonner and her paralegal, former attorney Ileana Haedo, of taking $9,000 payment to file appeal paperwork and not doing so.

The Bar says Bonner hasn’t responded to Bar grievance requests in this case. The state Supreme Court has found her in contempt of court and suspended her until she gets back to the Bar in writing.

▪ Accused of misappropriating (translation: stealing) $128,407 from clients, Fort Lauderdale’s George Castrataro already was suspended for not responding to the Bar’s information requests. That was after clients filed four grievances accusing the general practice attorney of being a thief.

According to the complaints:
Two clients in estate settlements were owed $47,016.40 and $32,291.37 from Castrataro’s trust accounts, but neither received his money; while acting as an escrow agent in a real estate deal, Castrataro took in a $25,000 wire transfer, but didn’t return it when the deal fell apart; he won a labor law case, but put the check into his firm’s operating account (which would be commingling funds, another no-no) and didn’t give his client the $24,000 owed.

George Castrataro The Florida Bar

Castrataro can apply for readmission in 2025, but he’s got bigger problems to deal with before then. A couple of those clients and a few others contacted Fort Lauderdale police. He’s accused of stealing a total of $625,766.

“Castrataro would make up stories, stating the checks got lost in the mail or a rogue postal employee destroyed the mail,” the probable cause affidavit reads.

Castrataro is facing one count of communications fraud over $50,000 and one count of grand theft in the first degree.

▪ The referee in Fort Lauderdale attorney Ashley Krapacs’ case, detailed in this Miami Herald story, found her conduct “improper, unethical and uncivilized,” but didn’t think her online statements about attorneys Russell Williams, Nisha Bacchus and Broward Circuit Court Judge Michael Kaplan and the Florida Bar reached the level of disbarment.

Referee Samantha Schosberg Feuer recommended a two-year suspension. The state Supreme Court disagreed and went all the way to disbarment.

“I am obviously disappointed by this ruling, but I do plan to appeal,” Krapacs said in an email to the Miami Herald. “My case is unfortunately a very sad, stark example of how deep ‘cancel culture’ in our society runs. When a female attorney tries to leave an abusive relationship with a man, and she ends up getting attacked by an army of attorneys nationwide, as well as The Florida Bar, simply because she was vocal and honest about her experiences on social media, it’s a harsh reminder that there is no gender equality in this country.”

▪ Wednesday, Fort Lauderdale’s James Potts (admitted to the Bar in 2013) starts his 60-day suspension which will be followed by a two-year probation. A case referee adjudged Potts got a little too schoolyard in dealing with an adversary.

In May 2017, Potts represented some homeowners and the Secretary of the Heritage Condominum Association who had a problem with the association’s Treasurer, Ruben Vincente. According to the referee’s report, Potts began firing off emails and texts at Vincente.

While phraseology Potts used, such as “unmitigated ineptitude” and “clown fraudsters,” might satisfy a certain insult bloodlust, they can be considered unprofessional communication. The same can be said for emails that sound too similar to “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

“You can’t hide from law enforcement, you can’t hide from the State Attorney looking for you when you are in contempt of court, and you especially can’t hide from me. I refuse to make threats because I don’t need to make threats...

“You will never see me coming and won’t know what hit you when you realize what you’ve brought upon yourself...Take some time this weekend to commune with the Lord, because you will need all the help you can get.”

James Potts Sr. Michael B. Lloyd The Florida Bar

Text messages and phone calls to Vincente, some after 11 p.m. followed. The day before a homeowner’s election in a parking lot, Potts emailed Vincente, in part, “If you are innocent like you say, why not come to the parking area at 2 so we can discuss this like real adults. If I were being accused of being a cheating moron by a loudmouth attorney, you’d better believe I would meet those accusations head on. But then again, I’m not a coward.”

Potts’ response to the original Bar complaint denied his communication was unprofessional, harassing or intimidating. To the referee, however, Potts backed off his professionalism argument, but still fought any charges of harassment and intimidation.

He fought unsuccessfully.

“It does not matter if (Potts) believed that Vicente was a corporate officer, or that (Potts) was indignant on behalf of his clients,” the referee wrote. “It is simply never professional for an attorney to write or say these kinds of things to anyone under any circumstances.”

▪ Someone now facing criminal charges put Davie’s Bonne Scheflin (admitted to the Bar in 1989) on suspension in 2019. Then, Scheflin did her own jump out of the frying pan into the disciplinary fire. She’s going for disciplinary revocation.

As previously reported in the Miami Herald, Scheflin was suspended 18 months for not properly supervising longtime employee Martha Bernal in 2018. While Scheflin was laid up with personal health issues, Bernal ran Scheflin Law. A CPA review said Bernal took advantage of that to steal $415,000 of firm and client money.

(Davie police put the amount at $424,281 in Bernal’s probable cause affidavit. In February, she was charged with first-degree grand theft and criminal use of personal identification information.)

Scheflin was left with just responsibility. But while on suspension, the Bar claims, she continued to communicate with clients of an estate for which she’s the attorney of record. She also didn’t come across with trust account records which the Bar requested.

▪ Wednesday, a referee rejected Coral Gables attorney Scot Strems’ Motion to Dissolve the emergency suspension that’s officially sidelined him since June 9.

In asking for that suspension, the Bar claimed the sole partner of Strems L
aw Firm “sits at the head of a vast campaign of unprofessional, unethical, and fraudulent conduct that now infects courts and communities across the state.”

The Bar stated it noticed a pattern in Strems Law Firm (SLF) lawsuits: file multiple for an incident when one would do; drop into “a ceaseless pattern of delay” that ignored deadlines; not obeying court orders, which requires more hearings or providing discovery that’s “often incomplete, unverified, or late;” acting in bad faith, such as lying to opposing counsel or the court or “SLF may conveniently forget to apprise the court of a client’s death;”court sanctions and the case being dismissed by the court or SLF.

Among the groups hurt by SLF’s actions, the Bar listed “the public, which relies heavily upon the judicial resources consumed by SLF’s case load; Florida homeowners, whose insurance premiums ultimately fund both sides of SLF’s cases...”

Strems has until July 30 to present an argument why the referee’s recommendation should not be approved by the state Supreme Court.

▪ Herbert E. Walker III resigned from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office in 2007 during an investigation of sexual harassment complaints against him. Walker is now serving a suspension earned partially by his vanity.

In his unconditional guilty plea for consent judgment, Walker admits telling client Arthur Wallace he needed five new suits “to look good” for Wallace’s upcoming trial. Wallace dropped $5,000 at Aventura Mall on new suits and monogrammed shirts for Walker.

That level of gift from a client who isn’t a relative or a ride-or-die friend is an ethics violation.

But a bigger one was acting as attorney for murder suspect Parley Paskett while also representing Wallace, who was charged as an accessory after the fact. The referee’s report says Walker testified at a discipline hearing that he’d been “instrumentally involved in negotiating a plea deal” for Paskett.

“That plea deal, however, contemplated that Paskett, if called upon, would testify against (Walker’s) own client (Wallace),” the referee wrote.

That’s a conflict of interest. Both a judge and Wallace reported Walker to the Bar.

Also, Walker accepted money from Paskett’s mother. The referee’s report says Walker didn’t recall whether he told Wallace about it. Walker also apparently didn’t recall what he decided to say about the money, stating at various times in the discipline process that the money was a gift; was payment for legal work; and was “a Christmas present.”

Herbert E. Walker III The Florida Bar

Walker will be freed from suspension Independence Day, July 4, 2021.

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7 South Florida attorneys, one accused of stealing $625,000, disciplined by the state

Nursing home worker deaths going unscrutinized by federal government

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By Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken

(CNN)Less than a month before he died of Covid-19, Victor Sison posted photos of himself at the New Jersey nursing home where he had worked for many years. 

He was wrapped in what appeared to be garbage bags. 

 

"LORD HELP ALL MY FELLOW FRONTLINERS," he wrote in early April.

 

Sison, who loved caring for the elderly and went out of his way to spend time with residents who didn't get visitors, had complained to his family about a lack of basic protective gear such as gowns and masks. As the coronavirus crisis worsened, Sison volunteered to come in on his days off to fill in for others who had called out sick. 

 

But shortly after posting the photo of himself in plastic, Sison, too, became ill. The 64-year-old died on April 18, just a year before he planned to retire. His family wasn't allowed to visit him in the hospital due to Covid-19, so they said their goodbyes over FaceTime as a hospital worker held the phone over Sison's bed. 

 

 

Victor Sison posted photos of himself on Facebook shortly before he passed away of coronavirus.

 

Sison's son, Paulo, said he appreciates that nursing home operators want to help the elderly, but worried "they sometimes forget about their workers." 

 

To date, the state health department has reported that 65 employees have contracted the virus at the facility where Sison worked, Complete Care at Hamilton Plaza. Three have died. 

 

But when Sison passed away, his death went unnoticed by the one federal agency responsible for protecting workers during the pandemic: the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA did not send inspectors to the facility to find out what happened to Sison or his two colleagues, or to determine whether working conditions at the 120-bed nursing home were safe, according to agency data. Following inquiries from CNN about Sison, however, OSHA said this week it has launched an investigation into a death at the facility "to determine the proper course of action."

 

Nursing homes are some of the highest risk environments for contracting Covid-19, and former OSHA officials say the agency is ill-equipped and unprepared to ensure that workers are protected. While these critics say that the agency should require health care employers to report every worker death from Covid-19, OSHA issued guidance in May that gives employers permission to not report deaths to the agency if a "reasonable and good faith inquiry ... cannot determine whether it is more likely than not" that an employee's Covid-19 infection was linked to exposure at work.

 

The regional operator of the facility where Sison worked confirmed that he had died of Covid-19 and "was a valued and beloved staff member who is greatly missed," but it said the facility never experienced a shortage of PPE. It said Sison's death "was not reported to OSHA at that time, in accordance with OSHA's own guidelines" and that "due to the lack of contact tracing in April, we have no other definitive information." 

 

Many other deaths are going unreported as well, with nursing home operators claiming they can't determine whether someone became ill at work or contracted the disease elsewhere -- despite major outbreaks among both residents and employees at their facilities. That means OSHA -- as well as state worker safety programs approved by the agency -- has only physically investigated a fraction of nursing home employee deaths. 

 

Even when deaths or imminent dangers are reported to OSHA, and federal or state regulators launch an investigation, the agency has taken few actions to improve working conditions for other employees or hold employers accountable -- leaving countless workers around the country exposed to unsafe working conditions, according to a CNN analysis of OSHA inspection data, worker safety complaints and interviews with former government officials, workers and their families.

 

"As far as I can tell, they are sleeping," said David Michaels, the former head of OSHA during the Obama administration, specifically about the agency's top leadership. Now a professor at George Washington University School of Public Health, Michaels said that the government should be sending a message to the long-term care industry at large by penalizing employers who are putting their workers in danger.

 

There is no reliable national data on the number of worker deaths at nursing homes related to Covid-19, but at least one government estimate puts the figure at more than 600 workers at around 400 facilities. As of mid-June, only 88 government inspections had been triggered by worker deaths or hospitalizations at nursing facilities. OSHA said it had received reports of 99 fatalities within the industry that were related to Covid-19, meaning regulators had investigated most of the deaths that were actually reported. Since then, another 48 "fatality/catastrophe" inspections at nursing homes have been logged, according to recent data. 

 

Safety regulators have conducted these kinds of inspections at around a dozen additional long-term care facilities identified by CNN, such as assisted living centers or veterans homes since the beginning of the pandemic. 

 

 

Nurse Mavis Charles-France passed away from coronavirus after her colleague complained to OSHA that the veterans home where they worked wasn't prepared for the pandemic. 

 

New Jersey, where Sison worked, is one state where it would presumably be easy for the agency to identify the facilities where worker deaths have occurred because the state's health department publicly releases that information online. According to the state, nearly 120 employees have died of coronavirus at more than 90 long-term care facilities in New Jersey, nearly all of which have battled large outbreaks. Yet OSHA data shows that inspections related to Covid-19 deaths or hospitalizations have only been opened at around 25 facilities in the state. 

 

Had OSHA officials looked at the state's data on nursing home deaths, they would have seen that a single nursing home chain there, Alaris Health, had reported more than 500 employee cases of Covid-19 among its 16 facilities. Seven workers have died. 

 

But none of the Alaris facilities have been visited by OSHA inspectors, according to the agency's records. Two employees sued one of these locations in April for allegedly hiding coronavirus infections from employees, refusing to test patients and pressuring staff to come to work with symptoms of the disease.

 

A spokesman for Alaris, which has denied the claims in court, said "each and every allegation in this case is false," adding that employees were never pressured to work while sick and that information was never withheld from staff or residents. He would not say whether Alaris had reported worker deaths to OSHA, saying only that the company "has and will continue to comply with all state and federal reporting guidelines." 

 

In a statement to CNN about its oversight of the nursing home industry during the pandemic, OSHA said the agency has the tools it needs to police workplaces through existing regulations and has been providing "robust guidance for employers and employees." 

 

The agency declined to comment on ongoing investigations, which can take up to six months to conclude. "OSHA is swiftly and diligently working to keep America's workforce safe and healthy during the coronavirus pandemic," the agency said in a statement. 

 

Former OSHA officials, however, say the agency should be doing far more to protect workers during these unprecedented times. They said OSHA lacks the resources to respond to the overwhelming number of complaints and deaths -- with staffing of inspectors at the lowest level in 45 years. And the guidance issued to employers about reporting deaths was murky, they said, leaving an opening for deaths to go unreported and uninvestigated. 

 

The American Health Care Association, a trade organization representing long-term care facilities, said that the long incubation of the virus makes it difficult to determine whether fatalities are "work related" and therefore required to be reported to OSHA. While the organization said cases among health care workers could be attributable to community spread, it said facilities may want to "err on the side of over reporting to OSHA." 

 

But that does not appear to be happening.

 

Supervisors at an Illinois nursing home, for example, did not immediately report an employee death because they were trying to determine where the virus was contracted, a spokesman for the corporate owner said in June. Even though he acknowledged the facility had an outbreak, with state data showing a total of 59 Covid-19 cases and 11 deaths, the spokesman said at the time it was "unclear whether this staff member was infected at the facility." After the CNN inquiry, the facility did report the death to OSHA. 

 

A Connecticut nursing home, meanwhile, told CNN it did not report a nurse's April death to the agency despite eventually learning of a positive Covid-19 test. 

 

Even the deaths that do result in inspections may not involve agency officials actually visiting the facilities in-person. OSHA said some can take place remotely when resources are stretched thin.

 

Until this week, the federal agency had only cited one nursing home for a violation related to Covid-19 -- levying a roughly $6,500 penalty on a Georgia facility accused of failing to report worker hospitalizations in a timely manner, which critics said would do little to discourage bad behavior or serve as a warning to other facilities. On Tuesday, the agency issued a press release saying it had cited the operator of three Ohio nursing homes for failing to ensure proper PPE usage, proposing penalties of more than $40,000.

 

 

Geddes Scott worries OSHA isn't listening to health care workers who believe their lives are in danger. 

 

In some cases, the agency had been put on notice that work conditions were potentially dangerous. A review of some 700 closed complaints filed by long-term care employees show they have continued to report not being given adequate protective equipment, such as masks and gowns as recently as this month, and others have claimed they were forced to work while sick with coronavirus or were kept in the dark about outbreaks at their facilities. 

 

But the majority of their complaints have been closed after employers denied the claims or promised to address alleged issues. OSHA data also shows that several complaints came from staff working at facilities that later became sites of OSHA investigations into at least one employee death. 

 

That was the case at St. Albans Community Living Center, a New York veterans home where Mavis Charles-France had worked for 10 years before dying of coronavirus in May.

 

Worried that the facility was not prepared for coronavirus to strike, Charles-France's coworker and fellow nurse Geddes Scott said he contacted OSHA in April, about a month before Charles-France's death. The federally run facility didn't have enough PPE or tests for employees, he said, and basic precautions to control the spread of the virus were not being taken by management. As Covid-19 cases began to emerge at the facility, he said workers, including Charles-France, were concerned about their safety. "She told me she was scared," said Scott. "She was crossing her fingers and hoping."

 

Scott recalls being told by an OSHA representative that the only way regulators would enter the building to investigate a complaint like his would be if someone died. Agency data shows that a complaint made on April 9 about a lack of masks and gloves at the facility was closed.

 

"The agency wasn't listening to us," said Scott. "The parachutes and help that are supposed to be there for employees, those are just fallacies." 

 

It was almost a month after Charles-France's death that Scott said he received a message from an investigator. When they got on the phone, he said, the inspector didn't ask many questions about the facility's handling of Covid-19 and "seemed like they were clearing their desk," instead of trying to get to the bottom of why Charles-France died. Scott said he remains skeptical that the investigation will result in any substantial changes at St. Albans. 

 

A spokesman for the VA New York Harbor Healthcare System said it is "mourning the recent loss of a longtime employee who passed away from COVID-19 complications," but disputed Scott's concerns, saying that the facility has always provided workers with adequate PPE and that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance was being followed to protect all employees, adding that "complaints are not facts, they are merely allegations."

 

Charles-France, who had studied to become a nurse after migrating to New York from Guyana in 1985, planned to retire next year, according to her sister Desiree Charles. She wanted to be closer to their mother and do more volunteering. Charles' most recent memory of her sister was how, after getting off her shift on a Friday night in late April, she drove three hours to help care for their 97-year-old mother. "It was always her dream to be a nurse and to be helping people," she said.

 

Winston France, Charles-France's husband, said they also had plans to travel in retirement. He became sick with the virus just days after his wife, and at one point they were in the same hospital room together. He remembered his wife being concerned about her safety at work and specifically complaining about people entering her office without proper PPE. 

 

"A lot of people say why didn't she just take off?" he said. "She cared about her job so much ... Mavis wanted to be a nurse and she died. She died being a nurse."

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Nursing home worker deaths going unscrutinized by federal government

Families call for change to visitor restrictions at state assisted living centers

by: Kevin Clark

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Stephanie Kirby remembers vividly the last time she visited her son at the state supported living center in Denton — it was March 12.

“I hugged him, kissed him goodbye, left him on the patio as he was drinking his chocolate milkshake,” she recalled. “Said, ‘See you later.’ And I didn’t see him later.”

As far as caregivers go, Kirby is as dedicated and involved as it gets.

But KXAN’s Investigative team has spoken with many families of residents in state institutions and nursing homes who are concerned for their loved ones’ well-being during the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, stories of isolation and mental deterioration fill a book mailed to Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday.

The coalition of concerned families make up Texas Caregivers for Compromise, which is calling on the Governor to allow limited family visitation at these facilities, even if it’s just one designated family member.

The Governor’s executive order prohibiting visits also applies to the Denton State Supported Living Center, where Kirby drops off meals for her son at the front gate every Sunday.

She says she’s only been able to see him when he had to go to the hospital, twice this month. One of the trips was following a self-harming incident.

Petre Kirby, 28, has been living at the
 Denton State Supported Living Center
 for more than three years
(Courtesy of Stephanie Kirby)

“He’s lost weight, he looks stressed, he looks anxious,” Kirby said. “A mom can see.”

Petre Kirby is 28 years-old but functions mentally like a three-year old, his mom tells us.

She says Petre is nonverbal and has been known to harm himself.

He’s among the 3,000 or so Texans with intellectual disabilities who live at the state’s 13 state supported living centers. One of the locations is a sprawling, 95-acre campus in Austin.

Kirby has written one letter to Gov. Abbott every day calling for limited visits. Thursday is day 133.

“I said: ‘Let Petre see me in the middle of a wide open field, let him just see that I still exist, that mom hasn’t abandoned him,” she said.

The Associate Commissioner of all state supported living centers emailed Kirby and reiterated the decision was up to the Governor.

“It is my understanding our Regulatory Division has developed some guidelines for review by the Governor’s Office,” the email reads. “I hope we hear something soon.”

But that was a month ago.

“There’s no way anyone could explain to him what happened, and why his mom vanished off the face of the earth and has never returned,” she told us.

Legislators speak up

As our team investigated, we learned of a new letter signed by 55 Texas Senators and Representatives, highlights the concerns about isolation of the most vulnerable Texans who are in state-run institutions.

The letter, sent to Health and Human Services Commissioner Phil Wilson and obtained by KXAN Thursday, asks for an immediate plan to allow limited family visits at assisted living centers.

It predominately refers to residents with memory and mental deficiencies who don’t understand their lockdown status.

“Many cannot understand a virtual visit, and simply look down the hall for their loved one when they hear their voice on an electronic device,” the letter reads.

It adds: “The consequences, as we are sure that you are aware, can be deadly. Hopeless depression and anxiety are quickly leading to failing physical health among these precious and vulnerable people. We have already lost too many to these policies, and more are on the way.”

A spokesperson with Texas Health and Human Services tells us the agency would continue to explore ways to keep families in close contact with each other while the Governor’s order is in effect.

We understand the current policies have been difficult for many parents and guardians, as well as the people we serve, during this pandemic,” she said.

KXAN’s team has also reached out to Gov. Abbott’s office for the last three days, asking about visitation restrictions and when there could be any changes.

As of Thursday evening, KXAN has not heard back.

“COVID is not the only danger to our loved ones,” said Kirby. “There’s the mental damage, the emotional damage, the deterioration.”

“I’m not a visitor. I’m an essential part of his life. I’m his mom.”

KXAN’s Ben Friberg contributed to this report.

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Families call for change to visitor restrictions at state assisted living centers

Laramie attorney disbarred by the Wyoming Supreme Court

The Wyoming Supreme Court today issued an order disbarring Laramie lawyer Michael J. Pearce from the practice of law.

Pearce, who is currently serving a one-year suspension of his law license for previous professional misconduct, failed to respond to a formal disciplinary charged filed by the Office of Bar Counsel of the Wyoming State Bar. The formal charge related to Pearce’s conduct in two matters.

“In one of those matters, Bar Counsel alleged that Pearce forged his clients’ signatures to a settlement agreement and committed other violations of the rules of professional conduct for attorneys in his handling of that case,” a statement from the Wyoming State Bar said Wednesday. “In the other, Pearce refused to cooperate with Bar Counsel’s investigation of a complaint filed by one of Pearce’s other clients. Pearce defaulted on responding to the formal charge and the matter went to a hearing before the Board of Professional Responsibility (BPR) to determine an appropriate sanction for Pearce’s conduct.”

The Wyoming State Bar says that during the hearing, Pearce admitted to forging his clients’ signatures and committing other misconduct. Following the hearing, the BPR recommended Pearce’s disbarment to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

In its order approving the BPR’s recommendation and disbarring Pearce, the Court ordered Pearce to pay administrative fees in the amount of $1,500.00 and to reimburse the Wyoming State Bar for costs of the hearing.

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Laramie attorney disbarred by the Wyoming Supreme Court 

California nursing facility devastated by 17 coronavirus deaths will close permanently

Don and Gerry Warren were married for 71 years. She spent her final three at Stollwood Convalescent Hospital in Woodland CA. Before she died in March of Alzheimer’s. Don moved in with her. A month later, he died of COVID-19 as it hit the facility. By David Caraccio | Renée C. Byer

Stollwood Convalescent Hospital, a Woodland skilled nursing facility devastated by 17 coronavirus deaths in the earlier months of the pandemic, will close permanently this fall.

A message posted Wednesday morning to Stollwood’s website, signed by CEO Sean Beloud, says that after a “thorough financial analysis,” the facility “would operate at a significant monthly loss with no assurance the admissions would increase.” Beloud and other Stollwood officials decided to close the skilled-nursing facility and suspend its license effective Sept. 30, a date approved last week by the California Department of Public Health.

Beloud told The Sacramento Bee he has been in talks with each of the remaining 16 residents and their families. Some might be relocated to the assisted-living side of the campus, and others might move to nearby nursing homes.

It was unclear as of Wednesday how many employees might be moved to jobs elsewhere on the campus and how many might be laid off altogether, Beloud said.

“We’ll navigate through it,” said Beloud, who took the top job in August after working as a physical therapy assistant at the campus for 24 years. “I feel that I will be here to lead and grow and transition this into the future.”

Stollwood appears to be the first nursing home in Northern California to close because of the coronavirus, though industry experts have said the financial strains from the pandemic could overwhelm many facilities across the state and country.

The nursing home is part of the larger St. John’s Retirement Village complex on Woodland Avenue. The rest of the St. John’s campus, which includes assisted living facilities providing a lower level of medical care to residents, will remain open, Beloud said.

The horrific coronavirus outbreak at Stollwood was chronicled in depth by The Bee earlier this month, including interviews with Beloud as well as family members of elderly residents of the 48-bed facility who passed away from the highly contagious respiratory disease, with most dying in April.

Many of those who talked to The Bee nonetheless spoke glowingly of the staff and the nonprofit facility, which has a five-star review on the federal government’s Nursing Home Compare website and had boasted a nearly spotless record based on recent inspection reports that only turned up relatively minor issues such as lapses involving hand washing.

Patricia Warren, whose father died of COVID-19 at Stollwood, said in a recent interview she thinks the nursing home “did everything they could … knowing what we knew back then” about the emerging virus.

“I’ve looked and I’ve searched for answers. I’m a caregiver at heart. And to be honest, this whole transition has broken my heart with what could have, or what should have,” Beloud, the CEO, told The Bee weeks prior to the closure announcement. “... And I know we had the policies in place, procedures in place following every guideline that was put forth in front of us.”

Wednesday’s announcement notes how the “infiltration of COVID in nursing homes” brought on “extremely dark days,” but that Stollwood worked diligently with state and county health officials to eradicate the virus, resulting in it being taken off a state list for active outbreaks at skilled nursing facilities in June.

The nursing home’s 17 deaths, which included at least one staff member, continue to represent half of the COVID-19 death toll for all of Yolo County, where 34 have now died of the disease. All told, 32 residents and 34 staff members at Stollwood tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, during the outbreak.

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California nursing facility devastated by 17 coronavirus deaths will close permanently

Florida watchdog allowed 8 professional guardians who violated state law to continue practicing

'Mitigating circumstances' cited in letters

Florida’s professional guardians have been in the headlines this past year and under arrest for stealing, abuse and neglect.

By: Adam Walser

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s professional guardians have been in the headlines this past year and under arrest for stealing, abuse and neglect.

But the I-Team has uncovered that even when the state’s own investigators found guardians broke the law, they continued with business as usual.

Teresa Kennedy provided us with a 2018 video showing a reunion with her aunt Lillie White, herself and her mother Jane Kennedy at an assisted living facility where White was placed by her court-appointed guardian.

White, a retired school administrator who once sang at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, brightened up as she sang a hearty rendition of “All of Me” with her niece during the visit.

White’s guardian banned most of her family from contacting her years ago.

“We didn't know where she was for two years and then we found her through private investigators in November 2018,” said Kennedy.

After a family dispute over money, a judge appointed a professional guardian to care for White.
“I never thought anything like this could've happened,” White said, in the 2018 video.

White was removed from her home in August 2016 and taken to an assisted living facility.

“They’re saying you don't want to see your sister Jane. Do you want to see her?” Kennedy asked her aunt in the video.

“See how lies can get out? Oh my goodness,” said White. “I've always wanted to see her.”

But before Lillie's family tracked her down, they contacted the Florida Office of Public and Professional Guardians (OPPG).

That’s the watchdog agency set up to investigate complaints against guardians.

“I finally received a call from the inspector general's office saying 'we're opening up an investigation.' So I was very excited,” said Kennedy.

That call came in 2017, about a year after she filed a complaint, but she heard nothing more until almost two years later.

“Every month, I'm calling and saying another year, another week, another month. Where's the report?” said Kennedy.

The I-Team obtained that report showing investigators found Lillie's guardian was not registered as a professional guardian with the state and had billed White’s bank account for attorney fees that were not allowed.

But despite finding problems, the state’s watchdog did not take any disciplinary action.

In a letter to White’s guardian, Department of Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom said her conduct was “mitigated by the complexity of the family relationships.”

“I was so angry when I got the OPPG letter,” said Kennedy.

The I-Team uncovered eight other cases in which investigators found guardians violating the law. But the state never moved to take away the license of any of those guardians, each time ruling the problem had been "mitigated".

One guardian was cited for paying a concierge dentist $73,000 for unnecessary visits.

Investigators found another guardian charged a person under her care hourly fees for a caretaker to accompany the ward on a cruise without getting permission from the court.

Another guardian billed a woman’s estate for providing care services using a side business he owned without telling the court, which is also a violation of the state guardianship law.

Those guardians' actions were all mitigated by taking 16 hours of continuing education courses

Kathleen Zagaros complained to the state after her mother's guardian ignored her mother's advanced care directives, then requested a do not resuscitate order.

“She wanted all measures done. She appointed me as her surrogate healthcare provider. And they were ignored by the guardian,” Zagaros said.

The investigator substantiated that allegation. But a letter to the guardian dated October 14, 2019, said the conduct was mitigated by the actions of the guardian to honor veterans at Arlington National Cemetery.

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What does that mean?

The state did not take any disciplinary action against the guardian because she bought five wreaths for $150 through an organization that lays wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery.

Department of Elder Affairs Secretary Richard Prudom, who oversees OPPG, declined an on-camera interview but provided the following statement by email:

“The Department of Elder Affairs is committed to transparency and education regarding this process. Several factors are used to appropriately determine disciplinary actions regarding complaints received against professional guardians. In cases where evidence of intent to cause harm is found, the Department will refer the matter to law enforcement. We are thankful to have the ongoing partnership of Representative Colleen Burton and Leader Kathleen Passidomo to make revisions to existing law to help ensure the Department has more tools to hold bad actors accountable.”

A guardianship reform bill sponsored by those lawmakers was passed during the 2020 legislative session. It was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis and took effect July 1.

At least five guardians have been charged with crimes since the OPPG was created, but OPPG has not been able to substantiate which of those cases they referred to law enforcement.

“OPPG to date has been there to protect guardians and not the senior. It's very, very clear,” said Kennedy.

We first spoke to Kennedy about her case in early March, before the pandemic shutdown. We followed up with her recently and she says she’s still not allowed to have any contact with her aunt, including phone calls.

“People who do have loved ones in nursing homes right now during COVID-19 might get a little sense of it, not being able to hug their mother, having to talk to them through the window. But at least they can do that. We can’t,” Kennedy said.

She has filed a new complaint with OPPG involving her aunt’s guardian and is hoping her last reunion with her aunt Lillie in 2018 won't be her last.

Full Article & Source:
Florida watchdog allowed 8 professional guardians who violated state law to continue practicing

Disbarred Sands Point lawyer allegedly stole $150K from clients: Queens DA

By Rose Weldon

The law firm Kohn & Kohn, where Sands Point resident Michael Kohn, accused of withholding funds from his clients, practiced prior to resigning from the bar in 2019. (Photo courtesy of Google Maps)

A Queens-based disbarred lawyer and Sands Point resident has been accused of stealing $150,000 from three of his clients.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Wednesday that Michael Kohn of Sycamore Drive, who had an office called Kohn and Kohn in Fresh Meadows, has been charged with three counts of grand larceny.

“The defendant in this case is accused of breaching the trust of his clients and unjustly enriching himself,” Katz said. “The victims trusted the defendant to act on their behalf, when they hired him to handle various legal matters. Instead the defendant allegedly pocketed tens of thousands of dollars that should have been distributed to his clients. The defendant now faces serious charges and will be held accountable for these alleged criminal acts.”

Kohn was arraigned late Wednesday afternoon before Queens Criminal Court Judge Joanne Watters before being released on his own recognizance and ordered to return to court on Oct. 27. If convicted, Kohn could face up to 15 years in prison.

According to the charges, an investigation which included interviews with clients and detailed forensic review of bank records allegedly shows that Kohn stole funds held in multiple bank accounts that should have been dispersed to his clients.

“The victims, however, were either left empty-handed or given just a fraction of the funds they were due,” a statement from the DA’s office said.

The office, which withheld victims’ names, said that the first victim was an administrator for a deceased relative’s estate, and hired the defendant to handle the sale of property in Douglaston, Queens.

In June of 2013, the property sold for about $650,000 and the funds were deposited into an account controlled by Kohn.

“However, the victim only received $100,000 in proceeds from the sale of the real estate,” the office stated.

Continuing, the DA said, in July 2015, the second victim hired Katz to handle a personal injury case, whose civil matter was settled for $90,000.

“When the victim asked Kohn for the money, he allegedly told [the victim] that there was a delay due to an outstanding medical bill,” the office said. “That bill totaled about $4300. The victim allegedly never received a dime of the settlement money even though the funds were deposited in a bank account controlled by the defendant.”

The charges then state that on August 30, 2016, the third victim was the executor of an estate and hired Kohn to handle the sale of estate property in Woodside, Queens.

“The real estate sold for approximately $868,000 with $358,000 payable to the executor,” the statement said. “The victim received two checks in the amount of $75,000 and another for $25,000. Bank records allegedly showed that the account which held the funds as of June 30, 20l7 had a balance of just $19,000. The victim never received the remaining proceeds from the estate sale.”

Katz said that Kohn, 70, had voluntarily resigned from the bar in January 2019 for disciplinary reasons.

Assistant District Attorney Karlton Jarrett, of District Attorney’s Public Corruption Bureau, is prosecuting the case.

Garden City-based attorney Brian Griffin is representing Kohn. Efforts to contact Griffin for comment were unavailing.

Full Article & Source:
Disbarred Sands Point lawyer allegedly stole $150K from clients: Queens DA

UNC-Chapel Hill team develops digital tool to fight elder abuse

CHAPEL HILL – UNC-Chapel Hill faculty member Meredith Smith works with North Carolina’s clerks of superior court. In their judicial role appointing and overseeing guardians for older adults who lack capacity, clerks were encountering a three-headed monster related to the abuse and exploitation of older adults.

Among them: guardianship filings to stop abuse, guardians themselves committing the abuse and guardians asking for resources and referrals related to incapacitated older adults in crisis.

On the other side of town, faculty member Aimee Wall, in the course of her work with county social services agencies, heard echoes of the same from directors, staff and attorneys.

Smith and Wall quickly recognized that problems in each of the domains they served were having a ripple effect through communities across the state.

Together with the project’s funders and School staff, Smith and Wall developed resources and an online platform designed to connect and support public officials on the front lines of the fight against elder abuse.

Aimee Wall and Meredith Smith. (UNC-CH photo)

In addition to the manual, the project includes a resource-rich website, forums to connect officials, a map of other North Carolina professionals working in the field of elder protection and tools to help counties create and sustain multidisciplinary teams (MDTs).

Resources have already started to roll out to communities this summer, including the launch of a manual in print and digital formats. This month, the project launched with a free webinar, “Building Elder Protection Networks in North Carolina.” Smith and Wall presented an overview of the legal framework of North Carolina’s network and lead a discussion with individuals from across the state who are doing this work in various ways.

The webinar will also introduce a new web-based tool, the North Carolina Elder Protection Network. The site will connect, inform and support MDTs and professionals working in aging and adult services across the state. Features will include a discussion forum for professionals to share questions and information, a digital map and directory of MDTs and professionals working in this area and a resource library of content.

Elder abuse is not unique

The issues Smith and Wall observed are not unique to North Carolina. As the population of adults over the age of 65 surges in the United States, states and communities find themselves ill-equipped to deal with the growing problem of elder abuse. At least 10% of older Americans are victims of abuse each year, including physical abuse, financial fraud, scams, caregiver neglect, psychological abuse and sexual abuse.

The impacts are staggering: anywhere from $2.9 billion to $36.5 billion is lost annually in financial exploitation and fraud schemes targeting older adults. Victims of elder abuse are twice as likely to die prematurely compared to those who have not been mistreated. There is no single set of laws to curb elder abuse, and no one agency exists to combat the problem.

Some communities have established MDTs to help combat elder abuse in North Carolina. An MDT is a collaborative effort bound by a common purpose — in this case, to protect older adults from abuse and stop the perpetrators of said abuse. An elder abuse MDT may consist of judges, clerks, APS social workers and directors, physicians, law enforcement, prosecutors, psychologists or victim’s advocates. No two MDTs are the same; each exists to serve the unique goals and vision of the group and its community.

MDTs might exist to review cases of abuse in the community, or they might focus on systemic change to stop the problem. A well-functioning MDT is much like a relay race. When a “baton” is handed off, it isn’t dropped. Instead, it goes to the next runner, who knows where they are going and can transport it there safely.

Smith and Wall worked closely with faculty member Margaret Henderson to guide a group of North Carolina communities in the creation of their own MDTs in September 2019 at their first Elder Protection workshop. Seven counties — Robeson, Guilford, Iredell, Johnston, Buncombe, Mecklenburg and Hyde — arrived at the UNC-Chapel Hill campus for an immersive two-day experience designed to give them the building blocks to create a successful, sustainable MDT.

The concept was simple: The School cannot provide a community with an MDT, but it can give each group the space and the framework to create these teams. Counties were selected by application, ensuring a diverse mix based on population, geography and demography.

“The amount of energy and enthusiasm that people brought was just spectacular,” Wall said. “They were here, they were in it, and they were totally committed to taking some kind of next step. That was really exciting to see.”

After selecting their team theme songs and names (including “Guardians of Guilford County,” “The Elder Crusaders” and the “Queen City Scam Squad”), each MDT set out to write its own vision and mission statement. They also presented their particular challenges and identified other groups that needed to come to the table to make change. Groups shared questions with their fellow attendees, allowing for advice and connectivity over shared experiences.

The workshop was a microcosm of the work this faculty team is hoping to achieve on a broader level. Groups in attendance connected, commiserated, shared problems and gained new insights from their counterparts from other counties.

“We’re supporting them as they go through that group formation process and hit some of the road bumps,” Smith said. “We want to try to ensure long-term success of the teams and their ability to respond to these cases.”

While MDTs are an emerging best practice in the elder protection realm, not every county has the capacity to build a team from scratch. Smith and Wall’s free online resources are designed to be used by officials in any community or situation.

“If you have an MDT or you want to create one, this will be helpful,” Wall said. “But even if you’re operating under standard procedures in your county, the hope is that these resources will make it easier for you.”

Henderson, Smith and Wall hope to have the opportunity to assist more counties with the formation and support of MDTs including the possibility of hosting workshops around the state. The School will also provide ongoing support to existing MDTs, with the ultimate goal of creating communities that are connected and responsive to the needs of their senior populations.

The team is excited for the project’s future — and looks forward to seeing counties put their resources and MDTs into action.

“This is just enough in order to facilitate the partnerships and the connections,” Wall said. “The hard work is up to them, because they have to make those connections and make them work on a day-to-day basis.”

Full Article & Source:
UNC-Chapel Hill team develops digital tool to fight elder abuse

Woman whose mom died of COVID-19 in Crestview assisted living center: ‘What good did it do to keep me out?’

By Wendy Victora

CRESTVIEW -- On a day in early March, Johnnie Kay Ealum and her mom, Patsy Poss, colored pictures together at the assisted living facility where Poss had lived since November.

Poss, who was almost 88, liked to color. She liked it when her daughter sang to her and played the piano. She couldn’t remember how to sing or even her daughter’s name, but she’d hum along and had a new name for her daughter, one she could remember.

She called her “Pretty.”

“To her, I was the probably the most beautiful thing in the world,” Ealum said.

Poss, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease 15 years earlier, had been in a slow decline for years.

Pretty would be the last intelligible word Ealum heard her mom speak.

“I love you” and “We can’t give up” were her last sentences, offered during a surprisingly lucid conversation on Mother’s Day.

Both were over the phone as Ealum struggled to maintain contact with her mom after visitors were shut out of Shoal Creek Rehabilitation Center in mid-March. The same thing was happening around the state and the country, as officials struggled to protect the elderly and infirm, particularly those in assisted living facilities.

But in Poss’s case, they failed, Ealum said

Not only did her mother contract the coronavirus, but also lived the last months of her life alone and confused. By the time she died Saturday, she’d lost all connection with reality, spending her days agitated and yelling gibberish.

“What good did it to to keep my mama from me?” Ealum said. “She ended up dying from somebody else giving it to her. I tested negative. I would not have given my mama COVID.

“Somehow COVID got into that facility.”

Ealum had always promised her parents that she would never put them in a facility. She did her best to keep that promise, making sure her mother was cared for 24/7 as the older woman lost the ability to follow simple commands. She poured her tea on her food, sat down where there was no chair and stayed up all night talking.

By late 2019, Ealum knew she could no longer continue to keep her mother safe at home.

Making what she says was the most difficult decision of her life, she placed Poss at the facility in Crestview. Five or six times a week, Ealum drove from DeFuniak Springs to visit.

That decision transformed Ealum from a full-time caregiver back into a daughter. Her mother seemed content. It worked as long as they could still spend time together.

But on March 12, the day after they colored together, Ealum got the call that family members were no longer allowed to visit.

“I didn’t know that was my last time to do anything with her,” Ealum said.

The next months were difficult and frustrating. Ealum tried talking to her mother on the phone, but her mother couldn’t concentrate. They tried Zoom once, but Ealum was confused by it and the nursing home staff had to prompt her responses.

In mid-May, Ealum’s sister, Joy, died unexpectedly. Ealum got the call in the middle of the night and all she wanted to do was talk to her mama. Instead, she called the nurses’s station and sobbed.

“I just babbled to the nurse, ‘I can’t talk to my mama,’” Ealum said. “She said, ‘Honey, I’m the closest thing you’ve got right now.’”

Although Poss was never told about her Joy’s death, Ealum believes she sensed it. From that point on, she spiraled rapidly into full-blown dementia.

It got so bad by the end of May that nurses dressed Ealum in full personal protection equipment and brought her in to try to calm Poss. As she sang, her mother quieted. But when Ealum stopped, and as she walked out the facility’s doors, she could hear her mother wailing again.

She wouldn’t see her again until July 15, the day after her mother’s COVID test came back positive.

By then, there was nothing anyone could do. Nothing left to protect her mother from. Ealum was allowed to visit her mom, as long as she was covered from head to toe in protective clothing.

She held her mother’s hand wearing plastic gloves.

“She opened her eyes to me and she moved her hand and she squeezed my hand,” Ealum said. “I sang to her. I believe she knew I was there.”

Two days later, Ealum went back.

“I told her goodbye. I started down the hallway. I turned around and went back in. she opened her eyes. I told her I loved her and that she was going to be OK, and I was too,” she said. “That it was her time.”

Twenty-four hours later, Poss was gone.

As of Monday, the facility where her mother died had 53 active cases of the virus among patients and another 15 among staff, according to the state’s COVID report.

In the days since her mother’s death, Ealum is grieving the loss of the woman who’d loved to laugh, who’d stayed home to raise five children, who could cook anything and who tried to take care of her husband even after she was no longer able to care for herself.

And she’s angry.

Ealum believes her mother died of a broken heart every bit as much as she died of COVID. She died wondering why she had been forgotten and abandoned. She died without the comfort of human touch and the power of feeling loved.

Poss had long ago signed documents giving Ealum the power of attorney over her affairs, including her medical care.

In those last months, Poss had no voice. She literally couldn’t understand words or speak them. She needed Ealum more than ever, both as her daughter and as her medical advocate.

“I understand the need to protect the elderly. I understand what COVID is. I understand they’re a vulnerable population. There has to be some kind of measure that we take to protect them,” she said.

But that measure should include access to loved ones.

“If they can screen workers and vendors that come and go every day, family members can do the same thing. If our parents are possibly going to get sick and, God forbid, die then what good has it done to protect them behind closed doors?”

Full Article & Source:
Woman whose mom died of COVID-19 in Crestview assisted living center: ‘What good did it do to keep me out?’