Waiting for Justice

In 2005, I was granted temporary conservatorship of my Mother and was then able to fire the "agency" and people who, despite my efforts to protect my Mom, had exercised extensive and undue influence over her.

It took over a year to get these characters removed, a year during which they generously helped themselves to her money, household and personal belongings - even her lift chair and electric scooter. During their tenure, they tried very hard to isolate Mom from me. I found checks bearing signatures in no way resembling my Mom’s although a good effort was made to imitate it. Her bank even reported large withdrawals from her account to APS. Despite ongoing reports of my worries and concerns to the appropriate agencies and attorneys, no action was taken or further investigation initiated.

Finally, facts and documents, coupled with a transcript of conversations with one honest caregiver, enabled me to return to court in May 2005 and win the temporary guardianship, which allowed me to hire respectable and reliable caregivers. Mom’s attorney then asserted I could not be Mom’s permanent conservator because I was a direct beneficiary of the trust: a conflict of interest. So, I employed a private dementia- and elder-care management company, and the owner was later appointed as Mom’s conservator of both person and estate in January 2006.

All progressed smoothly for a time. Then, the incredible LVN who was Mom’s care manager resigned and the situation started to deteriorate fast. The conservator makes decisions with limited or no consultation with our family. One of the most damaging was changing Mom’s caregiver routine from three 8-hour shifts to one live-in, purportedly because Mom was "running out of money" - a specious claim. Mom’s social interactions were dramatically reduced, she became progressively withdrawn and depressed, and the caregiver -- a most compassionate and competent woman – became exhausted resulting from the extent of care my Mom needed because she is completely non-ambulatory. It took almost two months to rectify this desperate situation.

Other incidents exacerbated our suspicions: late bill payments, facility care insurance policy allowed to lapse, a life insurance invoice 30-days past due. However, because the conservator changed the billing addresses to the conservator’s office, it is impossible to determine how current the bills may or may not be. The conservator also removed Mom’s medications from her home and stores and dispenses them from the conservator’s office.

Recently, the conservator hired a safe cracker to break into Mom’s jewelry safe and remove it all without notification to the family, let alone having a witness from the family present or asking for the combination. The incident seriously agitated my already-frail mother.

To date, and contrary to requirements mandated by the passage of the Omnibus Conservatorship and Guardianship Reform Act of 2006, the conservator has yet to provide a copy of her first annual accounting to the family, despite repeated requests. The inventory and appraisal is incomplete.

Mom is now under hospice care. Now, more than ever, it is not the time for anyone to be adding more upset and drama to her life or ours. Mom deserves the best and I am doing my utmost to ensure that she has it, all the while praying that somehow, someway, there will be accountability and justice will prevail.

Granny Snatching - Another Side

It's called "Granny Snatching" and elderly advocates say it happens often, where hospitals are named guardians of an elderly against the families wishes.

This video highlights the case of Mollie Orshansky who is a victim of granny snatching and who's niece, Jane Pollack, took her back:

Granny Snatching Case Probed

Pollack removed Orshansky from George Washington University Hospital without advance notice. At the time, hospital officials had gone to court to get control of Orshansky's affairs, recommending that the mentally incapacitated woman be placed in a nursing home.

Orshansky's amassed an estate worth $2 million. From roots in a poor neighborhood, she became a ranking official of the Johnson administration, where she created the concept of a poverty line.

Orshansky - who's helped so many in public service -- had planned that if she couldn't help herself, she wanted to be with relatives in New York, her family says.

A Washington judge ordered the senior citizen be brought back to the capital. However, a Court of Appeals issued a tough-talking order of its own that put the judge on the defense.

For months, Washington Judge Kaye K. Christian had ordered that she be brought back there. The judge appointed attorney, Harry Jordan -- who billed Orshansky $42,000 in fees. A Washington Court of Appeals decision finds "critical errors " in the case. In addition, a second court-appointed attorney, Tanya Castro, failed to even speak with Orshansky, and a valid health care proxy giving Orshansky's niece control was cancelled.
Source:
Elderly Woman's Wishes Finally Fulfilled After Court Battle

More here:

Written statement of Jane M. Pollack before the United States Special Committee on Aging

Written statement of Michael S. Kutzin (Attorney) before the United States Special Committee on Aging

According to the state of Colorado, “Granny Snatching” occurs when greedy guardians exploit elder or disabled family members by moving them to a state with laxer rules.

Source: Granny Snatchers Go Home

See also:
Granny Snatching

Connecticut Probate Judges

There is problem in Connecticut....

Daniel Gross, an eighty-six-year-old resident of New York, went to a Connecticut hospital for treatment of leg problems and ended up, as a result of a conservator’s appointment, a locked ward of a nursing home where he unnecessarily remained for almost ten months. During that time, Gross charges that his assets were dissipated:
Connecticut Conservatorship

How Can This Happen?

Maydelle Trambarulo's expected 30 to 60 stay in Connecticut lasted over three years:
Losing Control: Bringing Maydelle Home

Fox 5 Investigates: Guardian Abuse

Judith Desautell was forced into a nursing home, and her house was sold to pay for it. Her things were thrown out, her cat was taken to the pound and only 10 garbage bags of her belongings were kept—a haphazard collection of clothes (no shoes, no coats), a dead plant and some material scraps: Losing Control

If you are elderly and you are driving through or visiting relatives in Connecticut and become sick, Official Connecticut wants to rip you and your heirs off:
It is unsafe for Americans to live or even drive through Connecticut

The as-yet unsuccessful push to substantially reform the state's Probate Court system in the past has been propelled by studies showing parts of it to be inefficient, inequitable and, in some cases, unprofessional:
Probate woes becoming expensive, too

A phalanx of court-appointed lawyers — acting on her behalf and on her dime — is fighting 88 year old Rose Quattro and desire to live her remaining days with her son. "Some criminals receive better treatment than Quattro":
Shameful Abuse Of Probate

Alarmed German authorities are asking for an investigation into how Margot Claus, a German Citizen, was taken from New York and moved to Connecticut. A probate court judge in February named a North Haven woman, Linda Eger, conservator of Claus' sizable estate:
Probate Abuses Yet Again

Death and taxes are said to be the two things in life that are inevitable but in Connecticut you can add going through the probate court system as well. The system is running out of money and if someone in your family dies in the near future, you will probably pay more because of it:
Calls to revamp probate system in state

When citizens of our state ask me about Connecticut probate, I give this simple advice: Try not to die in Connecticut:
The Scandal of Connecticut's Probate Courts

According to an article about Daniel Gross who was placed in a Connecticut conservatorship even though he had no legal connection to Connecticut, a Yale Law School professor had this to say:

"The probate system rewards the judges' pals."

"These courts are venal and disgraceful."

"These aren't real judges."

"These people have no training or background in the procedures and evidence appropriate to ventilating issues of liberty."

Judge Bars CPS

A San Antonio judge has blocked state Child Protective Services from removing a mother from a polygamous sect from her infant son when he turns a year old.

The temporary restraining order keeps Lori Jessop and her son together. Mothers from the sect with children younger than a year have been allowed to stay with them, but older children have been taken from their mothers and placed in foster care.

The woman had been held along with more than 400 children taken last month from a West Texas ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. State officials say the children were endangered by underage and polygamous spiritual marriages.

Source:
Judge bars CPS from removing child from polygamous mother

More about the FLDS raid by Texas CPS:

Timeline of West Texas polygamist custody battle

Judge: CPS can't separate toddler from FLDS parents

Moms may have to choose between kids, polygamist religion

Polygamous sect fathers demand judge return seized kids

Polygamist sect teen who gave birth is adult, Texas CPS says

Fallout from FLDS raid is intense

Time to Talk

"Baby boomers and their aging parents often shy away from discussions about money, estate planning and health care."

Denial, busy lives and reluctance to confront difficult issues keep many families from having these discussions, elder-care experts say. Parents can see their children's efforts to broach such topics as attempts to take control, while the adult children may shy away from intruding into their parents' lives. Money issues can be particularly touchy. So both sides put off asking and answering questions.

"Often it's, 'We're going to get around to it someday,' " said Marty Richards, a Seattle social worker and geriatric-care manager with 32 years' experience in aging issues. "Then the crisis comes and they're not ready."

Beth Witrogen McLeod knew something was wrong when she stepped into her parents' Wichita, Kan., home. Her mother smelled bad and her clothes were dirty. The normally immaculate house was cluttered and filthy, the floor spotted with food stains. McLeod later realized her mother, who suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease and early-stage dementia, had been trying to bring food to her cancer-stricken husband but often lacked the strength to handle the tray.

Thus began McLeod's yearlong struggle to care for her parents, an experience that wiped out her savings and that of her once-successful mother and father. Only death spared the elderly couple from bankruptcy; they died within weeks of each other after being moved to a nursing home. Because of poor planning, life insurance proceeds and retirement savings that could have gone to McLeod went to pay creditors and lawyers' fees.

Source: Time to Talk - LA Times

Bay Area resident McLeod, who wrote about her experience in the new book "Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss, and Renewal", knows now that at least some of the emotional and financial pain could have been spared had her family discussed some important issues of aging: estate planning, health care and dealing with incapacity.

For years, Beth Witrogen McLeod was the moderator for the AARP Caregivers Online Support Group. She provided direct and sensitive answers to some of the most difficult questions a family member or caregiver could ask, demonstrating a unique understanding of the challenges of Alzheimer's disease and the issues caregivers face.

Investigators: The Power of One: A Call For Change

When it comes to demanding change, there is power in numbers. And a Fox 9 Investigation has inspired a number of people to demand changes in the laws that allow strangers to take control of their loved ones lives.

One of those people is a conservator named Sheila Gast. After our report on Gast in February, more people wrote in urging us to continue to investigate her for the financial and emotional heartaches they say she's caused families.

Trish Van Pilsum reports.

Source:
My Fox Twin Cities

See also:
Investigators: The Power of One

Too Sick for Court?

The late Brooke Astor's octogenarian son missed a Manhattan court date because of an undisclosed illness that required treatment at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Fred Hafetz, the lawyer for 83-year-old Anthony Marshall, 83, said doctors told Marshall to stay in his upper East Side home for the next few weeks.

Marshall is charged with looting the estate of his mother who died last year.

Source:
Brooke Astor's son too sick for estate-loot court date

More on the Brooke Astor guardianship abuse case:

Socialite Brooke Astor Abused by Son, Grandson Says

Astor Case Sheds Light On Issue of Elder Abuse

Court filing claims Brooke Astor lives in squalor

Socialite Brooke Astor victim of elder abuse

Socialite Brooke Astor's son relinquishes guardianship

Heiress Astor's son removed as guardian

Son of NY socialite charged with robbing estate

Son of Astor Is Said to Face Criminal Case

Son of Famed Socialite-Philanthropist Indicted

New Jersey Guardianship

"Title 3B of the New Jersey State Code was altered as recently as 2006 in an effort to consolidate the definition and principles of guardianship to permit a greater degree of independence for those of decreased capacity. Despite these recent revisions, the New Jersey guardianship process is yet in dire need of further reform."

Danielle Diodato, Political Science, Monmouth University

More from the article:
Individuals are not promised the liberty of another day. When life takes an unexpected turn individuals are often forcibly stripped of their right to self-determination, leaving them at risk, defenseless, and susceptible to the thrashing of exploitation. For this reason, relatives and friends of the mentally incompetent find themselves in a guardianship dispute, struggling to decide who is the most suitable individual to govern the affairs of the incapacitated person. The guardianship process is sorely abused and misused, yet proves to be an extremely vital option that is meant to provide a steady flow of relief for the mentally incompetent and his/her prospective guardian.

Guardianship in the state of New Jersey is governed by Title 3B, Chapter 12 of the New Jersey Permanent Statutes. Title 3B applies to all individuals for any reason of mental or physical incapacity. While the statutory framework for guardianship is extensive, Title 3B does not provide an accurate definition of guardianship as it pertains to those in need of specialized protective care. In fact, the terminology provided in Title 3B is exceptionally vague insofar as it utilizes several different sections throughout Chapter 12 to define the roles and responsibilities of guardians in the New Jersey guardianship process. In addition, the recent revision constituting the right to a trial by jury is extraordinarily controversial. In establishing this provision, the courts are denying full consideration of the ethical matters in determining an individual to be mentally incompetent. In essence, a perceived mentally incompetent person may not have the ability to determine whether or not a jury trial is necessary.

Title 3B of the New Jersey guardianship statute does not require that specialists in key areas of importance, such as political, social, and economic, have the ability to influence the extent to which an individual is determined to be mentally incompetent. While the statute has recently changed with regards to the incorporation of limited guardianship, without setting regulations as to how many times and what areas a licensed specialist is required to cover in a given meeting, the New Jersey court system is subjecting an entire population to grave injustice.

Source:

New Jersey Guardianship: Springing Ahead or Falling Behind?

Caring For Our Seniors

In April 2008, the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing called "Caring for Our Seniors: How Can We Support Those on the Frontlines?"

The hearing focused on issues related to family caregivers, workforce development and training for direct care workers and health care providers specialized in working with older adults.

Statement of Committee Member:

Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman

Witness Testimony:

John Rowe, MD, Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY

Robyn Stone, DPH, Executive Director, Institute for the Future of Aging Services, American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, Washington, DC

Martha Stewart, Founder, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia,New York, NY

Todd Semla, PharmD, President, American Geriatrics Society, Evanston, IL

Mary McDermott, Personal care worker and Board of Directors Member, Wisconsin Home Care Commission, Verona, WI

Sally Bowman, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Services, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR