"Tough Choices" Budget

According to Chancellor William B. Chandler IV is the Delaware Office of the Public Guardian, the office of last resort for those who can no longer manage their own affairs and have no one else to do it.

More staff, more money, more tools are needed to address the increasing demand, and Chandler, the top judicial officer in the Court of Chancery, which oversees the Office of the Public Guardian, noted in a letter to Gov. Jack Markell that a July review by the National Guardianship Association will bring other recommendations.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the ability of the Office of the Public Guardian to accommodate its wards is at the breaking point," Chandler wrote.

The timing for those requests couldn't be much worse, with Markell and all state agencies looking for ways to plug an estimated $750 million gouge in 2010 revenue. In his budget address this month, the governor acknowledged that legitimate requests and services had been cut from his "tough choices" budget. The Office of Public Guardian's already small $500,000 budget would be trimmed a bit more.

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Guardians of helpless ask Del. for help

Guardian Accused of Exploitation

The court trusted Cindy Laws to look after the lives of incapacitated and vulnerable people. Now she's charged with exploiting one of them.

Laws is accused of felony "abuse, exploitation or neglect of a vulnerable adult" for allegedly stealing more than $6,000 from a 93-year-old woman with dementia.

Laws was a member of the Twin Falls County Board of Community Guardians, and court records show the court appointed her guardian of at least three incapacitated people. The court has since removed her as a guardian.

Twin Falls County commissioner George Urie, who serves on the board said that an "indirect effect" of the case against Laws filed this week in Twin Falls 5th District Court was that the county's board stopped taking new clients.

Three people who were recently under Laws' guardianship are unable to care for themselves and live on Social Security payments from the government.

The criminal case against Laws unfolded after an adult protection investigator with Area IV Office on Aging asked Laws to sign a "release of information" on Jan. 7. "The release was obtained in connection with an investigation of possible wrongdoing."

The probe turned to Laws when investigators discovered the 93-year-old victim got billed for cell phone service that she is not receiving, along with other questionable charges.

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Guardian accused of exploiting elderly woman

More information:
S. Idaho guardian charged with exploiting woman

Will Forger Gets Jail

Authorities claim Edward Blomfield forged the will of Beverly Graham after she was shot and killed in her apartment by Jennifer San Marco just before San Marco went on a shooting spree at the Goleta U.S. Postal Service distribution center in January 2006, killing six others and then herself. The forged will left Graham’s entire estate, estimated to be worth $750,000, to Blomfield.

Less than a month after Graham’s death, Blomfield produced the will, which Graham’s family immediately contested in probate court. As the result of a complicated civil suit, in which a forensic examiner determined the will was forged, Blomfield was ordered to pay $340,000 in restitution to the Graham family and indicted in criminal court for burglary, financial elder abuse, forgery, conspiracy, and two counts of perjury. Blomfield pled guilty to all charges.

He will serve one year in Santa Barbara County Jail and five years of felony probation. Judge Brian Hill also granted District Attorney Mary Barron two additional requests: that Blomfield not be allowed to act in a fiduciary capacity for anyone and that any current or future employers know of his psychiatric condition.

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Will Forger Gets One Year in Jail, Probation

Former Lawyer Denied License

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has rejected a request by David V. Jennings III of Cedarburg to reinstate his law license, saying his moral character is lacking.

Jennings says the decision is devastating. The furniture store manager says he wanted to get back into law to "offset some of the harm that I caused."

Jennings lost his license in 1993, the year he pleaded guilty to embezzling $550,000 from a company he represented in bankruptcy proceedings and from his mother's living trust.

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Former Wis. lawyer who embezzled denied license

Attorney is Facing Criminal Charges

A Naperville attorney is facing criminal charges on suspicion he stole and mishandled hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients and former law partners.

Prosecutors charged Steven D. Gustafson with theft up to $500,000, forgery, financial institution fraud and financial crimes enterprise.

The 44-year-old Naperville man became licensed to practice law in Illinois Nov. 7, 1991. His focus is estate planning and trusts.

The allegations began while he was a shareholder in the now-defunct law firm of James, Gustafson & Thompson. The firm was dissolved Feb. 21, 2006, and all but one of Gustafson's former partners have sued him.

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Naperville attorney accused of stealing from clients, partners

Real Estate Agent Indicted

A Springfield real estate agent has been indicted on charges he stole more than $400,000 from a trust and more than $200,000 from an aunt for whom he had power of attorney.

Timothy Spengler is charged with felony theft in connection with the trust and with financial exploitation of the elderly, theft and two counts of conspiracy in connection with the alleged theft from his 89-year-old great-aunt.

Spengler’s wife, Cindy, was indicted on the same charges in the case involving her husband’s aunt’s money. She is not charged in the alleged land trust theft.

The indictments, handed down by a Sangamon County grand jury, are the result of an investigation by the Illinois State Police and the state’s attorney’s office involving a Christian County trust of which Timothy Spengler was trustee.

Authorities said one of the beneficiaries of the Zelma E. Ostermeier trust, established in 1999, noticed irregularities in withdrawals from the trust and brought them to the attention of investigators.

A hearing is set on the guardianship issue April 2 and on an order of protection against Timothy Spengler for April 3.

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Area real estate agent, wife accused of theft

Power-Of-Attorney Measure

A state Senate panel was urged to approve a power-of-attorney measure aimed at protecting seniors from abuses by caregivers and, in some cases, their own children.

SB314, reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would erase limited power-of-attorney laws and replace them with a much broader act proposed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

Proponents of SB314 included Lora Myles of the RSVP CARE Law Program, which assists seniors: "the existing Nevada laws make it tough on seniors in dealing with banks or with authorities when seniors become victims of exploitation."

Myles described a case in which a woman confessed to using a power of attorney “to rip her mother off for a very large sum of money” but police and a district attorney wouldn’t prosecute the case, saying they lacked the authority under existing state law.

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Bill focuses on power-of-attorney abuse against seniors

Information Fair

Medicaid fraud and abuse investigator Nikki Henderson will be guest speaker at an information fair about elder abuse and neglect that the University of Louisville is sponsoring.

Kent School of Social Work students who will graduate this year with a gerontology specialization have planned the fair for professionals who work in aging services and for older adults who could use such services. The students will be available to discuss elder issues such as emotional, physical, sexual and financial abuse.

Henderson, a retired Louisville police sergeant and Kent alumna, now works for the state Office of the Attorney General as an investigator in the Medicaid fraud and abuse control division. Her talk will be from noon to 1 p.m. The luncheon starts at 11:30 a.m.

Continuing education credits are available to professionals who attend.

April 23, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
The Kling Center, 219 W. Ormsby Ave.
Admission is free and open to the public. Luncheon seating is limited.
Make reservations by April 10 with Martha Fuller or 502-852-3933, or Linda Exton or 502-852-3934.

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Information fair targets elder abuse, neglect

Alzheimer’s Association Conference

The Alzheimer’s Association Greater PA Chapter will sponsor a conference, “Preventing Elder Abuse,” April 16 at the Mohegan Sun Conference Center.

Presenters include Attorney Dr. Ronald Costen, director of the Institute on Protective Services, Temple University; Carol L. Lavery, MPW, Office of the Victim Advocate, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and James Siberski, MS, coordinator of the Gerontology Education Center, Misericordia University.

The registration deadline is April 8.

For additional information, contact the Alzheimer’s Association at 822-9915.

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Alzheimer’s Association schedules ‘Preventing Elder Abuse’ seminar