GA: Camden Co. Judge Pleads Guilty to Charges, Resigns

The just-elected probate judge of Camden County left office after pleading guilty to three criminal charges.

Wise had worked in the office for 20 years and was the associate probate judge when the charges were brought against her earlier this year. She was elected probate judge in July and was scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 1 to the seat of retiring Judge Martin Gillette.

District Attorney Brian Rickman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Judge Shirley Wise pleaded guilty to three counts -- theft by taking, theft by deception and violation of her oath of office.

Among the charges against Wise was that she took cash payments for vital records from December 2008 until earlier this year and failed to account for and deposit the money. According to records from the Judicial Qualifying Commission, Wise tried to hide the acts by shredding or destroying the original duplicate cash receipts that had been given to customers.

Rickman said Wise was sentenced under the First Offender Act to seven years on probation and fined $1,000.

He said Wise also gave more than $5,500 in restitution to the Camden County Board of Commission. Wise also agreed to not seek or accept appointment to a judicial office in the future.

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Camden Co. Judge Pleads Guilty to Charges, Resigns

FINR: Caregivers Bloodied Patients as Complaints Drew Laughter

Caregivers at a Florida center for the brain-injured beat patients, goaded them to fight each other and fondle female employees and in one instance laughed at complaints of mistreatment, according to investigative reports released under a court order to Bloomberg News.

The center, the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation, is fighting a state directive that it move about 50 patients to other facilities. That order followed a Bloomberg story revealing a history of violence at the center southeast of Tampa. At least five patients have died from alleged abuse or neglect there since 1998, two in the last two years.
The newly released records summarize 15 probes conducted by the Florida Department of Children and Families since 2008, including 12 that have never been disclosed before. Leon County Circuit Court Judge Kevin J. Carroll ordered the state to provide the reports, with the names of victims blacked out, after Bloomberg petitioned the court, arguing there was a compelling public interest.

The Wauchula-based facility, known as FINR, draws patients from across the U.S. and abroad and is said by competitors to be the largest such rehabilitation center in the country. It often finds customers among the relatively few brain injured with legal settlements or insurance payments that enable them to pay premium prices. FINR charges some of them $300,000 a year.

In all of the 15 cases summarized in the reports --involving 17 patients and 20 staff members -- the allegations were classified by investigators as verified, meaning they were supported by a “preponderance of credible evidence.”

‘Difficult Population’

Until now, the state had released only a summary of complaints, indicating there have been 526 allegations of abuse and neglect since 2005. Of those, 37 were deemed verified. Another 117 fell into a category defined by state regulations as when “there is credible evidence that does not meet the standard of preponderance.” The rest are still being investigated or involved cases where the agency discovered no evidence of abuse.

Joe Brennick, FINR’s owner and chief executive officer, declined to comment on individual cases. In an e-mailed statement, Brennick said the center “has consistently acted in the best interest of its patients, and has one of the toughest self-reporting policies in place for a facility of its kind.”

“It is important to understand that FINR serves one of the most difficult populations of patients in the country,” he said, “and that these patients often act out aggressively and are extremely difficult to manage. This is not to absolve wrongdoing by staff members, but is a fact that is often overlooked in media reports.”

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Caregivers Bloodied Patients as Complaints Drew Laughter

See Also:
Florida Brain Injury Center Fights Order to Move Patients

Philadelphia Traffic Judge Removed From Bench by Discipline Panel Because of Lewd Photo

A Philadelphia traffic court judge was removed him from office by a judicial ethics panel for showing a female court clerk cellphone photos of his genitals.

The Court of Judicial Discipline issued the one-sentence order Thursday in the case of Willie Singletary, who had been deemed to have engaged in judicial misconduct.

Singletary's lawyer, John Summers, called it "a one-time, accidental mistake" and said that Singletary resigned from the bench in February. He said Singletary is working, got married this year and is moving on with his life. "The court looked at all available sanctions, looked at past cases, and it selected removal," Summers said. "Surely it knew that he had already resigned."

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Philadelphia Traffic Judge Removed From Bench by Discipline Panel Because of Lewd Photo

Appellate Court: Disabled San Jose Man Owes Nothing to Trustee and Attorneys in Bitter Probate Dispute

In a stunning ruling, a California appellate court on Thursday declared that a Silicon Valley trustee and his two attorneys are not entitled to a penny of compensation, after a years-long dispute over their six-figure bill to briefly manage a disabled San Jose man's life savings.

The decision is a major victory for Danny Reed, a brain-injury victim whose story was featured in July in this newspaper's investigation "Loss of Trust" -- an exposé of how the Santa Clara County Superior Court long allowed estate managers to receive outlandish fees for their court-appointed duties serving the disabled and elderly.

Not only was the ruling major vindication for the 37-year-old man who waged a rare fight against powerful interests in the local courts, it also sets legal precedent that strengthens the rights of others to maintain control of their court-overseen trusts.

"This is much bigger than me," Reed said Thursday. "It's for all the people who can't understand what's going on. This is something that will help them too."

Reed's life became entangled in Santa Clara County's probate court after a pair of accidents left him partially disabled. The money he received in legal settlements was set aside in a special needs trust overseen by a judge.

While Reed never sought help, a probate judge appointed trustee Thomas Thorpe in 2010 to temporarily oversee Reed's trust -- including $650,000 and a townhouse -- when questions arose over  his mother's handling of the funds.

Thursday's opinion, written by 6th District Court of Appeal Acting Presiding Justice Eugene Premo, reversed a lower court's order that Reed's trust must pay $51,285 to Thorpe and his two attorneys, Diane Brown and Michael Desmarais. The trio originally sought $108,771 for Thorpe's 4½ months on the job.

The appellate court said the judge had the power to appoint Thorpe but should not have awarded him and his attorneys any fees, because the trust document included a provision that explicitly denied any new trustees payment for"> their services. That was a provision of Reed's trust document that Thorpe and his attorney had tried unsuccessfully to change.

Thursday's ruling, however, did not address another $146,000 in fees that the lower court ruled Reed's trust must pay Desmarais for his work defending Thorpe's original bill. That dispute is part of a second case that the appellate court is still to consider.

It remained unclear whether Thorpe would appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. Calls to Thorpe and his attorneys were not returned.

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Appellate Court: Disabled San Jose Man Owes Nothing to Trustee and Attorneys in Bitter Probate Dispute

See Also:
Document:  Ruling in Favor of Danny Reed

San Jose Appeals Court Justice Accuses Estate Trustee of 'Feeding Frenzy'

NJ Lawyer Indicted for Allegedly Stealing $600K

A Mahwah man has been indicted by the Essex County Grand Jury after allegedly stealing over $600,000 from clients of his East Orange Law Office, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray announced in a release Tuesday.

According to Murray, Raymond Roche, 54, a Mahwah resident, was served with a three-count indictment after allegedly stealing settlement checks from his personal injury clients.

Roche faces 20 years in prison if he is convicted of second-degree theft, misapplication of entrusted funds, and first-degree financial facilitation of criminal activity charges, the release said.

Roche, a lawyer with a practice in East Orange, allegedly “accumulated unpaid medical liens on personal injury cases,” Murray said in the release. “He received settlement checks from the insured but failed to pay off the medical liens.”

Roche is accused of depositing the checks into his attorney’s trust fund, and writing checks from the trust account to his law firm, Roche and Associates, in 2006 and 2007, Murray said.

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Lawyer Indicted for Allegedly Stealing $600K

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Elder Abuse in Florida

Join us this evening as we explore the probate system in Florida.

Kevin Pizzarillo joins the show to discuss an ongoing case which was predicated upon the filing of fraudulent petitions. Even after the court was informed that the petitioners were fully aware of pre-existing directives and other legal instruments, the Judge refused to reverse the ruling granting temporary guardianship.

 

In the mix are numerous attorneys who obtained retainers and then withdrew from the case just before court.

Even with a massive collection of legal documents as evidence, the Florida state Attorney General refuses to act on the criminal activity taking place.

What is happening in this case and in hundreds of other cases in Florida, is the practice of human trafficking for profit.

5:00 PST … 6:00 MST … 7:00 CST … 8:00 EST

LISTEN live tonight or listen to the archive later

Judge OK's $18M Settlement in 'Kids-for-Cash' Case

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has given final approval to a settlement that will pay out nearly $18 million to juveniles who allege they were wrongly jailed by corrupt judges.[Former Luzurne County Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella]

The approval granted Friday in Scranton allows attorneys to begin distributing money to about 1,600 teens and their parents.

The funds come from developer Robert K. Mericle (MEHR'-ih-kuhl), who built a pair of for-profit youth detention centers.

Two Luzerne County judges accepted payments from Mericle and routinely jailed teens at the facilities. The judges are now serving lengthy prison terms.

Mericle pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony. He awaits sentencing in the so-called "kids for cash" scandal.

Affected youths will receive between $500 and $5,000. Some will get more based on the circumstances of their incarceration.

Source: Judge OK's $18M Settlement in 'Kids-for-Cash' Case

Ben Alfano is Still Footing the Bill

While Ben Alfano will be much with his children this week, if only in memory, Thanksgiving eve would seem a callous time to render "final" judgment on the draining of the veteran's estate.

But as Washington County Circuit Judge Rita Batz Cobb has scheduled the hearing for 11 a.m. Wednesday, let's review the charade that has brought us this far.

Twenty-seven months ago, Cobb dismissed the pleas of Alfano, his four doctors, four of his five children and Cobb's own court visitor, and awarded control of the veteran's life to Chris Farley, a professional guardian.

Farley -- like Alfano's court-appointed attorney, Richard Pagnano -- was enlisted by the Oregon Department of Veteran Affairs, the conservator of Alfano's sizable estate.

Alfano, a 72-year-old amputee with full benefits, would survive only another six months.

As I wrote in a series of February columns, Farley moved the veteran out of the Raleigh Hills Assisted Living facility he loved and eventually into a locked-door dementia-care unit in Gresham, and strenuously isolated him from his children.

Alfano's heart burst, literally, in February 2011, and he died at the VA Medical Center.

As Judy Bridges, the Raleigh Hills administrator, submitted in an affidavit, "I believe with all my heart that the move killed him."

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Steve Duin: Ben Alfano is Still Footing the Bill

No Charges for Algonquin Woman Who Abandoned Disabled Daughter

While her actions were “inexcusable,” an Algonquin mother will not face criminal charges for abandoning her 19-year-old disabled daughter at a Tennessee bar, according to the district attorney general in Campbell County, Tenn.

That was the conclusion of a grand jury that investigated whether Eva Cameron, 45, should be charged with willful neglect and exploitation of an impaired adult, according to a news release issued Monday by Lori Phillips-Jones, district attorney general.

“There is no disagreement that the actions of the mother, Eva Cameron, in this case were inexcusable,” the news release states. “However, Tennessee law has not anticipated such behavior and thus the Grand Jury was faced with conduct which was not necessarily indictable.”

Cameron could not immediately be reached Monday. She has said previously that she did not believe Illinois would provide adequate medical services or housing for her daughter, who functions at the intellectual level of a 3-year-old.

Tennessee officials at first said they would not charge Cameron because her daughter is legally an adult, but reversed course after learning the circumstances of the case. On June 28, the teen, who has a limited vocabulary, was discovered without an ID or money at a bar in rural Caryville.

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No Charges for Algonquin Woman Who Abandoned Disableld Daughter