Ohio hospital wants to force Amish girl’s cancer treatment after parents stop chemotherapy

An Ohio hospital is fighting to force a 10-year-old Amish girl with leukemia to resume chemotherapy after her parents decided to stop the treatments.

Akron Children’s Hospital is appealing a judge’s decision that blocked an attorney who’s also a registered nurse from taking over limited guardianship and making medical decisions for the girl.

The hospital believes the girl will die without chemotherapy and is morally and legally obligated to make sure she receives proper care, said Robert McGregor, the hospital’s chief medical officer.

“We really have to advocate for what we believe is in the best interest of the child,” he said Friday.

The parents initially allowed chemotherapy treatment in May but stopped treatment in June. The parents said the effects on their daughter were horrible and that they were now relying on natural medicines, such as herbs and vitamins, The Medina Gazette reported.

The girl told a probate and juvenile judge that she didn’t want chemotherapy because it made feel ill, can damage her organs and make her infertile, the newspaper said.

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Ohio hospital wants to force Amish girl’s cancer treatment after parents stop chemotherapy

Artist Robert Rauschenberg's foundation, trustees in court fight Monday over money

Captiva artist Robert Rauschenberg left his $600 million estate in the hands of three friends, including another artist, but now these trustees are suing to collect millions they say they’re owed.



Robert Rauschenberg

Darryl Pottorf, himself an artist and one of Rauschenberg’s closest friends, inherited Rauschenberg’s $3 million Captiva home upon the artist’s death in 2008. He also was named executor of Rauschenberg’s will and a trustee, charged with ensuring his late friend’s money and charitable foundation would run as planned.

Pottorf and two other trustees — Bill Goldston, who met Rauschenberg in 1969 and partnered with him for a fine-art-print publishing company, and Bennet Grutman, Rauschenberg’s accountant since 1989 — are seeking $60 million for what they call “extraordinary services” they’ve provided to Rauschenberg’s legacy, according to court documents.

A court hearing is planned Monday morning in Lee in regard to the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s request for a protective order and to discuss fees sought by trustees.

The history

The court battle began in Lee County in 2011, when the trio filed the lawsuit against the foundation. It has been a contentious back-and-forth between the groups, trading jabs over competency of the trustees, allegations of harassment and whether Rauschenberg actually meant for the three men to pocket millions meant for his charitable efforts.

Pottorf, who would not comment to The News-Press for this article, also filed paperwork Wednesday in a New York court, seeking additional money for handling Rauschenberg’s Manhattan property, which includes the gallery and studio where the foundation is housed, and a Mount Vernon, N.Y., property that houses some of Rauschenberg’s art.

Court documents show Pottorf, Goldston and Grutman have paid themselves $5.7 million from the trust, divided evenly at $1.9 million.

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Artist Robert Rauschenberg's foundation, trustees in court fight Monday over money

Attorney who admitted theft still has law license

Since November, attorney Randy Wynn has been telling pretty much everybody he was a thief.

He has fessed up to the Milwaukee County district attorney's office, the state Office of Lawyer Regulation, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge and the Journal Sentinel, which in January reported that Wynn acknowledged pocketing client funds. In an interview last week, the 60-year-old lawyer said the amount he took in the past few years is "estimated to be under $1 million, over $500,000 but spread over hundreds of clients."

"I'm expecting to be charged, and I'll probably be in prison," Wynn testified last month in a bankruptcy hearing for one of his former clients. "What I did was wrong. I deserve whatever punishment I get."

A partial accounting that Wynn gave to regulators in May "showed that Wynn had taken $784,734 from numerous clients," Keith Sellen, director of the Office of Lawyer Regulation, wrote in a report filed with the state Supreme Court last month. "Wynn estimated his ... partial accounting was '90% complete.'"

Still, Wynn remains a licensed lawyer — he participated in a courtroom conference call just a month ago — and is in the center of a testy bankruptcy fight in which his testimony has gotten a former client in hot water. During the bankruptcy hearing, Jonathan Goodman, the bankruptcy attorney for Wynn's former client, referred to Wynn as a "lying snake" and a "lying weasel."

Wynn's case provides insight into the glacial speed of Wisconsin's secretive attorney regulatory process, a system in which the time between the receipt of a complaint about a lawyer and court action on that complaint can take years.

Wynn is not the only attorney who has kept his law license after admitting to committing felonies involving clients. Grafton lawyer Richard Kranitz remains a member of the state bar, even though three months ago he agreed in federal court to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Kranitz was arrested in December 2011; this month he was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

Like Wynn, Kranitz is listed as being in good standing on the state bar's lawyer search website as well as the one operated by the Office of Lawyer Regulation, the policing arm of the state Supreme Court.

On June 19 — about seven months after Wynn says he first told regulators and prosecutors of his thievery — the Office of Lawyer Regulation filed Wynn's petition for voluntary revocation of his law license.

The petition is pending before the state Supreme Court.

William Weigel, the OLR's litigation counsel, defended the pace of the agency's investigations.
"The lawyer regulation process is rules-based, accurate and thorough," Weigel wrote in an email. "... If OLR is perceived sometimes as not publicly jumping on a case from the get-go, well, we place a premium on getting it done right rather than rushing to get it done quickly."

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Attorney who admitted theft still has law license

Bergenfield senior found, but a troubling trend grows

Donald Wicklund

Last Wednesday, Connie  Wicklund was downstairs in her Bergenfield home when she heard a main-floor door open and shut. Her husband, Donald, had likely taken the trash out, she reasoned.
                    
But when she came upstairs, he was gone, sparking what started as a desperate search by family and friends — and then early the next morning by law enforcement.

Those four days of anguish and uncertainty ended happily early Sunday evening when Wicklund, 81, was found in a back yard less than seven houses away from his own home. He was “conscious and verbal” but “dehydrated and malnourished,” police said.

The 5:51 p.m. discovery was sparked in part by a reverse emergency call the police initiated on Sunday — the third since Wicklund was first reported missing at 12:34 a.m. on Thursday — asking residents to check their back yards.

One of Wicklund’s neighbors, following the police advice, found a shoe next to a koi pond in his back yard. Upon further investigation, the neighbor located Wicklund and called 911, said Capt. Cathy Madalone.

Madalone said dogs had helped search that area before Sunday.

“He was probably trying to get back home,” she said late Sunday. “We don’t know for sure. We are waiting for him to get back from the hospital, and we are waiting for him to be coherent enough to speak with him.”

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Bergenfield senior found, but a troubling trend grows

Police Investigate Probate Lawyer Over Disabled Man's Missing Funds

Police are investigating a probate court-appointed lawyer who allegedly tried to cover up his improper handling of a disabled man's finances by filing false accounting statements — as the man's assets dwindled by tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

The Newington Police Department's investigation of Michael Schless, a retired Newington attorney now living in Florida, began after the Aug. 4 publication of a Government Watch column about Schless's longtime role as probate conservator for John Fritz, 64, of Wethersfield, who suffers from cerebral palsy.

Fritz once had assets worth more than $100,000, but now his money market and stock accounts have shrunk to about $20,000 — even though his family says they should have remained stable because his living expenses are covered by Social Security payments and part-time employment.

Newington Probate Judge Robert A. Randich also wrote in a ruling last spring that Schless attempted to "hide his transgressions by filing knowingly false accountings."

Despite that ruling, however, Randich had declined to exercise his option to request a criminal probe, and Fritz's family had been unable to persuade law enforcement authorities to investigate.

That soon changed.

Days after the column appeared, a Newington police detective was assigned to the case. A member of state's attorney's office in New Britain "took notice of [the] newspaper column ... and independently requested that the matter be investigated," according to an Aug. 8 letter to a state prosecutor from David A. Ruth of Bolton, a lawyer representing Fritz's family.

A state prosecutor independently confirmed Ruth's assertion that the police investigation is underway.

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Police Investigate Probate Lawyer Over Disabled Man's Missing Funds

See Also:
Deceit, Improprieties By Probate 'Conservator' Deprive Disabled Man Of Inheritance, Court Finds

State Bar: Bill Belk violated conduct rules

RALEIGH The N.C. State Bar concluded Friday that former Mecklenburg District Judge Bill Belk violated rules of professional conduct while on the bench.

Belk was accused of lying during a 2009 investigation into possible misconduct. He appeared Friday before a hearing panel of the bar’s Disciplinary Hearing Commission.

Belk, the grandson of the Belk department store chain founder, said he was “disappointed” with the hearing panel’s decision.

Another hearing will be held on Sept. 26 to decide the appropriate discipline. The possible disciplinary actions include admonition, reprimand, censure, suspension and disbarment.

Belk, facing misconduct charges, resigned from the bench in November 2009. Five months later, the N.C. Supreme Court banned him from ever returning to the bench.

The case revolved around Belk remaining on the board of Sonic Automotive, one of the nation’s largest auto retailers, while serving as judge. Judges are prohibited from serving on business boards of directors to avoid conflicts of interest.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/08/23/4257851/state-bar-bill-belk-violated-conduct.html#storylink=cpy

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State Bar: Bill Belk violated conduct rules

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/08/23/4257851/state-bar-bill-belk-violated-conduct.html#storylink=cpy

Ohio hospital wants to force Amish girl’s cancer treatment after parents stop chemotherapy

An Ohio hospital is fighting to force a 10-year-old Amish girl with leukemia to resume chemotherapy after her parents decided to stop the treatments.

Akron Children’s Hospital is appealing a judge’s decision that blocked an attorney who’s also a registered nurse from taking over limited guardianship and making medical decisions for the girl.

The hospital believes the girl will die without chemotherapy and is morally and legally obligated to make sure she receives proper care, said Robert McGregor, the hospital’s chief medical officer.

“We really have to advocate for what we believe is in the best interest of the child,” he said Friday.
The parents initially allowed chemotherapy treatment in May but stopped treatment in June. The parents said the effects on their daughter were horrible and that they were now relying on natural medicines, such as herbs and vitamins, The Medina Gazette reported.

The girl told a probate and juvenile judge that she didn’t want chemotherapy because it made feel ill, can damage her organs and make her infertile, the newspaper said.

Medina County Probate and Juvenile Judge John Lohn said he could only transfer guardianship if the parents were found unfit.

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Ohio hospital wants to force Amish girl’s cancer treatment after parents stop chemotherapy

Zsa Zsa Gabor's daughter questions conservator's use of money

LOS ANGELES — In newly filed court papers, an attorney for Zsa Zsa Gabor’s daughter questions how money from the 96-year-old actress’ estate is being spent by her husband, who also serves as her court-appointed temporary conservator.

Kenneth Kossoff, who represents Constance Francesca Gabor Hilton, is recommending that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Reva Goetz reject the inventory of income and expenses offered by Frederic Prinz von Anhalt and his lawyer, William Remery.

“The conservator (von Anhalt) throws frequent, lavish parties at (Gabor’s) house attended by strangers to (her), while (she) is confined to her bedroom,” Kossoff’s court papers state.

Von Anhalt also restricts Gabor’s daughter to entering the home through one door and does not invite her to birthday parties held for her mother, Kossoff wrote.

Gabor’s daughter filed her own conservatorship petition in March 2012 after learning the Bel Air home of her ailing, bedridden mother allegedly was in default over missed mortgage payments and that von Anhalt had obtained a six-figure loan against his wife’s equity in the property.

But both sides last summer reached an interim solution in favor of appointing von Anhalt as Gabor’s temporary conservator.

In May, Goetz approved the sale of the couple’s home for $11 million in an agreement that allows Gabor, an actress and contemporary of well-known celebrities and Coachella Valley residents such as Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra who once owned a home in Palm Springs, to remain at the Bel Air estate for three years.

Under law, von Anhalt is required to submit an accounting of expenses and income to Goetz.

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Zsa Zsa Gabor's daughter questions conservator's use of money

The History of Nursing Homes

In the twenty-first century, nursing homes have become a standard form of care for the most aged and incapacitated persons. Nearly 6 percent of older adults are sheltered in residential facilities that provide a wide range of care. Yet such institutions have not always existed; rather, their history and development reflect relatively recent demographic and political realities that shape the experience of growing old. Before the nineteenth century, no age-restricted institutions existed for long-term care. Rather, elderly individuals who needed shelter because of incapacity, impoverishment, or family isolation often ended their days in an almshouse. Placed alongside the insane, the inebriated, or the homeless, they were simply categorized as part of the community's most needy recipients.

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, women's and church groups began to establish special homes for the elderly persons. Often concerned that worthy individuals of their own ethnic or religious background might end their days alongside the most despised society, they established—as the founder of Boston's Home for Aged Women (1850), explained—a haven for those who were "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh". Advocates for these asylums contrasted their benevolent care with the horrors of those who were relegated to the almshouse. "We were grateful," wrote the organizers of Philadelphia's Indigent Widows' and Single Women's Society, one of the nation's earliest old age homes, in 1823, "that through the indulgence of Divine Providence, our efforts have, in some degree, been successful, and have preserved many who once lived respectfully from becoming residents of the Alms House".

Although designed for those without substantial familial support, these early homes still generally required substantial entrance fees and certificates of good character. Through these policies, the founders strove to separate their own needy poor from, as the Boston founder explained, foreigners who "have taken possession of the public charities. . .as they have of the houses where our less privileged classes formerly resided".

Not surprisingly, perhaps, throughout the nineteenth century the numbers of elderly people who found shelter in these institutions was rather limited. In 1910 the state of Massachusetts, reported that 2,598 persons resided in such asylums. The great majority of these individuals were widowed and single women who had lived their entire lives, or at least a great proportion, as citizens of the state. Although the institutions were hardly palatial, the amount spent on each resident was far greater than the allocation for each almshouse resident. Much as their founders had hoped, the nineteenth-century old-age home operated to differentiate the "worthy" old of a particular religion or ethnic group from the most needy and desperate of the aged population.

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FATE: The History of Nursing Homes