Mickey Rooney's Estate Goes to His Caregiver Stepson

Mickey Rooney's will calls for the bulk of his modest estate to go to a stepson who had been caring for him in his final years.

Documents filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court show Rooney signed his final will and trust on March 11, less than a month before his death.

The filing states Rooney's estate is currently worth an estimated $18,000. Rooney, who died Sunday at age 93, named his stepson and caretaker Mark Rooney and his wife as the sole beneficiaries of his estate.

He said he was a victim of elder abuse and financial mismanagement and went to live with Mark Rooney, repaying his debts and continuing to appear in movies.

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Rooney's Estate Goes to Stepson Who Was Caretaker

See Also:
Court Hears Mickey Rooney's Allegations of Elder Abuse

Residential care home owner, employee arrested in neglect case

 

The owner of a Jacksonville care facility and an employee have been arrested after investigators said a disabled resident was denied medical attention.

Leathia Bonner, owner of Herlea’s Residential Care Group Home at 3334 Sheridan Road, and staff member Linda Ginn are charged with neglect of a disabled adult, according to the Florida Attorney General’s Office, whose Medicaid Fraud Control Unit led the investigation.

The unit began its investigation after receiving information from the Department of Children and Families about the facility. Bonner, 47, and Ginn, 59, are accused of failing to provide medical attention to a group home resident who was subsequently hospitalized and is recovering, the Attorney General’s Office said.

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Residential care home owner, employee arrested in neglect case

Misconduct, trust account problems lead to lawyers’ discipline

Four area lawyers are among 29 recently disciplined by the Florida Supreme Court after investigations by the Florida Bar.

Corinda Lynn Luchetta, a St. Petersburg lawyer, was suspended for 91 days for displaying “a pattern of misconduct,” according to a Bar statement. Most recently, she did not respond to the Bar regarding a complaint alleging that she altered a marital agreement without consent, making it appear the client had signed the agreement.

She was suspended for 15 days in 2008 for failing to respond to the Bar in five out of seven cases.

Brandon lawyer Jeffrey Michael Lasman was suspended until further order. He was found in contempt for not responding to multiple grievances and avoiding service of a subpoena for trust account records.

Masable Larumbla Baker, a Clearwater lawyer, also was suspended until further notice because he appeared to be causing public harm by misappropriating trust funds. An audit determined his trust accounts totaled $613 when there should have been a balance of $122,000.

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Misconduct, trust account problems lead to lawyers’ discipline

Creigh Deeds vows to keep working on Virginia’s mental health system

Referring to newly passed reforms as “modest,” state Sen. Creigh Deeds said Monday that he plans to keep the pressure on his colleagues to fix Virginia’s long-troubled mental health system.

“My scars aren’t going away,” Deeds (D-Bath) told an audience at the National Press Club on Monday. “Believe me, I’m not done.”

Deeds said he would not take questions about the events of last November, when his son Austin “Gus” Deeds, 24, attacked his father with a knife and then fatally shot himself, after a psychiatric bed could not be found within the legally mandated six-hour limit.

“The issue is much bigger than any one person’s experience,” said Deeds, who ran for governor in 2009.

But he frequently touched on his family’s experience with the state’s mental health system as he discussed the need to end the stigma around mental illness and his determination to push for additional reform.

Deeds spoke of the variation in access to mental health services across the state, especially in poorer, rural areas, where a smaller population and longer driving distances pose unique barriers to care. An inspector general report on his son’s death released last week noted that distance played a role in the delayed arrival of the mental health evaluator who was charged with examining Gus Deeds. The evaluator arrived at Bath Community Hospital three hours after a sheriff’s deputy had brought the young man there for an examination, significantly reducing the time left to find a bed. After Deeds’s death, two hospitals said they had room but were not contacted.

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Creigh Deeds vows to keep working on Virginia’s mental health system

High-profile central Maine defense attorney Campbell faces misconduct charges

AUGUSTA — A once-disbarred attorney is back before a disciplinary panel of his peers on separate complaints that he failed to adequately represent two clients, including an allegation that he was improperly added as a beneficiary in an elderly client’s will.

Andrews Campbell, 72, of Bowdoinham, has been the defense attorney in some high profile trials in central Maine, including the defense of Raymond Bellavance Jr., who was convicted of setting fire to the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro in 2009.

The disciplinary petitions that Campbell faces were filed by the Board of Overseers of the Bar and accuse Campbell of misconduct and multiple violations of the Maine Code of Professional Responsibility.

Campbell denies he committed any violations of the code, or, if he did “such violation was inadvertent and did not do harm to any client or the public,” in a filing by his attorney, Justin Andrus.
Campbell said by email, “To my best knowledge, neither (petition) has merit. Beyond that I do not believe further comment would be appropriate at this time.”

Reached by phone Thursday, Andrus said he does not comment on active cases.

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High-profile central Maine defense attorney Campbell faces misconduct charges

Commission recommends 1-year suspension for lawyer due to email criticism of judge

Indianapolis attorney and blogger Paul K. Ogden should be suspended from the bar for a year without automatic reinstatement for private communications criticizing a judge, the Indiana Disciplinary Commission recommended Monday.

The commission recommended to the Indiana Supreme Court that Ogden receive the sanction for emails that he sent to another attorney accusing Hendricks Superior Judge David Coleman of mishandling an estate case in which Ogden represented an heir. Coleman was removed from the case under a lazy judge motion Ogden filed, and Ogden claimed the judge made numerous mistakes handling the years-long case.

Ogden’s brief in reply says his speech was private and protected and there should be no sanctions.

At the heart of the complaint against Ogden is an email he sent to opposing counsel Steve Harris of Mooresville, who represented the estate of Robert P. Carr that was administered by Carr’s son, Robert Carr Jr. Ogden represented another heir in the matter.

Among other things, Ogden said in the email that Coleman “should be turned in to the disciplinary commission for how he handled this case.”

In the commission’s tender of proposed hearing officer’s findings of facts, it recommends that hearing officer Robert W. York find that he “cannot stress enough the conclusion that (Ogden) has a profound lack of both insight into his own conduct and lack or respect for those who disagree with him in any way.”

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Commission recommends 1-year suspension for lawyer due to email criticism of judge

Probate judge assault suspect pleads guilty

A Samson man facing a felony assault charge for allegedly striking the Geneva County Commission chairman with his walking cane pleaded guilty to a lesser harassment charge.

Court records show 67-year-old Edsel Eugene Bonds pleaded guilty on Monday to a misdemeanor harassment charge in front of Circuit Court Judge P.B. McLaughlin in Geneva County.

Samson police arrested Bonds and charged him with felony second-degree assault on Sept. 4, 2013. Police charged Bonds with assault on Geneva County Probate Judge and Commission Chairman Fred Hamic, which happened on Aug. 30, 2013.

Police charged Bonds with using his walking cane to strike Hamic in the face. Bonds apparently went to strike Hamic a second time, but Hamic managed to take the cane away from Bonds.

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Probate judge assault suspect pleads guilty

Pastor faces civil suit, criminal charges

MILFORD -- The Rev. Robert Genevicz appearance in Bridgeport's Golden Hill Street courthouse took about a minute Monday.

There, Genevicz, known as "Pastor Bob" to his Stratford Baptist Church congregation, was told his felony case stemming from the alleged theft of $173,000 from an elderly parishioner was being transferred to the Main Street courthouse for an April 22 appearance.

Genevicz's April 14 appearance in Milford might take much longer. That's when Joseph Mager, Jr., the lawyer and conservator for Patricia A. Stosak, the elderly parishioner, will seek to freeze $500,000 of Genevicz's assets.

Mager is seeking a pre-judgment remedy as a result of a civil suit he filed March 11 against Genevicz. The suit alleges that Genevicz, while serving as Stosak's conservator, stole $173,729 from her. If the remedy is granted, the pastor will be unable to spend or transfer those assets.

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Pastor faces civil suit, criminal charges

See Also:
Pastor accused of bilking faithful

Justices fine Bloomington lawyer, suspend Indy attorney

The Indiana Supreme Court has fined a Monroe County attorney for practicing law while suspended. This week, the justices also suspended an Indianapolis attorney who pleaded guilty to felony wire fraud.

The justices Monday found Bloomington attorney David E. Schalk in contempt. Schalk was suspended in May 2013 for at least nine months. He was convicted of Class A attempted possession of marijuana after trying to set up a drug buy in 2007 with state witnesses in his client’s trial for dealing in methamphetamine. Schalk wanted to prove a witness was still dealing drugs.

The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in February 2011.

The Disciplinary Commission asserted in September 2013 that Schalk violated the suspension order by, among other things, representing two people in a guardianship proceeding. Schalk denied any misconduct.

Schalk worked on the matter before his suspension. Afterward, he filed documents in July and September 2013 purportedly as a pro se, pro bono litigant acting on behalf of the ward. He provided his attorney number under his signature line on the filings, did not withdraw his appearance on behalf of his clients, and he asserted he was acting on behalf of someone other than himself, the order notes.

For violating the suspension order, the justices imposed a $500 fine which must be paid within 60 days from Jan. 27.

On Monday, the justices also issued an order immediately suspending Indianapolis attorney Paul J. Page’s law license. Page, of Pittman & Page, pleaded guilty in 2013 to one count of wire fraud in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Indiana. He agreed to testify if called against co-defendants John M. Bales, a real estate broker, and Bales partner William E. Spencer in a Northern District case.

A 14-count indictment in South Bend alleged Page, Bales and Spencer defrauded the state and a bank over their purchase of a building in Elkhart and a subsequent lease deal with the state's Department of Child Services. A jury found Bales and Spencer not guilty.
 
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Justices fine Bloomington lawyer, suspend Indy attorney