Celebrate! Judge Rules Public Guardian (Jeanan Mills Stuart) is NOT Immune From Lawsuit!

A circuit court judge has ruled that a Hendersonville woman placed in a conservatorship without her knowledge can sue Davidson's former public guardian for not acting in her best interests.

In an 8-page ruling, Judge Hamilton Gayden ruled that former Public Guardian Jeanan Stuart is not immune to a suit charging that she failed to fulfill her duties.

Gayden had previously ruled that Ginger Franklin, the Hendersonville woman, could not sue based on allegations that Stuart mishandled her financial affairs. But late last week, he found that Franklin could sue for the personal toll Stuart's handling of her affairs had taken.

That includes "mental anguish" and other damages.

"Thus, the court holds that Stuart is not entitled to absolute judicial immunity for the alleged actions (or inactions) in this case," Gayden wrote.

Franklin filed suit last year charging that, while under Stuart's control, she lost all of her possessions and was forced to work for no wages in a group home where Stuart had placed her.

Gayden concluded that Franklin could not contest the financial losses but can pursue claims that Stuart failed to act in her best interests by failing to investigate the living conditions at the group home where she placed Franklin..

Citing a prior ruling, Gayden said the precedent "stands for the principle that failure to act in the best interest of the ward is actionable."

He cited Franklin's claims that she was "abused in various ways, including being forced into slave labor."

Franklin already has won a ruling over the operators of the group home but she said she has yet to collect the $23,050 awarded by a Sumner County judge, who ruled Franklin had been abused durung her stay at Salim Homes.

Stuart resigned last year on the same day that Probate Judge David Randy Kennedy announced he would not appoint her to any more conservatorships because of questions over her billing practices as first reported by the Tennessean. Her position has remained unfilled.

Source:
Judge Rules That Public Guardian Isn't Immune from Lawsuit

See Also:
NASGA:  Ginger Franklin - Tennessee Victim

Four Charged in Virginia Nursing Home Fraud Case

Four former officials of a now-defunct southwest Virginia nursing home have been charged with defrauding Medicare and Medicaid by operating the facility without sufficient personnel and supplies.

Vendors and employees were defrauded, and residents of the Brian Center Health and Rehabilitation Center in Weber City lived in unsanitary conditions, a 71-count indictment said.

Three of the defendants pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court in Abingdon. They are Avi Klein, 45, of Miami Beach, Florida; Alicia Dietrich, 52, of Lancaster, Ohio; and Charles R. Menten, 62, of Wilton Manors, Florida. Klein owned and operated the center before closing it in 2012, according to the indictment. Dietrich was a vice president, and Menten was the facility's chief accountant.

The fourth defendant, Vickie Cox of Kingsport, Tennessee, was the facility's administrator for a little more than two years.

A jury trial has been scheduled for Jan. 5.

Full Article and Source:
4 Charged in Virginia Nursing Home Fraud Case

Theft Suspect Attends Victim's Guardianship Hearing

Samuel Perkins, 45, the suspect in a case involving the alleged theft of an elderly East Side man’s home and life savings, made an appearance in court Monday, although the hearing he attended did not involve him.

 

The hearing, instead, was to determine guardianship of the alleged victim, Isiah Bradwell.
 

Bradwell son’s, Isaiah Bradwell Jr., filed the motion seeking legal guardianship of his father.

 

He testified in court that his father, who is 86 years old -- not 84 as previously reported -- suffers from dementia, and possibly Alzheimer’s disease.

 

“Speaking to the doctors, it's not going to get any better as time goes on,” the son said after the hearing.

 

It was under that mental state that the elder Bradwell signed over his home and his life savings -- more than $92,000 -- to Perkins, according to the charges.

 

Judge Tom Rickhoff decided in favor of awarding legal guardianship to Isaiah Bradwell Jr., who already has his father living in his Massachusetts home.

 

He said he removed his father from the San Antonio nursing home where Perkins had placed him earlier this year, and he appears to be adjusting.

 

Perkins, meanwhile, is awaiting trial in the criminal case.

 

Full Article, Video and Source:
Suspect in Theft of Elderly Man's Home, Life Savings, in Court

Missouri Man, John Flentie, Fights for Freedom from Guardianship

Two years ago, Flentie had more than $660,000 in various bank accounts and stock investments, not including the equity in his home. He had zero credit card debt, paid every bill on time by automatic withdrawal and, documents show, had a perfect credit rating of 990.

Now, with the Platte County public administrator as his conservator, he gets $50 a month of his own money to spend. Moreover, because the law permits the administrator to use Flentie’s own funds to pay for his room, board and care at the nursing home as well as to pay for the mortgage, utilities and upkeep on the home he has not lived in for two years, documents show he is more than $80,000 poorer than when the conservatorship began.

“They’re even using his funds to pay for the county’s legal representation in his appeal,” said Leawood friend and former classmate Mike McCowen, 72, a pilot who worked for Phillips Petroleum for 38 years. That sum so far is just over $10,000.
“So he’s fighting against his own money.”


Full Article and Source:
The Saga of John Flentie:  Platte County Man Fights Against His Guardianship

R“What’s happened to John Flentie is simply disgusting,” said his attorney, Jonathan Sternberg. “This is a story about a perfectly good, law-abiding, hardworking person who has had the government step into his life, railroaded him and has taken away everything

Neglect or Bureaucracy?

What happened to Tina Glantz one Saturday night in February was either medical neglect or an effort to treat a fragile person as quickly as possible.

Staff members at the city-run West Neck Residence noticed that Glantz's stomach was distended and that she was uncomfortable. She also hadn't used the bathroom for a while. A nurse called supervisor Lora Schwarz, who thought the situation required immediate action and authorized a catheter.

But Schwarz failed to get a doctor’s approval for the procedure, which violates state law, according to a state investigation, and two months later she lost her job.

Investigators from the state and Adult Protective Services, which looks into abuse and neglect related to incapacitated adults, cited the home for developmentally disabled adults for neglect and uncovered numerous problems, including medication errors and medical record inaccuracies.

Schwarz says the bureaucratic system is to blame.

Considered by some residents' families as a second mother to their loved ones, she is fighting to get her job back and avoid repercussions from the state Board of Nursing.

In a statement to the board, Schwarz criticized a health system that focuses on rules and regulations and not on patients' health, calling it a "hostile nursing environment. It's stressful knowing anytime you make a mistake there is a high probability of an investigation."

The 24 residents at West Neck have intellectual disabilities, physical impairments and chronic health problems. Many have limited vocabularies, require wheelchairs and have complicated medical conditions.

Full Article and Source:
Questions of Neglect, Bureaucracy Arise at Care Home

TN Abuse Suspect's Lawyer Has Ties to Local Judges

Bryan Lewis, the attorney at the center of controversy over whether his friendship with Judge Casey Moreland prompted the early release of one of his clients from jail, is a well-known figure in General Sessions courtrooms.

He often represents his family and their business interests in lawsuits and, occasionally, defends high-profile clients, such as former Titans player Keith Bulluck, once accused of assaulting a taxi driver.

Lewis also is a business owner and political donor. In addition to giving money, he has hosted campaign events at the Italian restaurant, Giovanni's Ristorante, for candidates running for Nashville judgeships.

Giovanni's has served as the venue for receptions featuring cocktails and food for campaign events for at least five judicial candidates in recent months — including Moreland, who held a combination birthday party and campaign kickoff at Giovanni's on Nov. 20.

Moreland is under fire for intervening in the case of David A. Chase, a prominent contractor who was charged with domestic abuse against his ex-girlfriend. A night court commissioner ordered Chase held for a 12-hour "cooling-off" period on June 8, but after Lewis called the judge that Sunday morning, Moreland ordered Chase released from jail.

After his release, Chase attacked the woman for a second time in one day, police said.

Full Article and Source:
Abuse Suspect's Lawyer Has Ties to Local Judges

"Probate Judge Kathryn George Jails Mom, Seizes Daughter and Estate"

Mailauni Williams begged to hug her mother Lennette Williams and her sister before Judge Kathryn George ordered the mother jailed 10 days for contempt during a chaotic, hostile hearing June 13 in the chambers of Wayne County Probate Court Chief Judge Milton Mack.

“I am her daughter,” Mailauni cried out from the audience to the judge. “I just came to give her respect.” She told the judge “I cried,” when she was taken away from her mother during a raid May 22 by Grosse Pointe Farms police and deputy sheriffs.

She got up and hugged her mother during the hearing after she heard the judge berate her. Her temporary guardian, Pamela Reid of Faith Connections, took her out of the courtroom later so that she would not have to watch sheriffs put her mother under arrest.

Williams has been her child’s guardian for over 20 years, but George stripped her of that role. She also denied her access to a $30 million lifetime support settlement paid by Henry Ford Hospital for birth trauma that left Mailauni with cerebral palsy and her mother, now 62, with physical injuries.

Under Mack, that estate had already been substantially stripped by attorney fees, with mother and daughter relegated to monthly payments at the court’s whim. Investigative reporter Curt Guyette did a comprehensive expose of the family’s ongoing troubles in Wayne County Probate Court which was published in the Metro Times in 2002. (See link to “Mother and Child Rebellion” in “Related Stories.”)

Without access to those funds, Williams is in danger of losing the home she purchased for herself and Mailauni in Grosse Pointe Farms. She has been a full-time caregive for her daughter since her birth.

George, blatantly hostile towards Williams and her attorney, denied an alternate petition for guardianship from Mailauni’s sister Monique Williams, despite estate trustee Walter Sakowski’s recommendation in favor of it.



Judge Kathryn George

Full Article and Source:
Shady Probate Judge Kathryn George Jails Mom, Seizes Daughter and Estate

Pastor Pleads Guilty to Exploiting Elderly Woman

An Austin pastor accused of bilking an 82-year-old woman with dementia out of more than $40,000 has pleaded guilty to one of four felonies against him.

The Rev. David Vernon DeFor entered the plea Friday in Mower County District Court. He'd been charged in June 2013 with four felony counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. DeFor, 70, is a pastor at Austin Church of Christ.

 In exchange for the plea, the remaining charges are expected to be dismissed. Sentencing has been set for Aug. 15.

DeFor and the victim initially became friends while serving on the Salvation Army Board together about six years ago, according to the court complaint.

DeFor was granted power of attorney for the victim on July 27, 2010.
 

Authorities reviewed "voluminous documentation" during the investigation and found a number of questionable transactions.

Full Article and Source:
Church of Christ Pastor Pleads Guilty to Exploiting Elderly Woman

Florida: Former Home Health Care Aid Jailed

A former home health care aide was escorted from a Palm Beach County courtroom in handcuffs on Monday after admitting to ringing up more than $13,000 in charges on an 81-year-old  West Boynton patient's credit cards in 2010.

Ericka Dominique Walker, 25, of West Palm Beach, pleaded guilty to one count of exploitation of an elderly person or disabled adult and one count of fraudulent use of a credit card greater than $100 — charges punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

But Circuit Judge Sandra McSorley, noting Walker's lack of prior arrests and willingness to accept responsibility, agreed to sentence the defendant to three years of probation, with the first year to be served in Palm Beach County  Jail.

Over the objection of Assistant State Attorney Kathryn Lewis Perrin, McSorley withheld adjudication, meaning Walker will not be considered a convicted felon.

Full Article and Source:
Former West Boyton Home Health Care Aid Jailed