Steve Miller: Judge Steel Frees Three "Wards" From Exploitive Court Ordered Guardianship On Same Day

LAS VEGAS - In a unprecedented flurry of court action, on June 30, newly appointed Clark County Family Court Judge Cynthia Dianne Steel freed three previously court appointed wards of the court from the custody of their for-hire guardian April Parks.

What would normally have taken years of expensive court hearings, motions, and lawsuits, in two short hearings conducted in one afternoon, over the protests of Parks and her attorney Lee A. Drizin, Judge Steel patiently listened to family members of three of Parks' wards as they, acting without attorneys, explained that their parents were being exploited, and must immediately be released from Parks' guardianship.

In the case of Elizabeth Indig, her daughter told the court that Parks and her attorney allowed her mother's Henderson home valued at over $200,000 to be foreclosed upon and sold at auction for only $22,000 with Drizin's full knowledge, and without the court's required accounting or oversight.

Attorney Drizen was reportedly furious after the accusation and filed a motion with the court to have the family member who was representing her mother pro per, fined for vexatious litigation, and harassing April Parks. Judge Steel will hear Drizen's argument on Thursday July 2, but is not expected to rule in his favor based on her June 30 ruling in favor of the release of Elizabeth Indig from Parks' guardianship in which the family member acted as her own attorney in spite of Drizen's loud protestations.

In the case of Rudy and Rennie North, their daughter told the court that her parents were not mentally impaired and do not need to be under court ordered guardianship. That during Parks' guardianship, the North's assets were taken, and the court did not require an annual accounting.

In both cases, family members told Judge Steel that Parks initially came to their parent's homes impersonating a police officer, and ordered the elderly people to come with her to a rest home, or face arrest.

April Parks 

In both cases, family members were not informed of Parks' actions until after the parents were removed from their homes.

At subsequent hearings held before appointed Family Court Hearing Master Jon Norheim, (a former mob lawyer) neither Norheim or his boss Judge Charles Hoskin listened to the pleas of family members, and after being informed by Parks or her attorney that the adult children were either "unfit," "exploiters," or "drug addicts," ruled that Parks be granted permanent guardian status for the rest of the parent's lives.

Following a series of stories in The Vegas Voice, and on KNTV Ch. 13 News, the Boulder City Police Department opened an investigation of April Parks, and soon thereafter, her name was stricken from the State of Nevada's list of professional guardians.

It is not yet known whether the families of Parks' victims plan to take legal action to try to recover the monies Parks allegedly converted from their parent's estates.

Betrayal of trust, Part 4: How to help the vulnerable

Shannon Mullen, @MullenAPP 

Billions are stolen from the elderly and infirm across the country each year. Here's how to stop it

On June 15, some 200 New Jersey judges, attorneys, guardians and court employees heard a sobering message from the state's top judge.

Read the Betrayal of Trust series

A "silver tsunami" is about to hit New Jersey, New Jersey Chief Justice Stuart Rabner warned attendees at a conference on elder abuse at Stockton University in Galloway, Atlantic County.

By 2027, just 12 years from now, 1 in 5 state residents will be 65 or older, according to the New Jersey Department of Labor.

That's 2 million people, with homes, retirement funds and other assets worth billions of dollars — a tempting target for criminals who prey on the elderly.

In time, many of these boomers will fall victim to Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. When that happens, thousands of additional cases will pour into a guardianship system that's already in trouble.

"Judges appoint, of late, 2,000 guardians each year, and it's an enormous challenge for surrogates, for the court system," Rabner said. "To be able to oversee that large number of guardians, it's simply not possible based on the resources that exist."

Yet without major changes, cases like the one involving Barbara J. Lieberman, the now disgraced former Atlantic County attorney who stole millions from incapacitated wards and other elderly clients, are bound to increase.

With all its fiscal woes, what can New Jersey do?

For now, it's counting on volunteers to pick up the slack.

Under a program first introduced in 2013 and expanded across the state last year, trained volunteer monitors are helping the surrogates in all 21 New Jersey counties to review guardian reports and case files.

To date, 69 volunteers have reviewed nearly 4,900 guardianship case files statewide, according to the New Jersey Judiciary.

Click here for a breakdown of volunteer monitoring efforts in each county.

What they've found so far, Rabner said, is a "high level of non-compliance" with reporting requirements by guardians across the state.

Four key fixes
Reforming a guardianship system rooted in medieval laws that allowed for the seizure of property owned by "lunatics" won't be easy, experts say.

For starters, they point to four major areas that need immediate attention:

Better data. How can you fix any problem when you don't know how widespread it is? That's the quandary with guardianship today. There simply are no reliable statistics on the number of Americans who rely on guardians to manage their affairs. That's because only a couple of states track these cases, which are typically administered at the county level. One "guesstimate" pegs the total at 1.5 million, but the real number could be twice that.

Closer monitoring. Most states, including New Jersey, require guardians to file periodic updates on the status of their wards' health and finances. But few courts across the U.S. have the manpower or technology to track and scrutinize these reports. Disreputable guardians know that. With no one looking over their shoulders, they're free to use their wards like ATM machines. One notable exception is Minnesota, which recently implemented a centralized, statewide auditing system to hold guardians accountable.

Barbara Lieberman in Superior Court. (Photo: Staff photo/Bob Bielk)

Greater use of alternatives. Guardianships that strip someone of their autonomy and all their legal rights are supposed to be the remedy of last resort. Yet in too many courts across the U.S., it's the default option, experts say. On the federal level, the U.S. Administration on Aging has tried to promote a more individualistic alternative, called supported decision-making. Using a case management approach, it starts by digging deeper to identify the elderly or disabled person's specific needs. The next step is to line up different people or resources that can address those needs. One person might help pay their bills, for example, while another might help with transportation or household chores. "It's kind of a community taking care of someone, instead of (one person) taking all their rights away and having control over them," explains Elaine Renoire, president of the National Association to Stop Guardianship Abuse, based in Indiana.

A more accessible review process. For some, guardianship operates like the Hotel California in the old Eagles' song: "You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave." Stripped of their legal rights, wards who recover from alcoholism or a traumatic brain injury often have a hard time getting back in front of a judge to have their autonomy restored, especially if their guardians won't cooperate. "It can be extremely difficult to get out from under a guardianship," says researcher Brenda K. Uekert, a leading expert on guardianships in the U.S. At the same time, she adds, many courts lack a mechanism for relatives or concerned friends to have the person's guardianship reviewed.

'Entitled' to steal
Until now, monitoring and enforcement has been so lax, the few people who have been charged with abusing their authority practically had to turn themselves in to get caught.

Sources have told the Asbury Park Press that it was one of Lieberman's co-defendants, Susan Hamlett, who triggered a criminal investigation after she brought one of Lieberman's elderly victims to see another attorney. The attorney alerted authorities that he suspected the woman was a victim of elder abuse.

Christopher J. Donadio says he incriminated himself while being deposed in a civil case involving unpaid bills.

Then a K-9 officer with the Monmouth County Sheriff's Department, with an annual salary of $87,400, Donadio had power of attorney over his first wife's elderly aunt, Edna Prester. Prester suffered from Alzheimer's disease, according to court records.

Donadio, 48, says he helped move Prester from her filthy, rodent-infested home in upstate New York to an expensive assisted-living facility in Colts Neck.

But he also helped himself to Prester's money.

Donadio arranged to pay for Prester's care with proceeds from the sale of three properties she owned, authorities said.

When the facility requested the funds, Donadio produced and presented several bogus expense receipts, authorities charged.

After the assisted-living facility filed a lawsuit, Donadio says he revealed in his deposition that he had misappropriated some of Prester's money. The facility then notified authorities.

Prester died in 2010 at age 87.

A grand jury charged Donadio with stealing $100,000 from Prester's account.

Donadio pleaded guilty in 2011 to the theft of more than $75,000. He also admitted that he opened a credit card in the name of his second wife's mother and used a co-worker's credit card number to make purchases. He agreed to pay $32,000 in restitution to the assisted-living facility.

"He wanted to live the good life," says Donadio's second wife, Maura Johnson, 37, of Holmdel. The couple divorced in 2008 after 11 months of marriage.

"Concerts, jewelry, vacations," she says, "it was all for luxury."

Sentenced to four years in prison, Donadio was paroled after serving three months.

Today, Donadio, who now works in the restaurant and transportation industry, says he's sorry for what he did.

With nobody watching over his shoulder, he says, "It was easy for me to take the money."

He describes his rationale for stealing Prester's money this way:

"Well she's OK, she's in an assisted living facility, I improved her living situation, so I should be entitled to that."

A first in the U.S.
New Jersey's volunteer guardianship monitoring program — which Rabner says is the first of its kind in the U.S. — addresses the first two of those key issues.

Stuart Rabner, chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. (Photo: Mel Evans / AP)

As volunteers work through case files, looking for missing reports or red flags pointing to possible improprieties, they're also entering information into a new statewide database.

Until now, New Jersey has never tracked guardianship cases. Some county surrogates don't even know how many of their cases are still active.

Rabner believes the total number of active guardianships statewide may be in the tens of thousands, but no one is sure.

While prior experience with accounting or the courts is a plus, it's not required to join the program.
"To be sure, we need to enlist (and) train yet more volunteers to be able to continue and review these reports on a sustained basis," Rabner told the conference attendees.

"But make no mistake, the very fact that this program now exists in New Jersey will cause people to think twice before they might even consider to take a step to take advantage of those they've promised to help," he added.

Uekert, for one, believes New Jersey is taking a practical approach. She spoke at the elder abuse conference in Stockton and came away impressed by New Jersey's commitment to do a better job policing guardians.

"Ideally you would have a cadre of trained professionals (reviewing guardianship case files) but the courts generally don't have the funds to have those types of personnel," says Uekert, principal court research consultant for the National Center for State Courts, based in Williamsburg, Virginia.

"Volunteers," she believes, "would be better than nothing."

But at least one other expert is strongly opposed to the idea.

"It's just another way of trivializing the problem by saying, 'We can handle this with volunteers,' " says Minnesota law professor A. Kimberley Dayton.

"It's about money, a lack of resources. Until that's fixed, none of this is going to be fixed," she says. "It's just going to keep on going and going."

In Atlantic County, where Lieberman was based, two volunteer monitors have helped the county surrogate review more than 330 cases so far.

But by the time the volunteers began their work last year, the damage was already done.

Shannon Mullen: 732-643-4278; smullen4@gannettnj.com.

Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust, Part 4: How to help the vulnerable

Royal Oak Guardian Files Lawsuit Against Ward’s Father Over Blog About Michigan Guardianship System

PONTIAC, Mich., June 30, 2015 – A Royal Oak-based guardian has filed a lawsuit against the father of one of his ward’s over an Internet blog designed to raise awareness about the lack of checks-and-balances in Michigan’s guardianship system.

Steven (Steve) Siporin of Royal Oak, Michigan-based Siporin & Associates filed the suit June 4 in Oakland County Circuit Court against Anand Sadashivan, father of Tom Nithyanand, who is one of Siporin’s wards.

The defamation suit alleges the family’s blog at LearnFromTom.com contains false and misleading statements and that the family and friends have somehow been on a mission to discredit and embarrass Siporin and his business.

Sadashivan says the site has never strayed from its original intention: draw attention to what the family feels is a severe lack of checks and balances in Michigan’s guardianship system. Sadashivan says he became familiar with what is believed to be a flawed system only after his son, Tom, was in it as a ward of Siporin.

“LearnFromTom.com has always been designed with the goal of drawing attention to what we feel is Michigan’s flawed guardianship system,” says Sadashivan. “There doesn’t seem to be any accountability for those handed tremendous responsibility by the court – the kind of responsibility that will affect my son for the rest of his life.”

Sadashivan says he believes LearnFromTom.com is no different than any other form of editorial media and designed specifically to express the family’s feelings and beliefs about the system based on what they have experienced together as a family over the last year.

To defend its right to free speech, the family has been working with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, among others, for assistance in defending their case.

“The bottom line is that they can take our son away, keep him tucked away in a rehabilitation facility, and drag our name through court all they want,” Sadashivan says. “But our voice and right to express ourselves? That can’t be taken away.”

Though the complaint alleges LearnFromTom.com has harmed Siporin’s business since it launched March 19, Sadashivan has an email from his former attorney sent within hours of the site’s launch and dated March 20 that has “orders” from Siporin to shut down the site by March 23.

Since then, however, nearly 5,700 visitors have been to the site, many publicly and privately supporting the family’s call for change and signing the family’s petition to draw attention to the need to change Michigan’s guardianship system. Similar changes have already been undertaken or are being considered in Ohio, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Texas, and Pennsylvania (see sidebar on right for links to stories).

The family quickly became aware of the problems with the system in Michigan throughout the course of 2014-15. A press release detailing how Sadashivan’s son, Tom, ended up in the guardianship system can be found here.

Sadashivan says because the family are from India and non-U.S. citizens, they sought out the help of a guardian to assist with managing the large insurance settlement Tom received as part of a bad accident on June 26, 2010.

As the family met with potential guardians, Sadashivan says Siporin painted a picture that made him feel like he could trust Siporin to operate as co-guardian, which he ultimately was named through a court order. When Sadashivan and his son verbally argued over spending money last June, however, Siporin obtained a new court order to make himself sole guardian and within days had people who identified themselves as “bodyguards” at the family’s home with orders to take Tom to Rainbow Rehabilitation Center of Farmington Hills, Michigan. The Novi Police Department doesn’t have any records relating to domestic issues in the home.

As months passed with no indication anything would change with regard to Tom’s status anytime soon – and Sadashivan’s requests for details such as Tom’s health, schooling and overall treatment plan falling on deaf ears – Sadashivan said he and his family decided to launch LearnFromTom.com to raise awareness of how an individual person like Tom could end up trapped in the guardianship system with hopes of others being able to avoid suffering a similar fate.

Seperately, Sadashivan did petition the Oakland County Probate Court to remove Siporin as guardian. However, the family’s former attorney – Jonathan A. Green – quit within weeks of the scheduled hearing. Sadashivan says he tried to find new representation but with such a short time and convoluted case to digest, attorneys wanted more money than the family could afford. Oakland County Probate Court Judge Kathleen Ryan allowed Sadashivan to withdraw the petition on May 4.

Siporin asked Judge Ryan to allow the petition withdrawal, but with prejudice, which would have effectively banned Sadashivan from re-petitioning the court. In just a few minutes at that May 4 hearing, Siporin tried to work in as many  allegations as possible against Tom’s family. The LearnFromTom.com blog once again came up as an apparent issue of contention on the part of Siporin.

“I don’t understand why a guardian brought up issues of media law and free speech in a probate court setting,” says Sadashivan. “Thankfully, Judge Ryan stuck to the real issue of Tom’s guardianship and simply allowed me to withdraw the petition.”

Sadashivan says he plans to continue using available legal remedies to try and bring his son home. However, he says there appears to be no one overseeing Tom’s case other than those who are benefitting financially.

Sadashivan says he hasn’t seen any kind of treatment plan for his son. He says he isn’t provided any details on the health and well-being of Tom beyond what Tom is able to tell him on weekends. Sadashivan says he hasn’t been told about the plan for Tom to continue schooling and that there doesn’t appear to be any timeline for Tom’s return to living with his family full-time, to returning to the life he had been building before he was taken away a year ago.

Perhaps most important, Sadashivan says, is the fact Siporin is so concerned about the family’s blog that he appears to be spending a tremendous amount of time and resources on it instead of working with the family to best facilitate Tom’s continued health and recovery.

Similar cases about online content and those trying to strip away First Amendment rights of bloggers have been heard around the country, only to be thrown out by some of the nation’s highest courts.

For example, the Georgia Supreme Court weighed in on Chan vs. Ellis, a case in which one party (Ellis) did not like some of the opinions being published about her on a website. The court ruled in favor of Chan and on the side of free speech.

As the EFF (which helped back online freedom of speech by recruiting top law professors from around the U.S.) said in a post about the case, “while Ellis may not have liked what people said about her, that’s not enough to stifle publication of opinions expressed to the general public.”

Siporin’s case against Sadashivan claims more than $25,000 in damages resulting from the blog.

Sadashivan says, however, the family has no intentions of shutting down LearnFromTom.com and will continue to push for change to Michigan’s guardianship system and, at the very least, hope others can learn from Tom’s experience.

“Until First Amendment laws are changed to prohibit us from expressing our opinion and feelings about the need for revision to Michigan’s guardianship system, we will continue to do so,” says Anand.

Full Article & Source:
Royal Oak Guardian Files Lawsuit Against Ward’s Father Over Blog About Michigan Guardianship System

The Power Of The Past: Boomers Catch Nostalgia Fever

Martha T.S. Laham

Do you remember watching the original airing of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, or I Love Lucy? If you're nodding your head, smiling, and wistfully thinking back on the playful charm of these television shows from the 1950s and 1960s, you're probably like many boomers who wax nostalgic about an earlier time, when life was simpler, more streamlined, and less dependent on the Internet for everything.

Many boomers have been bitten by the nostalgia bug. In response, many marketers are using nostalgia to sell everything from whiskey to perfume and cars to sneakers. Let's take a closer look at the concept of nostalgia, and learn how the power of the past can spell good business in the present.

The word "nostalgia" has Greek roots. 
 Nostalgia is believed to have been derived from Homer's The Odyssey (about 675-725 BCE). The word was created by combining the Greek words for "homecoming" and "pain, ache."

In its modern usage, nostalgia is defined as "pleasure and sadness that is caused by remembering something from the past and wishing that you could experience it again." Today, the word has gained tremendous popularity. In fact, nostalgia landed on Merriam-Webster's 2014 Words of the Year list.

Nostalgia is a domain of the brain.
In the realm of psychoanalysis, nostalgia is a longing to return to an idealized past, specifically a scrubbed narrative of the past. This is known as a screen memory, a mash-up of entangled memories minus negative emotions.

When you hear, smell, or taste something that takes you back to the past, you're experiencing screen memories, according to an article entitled "The Nature of Nostalgia." Of the five senses, smell is closely linked to a part of the brain that processes emotions, called the olfactory bulb, which is a component of the limbic system, the brain's emotional hub. So, when you catch a whiff of a gardenia, you may think back to your prom night when your prom date presented you with a gardenia corsage--the sweet scent of nasal nostalgia.

Hard times can foster nostalgia.
During tough economic times, people tend to view the past through rose-colored glasses, according to a Euromonitor International industry report. A shaky economy or an uncertain political environment can stoke the fire of nostalgia, as people are apt to hold on to something familiar and makes them feel good.

Retro brands are staging a comeback.
Consumers often seek products and services that help them reanimate the warm and fuzzy feelings that they felt during happier days. These retro brands are repurposed versions of brands from a prior era.

To market retro brands, companies frequently use nostalgia with the intent of triggering an emotional response from the consumer. This practice is known as retro marketing, also known as flashback branding. According to an article entitled "Nostalgia Products: Making a Tasty Comeback," advertisers add a "mix of retro-cool to their advertising campaigns."

Take Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer 9. Microsoft blasted consumers back to the past in a video titled "Child of the '90s." The video featured fad products like the yoyo, troll doll, fanny pack, pumpable sneaker, and Hungry Hungry Hippos. When the video went viral, both Microsoft and Microsoft Windows enjoyed a boost in their brand power, according to Adweek.

Boomer brands sing a nostalgic tune.
In an earlier blog post entitled "Here Comes the Boom: 15 Things You Should Know About the Next Wave of Seniors," boomer brands were presented, including Harley-Davidson, Volkswagen, Noxzema, the Beatles, Pepsi, Absolut Vodka, Saturday Night Live, Facebook, Coach, Levi's, Club Med, L'eggs, Frye Boots, and Clairol.

Consider the Beatles. To grab baby boomer eyeballs and ears, Beatles' songs have cropped up in a variety of advertising campaigns. For example, in 1987, Nike launched Nike Air Max with a commercial featuring tennis sensation John McEnroe, basketball great Michael Jordan, and The Fab Four's song "Revolution."

The fashion industry recycles retro.
Fashion trends are historically cyclical. According to an article in Vogue, fashion designers, including Tom Ford, Prada, Pucci, and Gucci, have revived retro-style garments from the 1970s for their spring/summer 2015 collections. So, if you stored away your crop tops, fringed suede jackets, paisley shirts, go-go boots, and bell-bottoms, it's time to bring them out of mothballs.

But an outfit isn't complete without accessories, including jewelry. Jewelry designer Deborah Porterfield of A Touch of Class Jewelers explains that jewelry trends evolve too. "During the '70s, we saw layered chains, leather wristbands, bulky jewelry, long earrings, and the peace sign used in everything from earrings to bracelets to rings. It's a trend in jewelry we're seeing again today." Porterfield compared ever-changing fashion trends to "a revolving door."

Dead celebrities are brought back to life to pitch products.
Audrey Hepburn makes a virtual appearance in a Galaxy Chocolate commercial. Gene Kelly raps and break dances to a club mix of "Singin' in the Rain" in a VW Gold GTI spot. Bruce Lee makes his CGI debut in a Johnnie Walker Blue Label ad. Marilyn Monroe co-stars with Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, and a very alive Charlize Theron in a splashy fragrance commercial for J'Adore by Dior.

Whether you like or dislike the practice of bringing a celebrity back from the dead to pitch products, this creative strategy can strike a chord with baby boomers. According to a Time's article entitled "Digital Necromancy: Advertising with Reanimated Celebrities," the use of "delebs" in ads is driven by nostalgic baby boomers.

You'll probably be able to find updated versions of once-popular products from the good old days as long as nostalgia resonates with consumers. After all, the almost defunct Hostess Twinkie was partly saved by what else: public nostalgia.

Full Article & Source:
The Power Of The Past: Boomers Catch Nostalgia Fever

See Also:
The Con Game - Failure of Trust

The Vegas Voice Guardianship Seminar

Julie Belshe (a family victim of guardian April Parks) with Vegas Voice Publisher, Dan Roberts, at The Vegas Voice Guardianship seminar, held at Sun City MacDonald Ranch.

Don't miss our next Guardianship seminar on Thursday, July 2 at 6:30 PM, at Siena, sponsored by the Siena Conservative Club.

Source:
Facebook: The Vegas Voice

Betrayal of trust: Part Three

Shannon Mullen, @MullenAPP 

Elder abuse cases like Barbara J. Lieberman's aren't supposed to happen in New Jersey.

The state has one of the strongest guardianship laws in the U.S.

On paper, that is.

New Jersey toughened the rules in 2006 after a scandal involving an Ocean County attorney, Gary S. Beninson.

Barbara Lieberman in Superior Court in Atlantic County awaiting her sentencing. She pleaded guilty to money laundering in a case that involved stealing millions of dollars from elderly victims.
(Photo: Staff photo/Bob Bielk)

A Toms River resident with a law practice in Lakewood, Beninson, like Lieberman, was a trusted attorney who regularly received guardianship appointments from the court.

Secretly, though, he was stealing millions from dozens of incapacitated wards, authorities said.

Beninson later admitted to taking $1.7 million and was sentenced to seven years in state prison. He was released in 2005 after serving just over 10 months at a state work farm.

As a result of his case, New Jersey guardians aren't allowed to manage the affairs of more than five wards at one time.

In addition, third-party guardians like Beninson are no longer common, as they are in other states. Typically now, if there is no family member able and willing to take on the responsibility of being the guardian, judges will make the incapacitated person a ward of the state.

That change has placed the agency responsible for their care, the New Jersey Office of the Public Guardian for Elderly Adults, under increasing strain.

In just the past two years, its caseload has soared 40 percent, to about 1,550 wards. Meanwhile, the agency's annual budget hasn't increased. It's remained at $1.3 million for nearly five years.

A 2013 state audit faulted the agency for its "archaic" accounting system and sloppy record keeping.

Alternatives to guardianship. Click to open and close.
(Photo: Staff graphic by Jeff Colson)

Among other problems, a storage room where clients' coins, jewelry and other valuables were kept was in disarray, confidential files were stacked in the hallways, and the estates of two clients who had died in 2007 and 2008, totaling $130,000 in assets, had yet to be dispersed to heirs.

State Auditor Stephen M. Eells referred one unspecified finding, related to "questionable" professional services, to the state Division of Criminal Justice for further investigation. No further information is available on that issue, Eells says.

The agency told the auditor that it has corrected these problems.

Acting Public Guardian Helen C. Dodick declined, through a spokeswoman, an interview request from the Asbury Park Press.

(Continue to Section 2)

Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust: Part Three

Betrayal of trust: Part Three - Section 2

Little Enforcement

A system with no checks and balances

Most private guardians are required to submit status updates and financial reports, but many county surrogate offices — which oversee guardianship cases — simply don't have the manpower to make sure they do, let alone scrutinize the reports that are filed. Since the Beninson scandal, both Monmouth and Ocean counties have hired full-time accountants to keep abreast of the paperwork.

In New Jersey, however, guardianship cases are shrouded in secrecy.

The state's laws shield guardianship financial documents from public scrutiny. The identities of incapacitated individuals and their guardians are kept confidential, even from family members in some cases.

A. Kimberley Dayton, Minnesota law professor and guardianship expert (Photo: Courtesy of William Mitchell College of Law)

Minnesota has taken a different approach.

The state makes all guardianship documents public. In recent years, it also has created a statewide database to keep tabs on guardians, and in a further bid for transparency, it has given anyone the right to call for an accounting of someone holding a power of attorney.

Yet A. Kimberley Dayton, a Minnesota law professor, says guardianship abuses are still rampant in the state.

The reason? The laws simply aren't being enforced, she says.

One of the perpetrators was an appellate court judge who admitted to stealing approximately $300,000 from a trust fund he oversaw for a friend's incapacitated adult daughter.

Read the full sentencing report.

"They keep holding up Minnesota as a model of post-guardianship monitoring. And I know what's going on," says Dayton, one of the country's leading experts on guardianship abuse and crimes against the elderly.

"I just don't think any state is doing a good job," she says.

(Continue to Section 3)

Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust: Part Three

Betrayal of trust: Part Three - Section 3

Back in the courtroom

Handcuffed and sentenced

Lieberman avoided a trial by pleading guilty to one count of money laundering. She also agreed to pay $3 million in restitution, surrender her law license, and to testify against her co-defendants, if necessary.

On March 25, the day of her sentencing, Lieberman, 63, returned to the same courthouse where she built her reputation as a bright, trustworthy attorney.

Barbara Lieberman at her sentencing for laundering almost $4 million, stolen from elderly victims.

This time she wore handcuffs and an orange inmate jumpsuit.

In brief remarks delivered with a steady voice, she thanked and apologized to her family, and spoke of the support she's received from her minister.

"He tells me that God has forgiven me," Lieberman said. "I appreciate that intellectually, but in truth, in my heart, I can't forgive myself."

Hear Lieberman's entire statement to the court.

Lieberman called her conduct "indefensible." Yet she said nothing specific about what she'd done, let alone why she'd done it, and made only an oblique reference to her victims.

"I'm just grateful that I can make them whole for the pain that I know I have caused them," Lieberman said.

She failed to mention that 14 of her 16 victims are dead. Or that the bulk of her restitution money could wind up in the New Jersey treasury.

So far, relatives of only two of the deceased victims have come forward.Together, those relatives will receive about $574,000 of the funds, a court document shows.

If no one else claims the remaining $2.5 million within two years, that money will be forfeited to the state.

See the list of Lieberman's victims.

State Superior Court Judge Michael A. Donio sentenced Lieberman to 10 years in state prison. She must serve 3¹/₂years before becoming eligible for parole.

In scathing comments from the bench, Donio compared her crimes to child abuse.

"Some people will say there's nothing worse than taking advantage of a small child; nothing worse than a sexual predator who lays and waits for a small child to molest," Donio said.

The judge at Barbara Lieberman's sentencing expressed his disgust with her crimes.

"A good argument can be made that what was done to these elderly victims who were in assisted living or nursing facilities, unable to care for their physical or mental well-being and were preyed upon by this lawyer and allegedly by her team of co-conspirators is just as bad. I agree," he said.

"(The exploitation of) elderly people who worked and saved their whole life to end up ... broke because of this greed should be met with the swift sword of justice."

This was no momentary lapse of judgment, Donio noted, but a "continuous course of illegal activity" that spanned a decade, at least.

"Are there other victims? Did it occur over greater than 10 years?" the judge asked.

"We may never know."

(Continue Reading & View Videos)

Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust: Part Three

Betrayal of Trust: Part Two

Shannon Mullen, @MullenAPP 

Barbara and Ken Martin never stood a chance.

Thoroughly outmatched, their legal fight to free Barbara Martin's aunt, Helen Hugo, from the grip of what they believed to be an unwarranted guardianship in 2012 ended in a humiliating defeat.

Not only was Hugo, then 81, declared mentally incapacitated, but the last of her retirement savings was awarded to the attorneys who represented her. Among them was her court-appointed temporary guardian, Barbara J. Lieberman.

Barbara and Ken Martin communicate with Helen Hugo through her window at Meadowview, a county-run nursing home. For the past few years, Barbara Martin, right, has been banned from entering the facility.
(Photo: Staff photo/Shannon Mullen)

The court left her broke.

The Martins say they only wanted what was best for Hugo. Never married, she lived by herself with her cat, Sweetie Pie, in an apartment in Buena, Atlantic County.

The Martins' bid to help Hugo backfired miserably, however. Accused by Lieberman and others of a host of illegal acts, including Medicaid fraud and forgery, they wound up under a cloud of suspicion.

It still hovers over them today, three years after the trial.

The Martins' loss was Lieberman's gain. By discrediting them, she protected herself. Because, despite all their flaws, the Martins had been right on one crucial point:

Lieberman was stealing from some of her elderly clients.

Her secret still safe, Lieberman was free to continue her deception.

If not for an alleged accomplice's pangs of conscience, she might be doing it still.

There are fundamental flaws within the structure of guardianship.

(Continue to Section 2)

Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust: Part Two