Financial exploitation charges against EM woman dropped

Rock Island County prosecutors have dropped a financial exploitation case after a judge blocked the use of a message recorded by the alleged victim before his death.

Alice M. Hipes, 59, of East Moline, was accused of taking money from a 92-year-old man who employed her as a private in-home caregiver. The alleged victim gave a recorded statement to police but died in May 2015 before the case could go to trial.

Without use of the video, "There really wasn't much we could do to prosecute the case," Rock Island County State's Attorney John McGehee said.

The case was dismissed Friday and cannot be refiled.

Ms. Hipes's attorney, Donovan S. Robertson, said his client was relieved to be done with a case that caused "terrible strain" on her life in the last year.

"My client was not guilty," he said, adding Ms. Hipes had "steadfastly" maintained her innocence throughout the process. "At long last, I believe we have achieved justice."

East Moline Police said they were notified in February 2015 that Alternatives for the Older Adult had learned an elderly man possibly was being financially defrauded.

Mr. Robertson said investigators initially claimed $78,000 was missing, but later reduced it to closer to $45,000. He said no forensic accounting was done by investigators and, after learning from Ms. Hipes that the alleged victim paid his bills primarily in cash, he subpoenaed bills and other financial statements, which accounted for the "vast majority" of the money alleged to be missing.

Following the man's death, prosecutors sought to use his recorded statement as evidence at trial. Mr. Robertson resisted, arguing the statements were made during a police investigation and not as sworn testimony in court.

Playing the recording at trial would violate his client's 6th Amendment right to confront and cross-examine the alleged victim, Mr. Robertson wrote in court records. In December, Judge Frank Fuhr ruled in Mr. Robertson's favor.

Mr. McGehee said state law allows for a hearsay exception in financial exploitation of the elderly if the alleged victim was disabled or unavailable to testify. Judges usually consider each case separately, Mr. McGehee said.

In this case, he said, Judge Fuhr was concerned about the defense being unable to cross-examine the alleged victim.

In January, Assistant Rock Island County State's Attorney John McCooley appealed the judge's decision. However, after multiple discussions with the appellate prosecutor's office, Mr. McGehee said his office was not confident they would win the appeal and chose to dismiss it.

"These are very difficult cases to win," he said, adding the appellate court usually gives great discretion to the original judge's ruling.

Prosecutors initially planned to dismiss the case, with leave to reinstate if further evidence was later uncovered, Mr. McGehee said. However, he said Judge Fuhr determined the case should be permanently dismissed.

Mr. Robertson said he could not recall specific details of the alleged victim's statement to police, but he did not believe they implicated Ms. Hipes. He said he did not believe investigators were badly motivated.

"It looked bad, and I think they smelled smoke and thought there was a fire," he said. "But there wasn't a fire."

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Financial exploitation charges against EM woman dropped

Complaint: Morristown woman charged after spending vulnerable adult's money

A Morristown woman is facing multiple felonies after police say she spent the money of an assisted living resident without her permission.

Loretta Anne Fossum, 55, is charged with theft by temporary control and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult, both felonies. If she is convicted of the maximum, she faces up to 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine, or both.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Dakota County District Court:

In September, Northfield Police officers received a report of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult at an assisted living facility in Northfield. Staff of the facility told police one of the residents had an individual with power of attorney who was not paying bills and completing paperwork for the resident.

Staff identified the power of attorney as Fossum, and said after contacting the banks, they had found a large number of transactions made on the resident's account while she was at the facility - since May 2015.

The unidentified victim told police she had not authorized Fossum to pay for any additional items. The victim said Fossum renovated her bathroom in her townhouse while she was in the facility due to an injury.

She said Fossum has been residing at her townhome.

After examining the bank records, officers noted approximately $2,500 in hardware store sales, $2,500 in ATM withdrawals, in addition to transactions at convenience stores, liquor stores, restaurants and cell phone payments.

Officers also found a transaction in which Fossum rented a floor sander, which was paid for using a debit card under the victim's name and had been signed by the victim.

After speaking to Fossum, she told police she had been paying the victim's bills and had access to her account. She said she had spent some of the money getting the victim's townhouse ready for her to return home.

She also admitted to using some of the victim's money to pay for expenses for her home improvement business, but claimed she was also paying it back.

Specifically, Fossum said she spent $850 on a bed, chair lift and wheel chair. But officers pointed out that an additional $1,700 was unaccounted for. Fossum said she could not remember what it was used for.

Fossum eventually admitted that approximately $1,500 was spent on projects at other people's homes, and that she had used some money for her own cell phone bill, trips to the liquor store and internet service.

She said she had been paying it back, but probably still owed the victim roughly $3,000.

Fossum, who was charged by summons, made her first appearance Monday. Her next hearing is scheduled for June 8.

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Complaint: Morristown woman charged after spending vulnerable adult's money

9 Investigates: Guardianship appointments cost Florida seniors the right to vote

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — In December, Seminole County Resident Miriam Lancaster turned 100 years old.

In March, she went to vote in the Florida Primary and was turned away.

There are more than 3,000 seniors in Florida who have what is known as a “plenary guardian," a guardian appointed by the courts to handle all of the senior’s matters.

Plenary guardians are usually appointed in cases where the senior’s family is either unable or unwilling to oversee day-to-day issues such as bills and living arrangements.

When such a guardian is appointed in Florida, the seniors lose their ability to vote.

“Nothing has changed about me, I still feel the same way I did about the same things,” Lancaster said. “I may be a little slower, but I am not mentally incapacitated.”

Nine Investigates discovered not every state automatically removes the voting rights when a guardian is appointed. According to the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, laws vary wildly from state-to-state.

In Alaska, “an incapacitated person for whom a guardian has been appointed is not presumed to be incompetent and retains all legal and civil rights,” according to the Bazelon Center.

Meanwhile, 24 other states, including Utah and Texas, have no specific laws regarding revocation of voting rights by a person assigned a guardian.

“I just can’t believe they’ve taken away her rights,” said Sally Baptiste, Lancaster's friend.

Florida also uses another form of guardianship, known as a “limited guardian”. Under a limited guardianship, a judge would determine which rights are to retained by the senior.

“I want my voice to mean something,” Lancaster said.

She plans to petition the court to regain her voting rights, a process which will take time and money.

Lancaster will likely also have to undergo mental competency hearing to attempt to regain her rights.

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9 Investigates: Guardianship appointments cost Florida seniors the right to vote

Disabled Protesters in DC: “Our Homes, Not Nursing Homes”

Imagine being sequestered in a nursing home from a young age because the resources that would allow you to live integrated into larger society were unavailable. Would you call that a violation of your civil rights?

About two hundred activists in wheelchairs lined up yesterday along the bike racks in front of the White House fence, chanting, “our homes, not nursing homes” and “disability rights are human rights.” This is the second year that ADAPT, a group of activists with disabilities, staged a protest including civil disobedience to call attention to what it sees as the Obama administration’s relative inattention to the civil rights of this population.

ADAPT wants the president to actively advocate for and back legislation that supports people with disabilities living as an integrated part of the community. In particular, it is calling for Obama’s support for the Disability Integration Act (S.2427) proposed by Senator Chuck Schumer. As an overview, the group was demanding the White House do the following:

• Issue an executive order that acknowledges the inhumane warehousing of people in nursing facilities and other institutions, and implements specific steps to end this practice.
• Designate Vice President Biden as an “Ambassador for Community Living,” send him on a tour of ten model programs for transitioning people with disabilities into the community, and convene round-tables in ten states to support them in developing effective systems for truly integrating people with disabilities.
• Issue a statement that the president supports the development of legislation clarifying and strengthening the ADA’s integration mandate.

“It is clear that the Obama administration doesn’t recognize that people with disabilities are an oppressed but resilient community with our own civil rights movement,” said Bruce Darling, an ADAPT organizer from Rochester, New York. “Every day under the watch of this president, disabled Americans are denied their most fundamental and inalienable rights when they are locked away in nursing facilities and other institutions. We are urging to the president to defend our civil rights instead of looking the other way.”

The group later moved to the Department of Justice, where it emphasized the need for attention to the violation of civil and human rights.

“Research has shown that people who forced into nursing facilities have their lives cut short, and younger people are being institutionalized in greater and greater numbers. How can the DOJ not see this as a civil rights issue?” said German Parodi from Philadelphia. “Disabled lives matter too.”

ADAPT wants Attorney General Loretta Lynch to recognize publicly that “community integration of Americans with Disabilities is a civil rights imperative, and that she will personally oversee efforts to assure that DOJ addresses this injustice.”—Ruth McCambridge

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Disabled Protesters in DC: “Our Homes, Not Nursing Homes”

Shifting population in California nursing homes creates ‘dangerous mix’

David Thompson was living at the Midnight Mission on Los Angeles’ Skid Row when he secured a bed several years ago at a South Pasadena nursing home. For a man who had been homeless for 35 years, the arrangement seemed like a stable step forward.

Instead, he discovered that South Pasadena Convalescent Hospital was visited regularly by local police, summoned to the facility to break up fights or investigate alleged drug-dealing and thefts by residents. Thompson, injured decades earlier in a car wreck, recalled how the nursing home had lots of younger patients with no apparent disabilities.

One resident was known to pack a gun in his wheelchair, he said, a story that is corroborated in state documents. Another patient, he heard, smoked meth in the bathroom – a situation also detailed in state inspection records. Thompson said he kept to himself when fights broke out.

“They had so much stuff going on in there,” said Thompson, 79, who since has moved out of the South Pasadena facility and into another nursing home. “I guess the police chief got tired of it.”

The turmoil inside South Pasadena Convalescent Hospital became painfully public in November 2014, when one of Thompson’s smoking companions – 57-year-old Courtney Cargill, a mentally ill resident – left the facility unsupervised, doused her body with gasoline and lit herself on fire. After prodding from the local police chief, and a surge of community outrage, the California attorney general’s office opened an investigation into the facility and whether anyone should be held criminally accountable for her death.

The gruesome case also has shined a light on the divergent population groups that inhabit California’s 1,250 nursing homes – and the risks associated with serving such a wide mix of patients.

Where once skilled nursing facilities were universally thought of as “rest homes” for the frail and elderly, a growing proportion of California nursing home residents are younger, more able-bodied patients, many diagnosed with mental illness. Some residents, like Cargill, enter facilities with long-standing drug and alcohol problems. Others, like Thompson, have histories of homelessness.
Still others are newly released from prison.

Facilities have been able to tap these clients’ Medicare and Medi-Cal benefits and, in many instances, provide long-term housing at government expense.

“The homes that we have known as havens for the frail elderly, as you can see, are no longer safe havens,” said Tippy Irwin, executive director of San Mateo County’s ombudsman services.

Instead, she said, many facilities now have what she described as a “dangerous mix” – old, young, mentally ill, convicted felons, street people in desperate need of care, and younger clients with chronic illnesses, brain injuries and drug abuse problems.

“I don’t think people have a clue,” Irwin said. “I don’t think people give nursing homes a thought unless they’re actually faced with having to use one.”

Between 1994 and 2014, the population of California nursing home residents under age 65 grew by nearly 40 percent, while the number over 65 shrank by 11 percent, according to a Sacramento Bee review of state data. Today, 1 in 5 nursing home residents in California is under 65.

In California, the number of nursing home residents with serious mental illness also is on the rise. In 2014, the Golden State ranked fourth in the nation for the percentage of nursing home residents diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, behind Illinois, Missouri and Louisiana, according to data collected by the Brown University School of Public Health. The rate of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in California nursing homes increased by about 60 percent from 2000 to 2014, to 1 in 7 residents, the data show.

Quality of care appears to be a casualty in the changing patient mix.  (Continue Reading)

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Shifting population in California nursing homes creates ‘dangerous mix’

Linwood woman admits to bilking millions from elderly

A Linwood-based company meant to help senior citizens with their finances instead was helping to steal from them, the owner admitted Tuesday.

Jan Van Holt, 59, pleaded guilty to first-degree money laundering in the scheme that included her sister and a Northfield attorney who specialized in elder law.

Under the plea agreement, she faces a 12-year sentence with 5½ years of parole ineligibility. She also will need to make restitution for a not-yet-determined amount.

Her 60-year-old sister, Sondra Steen, also of Linwood, previously pleaded guilty to the same charge and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She must serve 4½ years before she is eligible for parole.

Northfield attorney Barbara Lieberman was the first to plead guilty in the case. She forfeited $3 million in assets and lost her law license as a result. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison with 3½ years without parole.

The group stole more than $2.7 million from 12 elderly clients from January 2003 through December 2012.

Another co-defendant, 58-year-old Linwood resident William Price, admitted to stealing $125,000 from a couple he met while working as a caseworker for Atlantic County Adult Protective Services. He received a five-year prison sentence.

Charges are pending against Susan Hamlett, 56, of Egg Harbor Township. She worked as an aide for clients of Van Holt’s company, A Better Choice.

“Van Holt and her sister conspired with an attorney to systematically siphon away the assets of elderly clients, who typically had no family to look after them and trusted their caregivers to treat them honestly,” acting Attorney General Robert Lougy said. “The treatment these vulnerable victims received was anything but honest; it was devious and heartless.”

A fundamental duty of law enforcement is to protect society’s most vulnerable from exploitation, said Elie Honig, director of the state Division of Criminal Justice.

“We rightfully reserve some of the harshest penalties for those who prey on children and the elderly,” he said. “In this case, we have secured prison sentences of 10 years or more for the three women at the heart of this scheme.”

State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes called the crimes “insidious and callous.”

Van Holt was a a case worker for Atlantic County Adult Protective Services from 2002 through December 2007, when she was terminated. She used that job to recruit five of the group’s victims.
Van Holt generally was the one to identify potential clients, approaching them to offer the services of A Better Choice and Lieberman.

Once a target accepted Van Holt’s offer of services, Steen usually would be put in place as the victim’s primary caregiver. Lieberman would then be brought in to do legal work, preparing powers of attorney and wills for the clients.

Van Holt and Steen — who lived together — used the money they stole for expenses, including veterinary bills, pool supplies, two Mercedeses and to lease a Florida condominium.

A portion went to the victims’ expenses to help hide the thefts.

If the victim owned stocks or bonds, they were cashed out and the funds deposited into the account allegedly controlled by the defendants. Lieberman would usually name herself or Van Holt as executor when she prepared the victims’ wills, with Steen as beneficiary.

The investigation began after the New Jersey Office of the Public Guardian referred a case involving one of the victims to the State Police.

Van Holt is scheduled for sentencing May 13 before Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury in Mays Landing.

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Linwood woman admits to bilking millions from elderly

Medicare Fraud Case Claims Optum Put Patients in Hospice Care Who Weren't Terminal

A screen capture from Optum Palliative Care's website.

The U.S. Justice Department has decided to join in a federal lawsuit filed by two Colorado whistleblowers; it alleges that a national palliative care provider improperly billed Medicare millions of dollars for hospice services provided to patients who weren't terminally ill. The suit against Optum Palliative and Hospice Care claims that the company offered hefty bonuses to employees who kept the numbers of patients up and fired those who attempted to weed out patients who weren't eligible for hospice benefits.

"Hospice care plays a critical role in our health care system, providing for end-of-life care as opposed to curative life care," said John Walsh, Colorado's U.S. Attorney, in a statement announcing the lawsuit. "When companies overbill Medicare by keeping people in hospice when they don't need to be there, it jeopardizes the important benefit for others under the program."

The Minnesota-based Optum, formerly known as Evercare, operates in eleven states. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2011 by two former employees, Lyssa Towl and Terry Lee Fowler, under the False Claims Act, which allows citizens to sue on behalf of the government to recover funds that were improperly paid. The case was sealed for three years from public view while the feds decided whether to join in the litigation but was finally unsealed late last week.

Towl, at one time the company's executive director for northern Colorado, and Fowler, an RN who became a regional hospice quality manager, claim that up to one-fourth of Evercare's hospice clients at any given time didn't meet the Medicare eligibility requirements. Such care is reserved for patients with a life expectancy of six months or less, but the plaintiffs claim the company billed for patients who suffered from dementia, non-terminal pulmonary problems and other diagnoses such as "failure to thrive" -- and sometimes collected benefits for years. By way of example, the complaint in the lawsuit lists 21 cases involving patients who didn't meet the hospice criteria but generated Optum billings for periods ranging from several months to three years.

Between 2008 and 2010, Towl and Fowler claim, the number of Evercare hospice patients exceeding 180 days of billings rose from 28 percent to 44 percent, suggesting that close to half the cases may have been suffering from something other than a terminal illness and were thus ineligible.  (Continue Reading)

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Medicare Fraud Case Claims Optum Put Patients in Hospice Care Who Weren't Terminal

Bill would give state elder abuse programs a federal funding boost

Legislation proposed in the Senate last week would authorize federal assistance to state programs that seek to prevent elder abuse, neglect and exploitation.

S. 2727, the Elder Protection and Abuse Protection Act, was introduced last Tuesday by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), with Sens. Al Franken (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Bob Casey (D-PA) co-sponsoring.

The bill would amend portions of the Older American Act of 1965 to define elder abuse as “the knowing infliction of physical or psychological harm or the knowing deprivation of goods or services that are necessary to meet essential needs or to avoid physical or psychological harm.” 

Under the bill, federal funds also would be appropriated for states to establish elder abuse screening, reporting and support programs.

“By requiring tough national standards for screening and reporting, this bill would help hold bad actors accountable for their deplorable behavior and provide critical protections for senior citizens,” Blumenthal said in a statement on the bill.

Just 1 in 23.5 cases of elder abuse is ever reported due to a lack of screening, awareness and prevention resources, according to the bill. The mortality rate of seniors who fall victim to elder abuse is three times higher than those who don't experience elder abuse, and the annual financial loss of those victims is estimated to be at least $2.9 billion, Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal introduced similar bills in 2012 and 2013, but the Senate passed neither.

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Bill would give state elder abuse programs a federal funding boost

Man dies after alleged beatings by parolees

April 6, 2016

Arrested men lived in home south of town contracted by parole board, owner says

BY CARLA NOAH STUTSMAN

A 68-year-old, wheelchair-bound man who was allegedly beaten repeatedly by two men he lived with died March 31 at a skilled nursing facility in Lake Worth.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet ruled whether Alan Abraham Meisel’s death was a result of injuries resulting from those beatings.

Two men – Jack Russell Ryder, 63 and James Glendon Duke, 55 – accused in the beatings were arrested.

Authorities will wait for the medical examiner to rule on the cause of Meisel’s death before deciding whether to pursue additional charges against the two men.

According to probable cause warrants obtained by The Azle News, Parker County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a residence in the 1200 block of Highland Road after the property owner, Steven Douglas Henry, reported an assault.

The location is south of Hwy. 199 between Azle and Springtown.

Henry told deputies he is under contract with the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles to house parolees.

The home where the assault took place has five bedrooms; parolees pay $600 each per month to rent a room, Henry told the deputies.

Two of the residents informed Henry on March 9 that two other residents, Ryder and Duke had continuously assaulted Meisel.

Meisel was not on parole, but Henry allowed him to move into the house because Meisel was dismissed from a retirement home and had nowhere else to go, according to Henry.

Meisel had lived in the house for about six months, during which time his weight had dropped from about 200 pounds to about 140 pounds, Henry said.

One man reported seeing Duke push Meisel out of his wheelchair onto the floor, kick him in the head causing a cut above eye, hit him in the back with wooden stick, and strike him in the head, back, face and ribs.

Another man said Ryder allegedly hit Meisel with a wooden stick on the back and head. He also reported seeing Duke hit Meisel in the head with a wooden brush and with a wooden stick.
Ryder also took Meisel’s food away from him, that man said.

Meisel himself told deputies that Ryder and Duke hit him after he ate.

Henry also told deputies he took Meisel to Texas Health Azle for laceration above his eye that required eight stitches.

According to the warrant, deputies observed Meisel to have two black eyes, bruising on his back and shoulders and swelling in both knees.

A deputy noted he had trouble understanding Meisel when he spoke, as well.

Both Duke and Ryder were arrested March 10 and charged with injury to a child/elderly or disabled person with intent to cause bodily injury.

Bond has been assessed at $20,000 for each of the men for that charge; both remain in the Parker County jail, where they are also held without bond for parole warrants.

Henry and another man also own another home where parolees are housed in the 200 block of Countryside Court, just down the street from the house on Highland Road, records show.

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Man dies after alleged beatings by parolees