Dennis Crawford Imprisoned For Financial Exploitation Of Ward
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Dennis Crawford Imprisoned For Financial Exploitation Of Ward
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Dennis Crawford Imprisoned For Financial Exploitation Of Ward
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Dennis Crawford Imprisoned For Financial Exploitation Of Ward
Law license of former York County probate judge suspended for 2 years
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| Former York County Probate Court Judge Robert Nadeau. |
The court’s 34-page decision, handed down Tuesday, is the latest setback for Nadeau. He was suspended 30 days last summer while he was still on the bench, then lost his bid for re-election in November.
Nadeau has been operating a law practice in Biddeford, but will not be allowed to practice in Maine for two years beginning Aug. 1. He also must pay a $5,000 fine.
“This is now the fourth time that Judge Nadeau has appeared before us for ethical violations and the third time for conduct that occurred while serving in a judicial capacity,” the court’s ruling states. “Here, his actions were often carried out in an intemperate and vindictive fashion against former colleagues of his law practice and their associates. Attorneys’ reputations were harmed, and litigants before him were pressured to support his efforts to increase court resources and his compensation.”
Despite the ruling, Nadeau defended his record in a statement Tuesday night.
“I am proud to have made a positive difference in the lives of nearly 20,000 children, adult incapacitated persons, and their parents, grandparents, adult children and others during my 16 years of service for York County and its probate court,” Nadeau said in an email. “This is so, despite the probate court’s woeful lack of adequate support and exercise of substantial interference by its county commissioners and despite the unfortunately high degree of politicization of Maine’s elected private judges by those commissioners, their uninformed manager and probate register, the York County bar, and others who oppose an elected judiciary.”
Nadeau was first elected as probate judge in York County in 1996. He served three four-year terms before losing re-election in 2008. However, he won back his seat in 2012.
The most recent allegations against him were detailed in a report filed Jan. 16, 2016, by the state’s Committee on Judicial Responsibility and Disability, which governs members of the bar.
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Law license of former York County probate judge suspended for 2 years
Woman charged after police say she wiped out mother's bank accounts
Amanda Reavis, 36, is charged with abuse or neglect of an incapacitated adult and financial exploitation of an elderly person.
According to a criminal complaint, Reavis' mother was admitted to the hospital in August 2016 with a low body mass index and cognitive abilities in decline.
Dunbar Police say Reavis has had power of attorney of her mother since January of 2015 to oversee her mother's health, well-being and her financial affairs.
Reavis took control of two of her mother's bank accounts, one of which had $58,000 in it. By March 2016, police say that account was down to just $85.
Police say from September 2015 to September 2016, Reavis was also receiving monthly social security deposits for her mother, each totaling $1,724.
According to the criminal complaint, Reavis left her mother in less than desirable conditions which included bed sores, soiled clothing and being placed in a bedroom with little to no interaction.
Reavis was turned into Adult Protection Services for neglect.
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Woman charged after police say she wiped out mother's bank accounts
Monday, June 26, 2017
Former Guardian Jailed After Missing Report Deadline
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| Laura Cooper |
According to court documents, 43-year-old Laura Cooper of Clinton, Arkansas appeared in a Tallahassee courtroom on Tuesday to plead for more time to produce a guardianship report.
But Leon Circuit Judge Robert Long ordered Cooper held without bond until she produces a report the court first demanded May 24th.
Advocates for Delores Caracci contend more than $400,000 in cash, real estate, and vehicles is missing from her estate.
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Former Guardian Jailed After Missing Report Deadline
Governor Bill Haslam signs bills to protect elderly citizens from exploitation, abuse
(WJHL) – Gov. Bill Haslam signed two bills into law on Wednesday, both meant to better protect the elderly in Tennessee.
One of the laws aims to do more to stop people from financially exploiting senior citizens.
Co-sponsor Sen. Rusty Crowe said banks were previously afraid to report the crime due to liability concerns, so lawmakers made a change to give those banks better protection and direction.
In addition to financial exploitation, the law also increases penalties for people who abuse or exploit the elderly or vulnerable adults.
State senators credit our 2013 Community Watchdog investigation as the reason for their continued focus on elder abuse.
That investigation prompted harsher penalties and the creation of a state elderly and vulnerable abuse task force.
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Governor Bill Haslam signs bills to protect elderly citizens from exploitation, abuse
One of the laws aims to do more to stop people from financially exploiting senior citizens.
Co-sponsor Sen. Rusty Crowe said banks were previously afraid to report the crime due to liability concerns, so lawmakers made a change to give those banks better protection and direction.
In addition to financial exploitation, the law also increases penalties for people who abuse or exploit the elderly or vulnerable adults.
State senators credit our 2013 Community Watchdog investigation as the reason for their continued focus on elder abuse.
That investigation prompted harsher penalties and the creation of a state elderly and vulnerable abuse task force.
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Governor Bill Haslam signs bills to protect elderly citizens from exploitation, abuse
Antipsychotics Found to Harm Hospice Patients With Delirium
The article, "Antipsychotics Found Ineffective for Patients with Delirium in Palliative Care", is centered on a recent study in which Haldol and Risperdal were found to worsen delirium and increase mortality when given to hospice patients. Patients given a placebo fared better. The authors conclusion: “Antipsychotic drugs should not be added to manage specific symptoms of delirium that are known to be associated with distress in patients receiving palliative care who have mild to moderately severe delirium.” Non-pharmacological approaches were recommended.
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Antipsychotics Found to Harm Hospice Patients With Delirium
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Maine's probate courts may get long-delayed overhaul
AUGUSTA — Fifty years ago, the voters of Maine approved a constitutional amendment that repealed their historic right to elect probate judges in each county.
But the referendum didn’t actually set a date for when that would happen. It was supposed to take place when the Legislature worked out how to create a new probate court system with full-time judges.
Since they never have, the system that’s been around since 1855 remains in place, a relic that puts a little extra income in the pocket of 16 part-time lawyers who serve as county judges, each in charge of probate cases within a single county.
It’s possible that lawmakers may get around to making the long-promised change before too much longer. Bills that would get the ball rolling are creeping ever closer to final passage.
They would create a commission that would offer a plan for the new court system next year and install judges who would devote all of their attention to probate cases.
To be fair, it’s not as if legislators never tried. They’ve eyed all sorts of possibilities in the past half-century that would do the job. They just haven’t actually endorsed any of them.
“Study after study has suggested we change the system. Let's finally give it the attention it deserves,” Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, said.
While Maine dithered, the rest of New England, which once had the same kind of independent probate courts overseen by part-time judges who often practice law on the side, has pulled off the makeover.
“Maine remains an outlier, with no benefits to its citizens from maintaining such position. Each year that passes makes the need for comprehensive reform more urgent,” said Deirdre Smith, a faculty member of the University of Maine School of Law and the director of its legal aid clinic.
Probate courts, which don’t have juries, deal with estates, adoptions, name changes, guardianship issues and proceedings aimed at protecting minors. Much of what they do is out of the public’s eye and successful judges are often at least as adept at dealing with clashing personalities as they are at interpreting arcane legal points.
The proposal, which both the House and Senate have endorsed, would create a 15-member commission “to create a plan for a more efficient and effective probate court system” that “will ensure, timely, convenient and meaningful access to justice.”
Katz said Maine’s regular judiciary works fine.
“I don't think we can say the same thing about the probate court system,” he told colleagues. “It doesn't look good on paper and, although it usually works well, that is not always the case.”
“To me, the heart of the problem is twofold: First, we elect probate judges who serve only part time, and secondly, we allow them to appear as private attorneys in Maine courts and probate courts outside of their own county,” Katz said.
He also said that if the state designed a system from scratch, it would never have elections for judges. “It is a system absolutely ripe for abuse,” Katz said, with inevitable complications for both winners and losers in contested races.
Besides, he said, “The idea of a partisan probate judge makes little sense in the 21st century. What is the Republican position on how to handle a contested guardianship? I have no idea.”
Katz also called it “a lousy system” to allow probate judges to practice law on the side “and even appear in probate courts in other counties as a private attorney, arguing cases in front of their fellow judges.”
It’s not hard to come up with scenarios where conflicts of interest may abound as judges, who are also private attorneys, vie with one another in one court while sitting in judgment of each other in a different venue, Katz said.
Leo Delicata, an attorney with Legal Services for the Elderly, said that because each court is independent from the other probate courts, Mainers “are not likely to receive the same experience of justice in each of these courts.”
That, he said, “is not acceptable in a society where the rule of law defines who we are as a people.”
He said the system needs uniformity and full-time professionals steeped in the relevant law and following the same procedures as other probate judges statewide. In the end, Delicata said, it “comes down to the idea that being a judge is more than just a job.”
One of the few critics of the proposal is Louis Sigel of Gardiner, who said Katz “is not trying to fix the Maine probate court system, he is attempting to destroy it.”
Sigel said that if probate judges can’t work part-time as lawyers, only wealthy people will be able to afford the job. The bill, he said, would “totally impoverish most probate judges” since they could only rely on their salaries.
Kathleen Ayers, a second-generation register of probate for Kennebec County, said probate courts are part of county government, which sets their budgets and salaries — something the state’s overhaul would likely change. The bill includes a provision to figure out how to ensure proper pay for the judges.
Ayers said the Maine Association of Registers of Probate isn’t opposed to change but wants a say in what’s done.
She said the existing system is about more than simply litigation. Much of the work involves answering questions from people who are trying to figure out what to do with a child whose parent is sent to jail or how to deal with an estate for somebody who died without significant assets.
She said probate judges want to improve the system and make it better. The question, though, is whether there’s enough money for the overhaul Katz envisions.
“Luckily, that is a question you folks must answer,” Ayers told lawmakers.
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Maine's probate courts may get long-delayed overhaul
Film Producer Seeking Assisted Suicide Stories
Assisted suicide is currently legal in the States of Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, and the District of Columbia.
If you or a loved one have felt coerced, experienced abuse, or come back from the brink of death by assisted death, we would like to hear from you.
Email us a brief description with contact information at VulnerableStories@gmail.com.
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Film Producer Seeking Assisted Suicide Stories
FED: Man Schemed Elderly With Reverse Mortgages
Federal prosecutors say Mark Steven Diamond, a mortgage loan originator with offices in Chicago and Calumet City, engaged in a home repair and loan fraud scheme that targeted elderly homeowners and lenders. According to the indictment, Diamond fraudulently caused lenders to make reverse-mortgage loans to homeowners who either did not sign up for the loans or did so unwittingly after Diamond intentionally misrepresented the terms. They say Diamond fraudulently pocketed the loan checks by causing title company representatives, including a co-schemer, to provide the checks to Diamond rather than the homeowners. The indictment seeks forfeiture of $7 million from Diamond.
Diamond, 60, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment this week to seven counts of wire fraud.
According to the indictment, Diamond targeted his victims, who ranged in age from 62 to 97, based on the equity in their homes and their relative lack of financial sophistication. If a victim’s relative questioned Diamond on the need for a reverse mortgage, prosecutors say Diamond would schedule a time to visit the victim’s home when he knew the relative would not be there.
Also charged in the indictment is Cynthia Wallace, 47, of Chicago. Prosecutors say Wallace solicited homeowners to have home repairs performed by Diamond, knowing that Diamond would not actually perform the work. They say Wallace also posed as a representative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fraudulently obtain money from victims.
Wallace has pleaded not guilty to nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of falsely pretending to be an employee of the United States.
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FED: Man Schemed Elderly With Reverse Mortgages
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