A 22-year-old Lyndhurst woman and her 23-year-old boyfriend on Jan.
19 were convicted of charges relating to the theft of around $75,000
from the woman’s elderly grandfather, according to a statement issued by
Lyndhurst police.
“On Sept. 1, 2017, Angel S. Kolasinski, 22, and her boyfriend,
Garrett W. Brewster, 23, were indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury
for identity fraud, telecommunications fraud, and theft for stealing
approximately $75,000 of the victim’s life savings,” the statement
reads.
Police confirm the victim was Kolasinski’s 89-year-old
grandfather, with whom Kolasinski and Brewster had been living in his
home.
“Tips from residents concerned about the welfare of their elderly
neighbor sparked investigation by the Lyndhurst Police Department with
assistance by the Cuyahoga County Division of Senior and Adult
Services,” the Lyndhurst Police Department’s news release reads.
As part of a plea agreement, Kolasinski pleaded guilty to theft,
aggravated theft and telecommunications fraud. She was sentenced to nine
months behind bars for each of the three convictions, to run
concurrently. She also was ordered to pay restitution to the victim.
Brewster pleaded guilty to identity fraud, attempted theft and
aggravated theft. He was sentenced to two years behind bars and ordered
to pay restitution to the victim.
The victim’s home also was the target of an investigation after a
friend of Kolasinski and Brewster suffered a drug overdose there in May
2017, according to Lyndhurst police.
Please join Marti Oakley, Luanne Fleming and Robin Austin as we host Rosanna Miller. Rosanna will be discussing the the underpinnings of the probate tribunals laid out in the UCC code.
The UCC (Universal Commercial Code) which deals with commerce and contract law. We have been commodified, sectioned off as chattel property and are bought, sold and traded under the UCC.
Rosanna will go over specific codes that pertain to fiduciary's, probate, and the uniform probate code. She will have specific information that applies directly to the lack of judicial accountability, corruption of the courts and the ongoing kidnapping, imprisoning and theft of estates from not only the elderly but also the disabled. The question remains....WHO is actually responsible for correcting and abolishing this system?
Have pen and paper ready...you will want to make notes. The show will be available in archive.
Haley is diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and in the past months, Haley has had trouble paying his rent.
"He
right now can't eat, drink very little, can't walk, talk and there's no
way he can possibly leave this home and that was also his last wish to
be home as his dying place," said Denise Haley, Mervin Haley's ex-wife
and care giver.
His family reached out to property management to make a partial payment with what they had.
A leasing manager told her they could only a make a full payment on the money owed.
She said this was the first time she was given an option to sign up for a payment arrangement.
"They're
still saying he's 500 something dollars behind well then come first of
January went to pay it they said they couldn't accept a partial payment
they had to have the full amount," said Denise Haley, Mervin’s ex wife
and caregiver.
Haley owes $569 but with late fees and January`s rent the total is now $1,500.
During a court date this week a judge ruled Haley had to be off the property by Sunday.
Denise Haley wrote the judge a letter detailing her ex-husband’s condition and asked for more time to come up with the money.
"There's
no way that man can possibly be out of the house by then if he goes
outside he's going to get pneumonia and that's going to end him right
there," Denise Haley said.
A small sign of hope as she watches her loved one struggle to survive.
"You
know it's gotta be hard on him to be worrying anyway about his life and
then worrying about this on top of it," Denise Haley said.
A former attorney has been charged with stealing $426,000 from his clients.
Connecticut State Police say 65-year-old John Butts, of Salem, has been
charged with first-degree larceny after taking funds from two people he
had represented in probate matters.
Police say in one of the
instances, the former Salem probate judge failed to provide a woman more
than $150,000 from the sale of her late father's condominium. In
another instance, Butts took about $276,000 from a client.
The
state Division of Criminal Justice says Butts was suspended from
practicing law last February and surrendered his law license in
September.
He's been released pending his arraignment in Norwich
Superior Court on Jan. 25. A phone number listed for Butts was unable to
accept new messages Thursday because its inbox was full.
The
Allure Group, a Brooklyn nursing home chain, has been mired in a major
real estate scandal during more than 20 months of city and state
investigations. Now it’s finally poised to pursue its stalled growth
plans after reaching a settlement with the state late last year.
Allure,
run by operators Joel Landau and Marvin and Solomon Rubin, agreed to
pay $2 million in penalties and charitable contributions to local
nonprofits in a deal with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman,
announced Jan. 5.
The
agreement marks the end of the state’s investigation into Allure’s
closing and subsequent sale of Rivington House on the Lower East Side as
well as its closing of a second facility, CABS Nursing Home, in central
Brooklyn. For community groups, it opens up the possibility that the
city will finally get new long-term-care facilities in neighborhoods
that sorely need them. But mistrust persists. “They have to be watched,”
said K Webster, who leads the Lower East Side community group Neighbors
to Save Rivington.
In
February 2015 Allure purchased Rivington House, an HIV/AIDS facility on
the Lower East Side, for $28 million. It sold the building a year later
to luxury housing developers for $116 million, provoking an outcry from
the community, the media and the city.
Allure
will pay $750,000 in fines and contribute $1.25 million to health care
nonprofits on the Lower East Side. It also committed to spend $10
million in the next five years to establish health care facilities both
in central Brooklyn and on the Lower East Side. Allure must run them for
at least eight years each.
Roadblocks lifted
Schneiderman
withdrew his objection to Allure’s purchase of Greater Harlem Nursing
Home on West 138th Street, where Allure has served as the
state-appointed receiver of the financially distressed facility since
2014. Under the settlement, Allure must keep the facility open for at
least nine years.
Allure
can now resume the expansion plans that Schneiderman blocked in 2016
during the investigation. “Now that the roadblocks holding up our full
control have been lifted, we look forward to turning our Harlem center
into a world-class facility similar to all other Allure facilities,”
Landau said.
Landau
and the Rubins entered the nursing home business in 2010 with the
backing of Leibel Rubin, Marvin and Solomon’s father, who has run
nursing homes for decades. The partners bought the vacant nursing home
portion of the former Victory Memorial Hospital in Bay Ridge for $20
million and set up Hamilton Park Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
Landau
and the Rubins went on to acquire four more Brooklyn facilities. They
successfully raised occupancy at these struggling locations. Its six
homes generate about $200 million a year in revenue, according to
Landau.
When
they sought to buy Rivington House from nonprofit VillageCare, the
property had a deed restriction that required it to be used as a
nonprofit residential health care facility.
Because
Allure is a for-profit company, the city informed Landau and Marvin
Rubin that they would have to pay $16 million to lift that restriction.
Landau told the city that the price, which was five times higher than
anyone had ever paid to lift a deed restriction, undermined the
financial viability of operating a Medicaid-funded nursing home.
By
May, three months after buying the 219-bed Rivington House, Allure had
an agreement to sell the building for $116 million to investors
including Slate Property Group, Adam America and China Vanke. A partial
stop-work order that limits construction and demolition remains in
place.
In
November 2015 Allure paid the city, and the deed restriction was
lifted, facilitating the sale to developers, but they didn’t disclose
the deal until several months later. The city Department of
Investigation found that City Hall officials ranking as high as
then-First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris either were aware or should have
been that the deed restriction was being removed, causing the property
to lose its public purpose designation.
“This
was a mistake. It was ridiculous, and I’ve said it a thousand times,”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said in June during a town hall meeting on the
Lower East Side. “Not only did we entirely change the rules around
anything like this; now it will require a personal signature from me to
happen, which did not happen in this case.”
De
Blasio said last week that NYC Health and Hospitals is adding 60 beds
at its Gouverneur facility in Lower Manhattan to offset the Rivington
closure. The beds are a welcome addition in a neighborhood that lost 335
beds when the Bialystoker and Cabrini nursing homes closed in 2011 and
2012, respectively. Still, a larger facility is needed, said Webster.
“We don’t want any more stopgap measures,” she said. “We really have a
crisis on our hands, and it’s going to get worse.”
The
Rivington sale ultimately passed legal muster, as Schneiderman’s office
concluded that the developers’ title to the property “is not subject to
effective legal challenge.” But Schneiderman enforced penalties on
Allure because his office found that designated members of the company’s
board of directors failed to fulfill oversight duties. When Allure
purchased Rivington from VillageCare, it appointed four board members:
the brother-in-law of Allure CEO Solomon Rubin, two Allure employees and
a truck driver for a food-delivery business who had no prior nursing
home experience. But it was ultimately Landau and Marvin Rubin’s
decision to sell.
Besides
failing to question the move, the board did not notify the state
Supreme Court or the attorney general before the nonprofit sold its
assets. Allure did not admit to or deny any of the attorney general’s
findings.
“It
was a big struggle for us the last two years while this was going on,
and it affected our focus,” Marvin Rubin said. “Now we can continue to
do what we do best, which is constantly improving long-term care.”
Tonight's guests expose local authorities in Oklahoma ignoring proofs of a hate crime. Patrick Cross’s strong voice and warrior for his son, 20 year old Christian-victim who is struggling yet surviving a brutal attack.
But that's not all that will be shared tonight.
Patrick Cross, father of victim- is ready to “show and tell” more sad truths about other injustices far too many are experiencing in this little municipality where the comforts of crimes by the true criminals upon citizens will no longer be tolerated.
Tanya Hathaway is not an attorney and cannot give and does not give legal advice. She is an activist, advocate, victim-survivor-whistleblower, blogger and author and speaker. Tanya strives to give opinion and resources, discuss options and encourages moving forward in bringing Justice to Oklahoma and realizing the true “Access to Justice” as our constitution was and is meant to be.
This is so common in Oklahoma that we have countless other warrior victim- advocates; advocates coming forward and lining up. And as we are building a major case against the state of Oklahoma- we won't stop until the job is done. Reform is on it's way… ! Join us and join in.
Next Sunday, FBI undercover turned whistleblower will be our guest.
Undercover blew the lid off of what he believes to be an unlawful set up against Jerry Varnell, now facing life in prison for failed attempts to blow up bank building. Wait til you find out the twists and turns in this case and hear the recordings of FBI conversation.
A Tom Green County jury sentenced Sweetwater attorney John Stacy Young to 11 years in prison and $40,000 in fines Wednesday.
The jury deliberated for about three hours. Here's a breakdown of the sentences:
On Count 1, forgery, state jail felony: 24 months in a Texas State Jail facility and a $10,000 fine.
On Count 2, forgery, state jail felony: 24 months in a Texas State Jail facility and a $10,000 fine.
On
Count 3, theft, first-degree felony: 11 years in an institutional
division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and a $10,000 fine.
On
Count 4, money laundering, second-degree felony: 11 years in an
institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and a
$10,000 fine.
He will serve the sentences concurrently.
Young's family was in court for the sentencing. His daughter and son, both college age, broke into sobs and hugged their father.
Young, 57, was found guilty Monday, Nov. 6,
on all charges related to conspiring with a San Angelo bail bondsman to
forge a will and claim a local man's estimated $8 million estate.
Because
he was found guilty of theft, Young almost certainly will be disbarred,
according to information from the Houston Chronicle. It's not yet clear
whether restitution will be required.
During
closing arguments, Shane Attaway — with the state Attorney General's
Office — told the jury that Young as a criminal defense attorney "knows
the laws" and started "building his defense right from the start."
The
defense urged the jury to consider "restorative justice" with a
community supervision or probation option requiring Young or his family
to pay back the estate.
"Make them (the Young
family) pay," said Daniel Hurley, an attorney on Young's defense team.
The easy option, he said, was to put him in jail and "let the taxpayers
pay."
The prosecution team said Young had three
years to pay restitution before now and "probation is not revoked for a
failure to pay restitution," especially if the defendant has no assets
or income to pay with.
The prosecution also pointed
out that Young transferred ownership of his 5,000-square-foot home to
his wife about two and a half weeks before the trial.
"Probation
is a hammer only if it's made of plastic and comes with a McDonald's
Happy Meal," said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan White, one of the
prosecuting attorneys.
Young
faced punishment of 180 days to two years in jail and two to 99 years
in prison for theft, money laundering and two counts of forgery. The
trial lasted about 3 1/2 weeks. Judge Brock Jones presided.
The
Texas Rangers charged Young and former bail bondsman Ray Castro Zapata,
66, with stealing the estate of San Angelo resident John Edward
Sullivan, 77, after he died June 4, 2014.
Zapata
was bail bondsman for Sullivan when Sullivan was arrested in March 2014
on charges of soliciting minors online, and possession of child
pornography. Court documents said Young became Sullivan's lawyer through
a referral from Zapata.
According to previous
testimony, Zapata said he found the alleged will —
bequeathing Sullivan's entire fortune to Young — on the day of
Sullivan's death. It was handwritten in black ink and about a paragraph
long, inside a prayer book at Sullivan's residence, he said.
Zapata,
who faced the same charges as Young, was found guilty in a May trial. A
Tom Green County jury sentenced him to six months in state jail and 10
years' probation.
Judge Jones also ordered him to pay $1.8 million to Sullivan's estate. Zapata is appealing the conviction.
North Carolina's program to provide guardianship for people with serious
mental health or intellectual issues is in need of updating. In a
multipart series, NC Health News will take a look at the issues around
guardianship and what might need to change.
By Taylor Knopf
A week before Shawn Stead’s 12th birthday, he was riding a scooter in his Garner neighborhood when a Ford F-150 truck hit him.
He suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI), spending the first three
weeks at WakeMed hospital in Raleigh unconscious. Doctors said he would
likely die or be brain dead.
Shawn’s mother, Kristine Stead, said she needed hope of a better outcome.
“He said, ma’am, I don’t think you understand the severity of your son’s injuries,’” Kristine recalled the neurologist saying.
Kristine
Stead looks through the photo album she made of her son Shawn’s time in
recovery from a traumatic brain injury when he was 12 years old. Photo
credit: Taylor Knopf
“I don’t think you understand I’m his mother and I need a third
option, please. We need something else to hold on to,” she told the
doctor.
Shawn defied everyone’s expectations. After 78 days at the hospital, Shawn was discharged.
He relearned to walk and talk. He’s participated in Special Olympics. And he graduated from Garner High School.
“I was like a Pokemon, leveling up higher and higher,” said Shawn, now 22.
Though Shawn made a full-recovery physically, his brain was altered
in the accident. Daily life tasks are more difficult for him. He can’t
drive. And as Shawn approached 18, it was clear he wouldn’t join the
workforce and live independently right away.
Shawn’s mother Kristine is one of many parents in North Carolina who
have sought and secured a type of guardianship over her child.
Now, there’s a growing movement challenging parents to move away from
guardianship and think about other ways to support their children with
disabilities.
Some experts say it’s unnecessary to obtain guardianships in many
cases because young adults needs to make their own decisions in order to
mature into adulthood properly. NC Health News will examine that more
fully in Part 2 of this series.
But Kristine says the process has worked for her family and Shawn.
How it works
In North Carolina, there are a few types of guardianship.
A “guardian of the estate” is an adult appointed only to manage a ward’s property, estate and business affairs, according to N.C. general statute 35A.
A “guardian of the person” is an adult appointed only to manage the
care, custody and control of a someone the court deems “incompetent.”
And a “general guardian” is someone who controls a ward’s person and
estate.
A parent seeking guardianship must file a petition with the Clerk of
Superior Court and for parents seeking guardianship of their children
aging into adulthood, the court must find the teenager to be an
“incompetent child.”
The term is legally defined in the general statute
as “a minor who is at least 17 1/2 years of age and who, other than by
reason of minority, lacks sufficient capacity to make or communicate
important decisions concerning the child’s person, family, or property,
whether the lack of capacity is due to mental illness, mental
retardation, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, autism, inebriety, disease,
injury, or similar cause or condition.”
A guardian ad litem is appointed to represent the ward and make sure
he or she understands what is happening. The guardian ad litem also
talks to the ward about rights they may wish to keep, such as the
ability to vote, choose their own religion or pick friends.
This can be helpful for some families, like the Rainears of Raleigh.
Their 18-year-old son Gaven has autism and Asperger’s syndrome. While
Gaven has a pretty large vocabulary, he’s soft spoken and doesn’t always
tell people what he wants.
“We didn’t have any idea he would like to have the ability to pick
his own religion,” his father Russell Rainear said. “I’m fine with it.
You pick your religion, friends and who you vote for, absolutely. But I
wouldn’t have thought of any of those things had [the guardian ad litem]
not talked to him about it.”
Obtaining guardianship of an adult means taking individual rights
from them. It requires the person seeking guardianship to file a lawsuit
against the person they are seeking guardianship of.
Parents must inform family members via mail and give them an
opportunity to object. Law enforcement officers serve papers on the
wards to inform them a parent is seeking guardianship.
Kristine Stead found the process mostly pain free. After all the
paperwork was filed and the guardian ad litem met with Shawn, they
headed to the Wake County courthouse.
“The judge was sitting up at the bench when we walked in. He came
down from the bench, grabbed a chair and sat at the table with us,” she
said. “It was very informal — I think because we weren’t fighting
against someone [.…] Neither parent was fighting for custody.”
Kristine didn’t hire a lawyer because no one was contesting the guardianship.
Russell Rainear hired a lawyer. He and Gaven worried some relatives
might interfere. A couple clerks of court interviewed have said it is
not necessary to obtain a lawyer, but sometimes people do.
“A year before we filed the paperwork, we had conversations once a
month, reminding him that this was coming. This is how this will go.
It’s not a bad thing,” Russell said. “The officer is going to the house
in uniform and serve you papers. He’s going to tell you we are suing you
for guardianship of you… It’s a very intimidating process.”
Angela-Christine, Gaven and Russell Rainear at their home in Raleigh.
Angela-Christine Rainear, Gaven’s step-mother, said she thinks there
should be a different process for uncontested guardianships of people
with established disabilities.
“There should be a gentler, softer version,” she said. “Gaven didn’t contest to guardianship, but we still had to sue.”
The Rainears said they are dreading going through the guardianship
process again with their youngest son, who is 17 and also has autism.
Unlike Gaven, the younger boy is mostly non-verbal.
Peace of mind
Many parents of children with developmental disabilities see
guardianship as a way to protect their loved one. It gives them peace of
mind.
Kristine Stead said she sought guardianship of Shawn mainly for any medical need that might arise.
“If he needs to go to the doctor or has a procedure, I can go in.
There is no signing anything,” she said. “I go right in. They have to
answer my questions, they have to talk to me. It makes it easier.”
She added that if Shawn gets into a difficult situation, or makes a poor decision, she can override it as his legal guardian.
“Or if he makes a decision and it’s someone taking advantage of him, I
can come back and say, ‘you didn’t get my permission.'” Kristine said.
Russell Rainear feels similarly about Gaven.
“The world is going to expect him to walk out of high school, across that stage and be somebody he’s not ready to be,” he said.
“Gaven is a gem. You can take him anywhere. He’s super polite and
proper. He can carry himself well in general,” Russell added. “He just
can’t by himself. He won’t speak up for himself. He won’t take care of
himself. If left alone, he won’t make the right decisions.”
Both Kristine and Russell plan to restore their sons’ rights someday when the young men are ready.
Shawn has become more independent over time. He takes a cab when he
needs to go somewhere. He likes to run errands and go to the gym with
his grandfather.
He’s made small steps towards self-sufficiency, such as clipping his
own nails, doing laundry, emptying the dishwasher, and taking the trash
and recycling out on the right days.
When he got a job at Target recently, his mother was thrilled.
And Shawn’s fine with his mom being his guardian. It helps him out, he said.
Gaven said sees guardianship as a necessity.
“I’m incredibly less stressed now,” he said.
Gaven is excited to graduate from high school and building skills for
independent living. He’s starting to figure out the bus system.
He can prepare simple meals such as rice, mac ‘n’ cheese and frozen
pizza. And he does some chores, like folding clothes and emptying the
cat’s litter box.
He enjoys writing science fiction short stories and looks out for his
little brother. Gaven holds his brother’s hand and walks him to his
special education classroom every morning.
Is guardianship always necessary?
There is a growing movement challenging parents to move away from
guardianship and think about other ways to support their children with
disabilities.
“In North Carolina, we overuse guardianship,” said Corye Dunn, a lawyer with Disability Rights NC.
She said there are small number of cases where guardianship is
necessary. But Dunn and organizations such as Rethinking Guardianship
and First in Families NC believe in helping a young adult with
disabilities through supportive decision making.
“I think people really need to examine their goals in seeking
guardianship,” Dunn said. “There are important developmental
opportunities in those years between 18 and 25. Most young adults make
mistakes and that’s developmentally appropriate. That’s how you learn to
be an adult.”
Just because someone turns 18 does not mean they have all the
knowledge and skills to be a successful adult. Most young people turn to
trusted elders for advice, Dunn explained.
“Maybe you go to dad for financial help,” she said. “Or maybe it’s an aunt who is a nurse who you talk to about healthcare.”
For someone with a disability, the goal would be to formalize this support network for them.
“You create an agreement with the focus person and all the people in
their life who they trust to be advisors,” Dunn said. “The advisors
agree to be the advisors in specific areas and only those.”
Someone with a disability can give their power of attorney over if
needed or ask that a parent come into a doctor’s appointment with them.
Parents often focus on good decision making and keeping their child safe, Dunn said.
“As people, we balance safety against freedom, what we enjoy, and
long and short-term benefits,” she said. “If everything is about safety,
we deny them the human experience.”
More families are skipping
guardianship for their children with disabilities, even as they're
exploring other legal methods to protect their loved ones.
By Taylor Knopf
Janie Desmond was nervous the first time she boarded a train in
Durham headed for Greensboro. From her wheelchair, the train seemed big,
loud and unfamiliar.
“I kind of wanted to convince my mom to take me to school, but I had
to take the train,” Desmond said describing her freshman year UNC
Greensboro. “There were a bunch of people on there that I didn’t know.”
When the train would make stops, Desmond said she was confused about what was going on.
This was one of Desmond’s first explorations away from home on her
own. Over time, riding the train became no big deal. After that, she
took on ordering groceries, preparing food, managing money, and other
life skills.
Desmond, now 25, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, severe visual impairment and mild intellectual disability as a child.
Many parents of North Carolinians with disabilities obtain guardianship of their children when they become adults.
Janie
Desmond often goes with her mother Betsey MacMiachael to presentations
and advocacy events. Here they are after their presentation to the NC
I/DD Joint Legislative Caucus in 2016 with Rep. Jean Farmer-Butterfield
(D-Wilson). Courtesy of FIFNC Facebook page.
But not Desmond’s parents. When she turned 18, they wanted her to live as fulfilled and independent of a life as possible.
Now living in her own apartment with a roommate in downtown Durham, Desmond is proud of her accomplishments.
“Mom doesn’t have to do everything for me anymore, which I’m grateful
for,” Desmond said. “Freshman year, my mom would always have to handle
all of my medicine. I didn’t know how to get my prescriptions […] She
use to have to do it all. Now, I’m like, ‘Mom, I’ve got this. I don’t
need any more help.’”
Betsy MacMichael, Desmond’s mother, said she and her husband talked
about the idea of obtaining guardianship of their daughter for about
five minutes and then decided she needed to be part of the conversation.
In North Carolina, a parent seeking guardianship
must file a petition with the Clerk of Superior Court, and the court
must find their child to be legally “incompetent.” Guardianship removes a
person’s adult rights from them.
“We wanted to give her every chance to be as competent and
independent as she could be with help,” MacMichael said. “That didn’t
mean we wouldn’t be there. We talked about ways we would still be in her
life and supporting her no matter what. We felt like we wanted her to
have the dignity of us not being her boss.”
There’s a growing movement challenging parents to consider
alternatives to guardianship and think about other ways to support their
children with disabilities.
A group called Rethinking Guardianship
— comprised of clerks of court, civil rights lawyers, university
experts, state health and human services staff and other disability
advocates — is working to improve North Carolina’s guardianship process
and help people think about alternatives.
These experts say guardianship is unnecessary in many cases because
young adults need to make their own decisions in order to mature into
adulthood.
MacMichael is part of this movement as the executive director of First in Families of North Carolina, a statewide nonprofit that helps people with disabilities live more independently in their community.
And for seven years now, MacMichael and Desmond have worked out a system that allows Desmond to live on her own with support.
What are the alternatives?
MacMichael said that First in Families favors using alternatives to
guardianship first. However, she recognizes that guardianship is
necessary sometimes.
“Too often, people with disabilities are segregated into special
communities, such as group homes,” MacMichael said. “First in Families
wants to help them integrate and live in the regular community, if
possible.
“Obtaining guardianship of someone with disabilities when they turn
18 hinders their ability to mature as an adult,” MacMichael said.
Most 18 year olds make mistakes and require advice from their elders
on financial, health, housing and career decisions. A person with
disabilities is no different. However, this structure of supported decision making sometimes needs to be formalized.
MacMichael recommends helping a young person establish a personal
support network, people who can help in different areas of life such as
finances and healthcare decisions. Many parents worry what will happen
to their child once they are gone.
Creating this support network helps alleviate some of those fears. It
also helps the siblings of someone with a disability not feel like the
sole person responsible for their brother or sister later in life. One
organization that supports siblings is called NC Sibs.
Parents can also become the representative payee for Social Security benefits if they worry about exploitation of an adult child who cannot manage money.
MacMichael said she chose not to do this with Desmond who is slowly
learning to manage her finances. Instead, they share a bank account so
MacMichael can keep an eye on Desmond’s cash flow if needed.
“It’s a way for families to leave a loved one money in a trust that
won’t jeopardize any government benefits that they have,” MacMichael
said. “Say a grandparent leaves someone like my daughter money, she
would get bumped off Social Security and she would lose her Medicaid
waiver and that would be really bad.”
A special needs trust would protect from something like this.
North Carolina also passed the ABLE Act in 2015, which allows families to squirrel away some funds in a tax-exempt 529 fund, up to $100,000. The money can be used for things such as buying a new van or a major appliance.
First in Families holds workshops on will and estate planning to help
demystify these things for parents of people with disabilities.
MacMichael said there are ways to leave a child money in a special needs
trust even if you’re not independently wealthy, such as a life
insurance plan.
If a parent still feels like their loved one needs a guardian,
MacMichael said she will talk to them about various degrees of
guardianship, such as partial guardianship or just guardianship of the
estate.
‘Love being independent’
Desmond graduated from a four-year program at UNC Greensboro called “Beyond Academics,”
designed specifically for people with intellectual disabilities. She
learned about budgeting, menu planning and other skills for independent
living.
Then in April 2016, Desmond moved into her own accessible Durham apartment, decorated in pink, with her roommate, Suyva Carroll.
Desmond’s parents had bought a two-story house and converted it into
four apartments. The bottom two are accessible for those with
disabilities and the upstairs is rented out at market rate to subsidize
the lower level.
The two young women said they love to sing together, go bowling, and
hang out at Fullsteam Brewery. Desmond’s boyfriend Sloan often comes
with them.
“I just love being independent because I can buy what I want, eat
what I want, I can exercise when I want, and go out when I want to,”
Desmond said.
“I love eating salads, vegetables and fruit. If I was at a group
home, I wouldn’t be able to make my own decisions with food and having
friends come over,” she added.
Both are looking for a paying job, but in the meantime they take
advantage of volunteer opportunities, in places such as schools, the
hospital and the farmers’ market.
“I’m also waiting on a paying job, but right now I’m doing a lot of
volunteering because then it might turn into a paying job,” Carroll
said. “Whatever God blesses you with, you got to run with it.”
