State Assemblyman Harry Bronson is calling for a Department of Health investigation following the News10NBC investigation of Waterview Heights, formerly The Shore Winds Nursing Home.
Source:
News10NBC Investigates: Assemblyman calls for action following News10NBC nursing home investigation
by Joseph S. Pete
 |
|
Lake Superior Court Probate Commissioner Ben Ballou, second from right, recently swore in a class of four Volunteer Advocates for Seniors and Incapacitated Adults. They are, from left, Jack E. Dusek, Jr., Cynthia Moore, Rhonda Smith of Hammond and Renee Gougis |
Franciscan Health and Lake County Courts run the Volunteer Advocates for Seniors and Incapacitated Adults to help adults who are unable to represent themselves or handle their own affairs.
Lake Superior Court Probate Commissioner Ben Ballou swore in the latest class of Jack Dusek Jr. of Munster, Renee Gougis of Calumet City, Cynthia Moore of Gary and Rhonda Smith of Hammond.
“The program is so vital to the community,” Ballou said. “You’re a voice for those who don’t have a voice and who aren’t being taken care of properly. We greatly appreciate all the VASIA program does.”
Gougis felt compelled to volunteer because she's a three-year cancer survivor who understands firsthand how it feels to need help.
“I appreciate all the people I had with me who supported me through the process,” Gougis said. “This is my journey now. This is what I’m meant to do.”
Dusek's mother suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease and relied on help.
“For the last few years, she was confused and scared,” Dusek said. “I could help her, remind her, make her happy. Hopefully, I can bring joy to someone’s life.”
The program is now in its 21st year and is sustained by funding from the Indiana Supreme Court, the Legacy Foundation and other sources. The trained, supervised volunteers provided the elderly and incapacitated with guardianship and elder law advocacy.
They're vetted and required to complete 40 hours of training on legal, social service, health and mental health issue. It's followed by 12 hours of continuing education.
“We’re excited for you four wonderful people,” VASIA Director LaVonne Jarrett said. “This will begin a new journey for you with Franciscan VASIA.”
The advocates handle one case at a time. Franciscan Health Foundation Development Director MinDee Richard said the court-appointed volunteers make a difference in people's lives.
“You’re going to be that person in someone’s life that lets them know
they’re not alone in the world,” Richard said. “You may save their life
in more ways than one.”
Full Article & Source:
New Volunteer Advocates for Seniors and Incapacitated Adults sworn in
 |
| Gregory Anderson |
ST. PAUL — Disbarred Willmar Attorney Gregory Anderson, 63, will serve a federal sentence of 18 months in prison for his role in concealing the business assets of former Kerkhoven Mayor James Rothers in bankruptcy proceedings.
U.S. District Court Judge Eric C. Tostrud sentenced Anderson to the prison term on Wednesday during a court appearance in federal District Court in St. Paul. He also ordered that Anderson serve one year of supervised release following his release from prison and pay a fine of $20,000.
The sentencing follows Anderson’s guilty plea on Aug. 8 to one count of fraudulent concealment of bankruptcy assets.
A plea agreement reached at that time included a requirement that Anderson be voluntarily disbarred.
The sentence is below the sentencing range that had been approved earlier in a plea agreement. It called for a range of 24 to 30 months of imprisonment at the discretion of the court.
Prior to sentencing, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Sing supported the 24-month sentence, or the lower end of the agreement. In a filing with the court, they stated that Anderson’s remorse for his criminal conduct “appears thoughtful and genuine.”
They also described his criminal conduct as “rather extraordinary” and “remarkable.” They stated that a 24-month sentence “is necessary to reflect the seriousness of this offense, promote respect for the law, and provide just punishment for his actions.”
The sentence is the conclusion to an otherwise successful law career that began in 1987 when Anderson was sworn into the bar by his father.
Anderson filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition on behalf of Rothers in November 2015. Rothers had approached Anderson for legal counsel in mid-2011 when one of his grain-bin construction businesses, West Central Crane, was in a contract dispute and likely to be sued.
“Anderson spent the next four plus years helping Rothers hide assets and avoid liability,” the prosecuting attorney said in court filings.
The court found that Anderson created fake liabilities to create the appearance that Rothers was insolvent when, in fact, Rothers could easily have paid all of his creditors.
According to the court, Anderson arranged to have a fictitious lawsuit filed against Rothers, and then instructed Rothers to default in that lawsuit. It created a judgment of approximately $608,000 against Rothers to further the appearance that he was insolvent.
Anderson also created documents to make it appear that an Iowa company had loaned $240,000 to Rothers and that he had an obligation to repay what is now known to have been a bogus loan.
Overall, Anderson helped Rothers hide more than $1 million in assets in what the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota called a “senseless attempt” to help Rothers discharge $173,591 in debts.
The fraud included Anderson’s help in hiding 100,000 gold coins Rothers had purchased as part of the scam. Anderson also helped place $465,640.26 in the bank account of ABS Bin of Minnesota, which Rothers falsely claimed that he did not own.
The attorney also helped Rothers in placing $227,284.26 in ABC Bin of Iowa. It’s from this business account that Rothers paid Anderson.
The attorney and Rothers also helped conceal $582,423 in cashed checks to Rothers’s businesses shortly after the bankruptcy filing. He also assisted in taking numerous vehicles and trailers out of Rothers’ name just prior to the bankruptcy filing, according to the prosecuting attorneys.
The fraud was discovered prior to any discharge of the debts. The case was the result of an investigation by the FBI.
Rothers' businesses have paid the creditors and, according to court documents, he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal expenses. He is scheduled for sentencing later this month on one count of fraud for concealment of bankruptcy assets. Rothers pleaded guilty Nov. 7, 2019, and has assisted investigators in the case against Anderson.
Full Article & Source:
Former Willmar attorney Gregory Anderson to serve 18 months for bankruptcy fraud for hiding client's assets
by Michael Lemanski
 |
| A Newington man has been arrested and charged with illegally writing checks to himself from an elderly man's bank account. (Shutterstock) |
Ryan Turko, 39, of Newington, was arrested Friday by inspectors from the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney.
He
was charged with one count each of second-degree larceny; first-degree
identity theft; second-degree forgery; and computer crimes, according to
state officials.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit,
Turko, the business manager for Portland Care and Rehabilitation Centre
in Portland, also known as PCRC, improperly accessed an elderly
resident’s bank account, according to authorities.
State officials said he then made online withdrawals and transfers and wrote checks to himself without permission between September 2020 and February 2021.
PCRC is a facility that accepts Medicaid monies on behalf of clients for services.
Turko was released on a $25,000 non-surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Middletown Superior Court on Thursday, Dec. 15.
Second-degree
larceny is a class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Identity theft is a class B Felony, punishable by up to 20 years in
prison. Second-degree forgery and computer crimes are class D felonies
punishable by up to five years in prison.
The case will be prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Anyone
with knowledge of suspected fraud or abuse in the public healthcare
system is asked to contact the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at the Office
of the Chief State’s Attorney at 860-258-5986.
Full Article & Source:
Newington Man Charged With Bilking Elderly Person
Colorado officials say a caretaker has been sentenced in the death of a woman at an assisted living facility.(akaratwimages via Canva)
By KKCO Staff and Jordan Gartner
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO/Gray News) - Officials in Colorado say a caretaker at an assisted living facility has pleaded guilty to charges related to the death of a resident.
According to the Colorado attorney general’s office, Letticia Martinez pleaded guilty to negligence that led to the death of Hazel Place, 86, at Cappella Assisted Living and Memory Care in June 2021.
KKCO reports that Martinez was sentenced to probation for three years, 100 hours of community service and 30 days in jail.
Investigators said they found that Martinez, along with Jamie Johnston and Jenny Logan, were responsible for the death of Place. The 86-year-old was reportedly left in the heat for six hours.
Officials
said Martinez pleaded guilty to caretaker neglect and a deferred
sentence of negligent homicide. Cases against Johnston and Logan are
currently pending.
Full Article & Source:
Caretaker pleads guilty in death of 86-year-old woman at assisted living home
But after “falling through the cracks” for years in the government-run healthcare system, Jennyfer Hatch gave up and agreed to an assisted suicide instead, according to the Daily Mail.
“I thought, ‘Goodness, I feel like I’m falling through the cracks so if I’m not able to access health care, am I then able to access death care?’ And that’s what led me to look into medical assistance in dying and I applied last year,” she told CTV in a recently resurfaced interview from June.
New details about the woman’s story emerged this week in response to outrage about “The Most Beautiful Exit” ad from fashion company La Maison Simons. The ad showed a terminally ill Hatch celebrating her last days of life before being euthanized under the Canadian Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) law, which killed more than 10,000 people last year, the Mail reports.
The ad, which has been widely condemned for glorifying euthanasia, ends with the message “For Jennyfer, June 1985-October 2022,” suggesting she was euthanized in October. Now, questions are arising about whether she would still be alive today if she had received the proper medical care that she had sought for years.
Using a pseudonym, Hatch, of British Columbia, spoke to CTV in June about her struggles with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and her failed battles with the Canadian medical system to receive the medical care that she needed. The news outlet confirmed this month that the individual in their June article was Hatch, according to the report.
The interview shows how hopelessness and frustration turned the woman’s thoughts to assisted suicide. Since being diagnosed with EDS a decade ago, Hatch said she has had to struggle to obtain basic medical care.
“From a disability and financial perspective as well, I can’t afford the resources that would help improve my quality of life. Because of being locked in financially as well and geographically, it is far easier to let go than keep fighting,” she told CTV in June.
When her condition became terminal, she said she did not even receive proper palliative care, the St. Thomas Times-Journal reports.
Here’s more from the report:
However, B.C. was quick to approve Hatch’s application for MAID. “There were no other treatment recommendations or interventions that were suitable to the patient’s needs or to her financial constraints,” reads a CTV excerpt of the MAID approval issued to Hatch by Fraser Health, the health agency serving B.C.’s Lower Mainland.
None of these complicating factors were mentioned in the Simons ad, which instead highlighted what it called the “hard beauty” of assisted suicide.
The fashion company recently removed the ad in response to the outrage.
The news of Hatch’s real situation comes amid numerous reports of coercion and abuse under the 2016 law. In another widely publicized case, a Paralympian and retired military corporal said the Department of Veterans Affairs offered her an assisted suicide after she repeatedly requested a wheelchair ramp for her home.
Canada legalized assisted suicide, referred to as MAID, for adults in
2016. Recently, lawmakers began debating whether to expand the law to allow mentally ill people and young children to be euthanized. One bill would allow doctors to euthanize patients without their consent, according to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
Full Article & Source:
Woman Featured in Creepy Pro-Euthanasia Ad Wanted to Live
A journalist
is facing kidnapping and other charges after authorities said she
dragged her 88-year-old mother from her Miami-Dade home and had her
involuntarily placed in an assisted living facility then financially
exploited the elderly woman out of more than $200,000. NBC 6’s Heather
Walker reports.
All Things Real Estate: Tim Jones
Q: My widowed mother and I live in the same house. This is the house I grew up in and when I became an adult I moved out for almost 20 years. My father passed away two years ago and I moved back in to help take care of my mom. We both agreed it would be best if we put the house in both of our names so it would make it easier to manage it. We are both on title as joint tenants.
Throughout this year my mom’s health and mental stability has been getting worse and worse to the point where she is impossible to live with. She throws and breaks stuff, she tries to lock me out of the house, and last night she threatened me with a butcher knife. I want to put her in a nursing facility that can take better care of her and I told her that was what I intended to do. But she still thinks this is her house and she says she’s going to throw me out. She won’t listen when I explain things to her but it’s at the point where she has to go.
Obviously I have a big problem but I don’t know what to do. I hate to evict mom but that’s what it’s come down to.
A: Well, there’s a lot going on here which has nothing to do with real estate, but some of it does and because your problem isn’t as unique as you might think, I chose your email to answer this week.
First of all, Mom is right. It is her house. It may be yours, too, but she owns as much of it as you do. So from an ownership perspective, she has every right to live there.
The bad news for you is you can’t evict Mom. The good news is she can’t evict you, either.
Your email didn’t say anything about your mom having an estate plan, other than putting you on title to the house. As a joint tenant, when Mom dies, you will own the entire house.
But if Mom had an estate plan, it might include a medical power of attorney which would give you the right, probably after going to court, to become your mom’s conservator. As her conservator, you could place her in a nursing home.
But that presumes your mom is no longer able to take care of herself. Throwing things and trying to lock you out doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t take care of herself. And now that I think about it, neither does threatening you with a butcher knife. For all I know you may not be all that likable since you’re considering evicting your own mother from her own house.
Anyway, assuming there is no power of attorney, if you really believe your mother’s best interest is served by a conservatorship, you can go to court to ask to be appointed as her conservator.
This process is technical, and you will need the help of an attorney who specializes in conservatorships.
If your mother fights the conservatorship, or your appointment, she will have her own attorney who will attempt to convince the court she is able to take care of herself, both physically and financially.
Ultimately, there will be a hearing. Both sides will put on doctors to testify as to your mother’s state of mind.
The court also has a number of investigators who will interview Mom, do a little research and make recommendations to the judge.
In the end, you will either be appointed conservator of your mom and her estate or you won’t.
If you win, your problem is all but solved. If not, you’re left with three possible choices.
You can live in the home and make the best of it. You can move out. Or you can sue Mom to partition the property.
Partition actions are real estate lawsuits between co-owners of property in which one owner wants to cash out. It’s a real estate divorce.
Ultimately the court will order the sale of the property and decide how the proceeds are split.
While this is a legal remedy available to any co-owners of real
estate, it seems pretty heartless in your case, considering Mom bought
and paid for the house and you only got on title in order to “take care
of my mom.”
Full Article & Source:
All Things Real Estate: You can’t evict your mother from house she bought and paid for
Deborah Royster is the Assistant Director for the Office for Older Americans, CFPB and Edwin Walker is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aging at the Administration for Community Living, HHS.
Today, the CFPB is releasing a new resource to help you identify and report illegal nursing home debt collection tactics. Whether you’re a long-term care ombudsman, care coordinator, elder law attorney, or other aging services provider, you can help caregivers:
There are 48 million family members and friends providing support to an adult in the United States. It’s important for caregivers to understand their rights, especially when it comes to helping a loved one gain admission to a nursing home. Some nursing homes and debt collectors are billing and suing caregivers for residents’ cost of care based on illegal admission contracts. Whether you’re a long-term care ombudsman, care coordinator, elder law attorney, or other aging services provider, you can play a part in protecting caregivers.
During
the nursing home admissions process, caregivers must decide whether to
sign admission contracts. These contracts may be lengthy and confusing,
and caregivers are likely unaware of the potential legal consequences of
what they are signing. Some nursing home admissions contracts say that a
caregiver, family member, or friend must pay the resident’s bill if the
resident can’t afford to. This is generally illegal (Click to Continue reading)
Full Article & Source:
You can help caregivers spot illegal nursing home debt collection tactics
