Jul. 23—PETOSKEY — A Harbor Springs man
defrauded in 2020 by a court-appointed conservator — who spent $14,000
on lingerie, electronic cigarettes and cash withdrawals — has lost faith
in a system he says missed opportunities to get his money back.
"She
outsmarted the court and she's still doing it," said George Pappas, 97,
a widower and World War II veteran. "I try to support the courts, but
they have done nothing for me."
Pappas in the fall of 2020
approached the Veterans Administration about getting temporary help to
get his car fixed, make dental appointments, and organize his finances,
after his wife, Geneva Pappas, died a few months prior.
An Emmet
County Probate Court judge appointed Elise Page, 42, as his conservator.
At that time, Pappas said, he wasn't sure what a conservator was — or
what authority that person would have over his money.
"I know what they are now," he said. "I know they can do whatever they want and nobody's watching 'em do it."
Michigan's
Estate and Protected Individuals Code provides for conservators to be
appointed when a court determines a person can no longer handle their
own finances; a guardian is similarly appointed to make medical and
housing decisions.
These judicial decisions are meant to protect a
person's money, health, home, or all three, and many guardians and
conservators — who can be family members or professionals — serve
without ever running afoul of the law.
But when things go awry, as
they did in Pappas' case, victims have little recourse and a criminal
prosecution is no guarantee they'll be made whole.
Record-Eagle
reporters in August 2021 first began examining records in a dozen
Michigan probate courts. They found a steady stream of worrisome stories
ranging from family isolation to outright theft.
In Pappas' case,
for example, records show Page told a police investigator on Dec. 14,
2020, that she had enough money in her personal checking account to pay
Pappas back.
"In that statement she wrote all charges to Pappas'
account were hers and she was going to provide two cashiers checks to
cover the amounts," Harbor Springs Police Chief Kyle Knight wrote in a
report.
That never happened.
Instead, Page stopped
responding to calls and texts from police and was charged by an Emmet
County prosecutor with felony embezzlement, embezzling from a vulnerable
adult and using a computer to commit a crime.
On July 26, 2021,
she pleaded guilty to a single count of embezzlement, served five months
in jail, sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to pay full
restitution to Pappas, plus court fees and costs.
Court records
and email correspondence show that, since then, Page has paid $300 in
court costs, a $130 crime-victim-rights fee, and is expected to pay the
$60 DNA specimen fee and the $68 in state minimum costs, prior to her
scheduled release from probation later this month.
The $2,500
Pappas was received from the Victim Rights Fund, however, and $13,400 of
the $14,300 restitution she still owes him, remains unpaid, court
records show.
Adding to Pappas' frustration, he said, is something
else he's since learned about Michigan laws surrounding probate court
procedure — judges have discretion over whether to require the
conservators they appoint to be bonded.
A surety bond ensures a
protected individual will receive compensation for financial harm if the
conservator steals their money or defrauds them out of valuables or
property.
When Judge Valerie Snyder appointed Page to be Pappas'
conservator, records show she hand-wrote a note on the petition: "Bond
will be considered after inventory is filed."
Conservators have 56 days to file an "inventory," which is essentially an accounting of a person's estate.
Bank
records show it took Page just 39 days to spend $13,915.47 of Pappas'
money — it was gone before any inventory was ever filed or required.
"I've
talked with the court, I've emailed the prosecutor's office, I've sent a
package of information about George to the attorney general's office
and I've called politicians," said Matthew Bush, the service coordinator
at The Village of Hillside, a low-income senior apartment where Pappas
lives.
"No one seems to know how to hold these people accountable."
Pappas
and Bush, an ally, have reached out to a variety of officials for help —
including an assistant prosecutor with the Emmet County Prosecutor's
office.
An email response shows they were told their best bet would be to hire a civil attorney who could garnish Page's wages.
"I
know this isn't a great answer for Mr. Pappas, but the courts are
prohibited from putting people in jail simply due to unpaid money and
the probation department intends to end her probation, at which time the
criminal case will be completely concluded," Mike Schuitema, an
assistant county prosecutor, said in a July 7 email to Bush.
"The
only avenues left will be through private attorneys putting garnishments
on her wages or liens on her property," Schuitema said.
Neither
state Attorney General Dana Nessel, who launched an Elder Abuse Task
Force in 2019, nor the state Legislature, where bills on reforming
portions of the conservatorship and guardianship system languish in
committee, have provided a solution.
Staff attorneys with Nessel's
office have actively prosecuted dozens of embezzlement cases where the
victim is elderly and the accused theft large.
For example, Lisa
Lundy, 52, of Macomb, was charged last year with more than a dozen
felonies, one of which was conducting a criminal enterprise, in the
theft of money from vulnerable adults her company, Community Guardian
Care, was appointed to serve.
On July 10, Constance Marie Roberts,
66, of Flint, was charged with four counts of embezzlement of $100,000
or more from a vulnerable adult, and four counts of failing to file
taxes. Roberts is accused of taking large sums of money and multiple
vehicles from her husband after he began showing signs of cognitive
decline.
And on June 7, David P. Sutherland, a Wayne County
attorney, was bound over for trial on accusations he embezzled millions
from the trust accounts of two elderly clients who had designated some
of their funds for charity.
But it remains unclear how much, if any, of these funds will be recovered for the victims or their families.
And
proposed legislation targeting reform in how conservators and guardians
are appointed and monitored so far does not address how to enforce
those collections.
Pappas said it has not been easy publicly
sharing the details of his finances and his court struggles, but he did
so in an effort to spare others from what he has experienced.
"I go to bed at night, and I can't clear my mind," Pappas said. "I've lost hope in the system."
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