Separating families is traumatic and unless there are extenuating circumstances, such as abuse, should not be done.
Just as taking children from their parents is abusive, so is snatching the vulnerable elderly from their loving families.
Our country stands by idly allowing large-scale human rights abuses
by allowing court-appointed guardianships of vulnerable elderly people,
supposedly to protect them. Often these folks have advance directives,
powers of attorney and family trusts, which end up disregarded by the
courts. Many times those placed in guardianships have substantial
assets. After the guardianship is placed, no longer does the ward or
their family have any say in health care, personal or financial
decisions.
Frequently, property is sold off to pay guardianship fees and
attorneys’ fees. Nest eggs saved over a lifetime no longer remain for
heirs. Sometimes professionals exploit their position to ransack the
life savings of the elderly.
Even worse is the isolation that can occur when guardians use their
power to keep wards away from their families. This happens every day in
all 50 states.
While we won’t forget the horror of child separation, we also must
pay attention to family separation that can easily occur with an
unnecessary guardianship.
Madison, WI –With incidents of elder abuse on the
rise, Senator Patrick Testin (Stevens Point) and Representative John
Macco (Ledgeview) have reintroduced legislation to help victims get
justice. By allowing for expedited hearings and the ability to preserve
testimony through a video-taped court hearing, the bill aims to reduce
stress and improve the process for elderly victims and witnesses who are
involved in a court proceeding.
“The justice system must be able respond to the unique needs of an
elderly victim or witness,” said Testin. “This bill has broad
bi-partisan support, and I believe that the time is now to pass this
important reform.”
Both Senator Testin and Representative Macco were involved in
Attorney General Brad Schimel’s Task Force on Elder Abuse, which
originally developed the bill. Macco agreed with Testin that the bill
would have a positive impact.
“This bill is essential to protect our growing elderly population,”
said Rep. Macco. “With more baby boomers retiring each day, it is
critical that we take steps to protect them from harm and any
unnecessary delays in the court process.”
The bill will circulate in the legislature for co-sponsorship until October 5th.
LANSING - Today, the Department of Attorney General, in conjunction with the Elder Abuse Task Force (EATF) launched an updated webform for residents to report suspected incidents of elder abuse, patient abuse and exploitation.
“I created the Elder Abuse Task Force in 2019 to bring together
a comprehensive group of experts to ensure our elderly and vulnerable
populations are protected from abuse,” said Nessel. “Part of that work
is ensuring the tools we provide to the public, like this form, are
accessible, easy to complete, and up to date.”
The updated form includes sections to identify:
The person being abused or in need of assistance;
The person alleged to be responsible for the abuse;
If the abuse has been previously reported to other agencies; and
Details of the abuse.
The complaints are then investigated by the Department’s
Financial Crimes or Health Care Fraud Division, depending on the details
of the allegation.
The Financial Crimes Division Chief is Assistant Attorney General Scott Teter who is also the head of the EATF. The Health Care Fraud Division is led by Assistant Attorney General David Tanay and oversees the Department’s Sentinel Project.
The Sentinel Project was launched in 2021 and uses specially
trained staff to examine long-term care facilities for evidence of abuse
or neglect through unannounced visits, which will be determined by
performance metrics, complaints and other data.
“The Department of Attorney General is dedicated to detecting
and addressing any neglect or abuse of loved ones residing at home or in
long-term care facilities. Instances of substandard care must be
eliminated, and The Sentinel Project helps accomplish that goal,” Nessel
continued.
The Sentinel Project Team recently met with the Genesee County
Sheriff Chris Swanson and other county leaders to discuss how state and
county law enforcement agencies can work together to better train and
investigate allegations of elder abuse in long-term care facilities. The
Sentinel Project is launching a series of law enforcement trainings
across the state, beginning this Thursday, October 12th in Ingham
County.
Attorney General Nessel and the EATF are working with the
legislature on a series of bills that will help strengthen guardrails to
protect the elderly. The legislation, House Bills 4909-4912 and 5047,
will:
Require a judge to justify on the record why a family
member who is willing to serve as a guardian is not suitable. While the
law already provides that family members have priority, the modification
serves as an additional safeguard to ensure family members get due
consideration;
Require guardian and conservator certification and visitation frequency;
Set standards for the Guardian ad Litem report to the court;
Protect personal items of sentimental value from being discarded;
Establish a right to attorney throughout the proceedings;
Establish additional protections for individuals before removing them from their homes;
Improve the basic standard for medical testimony;
Create an Office of State Guardian to oversee and certify guardians, and more.
Michigan's Elder Abuse Task Force launched in 2019 and consists
of more than 55 different organizations and more than 100 individuals
in the public, private and nonprofit sections - all working together to
combat elder abuse.
Achievements include the adoption of a Vulnerable Adult Incident Report form for investigation by law enforcement across the state, including the implementation of related trainings. Additionally, the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act was
signed into law in 2021 to ensure mandated reporting for financial
institutions on suspected fraud or exploitation. Both were part of the
Task Force’s first set of initiatives.
It is estimated that more than 100,000 older adults in Michigan
are victims of elder abuse, and that less than half of all instances
are reported to authorities. Michigan residents seeking elder abuse
resources are encouraged to call 800-24-ABUSE (22873), or 855-444-3911
to report suspected elder abuse.
Barbara Collier escaped the Caldor Fire and was put into Brookdale Folsom Senior Living facility where her family alleges she faced physical abuse before dying.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows urges approval of a ballot
question that would eliminate “antiquated” language that is “not even
legally enforceable.”
Photo by Caitlin Andrews.
Nine words in the Maine constitution were found to be
unconstitutional 22 years ago, yet remain in the state’s guiding
document. Voters will decide in November if they should be removed.
Every Maine resident aged 18 and over who is also a U.S. citizen can
vote, “excepting persons under guardianship for reasons of mental
illness,” according to the state constitution.
Maine’s Secretary of State Office has not enforced the prohibition on
voting for more than 20 years, since a federal judge ruled that the
disenfranchisement of some people with mental illness violated federal
anti-discrimination laws and the U.S. Constitution.
“Right now in Maine everyone who is a citizen and a resident of our
state can, in fact, vote. No exceptions,” said Secretary of State Shenna
Bellows.
Maine and Vermont are the only states that do not restrict citizens’
rights to vote in some fashion, Bellows said. Some states prohibit
people in prison from voting, and others prohibit convicted felons from
voting.
Guardianship restricts a person’s ability to make their own
decisions. Probate judges decide in Maine whether adults incapacitated
by age, disability or mental illness can safely make their own decisions
or if they need a guardian to make choices about housing, medications
or finances on their behalf.
Question 8 on the ballot this November asks voters if they would like
to remove the phrase “excepting persons under guardianship for reasons
of mental illness” from the voting rights section of the state
constitution.
The constitutional amendment received bipartisan support from state lawmakers earlier this year. It will be decided by voters.
“Maine voters should vote ‘yes’ to this question to demonstrate that
we are a welcoming state that upholds the principle of the freedom to
vote for all,” Bellows said. “We should be very proud of that record of
extending the right to vote to every Maine citizen, and our constitution
language should reflect that pride.”
“My hope is that the voters will reject the antiquated language of
the past that is not even legally enforceable and finally align our
constitution with our principles and the law today,” she added.
The Maine constitution has been amended 175 times since it went into effect on March 15, 1820, according to state records.
Only men could vote under Maine’s early constitution. Later the state
constitution blocked paupers, people under guardianship and Native
Americans from voting, until 1954 when Native Americans were given the
right, leaving “paupers and persons under guardianship” exempted from
voting.
In 1965 lawmakers and voters changed the constitution again, this
time, “excepting persons under guardianship for reasons of mental
illness.”
Voters rejected
attempts in 1997 and 2000 to remove the same language from the
constitution. This November is the first time they will take up the
question since a federal judge said it was unconstitutional.
The question comes before voters amid increased scrutiny of
guardianships in Maine and the state’s antiquated probate court system,
which is run by part-time, elected judges.
Voters approved another constitutional amendment to overhaul the
probate courts 56 years ago, but lawmakers ignored the calls for
reform.
The question before voters this November is one small aspect of a
large system that includes some 1,200 adults under public guardianship
of the state Department of Health and Human Services, and thousands of
people under the guardianship of family members.
The exact number of adults in guardianships in Maine is unknown because several probate courts said they don’t track it, the Monitor reported.
‘It’s due time to change’
In a landmark decision, U.S. District Court Judge George Z. Singal
ruled in August 2001 the state could not restrict people under
guardianship for reasons of mental illness from registering to vote or
voting.
Disability Rights Center, now called Disability Rights Maine, brought the lawsuit “Doe v. Rowe” on behalf of three women who were under guardianship due to mental illness diagnoses and wanted to vote in the 2000 election.
The federal judge decided Maine’s restriction on people with mental
illness from voting was arbitrary and violated the American with
Disabilities Act, Rehabilitation Act and Fourteenth Amendment of the
Constitution.
“The state has disenfranchised a subset of mentally ill citizens
based on a stereotype rather than any actual relevant incapacity,”
Singal wrote.
Mark Joyce, a managing attorney with Disability Rights Maine,
represents individuals diagnosed with mental illness. There continues to
be a risk that people under guardianship will be disenfranchised
because of the plain language still in the state constitution.
“The problem that we’ve had is that the constitution reads this way
but the law is not that way,” Joyce said. “So there’s confusion when
people are reading the constitution.”
Disability Rights Maine perennially has to educate people about their
right to vote. Some Maine newspapers have continued to reference the
restriction in the constitution even after the state stopped enforcing
it, Joyce said.
“It’s due time to change it,” Joyce said.
While the prohibition isn’t enforced, the language in the
constitution is still viewed as discriminatory by families whose loved
ones are in guardianships.
Cheryl Ramsay gave birth to identical twin boys, Derek and Scott, a
minute apart by cesarean section on April 5, 1986. They grew up in
Topsham, and both were later diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Scott Ramsay, now 37, spent a year at the Riverview Psychiatric
Center in Augusta twice during his early 20s. During his second
admission, Cheryl Ramsay said it was recommended she apply to be Scott
Ramsay’s guardian through the Kennebec County Probate Court so she could
sign paperwork and approve medications on his behalf.
Cheryl Ramsay was granted full guardianship of Scott Ramsay in 2010.
The order left his voting rights intact, which Cheryl Ramsay said she is
grateful for even though Scott Ramsay has never expressed interest in
voting.
“There’s a presumption of incompetency just because guardianship is
in place, and I just don’t feel that should be the case,” Cheryl Ramsay
said. “There’s all kinds of different situations where a guardianship
may have been put in place. In terms of Scott, getting guardianship was
one of many difficult pieces of the journey that we’ve been on, and it
wasn’t anything that I took lightly.”
Voluminous
probate files are housed in the probate office in the Cumberland County
Courthouse in Portland, Maine. The court has approved at least 712
guardianships or conservatorships since September 2019. Photo by Fred J.
Field.
One in four Mainers were diagnosed and receiving treatment for a
mental health challenge prior to 2020, said Hannah Longley, a senior
clinical director with the state branch of the National Association of
Mental Illness.
“We have to be incredibly mindful that just because someone has a
mental health challenge or they’re experiencing a mental health crisis,
it does not negate their constitutional rights,” Longley said.
Longley said it is “horrific” that Maine has allowed discriminatory
language that restricts the voting rights of one group to remain in its
state constitution.
One voice of opposition is Matthew Gagnon, who is the chief executive
officer of the Maine Policy Institute, a free market policy think tank.
Writing a column
in the Bangor Daily News, Gagnon notes guardianship is too broad to be
used as a proxy to determine whether someone has the mental capacity to
vote. He would prefer a more narrowly tailored approach that defines
mental incapacity more precisely.
The November ballot question, he said, leaves voters with two bad options.
“If we vote yes, we remove a constitutional provision that seeks to
prevent those who can’t make rational decisions from voting. If we vote
no, we undoubtedly prohibit people who actually can reason through
decisions from exercising a right they should possess, and we leave a
provision on the books that has been ruled invalid in court,” he wrote
in the Bangor Daily News.
Voting rights still vulnerable
Although a federal court found it to be unconstitutional for Maine to
automatically take away the voting rights of all people under
guardianship for reasons of mental illness, the state still can have
laws restricting voting rights, said Joyce, the Disability Rights Maine
attorney.
“The state can make these laws that do impact fundamental rights, but
there is a very big body of law about restrictions about how they would
be able to do it,” Joyce said.
State law says adults under guardianship retain three rights: to vote, marry and have a lawyer.
But state law also allows probate judges to restrict voting rights of
an adult under guardianship as long as they explain their specific
reasons why they believe the adult cannot vote.
“A court order removing the right to vote must include a finding that
the adult cannot communicate, with or without support, a specific
desire to participate in the voting process,” according to Maine law.
Lyman Holmes was first elected the Washington County Probate Judge in
1989. He cannot recall in his 34 years purposefully restricting a
person’s right to vote.
Maine’s probate laws were heavily revised in 2019. It is possible
under the old laws that people lost their right to vote automatically
when Holmes approved a guardianship, he said.
“I thought the federal case has done away with that, but on an
individual basis I guess it gives us the right to deny a person a right
to vote,” Holmes said.
David Paris, who was elected the Sagadahoc County probate judge in
2020, said he also hasn’t taken away the right to vote during any
guardianship proceedings.
“I have never restricted any voting privileges in any guardianship
that has come before me as Probate Judge nor could I fathom any
circumstance that would be appropriate either,” Paris wrote in an email.
Judge David Paris, who runs the Sagadahoc County Probate Court without a permanent courtroom. Photo by Fred J. Field.
State Sen. Craig Hickman (D-Winthrop) led the effort to get Question 8
on the ballot this November. It has gained the support of more than
two-thirds of Democrat and Republican lawmakers in the state.
Voting is the way for people to participate and have a say in how
their government operates from the local to the federal level, Hickman
said. Voting also allows people to have a say in if their rights are
supported or infringed upon.
“Our vote is our voice,” Hickman said. “It’s the primary power that we have as individuals in a democratic society.”
Finding the political will
Maine’s constitution is a “unique” and “quirky” document, Hickman
said. He proposed the Legislature form a study commission to review the
entire constitution, but the bill didn’t gain enough support this year and did not pass.
Election Day will be the 56th anniversary
since Maine voters approved a constitutional amendment to repeal
registers of probate and part-time probate judges as elected officials
and to replace them with a system of full-time probate judges.
The constitutional amendment would not take effect until the
Legislature created a probate court system with full-time judges. State
lawmakers have completed numerous studies and proposed bills to
transition the probate courts to a system with full-time judges, but the
Legislature has not approved any of the proposals.
A Monitor investigation
this year uncovered that Maine’s 16 independent probate courts have too
few employees and insufficient budgets to consistently screen, train or
monitor the guardians that probate judges appoint. Most probate courts
do not know how many guardians they have approved or whether the people
under guardianship are still alive.
The probate courts do not employ full-time investigators
to check on adults after they’ve been placed under guardianship.
Probate judges instead depend on a once-a-year report to learn about the
care and well-being of incapacitated adults, sometimes with devastating
outcomes, as was the case of Norman Fisher, who died in 2019, the Monitor reported.
Probate Judges also infrequently opt for a less restrictive alternative to guardianship, known as “supported decision-making,” which judges are required to rule out before appointing a guardian.
In the past three years, eight individuals under public guardianship of the state have died in unexplained ways, the Monitor reported in September.
Lawmakers including Hickman, who is chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, are now demanding answers
from the state Department of Health and Human Services after it failed
to report these kinds of deaths to legislators for more than 25 years.
“At some point the Legislature is going to have to find the political
will to do something that establishes a probate court system that hires
full-time judges, because that’s what the constitution has told the
Legislature to do,” Hickman said.
This
story is part of an ongoing series by The Maine Monitor about the county
probate court system.
AUBURN, Ala. (WRBL) — An Auburn man was arrested on a
felony warrant charging him with first-degree financial exploitation of
the elderly, according to the Auburn Police Department.
On Sunday, Oct. 1, Auburn police received a report of a fraudulent sale in the 400 block of Webster Road.
According to police, the suspect sold the victim’s property
without their knowledge. Authorities say the sale proceeds were not
given to the victim.
Danny Reese, 58, was later developed as a suspect and arrested on Wednesday.
Reese is currently being held on a $7,500 bond at the Lee County Jail.
Lou Ferrigno seeks sole control of the family trust due to his wife Carla's advanced dementia
Lou accuses his daughter Shanna and Carla's sister of elder abuse and financial exploitation
An
ongoing family dispute involving 'Hulk' star Lou Ferrigno, his wife
Carla Ferrigno, and their daughter Shanna Ferrigno has taken a
disturbing turn, with allegations of elder abuse and financial
manipulation.
Legal documents obtained
by The Blast reveal that Lou Ferrigno is seeking to become the sole
trustee of the family trust. He asserts that his wife, Carla Ferrigno,
who has been married to him for 43 years, is currently suffering from "advanced dementia"
and requires round-the-clock care. As a result of her condition, Lou
believes it is necessary for him to assume control of their finances.
Carla's deteriorating health, as
stated in a letter from her doctor dated September 1, 2023, prompted Lou
to file for this action. The court filing highlights the necessity of
confirming the trust's directive that Lou Ferrigno should be the sole
trustee, ensuring the welfare of his wife, who is battling
dementia-Alzheimer's disease.
Elder abuse allegations and financial exploitation
The situation
escalates with Lou Ferrigno accusing his own daughter, Shanna Ferrigno,
and Carla's sister, Pam Vog, of elder abuse and financial exploitation.
According to the legal documents, Lou claims that Carla was manipulated
into attempting to withdraw $500,000 from their accounts, even though
her medical condition renders her incapable of managing her affairs, as
reported by BLAST.
The situation
became even more distressing when Carla's daughter and her sister drove
her to a bank to withdraw the money. Lou intervened, temporarily halting
the transaction, but he now seeks court relief to prevent Shanna and
Pam from potentially accessing and misappropriating these funds, which
would harm Carla's well-being.
The
documents paint a grim picture of the family dynamics, with Lou
asserting that Shanna has been poisoning Carla's mind with negative
sentiments about him, leading to hostile behavior
from Carla. He alleges that Shanna has interfered with Carla's care,
including influencing doctors and caretakers without Lou's consent.
A legal battle looms
As
the family feud intensifies, Lou Ferrigno is pursuing a court order to
prohibit any bank from distributing funds to Carla or her family without
his authorization, aiming to protect Carla's financial interests and
well-being. The allegations of elder abuse, financial manipulation, and
family discord have placed this case under legal scrutiny.
The outcome of this dispute, which involves a beloved Hollywood
figure and his family, is now in the hands of the court, as they work
to determine the best course of action for Carla Ferrigno and her
finances during this challenging period.
EDWARDSVILLE — A Venice woman was charged Thursday with multiple felony
counts relating to the financial exploitation of an elderly man.
The case was one of a number of theft-related felony charges filed by the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Markeisha
A. Hill, 35, of the 1000 block of Blom Place, Venice, was charged Oct. 5
with two counts of unlawful financial exploitation of an elderly person
and theft of property over $5,000 by deception from an elderly person,
all Class 2 felonies; and wire fraud, a Class 3 felony.
The case was presented by the Edwardsville Police Department.
According to court documents, between Jan. 1-June 30,
Hill gained the trust of an elderly man and took in excess of $5,000
from him; and made substantial online purchases.
