American Idol Finalist LaKisha Jones Could be Jailed for not Paying Flint Father's Bills

"American Idol" finalist and Flint native LaKisha Jones could face jail time for failing to pay her father's nursing home bills after she was named his legal guardian, a judge ruled.

Jones, a Flint native, was found guilty by Judge Jennie Barkey on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 at Genesee County Courthouse of civil contempt of court for failing to pay her father's nursing home bills.

Genesee Probate Judge Jennie Barkey found Jones guilty of civil contempt of court Feb. 25, after the court was alerted that Jones' father was involuntarily transferred out of a nursing home for failure to pay and was behind in payments at his current nursing home.

Barkey told Jones that she has 60 days to catch up on the missing payments or she could be sentenced to time in the Genesee County Jail.

"I didn't steal my dad's money," Jones told the judge before the ruling.

Flint attorney Christopher J. Ebbott, who represented Jones, declined to comment on Barkey's ruling.
Jones, 34, was granted full guardianship of her now-68-year-old father Aug. 7, 2012, after he was released from Hurley Medical Center in June 2012 following a stroke, according to court records.

Barkey's ruling also removed Jones as her father's legal guardian.

The guardianship required Jones to pay the monthly bills for her father's care at a Flint skilled nursing facility after doctors told the court her father was unable to reasonably understand his condition.

However, a court-appointed advocate for her father reported to the court in July 2013 that Jones' father was involuntarily discharged from the facility after Jones failed to pay nearly $6,500 for her father's care.

He was placed at a new facility in April 2013, where again Jones fell behind in making payments for her father, according to court records. A billing representative from the facility testified Tuesday that Jones still owed more than $1,600 to the facility despite making a $2,000 payment less than two weeks before Tuesday's hearing.

Jones, who now lives in Texas, was responsible for paying $987 per month for her father's nursing home care at the most-recent facility. Her father receives $1,047 monthly in Social Security benefits.
Barkey asked Jones where her father's Social Security payments were going if they weren't being used to pay for the nursing care.

"I was paying his apartment and other things as well," Jones told the judge.

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American Idol Finalist LaKisha Jones Could be Jailed for not Paying Flint Father's Bills

"The Legal Handbook for Tennessee Seniors"

The Tennessee Bar Association released "The Legal Handbook for Tennessee Seniors."

It is a new resource designed to help Tennesseans better understand federal and state benefits, new health care laws, and a wide range of other issues of importance to older citizens.

"As difficult as it is to fathom, an average of 7,000 Americans are becoming senior citizens each day," said TBA President Cindy Wyrick. "This trend is expected to continue for years, so it is important that we do something meaningful to assist this rapidly growing, but typically 'undeserved', segment of the population."

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New Legal Handbook Helps Tennessee Seniors Understand Benefit Programs

CLICK HERE to download handbook

78-Year-Old Man Wakes Up in Body Bag at Miss. Funeral Home

Workers at a Mississippi funeral home say they found a man alive and kicking when they opened a body bag.

Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard calls it a miracle that 78-year-old Walter Williams is alive.

The coroner was called to Williams' home in Lexington, a community north of Jackson, where family members believed he had died.

Howard says Williams had no pulse and was pronounced dead Wednesday at 9 p.m.

Early Thursday, workers at Porter and Sons Funeral Home were preparing to embalm Williams when he started to kick in the body bag.

Family members were called and Williams was taken to a hospital. Howard says he believes Williams' pacemaker stopped working, then started again.

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Man Wakes Up in Body Bag at Miss. Funeral Home

Elderly Texas Man Sent to Nursing Home Pushes to Leave

An 85-year-old North Texas man said he couldn't get out of a local hospital on Wednesday. Instead of going home, he ended up in a nursing home.

Charlie Fink called FOX 4 for help Wednesday after he went into Richardson Methodist Hospital on Friday for hernia surgery and wasn't released.

Thursday, Fink was in an Arlington nursing home.

"I tried to get out of Methodist and they locked the door," said Fink. "They wouldn't even let me out."
While Fink was in the hospital, he was placed in the psychiatric unit, and the state was in court asking a Dallas County probate judge to find Fink unable to take care of himself.

In an email, the state wrote, "APS was in court yesterday concerning the well-being of Mr. Fink. APS presented the information obtained by field staff to the court. Mr. Fink did have representation present at the hearing. An Emergency Order of Protection was presented in court. A judge did make a ruling on information presented. Due to confidentiality and to protect our client, that is all the information I can release."

Fink's attorney said the state presented an anonymous referral, a doctor's affidavit to his health, concerns about his protecting himself and said that Fink had threatened case workers.

Fink's wife, Edith, was removed from their home by APS earlier this month.

Now the two, married 57 years, are together again – though, not in the place Fink wants to be because state law allows for the elderly to be removed from their home to protect them from themselves and others.

"I just don't think they should have a law like that," said Fink. "I don't know who initiated this law. I don't know how old it is, but it should not be allowed to be."    

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Elderly Man Sent to Nursing Home Pushes to Leave

Florida Advocates Say Senate Nursing Home Bill Benefits Industry and Trial Lawyers, Not Patients

A Senate committee Tuesday gave swift approval to a bill that is being criticized by elder-care advocates as a “sweetheart deal” designed to help nursing homes and trial lawyers make money but do little to improve the quality of care for the homes’ residents.

The Senate Health Policy Committee voted 8-1 for a bill that would shield nursing home investors from lawsuits when their homes are accused of abuse and neglect. In exchange, it would give trial lawyers easier access to documents. Other Senate committees must still review the legislation, but it has strong support among House and Senate leaders

“This benefits elders as well as their loved ones,” said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, who is sponsoring the bill. He said shielding nursing homes from lawsuits provides them with “extra economic protection so they can stay in business,” which is good for residents.
    
But Brian Lee, executive director of the Florida Family Care Association, who was the state’s elder-care ombudsman for eight years, said the bill was less about protecting elders and more about protecting profits.

“Does keeping the industry viable mean protecting the people who cut back staff levels, who demand that their residents curb food costs and say they can only have one diaper per resident every eight hours?” he said. “That’s ridiculous.”

The measure ends years of feuding between the Florida Health Care Association — which represents nursing homes — and the Florida Justice Association, which represents trial lawyers. Both are major campaign contributors in Tallahassee. The bill also has the support of AARP and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

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Advocates Say Senate Nursing Home Bill Benefits Industry and Trial Lawyers - not Patients

Iowa Senate Approves Bill to Strengthen Power of Attorney for Seniors

The Iowa Senate on Monday approved a bill designed to strengthen the state's power of attorney laws, changes that AARP Iowa said would help combat the increasing problem of financial abuse of seniors. Senate File 2168, passed on a unanimous 49-0 vote, contains provisions that allow protections for current as well as new power of attorney relationships executed after July 1, 2014, and would ensure that standardized power of attorney forms cannot be denied. Multiple national studies find that financial exploitation of seniors is the most common type of elder abuse, estimating that one-sixth of adults over age 64 have been victims of elder financial abuse, according to AARP Iowa. The organization is urging the Iowa House to approve similar provisions in its version of the legislation.

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Senate Approves Bill to Strengthen Power of Attorney for Seniors

Alaska Family Living In ‘Nightmare’ After Son Declared Ward of State Following Hospital Visit

An Alaska family says they are living in a “nightmare” after their son’s visit to an Anchorage hospital morphed into a custody battle that stripped them of their right to visit their child. In an extensive interview with TheBlaze Wednesday, Lorraine and her husband Glenn told their heartfelt story.

Last year, they said, at 26 years old, Bret was an athletic, healthy field guide for hunters. His only medical issue was the development of some nasal polyps — overgrowths in the nose — last fall.

After they were surgically removed, the growths came back and Bret was prescribed Prednisone, an anti-inflammatory
medication.That’s when his trouble started.

While on the drug, Bret soon became unable to sleep. In October, his parents took their son to Providence Medical Center for severe insomnia. Doctors there prescribed drugs and sent him home. Things soon got worse. Bret’s health deteriorated rapidly and, after a seizure, his family decided to take him back to the hospital.

In the hospital, Bret was unable to sleep for some 24 days and his mental faculties were significantly diminished.

His parents said that at this point, they assumed power of attorney over him, using a written agreement allowing them to make medical decisions for him.

That agreement was initially drawn up in 2007, when Bret was a healthy 20-year-old.

More than 35 lab tests were conducted to diagnose Bret, but all came back clean. Meanwhile, his family said, doctors were medicating him with dozens of drugs, rendering him in a state of “delirium.”

At one point, they said, Bret became so frustrated that he attempted to leave the hospital on his own, but was talked down by his parents. That’s when his family, who contend the hospital’s course of treatment made their son worse, asked for a second opinion or different course of medical action.

They say they were denied and were not permitted to withdraw their son from the hospital.

Eventually, a custody battle broke out. A judge ultimately ruled in favor of the state.

Now, the 27-year-old is a ward of the state and has been diagnosed with a metal-disorder, which has resulted in doctors heavily medicating him with various drugs, his family told TheBlaze. “The state of Alaska owns him basically,” Lorraine Bohn said.

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Alaska Family Living In ‘Nightmare’ After Son Declared Ward of State Following Hospital Visit

A National Outrage: Father of 15-Year-Old at Center of Boston Children's Controversy Says, 'We're Fighting Evil"

Lou Pelletier says his family is a “wreck” after a judge ruled Monday that his daughter, 15-year-old Justina Pelletier, will be placed into foster care for the time being.

“We’re fighting corruption. We’re fighting evil,” he told TheBlaze’s Lis Klimas, adding that the case is a “national outrage.”

Lou and his family have been engaged in a legal battle for over a year in an attempt to regain custody of Justina. It began when physicians at Boston Children’s Hospital concluded that Justina has somataform disorder, a physiological condition, not mitochondrial disease. After Lou and his wife, Linda, objected, citing Justina’s diagnosis and extensive treatment for mitochondrial disease by doctors at Tufts Medical Center, the Department of Children and Families was brought in and they lost custody of their daughter.

Mat Staver, the founder and Chairman of the Liberty Counsel, told Beck that in his 27 years of practicing law, he has “never seen anything like this.”

First, he said, he’s never seen a case where a family following the expert medical advice of one group of physicians over another can lose their daughter for 13 months. He’s also never seen anything like the gag order placed on the family. And he’s never seen a situation where the media and additional legal counsel have been so thoroughly blocked from the case.

Essentially, he said, the state wants to keep the case “quiet” and “kick the can down the road,” so to speak.

Full Article and Source:
A National Outrage:  Father of 15-Year Old at Center of Boston Children's Controversy Says, 'We're Fighting Evil."

See Also:
Justina Goes to Foster Care, Her Mom is Rushed to Hospital - Pelletiers Still Denied Custody

Judicial Watchdog Seeks Discipline of Mississippi Judge Joe Dale Walker

The Mississippi Supreme Court has suspended Chancery Judge Joe Dale Walker with pay while waits to hear the results of an inquiry by the Commission on Judicial Performance Commission.
Walker sits on the bench in Jefferson Davis, Lawrence, Simpson and Smith counties.

The Commission on Judicial Performance had sought interim suspension with pay for Walker while its investigation continues into alleged inappropriate actions regarding a conservatorship in Walker's court.

Walker is represented by State Rep. Bob Evans, who is an attorney in Monticello. Evans had asked for the proceedings to be delayed until after Legislature adjourns in April.

The Supreme Court said Thursday that issue was moot because of its interim suspension order.

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Judicial Watchdog Seeks Judge's Discipline