Steve Miller: 'Jared Shafer's Law' May Be About to Lose Its Teeth

A current Nevada law inspired by Jared E. Shafer prohibits out of state relatives from looking after the person or fortune of their loved ones living in Nevada in the event a Clark County Family Court judge or appointed Guardianship Commissioner determines that the disabled or elderly person is incompetent to handle his or her own affairs.

Charles Hoskin

This law has allowed elected Family Court judges such as Charles Hoskin or his appointed Guardianship Commissioner Jon Norheim to time and a gain usurp the wishes or family trust of wealthy Nevada seniors or disabled persons and appoint a select private for-hire guardian to take full power of attorney over the "ward's" person and estate in total opposition to the ward's wishes or the desires of family members.

Even in the event the ward has family living in Nevada, numerous court records indicate that Hoskin or Norheim found these relatives unsuitable, agreeing consistently with local for-hire guardians who call the family members "exploiters," or "unfit."

In all cases studied, the private guardians bilked the ward's estate of most of its worth prior to and after the ward's death leaving no inheritance for grieving family members. Its not yet known whether Hoskin or Norheim shared in the bounty.

Jon Norheim

 Families of those affected have joined together and are asking the Nevada Legislature to amend Shafer's Law  S.B. 262 excerpts below) to allow out of state relatives to become the fiduciary of the assets of their Nevada family members when they are no longer capable of caring for their own finances.

This effectively takes the teeth out of Shafer's Law that allowed Family Court judges and commissioners to override wills and trusts to assign their friends full power of attorney over the assets of Nevada residents who the court deemed incompetent. (It is not a requirement that qualified medical professionals make this determination.)
~Steve Miller

S.B. 262

SENATE BILL NO. 262–SENATORS HARRIS, FARLEY, DENIS; GOICOECHEA, GUSTAVSON, LIPPARELLI, MANENDO, SEGERBLOM AND SETTELMEYER

MARCH 13, 2015
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JOINT SPONSORS: ASSEMBLYMEN STEWART, NELSON, SILBERKRAUS; AND WOODBURY
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Referred to Committee on Judiciary
SUMMARY—Revises provisions relating to guardians. 

Legislative Counsel’s Digest:
Existing law provides for the appointment, qualifications and duties of guardians for certain minor and adult wards. (Chapter 159 of NRS) Existing law prohibits a nonresident of Nevada from being appointed as a guardian for a minor or adult ward unless the person has associated a co guardian who is a resident of Nevada or a banking corporation whose principal place of business is in Nevada. (NRS 159.059) Existing law also gives preference to certain persons to be appointed as a guardian for a minor ward but does not give preference to any persons to be appointed as a guardian for an adult ward. (NRS 159.061)

Sections 1 and 2 of this bill allow the court to appoint a nonresident as a guardian for an adult ward under certain circumstances. Section 1 also requires the court to give preference in appointing a guardian for an adult ward to the following persons in the following order, whether or not the person is a nonresident: (1) a nominated person, who is a person the adult ward specifically nominated or requested as a guardian in a will, trust or other written document executed by the adult ward while competent; or (2) a relative. If two or more nominated persons are qualified and suitable to be appointed as a guardian, section 1 generally requires the court to give preference to the nominated person named in a will, trust or other written document that is part of the adult’s established estate plan, but there are certain exceptions for extraordinary circumstances.

READ the full Senate bill SB262

Going Home: Linda Kaye Bous

Thanks to the sunshine of the Sarasota-Herald Tribune, Linda Bous was freed from guardianship and got to go home - unsure what she find when she got there, but knowing she wouldn't find her beloved pets, which were taken from her when she became a ward of the State of Florida:

Source:
Going Home:  Linda Kaye Bous"

See Also:
Woman in Guardianship Series "The Kindness of Strangers - Inside Florida's Guardianship Program" - is Freed!

Retired Arizona Judge Reveals Corruption in Legal System

Health Impact News Editor Comments

Justice John F. Molloy was an attorney in Arizona who went on to serve as a judge on the Arizona Superior Court bench. He is probably best known for his time serving as Chief Justice to Court of Appeals for the State of Arizona, where he authored the famous Miranda decision that was subsequently appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and overturned, resulting in what is known today as the “Miranda Rights” which law enforcement now quotes to suspected criminals upon arrest.

Judge Molloy wrote a book that was published in 2004 a few years before he died in 2008. He was apparently suffering from cancer at the time, and perhaps knew his remaining time on earth was short. The title of the book is: The Fraternity: Lawyers and Judges in Collusion, published by Paragon House.

An excerpt from the book has been published and copied in many places on the Internet today, reprinted in accordance with the “fair use” provision of Title 17 U.S.C. § 107. It is an amazing expose on just how corrupt the American Judicial System is today, and it perhaps gives us a better understanding on how so many judges in family or juvenile courts across the United States are able to successfully remove children from the custody of their parents in medical kidnapping cases.

Photo courtesy of Paragon House

“THE FRATERNITY “- THE CORRUPTION OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM EXPOSED BY A JUDGE

Pennsylvania Court Watch

“The once honorable profession of law now fully functions as a bottom-line business, driven by greed and the pursuit of power and wealth, even shaping the laws of the United States outside the elected Congress and state legislatures.”

Justice John F. Molloy

When I began practicing law in 1946, justice was much simpler. I joined a small Tucson practice at a salary of $250 a month, excellent compensation for a beginning lawyer. There was no paralegal staff or expensive artwork on the walls. In those days, the judicial system was straightforward and efficient. Decisions were handed down by judges who applied the law as outlined by the Constitution and state legislatures. Cases went to trial in a month or two, not years. In the courtroom, the focus was on uncovering and determining truth and fact.

I charged clients by what I was able to accomplish for them. The clock did not start ticking the minute they walked through the door.

Looking back

The legal profession has evolved dramatically during my 87 years. I am a second-generation lawyer from an Irish immigrant family that settled in Yuma. My father, who passed the Bar with a fifth-grade education, ended up arguing a case before the U.S. Supreme Court during his career.

The law changed dramatically during my years in the profession. For example, when I accepted my first appointment as a Pima County judge in 1957, I saw that lawyers expected me to act more as a referee than a judge. The county court I presided over resembled a gladiator arena, with dueling lawyers jockeying for points and one-upping each other with calculated and ingenuous briefs
That was just the beginning. By the time I ended my 50-year career as a trial attorney, judge and president of southern Arizona’s largest law firm, I no longer had confidence in the legal fraternity I had participated in and, yes, profited from.

I was the ultimate insider, but as I looked back, I felt I had to write a book about serious issues in the legal profession and the implications for clients and society as a whole. The Fraternity: Lawyers and Judges in Collusion was 10 years in the making and has become my call to action for legal reform.

Disturbing evolution

Our Constitution intended that only elected lawmakers be permitted to create law. Yet judges create their own law in the judicial system based on their own opinions and rulings. It’s called case law, and it is churned out daily through the rulings of judges. When a judge hands down a ruling and that ruling survives appeal with the next tier of judges, it then becomes case law, or legal precedent. This now happens so consistently that we’ve become more subject to the case rulings of judges rather than to laws made by the lawmaking bodies outlined in our Constitution.

This case-law system is a constitutional nightmare because it continuously modifies constitutional intent. For lawyers, however, it creates endless business opportunities. That’s because case law is technically complicated and requires a lawyer’s expertise to guide and move you through the system. The judicial system may begin with enacted laws, but the variations that result from a judge’s application of case law all too often change the ultimate meaning.

Lawyer domination

When a lawyer puts on a robe and takes the bench, he or she is called a judge. But in reality, when judges look down from the bench they are lawyers looking upon fellow members of their fraternity. In any other area of the free-enterprise system, this would be seen as a conflict of interest.

When a lawyer takes an oath as a judge, it merely enhances the ruling class of lawyers and judges. First of all, in Maricopa and Pima counties, judges are not elected but nominated by committees of lawyers, along with concerned citizens. How can they be expected not to be beholden to those who elevated them to the bench?

When they leave the bench, many return to large and successful law firms that leverage their names and relationships.

Business of law

The concept of “time” has been converted into enormous revenue for lawyers. The profession has adopted elaborate systems where clients are billed for a lawyer’s time in six-minute increments. The paralegal profession is another brainchild of the fraternity, created as an additional tracking and revenue center. High powered firms have departmentalized their services into separate profit centers for probate and trusts, trial, commercial, and so forth.

The once-honorable profession of law now fully functions as a bottom-line business, driven by greed and the pursuit of power and wealth, even shaping the laws of the United States outside the elected Congress and state legislatures.

Bureaucratic design

Today the skill and gamesmanship of lawyers, not the truth, often determine the outcome of a case. And we lawyers love it. All the tools are there to obscure and confound. The system’s process of discovery and the exclusionary rule often work to keep vital information off-limits to jurors and make cases so convoluted and complex that only lawyers and judges understand them.

The net effect has been to increase our need for lawyers, create more work for them, clog the courts and ensure that most cases never go to trial and are, instead, plea-bargained and compromised. All the while the clock is ticking, and the monster is being fed.

The sullying of American law has resulted in a fountain of money for law professionals while the common people, who are increasingly affected by lawyer-driven changes and an expensive, self-serving bureaucracy, are left confused and ill-served. Today, it is estimated that 70 percent of low-to-middle-income citizens can no longer afford the cost of justice in America. What would our Founding Fathers think?

This devolution of lawmaking by the judiciary has been subtle, taking place incrementally over decades. But today, it’s engrained in our legal system, and few even question it. But the result is clear. Individuals can no longer participate in the legal system.

It has become too complex and too expensive, all the while feeding our dependency on lawyers. By complicating the law, lawyers have achieved the ultimate job security. Gone are the days when American courts functioned to serve justice simply and swiftly. It is estimated that 95 million legal actions now pass through the courts annually, and the time and expense for a plaintiff or defendant in our legal system can be absolutely overwhelming.

Surely it’s time to question what has happened to our justice system and to wonder if it is possible to return to a system that truly does protect us from wrongs.

A lawyer from Tuscon, Arizona, John Fitzgerald Molloy (b. 1917) was elected to the Superior Court bench where he served for seven years as both a juvenile court and trial bench judge. He subsequently was elected to the Court of Appeals where he authored over 300 appellate opinions, including the final Miranda decision for the Arizona Supreme Court. During that period, he also served as president of the Arizona Judge’s Association. After 12 years, Molloy returned to private practice to become president of the largest law firm in southern Arizona. His book has received widespread praise for its candor and disquieting truths.

Full Article & Source:
Retired Arizona Judge Reveals Corruption in Legal System

Florida Bill, SB1226, Seeks to Stop "Cockroaches" From Preying on the Elderly

A Senate panel on Thursday unanimously approved a bill aimed at protecting Florida seniors from predatory “professional guardians,” described by one lawmaker as “cockroaches.”

The bill (SB 1226), filed by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, would expand the Statewide Public Guardianship Office at the Department of Elder Affairs, with an eye to tightening oversight of people who assume control of a senior citizens’ finances.

A recent series by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune found that while Florida has an efficient system of identifying and caring for fragile elders, “tapping their assets is a growth business.” In 2003, there were 23 registered professional guardians on Florida. Today, the number has grown to more than 440.

“Those little cracks in the law are allowing cockroaches to crawl through and take advantage of people who are elderly,” Detert told the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee. “Let’s face it. The elderly are today’s invisible people, who are not given much credence when they complain.”

The bill would charge the Department of Elder Affairs with certifying, overseeing and —- if necessary — investigating and disciplining professional guardians who abuse their trust. It would also create a registry of professional guardians in each judicial circuit.

Currently, Detert said, the Department of Elder Affairs is responsible for public guardians, who are assigned to indigent seniors, but there is little to stop unscrupulous “professional guardians” from charging exorbitant rates for services they provide and running through their wards’ assets.

“When you are turning somebody’s entire life over to a guardian, they have access to every asset that you have, and your own family is blocked from participating,” Detert said.

Ernestine Franks

Douglas Franks, who spoke in favor of the measure, said his mother, Ernestine, is a case in point.

Now 93, Ernestine Franks has lived in Pensacola all her life. She and her late husband, Charles, both worked at the Pensacola Naval Air Station and saved their money. Douglas said he and his two brothers agreed to a guardian for Ernestine in 2011 because they lived out of town and her health was becoming more of a concern.

However, he told the committee, the guardianship has cost his mother $1,000 per day since June 2012.

“It is over $1 million that my mom has spent,” Franks said. “We’re trying to bring awareness so people know what’s going on and how this is a lucrative cottage industry.”

Detert said the courts are so overwhelmed with foreclosures and other backlogged cases that they aren’t able to investigate guardianship expenditures that are unreasonably large.

Her proposal comes as several other lawmakers also are offering measures aimed at curbing abusive guardianships.

On Tuesday, for instance, a bill by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Diaz de la Portilla chairs. The measure (SB 318) would require a hearing to be held before the appointment of an emergency temporary guardian.

Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, and Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, meanwhile, are sponsoring measures (SB 366/HB 5) that would require the reporting of incidents of abuse, neglect and exploitation of a ward by a guardian.

Detert said the Department of Elder Affairs estimates the cost of her proposal at $3 million for 40 full-time employees, which she thought was a little high.

Full Article and Source:
Florida Bill Seeks to Stop Cockroaches From Preying on Seniors

See Also:
NASGA:  Ernestine Franks, Florida Victim

Elder care lawyer warns seniors of rising financial scams

Baby Boomers are getting older and, unfortunately, are targets of financial scams, said attorney Martin Fogarty, a specialist in elder law and estate planning.

"Senior financial abuse is on the rise and entering the public consciousness," said Fogarty, of Heartland Law Firm in Glenview. "About 20 or 30 years ago it was spousal abuse. The same is happening now with financial scams of the elderly."

Fogarty recently spoke at Vi at The Glen, a retirement community in Glenview.

The free presentation to residents and employees provided tools for avoiding, identifying and responding to financial abuse of senior citizens.

Social workers and nurses at Vi were eligible to receive certified education units for attending the discussion.

Fogarty said "the family trust factor" often enters the scams, meaning people close to an elder instigate the swindle.

"It's the ultimate trust factor with a family member," he said. "An elderly person's shield is down, but then a son or nephew is influencing and defrauding them."

The average loss to a senior is $95,000 when perpetrated by a stranger, compared to $145,000 by a family member or caregiver, Fogarty said.

"It's also the classic kind of unreported situation. Only one in 44 cases get reported because it could be someone's kid doing the scam to a parent," he said. "They don't want their child going to jail, and there's a fear of losing their independence — like getting put in a home — if people know about the scam."

He defined scams of the elderly as the illegal or improper use of funds, property or assets of people 60 years and older.

The rip-offs included bank withdrawals without a senior's consent and unauthorized use of credit cards.

"Seventy percent of our nation's wealth belongs to people 60 and over," Fogarty said.

Other signs of misuse are forging signatures, sale of inappropriate products to seniors, adding names to their bank accounts and emails that trick them into entering personal information.

In all, $2.9 billion a year is lost in financial exploitation, he noted, and often scammers take advantage of seniors' limited mobility, confusion and isolation.

Fogarty advised the families of seniors to set up teams of professional financial overseers, certified public accountants and appropriate family members as "checks and balances."

For seniors, he also said direct bank deposits and automated bill paying should be arranged.

"These crimes are more prevalent now and can be financially and emotionally devastating," he said.

Full Article & Source:
Elder care lawyer warns seniors of rising financial scams

Rochester man pleads guilty to $80,000 financial exploitation

A Rochester man accused of spending about $80,000 of a woman's money without her permission has pleaded guilty in the case.

Terry Joe Ruesink, 57, was charged in August in Olmsted County District Court with four counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. He pleaded guilty Monday to one of the counts; in exchange for the plea, the other counts are expected to be dismissed.

A sentencing date has not been set.

The investigation began when Olmsted County Adult Protection officials received a report of possible exploitation. The 82-year-old victim has been classified as a vulnerable adult after a 2009 diagnosis with dementia, court documents say. Ruesink was appointed as her power of attorney on Aug. 30, 2013.

According to the criminal complaint, on Oct. 15 of that year, Ruesink cashed a certificate of deposit worth about $86,000 that belonged to the woman, and deposited the entire amount into her money market account.

From Nov. 13, 2013, through Jan. 2, 2014, Ruesink allegedly spent a total of $70,113 on multiple items, including more than $51,000 on a lake home, $11,500 on a truck, about $4,000 to a roofing company and about $4,000 in cash to himself.

The woman's checking account records reportedly indicated Ruesink spent more than $8,000 of those funds, writing checks to himself, a carpet store and a furniture store, among others.

Ruesink told a family member he was going to pay the woman back, the complaint says.

Investigators spoke to Ruesink, who told them the victim gave him the money for the lake home, wanted him to put a new roof on it and said she'd buy him a new vehicle. According to the complaint, Ruesink said the victim's memory is "fine," though a bank employee told officials Ruesink told her in December he was concerned about the woman's state of mind.

Full Article & Source: 
Rochester man pleads guilty to $80,000 financial exploitation

Drugging dementia: Are antipsychotics killing nursing home patients?

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. – When Gerry Gilgan left the hospital after brain surgery in February 2013, the 78-year-old went into hospice care at Irvine Cottages, south of Los Angeles. He had dementia, but was in good spirits and lucid when he arrived.

The next day, daughter Patrice Gilgan’s cellphone video shows a different man.

“Daddy, wake up! Daddy, wake up!” Patrice Gilgan says, unable to rouse her father, a retired New York City firefighter, who has since died.

Gerry Gilgan’s widow, Marie, was shocked by the sudden change.

“We took him into this home thinking this would be the best place for him,” she said. “[After] a day or two, he’s a different person. It was like he was a vegetable. There was nothing to him. Staring in space, drugged out.”

Within hours of his arrival, records show Gerry Gilgan began receiving the powerful antipsychotic medications Haldol and Seroquel.

Nursing homes justify the use of antipsychotics, saying they calm agitated, anxious or combative residents. According to the facility, Gerry Gilgan was “combative,” though closed-circuit cameras in the nursing home show no evidence of belligerent behavior.

Antipsychotic drugs are approved for patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, not for dementia. In fact, the FDA has given its strongest warning – a so-called black box warning – telling physicians not to prescribe antipsychotics to people with dementia because they can cause heart failure, infection and death.

Despite the FDA warning, a Government Accountability Office report released this month found one-third of long-term nursing home residents with dementia have received antipsychotics.

‘Zonked out’

Antipsychotics are often given to patients for the benefit of the officials at the facility, in order to control them, said Carole Herman, founder of the Foundation Aiding the Elderly in Sacramento.

“The patient can’t walk anymore. The patient can’t talk anymore, and so there’s less care because basically the patient is incapacitated,” she said. “They’re zonked out all the time, so you don’t have to be bothered with them.”

Gerry Gilgan’s prescription for Haldol was "as needed," as frequently as every six hours.

St. Joseph Health managed Gerry Gilgan’s care, which was paid for by Medicare. St. Joseph declined to speak with “America Tonight” but released a statement:

“Each patient’s condition is unique and often has many factors to consider in determining the appropriate medications. We place high priority on a patient’s right to privacy, and out of respect for that privacy we are unable to discuss the specifics of this case.”
(Continue Reading)

Full Article & Source:
Drugging dementia: Are antipsychotics killing nursing home patients?

State Judicial Conduct Board says Indiana County district judge charged in hit-and-run violated rule

The state Judicial Conduct Board said an Indiana County district judge accused in a September hit-and-run violated one of its rules, but has since dismissed complaints against her.

Police said Jennifer J. Rega, 41, of Blairsville drove her SUV erratically Sept. 13 on Route 286 in Cherry Hill, sideswiped an oncoming vehicle containing three people, and fled.

The board said in a statement it investigated “a number of complaints” against Judge Rega and voted to resolve those by issuing a Letter of Counsel, dated Feb. 10, rather than filing formal charges in the Court of Judicial Discipline. A letter is issued in “an isolated incident or first-time infraction” of judicial misconduct.

Judge Rega ran afoul of the board’s rule, “impropriety and appearance of impropriety to be avoided,” which states district judges must follow the law. The board said her case would be resolved if she agreed to make the letter public. She signed a consent to dismiss the complaints on Tuesday.

Judge Rega entered an Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program for non-violent, first-time offenders, and if she completes it by Dec. 1, she can file to have charges -- including obstruction of justice and accident involving damage to an attended vehicle -- withdrawn and her record expunged.

She has been on paid suspension since September and would resume some duties Jan. 5, the county president judge said in December.

Full Article & Source:
State Judicial Conduct Board says Indiana County district judge charged in hit-and-run violated rule

Listening to Those Rarely Heard

This video is part of a training package developed for a group of people who know someone with a severe to profound intellectual disability well. It is designed to be focused around someone who may be facing a particular decision, either now, or into the future. Embedded within this package is a framework used to guide supporters through a process of supported decision making with people with Severe to Profound Intellectual Disabilities (Watson, 2010).

The package has been developed by Jo Watson and Rhonda Joseph from Scope Victoria, Australia and has been funded by the Victorian Department of Human Services (Disability Services). It has been filmed, scripted and directed by McClure Multimedia. The package consists of a PowerPoint presentation (Watson & Joseph, 2011) which includes facilitators notes, this training video (Watson & Joseph, 2011) and a workshop booklet.

The package has been piloted over 6 months with various families, and is now published. It can be obtained from Scope.

Source:
Listening to Those Rarely Heard