(WXYZ) - The 7 Investigators have been exposing a disturbing pattern of some public officials and real estate brokers taking over estates after someone dies, leaving the rightful heirs with very little.
Here’s what’s been happening: Real Estate Broker Ralph Roberts has teamed up with some Attorney General-appointed lawyers called Public Administrators. The Public Administrators and Roberts’ company, Probate Asset Recovery, bill the estates for thousands of dollars, plus Roberts gets real estate commissions when they sell the homes that are at stake in the estates after someone dies. The Public Administrators then take legal fees from the estate.
“I find properties. I believe there’s a benefit, so I then tell a public administrator, here’s the benefit there,” Roberts told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo in November 2016.
Cecil St. Pierre was one of those Attorney General-appointed Public Administrators. He’s also the Warren City Council President.
“They messed with the wrong family this time,” said Petar Georgievski. When Georgievski’s mother passed away last August, she used a Quit Claim Deed to give her Warren house to her son.
Georgievski says he later found out that money was owed for a small loan on the home, and his lawyer tried to address it with the bank. But without warning, Georgievski says the house was sold at Sheriff’s Sale. (Click to Continue)
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Metro Detroit dad says probate scandal nearly cost him $70,000
Saturday, June 10, 2017
Oregon Senate Committee Passes Bill to Allow Starving Mentally Ill Patients to Death
Yesterday the Oregon Senate Rules Committee passed out Senate Bill 494 on a party-line vote. Touted as a “simple update” to Oregon’s current advance directive, this bill is designed to allow for the starving and dehydrating to death of patients with dementia or mental illness.
Senate Bill 494 is little more than the state colluding with the healthcare industry to save money on the backs of mentally ill and dementia patients. This bill would remove current safeguards in Oregon’s advance directive statute that protect conscious patients’ access to ordinary food and water when they no longer have the ability to make decisions about their own care.
“It’s appalling what the Senate Rules Committee just voted to do,” said Gayle Atteberry, Oregon Right to Life executive director. “This bill, written in a deceiving manner, has as its goal to save money at the expense of starving and dehydrating dementia and mentally ill patients to death.”
“Oregon law currently has strong safeguards to protect patients who are no longer able to make decisions for themselves,” said Atteberry. “Nursing homes and other organizations dedicated to protecting vulnerable patients work hard to make sure patients receive the food and water they need. Senate Bill 494, pushed hard by the insurance lobby, would take patient care a step backwards and decimate patient rights.”
“Oregon Right to Life is committed to fighting this terrible legislation every step of the way,” said Atteberry. “We have already seen the outrage of countless Oregonians that the Legislature would consider putting them in danger. We expect the grassroots response to only increase.”
SB 494 was amended in committee yesterday. However, the amendments did not solve the fundamental problem with the bill. To learn more about what SB 494 will do, please watch testimony made to the Rules Committee on behalf of Oregon Right to Life yesterday by clicking here. SB 494 likely heads to a vote of the full State Senate in the coming weeks.
Three additional bills (SB 239, SB 708 and HB 3272) that also remove rights from vulnerable patients were introduced this session.
“There is a clear effort to move state policy away from protecting the rights of patients with dementia and mental illness and toward empowering surrogates to make life-ending decisions,” Atteberry said.
Senate Bill 494 makes many changes to advance directive law, eliminating definitions that can leave a patient’s directions left open to interpretation. SB 494 would also create a committee, appointed rather than elected, that can make future changes to the advance directive without approval from the Oregon Legislature. This could easily result in further erosion of patient rights.
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Oregon Senate Committee Passes Bill to Allow Starving Mentally Ill Patients to Death
Issues for elders: How to obtain a power of attorney for a parent
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| Jill Burzynski |
The threshold question is, "Why are your parents not calling themselves?" If an attorney is going to be able to do legal documents, the clients need to be able to express what they want and understand the documents that they asked to be prepared.
If the child is calling because the parents lack the cognitive ability to express their desire or to understand the implications of the documents, no attorney is going to be able to ethically proceed with preparing a power of attorney.
Sometimes the children are calling because the parents are unwilling to seek legal and long term planning advice. Again, if that is the case, an attorney will not be able to comply with the requests by the child.
If either of the above situations is occurring, an attorney may be able to assist the child, but the answer may not a power of attorney. If the parents have lost legal capacity, a guardianship may be necessary. Guardianship is an involved and expensive legal proceeding which should not be used if there are other less restrictive options.
So before advising a family to seek guardianship, an attorney should analyze how assets are held, and what problems are being encountered. If the problems can be solved in other ways, guardianship is not an appropriate solution.
Sometimes the family members call when they do not agree with the elder’s choice of fiduciary named in existing documents. The attorney should then determine whether there are acts of exploitation or self-dealing taking place that are legally actionable. If there is a misuse of trust or if there is a criminal exploitation occurring, appropriate civil or criminal action should be pursued. If, however, it is merely a child second-guessing the parents’ decision of fiduciary, no legal action should be pursued.
Sometimes at this juncture, families attempt "DIY" remedies by finding a power of attorney form online or copying another family member's power of attorney. No legal requirement exists that requires attorneys to be involved with the preparation of a durable power of attorney. However, in 2011, the Florida Legislature significantly changed the power of attorney statute, making a Florida durable power of attorney a very complex document. Many powers have to be specifically enumerated and initialed to be operative. Using a family member’s document as a template may cause the document to be unenforceable if it is not compliant with current law.
Many families often start thinking about powers of attorney for their parents when they begin to notice changes in health and cognitive functioning. The elders may have a window of time to put legal documents in place. Further, this is the time to analyze not only the sufficiency of the legal documents, but also a realistic plan of care going forward. Estate planning documents that were done for other situations may not include sufficient flexibility to engage in asset protection planning that should be considered if long term care needs are foreseeable.
Twenty-four-hour care in the home costs between $180,000-$200,000 per year in Collier County. If the family cannot afford to pay this cost from income, then planning for this type of care long-term will cause a depletion of assets that could mean total impoverishment. While 24-hour care is seldom needed initially, planning must include consideration of the disease trajectories and comorbidities. If home care is not feasible with the assets available, other options have to be considered.
The use of government benefits including VA Aid and Attendance and Medicaid can significantly help to prevent impoverishment. Asset protection planning requires appropriate legal authority which must be built into the legal documents, including the durable power of attorney. If a DIY power of attorney was used while the elder had capacity and that DIY proves insufficient when government benefits are needed, the family will have made a costly mistake.
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Issues for elders: How to obtain a power of attorney for a parent
Friday, June 9, 2017
Clemmons Parole Bid Denied
A Tennessee board has turned down parole for a disbarred Nashville attorney who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1.3 million from wards and estates he had been appointed to oversee and protect.
The state Board of Probation rejected parole for John E. Clemmons, 69, who is serving a 25 year sentence after pleading guilty to stealing funds from wards and estates in Davidson and Rutherford Counties.
Clemmons began serving the sentence on Nov. 8, 2013. He is currently an inmate at the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Hartsville.
He will not be eligible for another try at parole until May of 2020. Without parole his sentence will not end until 2038.
A spokeswoman for the board said the decision to deny parole was based on the seriousness of the offenses he committed. According to board records Clemmons could have been released next month had the board approved.
Board spokeswoman Melissa McDonald said the first votes cast on Clemmons' case were three concurring votes to deny parole and review again in three years. The vote affirmed a recommendation from a board hearing officer, she said
Clemmons' thefts were first detected by John Bratcher, clerk and master of the Rutherford County Chancery Court.
Bratcher said he had no sympathy for Clemmons and he was pleased with the board's decision.
"John Clemmons stole from the people he had taken an oath to protect. He stole from the weak and incompetent, and he did it over a period of 10 years. He caused almost unspeakable anguish for the families of his victims. He should serve his sentence day for day," Bratcher said.
Clemmons had been named conservator for Russell Church, a retired Rutherford County teacher then living in a nursing home.
In 2013 Bratcher testified that Clemmons stole over $123,910.02 from Church's estate. He said that overall Clemmons took $1.3 million from four victims Clemmons eventually entered a guilty plea to Rutherford theft charges. Church, court records show, was the only victim to fully recover the stolen funds.
In court documents Bratcher said that Clemmons' began stealing from Church on the very first day of his appointment. On that day, Nov. 22, 2011, Batcher said, Clemmons took $21,644.46 from three of Church's accounts. He said in a statement to the court that Clemmons apparently used the funds to gamble at a Mississippi casino.
Following the discovery in Rutherford County an investigation of the dozens of cases Clemmons was appointed to oversee in Davidson County turned up three more cases in which Clemmons had stolen thousands of dollars.
He entered guilty pleas in all three Davidson cases.
Tersesa Lyle, whose mother, Nannie Malone, was one of Clemmons' victims, said she only learned of Clemmons' parole bid when contacted by a reporter.
She said the family was only able to recover a small fraction of the amount Clemmons admitted to stealing. The recovery came from a bond Clemmons was required to post when he was appointed as Malone's conservator in 2008.
But Lyle said the bond value was well below the nearly $1 million in assets, including a 68-acre farm, Clemmons took control of. Records show some of Malone's properties were sold off at auction for back taxes Clemmons failed to pay.
Records show within a matter of days of his appointment as Malone's conservator by Davidson Probate Judge David "Randy" Kennedy, Clemmons began writing checks to himself.
Malone died on Oct. 25, 2012.
One of the Davidson victims, Donald Griggs, did recover $10,000 under a court settlement with Metro. The February settlement came in a suit filed by Paul Gontarek, who replaced Clemmons as Griggs conservator. He charged that had court officials done their job in monitoring Clemmons' activities, the $157,850 could never have been stolen.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com
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Clemmons Parole Bid Denied
Venice lawyer charged with stealing over $400K from elderly clients
The family said they spoke to detectives Friday morning and that estate attorney Adam Miller, 38, of Venice has not been charged in connection with their case yet. A family member, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Miller was placed in charge of their uncle’s estate after he died in 1999.
“All I know is that my children’s trusts are gone, almost $500,000,” the woman said. “My youngest was supposed to start college after summer vacation; my oldest daughter has two small children, and my son is only 10.
“I can’t believe that he did this, I find it so unreal.”
The woman said that even after Raymond Miller — the father of Adam Miller — was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to four years in prison for stealing nearly $1 million from the estate of Holocaust survivor Beila Millet of North Port, her aunt transferred the account to Adam Miller.
The aunt passed away in 2014, the woman said.
“It makes you lose trust; my children are devastated,” the woman said.
The woman said her uncle made his money operating bowling alleys. She said she expected detectives to file charges in connection with their case this week.
On Tuesday, Adam Miller was charged with one count of exploitation of elderly, and three counts of scheme to defraud three different estates. He allegedly misappropriated $408,850 from the estate of a deceased Englewood couple.
Raymond Miller had pleaded no contest to a charge he stole $941,256 from Beila Millet of North Port. She reportedly survived medical experiments in a Nazi concentration camp.
As part of the plea agreement, Raymond Miller was sentenced to four years in prison and was placed on probation until he paid back the money.
Millet had left the money to Israeli hospitals, schools and veterans’ groups when she died at age 93 in 2006. Raymond Miller only disbursed about $122,000 within months, but more than 50 beneficiaries never received their money, which is now gone.
According to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office:
Adam Miller, who was not involved in the 2010 case, also was tapping into the trusts of his clients.
George and Eileen Johnston hired Adam Miller as their trustee and power of attorney in August 2013 to control six financial accounts, but immediately following their deaths (Eileen in 2014, and George in 2015) Adam Miller allegedly began to write and deposit high-dollar checks to himself or his law firm from accounts belonging to the Johnstons’ Trust. The funds were beyond normal attorney’s fees, detectives stated in the report.
Financial records show that Adam Miller received an estimated $130,000 from the Johnstons’ Englewood Bank account from July 2014 until George Johnston died in Febrary 2015. The attorney also received an estimated $24,500 from a Fifth Third Bank account from November 2014 until November 2015. The checks were drawn by Miller or counter withdrawals.
After the sale of the Johnstons’ Englewood home in March 2015, Adam Miller opened an Englewood Bank and Trust account to deposit a check for $264,389.37 under an account titled “George and Eileen Johnston Trust.”
Adam Miller allegedly received another $231,000 from the Englewood bank account from November 2015 to March 2016.
Detectives determined that Adam Miller paid the Johnstons’ beneficiaries only $25,500 after the couple’s deaths. None of Adam Miller’s business or personal bank accounts show the funds being disbursed to beneficiaries, the sheriff’s report said.
Sheriff’s detectives, along with the FBI, executed a search warrant on Adam Miller’s business and home and identified at least two other estates that were allegedly victims of fraud.
The Sheriff’s Office said the investigation is ongoing and additional charges could be filed in the case.
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Venice lawyer charged with stealing over $400K from elderly clients
Bill protecting elderly exploitation passes House unanimously
House Bill 68 would expand laws typically used to protect minors from sexual exploitation and obscenity to include impaired people — an intentionally broad definition that covers people recovering from strokes to those suffering from mental impairments such as dementia.
The legislation would make a broad array of crimes a third-degree felony — essentially treating sexually explicit material created with an impaired person the same as if it was created with a minor.
“Basically (the bill is) to protect those who are vulnerable to predators, whether they are suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s or of advanced age and they don’t know what’s happening to them,” Rep. Marlene Anielski, the bill’s sponsor, said. “It’s adults that have any type of mental or physical condition that they are impaired. It could be of advanced age, but not necessarily.”
The Cleveland-area Republican proposed the legislation to address what she said is a shortcoming in state law that leaves adults with cognitive impairments vulnerable. The bill was supported by Cleveland-area detectives and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association. No organization provided dissenting testimony during committee hearings.
The impetus of the bill is a 2014 case in Cuyahoga County in which about a dozen people in a health care facility were exploited by their caregiver. Two Cuyahoga County detectives detailed the case while providing proponent testimony in a March committee hearing.
All of the victims suffered from cognitive impairment, either recovering from a severe stroke or suffering from a developmental disability, dementia or Alzheimer’s. The explicit photographs of the elderly victims were found on the suspect’s cellphone when police served a warrant during an investigation into the sexual abuse of four young boys.
The county prosecutor did not press felony charges, saying current law does not protect elderly or impaired individuals — only children — from certain types of pornographic exploitation.
Kristen Henry, an attorney with Disability Rights Ohio, warned that the intentionally broad new bill has the potential to infringe on the rights of disabled people. While the intention is positive, she said, there could be unwarranted criminalization for consenting behavior. However, her group does not oppose the proposal.
“With bills like this, it’s important to strike a balance to ensure persons with disabilities have full rights to engage in sexual activities they consent to,” Henry said. “We certainly are opposed to acts of exploitation. ... We just want to make sure the legislature is careful in crafting a response so they don’t restrict the rights of people with disabilities.”
The House on Wednesday also elevated Perry County’s part-time judge to a full-time position. The bill arose after the Ohio Supreme Court determined that a full-time municipal court judge was necessary in the southeastern Ohio county.
Full Article & Source:
Bill protecting elderly exploitation passes House unanimously
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Guilty plea in sex scheme at assisted-living facility brings 14 years
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| Dean Goble |
Dean Goble, 22, was sentenced Friday morning on the single count of attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault of an 88-year-old woman living at the Bickford of Champaign Senior Living and Memory Care, 1002 S. Staley Road, C.
Goble was one of four men arrested in 2015 in connection with a scheme to sexually assault women with dementia and videotape the activity.
Goble is already serving a seven-year prison sentence for a Vermilion County burglary conviction, which he received in 2015, and he also was convicted of possession of a stolen vehicle in 2012.
Goble's attorney, Katie Jessup, said her client is young and came from an early life in foster homes.
Testifying on his own behalf, Goble said he was the one who brought the Bickford Senior Living acts to light by disclosing them to Vermilion County authorities in August 2015.
Assistant State's Attorney Matt Banach sought the 14-year sentence.
Champaign County Judge Heidi Ladd acknowledged Goble was relatively young and had a less than ideal childhood, which included adjudication as a delinquent minor in 2006, being made a ward of the state in 2010, early alcohol use, then mental health issues.
However, she also called his crime despicable and deplorable, and said the gravity was enhanced, if possible, by the fact that he was paid to do it.
"It is conduct that crosses every line of decency in a civilized society," Ladd said.
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Guilty plea in sex scheme at assisted-living facility brings 14 years
Lawyer arraigned on 14 theft charges
Robert Searfoss III, 40, of Perrysburg was named in a secret indictment handed up by a Wood County grand jury last week charging him with two counts of aggravated theft, four counts of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, four counts of money laundering, three counts of theft, and one count of grand theft.
The indictment alleges that between April, 2015, and April, 2017, Mr. Searfoss stole about $435,000 from Eric Walker and the Alice C. Walker Revocable Trust, for which he was the trustee.
The indictment includes numerous specifications that seek forfeiture of real estate he owned on Georgetown Drive in Bowling Green and Shawnee Drive in Perrysburg, his law practice on Oak Street in Bowling Green, and two vehicles.
Mr. Searfoss appeared in court shackled and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and was returned to the Wood County jail on $500,000 bond.
His court-appointed attorney, Kurt Bruderly, had asked the court for some kind of supervised recognizance bond saying Mr. Searfoss would voluntarily surrender his law license, reside with his parents in Bowling Green, and seek a “blue-collar” job.
“A search warrant was executed at his residence about six days prior to this, and he did not flee the area,” Mr. Bruderly said. “He remained in … the Wood County area. He had every opportunity to know what was coming and flee, but he did not do that.”
Thomas Matuszak, chief assistant county prosecutor, told the court that Mr. Searfoss had a pending disciplinary case before the Ohio Supreme Court and an outstanding arrest warrant issued in Michigan.
“We have not been able to trace all of the stolen proceeds, which is believed to be in the neighborhood of $435,000, so the defendant might have the ability to post some sort of cash bail or bond,” Mr. Matuszak said.
Judge Alan Mayberry agreed.
“Given the Michigan warrant, given the number and severity of the counts as well as the [potential] forfeiture and fines, it would appear that there is a risk that the defendant may not appear,” the judge said. “Given that, the court would set bond sufficient to cover the alleged amount” of stolen funds.
Wood County Prosecutor Paul Dobson said members of the public often entrust their attorney with large sums of money, for a variety of reasons.
“Lawyers operate in a system of trust,” Mr. Dobson said. “As lawyers, we take that position very seriously and are intolerant of allegations of violations of that trust.”
Mr. Bruderly said Mr. Searfoss, a father of seven children, has a child living in Grand Traverse County, Mich., and the warrant from there was likely related to missed child-support payments.
A graduate of the University of Toledo college of law, Mr. Searfoss established his law practice in 2007 and was “committed to clients,” the firm's Facebook page says.
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Lawyer arraigned on 14 theft charges
Sentencing of Christina and Donald Halter Announced by AG Hawley
JEFFERSON CITY, MO/June 5, 2017 (STL.News) Sentencing – In a case jointly prosecuted by the office of Attorney General Josh Hawley and St. Francois County Prosecuting Attorney Jerrod Mahurin, St. Francois County Circuit Court Judge Sandra Martinez has sentenced Christina Halter, 52, and her husband, Donald Halter, 56, to 82 years and 60 years, respectively, in the Department Corrections. Judge Martinez also ordered the Halters to pay $10.3 million in medicaid fraud penalties and $331,709 in restitution.
Christina and Donald Halter co-owned a residential care facility in Park Hills, Missouri. The Halters used their position as facility owners to financially exploit a veteran under their care, taking some $115,000. In addition, the Halters submitted to Medicaid over 1,000 false claims for services that were not provided to residents of their facility, amounting to over $28,000. Finally, the Halters failed to file an income tax return, failed to pay their income tax liability, and attempted to evade income tax liability for tax year 2012.
On March 23, 2017, a St. Francois County jury found Christina Halter guilty of one count of medicaid fraud, two counts of financial exploitation, one count of obstructing a medicaid fraud investigation, one count of failing to file an income tax return, one count of failing to pay income tax, and one count of attempting to evade income tax liability. Following Christina Halter’s conviction, on March 28, 2017, Donald Halter pled guilty in St. Francois County Circuit Court to the same seven counts.
On June 2, 2017, Judge Martinez sentenced Christina Halter to 7 years for medicaid fraud, 1 year for obstructing a medicaid fraud investigation, 30 years for each count of financial exploitation, and 5 years a piece for her failure to file, pay, and attempt to evade income tax liability. Judge Martinez sentenced Donald Halter to 7 years for medicaid fraud, 4 years for obstructing a medicaid fraud investigation, 20 years for each count of financial exploitation, and 3 years a piece for his failure to file, pay, and attempt to evade income tax liability. Judge Martinez ordered that both Halters sentences be served concurrently. In addition to their prison terms, Judge Martinez ordered the Halters to pay $10.3 million in medicaid fraud penalties, $115,000 in restitution to the veteran victim, $28,273.70 in restitution to Missouri’s Medicaid program, $169,642.20 in damages to Missouri’s Medicaid program, and $18,793.79 in tax liability, interest, and penalties.
The case was tried by Assistant Attorneys General Shannon Kempf and Brad Crowell from the office of Attorney General Josh Hawley.
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Sentencing of Christina and Donald Halter Announced by AG Hawley
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