Ms. Guisewite is the creator of the comic strip “Cathy.”
Credit Cathy Guisewite
I
walk into the kitchen just in time: My 90-year-old mother is aiming the
frayed cord of an ancient waffle iron at an outlet by the sink.
“What are you doing?” I exclaim, shooting my hand out before Mom can be electrocuted.
“I’m making Mother’s Day breakfast for you!” Mom beams.
“Don’t
be silly! You’re the mother! I’m going to make a nice, healthy omelet
for you!” I answer and open the cupboard to get a pan.
“It’s my day! I’ll make an omelet for you!”
she insists, nudging me aside. She pulls out her vintage nonstick
skillet, so scratched that it seasons everything with little black
flakes of no-longer-sticking-to-anything-except-the-food-you-swallow
1960s Teflon.
She drops half a stick of butter in.
“You shouldn’t use so much butter, Mom!” I scold her.
“I’m 90 years old,” she answers. “Maybe you should use more butter!”
“You work too hard,” I say, moving toward the coffee maker. “Let me help.”
“I don’t need help!” Mom body-blocks me with her tiny frame. “You work too hard. I’ll pour some coffee for you!”
“I’ll pour it for you!”
“Stop trying to take care of me while I’m trying to take care of you!”
We
blurt that one out together. One voice. After decades spent liberating
myself from Mom’s real and imagined grip to become my own person, I
realize I’m arguing with a selfie. Might as well be yelling into a
mirror.
We look alike, sound alike and
have an identical conviction that we know what’s best for the other.
Dueling caregivers, that’s what we are now. Two genetic clones locked in
a battle over which one needs the care and which one should be doing
the giving.
I,
who have fought so hard against things that undermine women’s
self-esteem, am now in the bizarre position of trying to care for my
mother by pointing out all the things she can’t and shouldn’t do
anymore.
“That’s too heavy for you,
Mom! Too slippery for you! Too complicated for you!” As if her
generation of women didn’t spend enough of their lives being told what
they couldn’t do: “You can’t have a career; can’t play sports; can’t
handle finances. You belong in the kitchen!”
And
so my brilliant, educated Mom channeled her talents into becoming chief
executive of the kitchen. It was her office, the one room in which she
was completely in charge, where she filled her daughters with food, love
and inspiration to go off and do all the things we got to do.
Now,
when I so want Mom to share in what feels like a global shift in how
women are being respected and listened to, this is what I say to her:
“Get out of the kitchen, Mother! You should rest while I cook breakfast
for you!”
“You should rest while I cook for you!” Mom answers, defiantly holding up a loaf of bread wrapped in plastic in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other.
Credit Cathy Guisewite
I leave the kitchen, but not because Mom said so. I need to regroup. Also to be closer to the first-aid kit.
Am
I stifling the woman I most want to uplift? Or has she made enough
scary choices in the last four minutes to merit micromanaging? I want
Mom to be free, finally, from rules, restrictions and limitations
imposed by others. But what if she gets sick? Or falls? What if she
tries to make waffles when I’m not here to fling myself in front of the
outlet?
I realize I can’t win this
one, so I walk back into the kitchen committed to being the respectful,
non-meddling recipient of my sweet mother’s love.
The
Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement
that resolves allegations that the owners and managers of a continuing
care retirement community known as Sedgebrook violated the Fair Housing
Act by instituting policies and maintaining practices that discriminated
against residents with disabilities at the facility, which is located
in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
The proposed settlement, which still must be approved by the court,
was filed today, along with a complaint, in the United States District
Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The complaint alleges that
since 2011, Sedgebrook has instituted a series of policies that
prohibited, and then limited, residents’ ability to dine in the communal
dining rooms of the independent living wing of the facility if they
required assistance eating due to a disability. Additionally, the
complaint alleges that Sedgebrook maintained a policy prohibiting
residents of the independent living wing from hiring live-in caregivers
and refused to grant reasonable accommodations to that policy that would
have allowed Sedgebrook residents with disabilities to use and enjoy
their apartments.
Under the settlement, Sedgebrook will pay $210,000 into a settlement
fund to compensate residents and family members who were harmed by these
policies. Sedgebrook will also pay a $45,000 civil penalty to the
United States. In addition, Sedgebrook will appoint a Fair Housing Act
compliance officer and will implement a new dining and events policy, a
new policy applicable to residents’ private employment of caregivers,
and a new reasonable accommodation policy. Additionally, Life Care
Services LLC, the company that manages Sedgebrook and is a named
defendant in the lawsuit, will take steps to implement similar policies
at the over 100 independent living and continuing care retirement
communities it owns or manages across the country.
“This consent order will ensure that all residents with disabilities
at Sedgebrook are treated equally and that residents are able to get the
assistance they need in the dining room and in the other central areas
of their lives,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita
Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division. “We are very pleased with
the steps Life Care Services and Sedgebrook are taking to embrace new,
non-discriminatory policies and help make them the standard,
industry-wide.”
“Equal opportunities must be afforded to individuals who require
assistance due to a disability,” said U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon of
the Northern District of Illinois. “The proposed settlement represents
a significant step towards ensuring all members of the Sedgebrook
community are treated justly.”
Individuals who are entitled to share in the settlement fund will be
identified through a process established in the consent order. Persons
who believe they were subjected to unlawful discrimination at Sedgebrook
should contact the Justice Department toll-free at 1-800-896-7743
mailbox #995, or e-mail the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov (link sends e-mail).
The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing
based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, and
familial status. More information about the Civil Rights Division and
the laws it enforces is available at www.justice.gov/crt.
Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of housing
discrimination can call the Justice Department at 1-800-896-7743 and
leave a message at mailbox #995, e-mail the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov (link sends e-mail), or contact the Department of Housing and Urban Development at 1-800-669-9777 or through its website at http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp.
A number of recent high-profile ethics complaints has focused new
attention on New Jersey's judiciary. (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media
file photo)
What do you call someone who tells a rape victim to keep her legs
closed, has a secretary do her son's homework, or in one case, allegedly
hampered a police investigation of a boyfriend?
In New Jersey, you call them judges.
The number of grievances filed against judges has been growing,
according to an examination by NJ Advance Media of never-before-released
data from the state judiciary. And while the vast number of those
grievances do not become formal complaints, several recent high-profile
disciplinary cases have put a spotlight on judicial misconduct in
courtrooms across New Jersey.
They include the ethics case against John F. Russo Jr.,
a family court judge in Ocean County, who told an alleged rape
victim that she could have possibly avoided the situation if she "closed
her legs," according to a complaint filed against him by the New Jersey
Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, or ACJC.
While his case is still pending, Russo--the son of former Democratic
Senate President John Russo Sr.--is currently on administrative leave
after he was removed from his judicial duties last year by Ocean
County's assignment judge in connection with other unrelated
allegations.
Wilfredo Benitez, a municipal judge in East Orange and Belleville, is
accused of violating the state's Code of Judicial Conduct in the wake
of an incident where he was found by State Troopers passed
out in the driver's seat of his silver BMW on the side of Interstate
80, and subsequently struggled with a field sobriety test.
"I can't believe you're doing this. I'm not a f---ing drug addict. I'm
not drunk," he told the troopers, according to the complaint lodged
against him. "I'm a f---ing judge. You're not going to give me any
courtesy?"
Ethics charges before the ACJC are also pending against Superior
Court Judge Deborah Gross-Quatrone who was accused of ordering her
secretary to do her son's homework.
She was also accused of making a law clerk work off-the-clock without
pay, and secretly taping conversations with other judges when her
behavior came under scrutiny, according to the complaint.
And Superior Court Judge Carlia M. Brady in Middlesex County is facing ethics allegations that she hindered the efforts of Woodbridge police to
arrest her boyfriend on a robbery charge. In a complaint against Brady
earlier this month, the ACJC said she "demonstrated an inability to
conform her conduct to the high standards of conduct expected of judges
and impugned the integrity of the Judiciary."
Overall, five formal complaints have been filed so far this year
against four Superior Court judges and one municipal court judge, up
from four the previous year. But the number of grievances complaining of
judicial behavior or violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct has climbed over the last three years, to 408 last year, up from 378 in 2015.
Those filings rise and fall year by year, but the trend over the past
decade has seen a steady increase. According to the New Jersey Courts
data provided to NJ Advance Media, 276 grievances have been filed in
first eight months of the current judicial year, which runs from July to
July.
Attorney Nancy Erika Smith, who represented Gretchen Carlson in her
suit against Fox News co-founder Roger Ailes, argued that there have
been an increasing number of judges, most appointed in recent years, who
simply do not know the law.
"There is a lot of grumbling among lawyers about judges who don't
know anything about trying cases. About their having no experience in
trying cases," she said of recent appointments to the bench.
She placed the blame for that on the Christie administration's
decision to end a long-standing process of using county committees of
the New Jersey State Bar Association to scrutinize judicial
appointments.
"Chris Christie disbanded the most effective method of vetting
judges," charged Smith, who served for many years on the Bar
Association's county committee in Essex and co-chaired the Bar
Association's state committee for one year.
"By disbanding the county committees, he made sure none of his
appointees would be vetted by those who would most familiar with their
experience as attorneys," she said.
While Smith said there have been "wonderfully qualified people" named
as judges, she added that there have been others who were "promoted out
of positions they were failing at," or nominated by Christie as a
political favor.
All seven of the Superior Court judges brought up on ethics charges since 2016 were Christie nominations, records show.
Former Christie administration officials took strong issue with any
notion that the judges he nominated were lacking in qualifications.
In a statement issued through a spokesman for the former governor,
Jeffrey Chiesa, Christopher Porrino and Thomas Scrivo, who all served as
chief counsel to the governor, said that "as the lawyers who oversaw
the vast majority of these judicial appointments, we endorse and remain
extraordinarily proud of the judicial appointments made during our
tenures, and we reject any sweeping generalization that demeans these
fine jurists based upon the alleged mistakes or misconduct of a few."
In their statement, the three said that from January 2010 through
January 2018, "Gov. Christie nominated, and the legislature confirmed,
hundreds of judges, after each judicial candidate was carefully vetted
by the state senator who sponsored him or her," as well as the state Bar
Association, the Judicial Advisory Panel and the Governor's
Appointments Office.
"It is offensive and irresponsible for anyone to suggest that these
highly qualified and hard-working public servants are somehow less
qualified than the judges who were appointed prior to 2010," they wrote.
Under the Hughes Compact, named for former New Jersey Gov. Richard
Hughes, the state's governors have historically agreed to withhold
nominations of judges, justices and prosecutors until the bar
association's Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments Committee deemed
them qualified.
But Smith said Christie revised the compact, limiting the input of the county bar committees.
Gov. Phil Murphy earlier this year signed a new compact, bringing the
county bar associations back into the the process, New Jersey State Bar
Association officials said.
The 'meanness of our time...'
Former New Jersey Attorney General John Farmer Jr., who served on the
Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, said there may be many
contributing factors to the rise in grievances.
"Late in my tenure on the committee, we started seeing complaints
based on judges' social media activity, which raised issues such as
whether if a judge 'friended' someone on Facebook, that 'friendship'
should have required recusal," remarked Farmer, who has also served as
the dean of the Rutgers University School of Law. "Advancing technology,
in other words, has increased the opportunities for potential
misconduct to occur, and has also lowered the wall of relative social
isolation behind which judges have traditionally functioned."
He noted, too, there are more judges in New Jersey.
"With that expanded pool, again, has come an increased likelihood that misconduct can occur," he said.
More difficult to quantify, Farmer suggested, is that the numbers may
reflect the "meanness of our time", in which honest disagreements are
more likely to become personal and adverse rulings are more likely to be
ascribed to bias or misconduct than to the simple fact that a judge
disagrees with a party's position.
"Having said all of that, it was true during my tenure and I assume
it remains true that the vast majority of complaints filed against
judges are investigated and dismissed," Farmer said. "This state has a
deserved reputation for the high quality and ethical standards of its
judiciary, particularly by comparison with states like Pennsylvania,
where In years gone by Supreme Court Justices, as well as dozens of
sitting judges, have been prosecuted for various forms of corruption."
Beyond the vetting issue raised by Smith, the attorney said another
reason for the overall increase in the number of complaints may also
stem from unhappy litigants in divorce and child custody cases.
"I know a lot of the complaints are in family court. There is a
father's movement and one of their goals is to attack judges," she
remarked.
Judge Glenn A. Grant, acting administrative director of the courts,
said in a statement that as an organization, the judiciary "holds all
judges to the highest of standards" and communicates those standards
through regular training.
"The judiciary's commitment to judicial ethics is reflected in the
work of the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, which consists of
retired judges, attorneys and laypersons who investigate allegations of
unethical conduct. If the committee finds probable cause for the
imposition of public discipline against a judge, it issues a formal
complaint and all further proceedings are made public," he said.
Grant said while the number of complaints against judges fluctuates
on a yearly basis, "the statistics continue to show that the vast
majority of judges are hardworking and dedicated and conscientious about
complying with judicial canons and procedures."
Discipline of judges in New Jersey can take various forms.
If the ACJC investigates a complaint and believes that the judge has
violated the Judicial Code of Conduct, it may choose to discipline the
judge privately. Or the committee, which is headed by retired Justice
Virginia A. Long, can recommend that the Supreme Court issue public
discipline against the judge, ranging from admonition to censure,
suspension, or removing the judge from the bench.
Only the New Jersey Supreme Court may publicly discipline a judge.
A judge is recommending that the Florida
Supreme Court discipline Melton Little and Scott Kallins for giving
baseball tickets to a former judge while presiding over one of their
cases, by placing them on probation for one year. Tiffany Tompkins
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article211812449.html#storylink=cpy
A judge has recommended to the
Florida Supreme Court that two Palmetto-based attorneys be punished for
giving free Tampa Bay Rays tickets to a judge who was presiding over one
of their cases.
The judge who heard evidence
about their misconduct, however, recommended one year of probation and
that they be required to speak about their wrongdoing in front of other
attorneys.
The two attorneys are partners at
the Palmetto-based firm of Kallins Little Delgado. The firm's
well-known slogan "We Play Hardball" is featured in television
commercials showing both attorneys and their third partner. Jim Delgado,
carrying baseball bats.
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article211812449.html#storylink=cpy
The Florida Bar filed ethics complaints
against both attorneys with the Florida Supreme Court in March 2017
after their own investigation of what happened. The Bar found Kallins
and Little had created an appearance of impropriety by offering and
giving Rays tickets to former Circuit Judge John Lakin while he was
presiding over one of their cases. The attorneys had also called into
question Lakin's impartiality, the Bar found.
Circuit Judge Archie B. Hayworth
Jr., from the 20th Judicial Circuit and appointed by the Florida Supreme
Court to act as a referee in the matter, presided over a three-day-long
trial that ended April 26. On Tuesday, Hayworth issued his
recommendation to the Supreme Court.
Kallins and Little should be
found guilty of misconduct, Hayworth recommended, and each should be
given an admonishment and be placed on probation for one year.
"While respondents are veteran
attorneys who should have known better, and their conduct created an
appearance of impropriety that could have damaged the public perception
of judicial impartiality, there was no evidence presented of actual
prejudice to the underlying case," Hayworth stated in the order.
A call from comment to Kallins and Little for comment has not yet been returned.
The underlying case at the center
of this is a civil suit filed by Sandy Wittke — represented by the law
firm Kallins Little & Delgado — in August 2012 in which she claimed
that Wal-Mart was at fault when she slipped and fell in December 2009 at
the store at 5315 Cortez Road W., Bradenton.
The jury in the case, presided
over by Lakin, ruled in favor of Wal-Mart but Lakin later granted
Kallins Little & Delgado’s motion for a new trial on Wittke’s
behalf. Wal-Mart appealed Lakin’s decision and in October 2016 the
Second District Court of Appeals reversed his decision and reinstated
the jury’s verdict.
Lakin was facing a formal charge
of misconduct from the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission at the
time, and in March 2016 he resigned. Lakin has since returned to
private practice and is also facing an ethics compliant from the Florida
Bar. His trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
During last month's trial,
Kallins and Little expressed remorse and admitted their actions were
wrong, Hayworth noted. Evidence presented at trial regarding their
character was found compelling, and the judge found that their public
service and charitable work in the community would be hindered or
eliminated if the two attorneys were suspended.
Given their reputations, Hayworth
found that it would be more effective discipline to require both
attorneys to speak about the incident before new attorneys at required
continuing education programs and to veteran attorneys at one more or
conferences about how to avoid similar misconduct.
Based on Hayworth's recommendation, both attorneys could be ordered to pay $5,300 in fees.
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article211812449.html#storylink=cpy
This 75-year-old Knox County woman was a
bit suspicious of the man’s claims she’d won a sweepstakes for the
elderly – until he sent her a safe he said was stuffed with millions of
dollars.
“Hide and safeguard it,” the man told her. A key, he said, would arrive soon – if she paid taxes on her winnings.
The
woman would soon fork out $43,500 in a quest for that key and would end
up exposing a nationwide scheme to scam the elderly using safes as
props, court records reveal.
Charges piling up
The scheme
is detailed in records filed in both Knox County’s criminal courts and
in U.S. District Court in Knoxville after the arrest of one alleged
co-conspirator in the scam – Betty Lou Repka Myers, 76, of Canyon Lake,
Texas.
Myers, represented by defense attorney
Cullen Wojcik, is set to appear next week in U.S. District Court before
U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra Poplin to decide if she must be locked up
pending trial in an indictment issued earlier this month by a federal
grand jury.
She is charged in that case, which is being prosecuted
by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kolman, with conspiracy to commit
mail fraud and mail fraud. Myers faces charges in Knox County of felony
theft and financial exploitation of the elderly.
Myers
also holds the key to law enforcement’s quest to unmask the identities
of at least two other people involved in the scam as court records make
clear she was working with at least two others in her alleged defrauding
of the Knox County woman.
USA TODAY
NETWORK-Tennessee is not identifying the victim. The elderly often are
reluctant to report their victimization in financial scams for fear of
public embarrassment. Kolman used only the woman’s initials as
identification in the indictment for that reason.
A safe and a key
Court records detail the following about the scheme and the Knox County woman’s victimization as part of it:
The
scammers rounded up telephone numbers for the elderly, though the
method is not detailed in the federal indictment. A scammer – usually a
man – would phone a scam target
and announce the victim had been entered in a sweepstakes for the
elderly and won millions. That part of the scam is a repeat of hundreds
of similar schemes seeking to con the elderly into forking out money or
bank account information.
But the scammers in this newest scheme added a twist.
“It
was part of the conspiracy that some elderly victims were sent a locked
safe, which was falsely represented to the victim as containing
sweepstakes winnings that could be accessed only by a key to be provided
to the victim at a later date,” the indictment stated.
Stalking their prey
In
January, the 75-year-old Knox County woman received a call from a man
bearing news of sweepstakes winnings. The male caller “feigned personal
interest" in the woman’s well-being in a series of phone calls Kolman
alleged were designed to garner the woman’s trust.
A co-conspirator in Florida shipped the woman a safe
in February. She received another call from the man who had promised
delivery of the safe. This time, he told her to write two checks,
totaling $21,000, with Myers as the payee, to cover taxes on her
winnings. She did, mailing them to an address he provided in Canyon
Lake, Texas.
The
indictment alleges Myers deposited one of those checks into her bank
account March 5. A day later, Myers showed up on the woman’s doorstep,
state court records show.
“(Myers) told the victim
more money was needed regarding the sweepstakes,” a warrant stated.
“(Myers) told the victim to go to two different SunTrust branch
locations and remove money from the victim’s account to give to
(Myers).”
With Myers behind the wheel, the woman
did as she was instructed, withdrawing $22,500 and giving it to Myers,
the warrant stated.
But when Myers demanded the
woman’s cellphone, saying her “boss wanted the phone,” the woman balked
and phoned authorities, according to warrants.
Knox
County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jeff Monroe wrote in the warrant
deputies found the woman’s cash in Myers’ purse, along with one of the
checks the woman had been instructed to send to Texas.
His case against Myers is pending a Knox County grand jury review.
PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) - She was terminated from her position by the
Attorney General and she was at the center of a 7 Action News
investigation. So why are taxpayers now paying the salary of this local
lawyer?
A criminal investigation was launched after we exposed how
some public officials and real estate brokers were cashing in on
probate estates, often leaving rightful heirs with very little.
So why is one of the public officials being investigated by Oakland County -- now working for Oakland County’s Probate Court?
The 7 Investigators first exposed probate attorney Barbara Andruccioli a year ago.
“How can the taxpayers have any confidence with you working here,” asked 7 Investigator Heather Catallo.
“Really, I think you probably need to talk to the judges,” said Andruccioli.
Andruccioli
was a partner at Kemp Klein law firm. She was also an Attorney
General-appointed Public Administrator: a public official with the
authority to open probate estates after someone dies if there are no
heirs available.
Court records show Andruccioli teamed up with
real estate broker Ralph Roberts and his companies to open those
estates, sell the homes, and cash in.
We uncovered court filings
that show Andruccioli and one of Roberts’ companies, Probate Asset
Recovery, were billing for thousands of dollars, while the actual heirs
ended up with very little.
“They should be held accountable,” Joanne Zaremba told Catallo in 2017.
Until
the 7 Investigators got involved, Zaremba had no idea that Andruccioli
had opened an estate in her late mother’s name, even though under the
law, Andruccioli had a duty to find the heirs.
After our investigation, Attorney General Bill Schuette terminated
Andruccioli as a Public Administrator. And that’s not all: the FBI and
Oakland County Sheriff’s detectives raided Ralph Roberts offices, and
launched a criminal probe into the Public Administrators.
So why did the Oakland County Probate judges recently hire Andruccioli as the Probate Register for the county?
“How
can the taxpayers have any confidence -- when you’re now under criminal
investigation -- with you working in this court,” asked Catallo.
"That’s not true,” said Andruccioli.
“It struck me as the wolf guarding the hen house,” said Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner.
Oakland
County Clerk Lisa Brown described her reaction when she first heard
that the judges from the Probate Court (which Brown and Meisner do not
oversee) hired Andruccioli: “Shock, absolute shock and bewilderment… So
out of having a wonderful pool of applicants, why would you choose this
person who has a cloud over them?”
In the wake of our reporting,
Brown and Meisner successfully fought to change the state laws that
allowed this probate practice to go on. Two bills sponsored by Rep. Jim
Runestad (R-White Lake) and Rep. Jim Ellison (D-Royal Oak) were signed
into law in February.
Neither Meisner nor Brown can understand why the four Oakland County Probate judges would hire Andruccioli.
“It’s
natural that people that work together are going to get to know each
other and establish relationships,” said Meisner. “The unusual part is
when those relationships and friendships result in inappropriate
preference, self-dealing, and lack of due process.”
The Probate Register oversees the daily operations of the Probate Courts Estates and Mental Health division.
Chief
Probate Judge Kathleen Ryan would not talk to us on camera, but she did
tell 7 Action News that the decision to hire Andruccioli as the Probate
Register of the court was unanimous among all four judges and she said,
“we’re confident in our hire.”
Judge Ryan also confirmed they
hired Andruccioli at the top of the county pay scale, at $102,650.
Also, in the past Andruccioli has given small campaign contributions to
two of the judges who hired her (Judge Ryan and Judge Jennifer
Callaghan), but Judge Ryan says that had no bearing on the hiring
decision.
“I think it is a slap in the face to a lot of people,” said Brown. “It reduces confidence that justice will be served here.”
Officials
from both the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office and Sheriff’s office
tell the 7 Investigators that the criminal probe into the probate scheme
and the Public Administrators is ongoing.
County officials such as the Clerk, the Treasurer and the County Executive do not have control over who the judges hire.
GREEN BAY - A new website is the latest tool implemented by the Wisconsin Department of Justice to protect the elderly.
The site, reportelderabusewi.org, is
the next phase of the DOJ's campaign to both raise awareness about
elder abuse and encourage people to report mistreatment of seniors.
Wisconsin
Attorney General Brad Schimel announced the website's launch Wednesday
during a news conference at the Aging and Disability Resource Center of
Brown County in downtown Green Bay.
Schimel said the site is a place where people can go
to learn what elder abuse is, who is at risk of elder abuse and how to
go about reporting elder abuse to the proper authorities.
Green
Bay police chief Andrew Smith, along with Todd Delain, chief deputy
with the Brown County Sheriff's Office, said the site will help break
down barriers that often deter the elderly and their families from
reporting abuse, and put them in contact with people who can help.
The
site gives the elderly, their families and other loved ones a voice
which, Schimel said, is invaluable when dealing with the seriousness of
abuse and exploitation.
“Elder abuse is
drastically under-reported, and it can be deadly,” Schimel said.
“Studies show that even modest abuse increases the chance of premature
death by 300 percent, and because Wisconsin’s elderly population will
increase 72 percent in the next two decades, we have to raise awareness,
increase access to support for victims, and strengthen our response to
every type of elder abuse.”
The site also lists resources for elder abuse victims such as adult protective services, The Elder Rights Project and more.
As
part of the awareness campaign, advertisements will run online in
Wisconsin counties with the greatest number of reported cases of elder
abuse as reported by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Devon Christianson, ADRC director, said nearly 300 cases of elder abuse were reported in Brown County in 2017.
The
development of the website is funded by the Victims of Crime Act grant
through the United States Department of Justice. The site follows of
number of other steps in Attorney General’s Task Force on Elder
Abuse Schimel launched in August 2017.
In March,
Schimel announced the start of the Safe Seniors Camera Program — a pilot
program that allows residents of Brown, Fond du Lac, Outagamie and
Winnebago counties worried about potential elder abuse to use a covert
camera for 30 days to watch someone they suspect is being harmed by a
caregiver at their residence.
LAFOURCHE PARISH- Authorities arrested a woman who is accused of
exploiting an elderly family member for a large amount of money.
Earlier this month, detectives opened an investigation into
58-year-old Liela Legendre after a report was filed alleging she was
exploiting an elderly family member for which she had power of attorney.
Authorities learned that Legendre has placed the man, who is in his
90s, in a nursing home and had taken over his finances. Another family
member discovered several instances where the elderly man's finances
were used by Legendre for her own personal use.
Detectives discovered multiple instances of accounting discrepancies
amounting to more than $95,000, according to the release. One of the
instances included a check made out to cash for $20,000 documented as
being for future funeral expenses, but no money had been paid to the
funeral home.
Authorities had also learned that Legendre had traded in the man's
mobile home as a down payment toward the purchase of her own mobile
home. When speaking with the victim, they learned he didn't authorize
Legendre to make any of the transactions.
Legendre was arrested and booked with exploitation of the informed. She was released after posting a $5,000 bond.
“I just — if it
weren't my mother, if it was your mother — it's just a horrible thing,”
she described. "We all knew mommy's memory is fading, but if I had to
do it all again, I would do things completely different."
"You just
can't turn it back," explained Ginny Johnson, the daughter of man who
was also ordered into guardianship. "You can't fight that system here in
Raleigh."
Guardianship is a court process where anyone can claim you’re incompetent and petition to be your guardian.
It's typically used for elders or those who are physically, mentally, or cognitively disabled.
Within
a matter of weeks, the court holds a hearing after a court appointed
attorney, also known as a guardian ad litem, investigates the petition.
A
clerk takes the evidence, which doesn't require a physician's medical
evaluation, and makes a decision based heavily on the guardian ad
litem's recommendation.
Cathleen Skinner and her husband, Mark,
fought for more than a decade to regain her independence after being
ordered into guardianship.
“This is what happens when the court system is just messed up,
total, from the bottom to the Supreme Court," the woman's husband
explained.
Cathleen Skinner tells CBS 17 she suffers from short term memory loss.
A family member filed for guardianship, one who she claims wanted to ice her out of her dying mother’s wealthy estate.
"It's a nightmare (be)cause I just want to be with my husband and have a life," she lamented.
Instead of family, a clerk appointed Wake County Human Services as a temporary guardian.
They placed Cathleen Skinner at The Oliver House.
She
clarifies that her confusion was about why she'd been forced in
guardianship, a process she feels did not take her wishes into
consideration.
Mark Skinner, who was only her boyfriend at the time, filed an emergency motion.
He
said after years in court, and at least $70,000 in legal fees, he
finally became Cathleen's guardian, which she says is preferred if she
must have a guardian.
“It's not right," he exclaimed. "This should have never happened in the first place."
The Skinners story doesn’t surprise Ginny Johnson.
Her 95-year-old dad died a year after being ordered into guardianship.
According
to the veteran's doctor of nearly 40 years, the World War II POW was in
superb health with great agility, and noted that moving a person of his
age from his home can lead to a decline in health.
Mr. Johnson's case landed in a Wake County court after a dispute between Ginny and her sister.
"He didn't even need to leave his home," Ginny Johnson explained. "It was all paid for by the VA."
In the end, a clerk ordered Aging Family Services as a guardian, which placed him at the Blue Ridge Health Care Center.
His guardian sold his million dollar home to pay for the center and other expenses.
A
federal investigation later shut that facility down for “substandard
quality of care,” just three weeks after Mr. Johnson's death.
CBS 17 set out to get more insight from the legal community and elder abuse advocates.
Attorney Reginald Altson says he’s now advising several people in Wake County who also say they’re victims.
He's
spent several months defending at least one client in Forsyth County,
where he claims people have similar concerns and allegations.
Asked
if people's rights are being stripped, the lawyer answered definitely,
adding that, “Something is not right. It can't be right, and then I
looked in the files and it happened here, it happened here, it happened
here, it happened here and after a while you say, 'This is not a
mistake. This is an intentional act.' And that's when it gets scary."
Richard
Black, with the Center for Elder Abuse Reform, has investigated
guardianship issues across the nation and he's now focused on North
Carolina.
"What I am saying is North Carolina has a process that
is in grave need of improvement and the people who should be sponsoring
and driving and endorsing those improvements are doing everything to
keep it what it is," Black, of Charlotte, detailed.
The CBS 17 Investigators spent days combing through nearly 250 files from 2017 and found more concerns.
In another, a niece cites concerns about a state-contracted company that served as guardian.
She
was, "highly disappointed with the guardian as she has not once visited
the Ward at her home. She stated that the guardian appears overwhelmed
with her caseload..."
In a separate case, a guardian ad litem
recommends a public, “limited guardian,” noting that more input was
needed during the hearing about what rights should be retained.
The records show that same day a clerk appointed a state-contracted company as a full guardian, the ward retaining no rights.
The case file does not provide any notes of further testimony or input given during a hearing.
"When
a guardianship is put into place and somebody's deemed incompetent,
they lose rights," Wake County Clerk of Courts Jennifer Knox explained.
"It is someone's life that you're really dealing with."
Knox describes guardianship as a "big deal." She tells CBS 17 that her office has done everything to protect people.
"We
simply follow the law that the legislature puts out so if they want
things changed then they need to go to legislature and ask for the laws
to be changed," Knox said.
She adds that her office investigates all complaints, a reason she said Mark Skinner was able to become his wife's guardian.
Knox believes there are safeguards in place, like state standards for facilities and annual accounting reports for guardians.
"Their
money is their money. It can be used for them (wards) and them only,"
Knox answered to allegations about guardians defrauding people. "We want
them to be protected, we want them to be safe and that's paramount to
our office.”
Some North Carolina advocates and families aren’t convinced.
"We're stuck for life like this. All we want to do is be left alone." Mr. Skinner said. His wife agreed.
"I want our rights given back so we can have our own life," she said.
In Washington, lawmakers have taken action.
In
October, the president signed into law "The Elder Abuse Prevention And
Prosecution Act."
Another senate bill focused on guardianship
accountability and oversight also remains with Congress.
As for protecting yourself, experts say have a power of attorney, health directive, or estate plan in place.
