Ohio Supreme Court reprimands judge for Facebook posts relating to guardianship case

By Bernise Carolino

The Supreme Court of Ohio has publicly reprimanded a judge for professional misconduct in connection with social media posts relating to a pending guardianship case. These statements were found inaccurate, inappropriate, and inflammatory.

A judge of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division was implicated in the handling of a guardianship and conservatorship case that predated his tenure. This case involved an 83-year-old widow who had three adult children.

In 2014, the court deemed the widow incompetent, terminated the conservatorship, and appointed the attorney who had served as her conservator as her guardian. In 2015, the court appointed another attorney as successor guardian. Over the years, two of the widow’s children raised numerous complaints about the appointed guardian and the guardianship process in general.

In January 2019, a reporter inquired about the guardianship case. The judge authorized an assistant court administrator under his supervision to respond to public inquiries. The administrator informed the reporter that the widow had been removed from her home due to “a squalid, unsafe living environment” and that her son “was not properly caring for her.”

In October 2022, the widow’s son posted on the court’s Facebook page a comment criticizing a magistrate involved in the case. The judge’s response to this comment accused the son of failing to take care of his mother and letting her live in deplorable conditions. The judge’s response also claimed that a neighbour called senior services and that the widow was a victim of elder abuse.

The record of the guardianship case showed that the actual reason for the widow’s relocation to an assisted living facility was her guardian’s belief that she would benefit from better supervision and the activities available there.

Judge reprimanded

At the disciplinary proceeding, the judge stipulated that his and the assistant court administrator’s statements were misleading, inaccurate, and unsupported by the case record. He also admitted that he failed to refresh his memory about the facts of the case before making the replies on social media.

In Ohio State Bar Association v. Winkler, the Ohio Supreme Court accepted the recommendation by the Board of Professional Conduct to publicly reprimand the judge.

The board found clear and convincing evidence that the judge violated numerous provisions of the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct. These violations included making public statements that could impact the outcome or the fairness of pending matters and failing to promote public confidence in the judiciary's independence, integrity, and impartiality.

The board deemed the judge’s multiple offences, as well as the vulnerability of the victims and the harm caused by the misconduct, to be aggravating factors.

The board also accepted the presence of mitigating factors, including the judge’s previously clean disciplinary record, evidence supporting his good character and reputation, his cooperation during the disciplinary process, and his prompt actions in removing the Facebook posts. The board noted that the judge acknowledged his misconduct and apologized to the son.

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Ohio Supreme Court reprimands judge for Facebook posts relating to guardianship case

Jason Neufeld, Esq. Appointed Co-Chair of the Elder Law Practice Section

On behalf of President Aaron J. Horowitz, the Broward County Bar Association (BCBA) is delighted to announce the appointment of Attorney Jason Neufeld to the position of Co-Chair of the Elder Law Practice Section. This esteemed appointment is effective from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.

Miami, FL (PRUnderground) September 5th, 2024

Serving as Co-Chair is a prestigious honor that recognizes Jason Neufeld, Esq. as a leader within the Broward legal community. In this pivotal role, Jason will collaborate closely with BCBA staff, judges, and community and business leaders to enhance knowledge and professionalism in elder law.

“Jason Neufeld has demonstrated exceptional dedication and expertise in the field of elder law,” said President Aaron J. Horowitz. “Their appointment as Co-Chair reflects their leadership and commitment to advancing our legal community. We are confident that Jason will excel in this role and contribute significantly to our mission.”

As Co-Chair, Jason Neufeld, Esq. of Elder Needs Law in Aventura, FL, will lead a dynamic and active section, working to provide crucial services to the Bar Association, the practice of law, and the community at large via the section’s pro bono activities. This role offers a fulfilling opportunity to drive positive change and foster professional development within the field.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Jason Neufeld, Esq. and express our gratitude for their leadership and service to the BCBA and the broader legal community.

About the Broward County Bar Association (BCBA)

The BCBA is dedicated to supporting legal professionals in Broward County through education, advocacy, and community engagement. Our mission is to promote excellence in the legal profession and enhance the delivery of legal services to the community.

About Elder Needs Law

Elder Needs Law, PLLC is a Florida law firm specializing in the unique legal needs of elders. Medicaid planning, estate planning, guardianship, probate, elder law, and asset protection are some of the main areas in which Elder Needs Law can assist their clients. For more information on how they can help you or your loved ones, you can visit their website.

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Jason Neufeld, Esq. Appointed Co-Chair of the Elder Law Practice Section

Judge Orders Guardianship Firm to Return Thousands It Took From an Elderly Woman for Services It Never Provided

New York Guardianship Services had billed Judith Zbiegniewicz $450 a month for court-ordered care, but a judge found the company provided “minimal services, if any” for years, including at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

by Jake Pearson

A New York judge has ordered one of the city’s most prominent guardianship companies to return thousands of dollars to an elderly woman for the court-mandated care and oversight it failed to provide her.

Supreme Court Justice Lee Mayersohn wrote in an Aug. 8 decision that the company, New York Guardianship Services, billed Judith Zbiegniewicz monthly but provided “minimal services, if any” for years, including at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

During that time, Zbiegniewicz, who was living under guardianship for depression and anxiety, said she and her husband spent a night on the streets, moved into a city shelter and finally found affordable housing on their own.

Zbiegniewicz and her decade-long journey through the state’s broken guardianship system were the subject of a ProPublica investigation earlier this year. The reporting showed how that system, which is plagued by chronic delays, lax regulation and minimal oversight, has failed to protect thousands of aging and sick New Yorkers who judges have declared incapable of managing their own affairs.

The people most affected are poor wards like Zbiegniewicz who have no friends or family willing to look after them — a group dubbed “the unbefriended” in industry parlance. To care for this group, the city relies on a network of nonprofits. New York Guardianship Services represented itself as one such group and was assigned by the court to be Zbiegniewicz’s guardian.

Despite its representations, NYGS, which serves hundreds of wards, is not actually registered as a nonprofit with state and federal authorities, ProPublica found.

For roughly a decade, the company paid itself from Zbiegniewicz’s bank account, even as she complained about deteriorating living conditions. The problems that she described — living with bedbugs, rats and no heat — persisted for years, and NYGS did little or nothing to fix them while it collected monthly stipends from her limited funds. She said that she eventually tried to reach Mayersohn to flag the neglect and hold NYGS accountable but that her attempts were unsuccessful. The judge’s secretary, she said, simply referred her calls back to the guardianship company.

That changed in June though, after Zbiegniewicz attended a hearing to formally dispute NYGS’ accounting — protests she had previously articulated in a letter to the judge. During a court appearance, she complained to Mayersohn about her time as a ward of NYGS. She said she told him that there was “no excuse for what they put me through.”

Mayersohn’s decision, informed by that hearing, requires the company to return $5,400 to Zbiegniewicz for some of the fees it took between January 2019 and July 2022, a stretch in which she effectively lived on her own outside the guardianship.

The order separately requires the bank that owned the rat-and-bedbug-infested Queens home where NYGS placed Zbiegniewicz to honor a prior housing court settlement, which it has yet to pay. Under the deal, the bank owes Zbiegniewicz $5,000. If it doesn’t pay, she can seek to reclaim the money in court, though Zbiegniewicz said she was skeptical that the effort and cost of doing so would be worth it. An attorney for the bank didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.

In an interview, Zbiegniewicz said that she was pleased with the ruling, but that she was more happy that Mayersohn finally heard directly from her. She also said that she wanted NYGS to be held to account for its actions.

“I got some kind of justice, but the justice would be if they would be taken out of guardianships completely because they do not do anything for the people,” she said.

As part of its reporting, ProPublica identified more than a dozen cases like Zbiegniewicz’s in which NYGS failed to meet the needs of those entrusted to its care. In one case, a woman who’d had two strokes was placed in a nursing home where she was left to sit in soiled diapers, a family member said. In another case, the company continued to collect payments for a man’s care even after he left the country and later died.

Brothers Sam and David Blau, who run NYGS, and a lawyer for the group did not respond to an email seeking comment on the judge’s decision. In response to ProPublica’s previous reporting, Sam Blau, the group’s chief financial officer, said that “we are accountable to the Court” and emphasized that the group’s financial paperwork was scrutinized by examiners who had the power to raise issues. He called the reporting “misguided, without full and proper context, filled with omissions and less than accurate information” but wouldn’t specify what his concerns were when asked. He declined to comment on any specific cases.

Zbiegniewicz credited ProPublica’s investigation for the judge’s action in her case — an uncommon occurrence in New York’s troubled guardianship system. But she also noted it took years of sustained protest on her part, a level of persistence that many ailing and elderly New Yorkers in guardianship cannot manage.

“I’ve done what I could, I feel good about it, the judge heard, you wrote things,” she said. “Maybe somebody will see and maybe somewhere, down the line, somebody will do something about it.” 

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Judge Orders Guardianship Firm to Return Thousands It Took From an Elderly Woman for Services It Never Provided

Family: Relative's decomposing body found in nursing home closet

By WPTV - Staff

A family believes a body found in a South Florida nursing home's closet is a 71-year-old man who went missing from the facility nearly two weeks earlier.

The family of Elin Etienne believes it was his decomposing body that was found Monday in a closet at the North Dade Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 11 days after he went missing. He had been a patient at the facility after suffering a brain aneurysm earlier in August, the family said.

North Miami Police issued a missing person alert for him Aug. 23, a day after he disappeared.

Ruth Keisha Etienne, his granddaughter, told WTVJ-TV that nursing home administrators never notified them a body had been found. She said an anonymous caller told them, so they contacted administrators.

"They said they found him in a closet and he was already decomposing, and they refused to let us see the body," Etienne told the station. "And we tried to speak to the nursing home people, but they refused to speak to us. They don’t want to talk to us. I wonder why?"

The nursing home declined to comment Wednesday. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday that the body still had not been identified. Police said they are conducting a death investigation.

State nursing home regulators did not immediately return a call Wednesday seeking comment.

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Family: Relative's decomposing body found in nursing home closet

96-year-old California woman facing eviction from seniors home unless she coughs up $110K to new owners: ‘I’m not going’

By Richard Pollina

A 96-year-old California woman was served a three-day eviction notice from her senior living home demanding she cough up $110,000 or leave the unit she’s been living in for 22 years.

Jean Jacques says she signed a lifetime contract with California-Nevada Methodist Homes in 2002 to live at their Forest Hill Manor nursing home in Pacific Grove, Calif., for the rest of her life, according to KSBW.

She secured her spot with a $250,000 down payment and paid $5,000 monthly rent until her savings ran dry.

Jean Jacques says she signed a lifetime contract with California-Nevada Methodist Homes in 2002 to live at their nursing home for the rest of her life. KSBW 8

Things became complicated when California-Nevada Methodist Homes went bankrupt and sold the facility to Pacific Grove Senior Living in 2022.

The for-profit senior living community purchased the property with the clause that it would abide by previous contracts of the tenants who signed lifetime deals, an expectation Jacques thought would be honored.

However, Pacifica Senior Living, the San Diego-based parent company of Pacific Grove Senior Living, served the 96-year-old with the eviction notice on Aug. 16, saying she had three days to send it $110,000 or face eviction.

“I was shocked,” the full-of-life senior shared. “The reason I moved into Forest Hill Manor was to be taken care of for the rest of my life.”

Jacques and senior advocates discovered her previous contract was grandfathered in, but the policies ensuring she could live in her unit until she died were not.

California-Nevada Methodist Homes went bankrupt and sold the facility to Pacific Grove Senior Living in 2022. KSBW 8

“She’s devoted all of her savings and money into this place,” the president of Pacific Grove Senior Living’s residents’ association, Bob Sadler, told KSBW. “I don’t care what the legal ramifications are here. This is morally unthinkable.”

Sadler told the outlet that the “lifetime care” contracts like Jacques signed in 2002 were only considered unconditional with the previous owners, not Pacific Senior Living.

However, a project manager with the Alliance for Aging, Elizabeth Campos, told the outlet that the eviction notice was allegedly not approved by the Community Care Licensing Division, the California government agency that oversees these facilities.

The “lifetime care” contracts like Jacques signed in 2002 were only considered unconditional with the previous owners, not Pacific Senior Living. KSBW 8

Pacific Senior Living, the San Diego-based parent company of Pacific Grove Senior Living, served the 96-year-old with the eviction notice on Aug. 16, saying she had three days to send them $110,000 or face eviction. KSBW 8

Furthermore, the notice did not instruct Jacques on how to appeal the eviction, Campos claims.

“You know, it’s frustrating. You do get angry knowing that it’s an elderly person,” Campos told the outlet. “Where is this person going to go?”

Campos and others are fighting for Pacific Senior Living to do the right thing and uphold the original contract so Jacques can stay in the unit she has called home for the past 22 years.

Jacques and senior advocates discovered her previous contract was grandfathered in, but the policies ensuring she could live in her unit until she died were not. KSBW 8

Since receiving the eviction notice, the facility’s business office has not contacted Jacques.

The Alliance for Aging and the Residents’ Committee have attempted to contact the office but have yet to receive a reply, according to KSBW.

The Post has reached out to Pacific Grove Senior Living for comment.

Jacques, who turned 96 in July, says she has no plans to leave her home.

“I’m not going. They’ll have to bury me because I have no place to go,” she declared to KSBW. “They have all my money.”

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96-year-old California woman facing eviction from seniors home unless she coughs up $110K to new owners: ‘I’m not going’

World’s oldest man born in the year of Titanic disaster shares long life secret

by Ellie Ng 

John Tinniswood, the world’s oldest living man, has turned 112 at his care home in Southport, Merseyside.

Mr Tinniswood was born in Liverpool on August 26 1912, the year the Titanic sank, and became the world’s oldest living man in April, saying the secret of his longevity is “just luck”.

Asked how he feels to be turning 112, he told the Guinness World Records (GWR): “In all honesty, no different. I don’t feel that age, I don’t get excited over it. That’s probably why I’ve reached it.

“I just take it in my stride like anything else, why I’ve lived that long I have no idea at all.

“I can’t think of any special secrets I have. I was quite active as a youngster, I did a lot of walking. Whether that had something to do with it, I don’t know. But to me, I’m no different [to anyone]. No different at all.”

On what the biggest difference in the world is over the course of his life, he said: “It’s no better in my opinion, or hardly any better, than it was then. Probably in some places it is, but in other places it’s worse.”

On the secret of his longevity, he told GWR it’s “just luck.”

“You either live long or you live short, and you can’t do much about it,” he added.

Beyond eating a portion of battered fish and chips every Friday, Mr Tinniswood said he does not follow any particular diet.

“I eat what they give me and so does everybody else. I don’t have a special diet,” he said.

Mr Tinniswood lived through both world wars and is the world’s oldest surviving male Second World War veteran. He worked in an administrative role for the Army Pay Corps.

Mr Tinniswood said he doesn’t follow any special diet, but eats a portion of battered fish and chips every Friday (Guinness World Records/PA Wire)

In addition to accounts and auditing, his work involved logistical tasks such as locating stranded soldiers and organising food supplies.

He went on to work as an accountant for Shell and BP before retiring in 1972.

A lifelong Liverpool FC fan, Mr Tinniswood was born just 20 years after the club was founded in 1892, and has lived through all eight of his club’s FA Cup wins and 17 of their 19 league title wins.

Mr Tinniswood met his wife, Blodwen, at a dance in Liverpool, and the couple enjoyed 44 years together before Blodwen died in 1986.

Their daughter Susan was born in 1943.

Since turning 100 in 2012, he received a birthday card each year from the late Queen Elizabeth, who was his junior by almost 14 years.

The oldest man ever was Jiroemon Kimura from Japan, who lived to the age of 116 years 54 days and died in 2013.

The world’s oldest living woman, and oldest living person, is Japan’s 116-year-old Tomiko Itooka.

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World’s oldest man born in the year of Titanic disaster shares long life secret

Bexar County among leaders of elder abuse in the state, county trying to change that statistic

The county has introduced a training plan for all city employees to spot elder abuse.

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Bexar County among leaders of elder abuse in the state, county trying to change that statistic

Klamath Falls nurse strikes plea deal in elder abuse case

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Klamath Falls nurse strikes plea deal in elder abuse case

Dog saves Ashford woman's life

Retha Cobb is hopeful for a full recovery. She would likely be dead if not for Litze's persistence. 

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Dog saves Ashford woman's life