Former ward of disgraced guardian Rebecca Fierle won his rights back. Then he died

Jack Meagher says his court-appointed guardian, Rebecca Fierle, doesn't respect his wishes, and he doesn't need someone to make decisions for him.
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By Monivette Cordeiro

James “Jack” Meagher Jr. was always a proud man, those who knew him said.

When a judge declared him incapacitated in 2018 and put him under the care of former Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle, the Winter Springs man fought in court and in the press to prove he was capable of making decisions about his life. Meagher, who was disabled, traveled with his motorized wheelchair to get groceries, took photos of meals he cooked and dressed himself.

“[Fierle] is not looking out for my best interests,” a then 67-year-old Meagher told the Orlando Sentinel in 2019.

Rebecca Fierle

After a statewide scandal that led to Fierle’s resignation from hundreds of cases — and later arrest, on charges that she caused the death of another ward through abuse and neglect — Meagher and his attorney convinced a Seminole County circuit judge in April to restore his civil rights and discharge the guardian who replaced Fierle on his case.

It was a rare victory Meagher was only able to enjoy for four months — he died Aug. 13 of pancreatic cancer that had metastasized, his daughter Melanie Meagher said.

“He was reborn after guardianship,” said Sam Sugar, founder of the South Florida-based organization Americans Against Abusive Probate Guardianship, who knew Meagher from his work. “To have his new life cut short by a physical injustice, it’s really just tragic.”

The stories of Meagher and other Fierle clients and reporting by the Sentinel exposed widespread flaws in Florida’s guardianship system, prompting the Legislature to pass reforms aimed at reducing conflicts of interest and creating additional oversight for the court-appointed decision-makers, who assume full control over the lives of their wards.

Meagher, 68, was an Irish American who was born in New Jersey. He married Darcy Meagher in 1972 and had four children. They moved to Central Florida in 1979 and Meagher started A Budget Tree Service in 1981, a business which he eventually passed down to his son Dale Meagher, his daughter said.

“Dad worked from sunup till sundown,” said Melanie Meagher, 44. “He was always fixing something. ... People were inspired by that work ethic.”

After his wife’s death in 2014 from cancer, Meagher’s health declined and he needed care, his daughter said.

“It was difficult for Jack to lose function of his physical body,” she said. “He needed the assistance but he was a very proud man. Asking for help in his generation as a man was unheard of.”

Melanie Meagher said her family was desperate to get care for her father.

Her siblings sought a risk protection order against him — under a provision of Florida’s “red flag” law that allows a judge to prohibit someone considered a risk to themselves or others from possessing weapons — and later opted for guardianship, thinking that would provide him the best care possible, she said.

Circuit Judge Kenneth R. Lester appointed Fierle, a private guardian, to make medical, financial, housing, legal and personal decisions for him Nov. 5, 2018. Wards like Meagher can lose the right to marry, vote, travel or have a driver’s license. They also lose the right to decide where they live, how they spend their money and what doctor they go to.

Fierle came under fire after the death of an incapacitated client, 75-year-old Steven Stryker.

Stryker died at a Tampa hospital in May 2019 after medical staff were unable to attempt to save his life because Fierle had signed a “do not resuscitate” order against his wishes and the protests of his daughter, health-care surrogate and psychiatrist.

Fierle also insisted Stryker’s feeding tube be capped, despite being warned that he could choke and die, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Days later, Stryker aspirated and died.

The disgraced guardian, who was arrested in February on charges of aggravated abuse and neglect of an elderly person, has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty. Multiple investigations found Fierle routinely filed DNRs on her incapacitated clients and unearthed conflicts of interest in her handling of cases, including that AdventHealth Orlando paid her nearly $4 million over a decade to care for vulnerable patients — a financial arrangement not allowed without court approval.

“I don’t want to die,” Meagher told the Sentinel after the Stryker case came to light, when he was still legally under Fierle’s care.

Court records show Fierle said she had no DNR order in place for Meagher. He accused her of ignoring his wishes and ridiculing him.

“We trusted the state and the guardianship ... only to find out that was a very neglected department where they weren’t doing things correctly,” Melanie Meagher said.

After Fierle’s resignation, Nicola Fitchner was appointed Meagher’s guardian. Meagher hired attorney David Yergey III to get him out of the guardianship and restore his rights, Yergey said.

Through her attorney David Brennan, Fitchner asked a judge for the authority to sue Dale Meagher and the tree-trimming business Jack Meagher had handed down to him for using his father’s properties. Brennan said Fitchner didn’t endorse Meagher’s efforts to restore his capacity.

“This latest attempt to obtain the ward’s restoration to capacity is a strategy to preempt the guardian’s ability to recover assets and income for Mr. Meagher,” Brennan wrote in a court filing.

Lester restored Meagher’s rights April 8.

“He was very excited and wanted to know when he could get his driver’s license back,” Yergey said. “I remember he wanted to go out and do stuff but he couldn’t because of the whole [COVID-19] situation. ... It was my accomplishment of the year. I used my law license for something that carried a greater purpose.”

Meagher’s family and Fitchner are still fighting in court over fees and expenses the guardian and her attorney are trying to collect from his estate — $19,231 for Brennan’s law firm and nearly $4,365 for Fitchner for work they did from Aug. 1, 2019 to May 11.

Dale Meagher’s attorney, Lisa McCrystal, said her client has been wrongfully accused by the guardian of exploitation when in fact he had been helping with the costs of his father’s care. McCrystal said she’s objecting to fees she considers “unnecessary work.”

“Everything in guardianship is supposed to be for the best interests of the ward,” she said. “... We felt the guardian was [taking legal action] because they wanted to inflate the amount of the ward’s estate. In guardianship and probate proceedings, the amount of fees is directly tied to the estate.”

Brennan called McCrystal’s statement a “malicious accusation of dishonesty.”

“It is patently defamatory,” he said. “The ’unnecessary work’ she claims is the time spent trying to get her client, the loving son, to pay a reasonable amount for use of this property.”

Melanie Meagher said her parents passed along their business to her brother years ago and called the guardian’s involvement an “abuse of authority.” The last thing Jack Meagher said to his children was “I love you” before dying peacefully at hospice care, she said.

“My father was this big, burly tough guy with squishy insides,” she said. “He had a big heart. He was proud of his life, proud of the children he raised. My mom was his best friend and his rock. I’m glad they’re together again.”

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Former ward of disgraced guardian Rebecca Fierle won his rights back. Then he died

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Jack Meagher

Florida’s troubled guardianship system riddled with conflicts of interest, critics claim | Special Report

James “Jack” Meagher thought he was capable of managing his own affairs, but his sons said their father was mentally ill, suicidal and abusive, and needed a guardian to manage his money and health-care decisions. They went to court in 2018, asking a judge to declare their father legally incapacitated.

The judge turned to Seminole County’s Guardianship Examining Committee, a roster of doctors, psychiatrists and other experts who help determine whether someone is incapable of caring for himself or his property. Florida law requires a three-person committee to examine someone before he can be declared incapacitated, and one member must be a psychiatrist or physician.

After being examined, the judge ruled Meagher incapacitated and placed him under the care of Orlando-based professional guardian Rebecca Fierle, who was suddenly in charge of making every decision in Meagher’s life.

Meagher, 67, was surprised to learn, months later, that Fierle had a close connection with Thomas Sawyer, the doctor who helped declare him incapacitated: Sawyer’s son-in-law is Thomas Moss, an attorney who has frequently represented Fierle in dozens of her guardianship cases across Central Florida.

“That seemed a little strange,” said Meagher of Winter Springs. “It made me think he already had a preformed opinion because he’s buddy-buddy with Rebecca.”

Fierle is currently under criminal investigation after it was revealed that she had filed unauthorized “do not resuscitate” orders on incapacitated clients, sparking a scandal that has embroiled Florida’s guardianship program. She has since resigned from all her cases.

Experts say cases like Meagher’s reflect another flaw in Florida’s system meant to protect the state’s most vulnerable adults: The examining committees relied upon to help judges decide the fitness of potential wards are often made up of a small pool of people with existing ties to the guardianship industry, despite state statutes meant to prevent potential conflicts of interest.

Sawyer and Moss denied any impropriety.

“The relationship of my wife and me to my father-in-law has become well-known by those in Central Florida’s guardianship court system and those who handle guardianship matters,” Thomas Moss said in a statement. "The fact that Dr. Sawyer is my father-in-law has never been hidden and in fact, has been disclosed. Such disclosure is the reason you will find that Dr. Sawyer has rarely been appointed by the Courts in our cases.”  (Click to Continue)

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Florida’s troubled guardianship system riddled with conflicts of interest, critics claim | Special Report

Judge looks to make changes guardianship program following Fierle case

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Greg Fox, Reporter

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — WESH 2 Investigates has learned of changes aimed at keeping a closer eye on public and professional guardians.

Guardians are those appointed by a court to handle the medical and financial affairs of incapacitated, mostly elderly, people.

A criminal investigation was launched after a ward of former professional guardian Rebecca Fierle, Steven Stryker, died just days after Fierle refused to revoke a do-not-resuscitate order.

Officials said Fierle signed the order without the knowledge of Stryker or his daughter, Kim Stryker.

"I would like to see justice for my father," she said.

The investigation prompted Central Florida courts to revoke more than 140 other DNRs for her wards, including Jack Meagher.

"Somebody needs to try to save my life," Meagher told WESH 2 News.

Last month, Orange County's Comptroller released an audit that said Fierle had billed AdventHealth more than $3.6 million during the past five years, mostly for unknown services for 472 patients who were not legally her wards.

The audit also found she double-billed AdventHealth and some of the 95 patients who were listed as wards.

Donald Myers, the chief judge of the 9th Circuit, which includes Orange and Osceola counties, is making changes to the way guardian cases are handled to ensure vulnerable, mostly elderly people, are not victimized by their guardians.

"Through the Rebecca Fierle story and incident we have recognized that there are parts of the guardianship system that we just do not have the resources to address," Myers said.

Myers told WESH 2 News he's changing that.

A new judge will be added beginning Jan. 1.

That means one judge will handle probate and trust cases, while the other handles just guardianship and mental health matters.A guardian case manager will also be added. Myers is reviewing software and a database in Pennsylvania that tracks guardian cases, and alerts the state and courts of unauthorized billing or payments.

Fierle had more than 450 wards in more than a dozen counties.

"A statewide system like that would assist us in being able to see firsthand where guardians are working, how many cases they are handling and the potentials for fraud or abuse," Myers said.

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Judge looks to make changes guardianship program following Fierle case

Central Florida guardian is a no show in Volusia County court

By Adrianna Iwasinski

DeLAND, Fla. - A Central Florida professional guardian under a state criminal investigation failed to appear in a Volusia County courtroom Monday afternoon for a case management conference on seven guardianship cases she had filed in that county.

Instead, Rebecca Fierle's attorneys showed up and asked the judge to order the proceedings to be closed to the public. Also in the courtroom, were two investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which has launched a criminal investigation into Fierle.

Judge Margaret Hudson granted the motion, but not before ordering that successor guardians needed to be placed in Fierle's three guardianship cases where the people are still alive.

News 6 has spent two weeks trying to get Fierle to answer the question of why she ordered do not resuscitate orders in cases in which people wanted to live.

Time after time, News 6 went to Fierle's geriatric management office in Orlando, to get results for the people who say they are her victims.

Even those coming to visit the office, located on Hillcrest Street, refused to talk or answer our questions about the investigation ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The staff locked the door during each and every one of our visits. So News 6 called the office, sent messages to Fierle's social media accounts and called and emailed her attorneys multiple times. No one ever returned our requests for comment.

News 6 also went to Fierle's home in Ocala to see if she was there. No one answered the door.

Last week, Fierle was in a Hillsborough County courtroom facing a judge to answer questions about a guardianship she had in that county.

But she refused to answer any questions from a Tampa television reporter when approached outside the courthouse after her hearing.

On July 12, News 6 talked with the daughter of Steven Stryker. Her father's death is at the center of a state criminal investigation.

State investigators say Fierle placed a do not resuscitate order on Steven Stryker, despite his wishes. He choked and died when the DNR prevented hospital staff from performing life-saving measures.

"He didn't deserve this," Kim Stryker said from her home outside Washington D.C. "He specifically expressed that he did not want to have a DNR on his health records."

As a result of the state investigation, an Orange County judge removed and revoked almost 100 do not resuscitate orders from cases handled by Fierle, stating she abused her power.

A week later, Fierle resigned from more than 30 cases in Seminole County.

While Fierle did not attend the closed hearing, some of her former clients did.

"The can of worms is just opening up for her," said Jack Meagher, a former ward of Fierle's.

The Florida Department of Elder Affairs, and more specifically, its Office of Public and Professional Guardians, is the group that is supposed to train, appoint and monitor the more than 500 registered guardians statewide. Three years ago, a law was passed, giving that office the power to investigate complaints made against any of those guardians and to partner with the courts to do so.

Under the statewide investigation alliance, the OPPG could refer a case to an investigator with the inspector general's office or one of the six court clerk's offices located across the state, which could then issue written reprimands or letters of concern.

They also have the power to suspend or revoke a professional guardian's registration.

But OPPG Executive Director Carol Berkowitz submitted her letter of resignation two weeks ago, just days after a state report revealed guardian Fierle placed do not resuscitate orders against the wishes of one of her wards.

The latest annual report by the Office of Public and Professional Guardians says the office received more than 140 legally sufficient complaints against registered professional guardians in 2018, and about half that number in 2017.

In Fierle's case, the OPPG gave her a written reprimand twice before. But her guardianship was kept in place until this month, when she was removed and effectively resigned from all her cases.

On Friday, the head of the Department of Elder Affairs Richard Prudom announced his department has made immediate administrative changes to try to improve response times on complaints. He said he will pursue legislative changes to ensure that neglect and abuse such as this never occurs again. 
At the same time the state was investigating, so was the Orange County comptroller's office.

"This whole guardianship system has been set up to protect people," Phil Diamond, the Orange County comptroller said. "It protects you if you are elderly and can't take care of yourself. It is supposed to protect you if you are a minor and you can't take care of yourself and that's the whole point of having guardians and our concern is that's not what happened here."

Diamond said his office was asked by a court monitor with the 9th Circuit Court to step in and investigate.

He said his audit department reviewed 30 cases in one week and discovered Fierle failed to provide receipts for reported work, failed to report businesses she worked with that had familial ties
and failed to report to the court nearly 70 cases in which she was a guardian.

"What's disturbing is to see vulnerable people not taken care of the way they should be," Diamond said. "There's a reason for all the rules that are in place to protect people, and if the rules aren't being followed, it means people could be taken advantage of. It means they might not be taken care of and that really defeats the purpose of a guardianship."

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Central Florida guardian is a no show in Volusia County court

Disgraced ex-guardian Rebecca Fierle in contempt of court for failing to give documents, replacement says

Jack Meagher says his court-appointed guardian, Rebecca Fierle, doesn't respect his wishes, and he doesn't need someone to make decisions for him.

By Jeff Weiner

Though former Orlando guardian Rebecca Fierle resigned amid scandal months ago, her legal squabbles continue with some of those appointed to replace her.

In the latest salvo, attorneys for guardian Kelly Pitman are asking Orange County Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe to hold Fierle in contempt of court, after they say she failed to hand over documents regarding at least two of her former wards.

Pitman, through attorneys David A. Yergey Jr. and David A. Yergey III, first filed a broad request Sept. 5, demanding that Fierle hand over contracts, correspondence, reports, financial statements, calendars and other materials related to her handling of the wards.

Months — and a court order — later, she has not complied, they say.

“The refusal of Fierle to comply with the Court’s order was willful and improper, and such unwarranted refusal has necessitated the filing of this Motion,” Pitman’s latest filing says. It asks for Fierle to be ruled in contempt and ordered to pay Pitman’s expenses and attorney’s fees.

In an emailed statement, Fierle’s attorney, Harry T. Hackney, said Fierle “is, in fact, producing voluminous records voluntarily pursuant to an agreed order.”

“Mr. Yergey was advised of this and filed the motion immediately anyway,” he said.

Fierle was a prolific guardian, appointed in hundreds of cases across more than a dozen counties, before a scandal erupted concerning her handling of 75-year-old ward Steven Stryker, who died in a Tampa hospital while under a “do not resuscitate” order Fierle signed against his wishes.

She has since acknowledged routinely filing DNRs for wards. Probes have also found evidence of double-billing, conflicts of interest and cases in which she acted outside her legal authority.

Fierle is being investigated criminally by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the office of Attorney General Ashley Moody, but has not been charged with any crimes.

The controversy, as well as a series of Orlando Sentinel special reports exposing issues in the state’s troubled and underfunded guardianship system, have prompted calls for reform. Legislation to require court approval for DNRs and close statutory loopholes was filed by lawmakers this week; Gov. Ron DeSantis is seeking to nearly double the budget of the state’s oversight agency; and AdventHealth, which had paid Fierle nearly $4 million over a decade, is overhauling its use of guardians.

Fierle resigned as a professional guardian July 25 in a letter to the state’s Department of Elder Affairs. She had stepped down from all Orange County cases weeks earlier.

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Disgraced ex-guardian Rebecca Fierle in contempt of court for failing to give documents, replacement says

Orlando guardian accused of filing unauthorized ‘do not resuscitate’ orders resigns from Seminole cases

Jack Meagher says his court-appointed guardian, Rebecca Fierle, doesn't respect his wishes, and he doesn't need someone to make decisions for him.
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An Orlando guardian accused of filing unauthorized “do not resuscitate” orders for incapacitated clients is resigning from cases in Seminole County, soon after she was forced out of nearly 100 in Orange.

Attorneys for professional guardian Rebecca Fierle appeared before Circuit Judge John D. Galluzzo Friday at an emergency hearing. It was not immediately clear how many cases Fierle resigned from because the hearing was closed to the public.

Guardians are court-appointed decision-makers for minor or incapacitated adults, known as wards. An investigation released by Florida’s Office of Public and Professional Guardians determined one of Fierle’s wards, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, died in a Tampa hospital after staff could not perform life-saving procedures because of a DNR order filed against his wishes by Fierle.

Another of Fierle’s wards, 73-year-old Jerry Manczak, brought to the Friday hearing a copy of a DNR order Fierle filed for him at the Sanford assisted living facility where he resides.

“She never asked me,” Manczak said. “I didn’t know about it until now.”

Manczak said he used to have a DNR order in place when he still had all his legal rights, but Fierle had never spoken to him about it or sought permission to file one with his current facility. Raymond Branch, Fierle’s attorney in Manczak’s case, said in an email that he was unable to comment due to attorney-client privilege.

The 18th Judicial Circuit was alerted to the issue after Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe sought to remove Fierle from nearly 100 Orange County cases.

In emails to Galluzzo’s office, an attorney with the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel, said the office spoke with all of Fierle’s wards with cases in Orange County and some were “quite adamant” about not wanting a DNR.

Gerald Manczak, a ward of Rebecca Fierle, said
this "do not resuscitate" order was filed without
his permission by the professional guardian.
(Monivette Cordeiro / Orlando Sentinel)

“Many of them did not want a DNR,” wrote attorney Polly McIntyre, according to court records.

Neither Fierle nor her attorney have responded to multiple requests for comment. At a July 11 hearing before Thorpe that was also closed to the public, Fierle resigned from all her cases in Orange and Osceola counties, according to court minutes.

The hearing before Galluzzo came as courts across Central Florida are grappling with how to react to the allegations against Fierle, who had many active cases across multiple jurisdictions.

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Michelle Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the 18th Judicial Circuit, which includes Seminole and Brevard counties, had earlier in the week said the courts there had been “alerted to the allegations” against Fierle, which were under review.

According to the Clerk of Court & Comptroller, Fierle has been appointed as a guardian in 82 cases in Seminole County, though some are no longer active. Some wards were the subject of multiple cases, meaning the total number of wards Fierle managed in Seminole is less than that figure.

Mark Weinberg, a spokesperson for the 7th Judicial Circuit, said Tuesday that Fierle had seven active cases in Volusia County, but was in the process of resigning. All seven cases are due in court later this month for status updates, he said.

Fierle also had one case in St. Johns County, but was discharged from it in 2015, Weinberg said.

In Hillsborough County, a courts spokesperson said he had “no way of knowing” in which cases Fierle was assigned and doesn’t discuss with judges any actions they “may or may not be considering.”

In the 6th Circuit, which serves Pasco and Pinellas counties, spokesperson Stephen Thompson said Fierle was a guardian in two cases. The judge in those cases, Sherwood Coleman, appointed a court monitor to investigate both cases and report any findings, Thompson said.

"The judge will schedule further proceedings to enter any orders necessary to protect the wards,” he said.

In Polk County, a judicial assistant for Circuit Judge John K. Stargel, who oversees probate and public health cases, said the judge was made aware of the situation by the Orlando Sentinel asking about it.

“No motions have been filed on any of the cases at this time,” said the judicial assistant, Elizabeth Medina. “The Court will be reviewing the cases and setting status conferences as appropriate for each case.”

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Orlando guardian accused of filing unauthorized ‘do not resuscitate’ orders resigns from Seminole cases

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Guardian filed DNR orders without permission, says judge who seeks her removal from nearly 100 cases

Judge removes professional guardian from nearly 100 cases for alleged violations

Federal legislation filed to address guardianship issues as scandal embroils Florida’s troubled program

Jack Meagher says his court-appointed guardian, Rebecca Fierle, doesn't respect his wishes, and he doesn't need someone to make decisions for him.

As Florida’s guardianship program is under increased scrutiny with the revelation that a client died after his Orlando guardian filed a “do not resuscitate” order against his wishes, federal lawmakers on Wednesday filed bipartisan legislation to expand protections for incapacitated people.

The Guardianship Accountability Act would expand oversight and data collection “to hold guardians accountable” by creating a national resource center and expanding background checks and communication between local, state and federal organizations, U.S. Rep. Darren Soto’s office said in a statement.

“It is our duty in Congress to speak up and protect the most vulnerable members of our communities,” said Soto, D-Kissimmee, in a statement. “In Orlando, we saw firsthand the abuse of a former guardian which led to a preventable death. We owe it to our seniors and to those living with disabilities to provide protections from ill-intended bad actors who abuse the system designed to provide a better quality of life."

The scandal in Florida was sparked by the death of 75-year-old Steven Stryker, a ward of Orlando professional guardian Rebecca Fierle. Despite Stryker’s stated desire to live, corroborated by his daughter and a psychiatrist, Stryker died after Fierle refused to rescind a DNR order she had filed, which prevented staff at a Tampa hospital from attempting to save his life, a state investigation found.

It has since emerged that Fierle routinely filed DNRs on behalf of her wards without court approval. She resigned as a professional guardian statewide as judges across Central Florida launched removal proceedings against her after details of the Stryker case, first reported by the Orlando Sentinel, came to light. Fierle is currently under criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

State agents searched the Orlando office of Fierle’s company, Geriatric Management, on Monday, finding the cremated remains of nine people, according to the state’s Office of Attorney General.

Soto was joined by fellow Florida congressmen U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, and Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor; Michigan Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell; and U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, in introducing the act.

“Guardianship abuses are resulting in seniors literally being held against their will, isolated from family members and friends, their assets liquidated and drained by unscrupulous people gaming a broken system,” Crist said in a statement. “... This legislation brings federal resources to bear, providing the missing transparency needed to understand where problems exist with a better ability for stakeholders to track outcomes across disparate state court systems nationwide.”

Said Bilirakis: “It is said that the strength of a society can be judged based upon how it treats its most vulnerable populations. We’ve seen from recent examples in the news, and alarming rates of elder abuse throughout Pasco and Pinellas counties, that guardianship is an area where we can and must do better in order to ensure the protection of our seniors.”

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Federal legislation filed to address guardianship issues as scandal embroils Florida’s troubled program

Investigations of embattled guardian Rebecca Fierle include Medicaid fraud allegations

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The state’s Office of Attorney General is investigating allegations of Medicaid fraud against Rebecca Fierle, the former professional guardian whose use of unauthorized “do not resuscitate” orders on incapacitated clients has embroiled Florida’s guardianship program.

Whitney Ray, a spokesman for Attorney General Ashley Moody, confirmed Thursday the office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began investigating Fierle in July.

That month, a judge sought the court-appointed guardian’s removal from nearly 100 Orange County cases after finding Fierle “abused her authority” by filing DNRs on incapacitated clients, known as wards, without permission from the court or their families. Fierle has since resigned from all of her cases statewide.

The MFCU probe, which began in October 2018, initially targeted a health care facility, based on complaints about the financial exploitation of a combat veteran, Ray said. As the investigation progressed, Fierle, who was the veteran’s guardian, became a target of the probe.

“As of early July, Fierle is now a major focus of this ongoing MFCU investigation into Medicaid fraud and financial exploitation,” Ray said.

MFCU investigates “patient abuse, neglect, and exploitation in facilities receiving payments under the Medicaid program,” according to the attorney general’s website.

The MFCU investigation is separate from a criminal probe of Fierle’s actions as a guardian that is being conducted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Ray said.

That probe began after an investigation by the Okaloosa County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller found one of Fierle’s wards, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, died at a Tampa hospital in May following Fierle’s refusal to remove a DNR order she filed against his wishes.

The FDLE and OCSO found the cremated remains of nine people last week when they searched the Orlando office for Fierle’s business, Geriatric Management, at 1646 Hillcrest St. Involved in the investigation are Michael Moreschi, a former Orlando police homicide detective, and Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Cass Michael Castillo, a former homicide prosecutor in the Bartow-based 10th Judicial Circuit.

Fierle is not currently facing criminal charges. The former guardian and her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Confirmation of the MFCU probe is not the first example of Fierle’s financial management of her wards coming under scrutiny. A review of 30 Orange County cases involving the guardian by the county’s comptroller identified potential conflicts of interest in her handling of wards’ assets.

Comptroller Phil Diamond’s office said Fierle may have entered into a contract with AdventHealth, whose patients later became her wards, an agreement that was not disclosed to the court. It also found she had hired people with whom she had a prior relationship to perform services for wards.

James “Jack” Meagher, a former ward of Fierle in Seminole County, told the Orlando Sentinel that an FDLE agent recently contacted him to talk about how Fierle handled his finances.

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Investigations of embattled guardian Rebecca Fierle include Medicaid fraud allegations