ProbateSharks.com

Man shot to death while holding baby

2012-02-17T17:40:00.000-06:00

Man shot to death while holding baby

2:44 PM, Feb 16, 2012

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (KPNX) -- An Arizona man was shot to death by police Tuesday while holding his grandson. "There were at least three officers in position to engage the suspect. At least one of the officers thought he saw something in the suspect's hands," said Sgt. Mark Clark.

Loxas was standing outside of his home with his grandchild still in his arms when
Officer James Peters fired one shot to the head, killing the suspect.

Police say the 9-month-old boy was not injured during the shooting.

Officers also escaped unharmed.

Some neighbors are now questioning the officers actions.

Investigators say the officers on the scene thought Loxas was holding a gun.

Detectives did not find a weapon on Loxas

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article/189732/44/Man-shot-to-death-while-holding-baby

Editor's note: Hello...something wrong with this story????

Connecticut son reportedly wants to evict 98-year-old mother

2012-02-17T16:58:00.002-06:00

Connecticut son reportedly wants to evict 98-year-old mother

Published February 17, 2012
FoxNews.com

A Connecticut mother reportedly received an unusual gift for her 98th birthday from her eldest son -- eviction papers.

Mary Kantorowski, who has lived in the same Southport, Conn., home since 1953, is now facing eviction from her yellow, Cape Cod-style home valued at $333,410, the Connecticut Post reports. Her son Peter Kantorowski, 71, a retired taxidermist, said he's doing it for her own good.

"She would be better off living with people her own age," he told the newspaper.

According to Probate Court records, Mary Kantorowski and her husband, John, agreed to transfer the house to a trust administered by Peter Kantorowski on the condition that Mary would live there until her death, and upon her death, the house would go to Peter and his younger brother, Jack, the newspaper reports.

In July 2005, however, Peter Kantorowski quitclaimed the house from that trust to another he and his wife control, giving him ownership of the house. Six years later, in Dec. 13, 2011, his mother's 98th birthday, Peter Kantorowski had his mother served with eviction papers.

"This is just a despicable situation," said Richard Bortolot Jr., a Stratford lawyer appointed by Fairfield Probate Judge Daniel Caruso to represent Mary Kantorowski. "Mary has been living here happily paying all the expenses for the house and now her son, Peter, comes along and is telling her, 'Get the hell out,' so he can sell it."

A trial on Peter Kantorowski's efforts to evict his mother is scheduled for March 2 in Superior Court in Bridgeport, the newspaper reports.

"My husband worked hard, difficult jobs to buy this house," Mary Kantorowski told the Connecticut Post. "He built the garage and did a lot of work on the house and he told me never to leave it."

Click here for more on this report from the Connecticut Post.

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/17/connecticut-son-reportedly-wants-to-evict-8-year-old-mother/print#ixzz1mgO7dSnm

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/17/connecticut-son-reportedly-wants-to-evict-8-year-old-mother/?test=latestnews?test=latestnews

Coroner: No foul play in death of missing North Barrington woman

2012-02-17T16:52:00.001-06:00

Coroner: No foul play in death of missing North Barrington woman

Staff report

1:11 PM CST, February 17, 2012

An autopsy on a missing North Barrington woman found no signs of trauma or foul play, and authorities say they are awaiting results of toxicology tests to determine how she died.

Maria Carlsen was discovered in a drainage pipe near U.S. Route 12 and Ivanhoe Road, just south of Wauconda, on Thursday. Bottles of medication used to treat anxiety and depression were found with her, along with a bottle of water, according to Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran.

The sheriff said it appeared Carlsen, 61, committed suicide, though she left no note. Lake County Coroner Artis Yancy said his office would make no determination until after reviewing the toxicology results.

The sheriff's department began looking for Carlsen after she failed to board a plane Tuesday to Boca Raton, Fla., where her husband was awaiting her. Her family last heard from her about 2 p.m. Monday, but when a limousine driver arrived at her home Tuesday morning to take her to O'Hare International Airport, neither she nor her black BMW sedan was there.

Authorities found the car at J&D's Bar and Grill, a tavern on U.S. Route 12 about three miles from her house. Owner Jose Banuelos said that though the car was there when he arrived Tuesday morning, he hadn't seen Carlsen in the bar before it closed at 11 p.m. Monday.

The discovery of the car sparked a search of the nearby Lakewood Forest Preserve and surrounding woods, carried out by deputies, trained dogs and a helicopter. It ended with the discovery of her body about 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-coroner-no-foul-play-in-death-of-missing-north-barrington-woman-20120217,0,5213452.story

Japan's emperor enters hospital for heart surgery

2012-02-17T09:00:00.002-06:00

Feb 17, 4:14 AM EST

Japan's emperor enters hospital for heart surgery

By YURI KAGEYAMA
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese Emperor Akihito checked into the hospital Friday for heart-bypass surgery that doctors say will allow him to lead a healthier, more active life.

The surgery scheduled for Saturday will last about five hours to repair two of three coronary arteries that had narrowed, using a blood vessel from another part of his body, as is routine with such operations, the Imperial Household Agency said.

A medical team from University of Tokyo Hospital, where the 78-year-old emperor is staying, will work with doctors from Juntendo University Hospital for the operation.

Akihito is expected to be released in about two or three weeks if there are no complications, the agency said.

Akihito got tests last weekend that showed his heart condition had worsened from a year ago.

The gently spoken Akihito holds no political powers but is extremely popular with Japanese people as a symbol of the nation. He is often seen playing tennis, enjoying music and taking walks with his wife Michiko.

A special notebook has been set up at the palace for get-well messages, but the emperor does not accept gifts or flowers, according to the agency.

Akihito performed his regular duties Thursday, including meeting with four Japanese ambassadors and elementary school officials. Crown Prince Naruhito, Akihito's son, will perform such duties during the hospitalization.

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_EMPEROR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-17-04-14-51

Editor's note: The staff of ProbateSharks.com pray for a successful surgery, complete recovery and good health for Emperor Akihito. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

British spies stumped by Charlie Chaplin mystery

2012-02-17T08:39:00.003-06:00

Feb 17, 9:29 AM EST

British spies stumped by Charlie Chaplin mystery

By JILL LAWLESS

Associated Press

LONDON (AP) -- They foiled plots and cracked Nazi codes, but Britain's spies were unable to solve the mystery of Charlie Chaplin's birth.

Although the entertainer is celebrated as one of London's most famous sons, newly declassified files reveal that Britain's MI5 domestic intelligence service found no records to back up Chaplin's claim that he was born in the city on April 16, 1889.

Uncertainty about Chaplin's origins linger to this day - a mystery Chaplin himself may have helped to nurture.

The previously secret file, released Friday by Britain's National Archives, shows that MI5 investigated the silent film star in the 1950s at the request of U.S. authorities, who had long suspected him of communist sympathies. MI5 historian Christopher Andrew said the FBI's red-hating chief, J. Edgar Hoover, privately denounced Chaplin as "one of Hollywood's parlor Bolsheviks."

To the spies' surprise, there was no record of the performer's birth.

"It would seem that Chaplin was either not born in this country or that his name at birth was other than those mentioned," MI5 concluded.

Chaplin's life is a Dickensian rags-to-riches story. Raised in London in a family of music-hall entertainers, he moved to the United States in 1910 and became one of Hollywood's first megastars with his shabby, bowler-hatted everyman persona, the Little Tramp.

He was a box office sensation in movies such as "The Gold Rush," "City Lights" and "The Kid," but his left-wing friends and activities alarmed the FBI, which began tracking the actor in the early 1920s.

In 1952, as fears of Soviet infiltration raged in the U.S., American authorities asked MI5 to investigate Chaplin's political allegiances and personal background, including a long-standing rumor that Charlie Chaplin was an alias and the performer's true name was Israel Thornstein.

But British spies could find no trace of him in the birth records at London's Somerset House under Chaplin, Thornstein or Harley, his mother's stage name.

The spies also checked French records amid rumors that he might have been born in the town of Fontainebleau - but that, too, drew a blank.

Elsewhere in the file, agents speculate that Chaplin might have Russian roots. There was an allegation that he had once spoken of "going back to Russia."

"This might refer to paying another visit, or it might denote his origin as Russia," noted senior MI5 officer W.M.T. Magan, speculating that Chaplin might have come from a Jewish family fleeing pogroms at the end of the 19th century.

Film historian Matthew Sweet said rumors about Chaplin's roots had been swirling well before the 1950s. The French claim stemmed from a fan magazine article from the 1910s that suggested Chaplin was born while his performer mother was on tour. The idea he was Jewish appears to have been an assumption by some fans that came to be widely believed. Chaplin did little to correct the record.

"The borderline between fact and fiction about celebrities was much less clearly policed than it is today," Sweet said.

MI5 seemed content to let the mystery of Chaplin's birth remain. British agents were skeptical of American claims that the star was a communist threat, with John Marriott, the head of MI5's counter-subversion branch, calling the U.S. allegations "unreliable."

"It is curious that we can find no record of Chaplin's birth, but I scarcely think that this is of any security significance," he wrote in 1952.

The U.S. thought differently and Chaplin was refused re-entry to the United States in 1952. He settled in Switzerland and lived there until his death in 1977.

The dossier shows MI5 continued to track Chaplin for several years. It contains newspaper clippings about the actor, snatches of conversation from suspected radicals who knew him and letters sent from Russia to "Comrade Charly Chaplin" via the communist magazine Challenge.

But by 1958, MI5 had concluded Chaplin was not a threat.

"We have no substantial information of our own against Chaplin, and we are not satisfied that there are reliable grounds for regarding him as a security risk," the agency noted. "It may be that Chaplin is a Communist sympathizer but on the information before us he would appear to be no more than a 'progressive' or radical."

Nonetheless, a taint of impropriety lingered. Files released in 2002 showed that the British government blocked a knighthood for Chaplin for nearly 20 years because of American concerns about his politics and private life - he was married four times, twice to 16-year-old girls. He eventually became Sir Charles Chaplin in March 1975, two years before his death at age 88.

Chaplin's origins remain cloudy, although the 1891 census records the then 2-year-old as living in south London with his mother and elder brother Sydney.

Evidence unearthed last year added another layer of mystery.

In a locked drawer of a bureau left behind after Chaplin's death, his family found a letter from a man in England named Jack Hill. It claimed Chaplin had been born "in a caravan (that) belonged to the Gypsy Queen, who was my auntie" in a Roma community near Birmingham in central England.

Chaplin had alluded to Roma roots in his autobiography, writing that "Grandma was half-Gypsy. This fact was the skeleton in our family cupboard."

Sweet said the letter was not proof of Chaplin's birthplace but evidence he cultivated the mystery of his origins.

"It is very widely accepted that he was born in London in 1889, but the piece of paper just isn't there," Sweet said.

"That letter is not proof that he was born in a Gypsy encampment. It is proof that he was terrifically attracted to the idea of that story, enough to keep the letter and lock it away and think of it as something important.

"The idea of the mystery of his own birth is something that he quite enjoyed, I think."

Online:

National Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BRITAIN_CHARLIE_CHAPLIN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-17-09-29-03

Who Protects And Serves When The Elderly Are Fleeced?

2012-02-17T07:52:00.002-06:00

Who Protects And Serves When The Elderly Are Fleeced?

Posted: 01/29/2012 6:30 pm React Amazing

Read more Deborah Louise Robinson , Financial Exploitation , Last Will And Embezzlement , Pamela Glasner , Starjack Entertainment , Elder Exploitation , Elderly Abuse , Mickey Rooney , Fifty News .

Nine months ago, before my mother passed away, before this horror show (my awareness of my parents' money being stolen right out from under everyone's noses) began, if anyone had suggested to me just how easy it is to steal from the elderly and just how often it happens -- AND how unattainable justice is after the fact -- I think I might have gasped incredulously but privately I'd probably have reassured myself with something like, "It's a terrible crime, of course, but it could not possibly happen with that kind of frequency. Surely, in this great country of ours, such horrendous and flagrant violations of the law could not possibly go unpunished!"

And guess what? I'd have been dead wrong. This is not Law and Order, and it will not get neatly wrapped up at the end of sixty minutes. In fact, hard a pill as it is for me to swallow, I now know it will never get wrapped up, neatly or otherwise. Hence the birth of my upcoming film, Last Will and Embezzlement -- a feature-length documentary which delves deeply into the topic of elder exploitation. I had to something ...

What most Americans are unaware of (and that included me, I assure you!) are the "threshold policies" throughout the US. Simplistically put, because resources are stretched so thin these days, and because all prosecutions have an expense associated with them, each state establishes its own "off the books" policy regarding "dollar amount thresholds" -- the actual financial value assigned to a particular embezzlement case (money stolen vs. what the state might be able to realize at the end of a successful prosecution) -- below which a case simply is not in their interest to pursue. In other words, if they don't think it's worth it, the authorities will simply refuse to do anything about it. Of course, they will never state it that way, but that's what happens.

The effect of these thresholds, outside of saving the state loads of money, is that the lion's share of perpetrators will never be prosecuted -- and they know it. And the effect of that is that it actually encourages repeat offenses, because it creates safety zones in which these perpetrators may operate with impunity.

Implausible as all this may sound, it is more often the rule than the exception. And if you think for one moment that this social problem is not something that effects you, think again. Baby Boomers control 80% of the world's personal finances and we are turning 65 at a rate of 61,000 per day across the globe (in modernized countries, that is).

Our world is facing the largest transfer of wealth from one generation to the next in history, putting into harm's way more than 500 million Baby Boomers as we march headlong into old age ourselves -- not to mention our adult children and our already-aged parents. And all I can say is every man, woman and child had better wake up and they'd better do it soon.

Pamela S. K. Glasner is a published author and a filmmaker. More information about Last Will and Embezzlement and Ms. Glasner can be found at http://www.lastwillandembezzlement.com/, http://tinyurl.com/6tmtfmp, and http://tinyurl.com/2cn8bpo

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-glasner/who-protects-and-serves-w_b_1229134.html

Editor's note: Alice R. Gore Estate value about 1 million dollars: Alice R. Gore, deceased, a disabled 99 year old ward of the Probate Court of Cook County, Judge Kawamoto’s courtroom was hours away from ending up in the Cook County Morgue. Alice's estate was depleted by probate court parasites and there were reportedly no funds to bury her. Her loving family paid for the burial expenses so that Alice would not have to suffer the indignity of being stacked like an Auschwitz inmate in the Cook County morgue. The judge allowed an easily manipulated mentally disabled granddaughter to be appointed as Alice’s guardian and yet no sanctions were instituted against the judge for this blatant infraction of the law. An ethics board staffed by "citizens" would be appropriate to prevent fleecing of estates! Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
KawamotoDragon.com

Dog going home after biting television anchor

2012-02-16T16:02:00.001-06:00

Feb 16, 1:01 PM EST

Dog going home after biting television anchor

DENVER (AP) -- An 85-pound Argentine mastiff dog that was impounded last week after viciously biting a Denver television news anchor is headed home and won't face any serious consequences.

Denver environmental health spokeswoman Meghan Hughes said Thursday the dog will go home this weekend after completing a 10-day mandatory quarantine.

Kyle Dyer of KUSA-TV received 70 stitches after she was bitten in the face while doing an on-air segment with the dog's owner and a firefighter who had rescued the dog from an icy pond in suburban Lakewood the day before.

Hughes says the dog's owner, Michael Robinson, is due in court Feb. 29 after he was cited with failure to have his dog on a leash and allowing his dog to bite.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TELEVISED_DOG_BITE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-16-13-01-05

Brock and the Glock: Armed men guarded Media Matters boss as he took $400,000 gun control donation

2012-02-16T15:49:00.000-06:00

Brock and the Glock - Armed men guarded Media Matters boss as he took $400,000 gun control donation

By Perry Chiaramonte
Published February 16, 2012
FoxNews.com

The recent revelation that the head of Media Matters walked the streets of Washington with a Glock-toting personal assistant acting as a bodyguard may make it a little awkward for the group the next time it seeks a donation from a gun control advocacy group.

Media Matters reportedly took more than $400,000 from the Joyce Foundation specifically earmarked to promote a $600,000 initiative on "gun and public safety issues." At the same time, Media Matters' gun-guarded boss David Brock reportedly obsessed over his own security.

"It doesn't look good," said Fraser Seitel, president of Emerald Partners Communications and a public relations expert who authored the book "Rethinking Reputation."

"But it is a gray area in terms of public relations. Since (Media Matters) is so anti-NRA, to have their members packing heat leaves them open to criticism," he said.

Brock reportedly told confidantes that he feared for his safety and needed hired guns to keep him safe. The District's gun laws are among the strictest in the nation, which raises the question of whether Brock's assistant at times was in violation of its ban on carrying a concealed weapon.

"He had more security than a Third World dictator," one Media Matters employee told The Daily Caller. Brock's guards rarely left Brock's side and even accompanied him to his home in a tony Washington neighborhood where they "stood post" nightly, the source told the DC.

Media Matters proudly claims to be engaged in an information war to bring down Fox News, and has been exposed as a distributor of liberal talking points that regularly find their way into the reporting of mainstream media outlets, according to The Daily Caller.

Officials at the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation did not return repeated calls for comment. The nonprofit doles out donations to a variety of groups to address such issues as urban public education, job training, the environment, and gun violence.

A July 2010 grant of $400,000 to Media Matters was specifically targeted to support a gun and public safety issue initiative. As part of the initiative, Media Matters sent a representative, David Holthouse, undercover to a shooting sports trade show and had him write about the experience.

In a Media Matters article entitled, SHOT Show 2011: "The Second Amendment Ain't About Duck Hunting," Holthouse wrote that "increased lethality has become the nicotine of the firearms industry."

"Every year gun makers roll out new lines of assault rifles, tactical shotguns and handguns that hold even more bullets, or fire even faster, or boast new gadgetry that supposedly enables their user to kill other human beings more efficiently than ever before," reads a line from the January 2011 article.

Holthouse previously wrote an article for a Denver publication claiming he once planned a murder in such detail that he traveled to a neighboring state to buy a gun with a scratched-off serial number so it could not be traced back to him. His intended target was someone who attacked him as a child, forcibly raping him as a 7 year old, according to the article.

The latest revelations about Media Matters has raised questions in Washington, with some lawmakers in Congress considering opening a investigation into the group's tax-exempt status, according to reports in The Daily Caller.

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/16/brock-and-glock-armed-men-guarded-media-matters-boss-as-took-400000-gun-control/print#ixzz1maEwiQbm

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/16/brock-and-glock-armed-men-guarded-media-matters-boss-as-took-400000-gun-control/

Editor's note: Before ensconcing Mr. Brock in the "Hall of Hypocrisy" we should advise him that Gaston Glock also sells fine cutlery. Perhaps his bodyguard should carry a knife or billy club as do British Bobbies. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Elderly Woman’s Heat Shut Off, Hit With $44,000 Peoples Gas Bill

2012-02-16T13:18:00.003-06:00

Elderly Woman’s Heat Shut Off, Hit With $44,000 Peoples Gas Bill

February 15, 2012 9:43 PM

Annie Morish had her heat shut off when Peoples Gas replaced her meter and hit her with a bill for more than $44,000, claiming she had been stealing gas. (Credit: CBS)

(CBS) – She was told Peoples Gas needed to replace her meter. That’s where her nightmare began. Her gas was cut off and, on Wednesday, she got a new bill for more than $44,000, accused of stealing gas.

CBS 2′s Pamela Jones went looking for answers.

“I don’t have that kind of money, I don’t have it,” Annie Morish said of her gas bill for $44,206.82. “I guess I’m just going to stay here until I freeze.”

Without heat, Morish sits dressed in layers, facing a cold future with a gigantic gas bill, payable by March 1.

“They’ve got to be crazy. I called them and they told me it had to be paid,” Morish said.

She said she’s been without heat for two weeks, ever since Peoples Gas came to install a new gas meter at her two-flat on the South Side.

Without gas service, the thermostat in her home registered at 55 degrees on Wednesday, only a little warmer than it was outside.

Morish said the company removed her old gas meter, accusing her of stealing gas.

“I’m 70 years old. When did I dig up? When did I go down in the basement and … change some pipes?” Morish said.

She said she was never cited for any theft.

For now, she tends to her dying plants, with space heater after space heater running to warm the place; about 10 of them in all.

“Freezing; I’m staying in the back. I’ve got heaters all over the place,” she said, hoping someone can help her. “How am I going to get some heat in here?”

Morish said she has been paying $100 to $150 a month for gas for years.

A representative from Peoples Gas said they’re working on the case and hope to have some answers about what happened, but there’s no word yet about whether the heat will be restored.

Please read complet article at link below:

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/02/15/elderly-womans-heat-shut-off-hit-with-44000-peoples-gas-bill/

IN GOOD HANDS? VIDEOS - PART 1 AND PART 2

2012-02-16T08:32:00.002-06:00

IN GOOD HANDS? VIDEOS - PART 1 AND PART 2 Danny Tate

Part 1 of 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W31q0Le7Uw&list=UUGX_wAqlrDLjhKJR0VXDiyg&index=2&feature=plcp

Part 2 of 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zi88L_Bk4w&list=UUGX_wAqlrDLjhKJR0VXDiyg&index=1&feature=plcp

Editor's note: Danny Tate's web site was removed from the internet by the power of a corrupt judge....so much for freedom of speech in America. ProbateSharks will continue fight for Danny's just cause. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateShark.com

KawamotoDragon.com

EXCLUSIVE: Video Shows Wife Of Millionaire Being Questioned In Husband’s Westchester Hotel Murder

2012-02-16T08:08:00.001-06:00

EXCLUSIVE: Video Shows Wife Of Millionaire Being Questioned In Husband’s Westchester Hotel Murder

February 8, 2012 10:01 PM

Video screenshot of interview with Narcy Novack obtained by CBS 2. (credit: Handout)

Filed under

Ben Novack, Fontainebleau, Narcy Novak, Rye Town, Tony Aiello NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — CBS 2 got an exclusive look Wednesday inside the investigation of a twisted and brutal crime.

The infamous 2009 murder of a Florida millionaire Ben Novack at a Westchester County hotel resulted in his wife, Narcy Novak, being charged with his murder.

Prosecutors said Novack had her husband killed to secure his $10 million estate for herself.

Seen in video being grilled by police, Narcy Novack sounded dazed, but authorities said it was all deceit.

“I walked in and I tripped on something. I realized he was on the floor,” Novack is heard telling investigators.

The questioning came in the summer of 2009 and 12 hours after she reported finding the bound and bludgeoned body of her husband in room 453 of the Rye Town Hilton, where the Novacks were organizing a convention.

“My husband is not around to protect me,” Novack could be heard saying on the tape. “I don’t know who to trust.”

Novack is also later heard saying “I just wanted to kill myself.”

Police suspected right away that Novack was a diabolical mastermind, who hired hitmen to kill her husband. But she acted for all the world like the loving wife of a troubled man.

“He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He didn’t have friends to play because he was raised in a hotel, he was born in a hotel,” Novack said.

That hotel is Miami’s famous Fontainebleau, a playground for the rich built by Ben Novack Sr. His slain son built his own fortune in the convention planning business.

It was enough money to indulge his obsession with Batman — enough to buy the Batmobile and acquire the biggest collection of Batman memorabilia in the world.

But Narcy Novack told police the “Dark Knight” fan had a dark side.

“He used handcuffs, he likes rough stuff,” Narcy Novack said.

Cops immediately keyed in on the Novacks’ penchant for bondage.

Investigator: “He dies in a position that he finds sexually arousing.”

Novack: “This is my husband you’re talking about! And I don’t want you to look at him as a pervert.”

Narcy Novack told police her husband carried a lot of cash and someone must have killed him while she was downstairs having breakfast.

“I have nothing to do with my husband’s death,” she said.

Novack acted shocked when cops suggested she hired hitmen so she could inherit her husband’s fortune.

Novack: “You’re telling me that I saw the people that went into the room?”

Investigator: “I’m saying you opened the door for them.”

Novack: “I don’t need for you or anybody else to yell at me or to put pressure on me. I cannot take it. Everything falls on me, just give me an electrical chair and put me out of my misery because I cannot take this anymore.”

About a year after the investigation, Novack was charged with conspiring with her brother to use hitmen to kill her husband. She has pleaded not guilty and goes on trial in April.

Please read complete article and view video at link below:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/02/08/exclusive-video-shows-wife-of-millionaire-being-questioned-in-husbands-westchester-hotel-murder/

Whitney Houston squandered multimillion-dollar fortune, sources say

2012-02-16T07:53:00.000-06:00

Whitney Houston squandered multimillion-dollar fortune, sources say

By Hollie McKay
Published February 15, 2012
FoxNews.com

Whitney Houston was once the darling of the music industry with a voice and career few other singers could even come close to matching. But at the time of her death Saturday, Houston's critics were skeptical that the star would ever return to the praise and fortune of her glory days.

At the height of her career, Houston’s work on “The Bodyguard” soundtrack sold more than 17 million copies in the United States alone. She commanded millions for films and was ranked in the top 20 of Forbes’ most powerful entertainers. In 2001, despite her personal problems beginning to come to light, Arista signed her to an unprecedented six-album contract valued at more than $100 million.

Yet in the last decade, Houston’s powerful voice had slowly begun to slip away from the public attention and the stories about her became dominated by reports of substance abuse instead of her substantial talents.

In 2009 Houston returned to the studio and released her first album in several years, titled “I Look to You,” which sold 304,000 copies in its first week, entering the charts at No. 1 and giving her the best debut week of her career. She followed this with a worldwide tour, which was widely panned by critics who were left disappointed by her distressed vocal chords. The tour still managed to gross $36 million.

But just three weeks ago, the rumor mill started churning that Houston was broke, and now more details are starting to unravel as to how and why the iconic singer may have died with few dollar signs to her name. In January, Radar Online reported that the music maven was in financial ruins and on the verge of bankruptcy, and had even resorted to asking friends for small amounts of cash to get her through.

“Whitney’s fortune is gone. Music industry heavy hitters are supporting her and her label is fronting her cash against her next album, but no one knows when that will be released. She might be homeless if not for people saving her,” an insider told the entertainment site. “She is broke as a joke. She called someone to ask for $100. It is so sad. She should have Mariah Carey money, and she’s flat broke.”

According to several reports, Sony music mogul Clive Davis, who launched Houston’s career, loaned her more than $1 million last year to assist in the rehabilitation process of getting clean.

Experts tell Fox411’s Pop Tarts column that the simple reason for Houston’s financial troubles is her drug use.

“When people become addicted they become more impulsive and often have impaired memory and attention. In addition to squandering money on drugs, they are easy prey for unethical financial managers and consultants who exploit their vulnerabilities,” Dr. Sack, CEO of the famed Malibu rehabilitation facility Promises told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “It’s certainly possible that Ms. Houston fell victim to either or both of these problems.

"While her public sightings were limited to doctor's visits and an occasional club outing over the past year, Whitney traveled heavily over the course of 2010 – staying in upscale hotels at her many overseas destinations, which included romps in Sydney, Paris and London,” said Michael Lavalette, managing editor of the GossipCenter Network, which tracks all celebrity sightings and paparazzi pictures.

And despite the sudden resurgence of Houston’s music in the wake of her death, her estate may not actually benefit as much as one might expect. Unlike Michael Jackson, who controlled and owned much of his music, Houston was not entitled to a prominent share of revenues from her work. She did not write her own hits, and doesn’t have share in the revenues for publishing rights. Sony’s Legacy Records owns the catalog of her albums and instead paid Houston singing royalties. As for “The Bodyguard,” Time Warner-operated movie studio Warner Brothers controls the rights, which means Houston doesn’t profit from downloads or sales.

Still, author and trial attorney Chris Leibig begs to differ that Houston passed away a pauper.

“No one of Houston’s caliber, with the potential for ongoing sales, would be technically broke,” he added. “Unlike athletes and so forth, whose opportunity for salaries and endorsements would usually have a shelf-life based on the person’s current productivity, artists and writers and the like can suddenly become more popular after dying. Unless she sold away the future rights to her material, whether she wrote her own songs or not would not be the question.”

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/02/15/whitney-houston-squandered-away-multi-million-dollar-fortune-sources-say/print#ixzz1mYKGh12v

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/02/15/whitney-houston-squandered-away-multi-million-dollar-fortune-sources-say/

Waukegan cops fatally shoot gun-toting man at hotel

2012-02-16T07:32:00.002-06:00

Waukegan cops fatally shoot gun-toting man at hotel

Staff report
3:08 AM CST, February 16, 2012

Waukegan police shot and killed a 34-year-old man they said was wielding a handgun at a hotel on Wednesday night, officials said.

No officers were injured during the shooting at the Holiday Inn Express, 611 Lakehurst Road, at about 8:30 p.m., Waukegan police said in a news release.

Killed was John Corcoran, of Waukegan, according to Lake County Coroner Artis Yancey.

After arriving to a call of a man brandishing a handgun, Waukegan officers spotted Corcoran, who pulled a handgun, prompting one of the officers to fire a single gunshot, police said.

Corcoran was struck once and later died of his injuries, authorities said. Authorities wouldn't say exactly where Corcoran was struck, adding that an autopsy may be performed as soon as today.

The Lake County Major Crimes Task Force is leading the investigation into the shooting, authorities said.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-waukegan-cops-fatally-shoots-guntoting-man-at-hotel-20120215,0,1209704.story

Editor's note: Is an ex-police chief a suitable coroner to make fair unbiased investigations in police shootings? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Deadly fight prompts questions about nursing home

2012-02-15T23:32:00.002-06:00

Deadly fight prompts questions about nursing home

Altercation in Oak Park wasn't reported to state health department

By Bridget Doyle and Erin Meyer, Chicago Tribune reporters
10:58 PM CST, February 15, 2012

An Oak Park nursing home failed to report to the state health department a deadly altercation between anAlzheimer's patient and another resident, authorities said Wednesday.

Anibal Calderon, 80, died of head injuries early Tuesday after an alleged fight that took place Sunday at Oak Park Healthcare Center, authorities said.

Calderon's death was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner's office. The other resident wasn't identified.

The Illinois Department of Public Health, the agency charged with licensing and regulating nursing homes, is investigating, a spokeswoman said.

Under state law, the nursing home should have reported the incident immediately to the health department as well as to the family of the victim and local police. State officials have no record that Oak Park Healthcare notified the health department, said spokeswoman Melaney Arnold.

"We did receive a complaint based on this case," Arnold said. "The facility did not report it to us."

The for-profit nursing home has 204 beds and an occupancy rate of about 75 percent, according to the state. It is owned by Sherwin Ray, who declined to comment, and Dr. Jakob Bakst, who couldn't be reached. Officials at the facility declined to comment.

Police said there was no indication the 66-year-old resident believed to be connected to the death was involved in previous acts of violence. Oak Park Police Chief Rick Tanksley said late Wednesday that the resident has a criminal background, but he declined to offer specifics.

Tanksley said the man is currently in a hospital, though he would not say where.

Federal regulations require that nursing home residents involved in violent incidents be removed from the facility if necessary for their safety and the safety of others.

"We want to make sure the residents are receiving quality care and are safe," Arnold said.

Nursing homes are required by state law to make available for public inspection the five most recent years of survey materials that would list possible violations, according to the IDPH website. But on Wednesday a Tribune reporter was escorted out of the Oak Park facility after requesting to look at the documents.

Although Oak Park Healthcare appears to be properly licensed, according to the state's website, some questions about its track record remained Wednesday as officials met to discuss what happened.

Oak Park Healthcare Center is not currently licensed to treat Alzheimer's patients, meaning that the facility is not allowed to represent itself to the public as a facility that specializes in such care, Arnold said.

But it could accept such residents on an individual basis, she said, and is required to have an appropriate care plan in place to address the needs of Alzheimer's patients.

It was unclear whether such a plan was available for Calderon.

Until this incident, the facility was compliant with state and federal regulations, Arnold said.

The nursing home was fined $10,000 by the state in 2002 for failing to get emergency care in a timely manner for a patient suffering seizures, according to reports. In 2005, the Tribune reported that Oak Park Healthcare was fined the same amount for neglecting a patient whose legs ultimately had to be amputated after maggots were discovered in the wounds.

State investigators visited Oak Park Healthcare in December in response to a complaint alleging the nursing home failed to file risk assessments for residents with criminal histories, records show.

Investigators found that the files for 19 offenders residing in the facility, including as many as 15 with felony convictions, contained no information about the level of risk they posed, according to the records.

Facility operators agreed to make changes, the records show.

"I am not sure where the facility is in the process," Arnold said.

bdoyle@tribune.com

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.wgntv.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-elderly-man-beaten-20120216,0,5245252.story?track=rss

Editor's note: Your ProbateShark wonders if any of the parties involved in the altercation were wards of the Probate Court of Cook County. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Electric cigarette explodes in US man's mouth

2012-02-15T23:10:00.001-06:00

Electric cigarette explodes in US man's mouth

Published February 15, 2012
Associated Press

PENSACOLA, Fla. – A faulty battery caused an electronic cigarette to explode in a man's mouth, taking out some of his front teeth, a chunk of his tongue and severely burning his face, fire officials said.

Tom Holloway, 57, was trying to quit smoking so he was puffing on the device Monday night when it blew up, fire officials said. Officials have not identified the victim, but a Facebook page under his name was filled with well-wishers commenting on the injury and database searches matched his address with his name.

"The best analogy is like it was trying to hold a bottle rocket in your mouth when it went off," said Joseph Parker, division chief for the North Bay Fire Department. "The battery flew out of the tube and set the closet on fire."

Parker said fire investigators do not know the brand of cigarette, type of battery or age of the device. It appears the battery was rechargeable lithium because a recharging station and other batteries were in the room, he said.

Parker said he has forwarded information about the blaze to the Fire Marshall's Office to include in any databases on the devices. But Parker said he has yet to hear of any similar instances.

Fire Chief Joseph Miller said the victim contacted the department on Wednesday to thank firefighters and told them he was recovering at a hospital in Mobile, Alabama.

Thomas Kiklas, co-founder of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, said the industry knows of no problems with the cigarettes or batteries exploding.

Kicklas said the cigarettes include a small battery and cartridge. The battery is designed to generate an electric charge when the device is inhaled. The charge sets off the vapor in the cigarette tube.

Kiklas cited a federal report that found 2.5 million Americans used electronic cigarettes last year.

"There have been billions and billions of puffs on the cigarettes and we have not heard of this happening before," he said.

Holloway and his family members did not immediately answer The Associated Press' requests for interviews.

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/15/electric-cigarette-explodes-in-us-mans-mouth/?test=latestnews#ixzz1mWCXTbyW

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/15/electric-cigarette-explodes-in-us-mans-mouth/?test=latestnews

"Guardian's Recipe for Success"

2012-02-15T23:00:00.001-06:00

"Guardian's Recipe for Success"

(Government and Judicially Approved Stratagem for Abuse and Exploitation of the Elderly)

by Advocate Mary Claire Connors

1.) PREDATORS - can be: government agencies, APS, (Adult Protection Services) and their contract agencies, County Area Agency on Aging, State Department of Aging, social workers, nursing facility corporations, care providers, care givers, law enforcement, attorneys, (including guardian ad litem) courts, (judges, court reporters), and their associates, such as medical doctor, psychiatrist, other professionals or greedy family members / in-laws. Litigation is the slaughter of the predator bait. The predators co-operate (collude), with each other for mutual benefit: financial gain, real estate, Federal funding stream, favors, job security, political agenda, etc.

2.) PREDATOR BAIT - elders and disabled who are victims of crime, (especially white collar), accident, friendly neighbor’s call to APS, (Adult Protective Services), disagreement among family that goes to litigation, health crisis, family crisis, any event that results in litigation; you can be advised, intimidated into believing that you need a lawyer, hence - litigation. Also, elders whose family lives out of state, elder property owner, (especially if property is wanted by state / corporation or connected to others). Widows are more common targets than male elders. Also vulnerable are those with small families, especially living out of state, and those with no doctors / attorneys in immediate family. There is something of value to be taken - financial, real estate, political, (funding stream, precedent case, etc.), by the predators...the "takings". You do not need to be rich; assets of some kind between $100,000 and millions of dollars.

3.) Unbeknownst to you, you are rapidly encircled by "predators" before the guardianship is granted which guarantees the guardianship outcome without accountability. The circle is like strangulation. You are very unlikely to get out. You are completely surrounded by the predators which includes your own attorney and / or appointed guardian ad litem. (Bar attorneys first allegiance is to the court - not their client; it's "job security", etc.).

4.) If you are relative or anyone acting in behalf, defense of the targeted ward and you have a DPOA, (Durable Power of Attorney); are legitimately entitled to information, etc., YOU ARE AN OBSTACLE TO THE STRATAGEM. You will be demonized; accused of the exploitation the predators are perpetrating or the criminal actions of those who victimized you. Accusations of mental illness, (you will be ordered to get psychological testing from predator’s associate, a fairly common tactic), drug addiction, etc. No proof is necessary. Maybe the, (covered), criminal will testify against you. You are not charged with anything - therefore you have no right to face your accuser and get evidence in your defense. Accusations are made off the court record, in the court hallway. Remember, it is a kangaroo court proceeding. The judge makes the decisions, issues the orders and ignores the laws with impunity and no remedy. Elders are "expected" to get ill and die. Hence, this stratagem has been practiced on them for years in darkness of no exposure without a court order. The disabled; now publicly initiated.

5.) APS, (Adult Protective Services), are often one entity in the circle of predators.

6.) Intimidation and deception are always tools of the predator’s trade.

7.) The "circle of predators", usually thru intimidation, makes sure, (while treating you as a criminal), there are no witnesses; no written, verbal uncensored communication; demands severe unnecessary restrictions; refuses to write them down, (avoid any possibility of proof of abuse and liability), such as, no visitors; only one visitor at a time, no video cameras; telephone access, audio recorders, no vitamins, nothing from home. You may be allowed "supervised visits". The targeted ward’s assets will pay for the "visit supervisor’s" time. You need no record of abuse whatsoever; no verifiable evidence of abuse; you may even have proof of good care giving, (an obstacle to predators "recipe"), which will never be entered into the court record.

8.) The targeted "ward" and later declared "ward" is denied specialized medical treatment even when he / she can pay for it. He / she is allowed no contact with medical professionals outside of the predators’ circle, which includes its associates. He /s is not supposed to improve, since that is an obstacle to squeezing every penny, (possible benefit), from the ward and avoiding any possibility of liability. No independent medical evaluation is allowed, though law requires it. The predators’ doctor examines the targeted ward and that is his / her "independent med evaluation"’.

The ward is expected to be and almost always is a ward until death. The ward is sentenced to enforced health decline. The family has NO SAY AT ALL. If the ward is dying, the family member who is the "obstacle" to predator’s profit is often not told. THE GUARDIAN OWNS THE WARD and the fruits of his / her and his / her spouse's lifetime of labor. Wards and slaves are regarded as property, not as humans, and are owned as a result of NO ACCOUNTABILITY, NO REMEDY, just as in the Terri Schindler display of corruption and murder.

9.) Deception and no exposure: two fundamental keys to success. The media will not print the real story if they print anything at all. Notice how most people think Terri’s case is uncommon! If exposed, there would be no predator bait.

10.) Felony crimes committed against you are suppressed, covered up. Authorities will not prosecute the crimes against you because the predators are likely to use alleged criminal against you as witness(es), etc. The acknowledgment of crime might be obstacle to gaining guardianship over the targeted ward, which is the lock down of the "takings". Any and all ‘obstacles’ are removed with no regard for laws, crimes, human rights, abuse and exploitation. Obstruction of justice is a predator specialty. No law enforcement nor remedy, recovery, justice for the crimes committed against you is allowed.

11.) An "emergency temporary plenary guardianship of the person and estate" may be granted to one of the PREDATORS without a hearing, in the judge's chambers. Your lawyer will play dumb or fabricate an explanation such as, "it’s just temporary until things can be investigated" and "it's normal".

NO! It is the initial stage of OWNERSHIP (GUARDIANSHIP) of the "ward" and the beginning of HELL.

12.) The ward’s mail, finances, health care or lack, complete existence is taken over by the emergency temporary guardian/permanent guardian. You, her advocate, will be allowed no information at all. You become non-existent. The ward has no family, for all practical purposes. If you make a complaint about the facility; you are not allowed to know the results, etc.; all information goes to the guardian. You have rights, on paper; in reality, you must know them; your attorney probably won’t tell you. When you exercise them, you will be considered angry, aggressive or something equally negative. Sometimes you are punished and can never see your loved one again.

13.) If your family seeks help thru government agencies, state government, Federal government, legislative representatives, you will get a run around, shut down, and told to leave. The more grievous the violations, the more of a closed door, "get out" reaction you get. The greater the wrong committed toward you, the more impossible to get any help.

14.) Most attorneys seem to equate "guardianship" cases with leprosy - untouchable. If you have $100,000 or more remaining, an attorney may take your case; that has nothing to do with the outcome. Contingency does not exist for guardianship. Public interest law groups will not "touch" it.

15.) Your attorney does not make a good record for appeal since he must be favorable to the probate judge. If you can still afford an attorney, you are most likely to appeal and lose. If you can’t; you can try to find remedy as a "pro per" litigant. I have been more successful learning from experienced "pro per" litigants and representing myself. The State Supreme Courts: Pennsylvania., Florida, Nevada, Massachusetts, Oregon, Virginia, and more have a negative reputation and are not known for "upholding the rule of law".

16.) If you try federal court or bankruptcy court, (both Federal), you may delay some of the confiscation of property. Remedy is unlikely; exposing corruption in high, (Government), places is taboo. Then the excuse of "abstention doctrines", (abstention doctrines are not in the Constitution), covers for the "taboo". Federal courts do not take jurisdiction of cases litigated in state court if the outcome would trump a state court decision, even in matters of Constitutional violations. It is possible to get past the abstention doctrines, though much more likely, there is no remedy, as seen in Terri Schindler’s case.

17.) The ward and advocating family member pay for your own abuse, exploitation and involuntary institutionalization. After the guardianship is permanent, involuntary institutionalization may be paid by Medicare fraud; the predators want as much as possible of the "takings" to divvy among themselves.

18.) This "war" goes on for years if you persist toward remedy. Your health is negatively affected from the constant stress and you have difficulty functioning as well as you did before HELL, which compounds the stress. Depression, anxiety, ulcers, cancer, or other chronic illnesses affect the ward and family. Your financial losses are not recovered and you can easily become totally broke. A great deal of time is required for "pro per" litigation. Your family relations are difficult or shredded, due to abuse, loss, helplessness, disillusionment, etc. (This stratagem is from my experience and many others).

19.) The "ward", (your mother, daughter, family member) is held hostage while you spend most of your time and resources attempting to free her / him.

20.) If you cannot free the ward, your family member, when he / she is no longer a profit producer, (about the time limited medical treatment produces diminished health / illness), he / she will have a "duty to die". First, no food or water, when organs start to fail, some morphine, which hastens death by reducing respiration. The above stratagem without truthful media exposure is "silence of the lambs".

Note: Without forewarning of this entire "recipe", the predators almost always succeed and you and the "ward" pay, as victim(s) of crime with unimaginable loss, abuse and exploitation without remedy, an epidemic practice.

KawamotoDragon.com

Lake County prosecutors suffer another setback in DNA case

2012-02-15T19:20:00.000-06:00

Lake County prosecutors suffer another setback in DNA case

By Dan Hinkel
Tribune reporter
3:36 PM CST, February 15, 2012

Appeals judges have dealt another blow to Lake County authorities in a criminal case involving DNA, barring prosecutors from using evidence they said was key to their attempt to retry a man for a 1986 rape in Waukegan.

Lake County prosecutors have been preparing to retry Bennie Starks, who spent nearly 20 years in prison before he was freed on bond in 2006. That’s when appeals judges ordered a new trial, citing semen evidence that did not match Starks.

Last year, a Lake County judge ruled that if prosecutors did retry Starks, they could not use statements from the victim, who died after the first trial. Prosecutors argued the inability to use her statements would “substantially impair” their ability to retry Starks, and they appealed.

On Tuesday, judges from the state’s 2nd District Appellate Court affirmed the ruling that the victim’s past statements would not be allowed. The judges based their ruling, in part, on the fact that Starks’ lawyers were not aware at his first trial of the DNA evidence that would be found later, meaning they did not have a chance to cross-examine her on the topic.

Prosecutors have 21 days to decide whether to ask the appeals court to reconsider its ruling, and 35 days to decide whether to seek review by the Illinois Supreme Court, said Jed Stone, Starks’ lawyer.

“While they can go to trial, I don’t know why they would do it, when it is clear to me and much of the world that Bennie Starks is yet another wrongfully convicted person,” Stone said.

“Eventually, this case will wither and die,” he said.

Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Waller could not immediately be reached for comment.

As to the conflicting DNA evidence, former Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Mermel had previously argued that the evidence did not clear Starks because the woman could have had consensual sex with someone else. The woman, however, had said she did not have sex within two weeks of the attack.

Waller announced Mermel’s retirement in December after the assistant prosecutor made comments to The New York Times about DNA evidence that spurred Republican Sheriff Mark Curran to call for his firing.

Starks’ case is one of four high-profile instances in which Lake County prosecutors have continued to pursue a suspect after DNA appeared to point away from that person. Several of those cases have recently fallen apart.

In December, the appeals court delivered a stinging reversal of Juan Rivera's conviction in the rape and stabbing death of 11-year-old baby sitter Holly Staker in Waukegan in 1992. Rivera served nearly 20 years in prison after he was found guilty at three separate jury trials. Semen that was not Rivera’s was found inside the victim, but authorities argued that didn’t clear him, instead contending the victim must have had sex with another man before she was killed.

Appeals judges called prosecutors’ theories “highly improbable.” Rivera, 39, was released last month after prosecutors decided not to challenge the ruling.

In a second case, Waller's office dropped murder charges against Jerry Hobbs and freed him in August 2010 after he spent five years in jail awaiting trial for stabbing his daughter Laura Hobbs, 8, and her friend Krystal Tobias, 9, in a Zion park.

Prosecutors had argued that semen discovered in his daughter’s body could have been deposited inside her as she played in a wooded spot where couples went for sex. But in early 2010, the DNA was matched to a former Marine from Zion, Jorge Torrez, who has now been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for an unrelated rape. He also faces a charge that he murdered a Navy petty officer in her Virginia barracks in 2009.

No one has been charged in the Zion killings since Hobbs' release.

The most recent case to come to light is that of James Edwards, who was convicted of the 1994 bludgeoning murder of Waukegan appliance store owner Fred Reckling, 71. Though blood found at the scene did not come from the suspect or the victim, prosecutors argued that didn't clear Edwards because it could have come from one of Reckling's employees.

But the blood was recently matched to a man arrested on armed robbery charges on the North Shore weeks after the murder, according to court records.

Prosecutors have said they are digging back into that case.

Rivera, Hobbs and Edwards all confessed to their crimes, but their lawyers have argued the admissions were coerced by police in grueling interrogations.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-lake-county-prosecutors-suffer-another-setback-in-dna-case-20120215,0,6065750.story

25 million tons of tsunami debris floating toward US shores

2012-02-15T15:24:00.003-06:00

25 million tons of tsunami debris floating toward US shores

Written By Jeremy A. Kaplan
Published February 15, 2012

FoxNews.com

A massive floating patch of debris following the March 11, 2011, tsunami that struck Japan is floating across the Pacific Ocean, and should begin piling up on U.S. shores in increasing amounts. (International Pacific Research Center)

A massive floating patch of debris following the March 11, 2011, tsunami that struck Japan is floating across the Pacific Ocean, and should begin piling up on U.S. shores in increasing amounts. (International Pacific Research Center)

A massive floating patch of debris following the March 11, 2011, tsunami that struck Japan is floating across the Pacific Ocean, and should begin piling up on U.S. shores in increasing amounts. (International Pacific Research Center)

A massive floating patch of debris following the March 11, 2011, tsunami that struck Japan is floating across the Pacific Ocean, and should begin piling up on U.S. shores in increasing amounts. (International Pacific Research Center)

A massive floating patch of debris following the March 11, 2011, tsunami that struck Japan is floating across the Pacific Ocean, and should begin piling up on U.S. shores in increasing amounts. (International Pacific Research Center)

Wrecked cars, portions of homes, boats, furniture and more -- all swept up by the destructive, magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan 11 months ago -- are on a slow-motion collision course with California.

But no one's tracking the debris, Jim Churnside, a physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, told FoxNews.com.

"It would be really nice, but it’s really difficult," Churnside expained.

The wreckage from the March 11, 2011, disaster could include virtually anything that floats, according to oceanographer and beachcomber Curtis Ebbesmeyer -- and that includes portions of houses, boats, ships, furniture, cars and even human remains.

I would not be surprised to see some fishing vessels by April.

- oceanographer and beachcomber Curtis Ebbesmeyer

Independent models constructed by the NOAA and the University of Hawaii show a vast, loose debris field drifting inexorably toward Hawaii, California and Washington -- the first fishing buoys reached the West Coast in mid December, Ebbesmeyer wrote in his "Beachcombers Alert" newsletter. The flotsam is expected to increase, with the bulk of the debris hitting some time in 2014.

"I would not be surprised to see some fishing vessels by April, and the main mass of debris start arriving a year from this March," Ebbesmeyer told FoxNews.com.

Beyond that, it's hard to say exactly how big the debris is -- or even where the majority of it is.

"After the tsunami, the debris was closely clumped together," Churnside told FoxNews.com. "After storms and over time, those [clumps] kind of get broken up. I don’t think there’s going to be much that’s visible from satellites right now."

High resolution satellite cameras could pick up the scattered remains -- the houses and cars, the ruined fishing boats and oil drums. But setting such a camera to exhaustively scan the vastness of the Pacific Ocean would be tedious and expensive, he noted.

"There’s no good efficient way to do it," Churnside said, "just because it’s spread out by now over such a huge area."

Floating debris travels at about 7 mph, Ebbesmeyer said, but it can move as much as 20 mph if it has a large area exposed to the wind, according to a report in the Associated Press. That said, Churnside expects models of the debris path from last summer are probably accurate.

The debris is not expected to be radioactive. Carey Morishige, the Pacific Islands Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, told science blog Earthsky.org that radioactivity is probably not an issue, since the tsunami carried most of the debris seaward before the failure of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor.

"All debris should be treated with a great reverence and respect," Ebbesmeyer told the AP.

Churnside plans to revisit his models of the enormous debris field next month, one year after the devasting event.

Please read complete article and models at links below:

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/15/25-million-tons-tsunami-debris-floating-toward-us-shores/#ixzz1mUJAQSLg

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/15/25-million-tons-tsunami-debris-floating-toward-us-shores/

KawamotoDragon.com

Doctor accused of fondling multiple sclerosis patient

2012-02-15T13:19:00.000-06:00

Doctor accused of fondling multiple sclerosis patient

He now faces a misdemeanor battery charge

WGN News
8:15 AM CST, February 15, 2012
OAK LAWN, Ill.

A Chicago area doctor has been accused of fondling a Multiple Sclerosis patient.

Dr. Rajat Prakash has been placed on leave from Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn after the claims surfaced.

A 32-year-old female patient claims the doctor fondled her while she was in a semi-conscious state and tried to place her hands on his groin last November. This incident happened while she was being treated for multiple sclerosis, according to the Chicago Sun-times.

She also said Dr. Prakash sent her inapproptiate texts and asked her to meet him at a hotel for drinks.

Dr. Prakash reportedly turned himself over to police on February 11. He now faces a misdemeanor battery charge.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-doctor-accused-of-fondling-patient-feb15,0,3155300.story

Diner suffers cardiac arrest while eating a Triple Bypass Burger in restaurant called the Heart Attack Grill

2012-02-15T07:45:00.001-06:00

Diner suffers cardiac arrest while eating a Triple Bypass Burger in restaurant called the Heart Attack Grill

Paramedics wheel man in his 40s out of restaurant's Las Vegas branch

He was eating a 6,000-calorie burger when he suffered a heart attack

Triple Bypass Burger contains three slabs of meat, 12 bacon rashes, cheese, red onion, sliced tomato and 'unique special sauce'

By Graham Smith

Last updated at 11:10 AM on 15th February 2012
It was always going to be unwise naming a restaurant that glorifies unhealthy food the Heart Attack Grill.

And on Saturday the inevitable happened when a customer suffered a cardiac arrest in the chain's Las Vegas branch.

An onlooker captured video of paramedics wheeling the unidentified man, thought to be in his 40s, out of the fast-food diner.

He was midway through eating a 6,000-calorie Triple Bypass Burger when he began experiencing chest pains.

Scroll down for video

Living up to its name: A customer is wheeled out of the Heart Attack Grill restaurant in Las Vegas on Saturday night after suffering cardiac arrest

6,000 calories: The Triple Bypass Burger contains three slabs of meat, 12 rashes of bacon, cheese, red onion, sliced tomato and a 'unique special sauce'

The restaurant chain - founded in 2005 using the catchphrase 'Taste Worth Dying For!' - is run by a former nutritionist 'Doctor' Jon Basso who, remarkably, used to run a Jenny Craig weight loss diet centre.

He denied the incident was an elaborate publicity stunt.

Read more: Please view video at link below:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2101399/Customer-suffers-cardiac-arrest-eating-Triple-Bypass-Burger-restaurant-called-Heart-Attack-Grill.html#ixzz1mSRiMqVg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2101399/Customer-suffers-cardiac-arrest-eating-Triple-Bypass-Burger-restaurant-called-Heart-Attack-Grill.html

Editor's note: What do you expect from a place that serves "flatline" fries? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

It’s Hard Out Here for a Judge, Or Is It?

2012-02-15T07:29:00.000-06:00

It’s Hard Out Here for a Judge, Or Is It?

by John Browning Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 07:35 PM

In a recent survey performed by AOL Jobs using statistics provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job of judge was rated one of the best “lifestyle jobs” (those that pay above average but which require fewer hours than average). According to the survey, judges work an average of 37.2 hours a week and have a median annual income of $119,270. But the study left out some of the perks besides the hours and wages. Let’s face it—how many other jobs let you show up for work in a robe, sit up higher than everybody else, and require everybody to stand up whenever you enter and exit? See if you get that treatment at your cubicle tomorrow. And let’s not forget about that neat little gavel thingy. In fact, there are a lot of advantages to being a judge, as the following examples illustrate:

You Can Rhyme If You Want To

How many jobs other than rapper let you bust some rhymes at work? For Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin (about whom I’ve written before), it is a regular feature of life on the bench. Justice Eakin recently issued the latest of his rhyming opinions, this time reversing the insurance fraud conviction of a guy who opened a bank account with a forged State Farm check:

“Convicted of the forgery, insurance fraud, and theft,

he admits the first and last, but denies the charge that’s left.

Just because the bogus check shows an insurance company’s name

doesn’t make the crime insurance fraud—it’s simply not the same.”

Well done, Justice Eakin—what other job would let you combine sound legal reason and iambic pentameter?

You Can Show You’re Human Like Everybody Else

Who hasn’t made a Freudian slip from time to time? Judges are no different. Just ask Madam Justice Faye McWatt of the Ontario Superior Court in Canada. Just before a Toronto jury exited her courtroom to begin deliberating the cocaine-trafficking charges against defendant Prinze Wilson, the judge cautioned the jury to acknowledge the presumption of innocence, saying “It is only defeated if and when Crown counsel has satisfied you beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Guilty—I’m sorry, that Mr. Wilson—is guilty of the crimes charged.” Oops! Did that little slip of the tongue influence the jury, which subsequently convicted Mr. Wilson? Or was it simply an innocent faux pas? Wilson’s lawyer, Crystal Tomusiak, has appealed her client’s conviction, saying the judge should have ordered a mistrial or given the jury an instruction to disregard the gaffe of referring to the defendant as “Mr. Guilty.” The Ontario Court of Appeal is expected to rule later this year.

You Can Let People Know That You Don’t Take Any Crap

Judge Jed Rakoff, a federal judge in New York, has presided over very high profile cases during his tenure on the bench. So it is understandable if he exhibited a little frustration in a recent case that involved, well, kitty litter, to be precise. Church & Dwight Co., the maker of Arm & Hammer products, took issue with what it contends is false advertising by the Clorox Company in a commercial for Clorox’s Fresh Step cat litter. After an evidentiary hearing, Judge Rakoff granted an injunction in favor of Church & Dwight Co., preventing the continued airing of the commercial in question. The judge particularly criticized the reliability of Clorox’s in-house “jar tests” supporting its claims that its carbon product eliminated the odor of cat crap better than Arm & Hammer’s baking soda. Judge Rakoff called it “highly implausible that eleven panelists would stick their noses in jars of excrement and report forty-four independent times that they smelled nothing unpleasant.” In other words, this case didn’t pass Judge Rakoff’s smell test (and I’m pretty sure the job of “cat crap smell tester” came in way down on the AOL Jobs survey).

You Get to Decide Wacky Lawsuits

Oh, where do I begin with this one? There is the legal dispute between Bikram Choudhoury (founder of Bikram Yoga) and three yoga studios (including New York’s Yoga to the People, Inc.), claiming that the yoga studios have violated his copyrighted yoga poses. The defendants argue that yoga poses can’t be copyrighted, and the U.S. Copyright Office recently agreed. Copyright authorities ruled that yoga poses and moves are exercises rather than choreography (which can be protected). If I were the judge ruling on this matter, I’d have to say that yogi Choudhoury’s argument is too much of a stretch (insert rimshot noise here). But there are so many more crazy lawsuits to choose from, like the Michigan woman who is suing the makers of the movie “Drive” (with Ryan Gosling) because, well, she was expecting more driving in the film itself. Then there is the California woman who’s sued Chuck E. Cheese for $5 million, claiming the popular establishment’s games are actually an illegal form of gambling that gets kids addicted. We also have the success-obsessed New York mom who’s sued a private preschool, saying that its curriculum has seriously damaged her 4 year-old’s chances of getting into an Ivy League university. My favorites are the adult children (ages 20 and 23) who have sued their mother for allegedly sub-standard mothering. Their list of “grievances” includes “playing favorites,” sending cards without gifts, and not sending care packages to them at college. Boy, would I love to be the judge who imparts a cold dose of reality to those two!

Sure, most judges have sacrificed lucrative pay in the private sector for the sake of public service. But just look at the benefits.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.dallasblog.com/201201301008754/john-browning-s-legally-speaking/its-hard-out-here-for-a-judge-or-is-it.html

KawamotoDragon.com

Japan - Northern Islands: Solution in Peril

2012-02-14T22:49:00.000-06:00

Japan - Northern Islands: Solution in Peril

Please view video at link below:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/movie/feature201202142019.html

KawamotoDragon.com

Why Judges Commit Crimes

2012-02-14T22:23:00.002-06:00

Why Judges Commit Crimes

Thursday, 01 September 2011 22:29 William M. Windsor . .

Lord Acton, a historian and moralist, said this in 1887: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

What we have here in Fulton County Georgia are judges with no accountability. They have taken the law into their own hands, and they have absolute power, and it has absolutely corrupted them. I believe the story is similar all over the country.

This isn’t a Democrat or Republican thing; this is non-partisan. These people are all dishonest and have been for many years.

It is possible that there is bribery. Judge Michael Ciavarella in Pennsylvania was just sentenced to 28 years in prison for accepting $1.5 million in bribes from the owner of a private prison. Ciavarella and fellow Judge Michael Conahan sent kids to prison for cash.

It is clear that big law firms have a “special relationship” with the judges. Whether there is money involved or not in Atlanta, I do not yet know.

Attorneys will not pursue dishonest judges because they cannot risk their careers. Attorneys tell me that their career would be dead if they even handled a civil case against federal judges.

The news media is similarly afraid of the judges. An investigative reporter with the Atlanta Journal & Constitution wanted to write the story of what I have uncovered, but she took it to her boss, and she was told she couldn’t. The judges have tyrannical power, and the paper would not risk it. Recently, investigative reporter Mark Winne with Channel 2 in Atlanta was in the lobby when I was trying to get to meet with the Grand Jury, and when he found out what I was doing, he disappeared.

We now have an entire branch of the federal government that “self-polices” acting in any inept, corrupt manner they choose without fear of accountability, have lifetime appointment to the bench and freely abrogate basic legal standards to grant “winks and nods” to parties in favor with the court -- evidence and law be damned.

These judges are protected by Congressional Judiciary Committees that arguably have a conflict of interest because all Judiciary Committee members are attorney and members of the same professional organization as the judges they are supposed to provide oversight over – the Bar Association. Members of the Judiciary Committees risk professional suicide by taking legislative action on judges. When an election is lost, they would be back practicing law in front of judges who would be unhappy by legislation passed.

Judges commit crimes because they can. They can break the law and get away with it.

Judges Do Not Have Immunity for Criminal Acts

Many people are confused and think judges have immunity. Courts have repeatedly ruled that judges have no immunity for their criminal acts. ( O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 503 (1974).)

Please read complete article at links below:

http://www.lawlessamerica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=463:why-judges-commit-crimes&catid=121:articles&Itemid=222

KawamotoDragon.com

2nd recruit dies at Great Lakes in several weeks

2012-02-14T22:15:00.003-06:00

2nd recruit dies at Great Lakes in several weeks

By John Keilman
Tribune reporter
6:43 PM CST, February 14, 2012

A naval recruit who aspired to be a military police officer died Friday of causes related to pneumonia, marking the second recruit death in a month at Naval Station Great Lakes.

Navy officials said it is not clear when Elizabeth Richardson, 19, of Zimmerman, Minn., contracted her illness, but that there was no sign others in her battalion had been stricken.

Richardson arrived at the base Jan. 30, and 10 days later went to the nearby Lovell Federal Health Care Center with a fever and a rapid heartbeat, said Navy spokesman Mike Miller. She died the next day, the first time in memory that a recruit had died of pneumonia, Miller said.

Another recruit, Christopher Walker, 19, of Kittanning, Pa., died Jan. 11 after collapsing during a physical fitness test. The base hosts more than 35,000 recruits a year.

jkeilman@tribune.com

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-2nd-recruit-dies-at-great-lakes-in-several-weeks-20120214,0,7454204.story

Chicago Called Most Corrupt City In Nation

2012-02-14T22:07:00.000-06:00

Chicago Called Most Corrupt City In Nation

February 14, 2012 12:28 PM

(CBS) — A former Chicago alderman turned political science professor/corruption fighter has found that Chicago is the most corrupt city in the country.

He cites data from the U.S. Department of Justice to prove his case. And, he says, Illinois is third-most corrupt state in the country.

University of Illinois professor Dick Simpson estimates the cost of corruption at $500 million.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s John Cody Reports

It’s essentially a corruption tax on citizens who bear the cost of bad behavior (police brutality, bogus contracts, bribes, theft and ghost pay-rolling to name a few) and the costs needed to prosecute it.

“We first of all, we have a long history,” Simpson said. “The first corruption trial was in 1869 when alderman and county commissioners were convicted of rigging a contract to literally whitewash City Hall.”

Corruption, he said, is intertwined with city politics

“We have had machine politics since the Great Chicago Fire of 1871,” he said. “Machine politics breeds corruption inevitably.”

Simpson says Hong Kong and Sydney were two similarly corrupt cities that managed to change their ways. He says Chicago can too, but it will take decades.

He’ll be presenting his work before the new Chicago Ethics Task Force meeting tomorrow at City Hall.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/02/14/chicago-called-most-corrupt-city-in-nation/

Alzheimer's patient, 80, killed in Oak Park extended care facility

2012-02-14T18:11:00.001-06:00

Alzheimer's patient, 80, killed in Oak Park extended care facility

By Carlos Sadovi
Tribune reporter
5:44 PM CST, February 14, 2012

An 80-year-old Alzheimer's patient living in an Oak Park senior center was killed and another resident is considered a suspect, officials said.

Anibal Calderon was pronounced dead at 1:01 a.m. this morning according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Calderon died of head injuries he sustained from an assault and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the office.

Calderon was a patient in the Oak Park Health Care Center, 625 N. Harlem Ave., where he was in the Alzheimer/dementia ward, according to a statement by Oak Park police officials.

Police were called to the facility at about 8:40 p.m. Sunday after he apparently had an altercation with a fellow patient in the facility, police said.

When police arrived, they found Calderon unconscious in his ward with an apparent head injury, police said.

Calderon was taken to Rush Oak Park Hospital and later transferred to Rush University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Police believe that a 66-year-old patient from the same ward is "believed to be connected to the incident," police said. Police are investigating.

Officials from the facility could not be reached for comment.

csadovi@tribune.com

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-alzheimers-patient-80-killed-in-oak-park-extended-care-facility-20120214,0,5570942.story

How to Destroy Your Career As a Court Employee: Watch Porn During a Rape Trial and/or Fall Asleep on the Bench

2012-02-14T08:06:00.001-06:00

13 Feb 2012 at 4:21 PMPosted in:

Pornography, Rank Stupidity, Rape, Texas

How to Destroy Your Career As a Court Employee : Watch Porn During a Rape Trial and/or Fall Asleep on the Bench

By Christopher Danzig

No one wants to be this guy.

At any job, there are various levels of misconduct that an employee can usually get away with or at least occasionally pull off without repercussions. Like, maybe you could get away with wearing jeans even if it’s not casual Friday. You might show up a few minutes late when your boss isn’t around, or you might check Facebook. I steal cars and blog while racing down East 14th after my east coast coworkers go home. You are not supposed to do it, but hey, it happens.

Then there are things you cannot do. Period. Things that any competent employee should simply know are unacceptable.

Included in this category of utterly verboten workplace activities are watching porn during a rape trial when you’re the on-duty court clerk. The list would also include falling asleep during a youth justice hearing — when you’re the judge running the proceeding.

But some people never learn. And then they lose their jobs. And we write about it (gavel bang: Adjunct Law Prof Blog) and show you video of the sleeping judge in court…

First, we have the details on the clerk, courtesy of Greedy Associates:

A veteran London court clerk was caught looking at some racy images — during a rape trial.

The 54-year-old clerk, Debasish Majumder, had worked at the court for years. He claimed he only looked at the pornography because he was “bored.”…

Majumder was found out when the judge saw him viewing the dirty photos. After all, the judge was sitting right behind him during the trial, which took place in December of last year.

How jaded you have to be to get bored during a rape victim’s testimony? The testimony would be unpleasant, maybe. Disturbing, probably. But boring? Seriously?

Things continue to get worse for Mr. Majumder. He admitted to watching porn at work on the reg. And police found child pornography on his home computer following the in court incident. Now he faces more serious criminal charges.

Maybe there’s a cultural divide. After all, this happened in England, where they have naked photos in mainstream newspapers. Maybe he just thought it was like looking at the news.

Meanwhile, on the homefront a Texas judge — more specifically a “special education hearing officer” — was forced to resign last week after he fell asleep in the middle of “testimony critical to a disabled teenager’s future.” From My Fox Houston:

In Texas, when the parents of special needs children disagree with the way their public school is educating their kid and efforts at compromise fail, there is often only one recourse to settle the dispute. It’s called “Due Process”, an educational court proceeding in which a state-appointed hearing officer listens to the issues and serves as judge and jury.

Larry Craddock was presiding at just such a hearing when he was captured on cell phone camera snoozing through testimony. Attorney Silver estimates Craddock slept through a quarter of the proceedings.

“We dropped water bottles. We tried coughing, we tried jumbling our books to help stir him awake, but it wasn’t working,” said parent Donna Harvey.

Parents who engage in a “due process hearing” often expend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees fighting school districts with much deeper pockets.

Way to go, Larry. Next time, think of the children. It’s not like education is important or anything.

Of course, pics or it didn’t happen. Even better, we have video:

We get it. Sometimes work is boring. Sometimes we arrive at work sleep deprived and hung over. But do your damn job. If you want to take naps and look at naked women all day, move to Spain. I hear they pay people for that there.

Bored Court Clerk Watched Porn During Rape Trial [Greedy Associates]

Sleeping Special Education Judge Resigns under Fire [My Fox Houston]

Gavel Bang: Adjunct Law Prof Blog

Please read complete article and links at link below:

http://abovethelaw.com/2012/02/how-to-destroy-your-career-as-a-court-employee-watch-porn-during-a-rape-trial-andor-fall-asleep-on-the-bench/

Philippines arrests doctor in $3M US fraud case

2012-02-14T07:33:00.002-06:00

Feb 14, 5:37 AM EST

Philippines arrests doctor in $3M US fraud case

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Philippine government agents have arrested a doctor accused of defrauding a California health care program of more than $3 million.

National Bureau of Investigation official Claro de Castro Jr. said Tuesday that Dr. Eric Chan was apprehended inside a military camp in metropolitan Manila. Chan is a medical corp reservist of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

De Castro says Chan fled the U.S. to evade arrest and prosecution for cases including grand theft before the Los Angeles Superior Court. Clinics he owned allegedly collected payments from California's Medi-Cal program by presenting false medical claims.

Chan, alias Eric Uy Garchitorena, was arrested Saturday based on a warrant issued by a Manila court. He is a subject of an extradition case.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PHILIPPINES_US_MEDICAL_FRAUD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-14-05-37-50

Search begins for children missing in tsunami

2012-02-14T07:24:00.000-06:00

Search begins for children missing in tsunami

A search for missing victims of last year's devastating tsunami has begun on a river in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, by draining part of the stream.

The search near Okawa elementary school came for the first time since the March disaster, at the strong request of the parents of children whose whereabouts are still unknown.

On Tuesday, machines that can float and work in water entered the drained river near the school and removed debris from the riverbed.

The river had been dammed 1.3 kilometers upstream and the water inside pumped out before the work.

70 of 108 pupils at the school were killed in the disaster, with 4 still listed as missing.

The search for the 4 children and more than 40 other missing people will run about 10 days.

Many of the young victims were evacuating the school ground when the tsunami hit on March 11th last year.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 14:03 +0900 (JST)

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120214_23.html

KawamotoDragon.com

Live-in aide convicted of drugging Alzheimer’s patient

2012-02-14T07:18:00.001-06:00

Live-in aide convicted of drugging Alzheimer’s patient

Friday February 3, 2012, 5:03 PM

BY KIBRET MARKOS

STAFF WRITER

The Record

A Dumont home health-care worker has been convicted on charges that she drugged an elderly woman with sleeping pills to make her job easier.

Nina Powers, 59, was hired by a family in September 2010 to provide full-time care to a 74-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, said Jessica Gomperts, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor.

Shortly after Powers moved into the home and started working, the family noticed that the elderly woman, who often woke up in the morning and stayed active for most of the day, had begun a pattern of napping on the couch all day, Gomperts said.

The elderly woman’s son and daughter-in-law became more suspicious when the woman came out wandering out of her bedroom one day, carrying a receipt for over-the-counter sleeping pills, Gomperts said.

The daughter-in-law then searched Powers’ drawers and found sleeping pills, Gomperts said. The daughter-in-law began counting the pills almost every day when Powers was away and found that five to nine pills went missing per day, Gomperts said.

“She was drugging her with these sleeping pills to knock her out so that she doesn’t have to do her job,” Gomperts said.

After two weeks of counting the pills, the daughter-in-law took the elderly woman to a doctor and had a blood test done, Gomperts said. The elderly woman tested positive for the main ingredient in the sleeping pills, she said.

Powers maintained that she took about one sleeping pill a day, and told jurors during a trial in Superior Court in Hackensack that the elderly woman must have been taking the pills without her knowledge.

The family fired Powers in January 2011. Powers was later charged with neglect of an elderly person and reckless endangerment, and a jury convicted her of the charges Thursday after less than two hours of deliberations.

Powers is scheduled for sentencing on March 16. Neglect of an elderly person carries a maximum of five years in prison, but because Powers is a first-time offender, she is likely to receive a sentence with little or no jail time.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_courts/Live-in_aide_convicted_of_drugging_Alzheimers_patient.html

Editor's note: This Shark sees no difference between the actions of Ms. Powers and the nursing homes, care providers and case managers employed by the Probate Court of Cook County. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Judge Patrick Ferchill Upheld in Covington Case

2012-02-14T07:00:00.003-06:00

Judge Patrick Ferchill Upheld in Covington Case

Posted on February 13th, 2012 11:23am by Wick Allison

Filed under Law

On February 9, the Court of Appeals for the Second District affirmed Judge Ferchill’s ruling removing Frank and Chila Covington as guardians of their Down Syndrome daughter. The judge was good enough to notify me of the affirmation and send me his comments, from which I excerpt:

The Covingtons, in this context, are free to reject all psychoactive medications for themselves, but they cannot refuse to have their daughter, a court monitored ward under guardianship, even EVALUATED for the potential prescribing of such meds. Keep in mind that after on the evaluation. Follow up reports show that the meds have ameliorated the hearing of “voices”, the imaginary person/s, the anti-social behavioral issues and severe headaches. HER best interests have been served.

Your original article has caused me considerable angst. It is forever in Google. I am asked about it, just recently by a high school friend I hadn’t seen in 40 years. Please consider contacting public officials to give them an opportunity to present their side before you paint with such a wide brush. Based on the Covingtons or stories about them, and the allegations of a disgruntled attorney, Mr, Shelton, whom I and other judges had sanctioned, you said that I and some attorneys ran a “racket”. That is the word I object to the most.

The original posting is here. The “racket” reference is here (about a different case). I am delighted the young lady in question is doing better because of the judge’s intervention.

However, before he breaks his arm patting himself on the back, I should note for him that the appeals court’s written memorandum raises very important questions about how he acted in this case.

The appeals court notes in three places a tendency by Judge Ferchill to act without regard to the law.

Page 3: “In July 2009, the trial court appointed a guardian ad litem for Ceci without notice to the Covingtons.” [my bf]

Page 4: “After a hearing and without notice to the Covingtons, the trial court found that the Covingtons cruelly treated Ceci and neglected to main her as liberally as her means permit.” [me again]

Page 4: “The trial court also found that the Convingtons ‘have both been proven to be guilty of gross misconduct and gross mismanagement in the performance of their duties as Guardian’ and ordered their removal without notice.” [me]

The appeals court notes that it did not address Judge Ferchill’s failure to comply with Texas 761(c) — on the question of not notifying someone when their case is before the court — because the Covingtons’ appeal was not based on it. By mentioning it three times, the appeals court is strongly implying it would have addressed this issue if it had been asked to.

The failure to give the Covingtons their day in court is the most disturbing aspect of the case. Two elderly parents who have raised a Down Syndrome daughter and, finally, when she reaches 40 years of age, placed her in a home, are resistant to addressing any problems in their daughter’s behavior at that home. They apparently have a abhorrence of psychiatric drugs. Their daughter needs the drugs (personal note: my own Down Syndrome daughter, who is 22, has profited immensely from such drugs). The staff at the home heads to court.

The court rules the parents have “cruelly treated” their daughter (language that arises from the statute), removes the parents from their guardianship, and appoints a new guardian — without ever notifying the parents that their guardianship is in question. The Covingtons are blind-sided.

After following this case for more than two years, I’ve come to two conclusions. Judge Ferchill was right in his ruling but wrong in how he decided it. And that is what sticks in my craw. In Anglo-American jurisprudence, process is as important as result. Improper process can negate a good result because process applies generally, while the result only applies to the particular case. A violation of process affects us all. That is undoubtedly why the appeals court noted it repeatedly.

I’m sorry if Judge Ferchill feels I have treated him unfairly. However, I find a certain amount of irony in his position. Unfairness is what the Covington case was all about.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2012/02/13/judge-patrick-ferchill-upheld-in-covington-case/

Former ballerina killed by cars while trying to help wounded animal

2012-02-14T06:43:00.001-06:00

Former ballerina killed by cars while trying to help wounded animal

Published February 14, 2012
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – Renowned former ballet dancer, actress and teacher Zina Bethune was hit by two vehicles and killed after getting out of her car in an apparent attempt to help a wounded animal, authorities said Monday.

Bethune, 66, whose married name is Zina Feeley, left her Lincoln Towncar running on Forest Lawn Drive early Sunday and got out to help what turned out to be a dead opossum, police Sgt. Jeffrey Siggers told the Los Angeles Times.

She was hit by an eastbound vehicle, then thrown into the opposite lane, where she was hit by another vehicle that dragged her body more than 600 feet, police said. She had severe head injuries and died at the scene.

Police have not identified the car that was involved in the second collision, Siggers said. The driver may have fled or may have been among the many drivers interviewed by investigators at the scene.

Bethune trained under famed dance instructor George Balanchine and began dancing with the New York City Ballet at age 14 despite suffering from scoliosis and lymphedema.

"I was born to dance, in my heart, but not in my body," she told a Los Angeles Times reporter in 1999.

Starting in 1982, she taught dance to thousands of disabled Southern California children through her nonprofit dance company.

She also sang and danced on Broadway, and appeared in many TV soap operas, including "The Guiding Light" in the 1950s and "Santa Barbara" in the 1980s.

On the big screen she was best known for appearing opposite Harvey Keitel in director Martin Scorcese's 1967 feature debut, "Who's That Knocking At My Door."

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/14/ballerina-killed-by-cars-while-trying-to-help-wounded-animal/#ixzz1mMKyZGnY

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/14/ballerina-killed-by-cars-while-trying-to-help-wounded-animal/#ixzz1mKl4gZHf?test=latestnews

Editor's note: So much God given talent is being lost...RIP Zina. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Chicago voter registration lowest since 1942

2012-02-13T19:29:00.000-06:00

Chicago voter registration lowest since 1942

By Hal Dardick
Clout Street
3:33 PM CST, February 13, 2012

The number of registered voters in Chicago is at its lowest level since at least 1942, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners said today.

As of Monday, about 1.28 million voters were registered in the city, board spokesman James Allen said. That’s lower than in 1942, the first year such numbers are recorded in the agency’s records.

Four years ago, about 1.31 million voters registered before the primary, which was held in February and featured President Barack Obama’s quest for the Democratic nomination.

This year’s low numbers prompted Election Board Chairman Langdon Neal to urge voters to register by Feb. 21, the registration deadline for this year’s March 20 primary.

Chicago voters can register in person at the board offices, at a state driver’s license office or by mail with a form that can be downloaded at the board’s website, www.chicagoelections.com.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.wgntv.com/news/chi-chicago-voter-registration-lowest-since-1942-20120213,0,26306.story

Editor's note: ProbateShark believes that Chicago voters will have to vote earlier and more often to make up the slack. Cremations have been "killing" the cemetery voters. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Can fish oil help prevent psychiatric disorders?

2012-02-13T19:14:00.001-06:00

Can fish oil help prevent psychiatric disorders?

By NORTH SHORE-LONG ISLAND JEWISH HEALTH SYSTEM 02/13/2012 16:17

New study randomized double-blind trial designed to test if Omega-3 fatty acids help improve clinical symptoms. By Thinkstock/Imagebank

Researchers at Zucker Hillside Hospital’s Recognition and Prevention (RAP) Program who have worked with teenagers at risk for serious mental illness for the past decade are now studying the effectiveness of Omega 3 fatty acids (fish oil) for treating psychiatric symptoms. This new study is a National Institute of Mental Health-funded randomized double-blind trial that was designed to test whether Omega-3 fatty acids improve clinical symptoms, and help adolescents and young adults (ages 12 to 25) who are at elevated risk for severe psychiatric disorders function better in school, work and other social environments.

“Of the 300 adolescents who have participated in the RAP Program, most have shown substantial improvement,” noted Barbara Cornblatt, Ph.D., director of the Recognition and Prevention (RAP) Program and investigator at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. “If this study continues to show success, Omega 3 could offer a natural alternative to the range of medications and therapies now offered to RAP participants. Ultimately, the goal of the RAP Program is to intervene and prevent illness before symptoms get worse.”

Omega 3 fatty acids are critical for normal brain function and they have been increasingly studied as potential treatments for medical and psychiatric disorders. The RAP Program study will randomly assign participants to either Omega 3 supplementation or to a placebo, and will compare the groups on key measures of symptoms and functioning after six months. Participants in both groups will be monitored closely on a monthly basis and compensation will be provided. All supplements are offered free of charge.

About the Recognition and Prevention (RAP) Program

The RAP Program is considered a leading research and treatment program in the field of early intervention and prevention of serious mental illness. The RAP Program has also joined with other early intervention research groups to form the eight-site North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study (NAPLS), a major international study consortium conducting cutting edge research with at-risk adolescents and young adults. The Omega 3 fatty acid trial will be conducted at all eight sites in order to evaluate the possibility that fish oil, widely available in health food stores, will provide protection against emerging symptoms of illness.

For more information on the RAP Program research and clinical studies, including the Omega 3 study, call 718-470-8115 or visit the RAP website at http://www.rapprogram.org/.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=257357

French min deletes "stay indoors" tip for homeless

2012-02-13T19:01:00.001-06:00

French min deletes "stay indoors" tip for homeless

Wed, Feb 8 2012

PARIS (Reuters) - A French health minister tried to tweet her way out of embarrassing blog advice that homeless people should not go outdoors during the ice-cold snap in Europe.

Junior minister Nora Berra was ridiculed on the Internet for writing a blog at the weekend saying toddlers, old people, the sick and homeless were particularly vulnerable in times of extreme cold and should "avoid going outdoors."

Her note sparked a flurry of Twitter messages and media reports that she was suggesting the homeless not leave home.

Berra sought to limit the damage via a tweet that redirected readers to a refreshed blog note where the reference to homeless people no longer existed. "There are some subjects that lend themselves badly to irony," she tweeted on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people, many of them homeless, have been killed in recent days as bitterly cold weather sweeps Europe, with temperatures dropping to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in parts of France.

Many French cities are opening extra night-time shelter for homeless people.

(Reporting by Brian Love; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/us-weather-france-homeless-idUSTRE8170WP20120208?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=22&sp=true

FBI won't enter sample from Staker slaying in DNA database

2012-02-13T18:51:00.003-06:00

FBI won't enter sample from Staker slaying in DNA database

Lab that worked on evidence from 1992 rape, killing not accredited

By Dan Hinkel, Chicago Tribune reporter
February 13, 2012

A rich source of potential criminal suspects — a federal database with millions of DNA profiles — is going unexamined as authorities in Lake County reopen the investigation into the 1992 rape and slaying of 11-year-old Holly Staker.

The FBI refuses to enter the DNA profile from the Staker case into its forensic library because the lab that worked up the genetic fingerprint wasn't accredited. Lake County or Waukegan law enforcement officials could file suit seeking to compel a search — the Staker evidence hasn't been checked for a potential match since 2009, and then only because of a federal court order — but local officials have given no indication they intend to do that.

FBI spokeswoman Special Agent Ann Todd said, to her knowledge, no one had even requested another search.

Since it was last searched for a potential suspect in the Staker case, the FBI's DNA clearinghouse has grown from about 6.5 million genetic fingerprints of offenders to about 10.4 million. But the FBI's stance that federal law prohibits it from running the profile through the database hasn't changed, Todd said.

Investigators are digging back into the crime in the wake of the court-ordered release of Juan Rivera, the former Waukegan man who spent nearly 20 years in prison for the slaying before appeals judges reversed his conviction and freed him last month.

In a criminal case beset by doubt and characterized by legal U-turns over the decades, the powerful forensic tool could point investigators in a new direction. But it's not being used.

"We're talking about the murder of an 11-year-old girl, and (the FBI) may have the identity of that murderer in their database," said Rob Warden, executive director of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, whose lawyers have represented Rivera. "And they're refusing to check."

The profile, drawn from semen found inside the victim, remains ineligible to be added permanently or even run through the FBI's DNA database because the private California lab that worked with the evidence on behalf of Rivera's defense team wasn't accredited by one of the federal government's approved agencies, Todd said.

Those who support the accreditation process say it's necessary to ensure private labs are using functional equipment, employing capable personnel and following best practices.

But the renowned scientist who worked with a colleague to develop the profile, Edward Blake, angrily calls the accreditation process "artifice being substituted for something legitimate." Though he now works for an accredited lab, Blake says the process doesn't truly assess the trustworthiness of a lab's work and notes that scandals and errors have plagued labs that have the certification.

"You don't make judgments based upon a mere credential. I have credentials. They're just not ones dictated to me by the FBI," he said. "Juan Rivera was lucky. What about the next guy? You see how stupid this whole thing is?"

Blake noted that the quality of his lab's work in the Staker case is not in doubt, and he accused the FBI of "obstruction of justice." Accreditation should not determine whether a rigorously developed profile is even run through a database, he argued.

The disagreement over accreditation centers on the FBI's National DNA Index System, known as NDIS, a database that takes in profiles contained in the federal library as well as qualifying genetic fingerprints from the state and local DNA databases.

The database generated major news in another Lake County case less than two years ago.

Jerry Hobbs spent five years in jail awaiting trial on charges he killed his 8-year-old daughter, Laura, and her 9-year-old friend Krystal Tobias in a Zion park in 2005. While semen found inside his daughter's body didn't belong to Hobbs, prosecutors argued — as they have in other cases involving DNA — that the evidence didn't clear their suspect.

But in February 2010, a former Marine from Zion, Jorge Torrez, was arrested and charged with a nearly fatal sex attack and abduction in Virginia. His DNA profile went into the database, where it matched the forensic evidence from the girls' killings, according to court records. A few months later, Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller dropped the charges against Hobbs, freeing him in August 2010.

Torrez, who was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in the Virginia case, has not been charged with the Zion slayings. He does face federal charges he killed a 20-year-old Navy petty officer in her barracks in 2009.

In Rivera's case, during the years before the appeals court ended the court fight, his defense lawyers had hoped to exonerate him by using DNA to reveal a link to an alternative suspect in the slaying of Holly Staker as she baby-sat two children in 1992. Rivera had confessed, but his lawyers argued his admission, taken during a grueling series of interrogations, was false.

Faced with aging, degraded evidence, Rivera's lawyers turned to Blake, then of Forensic Science Associates outside San Francisco. He was hired because he is "unequivocally a great pioneer in the field," said Lawrence Marshall of Rivera's defense team.

In March 2005, Blake's lab isolated a full DNA profile of the man who was the source of the semen.

But because the lab hadn't submitted itself to accreditation, the FBI refused to put the profile in its database or run a one-time query called a "keyboard search," citing federal law, according to court records. Rivera's lawyers sued the FBI, and federal Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer ordered the search in February 2009, calling the FBI's objections "unpersuasive."

No match was found, and months later Rivera was again found guilty of the Staker slaying at his third trial in Lake County.

But in part because the DNA profile did not match Rivera himself, an Illinois appellate court late last year reversed that conviction, and Rivera, now 39, was released from prison Jan. 6.

Left with an unsolved murder case two decades old, Waukegan detectives are poring through materials and following up on "a few tips," police Chief Daniel Greathouse said.

It remained unclear, though, whether Waukegan police or the Lake County prosecutor's office might seek a search of the database, despite the FBI's strong resistance. Greathouse wouldn't say, and Waller did not return calls for comment. Waukegan police said that when Rivera was freed, they were reopening the case; the state's attorney's office has not indicated if it is also searching for a new suspect.

Illinois State Police spokeswoman Monique Bond would not say whether the profile from the Staker case is in the state's database, though she added that profiles must come from accredited labs to gain entry. Rivera's lawyers said they do not believe the profile is in the state database.

Though the controversy means authorities could be missing an opportunity to find a new suspect in the Staker crime, the supervisor of one of the forensic lab auditing groups defends the federal government's insistence on accreditation.

"(The FBI) needs to at least have some recognition and some assurance from third-party assessors … to see that (the lab) is at the same level as everyone else," said Patricia Bencivenga, assistant accreditation manager at Forensic Quality Services.

Bencivenga argued that the accreditation process "absolutely does work." The process, she said, includes a physical visit and assesses everything from maintenance of the lab's equipment to the credentials of the lab's scientists to the quality of the work done in individual cases. A lab's accreditation is updated with an on-site visit every other year and a document review during the off-years, she said.

"It's impossible with any type of quality-control mechanism to prevent every error from happening," Bencivenga said, but she added that the process can identify problems in a lab, correct them and prevent them from recurring.

Disputes over accreditation aside, those who pushed for Rivera's freedom hope an accord can be reached that would allow the database to be searched again, and on a regular basis, for the profile of the man who matches the evidence in the Staker case. It makes no sense, they said, to let a major investigative weapon sit idle.

"We know who committed this crime. We have this person's genetic fingerprint," said Jane Raley, a lawyer from the Center on Wrongful Convictions. "We just don't have his name."

dhinkel@tribune.com

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-staker-dna-database-20120213,0,246073.story?page=2

Editor's note: Your ProbateShark believes that it is time to have a competent Coroner in charge of the Lake County Coroner's office to prevent any future Rivera type debacles. In the past Lake County has had an assortment of druggies, office help and political hacks running the office. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Supreme Court justice, wife robbed in Caribbean

2012-02-13T18:30:00.000-06:00

Supreme Court justice, wife robbed in Caribbean

James Vicini
Reuters
4:46 PM CST, February 13, 2012

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and his wife Joanna were robbed last week at their vacation home on the Caribbean island of Nevis by a man armed with a machete, a court spokeswoman said on Monday.

Spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said the robbery took place on the evening of February 9, the intruder stole about $1,000, but no one had been hurt. Two unidentified guests also were present.

The robbery was reported to local authorities but Arberg said she did not know if there had been any arrests and added that she had no details about the investigation. She said the 73-year-old Breyer and his wife were no longer in Nevis.

The U.S. high court has been on a four-week break in the middle of its current term during which it is scheduled to hear landmark cases involving healthcare and immigration.

A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said the agency does not discuss the particulars of its judicial security operations, including those involving Supreme Court justices.

"What I can confirm is that the Marshals Service is aware of the incident involving Justice Breyer on the Caribbean island of Nevis and is assisting the Supreme Court Police and local law enforcement authorities with the investigation as needed," spokesman Jeff Carter said.
Nevis is part of a federation with the nearby island of Saint Kitts.

It was not the first time that a crime has been committed against a member of theU.S. Supreme Court.

In 2004, then-Supreme Court Justice David Souter suffered minor injuries when he was mugged by a group of young men as he jogged alone near his residence in Washington.

In 1996,Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the victim of a purse snatching as she walked home with her husband and daughter from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to their nearby residence in their Watergate apartment complex. No one was hurt.

(Reporting By James Vicini; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Please view complete article at link below:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-court-robberytre81c23u-20120213,0,6459327.story

Israeli Black Hebrews mourn diva Whitney Houston

2012-02-13T08:08:00.000-06:00

Feb 12, 1:03 PM EST

Israeli Black Hebrews mourn diva Whitney Houston

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's Black Hebrew community is mourning the loss of Whitney Houston, who famously visited them in 2003.

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel, the leader of the 2,500-strong group of vegan polygamists, told Channel 2 TV Sunday that he considered Houston his "spiritual daughter."

In 2003, she visited the Black Hebrews in the desert town of Dimona. The group moved to the Holy Land from the U.S. decades ago. They believe they're descendants of a lost tribe of Israelites.

Houston was found dead Saturday in a Los Angeles hotel room. She had struggled for years with drug and alcohol abuse.

Ben-Israel - a former Chicago bus driver - said Houston was a source of pride for his community. He said he recently invited her back to Israel "to help her overcome her problem."

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_WHITNEY_HOUSTON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-12-13-03-08

Editor's note: Black Hebrews...not to be confused with Black Jews. RIP Whitney. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Induced labor lets dying Texas man see daughter

2012-02-13T07:49:00.001-06:00

Feb 13, 5:51 AM EST

Induced labor lets dying Texas man see daughter

By JAMIE STENGLE

Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) -- Diane Aulger was about two weeks from her delivery date when she and her husband decided there was no time to wait: Mark Aulger had only days to live, and he wanted to see his child.

Diane Aulger had her labor induced and gave birth to their daughter Jan. 18. When tiny Savannah was placed in his arms, Mark Aulger "cried, and he just looked very sad," his wife said. He died five days later from complications related to his cancer treatment.

The 52-year-old Texas man was diagnosed with colon cancer in April. He had surgery and, as a precaution, six months of chemotherapy, Diane Aulger said. With no signs of cancer showing up in follow up tests, the treatment seemed successful.

Then in November, Mark Aulger began having trouble breathing. By Jan. 3, he was sick enough to go to the emergency room. His wife said he was told the chemotherapy had caused him to develop pulmonary fibrosis, which causes scarring and thickening in the lungs.

Initially, the Aulgers were hopeful.

"He thought he'd be coming home in a few days with an oxygen tank," said Diane Aulger, who lives in The Colony, about 25 miles north of Dallas.

But on Jan. 16, the doctor delivered more bad news: Mark Aulger's condition was fatal. When Diane Aulger asked how long her husband had, the response was a sobering five or six days.

"Mark said, `I'd like to see the baby,'" the 31-year-old mother told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Their baby was due Jan. 29, and Diane Aulger had planned a natural childbirth, but when the doctor suggested an induced labor, she immediately agreed. She was already experiencing pre-labor symptoms, and they scheduled the birth for Jan. 18.

Hospital staff arranged for the Aulgers to share a large labor and delivery room.

"Our beds were side by side," Diane Aulger said.

Mark Aulger held his daughter for about 45 minutes after she was born. For the next couple of days, though, he was so tired he was only able to hold her a couple of times for a minute or so. She said he slipped into a coma on Jan. 21 and died two days later.

"I brought her home the night before he fell into the coma. It was just me and Savannah when he passed away," Diane Aulger said.

Along with Savannah, the Aulgers have two other children, ages 10 and 7. Diane Aulger also has a 15-year-old and a 13-year-old.

With her family's story getting much media attention in recent days, Diane Aulger said she's been heartened by the nice comments she's received from people.

She plans to blanket her home with pictures of her husband and said her children are already doing a good job of keeping his memory alive by talking about him.

"We're living day-to-day as if dad's still here," she said. "We know dad is here with us. They talk to dad. Mark was a very funny, funny dad."

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DYING_FATHER_BABYS_BIRTH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-13-05-51-03

This post is for the fans of the Illinois ARDC

2012-02-13T07:38:00.002-06:00

This post is for the fans of the Illinois ARDC

http://www.clr.org/Guzman-Myrrha-B.pdf

Myrrha Guzman is the intake coordinator at the ARDC

http://provisoprobe.blogspot.com/2005/10/ardc-letter-to-nyberg-d209.html

Please take special note of the comment concerning, "that his client tried to kill her step-son who was a 50% heir in a probate case".

Editor's note: Examples such as the above posts, explain why Illinois attorneys fear a complaint to the ARDC, as they would being drummed out of the Book of the Month Club. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

By Popular request we are reprinting the ARDC AUDIT RESULTS

Saturday, October 9, 2010

ARDC AUDIT RESULTS
(What the ARDC does not want you to know)

According to a thorough audit conducted by our Probate Sharks expert team, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois (ARDC) does not appear to be doing its job when it comes to investigating the Corrupt Cook County Probate Court Cases.

Per the ARDC website: The ARDC's principal purpose is to assist the Supreme Court to determine a lawyer's fitness to practice law in Illinois. If a complaint is made that an attorney, licensed to practice law in Illinois, has engaged in illegal, unethical or dishonest conduct, the ARDC will investigate and, if warranted, bring formal disciplinary charges. The Supreme Court of Illinois will then ultimately decide if a lawyer should be censured (publicly rebuked), suspended (having the law license to practice either taken away for a certain period of time or placed on a probationary period) or disbarred (having the law license taken away indefinitely).

Probate Sharks has received numerous complaints from victims of the Corrupt Cook County Probate Courts who have filed complaints with the ARDC against the unethical lawyers on their cases. ALL of these people have told us the same thing: Despite written proof that violations were committed by the lawyers on their cases, the ARDC failed to bring the case to hearing.

Examples of the attorneys' rules violations include: 1) failing to act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client; 2) failing to keep a client reasonably informed about the status of a matter or to promptly comply with reasonable requests for information; 3) failing to abide by the client's objectives concerning representation; 4) failing to deliver to the client all papers and documents to which the client is entitled; engaging in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice; and 5) engaging in conduct which tends to defeat the administration of justice or bring the courts or the legal profession into disrepute. Additionally, victims have reported that lawyers on their cases have falsified evidence, committed perjury, falsified wills, illegally changed Powers of Attorney, failed to report criminal activity, exploited funds, failed to provide accountings, and have participated in other criminal activity on their cases. In many of these cases, the attorneys for both sides appeared to be working in a collusive manner to exploit the estates of the elderly disabled wards.

Despite written documentation (court transcripts, court orders, emails, petitions for fees, proof of falsified documents,etc), the victims of Cook County Probate Court have told Probate Sharks that their case does not get brought to hearing by the Supreme Court of Illinois. This concerns the volunteers at Probate Sharks a great deal. BILLIONS of dollars go through the Cook County Probate Court on an annual basis. However, NONE of the victims who have come to us have had their complaints brought to a hearing by the Supreme Court.

Upon hearing this, Probate Sharks elicited the help of expert auditors and statisticians to see whether or not the Illinos Supreme Court is investigating Cook County Probate Court complaints with the same diligence that they apply to complaints originating in the other courts in Illinois.

The auditors' results are quite alarming: For a one year period (September, 2009 thru September, 2010), the Illinois Supreme Court conducted 226 hearings which resulted in decisions against unethical lawyers. However, less than 1%, (only 2 of the 226 hearings) involved Cook County Probate Court Players.

Appallingly, the victims who have contacted Probate Sharks all share the same story: they claim that their cases involved unethical lawyers and judges who financially exploited their loved ones, and violated the same rules that unethical lawyers in the other Circuit Courts have been disciplined for. However, they were ALL told by the Chicago-based lawyers conducting the initial review at the ARDC that the ARDC found no wrong doing, and a hearing would not be conducted.

It appears as though the corrupt Cook County Probate players have immunity from ARDC hearings in the IL Supreme Court. Complaints against the Cook County Probate lawyers do not get past the front desks in the Chicago office of the ARDC (where the Cook County ARDC complaints are to be filed). When these complaints don't get past the front desks of these Chicago-roots attorneys, well.....they never make it to a Supreme court hearing or decision...

We at ProbateSharks find it quite odd that less than 1% of cases against lawyers that are heard by the IL Supreme Court originate in Cook County Probate Court...odd because that is where the money is. Billions of dollars are in the hands of the Cook County Probate lawyers and judges.....and these lawyers appear, from our statistical analysis, to be immune from investigation. The estates of the elderly disabled wards in Cook County are being exploited by the court system, primarily because the probate judges and the ARDC allow the illegal actions of the unethical attorneys it to occur.

The collusion and corruption appears to be entrenched throughout the Cook County Probate Courts, and appears to extend to the ARDC of the IL Supreme Court.

If you experience a similar experience with the ARDC, please contact us. We also advise you to report the lawyer at the ARDC who screens your case to... the ARDC. Send your complaint via certified mail (return receipt requested) to both the Chicago and Springfield offices.

You may file your complaint against the unethical attorneys on your case, and against any unethical attorneys with the ARDC to:

https://www.iardc.org/htr_reqforinvestig_form.html

Despite the ARDC instructions to send your complaint to the Chicago office, we advise you send it to both the Chicago and Springfield offices.

As always, we at ProbateSharks invite the media and law enforcement to investigate the Corruption occurring in the Cook County Probate Courts. We would also like to recommend that you include the ARDC in your investigation.

Signed,

Your Probate Sharks Auditing Task Force Team
KawamotoDragon.com

Blumenthal, Whitehouse, Franken, Casey Introduce Elder Protection and Abuse Prevention Act

2012-02-13T07:15:00.000-06:00

Blumenthal, Whitehouse, Franken, Casey Introduce Elder Protection and Abuse Prevention Act

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

(Washington, DC) – Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Senator Al Franken (D-MN), Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) today introduced the Elder Protection and Abuse Prevention Act, a bill to implement a comprehensive network of elder abuse prevention and response measures.

"A spreading epidemic of seniors who are abused or exploited by family or caregivers must be stopped,” said Blumenthal. “Rigorous screening and reporting to detect and deter abuse, physical or financial, is necessary to help remedy seniors who may be too fearful or embarrassed to report it themselves. This measure would require tough national standards for screening and reporting so wrongdoers can be stopped and prosecuted. There is no excuse for one in ten seniors continuing to suffer the physical injury, emotional anguish and anxiety, and financial hardship, costing upwards of $3 billion every year.”

"Our nation’s seniors deserve the peace of mind of knowing that they are protected from physical and emotional abuse and financial exploitation," said Whitehouse. "I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this bill, which would strengthen and improve State programs to better prevent and address elder abuse."

"Across the country, far too many seniors are being abused or exploited by the very people who should be looking after their wellbeing," said Sen. Franken. "This bill will address the tragedy of elder abuse - which is far too prevalent in Minnesota and across the country - by providing resources to protect seniors from abuse and help those who have already been abused."

“We must bring this largely silent epidemic of elder abuse to an end”, said Senator Casey. “We have an obligation to protect our parents and neighbors who have helped build our Nation. This bill is an important step in the right direction in stopping the abuse and neglect of our older citizens.”

While child abuse and domestic violence screenings are well-integrated into the nation’s health and community services network, elder abuse screening requirements are noticeably absent in federally-supported senior services. The Elder Protection and Abuse Prevention Act seeks to fill that void by encouraging the development of a strong network of elder abuse screening and support programs to identify instances of elder abuse and stop them before they happen. In some states, strong mandatory reporting laws and penalties exist for crimes against seniors, but they are ineffective without screening and reporting standards in every part of our community.

Specifically, the bill would:

Toughen federal standards for abuse – toughens the federal definitions for elder abuse, neglect and exploitation, streamlining the definitions for elder abuse between the Elder Justice Act and the Older Americans Act (OAA). The Act also defines Adult Protective Services (APS) in the Older Americans Act, the only victim services resource for adults with the authority to act on reports of abuse. The bill defines financial exploitation for the first time in federal statue, and adds victims or alleged victims of abuse and exploitation to a list of conditions eligible for priority for social services under the Older Americans Act.

Improved Coordination of all Elder Justice Activities – requires that the appropriate training and prevention and provision of elder justice throughout the OAA Programs are routinely updated as necessary and sees to the full integration of elder justice activities with all social services programs under the Act.

Authorization of the National Adult Protective Services Resource Center – codifies the National Adult Protective Resources Center in the Administration on Aging, and expand both its guidance and responsibilities to states.

Requires the development of best elder abuse screening practices – directs the National Adult Protective Resources Center to support states in the development of best practices to incorporate elder abuse screening into health and wellness services and would require the research center to study and disseminate this information to states regularly.

State prevention, assessment, and response to elder abuse – incorporates elder abuse prevention training, screening, and reporting protocol into all senior service access points that receive federal dollars under this bill as part of their state and area plans on aging

Improvement of training for elder justice activities –incorporates the research and replication of successful models of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation prevention and training into the Older Individuals’ Protection from Violence Projects and strengthens Elder Justice sensitivity training requirements.

In 2009, there were 6 million instances of elder abuse reported nationwide, and only 23.5% of cases are reported due to a lack of screening, awareness, and prevention efforts. It is estimated that seniors lose a minimum of $2.9 billion each year to financial abuse and exploitation and victims experience a mortality rate of three times higher than those who are not victims of elder abuse.

Press Contact

Kate Hansen (Blumenthal) 202)-224-2823
Seth Larson (Whitehouse) 202-228-6293
Alexandra Fetissoff (Franken) 202-224-4645
April Mellody (Casey) 202-228-6367

Please read complete article at link below:

http://blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-whitehouse-franken-casey-introduce-elder-protection-and-abuse-prevention-act-

Editor's note: As well intentioned as this bill is, it will have little effect on the corrupt Probate Court of Cook County. The Probate Court of Cook County continually violates the laws of Illinois, America and its citizenry. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Emperor to have heart bypass operation

2012-02-12T11:48:00.000-06:00

Emperor to have heart bypass operation

Emperor Akihito is expected to have surgery next Saturday to increase the blood supply to his heart.

This will be the Emperor's first operation since he had his prostate removed 9 years ago, after cancer cells were detected.

The Emperor has been receiving medication since last year when part of an artery was found to have narrowed.

He had an examination at the University of Tokyo Hospital on Saturday to check his coronary arteries and the flow of blood in his heart.

Doctors found that the Emperor's symptoms are getting worse.

They said they have recommended a coronary bypass operation to add 2 vessels around his heart as it will be difficult to insert an artificial tube, or stent, in the affected artery.

The Imperial Household Agency told reporters on Sunday that it had decided to carry out the operation because the Emperor's symptoms have worsened since last year.

It said the operation is more likely to improve the Emperor's health condition than medication. It added that the Emperor and the Empress accepted the proposal for surgery without hesitation.

The operation will be performed by a team of doctors from the University of Tokyo and Juntendo University.

The Emperor should be able to leave hospital about 2 weeks after the operation.

Sunday, February 12, 2012 23:24 +0900 (JST)

Please read complete article at link below:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120212_26.html

Editor's note: The staff of ProbateSharks.com pray for a successful surgery, complete recovery and good health for Emperor Akihito. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

US sex abuse lawsuit against Vatican dismissed

2012-02-12T11:41:00.000-06:00

Feb 11, 3:44 PM EST

US sex abuse lawsuit against Vatican dismissed

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Lawyers for a man who was sexually abused decades ago by a priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf have asked a court to dismiss their lawsuit naming Pope Benedict XVI and other top Vatican officials as defendants.

Attorney Jeff Anderson filed the lawsuit in 2010, claiming former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and his deputies knew about allegations of sexual abuse at the school and protected the priest from punishment.

Anderson's firm filed a motion Friday in Milwaukee to dismiss the case. He says the main thing he was seeking was information and accountability, and he's already received 30,000 pages of revealing documents through bankruptcy proceedings of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Vatican attorney Jeffrey Lena calls the explanation "ridiculous." He says it's confirmation the lawsuit should never have been filed.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_VATICAN_ABUSE_LAWSUIT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-11-15-44-04

Japanese emperor to have heart bypass surgery

2012-02-12T11:34:00.001-06:00

Updated

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/02/141345.html

Feb 12, 3:47 AM EST

Japanese emperor to have heart bypass surgery

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese Emperor Akihito will have heart bypass surgery later this month, his palace said Sunday after the 78-year-old monarch was hospitalized for tests over the weekend.

Akihito returned to the palace on Sunday after the tests and has scheduled the surgery for Feb. 18, the Imperial Household Agency said.

A medical team from the University of Tokyo and Juntendo hospital will carry out the surgery at University of Tokyo Hospital, as his heart condition had worsened compared to tests a year ago, the agency said.

The palace's statement said the surgery will help the emporer enjoy a relatively active life

Akihito has had various health problems in recent years, including pneumonia and prostate cancer. He has cut back on public duties but still appears regularly at events.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_EMPEROR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-12-03-47-42

KawamotoDragon.com

Sen. Beavers and judges at odds over ethics panel

2012-02-12T09:13:00.001-06:00

Sen. Beavers and judges at odds over ethics panel

3:26 AM, Feb. 11, 2012

A plan backed by Tennessee judges that would change the ethics panel that disciplines jurists is at odds with arguably the judiciary’s biggest critic in the legislature — Sen. Mae Beavers.

The differences in opinion came out this week at a debate before the Tennessee Press Association between Beavers, R-Mt. Juliet, and Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Jeff Bivins.

Beavers has long complained that the ethics board, known as the Court of the Judiciary, is dismissing too many citizen complaints against judges accused of serious misconduct.

The judges are backing legislation that would make it more difficult to dismiss a complaint against a jurist. But they still insist that the vast majority the disciplinary board be made up of judges.

The majority of members now are judges appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

“I just think it looks bad when you have judges appointed by judges to judge judges,” Beavers said at the debate.

Beavers wants fewer judges on the panel and thinks they should be appointed by the speakers of the House and Senate.

Bivins, who is also a member of the judicial disciplinary board, said it was necessary to have a majority of judges because the panel has to conduct hearings that are in compliance with legal rules. He also said that it’s customary for members of the same profession to discipline their own, the way doctors, architects, pharmacists and others do.

“So, we’re simply asking to be treated like the other professionals,” Bivins said.

Beavers and Bivins agreed that there have been problems with the panel.

Records show that the court disposed of 334 complaints against judges last fiscal year, with the overwhelming majority dismissed. The panel issued nine public reprimands, six private reprimands and three deferred discipline agreements.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120211/NEWS0201/302110051/Sen-Beavers-judges-odds-over-ethics-panel?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

Editor's note: Alice R. Gore Estate value about 1 million dollars: Alice R. Gore, deceased, a disabled 99 year old ward of the Probate Court of Cook County, Judge Kawamoto’s courtroom was hours away from ending up in the Cook County Morgue. Alice's estate was depleted by probate court parasites and there were reportedly no funds to bury her. Her loving family paid for the burial expenses so that Alice would not have to suffer the indignity of being stacked like an Auschwitz inmate in the Cook County morgue. The judge allowed an easily manipulated mentally disabled granddaughter to be appointed as Alice’s guardian and yet no sanctions were instituted against the judge for this blatant infraction of the law. An ethics board staffed by "citizens" would be appropriate! Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

Defense lawyers complain judges rarely punished

2012-02-12T09:02:00.000-06:00

Defense lawyers complain judges rarely punished

Brian Roger, Houston Chronicle Copyright 2012 Houston Chronicle.By Brian Rogers, Houston Chronicle

Updated 10:07 p.m., Friday, February 3, 2012

Houston and Texas 0

It was a warning.

The wrist slap, months after Densen pleaded guilty to the crime, illustrates the inertia and toothless sanctions that the agency policing the state's judges is known for, according to Houston's association of defense lawyers.

"Nothing ever happens, no one is ever disciplined and there's no accountability back to anyone for anything," said Earl Musick, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. "And it's very secretive if anything ever does happen."

Less than 4 percent of the 1,192 complaints that were wrapped up in fiscal year 2011 ended with discipline, according to the agency's recently released annual report.

The Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association last week sent suggestions to improve the judicial conduct agency to the state's Sunset Commission.

The Sunset Commission will hold public meetings about the agency in April. Approved recommendations will go to legislators for the 2013 session.

The incident Densen was involved with was caught on video and widely broadcast in the media. The 61-year-old retired judge admitted guilt and agreed to pay restitution in October 2010.

Unlike Densen's public warning, however, most of the disciplinary actions are investigated confidentially and meted out in private.

No transparency

Of the 42 complaints that warranted action, more than half were "private" which means little is available to the public about the accusations or the results.

It is criticism the commission has heard before and says is unfair because its mission is to "protect the public" not punish judges.

"We don't see it as our role to remove judges or to publicly discipline judges in situations where it's not really warranted," said Tom Cunningham, chairman of the commission.

"On the other hand, I think our record bears out that we're not here to protect judges."

More than 1,000 complaints are filed with the commission every year.

To be effective, Cunningham said, the small staff of attorneys and investigators and the board overseeing them have to balance several factors.

First, the commission cannot review most courtroom decisions. Those official actions are reviewed by the appellate courts.

Second, Cunningham said, the commission should not be involved in political fights.

"Complaints are filed, not infrequently, for political reasons," Cunningham said. "We see that every election cycle."

Finally, those who file complaints can remain anonymous, Cunningham said, so baseless accusations about innocent judges should not be public record.

When judges are disciplined, the commission can opt to do it "privately" which excludes it from the public record.

That lack of transparency, about complaints and results, is what frustrates those who want to see judges punished. It also runs counter to the public nature of courtrooms, where most information is supposed to be public.

"We've got the very best judiciary in the nation," Musick said. "They don't ever do anything wrong."

'Education limitations'

The biggest offenders were justices of the peace, who received 19 percent of the complaints but were subject to more than half of the discipline that was meted out.

Some Texas judges, including justices of the peace, do not have law degrees.

"There are almost 4,000 judges in Texas, half of which are not attorneys," said Seana Willing, executive director of the commission. "So, we have some education limitations that we try to address."

Cunningham and Willing said there are few cases of demonstrably bad judges.

"It's a rare thing to come across a bad judge or a judge who is acting in bad faith or criminally," Willing said. "But those are cases that find their way to us and we address them."

Most of the complaints that are sustained involve clerical issues, like not filing the most recently updated forms for legal actions - a taboo for most lawyers, but not surprising in far-flung Texas counties where judging may be a second job.

Defending privacy

By addressing the situation with education and mentoring and deciding to not hold the judge up in public, the problem is corrected, Willing said.

"We've done our job, by protecting the public," she said. "The fact that it was done privately, does not harm the public."

Getting the right result out of the system is a balancing act, Cunningham said.

"The public wants to know about its servants, its judges, its leaders, its legislators - and they're entitled to know," Cunningham said. "The question is 'what is the proper balance to maintain the integrity of the judicial system?'"

brian.rogers@chron.com twitter.com/@brianjrogers

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Disciplining-Texas-judges-can-be-a-balancing-act-3004058.php

Editor's note: Alice R. Gore Estate value about 1 million dollars: Alice R. Gore, deceased, a disabled 99 year old ward of the Probate Court of Cook County, Judge Kawamoto’s courtroom was hours away from ending up in the Cook County Morgue. Alice's estate was depleted by probate court parasites and there were reportedly no funds to bury her. Her loving family paid for the burial expenses so that Alice would not have to suffer the indignity of being stacked like an Auschwitz inmate in the Cook County morgue. The judge allowed an easily manipulated mentally disabled granddaughter to be appointed as Alice’s guardian and yet no sanctions were instituted against the judge for this blatant infraction of the law. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

Watch "One Froggy Evening" on YouTube

2012-02-12T08:43:00.000-06:00

Watch "One Froggy Evening" on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRnX4quv5W4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

KawamotoDragon.com

Emperor Akihito undergoes heart examination

2012-02-11T09:20:00.001-06:00

Emperor Akihito undergoes heart examination

Emperor Akihito has undergone a heart examination at a hospital in Tokyo for restricted blood flow.

The 78-year-old Emperor arrived at the University of Tokyo Hospital on Saturday morning accompanied by Empress Michiko. The examination lasted for about one hour.

Doctors decided to conduct the detailed examination after an electrocardiograph test found an inadequate supply of blood was getting to his heart during light exercise.

The examination on Saturday is expected to help the doctors determine whether new treatment, including surgery, is necessary.

The Emperor will stay in hospital overnight and return to the Imperial Palace on Sunday afternoon.

The Emperor has been on medication for the past year ever since doctors found that hardened arteries around his heart were constricting and reducing the amount of oxygen and nourishment getting to the heart muscle.

Saturday, February 11, 2012 14:56 +0900 (JST)

Please read complete article and view video at link below:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120211_13.html

Editor's note: The staff at ProbateSharks.com wish Emperor Akihito continuing good health. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

AP: Judge tosses suit by boxer Gatti's daughter

2012-02-11T09:14:00.002-06:00

Feb 10, 5:33 PM EST

AP: Judge tosses suit by boxer Gatti's daughter

By DAVID PORTER

Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- The mother of late boxer Arturo Gatti's daughter can't sue his widow for wrongful death in New Jersey, a judge ruled in dismissing the lawsuit Friday.

Erika Rivera, a central New Jersey resident, filed the lawsuit last fall on behalf of then-5-year-old Sofia Bella Gatti. The suit blames Gatti's widow, Amanda Rodrigues Gatti, for the charismatic boxer's 2009 death.

Gatti's body was found in July 2009 at an apartment he, his wife and their son had rented in the Brazilian seaside resort of Porto de Galihnas. Police initially held Rodrigues Gatti as a suspect but eventually released her and concluded Gatti hung himself from a staircase railing using a handbag strap.

That conclusion is disputed by Gatti's former trainer and others, who commissioned an independent investigation that concluded physical evidence showed Gatti could not have committed suicide.

Attorneys for Gatti's widow claimed New Jersey wasn't the proper venue for Rivera's lawsuit because his death occurred in Brazil and any witnesses would have to travel to New Jersey. On Friday, state Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman granted their motion to dismiss on those grounds. The lawsuit still could be brought in Brazil or Canada, where Rodrigues Gatti resides.

"We believe that we satisfied the requirements to demonstrate jurisdiction," attorney Anthony Pope, representing Rivera, said in an email Friday. "We will, nevertheless, take counsel with our client and assess the best course of action for Sofia going forward."

The Italian-born, Canadian-raised Gatti developed a large following in New Jersey, where he lived and trained beginning in the early 1990s. Nicknamed "Thunder," he fought some of his most memorable fights at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, including a trilogy of slugfests with fellow 140-pounder Micky Ward beginning in 2002 that endeared him to fans.

His death also sparked a battle over his will. In December, a Canadian judge sided with his widow in a dispute with his family over the boxer's $3.4 million estate. Gatti's family argued unsuccessfully that he was duped into signing a will in 2009.

In addition, Rodrigues Gatti sued the New York Daily News, New York Post and Maxim magazine for libel over articles written in 2009 that described her as a former stripper. The sides have reached agreement in the lawsuit and are in the process of finalizing a settlement, her attorney, Mark Casazza, said Friday. Terms were being kept confidential, he said.

"I truly believe that justice has been served today," Casazza said about Friday's decision. "Amanda is a young woman who tragically became a widow to her beloved husband and a single parent to their son, Arturo, Jr. What she has been forced to endure since her husband's passing has been unthinkable. I hope now she can get the closure that she deserves."

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GATTI_DEATH_LAWSUIT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-10-17-33-37

Coroner in Ohio changes ruling in 1972 death

2012-02-11T09:07:00.001-06:00

Feb 10, 9:57 PM EST
Coroner in Ohio changes ruling in 1972 death

By JoANNE VIVIANO

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A coroner in southeast Ohio has changed the ruling in the 1972 death of a woman after her widower killed three relatives and himself last month in front of his cancer-stricken second wife - the first wife's sister.

Hocking County Coroner David Cummin said Friday that he changed the ruling of suicide in Carolyn Gilkey's death to undetermined after reviewing decades-old photos and reports. She suffered a shotgun wound to the head.

"When I look at the photos now ... it looks very staged," Cummin said. "I'm convinced she was sitting in the chair where she was, but the rest of it's pretty staged."

Cummin said the woman is in a chair in a kitchen area with her hand behind a shotgun that is propped up against her with the butt on the floor. "Her arm should be around it to pull the trigger," he said. "But it's in front of her arm, so she'd have to reach around the wrong way."

Cummin made his ruling Jan. 31. It was first reported Friday by the Logan Daily News. He said it's not uncommon to review old findings, but that this is the first time in 13 years he's changed a ruling.

Cummin decided to review the case after Carolyn Gilkey's widower Paul Gilkey fatally shot three people on Jan. 9 at his rural Logan home over a dispute about what his ill wife, Darlene Gilkey, should eat.

Darlene Gilkey, 59, watched from a hospital bed in the living room as her husband killed their adult son and two of her other sisters and then himself. She was not injured but died five days later.

Authorities said Paul Gilkey, 63, used a semiautomatic handgun to shoot one sister twice in the head at close range and another sister in the head and chest. The Gilkeys' son was killed with three close shots to the head.

Cummin said Darlene Gilkey had divorced Paul Gilkey after he killed a cousin with a metal fence post in 1974, but remarried him when was released from prison 10 years later.

He said there would be no forensic value in exhuming Carolyn Gilkey's body for further tests and that further review would serve no purpose because authorities "could not go after her killer because he's already dead."

He said he thinks it does help her family to know that it wasn't a suicide.

"I don't think you can do more than that. Even though it does look somewhat staged, we don't have a witness and we don't have anything else," he said.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SICK_WIFE_SHOOTINGS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-10-21-57-27

Japanese Emperor Akihito hospitalized for tests

2012-02-11T09:01:00.000-06:00

Feb 11, 12:48 AM EST

Japanese Emperor Akihito hospitalized for tests

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's Imperial Household Agency says Emperor Akihito has been hospitalized for tests.

An agency official says that the 78-year-old Akihito was admitted to University of Tokyo Hospital on Saturday for testing, but that the visit was not an emergency.

Akihito has had various health problems in recent years, including pneumonia and prostate cancer. He has cut back on public duties but appears relatively healthy.

According to Kyodo News agency, the emperor will get tests for his heart, which may be suffering from a deficient blood supply.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_EMPEROR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-11-00-48-53

Editor's note: The staff at ProbateSharks.com wish Emperor Akihito continuing good health. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

Prosecutors: Woman moved to retirement home to con elderly

2012-02-11T08:45:00.000-06:00

Prosecutors: Woman moved to retirement home to con elderly

LEVI PULKKINE, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Copyright 2012 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

By LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 07:44 p.m., Wednesday, February 1, 2012

A transient woman suspected of bilking elderly residents at Seattle-area retirement homes after gaining their trust has been charged with several counts of felony theft.

King County prosecutors claim Fonda D. Michaux conned several residents of a Burien retirement home, where the 52-year-old was living with her father. Beyond those thefts, though, investigators suspect she may have used the same scheme against other elderly people elsewhere in the area.

“While living in retirement communities, the defendant befriended and defrauded a number of elderly and vulnerable victims,” Deputy Prosecutor Celia Lee told the court.

“The state has received additional information concerning identical criminal conduct that has occurred at other retirement homes,” Lee continued. She described the investigation as ongoing, but suggested additional charges may be forthcoming.

On Oct. 25, a 63-year-old resident of the Boulevard Park Apartments called police to report that Michaux had scammed her out of more than $1,000.

Speaking with investigators, the woman said she’d met Michaux at the apartment complex.

Michaux told the woman she was staying there with her ill father, King County Detective Debby Schmitz told the court, and that she worked for Southwest Airlines. She allegedly offered to get the woman cruise tickets at a discounted price.

Believing Michaux would do as she said, the woman cut her a check for $1,010 for a Holland America cruise, Schmitz told the court. The check was cashed, but the cruise was never reserved.

A 93-year-old resident of the apartment complex told a similar story, according to charging documents. Michaux promised to buy her seven airline tickets for $2,400, the detective told the court. Again, the check was cashed but no tickets were purchased.

According to charging documents, Michaux repeated the scam against a 91-year-old woman and her 87-year-old husband, as well as another couple. Investigators later confirmed Michaux was not a Southwest employee.

“These charges involve a pattern of fraud and deceit carried out in retirement communities where the defendant apparently targeted vulnerable victims,” Lee told the court. “The defendant and her father lived on a temporary basis in retirement communities under the apparent guise of finding suitable housing for her ‘father.’”

Arrested Jan. 23, Michaux was found hiding in a closet. She has been charged with three counts of second-degree theft and one count of third-degree theft, and remains jailed on $50,000 bail.

Check the Seattle 911 crime blog for more Seattle crime news. Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news.

Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Prosecutors-Woman-moved-to-retirement-home-to-2927945.php

Editor's note: This crime is nothing new. The Probate Court of Cook County vultures have been using internal spies in nursing homes, retirement complexes and hospitals for years. It just took a while for it to spread West. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

Court program gives residents ‘guardian angels’ - Your Houston News

2012-02-11T08:30:00.002-06:00

Court program gives residents ‘guardian angels’
- Your Houston News: News

By Anna Waugh
Posted: Sunday, February 5, 2012 12:05 pm

A new court program is pairing community members with guardianship cases to help ensure the people entrusted to guardians get the proper care to lead healthy, safe lives.

The Probate Court Visitor Program was inspired by Montgomery County Court-at-Law 2 Judge Claudia Laird, whose court oversees the county’s more than 400 guardianships.

While many large counties like Dallas and Harris counties already have a program where volunteers visit wards annually to check on their health and living conditions, starting one in Montgomery County is necessary, Laird said, because of the growing number of guardianships for physically or mentally incapacitated residents.

“Montgomery County, of course, is in that in-between stage, so that’s why we’re taking the next step,” she said. “We haven’t had the means to check on these cases.”

Volunteers will go through an application process and background check, she said, and be required to attend a training sessions to explain the visitation and documentation processes.

The program may be able to find many volunteers by offering college credit through internships for criminal justice and social services students at area colleges, but the details of the college credit is still in progress, Laird said.

Aside from cases where a person is granted guardianship and may be taking advantage of his or her ward, Laird said she once received a letter from a woman in a nursing home explaining that she was able to take care of herself but felt trapped because her doctor and guardian had agreed she needed living assistance.

Laird then assigned a court investigator to look into the matter and request an outside medical evaluation. The woman was found to be physically and mentally competent, Laird said, and she was allowed to leave the nursing home.

“We addressed and investigated it, but had we had visitors in place, we would have found it sooner,” she said. “We’ve just got to get someone to keep eyes on these people and make sure they’re OK.”

Laird has been visiting various clubs and organizations recently to recruit volunteers for the program, and six interested people attended a training session Thursday to learn about annual visits, and reports, and how to watch for certain signs of unsafe living conditions.

Carol Carter, one of six volunteers at Thursday’s training, said she heard Laird speaking about the program. She decided to volunteer because her husband passed away in 2007 after suffering from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s for 15 of the 25 years they were together.

“People deteriorate psychologically and physically and they need people to make certain they have good care and respect in that process,” Carter said. “They need people to watch over them like guardian angels to make sure they get that.”

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/news/court-program-gives-residents-guardian-angels/article_934aa425-7d5a-54f6-a8e5-a471524d76d6.html

Editor's note: A program, similar to the Houston program, instituted in the corrupt Probate Court of Cook County would include only political hacks and cronies as "guardian angels". Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

Texas judge resigns after reportedly caught sleeping during testimony

2012-02-11T08:15:00.001-06:00

Texas judge resigns after reportedly caught sleeping during testimony

Published February 11, 2012

FoxNews.com

A Texas special education hearing officer resigned after being caught on camera, sleeping during testimony critical to a disabled teenager's future.

Word of the resignation came just hours after Larry Craddock e-mailed FOX 26 News to decline comment on video, still pictures and witness affidavits.

"It was not short little naps. He was actually sleeping for extended periods of time," said Myrna Silver, an education attorney representing the North Texas student involved in the case.

In Texas, when the parents of special needs children disagree with the way their public school is educating their kid and efforts at compromise fail, there is often only one recourse to settle the dispute. It's called "Due Process," an educational court proceeding in which a state-appointed hearing officer listens to the issues and serves as judge and jury.

Craddock was presiding at such a hearing when he was captured on cell phone camera snoozing through testimony. Attorney Silver estimates Craddock slept through a quarter of the proceedings.

"We dropped water bottles. We tried coughing, we tried jumbling our books to help stir him awake, but it wasn't working," said parent Donna Harvey.

Parents who engage in a "due process hearing" often expend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees fighting school districts with much deeper pockets.

Most of the time parents lose.

That didn't stop Donna Harvey and Sheryl Kaminsky from fighting for their son Ryan, a teenager, who experts claim, became suicidal because Keller ISD refused to address or acknowledge his autism.

"This is a young man who grew up with out a single friend and his life was a holy horror," said Silver.

Confronted with the video evidence and a demand by the parents that he pull out of the case, Craddock apologized for falling asleep, blaming his drowsiness on medication.

Please read entire story and view video of snoozing judge at link below:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/11/texas-judge-resigns-after-reportedly-caught-sleeping-during-testimony/

Editor's note: This Shark was a party to a "due process hearing" and it really does not matter if the judge is awake or sleeping...the parents ultimately lose. On the positive side, the judges of the Probate Court of Cook County are always awake and alert...all the better to fleece the public. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

Embalmer takes speech case to Mass. high court

2012-02-10T08:42:00.000-06:00

Feb 10, 6:16 AM EST

Embalmer takes speech case to Mass. high court

By DENISE LAVOIE

AP Legal Affairs Writer

BOSTON (AP) -- Troy Schoeller admits he could have chosen his words more carefully when he talked to a reporter about bodies he worked on as an embalmer at a funeral home.

Among a litany of graphic remarks Schoeller made was that he hates embalming fat people. He also described the body of a baby as a "bearskin rug" and made other crude observations about the difficulties of his work.

After his comments were published in The Boston Phoenix, the state board that licenses funeral directors and embalmers revoked his license. Now Schoeller is challenging that punishment before the highest court in Massachusetts, arguing the revocation violates his constitutional right to free speech.

"I didn't lie about anything," he said. "I didn't say anything that was wrong."

Schoeller argues that state regulators chose to enforce a vague and overly broad provision of the code of conduct that prohibits funeral directors and embalmers from commenting on the condition of a body entrusted to their care.

Funeral directors and embalmers routinely talk about their work in trade journals and other publications to inform a curious public, and the provision should not be interpreted as barring them from ever talking publicly about what they do, said his lawyer, Jason Benzaken. Schoeller is the first embalmer in Massachusetts to be disciplined on those grounds, the lawyer said.

Schoeller's statements were truthful, did not disclose confidential information and pertained to a matter of "legitimate public concern," and were therefore protected by the First Amendment and the state constitution, Benzaken said.

"People are interested in it; people have a right to know what happens to their deceased family members when they are brought into a funeral home," he said.

But the state Board of Registration of Funeral Directors and Embalmers found that Schoeller violated the code of conduct by talking about bodies in his care in an "unprofessional" manner.

"Sensitivity, dignity, respect are at the very heart of this profession," Assistant Attorney General Sookyoung Shin said.

"If his comments are OK, then any funeral director or embalmer in the state would have license to go out and describe the types of bodies that he finds nasty or that he finds amusing," Shin said during arguments before the Supreme Judicial Court last month. "And if I'm someone whose loved one has just died ... the last thing I would want is to feel as though the funeral home to which I've entrusted my loved one's remains is mocking the condition of the body."

Schoeller, 35, worked as an embalmer for 13 years in Florida and Massachusetts before his license was revoked in 2010. He said he agreed to be interviewed by The Phoenix, an alternative weekly newspaper, after he opened a clothing store called Horror Business in Boston in 2006.

Schoeller said the reporter took notes during their first meeting, so he knew whatever he said could be published. He said the second meeting was in a restaurant and much more casual, and he did not realize for much of the evening that the reporter was recording their conversation.

In the article, Schoeller discusses his specialty, reconstructive art, describing how he works to restore traumatized bodies so families can see their loved ones the way they knew them one more time. He also made graphic remarks about how the bodies of overweight people react to the embalming process - describing it, among other things, as "nasty" - and offered crude descriptions of his biological reactions to the fumes emanating from bodies.

His remark about the infant came while he was describing how he started with a baby "that looked like a bearskin rug."

"I had to rebuild it in nine hours. I used everything: duct tape, masking tape, tissue builder, wound filler. ... I put, like, coat hangers and caulk in there and put him into a little baby outfit. He even weighed enough, too, because I packed his head and his chest. He looked awesome," he said.

Schoeller said his remarks were an attempt to show how he took pride in his work and how it is an art to him.

"I tried to explain in my layman's terms how some of these deceased people, how much work went into making them look good so the family could have a lasting impression for the last time," he said.

Schoeller said he would have used different language if he had realized his comments were going to be published.

Ethical regulations for funeral directors and embalmers differ from state to state, but it is a clear violation in all states for funeral directors or embalmers to talk publicly in a way that identifies a deceased person entrusted to their care, said Lisa Carlson, executive director of the Funeral Ethics Organization.

Other professions also restrict workers from talking about the people they serve. Under the federal health privacy rules, providers are restricted from disclosing personal health information about patients. Lawyers are also bound by confidentiality rules to not disclose what their clients tell them.

Schoeller said he did not identify anyone in his remarks to the reporter.

"If he's just generally talking about fat people, that's just poor taste," Carlson said. "If he worked at my funeral home, I'd fire him for not having good judgment."

The Supreme Judicial Court is expected to rule on the case within three months. The court could allow the revocation to stand, or could send the case back to the board and say the sanction seems excessive, or could reverse the finding of the board.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EMBALMER_FREE_SPEECH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-10-06-16-31

Coroner examined late Philadelphia cardinal's body

2012-02-10T08:35:00.001-06:00

Feb 10, 7:47 AM EST

Coroner examined late Philadelphia cardinal's body

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A county coroner says he examined the body of late Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua (beh-vih-LAH'-kwah) at the request of prosecutors because of the odd timing of his death a day after he was found competent to testify at a high-profile church sex abuse trial.

Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman says county prosecutors contacted him after the 88-year-old Bevilacqua died Jan. 31 at a Wynnewood seminary.

Hofman tells The Philadelphia Inquirer ( http://bit.ly/w0PV93 ) he didn't conduct an autopsy but did see Bevilacqua's body and order toxicology tests. The test results are pending.

Church officials say Bevilacqua was suffering from cancer and dementia.

Before he died a Philadelphia judge ruled Bevilacqua competent to testify at the child endangerment trial of Monsignor William Lynn. Philadelphia prosecutors say they had nothing to do with ordering the review.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BEVILACQUA_DEATH_INVESTIGATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-10-07-47-15

Helping victims of financial exploitation

2012-02-10T07:40:00.002-06:00

Helping victims of financial exploitation

The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a bill to help victims of identity theft and senior citizens who’ve been cheated.

Senate Study Bill 3055 allows Iowa victims of identity theft originating out of state to qualify for the Attorney General’s Identity Theft Passport Program. The Iowa Attorney General will provide victims with a “passport” that can be used as proof to law enforcement and creditors that someone has stolen their identity.

This bill will also allow victims of identity theft and elderly victims of financial exploitation to be eligible for help from the Victim Compensation Fund. Victims can get reimbursed for expenses, such as traveling to and from the courthouse to attend trial or missing work because of criminal proceedings related to the case.

The financial exploitation of senior citizens and identity theft are growing problems. Here are some tips that all Iowans can use to protect themselves:

** Keep important forms of identification in a safe place. This includes driver’s license, Social Security card and Medicare ID card.

** Don’t carry credit cards, debit cards, checks or financial statements with you if you don’t need them.

** Destroy old financial statements and credit card offers.

** Safeguard your medical and health insurance records.

** Avoid e-mailing personal information.

** Don’t give out personal or medical information to anyone who calls or emails.

** Be wary of free offers of products.

To learn more, call 515-281-5926 or visit the Iowa Attorney General’s website at www.state.ia.us/government/ag/protecting_consumers.

Posted Feb. 2nd, 2012 at 8:00 pm by Senate Intern

Tags: identity theft, Senate Judiciary Committee

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.senate.iowa.gov/democrats/helping-victims-of-financial-exploitation/#cf10_field_2

Editor's note: Does this bill also protect seniors from exploitation by the Probate Court system? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Medicaid planning: Should your advice be best for your clients or society at large?

2012-02-10T07:34:00.000-06:00

Medicaid planning: Should your advice be best for your clients or society at large?

By Roccy Defrancesco

The Wealth Preservation Institute

The duty of any advisor is to do what’s in the client’s best interest, and any personal biases about the advice given needs to be left at home.

I’ve written a few articles over the years that have elicited some pretty nasty hate mail. The article that created the most hate mail was Medicaid planning using annuities is viable again.

Why hate mail? Because the article essentially told readers how to preserve a client’s assets for family members while at the same time getting the government to pay for their nursing home expenses.

You’d think I was evil for suggesting that advisors use the law to their client’s advantage. The typical comment read like the following: “How can you live with yourself? Telling clients how to re-title their assets so they can get the government to pay is immoral and bad for the society at large."

It was the “bad for the society at large” comments that really bothered me.

I will admit that when you help clients with Medicaid planning, you save them money and cost the U.S. government and the state money. In other words, you are using taxpayer dollars instead of the clients’ own money to pay for their care.

The ethical/moral dilemma

Because the federal and most state governments are broke, is it unethical, immoral or flat out wrong to give proper Medicaid planning advice to clients so they can preserve their assets for other family members and receive financial assistance from the government?

In short, not only is it not unethical, immoral or wrong, an attorney is mandated by his/her ethical code to provide the best Medicaid planning advice to clients, no matter how it affects the society at large.

Do financial planners or insurance agents have a different duty? I don’t think so. The duty of any advisor is to do what’s in the client’s best interest, and any personal biases about the advice given needs to be left at home.

While Medicaid planning is offensive to some or even many advisors, those feelings are not relevant if they prevent the client from receiving the best advice. If advisors want to tell clients their personal feelings while still telling them how to properly shift assets to qualify for Medicaid planning, I’m OK with that. The client can then make an informed decision.

It’s the advisor who intentionally withholds the best advice from clients that is unacceptable and, ultimately, can get themselves sued if their clients or their heirs find out.

For those who don’t like the laws of this land (like many who seem to take offense at proper Medicaid planning), take action to elect officials who will change the law. But don’t punish your clients by not using the laws of this land to their advantage.

Summary

My bottom line with this article is that if you are giving advice to seniors age 60 or older, you must learn Medicaid planning in order to give them the best advice.

If you don’t know Medicaid planning and you are selling life insurance, annuities, stocks, mutual funds or bonds to senior clients, your advice could be putting their assets at risk of Medicaid spend down (something that is not in your client’s best interest).

Please read complete article at link below:

https://www.producersweb.com/r/WPI/d/contentFocus/?pcID=fb7f18b031bc31dab828e4e5607af594

Judge allows 2 claims in archdiocese bankruptcy

2012-02-09T19:46:00.003-06:00

Feb 9, 7:49 PM EST

Judge allows 2 claims in archdiocese bankruptcy

By CARRIE ANTLFINGER

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A federal judge ruled Thursday that two claims could move forward against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for alleged sexual abuse by clergy, laying the groundwork for about 570 claims to follow.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests feared that if the archdiocese had been successful on its arguments - that the two claims were beyond the statute of limitations for fraud - 95 percent of the cases could have ultimately been dismissed.

"This is a very decisive victory for victim survivors in this community," said Peter Isely, midwest director of the SNAP.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelley dismissed a third claim Thursday because the man already had entered into a $100,000 settlement. Isely didn't think the other cases involving prior settlements would be affected.

Kelley also ruled the remaining two claimants couldn't argue negligence because the 3-year statute of limitations started at the time of their abuse - in the 1970s or early 1980s.

The attorneys for the archdiocese, Daryl Diesing and Francis LoCoco, said after the hearing they were not in a position to comment because they hadn't spoken with their client.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf said in a statement that they appreciated Kelley's prompt decision.

"The archdiocese is hopeful that it will be able to use the decisions to assist the parties in the negotiation of a plan of reorganization, and to move the Chapter 11 proceeding closer to resolution," she said.

By the Feb. 1 deadline, about 570 people had filed restitution claims - many not available to the public - alleging fraud and negligence by the archdiocese. A day before the deadline, the archdiocese filed motions asking for three cases to be dismissed because they were either filed beyond the statute of limitations, involved someone who was not an archdiocese employee or involved a victim who already received a settlement.

The archdiocese argued that the 6-year statute of limitations was up on the fraud claims. They cited press coverage of alleged abuse in the 1990s and 2000s along with a list naming 43 alleged abused that the archdiocese published in 2004. All of that essentially started the statute of limitations clock, they argued, because it should have spurred the victims to begin investigating fraud.

But Judge Kelley sided with Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, the lawyers for about 350 claimants. She said there was no evidence that the victims read the articles, and the list didn't provide enough details on when the archdiocese became aware of the abusive priests.

Anderson noted in court Thursday that there were 100 newly identified accused abusers, including 70 priests, that allegedly committed 8,000 acts of sexual abuse within the cases he and Finnegan are representing.

Wolf said they don't have enough information on how Anderson arrived at his assertion, but said they are required to refer any new abuse claims to the district attorney.

"We are bound by the court's confidentiality order and may not discuss any claims, nor should Mr. Anderson," she said.

SNAP's Isley said that the numbers Anderson cited in court were most significant thing to come out of the hearing, calling them "absolutely devastating."

"Our first concern is these offenders, where they are, who they are," he said. "That is a child safety and a public safety crisis as far as we're concerned. ... We would never find out about this without the court," Isely said.

About 60 people filled the small courtroom Thursday for the two-hour hearing, including many who filed claims. Mike Sneesby, 55, of Milwaukee, claims he was sexually abused by an associate pastor at a Milwaukee church in the 1970s.

He said the most important part of claims process is trying to uncover when and what the church knew and what they did about it.

"They have a moral responsibility to be accountable for this and release this for everybody so they can go on from here, that there is some closure in this," Sneesby said.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MILWAUKEE_ARCHDIOCESE_BANKRUPTCY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-09-19-49-34

Pauper v. Probate: Jeff Rense’s Interview w/ Danny Tate and Lori Dubois (NASGA)

2012-02-09T09:12:00.000-06:00

Pauper v. Probate: Jeff Rense’s Interview w/ Danny Tate and Lori Dubois (NASGA)

by Danny Tate

Judge Randy Kennedy, 7th Circuit Court (probate), the wrong venue for Conservatorships, the wrong judge for any bench

IN THE FIRST CIVIL COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION

Pauper Case No. : PD1

v.

Probate Court Filed: November 8, 2011
(The Biggest Business in the World)

JUDGE "WE, THE PEOPLE…", PRESIDING

JEFF RENSE INTERVIEW WITH DANNY TATE AND LORI DUBOIS (NASGA)

http://stopguardianabuse.org/dannytate.htm

The above link will take you to the NASGA site where you can hear the Jeff Rense interview. Mr. Rense has a large audience and is sincerely impassioned in exposing the "protection racket".

Also, this site will tell of other stories that represent how this abuse is of epidemic proportions across the country.
Keep the faith, for a change is a comin'...

Danny Tate--adjudicated "Pauper"

Japan's largest camera show opens in Yokohama

2012-02-09T08:01:00.001-06:00

Japan's largest camera show opens in Yokohama

Japan's largest camera show has opened in Yokohama with over 80 manufacturers and organizations worldwide taking part.

The annual CP-plus Camera and Photo Imaging Show is organized by an industry group of camera and imaging-product makers.

Among the highlights, Canon and Fuji Film are showing off compact cameras that feature quick photo transfers to smartphones - their bid to capitalize on Japan's smartphone boom.

Panasonic has brought along a new compact camera that allows users to digitally paint makeup on facial photos.

Many makers unveiled single-lens cameras with changeable lenses. Product innovation has made these models more compact and lightweight.

Japanese makers still dominate the global market for digital cameras, despite the scandal at Olympus.

However, with South Korean and other global players increasingly catching up, the Japanese firms are cutting prices and offering more sophisticated features to hold on to market share.

Thursday, February 09, 2012 19:07 +0900 (JST

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120209_35.html

KawamotoDragon.com

Guilty plea from former guardian-conservator

2012-02-09T07:35:00.001-06:00

Guilty plea from former guardian-conservator

Posted by: James Eli Shiffer under Businesses in hot water, Seniors Updated: February 7, 2012 - 3:00 PM

Last year I wrote about a former professional guardian and conservator named Terri Ann Hauge, who had lost her license as a lawyer but found a new courthouse career overseeing the lives and finances of vulnerable adults, only to find herself in trouble again. Hauge pleaded guilty last week in Hennepin District Court to felony theft by swindle in connection with the theft of $53,000 from the estate of Foster A. Greene, an Edina man who died in 2003. She is scheduled to be sentenced May 21. Her co-defendant, Terrance Larpenteur, is scheduled to appear in court for a plea hearing March 30.

Hauge and Larpenteur ran Estate Resources, Inc., which at one time handled one of the state's largest portfolios of work as guardians and conservators. Hauge still faces numerous charges of theft by swindle, financial exploitation of an elderly adult and perjury in Rice County.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/138877319.html

The secrets are out on deal to settle suit over Rosa Parks estate

2012-02-09T07:29:00.001-06:00

The secrets are out on deal to settle suit over Rosa Parks estate

February 5, 2012

The secret legal agreement designed to settle the brawl over the estate of civil rights leader Rosa Parks is a secret no more.

The confidential seven-page document -- signed by Parks' 15 nieces and nephews, Parks' longtime friend and caregiver Elaine Steele and an official of the institute Parks and Steele founded -- turned up in a Jan. 18 filing with the Michigan Supreme Court.

The agreement -- struck during a late-night bargaining session in February 2007 in order to avert a trial in Wayne County Probate Court -- spells out how the parties are to divvy up the proceeds from the sale of Parks' belongings, said to be worth up to $8 million because of their historic value.

Under the agreement, Steele and the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development will get 80% of the net proceeds from the sale of Parks' possessions, as well as the royalties from licensing her name, image and likeness. The nieces and nephews are to get 20%.

The deal also requires:

• The parties to refrain from publicly criticizing one another.

• Parties that divulge the contents of the agreement must forfeit their share.

• Disputes under the agreement were to be resolved informally by Probate Judge Freddie Burton Jr. and, if that failed, were to go through binding arbitration.

The document was filed by a most unlikely person, Alan May, the same lawyer whose complaint about an alleged prior breach of confidentially of the agreement caused Burton to strip Steele and the institute of their share of Parks' estate.

May attached the agreement to a legal brief that urged the high court to reconsider its Dec. 29 decision ordering Burton to put Steele and retired 36th District Judge Adam Shakoor back in charge of the estate, in keeping with Parks' wishes.

"The Supreme Court released the settlement agreement, I didn't," May said last week, adding that the court's staff had assured him his filing would be kept under wraps. "I believed I was filing a sealed document."

The Supreme Court rejected his request to seal the entire file.

Steven Cohen, the Farmington Hills lawyer whom May had accused of publicly divulging part of the document, causing Steele and the institute to lose their share of the estate, said May was careless.

"Alan May and his clients used a phony breach of confidentiality to torture my clients," Cohen said. "I wonder whether Judge Burton will assess any sanctions against Mr. May for doing precisely what he falsely accused me of doing."

It's unclear what, if anything, Burton will do about the foul-up.

The relatives' lawyer, Lawrence Pepper of Farmington Hills, doubted whether it would affect the handling of the estate.

Cohen, May and Pepper would not discuss details of the agreement.

The filing flap is the latest twist in a six-year legal saga that began when Parks' relatives challenged the validity of her will and trust shortly after her death in 2005.

Parks sparked the modern civil rights movement in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat to a white man on an Alabama bus.

Parks picked Steele and Shakoor to handle her estate. But her relatives accused Steele of manipulating their aunt to cut them out of a share. Steele and Shakoor stepped aside, and Burton replaced them with Detroit lawyers John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr.

Article is continued at link below:

http://www.freep.com/article/20120205/NEWS06/202050503/The-secrets-are-out-on-deal-to-settle-suit-over-Rosa-Parks-estate

Teenage kids fight dad's adoption of adult girlfriend

2012-02-09T07:14:00.001-06:00

Teenage kids fight dad's adoption of adult girlfriend

Published February 09, 2012
NewsCore

A new hurdle faces a Florida businessman who has taken the unusual legal step of adopting his 42-year-old girlfriend -- a guardian acting for the man's teenage children has filed paperwork asking a judge to throw the adoption out.

The paperwork, filed last week in Miami, said the adoption defrauded the court, blindsided the children's mother and shirked public policy on adoptions, the Palm Beach Post reported Wednesday.

The case has drawn international headlines since court documents emerged which showed that businessman John Goodman, founder of the International Polo Club Palm Beach, legally adopted Heather Laruso Hutchins as his daughter on Oct. 13 in Miami-Dade County.

The unprecedented legal move was exposed in connection with a civil case in which Goodman, from Wellington in Palm Beach County, is being sued for wrongful death over a Feb. 12, 2010 crash that killed 23-year-old Scott Patrick Wilson.

Attorneys for his parents Lili and William Wilson, who launched the civil action, allege the adoption is simply an attempt to shield assets.

The civil trial is set for March 27 and Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley had previously ruled that a trust set up for Goodman's two minor children could not be considered as part of his financial worth if a jury awarded damages to the Wilsons.

Lawyers told the Post they estimate the adoption, which splits in three the trust the children were previously to divide in half, will net Hutchins nearly $9 million and will authorize her to seek up to $5 million in extra cash each year.

Dan Bachi, Goodman's civil attorney, previously said Hutchins' adoption was done to ensure the future stability of his children and family investments and had nothing to do with the pending civil lawsuit.

In the latest twist in the case, Miami attorney Joseph Rebak filed a motion in Miami-Dade court on behalf of Goodman's children's Delaware-based guardian ad litem, Jeffrey Goddess, asking the court to throw out the adoption.

"I have never seen anything like this in my 31, 32 years practicing law," Rebak said Wednesday of the adoption. "Obviously we think it's wrong and we are hoping to have it set aside."

The motion says if Goodman wanted to protect Hutchins and take care of her financially "the obvious solution would be to marry her -- not to make her his child."

Goodman has yet to respond to the motion and no hearing date has been set. He is also due to face a criminal trial on March 6 on charges of DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash.

If found guilty, he could face up to 30 years in prison.

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/09/teenage-kids-fight-dads-adoption-adult-girlfriend/print#ixzz1ltEpci4D

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/09/teenage-kids-fight-dads-adoption-adult-girlfriend/#ixzz1lrmkshY4?test=latestnews

Florida teen charged with stabbing grandmother over 90 times, wanted to make uncle suffer

2012-02-09T07:09:00.001-06:00

Florida teen charged with stabbing grandmother over 90 times, wanted to make uncle suffer

Published February 09, 2012
FoxNews.com

A Florida teenager was charged Wednesday with murdering his grandmother by stabbing her 93 times and shooting her in the head with a crossbow.

Jasper Aristotle Smiddie, 19, allegedly stabbed his grandmother, 67-year-old Gloria Helfrich, 93 times, hitting her with a wrench and then shooting her with a crossbow.

Authorities say Smiddie decided to kill his grandmother to make his uncle suffer. They say he originally plotted to kill his uncle, but decided to kill Helfrich instead.

"He decided, 'Well, I'll kill my grandmother instead so that my uncle has to live with the death of his mother for the rest of his life,' " Sheriff Grady Judd of the Polk County Sheriff's Department said.

Authorities say they do not know why the teen hated his uncle so vehemently.

Police say Smiddie killed his grandmother in her bedroom in the home they shared. Then, in a bizarre twist. he locked the door and waited for his uncle to get home. The teen then ate dinner and watched television with his uncle, who had no idea his mother lay dead in her bedroom.

Smiddie left the home in the morning, then reportedly called his father in Tampa and told him what he had done. His father called the police, and directed them to the woman's body.

Smiddie was arrested near his girlfriend's home and charged with first-degree murder

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/09/florida-teen-charged-with-stabbing-grandmother-over-0-times-to-make-uncle/print#ixzz1ltDhYPOy

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/09/florida-teen-charged-with-stabbing-grandmother-over-0-times-to-make-uncle/#ixzz1lrTTbVbl

Ill. man in erectile pump case asks for leniency

2012-02-08T17:47:00.002-06:00

Feb 8, 1:27 PM EST

Ill. man in erectile pump case asks for leniency

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- An Illinois man facing sentencing in Rhode Island for shipping unwanted penis enlargers to diabetes patients as part of a Medicare fraud scheme is asking for a maximum prison term of 1 1/2 years.

Lawyers for 49-year-old Gary Winner, of Wheeling, say in court papers that the guidelines for determining his punishment could result in a recommended prison term of five years and eight months to seven years and 2 1/2 months. They say Winner's conduct isn't serious enough to merit that sentence.

Prosecutors say Winner faces up to 33 years in prison at sentencing on Friday. They haven't filed their sentencing recommendations.

Winner pleaded guilty to four charges stemming from the scheme and agreed to forfeit about $2 million. A message was left for his lawyer Wednesday.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ERECTILE_PUMPS_MEDICARE_FRAUD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-08-13-27-12

Rescued dog bites TV anchor during broadcast

2012-02-08T17:33:00.000-06:00

Feb 8, 6:23 PM EST

Rescued dog bites TV anchor during broadcast

By STEVEN K. PAULSON

Associated Press

DENVER (AP) -- An 85-pound Argentine mastiff dog dramatically rescued a day earlier from an icy lake was impounded Wednesday after viciously biting a Denver television news anchor on her face during a live in-studio segment.

Kyle Dyer was conducting an interview on the rescue of Gladiator Maximus, also known as Max, after the dog fell into a frigid Lakewood lake Tuesday while chasing a coyote. The live segment was aimed at reuniting firefighter Tyler Sugaski, who rescued the animal, and Michael Robinson, the dog's owner.

According to KUSA-TV ( http://on9news.tv/wOefIb ), firefighters, paramedics and animal control were called to the station after the attack.

The station later showed video of Dyer petting the dog, but stopped before the attack occurred and said they would not rebroadcast it. Other video posted online showed the dog lunging at Dyer and viciously biting her face.

Meghan Hughes, spokeswoman for the Denver Environmental Health department, said Robinson, 39, of Lakewood was cited with failure to have his dog on a leash, allowing a dog to bite and failure to have a vaccinated dog.

Hughes said the dog is being quarantined until a judge can hold a hearing on the charges and rule on the dog's fate.

Robinson did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Julie Lonborg, spokeswoman for Denver Health hospital, said in a statement that Dyer was in fair condition and being evaluated by a trauma team. The hospital said she was awake and visiting with family.

KUSA news director Patti Dennis said Dyer was doing well after reconstructive surgery on her lip.

"The dog bite accident that happened today at 9News was unfortunate and certainly not expected based on what we knew about the dog and his owner," Dennis wrote on the station's Facebook page. "Our goal was to unite the owner with the rescuer for a nice segment. We are all thinking of Kyle and her recovery."

According to the station, Robinson was taking the dog for a walk without a leash on Tuesday around 5:30 p.m. when the dog spotted a coyote running out of a bush. The dog chased the coyote onto the ice and fell into the freezing water, where the animal spent 20 minutes before firefighters arrived.

Sugaski broke the ice with his arms to get closer to the dog.

"The dog recognized right off that I was there to help, so he came towards me," Sugaski said.

The West Metro Fire Department said Sugaski was unavailable for comment.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TELEVISED_DOG_BITE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-08-17-38-26

Wisconsin man's 'nearly skeletonized' body found in home 4 years after suicide

2012-02-08T11:14:00.002-06:00

Wisconsin man's 'nearly skeletonized' body found in home 4 years after suicide

Published February 07, 2012
FoxNews.com

A Wisconsin man who was thought to have moved away in 2007 reportedly killed himself, leaving his "nearly skeletonized body" to rot in his home for more than four years.

The discovery of David Carter's remains occurred last month after his West Allis foreclosed home was handed over to the city due to unpaid property taxes, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Carter's "nearly skeletonized body" was found on the home's second floor and a handgun was found lying on his chest, according to the medical examiner's report which concluded he died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Carter, 41, likely died in late 2007 after quitting his job and telling friends he was moving to New Mexico, according to the newspaper.

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/07/wisconsin-mans-nearly-skeletonized-body-found-in-home-4-years-after-suicide/?intcmp=obnetwork

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/uncanny-coincidences-let-mans-death-go-unnoticed-for-years-qs422uf-138727284.html

Okinawa governor comments on Japan-US talks

2012-02-08T08:54:00.003-06:00

Okinawa governor comments on Japan-US talks

Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima says he will carefully watch future Japan-US talks, as details on today's announcement are still unavailable.

Nakaima said on Wednesday that he hopes the 2 countries' governments will discuss the Futenma base issue with consideration for local people's wishes.

He stressed that it is impossible to implement a plan to relocate Futenma without local agreement, and said he will continue to demand that the base be moved out of the prefecture.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012 19:58 +0900 (JST)

Please read complete article and view video in English at link below:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120208_37.html

KawamotoDragon.com

Hazing court martial begins for Marine sergeant

2012-02-08T08:49:00.000-06:00

Feb 7, 11:05 PM EST

Hazing court martial begins for Marine sergeant

By AUDREY McAVOY

Associated Press

KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii (AP) -- A sergeant singled out a member of his squad at their patrol base in Afghanistan, a military prosecutor said Tuesday at the start of the military trial of a Hawaii-based Marine accused of hazing a fellow Marine who later committed suicide in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Benjamin Johns ordered Lance Cpl. Harry Lew to dig a foxhole as punishment for sleeping on watch duty, Capt. Jesse Schweig told a general court-martial jury of three officers and five enlisted Marines. The sergeant also didn't intervene when a corporal punished Lew by making him carry a sandbag around the base, he said.

Johns, of Russelville, Ark., is charged with violating a lawful order by wrongfully humiliating and demeaning Lew and for dereliction by failing to ensure the welfare of Marines under his care.

He's one of three Marines accused of hazing Lew in the hours before he fatally shot himself at Patrol Base Gowragi in Helmand province. The 21-year-old was the nephew of U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif.

A lance corporal last week pleaded guilty to assault and admitted kicking and punching Lew. The third Marine, also a lance corporal, still faces trial.

There hasn't been any evidence to prove Lew killed himself because of the abuse, so the military judge presiding over the trial, Col. Michael Richardson, said jurors wouldn't be told about the suicide. They will only be told Lew, of Santa Clara, Calif., has died.

Johns' attorney, Tim Bilecki, recounted in his opening remarks that Lew had fallen asleep repeatedly while on watch duty and patrol. By the night of April 2, he had fallen asleep four times since he joined Johns' squad. He explained how vital it was for those on watch to stay awake, noting the base had come under attack before and that the squad had intelligence they might be targeted by 30 Taliban fighters and some suicide bombers.

Johns, 26, ordered Lew to dig a foxhole deep enough to stand in - a position that could help Lew stay awake on watch duty, Bilecki said.

Bilecki said his client appropriately addressed Lew's sleeping problem by referring him up the chain of command for punishment, talking to Lew individually, and taking the lance corporal off difficult combat patrols in the area outside the base. Even so, he said, Lew fell asleep again.

"What should a squad leader in Sgt. Johns' position do? That is one of the central questions that should be asked in this trial," Bilecki said.

The alleged incident happened while the squad was assigned to a small patrol base in a remote area where the U.S. was trying to disrupt Taliban drug and weapons trafficking.

The first Marine to face trial in the case, Lance Cpl. Jacob Jacoby, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and demoted to private first class after pleading guilty to assault last week.

The third Marine, Lance Cpl. Carlos Orozco III, allegedly put his foot on Lew's back, ordered Lew to do push-ups and side planks, and poured sand into Lew's face. Orozco has been charged with assault, humiliating Lew, and cruelty and maltreatment. His court-martial is pending.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MARINES_ALLEGED_HAZING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-07-23-05-56

Editor's note: Your ProbateShark was in the U.S. Military many years ago. If this Shark was caught sleeping in watch he would be in deep doodoo! Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Judge Orders Florida Man To Take His Wife on a Date

2012-02-08T08:34:00.001-06:00

Judge Orders Florida Man To Take His Wife on a Date

The ruling stipulates flowers, bowling, and Red Lobster.
By Daniel Arkin
Wednesday, Feb 8, 2012
Updated 9:15 AM EST
A Florida judge ruled that a man must take his wife out on a date.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, a Florida judge ruled on Tuesday that a man involved in a scuffle with his wife treat her to an evening at a local bowling alley and a romantic meal at Red Lobster.

Judge John Hurley ordered that Joseph Bray, 47 and his wife Sonja, 39, also visit a marriage counselor.

Hurley handed down this ruling instead of setting bond or slapping Bray with a prison sentence after he deemed domestic violence charges leveled by Bray's wife to be "very, very minor."

According to Bray's arrest affidavit, Bray and his wife got embroiled in a spat after he failed to wish her a happy birthday. Bray's wife claims that her husband shoved her against a sofa and grabbed her neck.

The judge, citing Bray's otherwise clean record and the incident's apparent lack of serious violence, did not consider Bray's behavior a major offense. However, Bray must follow the stipulations of Hurley's ruling very closely if he wants to avoid potential jail time.

"He's going to stop by somewhere and he's going to get some flowers," Hurley said at a hearing, according to Florida newspaper Sun Sentinel. "And then he's going to go home, pick up his wife, get dressed, take her to Red Lobster. And then after they have Red Lobster, they're going to go bowling."

Hurley noted that he would not typically treat a domestic violence charge in a similarly jocular or light-hearted manner.

"The court would not normally [make this ruling] if the court felt there was some violence but this is very, very minor and the court felt that that was a better resolution than the other alternatives," Hurley said.

According to Google Maps, there is a Red Lobster conveniently located in Plantation, Florida—Bray's city of residence—adjacent to a Kohl's and nearby the Broward Mall.

Fortunately for Bray and his wife, the Plantation Red Lobster receives high marks in Google Maps' Review section.

Google user Georgia Valente writes that "of all the Red Lobsters in South Florida," the couple's dinner destination is "quite possibly the best."

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/weird/Judge-Orders-Florida-Man-To-Take-His-Wife-on-a-Date-138920574.html

KawamotoDragon.com

KawamotoDragon.com

Legislation could limit judges' power

2012-02-08T07:46:00.003-06:00

Legislation could limit judges' power

Posted: Feb 06, 2012 8:59 PM CST

Updated: Feb 06, 2012 9:07 PM CST

Posted by Nancy Amons - emailNASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - A Tennessee representative is pushing for reforms to the system that is meant to protect vulnerable citizens, but often leaves them destitute and homeless instead.

State Rep. Gary Odom, D-Nashville, has introduced a bill that provides more protection to those who could come under the control of a conservator. A conservator is someone appointed by the court to oversee the person's personal and financial affairs.

Three Davidson County cases recently profiled by Channel 4 News show the system robs people of their rights and often drains their bank accounts to pay for attorneys they never chose and in some cases, found they could not fire.

People in conservatorships lose all their rights, including their right to handle their own money, their right to make their own medical decisions, their right to vote, their right to marry and their right to decide where to live.

Ginger Franklin fell under the control of a conservator after she fell down the stairs at her home and bumped her head.

While she was recovering, her conservator put her home up for sale, emptied her bank accounts and disposed of most of her personal possessions. A year later, she was broke and homeless.

The same thing happened to Jewell Tinnon. Her furniture, her clothes and even her paid-for home were all sold at auction. Once she won her release from her conservatorship, she had to move into public housing for the elderly.

"I said, 'Don't you all sell my home. I worked hard for this,'" Tinnon told Channel 4.

Songwriter Danny Tate fought to free himself from a conservatorship. He ultimately lost his fortune.

Odom has introduced a bill to better protect people's rights in conservatorships.

"It's wrong. We need a better process. We deserve a better process," Odom says.

Odom's bill would require more medical evidence before a judge appoints a conservator. The person who would be the subject of the conservatorship would have the right to appear in court personally and would have the right to pick their own lawyer. That is not currently the case.

"That's unbelievable to me," Odom says.

In the Tinnon case, her car and all her furniture sold for a total of $2,600 at auction. Her house netted her $72,000 at auction, about half of what it was worth.

"I've been treated mighty bad," Tinnon says.

The same judge presided over the Tinnon, Franklin and Tate cases - Probate Judge Randy Kennedy. He did not return our calls asking for comment on Odom's bill.

Odom says his bill does not target Kennedy specifically, just the system itself.

"This legislation obviously cannot undo wrongs that have taken place in the past, but it can try to protect people in the future," Odom says.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.wsmv.com/story/16690156/legislation-could-limit-judges-power

Flowood attorney jailed for fraud and contempt

2012-02-08T07:42:00.000-06:00

Flowood attorney jailed for fraud and contempt

Posted: Feb 02, 2012 9:54 PM CST

Updated: Feb 02, 2012 11:25 PM CST

By Howard Ballou - bio
email

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - A Rankin County attorney is in the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond. Hinds County Chancery Judge Dwayne Thomas said Michael J. Brown will stay there until he accounts for and returns a lot of money that belongs to the grandson of a late civil rights legend.

The court found that Brown was supposed to establish a guardianship account for at least $3 million dollars inherited by De Mon McClinton from his mother, Rebecca Henry McClinton.

Brown never did.

His mother, the daughter of the late Doctor Aaron Henry, died in 2000 when McClinton was 16-years-old.

Brown never deposited the funds into a bank as required by a court order 12 years ago.

He loaned out $550,000 of McClinton's money and personally borrowed another half-million dollars from McClinton's funds in 2001.

Additionally, Brown forged two checks totaling more than $230,000.

And in 2001, Brown tried to have a $398,000 fee approved in Hinds County Chancery Court for getting McClinton's funds from his mother's estate.

Judge Thomas ordered Brown's case turned over to the Hinds County district attorney and to the Mississippi Bar.

McClinton, who is now 28 and a WLBT employee, declined comment.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.wlbt.com/story/16666688/flowood-attorney-jailed-for-fraud-and-contempt

Editor's note: Alice R. Gore Estate value about 1 million dollars: Alice R. Gore, deceased, a disabled 99 year old ward of the Probate Court of Cook County, Judge Kawamoto’s courtroom was hours away from ending up in the Cook County Morgue. Alice's estate was depleted by probate court parasites and there was reportedly no funds to bury her. Her loving family paid for the burial expenses so that Alice would not have to suffer the indignity of being stacked like an Auschwitz inmate in the morgue. Many of Alice's annuity checks were forged and never deposited and yet the court does nothing to find these criminals. Maybe there is more honest law in MS? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

KawamotoDragon.com

Lawyer disbarred for misappropriating money from woman's estate

2012-02-08T07:34:00.000-06:00

Published: February 03, 2012

Updated: February 04, 2012 - 8:26 PM

Lawyer disbarred for misappropriating money from woman's estate

By MICHAEL HEWLETT

A longtime Winston-Salem lawyer was disbarred last month for allegedly misappropriating money from a Forsyth County woman's estate and providing false information to a Forsyth County clerk.

Billy D. Friende Jr. was disbarred for violating the rules of professional conduct, according to an order filed Jan. 27 with the Disciplinary Hearing Commission of the N.C. State Bar.

Friende is accused of misappropriating more than $28,000 from a trust account set up for the woman's estate and misrepresenting information about the account to clerks at the county courthouse. He is also accused of falsely reporting attorney fees he said he was entitled to for his services.

No criminal charges have been filed against him. Friende has about a month to surrender his law license.

"It was an attorney fee dispute and all of the beneficiaries got what they were entitled to," Friende said last week when reached at his office. "It was an issue of the amount of the attorney fees."

According to the order, Friende decided to consent to the disbarment rather than go to a hearing and defend himself against the charges.

"I didn't want to dispute it," he said.

Friende was hired in 2005 to handle the estate of Alice Jackson, according to a complaint filed with the State Bar last June. Jackson died July 28, 2005, the complaint said.

Brenda D. Sloan, who was named in Jackson's will as one of the executors to her estate, hired Friende to help her open and administer Jackson's estate, the complaint said. Jackson had left her estate, including money in an investment account, to five charitable institutions.

Friende opened up a trust account for the estate and transferred a total of $257,500 into that account, the complaint said. Then, according to the complaint, Friende took money, sometimes as much as $5,000, from the account without Sloan's permission several times over a year. He took more than $28,000 from the account, the complaint said.

Friende then misrepresented the amount of money in the account to Sloan and to clerks at the Forsyth County courthouse, the complaint said.

He also falsely reported an attorney fee of $8,800 and showed a disbursement of an additional attorney fee of $29,144, the complaint said. According to the complaint, Friende had not performed any legal services that would have qualified him for an attorney fee of more than $8,800.

Sloan said she did not know about the allegations against Friende until an investigator with the State Bar called her. She said she had turned over the estate to Friende and thought it was closed.

"I was more angry than anything else," she said. "I trusted him to do the right thing. If I had been more knowledgeable, this would not have happened."

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2012/feb/03/lawyer-disbarred-for-misappropriating-money-from-w-ar-1889718/

Coroner rules Don Cornelius' death a suicide

2012-02-07T19:06:00.001-06:00

Feb 7, 3:48 PM EST

Coroner rules Don Cornelius' death a suicide

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Coroner's officials on Tuesday ruled Don Cornelius' death a suicide, nearly a week after the "Soul Train" creator and host killed himself with a gunshot to the head.

The agency made the determination after conducting an autopsy on Cornelius' body Friday. Investigators are still awaiting the results of toxicology tests before issuing a final report.

Police quickly ruled out foul play after responding to Cornelius' Mulholland Drive home early Wednesday morning. His son had alerted authorities after receiving a call from his father.

Cornelius, 75, started "Soul Train" in 1970 and it became one of the longest-running syndicated shows in history, introducing audiences to many top music acts and providing a never-before-seen TV platform for black culture.

The popular host was honored Saturday in Harlem with a lively celebration in tribute to Cornelius and the wide-ranging influence of his show.

His son, Tony Cornelius, released a statement last week asking for privacy and thanking fans.

"We thank all the well-wishers and the fans who have supported the `Soul Train' legacy. Love, Peace and Soul," the statement read, incorporating his father's famous sign-off from the show.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PEOPLE_DON_CORNELIUS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-07-15-48-19

Man faces charges in death of Arizona couple, four others arrested, police say

2012-02-07T17:30:00.002-06:00

Man faces charges in death of Arizona couple, four others arrested, police say

Published February 07, 2012
Associated Press

PHOENIX – Police say a 31-year-old man has been arrested and faces charges in the death of an Arizona couple who were found tied up and burned beyond recognition.

Investigators said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference that four other people were also arrested in the case.

Earlier Tuesday, family and friends gathered in a packed downtown Phoenix theater for a memorial service for Lawrence and Glenna Shapiro.

The bodies of the well-to-do philanthropists in their 70s were discovered on Jan. 30 in their stylish home in the affluent Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley.

Their murders are the first in Paradise Valley since 2004 and have shaken neighbors, police and the town mayor.

Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/07/man-faces-charges-in-death-arizona-couple-four-others-arrested-police-say/?test=latestnews#ixzz1lk2m3aJE

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/07/man-faces-charges-in-death-arizona-couple-four-others-arrested-police-say/?test=latestnews

Screenings help show who's at risk for dementia

2012-02-07T07:52:00.002-06:00

Feb 7, 1:57 AM EST

Screenings help show who's at risk for dementia

Detecting early warning signs of dementia can be difficult, but there are several types of cognitive screenings - quick, simple tests of memory and thinking skills - that can help a doctor decide if it's time to recommend a more in-depth exam.

One example: Tell someone three random words. Then time how quickly the person can draw a clock face, with the hands pointing at 11:10. Then ask how many of those original words he or she still remembers after the distraction of the clock task.

The Alzheimer's Association is working with experts around the country to identify which kinds of screening tools work best in the hands of primary-care physicians, says association vice president Beth Kallmyer.

Screenings aside, Kallmyer says one of the most important things a doctor can ask is whether anything in your daily life has changed recently. That's something that an affected person might or might not have noticed, or might be afraid to answer truthfully - but that consulting a family member might elicit.

"The reality is, this is tricky," she says. "When you have a doctor's appointment that's less than half an hour and may be as short as 15 minutes, these things are really challenging."

Please read complete article at link below:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_AGING_AMERICA_HIDDEN_DEMENTIA_GLANCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-07-01-57-08

Grant Goodman, Disgraced Local Attorney, Shot Down By Appellate Court

2012-02-07T07:39:00.001-06:00

Grant Goodman, Disgraced Local Attorney, Shot Down By Appellate Court

By Paul Rubin Wed., Feb. 1 2012 at 3:52 PM Comments (2) Categories: News

Goodman, a Phoenix (now suspended) attorney who had his 15 minutes of fame a few years ago as an alleged champion of local folks being abused by their legal guardians/conservators and by the Maricopa County Probate Court, has lost yet another case--his own.

In a memorandum decision filed January 25 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a panel shot down Goodman's appeal of serious sanctions imposed against him by federal judge Mary Murguia, who is based in Phoenix.

Last summer, the Arizona Supreme Court suspended Goodman from the practice of law for up to five years following a finding that he habitually exploited vulnerable Probate Court clients

William O'Neil, the presiding disciplinary judge for the Arizona State Bar, wrote that Goodman's actions would be potentially harmful to the public and the legal profession if he had been allowed to continue practicing law.

Our former colleague Sarah Fenske (now the big kahuna editor over at sister paper LA Weekly) dissected Goodman's sleazy M.O. in an April 2010 piece that readers can peruse here.

"A growing number of probate court observers worry,' Fenske wrote, "that Grant Goodman is less a white knight than a shark who smells blood in the water -- and that he intends to use Maricopa County's most vulnerable for both good publicity and a fat payday."

Earlier, the Phoenix barrister had been trumpeted as a shining star in a series of Arizona Republic stories about troubles in the county's Probate Court.

In truth, Goodman quickly became known (and reviled) for filing endless court papers against judges, court-appointed guardians and lawyers under the guise of protecting Probate Court clients, then try and rake in the legal fees.

Without taking oral argument, the appellate court last week said that Judge Murguia had not abused her discretion by issuing the sanctions against Goodman.

"Among other actions," the Ninth Circuit panel wrote, "[Goodman] improperly tried to remove a probate action, misprepresented the law and the facts to the court, and caused [another law firm] to defend a baseless action before his client voluntarily dismissed it at the eleventh hour.

"Goodman's remaining contentions, including those related to the district court's alleged bias in imposing sanctions, are unpersuasive. Goodman's motion, in which he appears to ask this court to dismiss the state disciplinary proceedings against him or to void his suspension from practice by the State Bar, is denied."

To grab a friendly sports cliche, Grant Goodman has been shut out.

Please read complete article at link below:

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2012/02/grant_goodman.php

Editor's note: Readers, please keep in mind that Goodman attacked the most lucrative feeding trough in "Legaldom", the probate court system. The entire creative wealth of America passes this court system. The above article is obviously slanted against Mr. Goodman. The fate of Goodman is the fate of any attorney who would challenge this criminal probate system disproportionately created against the very people it should help...the helpless. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Judge reappoints co-trustees of Rosa Parks estate

2012-02-07T07:18:00.001-06:00

Judge reappoints co-trustees of Rosa Parks estate

6:09 PM, February 1, 2012

A Wayne County judge today put Elaine Steele and Adam Shakoor back in charge of the estate of Rosa Parks, the late civil rights icon.

Probate Judge Freddie Burton Jr. reappointed the pair as co-trustee’s of Parks’ estate at the behest of the Michigan Supreme Court, which twice ordered him in recent weeks to reinstate the pair despite his reservations about Steele.

Steele is Parks’ longtime assistant, caregiver and co-founder of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, which Steele created with Parks in 1987 to teach young people about the civil rights struggle.

Shakoor, Parks’ former probate lawyer, is a retired 36th District Court judge and former deputy Detroit mayor under Coleman Young.

They replace Detroit attorneys John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr., whom Burton put in charge of the estate after Parks’ 15 nieces and nephews challenged the validity of Parks’ will in 2005. The relatives accused Steele of manipulating the elderly Parks to cut them out of her estate, which Steele denied.

“I’m absolutely elated that justice has been done,” Steele said today. “It definitely restores my faith in the justice system.”

Shakoor was happy, too: “This is what Mrs. Parks intended — for Elaine and I to serve. I’m elated to be able to serve with her.”

Alan May, who represents Chase and Steele, said Burton simply followed the Supreme Court’s directive.

“It means my clients are out and Steele and Shakoor are in as long as they obey the probate court’s orders,” May said.

Lawrence Pepper, who represents Parks’ nieces and nephews, said he was disappointed.

“I don’t think the Supreme Court thoroughly examined the reasons that were provided,” Pepper said. “I have a large number of clients who believe that substituting fiduciaries may be detrimental to their interests.”

Steele’s lawyer, Steven G. Cohen, had urged the Supreme Court last July to intervene in Parks’ estate, saying Chase and Jefferson had drained the estate with unnecessary fees. Then, he said, they fabricated a phony dispute that prompted Burton to order the Steele and the institute to forfeit their share of Parks’ memorabilia collection, potentially worth $8 million.

May said the lawyers did nothing wrong, noting that the Michigan Court of Appeals had twice upheld their fees and had praised their handling of the estate.

The appeals court said Chase and Jefferson alone had recognized the value of Parks’ belongings and got them in the hands of a New York City auction house which has been trying to sell them to an institution that can put them on public display. The appeals court said Steele and the institute obstructed the lawyers’ efforts and had done a poor job of storing some of Parks’ possessions.

Burton last month had urged the Supreme Court to reconsider its Dec. 29 directive to reappoint Steele and Shakoor. Burton said Steele had previously ignored court orders in the case, resisted efforts to inventory Parks’ property and failed to file complete financial statements. Cohen told the Supreme Court those charges were untrue.

Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER: dashenfelter@freepress.com

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.freep.com/article/20120201/NEWS02/120201068/Judge-reappoints-co-trustees-Rosa-Parks-estate?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

Remembering Don Cornelius Slide Show

2012-02-07T01:46:00.002-06:00

Remembering Don Cornelius Slide Show

Please view slide show at link below:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/02/01/arts/music/20120201-cornelius.html?WT.mc_id=AR-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M239-ROS-0212-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_c=179491

Plan would transfer thousands of US troops from Japan to Guam

2012-02-07T01:38:00.004-06:00

Plan would transfer thousands of US troops from Japan to Guam

Published February 07, 2012
Associated Press

The United States and Japan, hoping to break a stalemate over the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, are discussing a plan to transfer nearly 5,000 troops to Guam despite their failure to replace a major Marine base on the southern Japan island.

The transfer, a key to U.S. troop restructuring in the Pacific, has been in limbo for years because it was linked to the closure and replacement of the strategically important base, which has been fiercely opposed by local residents.

"We are not at a point where we can discuss the details, but we are looking into ways to reduce the burden on Okinawa as soon as possible," Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told Parliament on Tuesday, a day after talks on the restructuring plan began in Washington.

The new proposal would delink the transfer and base closure issues, according to a senior Japanese official.

While talks on the base's replacement plan would continue, about 4,700 Marines -- instead of the 8,000 agreed to in 2006 -- would be moved to Guam under the new plan, Seiji Maehara, the ruling party's policy chief, told reporters Sunday.

"We would go ahead first with less than 5,000 troops, around 4,700, being transferred to Guam," he said.

Japanese media reported the remaining 3,300 troops would be moved to Hawaii, Australia, the Philippines or other locations on a rotational basis.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland refused to comment on numbers or timing, but said Washington continues to "pursue a military presence in Japan and in the Asia-Pacific that's operationally resilient, that's geographically distributed, and that's politically sustainable."

Though it leaves the Okinawa base issue unresolved -- and cuts the number of Marines to go to Guam -- the compromise would be a big breakthrough in what has been a serious irritant in the otherwise robust security relationship between Tokyo and Washington.

It would also allow the United States to move forward with a regionwide restructuring of its troop deployments at a time when China is rising as a much more significant military power.

With beefed-up Navy, Air Force and Marine facilities, Guam -- a tiny U.S. territory about 3,700 miles (5,955 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii and 1,500 miles (2,415 kilometers) south of Tokyo -- is set to become a hub of Washington's military strategy in the Pacific.

But the Okinawa standoff has cast doubts on the multibillion dollar Guam buildup, originally scheduled to begin in 2014.

The United States and Japan agreed in 1996 to close down the Okinawa base, Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, after an uproar over the rape of a local schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen. MCAS Futenma has long been a symbol to many Okinawans of the U.S. military's large footprint on their island, and the agreement was intended to appease Okinawan sensitivities.

About half of the 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan are on Okinawa, which is one of Japan's smallest prefectures (states). Complaints over base-related crime, accidents and overcrowding there are endemic.

Talks to build a replacement facility quickly stalled over Okinawan demands the new base be moved elsewhere in Japan or overseas.

After another public outcry following a helicopter crash in 2004, the two governments agreed in 2006 to further reduce the burden on Okinawa by transferring about 8,000 of the 18,000 Marines on the island to Guam -- if a substitute for Futenma could be found.

That also failed to appease Okinawan opposition and the standoff over the replacement plan has only deepened in recent years.

Reports of the proposal immediately raised concerns on Okinawa that it would sap the momentum away from efforts to close Futenma, although officials in Tokyo and Washington stressed they remain committed to replacing the base with another facility in a less congested part of the island.

"I think the current plan is very bad for Okinawa because it could take the big issue -- the promise to close down Futenma -- off the table," said Masaaki Gabe, a professor of international relations at the University of the Ryukyus. "This kind of political game-playing is not going to please anyone here. We feel like our efforts over the past 15 years have been wasted."

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/07/plan-would-transfer-thousands-us-troops-from-japan-to-guam/print#ixzz1lgB6ujwY

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/07/plan-would-transfer-thousands-us-troops-from-japan-to-guam/#ixzz1lffijWB1?test=latestnews

KawamotoDragon.com

Snarky Facebook comments no reason to fire teacher, judge rules

2012-02-06T06:55:00.001-06:00

Snarky Facebook comments no reason to fire teacher, judge rules

Published February 05, 2012
New York Post

A New York teacher fired for posting snarky online comments suggesting her unruly students should drown can go back to the classroom, a judge ruled.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe last week overturned an administrative decision to boot Christine Rubino, who taught at PS 203 in Brooklyn, for posting "repulsive" comments on Facebook.

A blow to the city Department of Education, the ruling underscores the grueling process to fire teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence. Even after lengthy administrative trials, judges can reverse decisions either way, and prolong a costly battle.

"After today, I'm thinking the beach sounds like a wonderful idea for my 5th graders. I HATE THEIR GUTS! They are all the devils spawn!" Rubino wrote on Facebook on June 23, 2010.

She made the remarks one day after a 12-year-old Harlem girl, Nicole Suriel, drowned on a school trip to a Long Island beach.

When a Facebook friend asked, "oh you would let little Kwame float away!" Rubino posted in reply, "Yes, I wld not throw a life jacket in for a million!!"

While "offensive" and "repulsive," the comments were posted outside the school building and after hours, Jaffe ruled.

The judge found no evidence that Rubino, frustrated by her students' rowdy behavior, meant them actual harm or that the comments "affected her ability to teach."

Click for more on this story from the New York Post

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/05/snarky-facebook-comments-no-reason-to-fire-teacher-judge-rules/print#ixzz1lbbKWeF6

Editor's note: That teacher is lucky this Shark was was not on the bench. Your ProbateShark would have sentenced her to "water boarding". Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Outagamie County District Attorney Carrie Schneider: Former guardian could face new charges

2012-02-06T06:44:00.001-06:00

Outagamie County District Attorney Carrie Schneider - Former guardian could face new charges

Jeffrey Schend already accused of stealing $500,000 from elderly, disabled

11:29 PM, Feb. 4, 2012

Special report: The Jeffrey M. Schend case

APPLETON — Outagamie County Dist. Atty. Carrie Schneider may file additional charges against Jeffrey M. Schend, a former Appleton guardian accused of stealing about $500,000 from elderly and disabled clients he was appointed to serve.

Meanwhile, an exhaustive investigation continues into every financial transactions Schend made while acting as a corporate guardian.

Schneider declined comment on any new findings in the case or the nature of new charges she's considering.

Outagamie County Judge Gregory Gill Jr. this past week canceled a weeklong jury trial that was scheduled to begin in March. It is the third time Schend's trial has been delayed. Schend will return to court March 12 for a status conference.

Defense attorney Michael Petersen, in a letter to the court Thursday, said a forensic accountant hired by prosecutors to comb through records hasn't completed a report.

"Once it is completed, or a draft is created, it is both DA Schneider's and my intention to meet with the accountant and review the results," he wrote. "Therefore, it appears the trial date as presently set is not practical."

Schend, 45, was charged in May with six felony counts of theft and one misdemeanor theft count. As a guardian, Schend was appointed by county judges to handle finances for elderly and disabled people deemed incompetent to manage their own affairs.

An investigation began after county officials started receiving complaints in late 2010 that client bills weren't being paid.

The county hired attorney Douglas Hahn to review the finances of four of Schend's clients — legally referred to as wards — to look for inconsistencies.

One of Schend's clients was missing nearly $168,000 from a trust fund. The money was transferred to one of Schend's business accounts at Associated Bank, records show. Schend had two accounts at the bank at the time of Hahn's review. One was overdrawn. One contained just $126.

Based on the elderly man's cost of living, there should have been about $110,000 available, records stated.

Please read part 2 and complete article at link below:

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20120205/APC0101/202050539/Outagamie-County-District-Attorney-Carrie-Schneider-Former-guardian-could-face-new-charges?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

Hunterdon County caretakers sentenced to 3 years in state prison after 2 women died from neglect

2012-02-06T06:36:00.001-06:00

Hunterdon County caretakers sentenced to 3 years in state prison after 2 women died from neglect

Published: Friday, February 03, 2012, 10:10 AM Updated: Friday, February 03, 2012, 2:22 PM

By Christopher Baxter/Statehouse Bureau The Star-Ledger

Star-Ledger file photoThe owner of a state-licensed home for disabled adults in Bloomsbury was sentenced to three years after authorities removed three residents under her care, including two who later died.

BLOOMSBURY — The owner of a state-licensed home for disabled adults in Bloomsbury and a former government caseworker were sentenced today to three years in state prison in connection with the neglect of three women who had been under their care, including two who later died.

The owner, Debra Sloan, 57, and the former caseworker from the state Department of Human Services, Bridget Grimes, 55, of Phillipsburg, pleaded guilty last year to neglect of a disabled person and theft, the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Grimes also pleaded guilty to official misconduct.

It was the first time in recent history that a department caseworker was held criminally liable for failing to provide proper care, the department said.

From 2002 to 2008, Sloan and Grimes were responsible for the care of the three women — Tara O’Leary, Erin Germaine and Lydia Joy Perry — who court records show suffered from serious neglect.

Germaine and O’Leary were malnourished, confined to their beds and denied proper medical treatment, according to a 2009 indictment, and Perry was forced to care for O’Leary.
All three women were removed from the home in September 2008. O’Leary died two months later, and Perry died in 2009 of an intestinal ailment after being transferred to another home.

Sloan and Grimes are barred from caring for other elderly or disabled people, the prosecutor

Please read complete article at link below:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/02/hunterdon_woman_aiding_disable.html

Judge calls for law change over deathbed wills

2012-02-06T06:30:00.000-06:00

Judge calls for law change over deathbed wills

A judge has called for a change in the law on deathbed wills after an eight-year legal wrangle over whether a dying man's sister offered him a “steadying hand” as he signed all his possessions over to her.

Mr Justice Lewison has called for a change in the law over deathbed wills Photo: Alamy By John Bingham

3:48PM GMT 31 Jan 2012

Martin Lavin changed his will in favour of his sister, Anne Liston, a few hours before his death at the age of 69 in 2004.

He had apparently signed a handwritten will – drawn up by Mrs Liston’s daughter, a former legal secretary – at his hospital bedside, with two nurses acting as witnesses.

But yesterday three Court of Appeal judges agreed that Mrs Liston “stepped in” and signed the document herself – because her brother was too weak to hold a pen.

Although Mrs Liston also died a few months later, two sets of their descendants have been in dispute over Mr Lavin’s intentions ever since.

In that time the costly legal battle has come before the courts four times.

It bears similarities to the fictional matter of Jarndyce and Jarndyce from Charles Dickens’s Bleak House in which a will dispute drags on for generations until it is swallowed up by costs.

First challenged by Mr Lavin’s nephew, Michael Barrett, the deathbed will was declared invalid – a decision quashed on appeal – then valid and now invalid again.

Lord Justice Lewison, president of the Court of Appeal Civil Division, described the matter as a “troubling case” and called for Parliament to act to resolve uncertainty over so-called “guided hand” signatures dating back to the drafting of the Wills Act of 1837.

At one point the legal argument delved into the wording of fraud laws drafted in 1677.

Born in County Sligo, Ireland, one of 15 children, Mr Lavin worked in the construction industry, earning his money on big projects in the Middle East, before settling in London in the 1980s.

By the time of his death he had £100,000 in savings and a home in Greenford, west London.

The court heard that Mr Lavin was in such a weak state in the hours before his death that he could not write.

Initially Mrs Liston’s daughter, Hanora Bem, and a nurse who witnessed the will, said that he had signed it without any help.

But two handwriting experts gave evidence in the first trial that it was not his signature, leading to Mr Justice Vos declaring the will invalid.

Then the other nurse witness was traced. She recalled that Mrs Liston had helped guide her brother’s hand, triggering a retrial.

When the case came for retrial the following year, the judge rejected the main evidence of the key witnesses as unreliable and noted that Hanora Bem had “concealed” the existence of a previous will Mr Lavin signed in 2002.

But he nevertheless upheld the deathbed will concluding that Mrs Liston had signed it under her brother's direction and with his “knowledge and approval”.

That decision was reversed yesterday Lord Justice Lewison, sitting with Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Lord Justice Hughes, who concluded that there was no evidence that Mr Lavin had actually asked his sister to sign the will on his behalf.

Lord Justice Lewison concluded: "It is plainly undesirable that beneficiaries should be permitted to execute a will in their own favour in any capacity and ... Parliament should consider changing the law to ensure that this cannot happen in the future."

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