THE DILEMMA FOR HONEST PROFESSIONALS on THE 18TH FLOOR OF THE DALEY CENTER
As many of our readers are aware, the 18th floor of the Daley Center in Cook County (Chicago), Illinois is a hotbed for financial exploitation of the elderly and disabled. We at Probate Sharks are aware of many cases in which the disabled elderly and children are being abused through the Probate Court.
Abuses include: Illegally changed Powers of Attorney so court-favored guardians can profit; cases where jurisdictional requirements have been violated (including failure to notify the near family members, holding monetary assets in Cook County while the ward lives elsewhere, and other jurisdictional violations); deception of the elderly committed by owners of guardianship/care management companies in order to have the ward choose their services over family members; fraudulent public aid applications; abuse of OBRA Special Needs Pooled Trusts; abuse of bank-held trusts; illegal submissions for Medicare services not provided; and false information being submitted into court record to discredit caring family members to have them removed as guardians so a for-profit guardian can step in and control the estate; and restriction of visitation from family members who may speak the truth.
In other words, this financial rape of the elderly and disabled is occuring through many different avenues. Call this what you may, but this truth teller can no longer refrain from using the word corruption.
How can such corruption exist, you may ask. Well, for starters, it is allowed from the top down--the judges approve it and award the rapists the title of Guardian.
But, the buck doesn't stop there. When crimes are reported to disciplinary boards such as the ARDC and IDFPR, no actions are taken against the unethical professionals. In fact, the ARDC has an exceptionally low rate of discipline against the attorneys that practice on the 18th floor (see our post in the index to right entitled "ARDC Audit Results". We also have reports of a lack of an appropriate response by the IDFPR, including at least one professional who was reprimanded by an official at the IDFPR for reporting witnessed criminal activity.
And this is where the dilemma comes in for the honest professionals who practice on the 18th floor of the Daley Center. The professionals fear retaliation if they report the unethical and illegal activities that they witness. Although required by law to report these crimes, they are fully aware that they will not only be black-balled and financially ruined themselves, but they risk loss of licensure as well as they speak the truth for all to hear.
The coming days and weeks ahead will be a telling sign as an honest professional in Cook County is being tried by the ARDC for speaking the truth loudly and clearly for all to hear. This attorney's license is at stake as the ARDC tries him for using his right to free speech to protect the financial exploitation of a ward of the 18th floor.
We at Probate Sharks are providing our full support for this attorney whose conscience has guided him to not back down in his attempts to expose the corruption that he has seen. We also acknowledge that there is a dilemma for other professionals to come forward and report these crimes. However, if professionals continue to be forced into silence by the powers that be in the state of Illinois who are backing and supporting this corruption, defenseless disabled wards will continue to be exploited.
If all honest professionals would hold themselves to their conscience and report these crimes, law enforcement officials would have the evidence needed for the next "Greylord case" in Cook County.
And so we make this plea to all honest professionals on the 18th Floor of the Daley Center: Please follow your conscience and join with us in speaking the truth so loudly and so clearly that we can no longer be silenced and ignored. Please help us protect the wards in Cook County.
Please visit this blog--it provides handy resources for reporting much of the corruption that you see. For your convenience, the link to this blog is also in our "Contact Us" section on this Probate Sharks blog.
www.probateabusemanual.blogspot.com
Signed,
Your ProbateSharks Truth Teller
Friday, August 31, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Lawyer for S.C. Attorney General Subpoenas Reporter
Issue #25.35 :: 08/29/2012 - 09/04/2012
Lawyer for S.C. Attorney General Subpoenas Reporter
BY COREY HUTCHINS
The day Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson toured South Carolina in support of better open-records laws, he was listed as a plaintiff in a broad subpoena that asks a local reporter to turn over her private notes and conversations.
A semi-retired freelancer for The Newberry Observer, Sue Summer has been writing for the paper since 1979. For the past several months she’s been virtually the only reporter chronicling a series of legal proceedings related to a controversy surrounding the estate plan of the late musician James Brown, who lived in Aiken.
In recent legal proceedings she’s covered, the attorney general’s office has blocked open-records requests from a Newberry attorney who is a former trustee of the James Brown estate.
Now, in the course of Summer’s reporting, she’s become a part of the story. And she feels the government is trying to silence her.
“They want to find out who has been providing me with information that I’ve used in my stories,” Summer says. “That’s not something that I can reveal.”
Summer has published roughly 40 stories on the case in the Observer. She also runs a Facebook page about the case and has posted documents on it.
The Aug. 22 subpoena asks for all correspondence between Summer and any source she used for her stories, either on or off the record. Further, it asks for information “in any way touching on” her communications with those sources, drafts of unpublished stories, emails, interviews, phone calls, notes, “or any other type of contact” with anyone relating to them.
University of South Carolina journalism professor and First Amendment lawyer Jay Bender called the subpoena overbroad.
“In the context of recognizing reporter privilege in South Carolina, it’s entirely unsupportable,” he says.
After Godfather of Soul James Brown died of heart failure in 2006, then-Attorney General Henry McMaster intervened to address infighting over the case, rewriting the Brown estate plan against the wishes of two then-trustees. Brown had wanted his wealth to go toward an educational fund for needy children in South Carolina and Georgia called the I Feel Good Trust. Last November, the State Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the takeover was proper. It has yet to rule.
In the meantime, Summer has been reporting on whether the McMaster estate plan settlement was an appropriate protection of the charity. As part of her reporting, she has filed open records requests with the attorney general’s office that have been denied.
That office, she says, “has been stonewalling the release of public documents.”
For instance, Summer says the McMaster deal gave away over half of what Brown had intended to go to the charity, which McMaster has said was to prevent litigation.
But the new attorney general, Wilson, won’t let the public see documents related to the deal, Summer says.
Wilson’s office referred questions to the lawyer representing him, Mark Gende, who declined to comment on pending litigation but said all the plaintiffs respect the First Amendment rights of the press.
At the center of the drama is the diary of a woman who says she is Brown’s wife and is therefore entitled to a spousal share of his money. In July a judge kept in place a gag order on the diary’s contents, at the request of the Attorney General’s office.
Summer has talked to a source or sources who have apparently read the diary, and she has written that according to her source there is clear evidence in the diary that the woman was not Brown’s wife, and knew it.
Summer believes the government wants to know who told her about the contents in the diary.
“They want me to reveal sources for this story, and the bottom line is I can’t do that,” Summer says. “It would hurt every reporter in the state of South Carolina.”
In the mid-1990s, the General Assembly enacted a shield law for reporters. At the time, lawmakers said requiring reporters to be subject to subpoenas like the one Summer is facing interferes with the democratic process, says Bender, the First Amendment lawyer.
South Carolina Press Association director Bill Rogers called the state’s shield law “very good,” and said he hoped it would protect her.
“I think it is a rare occurrence when a reporter can provide information not available from other sources, which is a test in our shield law,” Rogers says. “Reporters are just that — not arms of the government.”
Let us know what you think: Email news@free-times.com.
http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=1992912064017974&ShowArticle_ID=11012808120945573
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
PUBLIC CORRUPTION IN ILLINOIS
Video posted in
8/27/12
PUBLIC CORRUPTION IN ILLINOIS
Bev's guest is Dr. Sheila Mannix, co-founder of Illinois Family Court Accountability Advocates (IFCAA), talks about her experiences in the IL Family Court, and how it has affected her and her children. Original air date August 15, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3BYDS7GBjA&feature=plcp
Allstate Sues Florida Brain-Injury Center, Claiming Fraud
Allstate Sues Florida Brain-Injury Center, Claiming Fraud
By David Armstrong - Aug 27, 2012 Allstate Corp. (ALL), the second-largest U.S. auto insurer, is seeking fraud damages in a lawsuit alleging that a Florida brain-injury facility warehoused patients who were beaten and abused by staff.
The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, seeks $7.6 million that the insurer says it paid the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation to treat its claimants, as well as triple damages under federal racketeering laws and other costs.
Allstate alleges patients from Michigan, which mandates unlimited lifetime medical benefits for automobile injury coverage, were recruited to the Florida facility through an aggressive marketing campaign that promised an array of services that were never provided.
Some patients washed the cars of the center’s employees, an activity that was considered vocational training, according to the lawsuit.
Wayne J. Miller, an attorney representing the facility, known as FINR, said the company would not comment on matters in litigation.
The lawsuit, which also named FINR owner Joseph Brennick as a defendant, follows a Bloomberg News report last month on dozens of cases of alleged abuse at the facility. Patients’ families or state agencies have accused FINR of abuse or care lapses in at least five residents’ deaths since 1998, two of them in the last two years. Three former employees face criminal charges of abusing FINR patients -- one of whom was allegedly hit repeatedly for two hours in a TV room last September.
Removals Ordered
Last week, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration said FINR was treating people without brain injuries -- in breach of its license -- and ordered the company to move dozens of patients to other facilities.
Allstate said it began investigating the treatment of its insured patients at FINR in 2011. Its review included interviewing patients, hiring experts to study medical records and ordering exams with a neuropsychologist. The lawsuit covers the cases of a dozen patients -- identified only by initials in the legal filing -- whose care was paid for by the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurance company.
In some cases, patients were kept too long at the facility or shouldn’t have been there in the first place, the lawsuit alleges.
Jail Preferred
Two patients described the facility, one of the largest of its kind in the country, as “a prison” and added that they would have rather been in jail because there they would know when they were getting out, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says FINR tried to block patients from leaving the center through a combination of threats and incentives. One patient was promised her own apartment and a trip to the Busch Gardens amusement park if she stayed. A FINR representative told her that if she left, Allstate would stop paying her claims.
Allstate said it interviewed several former patients, most of whom complained of abuse at the facility. One patient, identified by the initials A.A., said three staff members held him down, beat him until he was unconscious and dragged him across a room. He suffered severe bruising, scars, and a rug burn from the incident, the lawsuit charges.
Another patient claimed staffers threatened to “throw him to the alligators” that lived in ponds on the 900-acre campus in Wauchula, about 50 miles southeast of Tampa.
The lawsuit alleges patients were largely confined to their living quarters and that rehabilitative services were limited and of poor quality. Vocational training included picking weeds in a greenhouse as well as the car washing, the lawsuit claims.
Other patients did not get physical, occupational or speech therapies that were promised, the lawsuit alleges.
The case is Allstate Insurance Co. v. Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation Inc. and Joseph Brennick, 8:12CV01935, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Tampa).
To contact the reporter on this story: David Armstrong in Boston at darmstrong16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gary Putka at gputka@bloomberg.net
. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-28/allstate-sues-florida-brain-injury-center-claiming-fraud.html
By David Armstrong - Aug 27, 2012 Allstate Corp. (ALL), the second-largest U.S. auto insurer, is seeking fraud damages in a lawsuit alleging that a Florida brain-injury facility warehoused patients who were beaten and abused by staff.
The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, seeks $7.6 million that the insurer says it paid the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation to treat its claimants, as well as triple damages under federal racketeering laws and other costs.
Allstate alleges patients from Michigan, which mandates unlimited lifetime medical benefits for automobile injury coverage, were recruited to the Florida facility through an aggressive marketing campaign that promised an array of services that were never provided.
Some patients washed the cars of the center’s employees, an activity that was considered vocational training, according to the lawsuit.
Wayne J. Miller, an attorney representing the facility, known as FINR, said the company would not comment on matters in litigation.
The lawsuit, which also named FINR owner Joseph Brennick as a defendant, follows a Bloomberg News report last month on dozens of cases of alleged abuse at the facility. Patients’ families or state agencies have accused FINR of abuse or care lapses in at least five residents’ deaths since 1998, two of them in the last two years. Three former employees face criminal charges of abusing FINR patients -- one of whom was allegedly hit repeatedly for two hours in a TV room last September.
Removals Ordered
Last week, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration said FINR was treating people without brain injuries -- in breach of its license -- and ordered the company to move dozens of patients to other facilities.
Allstate said it began investigating the treatment of its insured patients at FINR in 2011. Its review included interviewing patients, hiring experts to study medical records and ordering exams with a neuropsychologist. The lawsuit covers the cases of a dozen patients -- identified only by initials in the legal filing -- whose care was paid for by the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurance company.
In some cases, patients were kept too long at the facility or shouldn’t have been there in the first place, the lawsuit alleges.
Jail Preferred
Two patients described the facility, one of the largest of its kind in the country, as “a prison” and added that they would have rather been in jail because there they would know when they were getting out, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says FINR tried to block patients from leaving the center through a combination of threats and incentives. One patient was promised her own apartment and a trip to the Busch Gardens amusement park if she stayed. A FINR representative told her that if she left, Allstate would stop paying her claims.
Allstate said it interviewed several former patients, most of whom complained of abuse at the facility. One patient, identified by the initials A.A., said three staff members held him down, beat him until he was unconscious and dragged him across a room. He suffered severe bruising, scars, and a rug burn from the incident, the lawsuit charges.
Another patient claimed staffers threatened to “throw him to the alligators” that lived in ponds on the 900-acre campus in Wauchula, about 50 miles southeast of Tampa.
The lawsuit alleges patients were largely confined to their living quarters and that rehabilitative services were limited and of poor quality. Vocational training included picking weeds in a greenhouse as well as the car washing, the lawsuit claims.
Other patients did not get physical, occupational or speech therapies that were promised, the lawsuit alleges.
The case is Allstate Insurance Co. v. Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation Inc. and Joseph Brennick, 8:12CV01935, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Tampa).
To contact the reporter on this story: David Armstrong in Boston at darmstrong16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gary Putka at gputka@bloomberg.net
. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-28/allstate-sues-florida-brain-injury-center-claiming-fraud.html
Japan leader sends letter to Beijing amid tension
Aug 28, 4:22 AM EDT
Japan leader sends letter to Beijing amid tension
By MALCOLM FOSTER
Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's prime minister sent a senior diplomat to Beijing on Tuesday with a letter for Chinese President Hu Jintao in an apparent attempt to ease tensions between the two Asian giants over a territorial dispute.
The trip by Parliamentary Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi comes a day after a car carrying the Japanese ambassador in the Chinese capital was attacked by a man who ripped the Japanese flag off, damaging the vehicle's flagpole and prompting protests from Tokyo.
Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba called the incident "deplorable" and demanded an investigation. He said a national flag "is a symbol to the nation's dignity that needs to respected."
Thousands of Chinese have gathered in anti-Japanese street protests in recent weeks amid renewed diplomatic tension over a cluster of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.
Earlier this month, Japan detained and later released 14 activists from Hong Kong who landed on the islands, called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, which are near key sea lanes and surrounded by rich fishing grounds and as-yet untapped underground natural resources.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's letter to the Chinese president touches on "developing Japanese-Chinese relations in a stable manner from a broad perspective," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura. He and other officials declined to be more specific.
Yamaguchi was to meet with Chinese counterparts to discuss a range of regional and global issues, including tensions on the Korean Peninsula, said Masaru Sato, a spokesman at the Foreign Ministry.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing said in a statement that Ambassador Uichiro Niwa was returning to the embassy on Monday when his official car was stopped by two other vehicles. It said a man jumped out of one of the vehicles and pulled the flag off the front of Niwa's car. Only the flagpole was damaged, the embassy said.
China's Foreign Ministry expressed deep regret over the incident and said authorities would spare no effort to prevent a recurrence. It said the government has consistently fulfilled its international obligation to protect the safety of foreign embassies and personnel.
An editorial in the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper Tuesday said that the man involved in the attack had not yet been identified, but that if he was Chinese, his act was "a stupid one" and not representative of the Chinese people.
Chinese authorities face the tricky balance of appearing tough on territorial claims without stirring anti-Japanese sentiment that could threaten relations with Tokyo or even backfire into criticisms of China's government.
"Chinese people should remain calm and civilized when expressing their patriotism. Any actions and protests must remain within the law," the editorial said.
---
Associated Press writer Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_JAPAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-27-11-09-00
KawamotoDragon.com
Japan leader sends letter to Beijing amid tension
By MALCOLM FOSTER
Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's prime minister sent a senior diplomat to Beijing on Tuesday with a letter for Chinese President Hu Jintao in an apparent attempt to ease tensions between the two Asian giants over a territorial dispute.
The trip by Parliamentary Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi comes a day after a car carrying the Japanese ambassador in the Chinese capital was attacked by a man who ripped the Japanese flag off, damaging the vehicle's flagpole and prompting protests from Tokyo.
Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba called the incident "deplorable" and demanded an investigation. He said a national flag "is a symbol to the nation's dignity that needs to respected."
Thousands of Chinese have gathered in anti-Japanese street protests in recent weeks amid renewed diplomatic tension over a cluster of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.
Earlier this month, Japan detained and later released 14 activists from Hong Kong who landed on the islands, called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, which are near key sea lanes and surrounded by rich fishing grounds and as-yet untapped underground natural resources.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's letter to the Chinese president touches on "developing Japanese-Chinese relations in a stable manner from a broad perspective," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura. He and other officials declined to be more specific.
Yamaguchi was to meet with Chinese counterparts to discuss a range of regional and global issues, including tensions on the Korean Peninsula, said Masaru Sato, a spokesman at the Foreign Ministry.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing said in a statement that Ambassador Uichiro Niwa was returning to the embassy on Monday when his official car was stopped by two other vehicles. It said a man jumped out of one of the vehicles and pulled the flag off the front of Niwa's car. Only the flagpole was damaged, the embassy said.
China's Foreign Ministry expressed deep regret over the incident and said authorities would spare no effort to prevent a recurrence. It said the government has consistently fulfilled its international obligation to protect the safety of foreign embassies and personnel.
An editorial in the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper Tuesday said that the man involved in the attack had not yet been identified, but that if he was Chinese, his act was "a stupid one" and not representative of the Chinese people.
Chinese authorities face the tricky balance of appearing tough on territorial claims without stirring anti-Japanese sentiment that could threaten relations with Tokyo or even backfire into criticisms of China's government.
"Chinese people should remain calm and civilized when expressing their patriotism. Any actions and protests must remain within the law," the editorial said.
---
Associated Press writer Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_JAPAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-27-11-09-00
KawamotoDragon.com
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Pharmaceutical firm Omnicare agrees to settle whistle-blower lawsuit
Editor's note: This bunch of miscreants highlighted in this article are part of a larger cabal, "THE JUDICIAL-NURSING HOME COMPLEX" Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Pharmaceutical firm Omnicare agrees to settle whistle-blower lawsuit
Kickbacks to nursing home operators were alleged
August 25, 2012
By David Jackson and Gary Marx, Chicago Tribune reporters
Court documents filed this week show the giant pharmaceutical firm Omnicare Inc. has agreed to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit involving millions of dollars in alleged kickbacks to one of Illinois' most prominent nursing home families.
While Omnicare reached a financial settlement in principle, the terms have not been publicly disclosed. It is not clear if Omnicare's board has approved the agreement, although a lawyer involved in the case suggested that will likely happen.
Chicago nursing home operators Philip Esformes and his father, Morris Esformes, are not part of the settlement. They continue to fight federal court allegations that Omnicare paid them a kickback by significantly inflating the purchase price it paid in 2004 for a pharmacy company they purportedly controlled.
According to the lawsuit by a whistle-blowing former pharmacy company executive, Omnicare's $32 million purchase of the pharmaceutical company linked to the Esformes family included roughly $16 million that was a kickback to secure long-term pharmacy contracts with nearly three dozen nursing homes the Esformeses operated or influenced.
Philip Esformes said through his attorney that he "has rejected offers of settlement and adamantly insists he has done nothing wrong."
Morris Esformes said through his attorney that "the settlement does not speak to Morris Esformes' position and Mr. Esformes continues to insist he had done nothing wrong."
Omnicare, which supplies medicine to millions of nursing home residents in facilities across the U.S., declined to comment Friday but has previously told the Tribune the allegations are without merit.
The case was brought under the False Claims Act, which allows private citizens to file lawsuits against companies and individuals defrauding the government and recover funds on the government's behalf.
dyjackson@tribune.com
gmarx@tribune.com
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-25/business/ct-biz-0825-omnicare-settle-20120825_1_omnicare-whistle-blower-lawsuit-philip-esformes
Pharmaceutical firm Omnicare agrees to settle whistle-blower lawsuit
Kickbacks to nursing home operators were alleged
August 25, 2012
By David Jackson and Gary Marx, Chicago Tribune reporters
Court documents filed this week show the giant pharmaceutical firm Omnicare Inc. has agreed to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit involving millions of dollars in alleged kickbacks to one of Illinois' most prominent nursing home families.
While Omnicare reached a financial settlement in principle, the terms have not been publicly disclosed. It is not clear if Omnicare's board has approved the agreement, although a lawyer involved in the case suggested that will likely happen.
Chicago nursing home operators Philip Esformes and his father, Morris Esformes, are not part of the settlement. They continue to fight federal court allegations that Omnicare paid them a kickback by significantly inflating the purchase price it paid in 2004 for a pharmacy company they purportedly controlled.
According to the lawsuit by a whistle-blowing former pharmacy company executive, Omnicare's $32 million purchase of the pharmaceutical company linked to the Esformes family included roughly $16 million that was a kickback to secure long-term pharmacy contracts with nearly three dozen nursing homes the Esformeses operated or influenced.
Philip Esformes said through his attorney that he "has rejected offers of settlement and adamantly insists he has done nothing wrong."
Morris Esformes said through his attorney that "the settlement does not speak to Morris Esformes' position and Mr. Esformes continues to insist he had done nothing wrong."
Omnicare, which supplies medicine to millions of nursing home residents in facilities across the U.S., declined to comment Friday but has previously told the Tribune the allegations are without merit.
The case was brought under the False Claims Act, which allows private citizens to file lawsuits against companies and individuals defrauding the government and recover funds on the government's behalf.
dyjackson@tribune.com
gmarx@tribune.com
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-25/business/ct-biz-0825-omnicare-settle-20120825_1_omnicare-whistle-blower-lawsuit-philip-esformes
Elderly suffer as financial abuse grows
Elderly suffer as financial abuse grows
By Christine Dugas, USA TODAYUpdated 8/15/2012 7:16 PM Comments Reprints & Permissions
Financial abuse of the elderly is getting worse, and most seniors don't know how to seek reliable financial help.
Sharon Cekada, for USA TODAY
About 20% Americans over the age of 65 have been the victim of a financial swindle, according to a 2010 report by IPT.
EnlargeCloseSharon Cekada, for USA TODAY
About 20% Americans over the age of 65 have been the victim of a financial swindle, according to a 2010 report by IPT.
Sponsored Links"There is no silver bullet that will end the financial abuse of America's seniors," says Don Blandin, president and CEO of the non-profit Investor Protection Trust (IPT), which released a survey Wednesday about elder exploitation. IPT conducted the survey after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requested more information about the problem.
The experts IPT surveyed said the most common type of abuse is when family members steal or divert funds or property. The next biggest problems are caregiver theft and financial scams perpetrated by strangers.
"Some of those financial scams by strangers can be ones that actually deplete the entire life savings of a senior at the worst possible time in their life," Blandin says.
MORE: Take steps to protect yourself from financial abuse
VIDEO: Elder fraud hurts more than the elderly
It's a serious issue. Last year, MetLife said elderly victims of financial scams lost at least $2.9 billion in 2010, up from $2.6 billion in 2008. And 20% of Americans over the age of 65 have been victims of financial swindles, a 2010 IPT report said. "This is a major problem, and we know there is significant under-reporting," says Mark Lachs, director of geriatrics at New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System.
Some older Americans are too embarrassed to disclose financial abuse. Some lack the tools to find a good financial adviser and may not have the knowledge to understand investment advice. Others may be susceptible to fraud because of diminished mental capacity.
Combating the growing abuse of the elderly will require new, collaborative efforts with many experts and organizations, Blandin says.
Caregivers and local health care professionals are the ones who can best help address the problem, the IPT said. So it has created the Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation (EIFFE) prevention program, which has trained more than 3,000 U.S. medical professionals to help spot older Americans who are vulnerable because of impaired mental capacity.
"We are on the right track in tackling financial swindles that go after older Americans," says Irving Faught, administrator of the Oklahoma Department of Securities, which is a participant in the EIFFE program.
It is critical to train primary care physicians to pre-emptively identify older adults who are at risk for financial exploitation, Lachs says. "I am an epidemiologist, and what we are looking at here qualifies as an epidemic."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/story/2012-08-15/financial-scams-seniors/57079122/1
By Christine Dugas, USA TODAYUpdated 8/15/2012 7:16 PM Comments Reprints & Permissions
Financial abuse of the elderly is getting worse, and most seniors don't know how to seek reliable financial help.
Sharon Cekada, for USA TODAY
About 20% Americans over the age of 65 have been the victim of a financial swindle, according to a 2010 report by IPT.
EnlargeCloseSharon Cekada, for USA TODAY
About 20% Americans over the age of 65 have been the victim of a financial swindle, according to a 2010 report by IPT.
Sponsored Links"There is no silver bullet that will end the financial abuse of America's seniors," says Don Blandin, president and CEO of the non-profit Investor Protection Trust (IPT), which released a survey Wednesday about elder exploitation. IPT conducted the survey after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requested more information about the problem.
The experts IPT surveyed said the most common type of abuse is when family members steal or divert funds or property. The next biggest problems are caregiver theft and financial scams perpetrated by strangers.
"Some of those financial scams by strangers can be ones that actually deplete the entire life savings of a senior at the worst possible time in their life," Blandin says.
MORE: Take steps to protect yourself from financial abuse
VIDEO: Elder fraud hurts more than the elderly
It's a serious issue. Last year, MetLife said elderly victims of financial scams lost at least $2.9 billion in 2010, up from $2.6 billion in 2008. And 20% of Americans over the age of 65 have been victims of financial swindles, a 2010 IPT report said. "This is a major problem, and we know there is significant under-reporting," says Mark Lachs, director of geriatrics at New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System.
Some older Americans are too embarrassed to disclose financial abuse. Some lack the tools to find a good financial adviser and may not have the knowledge to understand investment advice. Others may be susceptible to fraud because of diminished mental capacity.
Combating the growing abuse of the elderly will require new, collaborative efforts with many experts and organizations, Blandin says.
Caregivers and local health care professionals are the ones who can best help address the problem, the IPT said. So it has created the Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation (EIFFE) prevention program, which has trained more than 3,000 U.S. medical professionals to help spot older Americans who are vulnerable because of impaired mental capacity.
"We are on the right track in tackling financial swindles that go after older Americans," says Irving Faught, administrator of the Oklahoma Department of Securities, which is a participant in the EIFFE program.
It is critical to train primary care physicians to pre-emptively identify older adults who are at risk for financial exploitation, Lachs says. "I am an epidemiologist, and what we are looking at here qualifies as an epidemic."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/story/2012-08-15/financial-scams-seniors/57079122/1
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Ex-Judge of the Day: Hey Baby, Wanna See What’s Under These Robes?
24 Aug 2012 at 5:39 PMPosted in:
Drugs, Sex, State Judges, State Judges Are Clowns
Ex-Judge of the Day: Hey Baby, Wanna See What’s Under These Robes?
By Christopher Danzig
Covering state judges NEVER gets old. They flip out at pastors, they brandish guns at alleged rape victims, and they make incredible campaign ads. If there’s some wonky human behavior, you can assume a state judge has done it or soon will.
This week, we’ve got a recent (and reluctant) ex-judge from Georgia who faces allegations of propositioning a woman to be his mistress. When she declined and talked to the press, the woman claims the judge planted drugs on her car.
And, according to state officials investigating the judge, this might be just the beginning of the trouble he’s in….
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the unfolding story of allegedly unrequited love, public shaming, and controlled substances:
Early this month, Angela Garmley, 36, of Chatsworth, publicly accused then-Chief Magistrate Judge Bryant Cochran of Murray County of asking her to be his mistress when she appeared before him in his office in April. She said Cochran told her he wanted a mistress he could trust and to return in a few days wearing a dress but no underwear. In a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Garmley said she did not comply with the alleged request.
Cochran has denied Garmley’s allegations.
What a strange way to procure a mistress. The alleged conversation sounds more like the process for hiring an accountant. “I have to trust you with all my money, and we have a very strict dress code around here. Absolutely no pants allowed. Except on casual Fridays. On casual Fridays, you can wear capris.”
But apparently Judge Cochran didn’t take kindly to rejection. Garmley told her story to the press and was arrested not long after, when police found meth in a magnet box under her car. Charges are still pending, but her attorney, McCracken Poston (coolest name ever?!?!), says Garmley “firmly believes that operatives of former Chief Magistrate Judge Bryant Cochran were behind this, motivated by a desire to punish her for coming forward.”
Bryant Cochran
She’s apparently not alone. Judge Cochran resigned last week in the face of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation… investigation. The agency plans to drop Garmley’s charges, stat:
“It’s the right thing to do,” GBI Special Agent James Harris said. “It needs to happen as soon as possible.”
Judge Cochran, through his lawyer and his strongly worded resignation letter, has denied the charges against him.
For its part, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is being careful to not show its hand:
Late Thursday, Harris, one of the GBI agents called in to investigate the case, said the GBI obtained information that led the agency to believe all charges against Garmley should be dropped.
Harris did not say whether anyone would face charges. He did say, however, “This is only a small part of what’s going to be happening.”
http://abovethelaw.com/2012/08/ex-judge-of-the-day-hey-baby-wanna-see-whats-under-these-robes/
KawamotoDragon.com
Drugs, Sex, State Judges, State Judges Are Clowns
Ex-Judge of the Day: Hey Baby, Wanna See What’s Under These Robes?
By Christopher Danzig
Covering state judges NEVER gets old. They flip out at pastors, they brandish guns at alleged rape victims, and they make incredible campaign ads. If there’s some wonky human behavior, you can assume a state judge has done it or soon will.
This week, we’ve got a recent (and reluctant) ex-judge from Georgia who faces allegations of propositioning a woman to be his mistress. When she declined and talked to the press, the woman claims the judge planted drugs on her car.
And, according to state officials investigating the judge, this might be just the beginning of the trouble he’s in….
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the unfolding story of allegedly unrequited love, public shaming, and controlled substances:
Early this month, Angela Garmley, 36, of Chatsworth, publicly accused then-Chief Magistrate Judge Bryant Cochran of Murray County of asking her to be his mistress when she appeared before him in his office in April. She said Cochran told her he wanted a mistress he could trust and to return in a few days wearing a dress but no underwear. In a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Garmley said she did not comply with the alleged request.
Cochran has denied Garmley’s allegations.
What a strange way to procure a mistress. The alleged conversation sounds more like the process for hiring an accountant. “I have to trust you with all my money, and we have a very strict dress code around here. Absolutely no pants allowed. Except on casual Fridays. On casual Fridays, you can wear capris.”
But apparently Judge Cochran didn’t take kindly to rejection. Garmley told her story to the press and was arrested not long after, when police found meth in a magnet box under her car. Charges are still pending, but her attorney, McCracken Poston (coolest name ever?!?!), says Garmley “firmly believes that operatives of former Chief Magistrate Judge Bryant Cochran were behind this, motivated by a desire to punish her for coming forward.”
Bryant Cochran
She’s apparently not alone. Judge Cochran resigned last week in the face of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation… investigation. The agency plans to drop Garmley’s charges, stat:
“It’s the right thing to do,” GBI Special Agent James Harris said. “It needs to happen as soon as possible.”
Judge Cochran, through his lawyer and his strongly worded resignation letter, has denied the charges against him.
For its part, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is being careful to not show its hand:
Late Thursday, Harris, one of the GBI agents called in to investigate the case, said the GBI obtained information that led the agency to believe all charges against Garmley should be dropped.
Harris did not say whether anyone would face charges. He did say, however, “This is only a small part of what’s going to be happening.”
http://abovethelaw.com/2012/08/ex-judge-of-the-day-hey-baby-wanna-see-whats-under-these-robes/
KawamotoDragon.com
The closing of American academia
Sarah Kendzior
Sarah Kendzior is an anthropologist who recently received her PhD from Washington University in St Louis.
The closing of American academia
The plight of adjunct professors highlights the end of higher education as a means to prosperity.
Last Modified: 20 Aug 2012 14:36
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67 per cent of American university faculty are part-time employees on short-term contracts [AP]
It is 2011 and I'm sitting in the Palais des Congres in Montreal, watching anthropologists talk about structural inequality.
The American Anthropological Association meeting is held annually to showcase research from around the world, and like thousands of other anthropologists, I am paying to play: $650 for airfare, $400 for three nights in a "student" hotel, $70 for membership, and $94 for admission. The latter two fees are student rates. If I were an unemployed or underemployed scholar, the rates would double.
The theme of this year's meeting is "Traces, Tidemarks and Legacies." According to the explanation on the American Anthropological Association website, we live in a time when "the meaning and location of differences, both intellectually and morally, have been rearranged". As the conference progresses, I begin to see what they mean. I am listening to the speaker bemoan the exploitative practices of the neoliberal model when a friend of mine taps me on the shoulder.
"I spent almost my entire salary to be here," she says.
My friend is an adjunct. She has a PhD in anthropology and teaches at a university, where she is paid $2100 per course. While she is a professor, she is not a Professor. She is, like 67 per cent of American university faculty, a part-time employee on a contract that may or may not be renewed each semester. She receives no benefits or health care.
According to the Adjunct Project, a crowdsourced website revealing adjunct wages - data which universities have long kept under wraps - her salary is about average. If she taught five classes a year, a typical full-time faculty course load, she would make $10,500, well below the poverty line. Some adjuncts make more. I have one friend who was offered $5000 per course, but he turned it down and requested less so that his children would still qualify for food stamps.
Why is my friend, a smart woman with no money, spending nearly $2000 to attend a conference she cannot afford? She is looking for a way out. , where interviews take place. These interviews can be announced days or even hours in advance, so most people book beforehand, often to receive no interviews at all.
The American Anthropological Association tends to hold its meetings in America's most expensive cities, although they do have one stipulation: "AAA staff responsible for negotiating and administering annual meeting contracts shall show preference to locales with living wage ordinances." This rule does not apply, unfortunately, to those in attendance.
Below poverty line
"The adjunct problem is emblematic of broader trends in American employment: the end of higher education as a means to prosperity, and the severing of opportunity to all but the most privileged."
In most professions, salaries below the poverty line would be cause for alarm. In academia, they are treated as a source of gratitude. Volunteerism is par for the course - literally. Teaching is touted as a "calling", with compensation an afterthought. One American research university offers its PhD students a salary of $1000 per semester for the "opportunity" to design and teach a course for undergraduates, who are each paying about $50,000 in tuition. The university calls this position "Senior Teaching Assistant" because paying an instructor so far below minimum wage is probably illegal.
In addition to teaching, academics conduct research and publish, but they are not paid for this work either. Instead, all proceeds go to for-profit academic publishers, who block academic articles from the public through exorbitant download and subscription fees, making millions for themselves in the process. If authors want to make their research public, they have to pay the publisher an average of $3000 per article. Without an institutional affiliation, an academic cannot access scholarly research without paying, even for articles written by the scholar itself.
It may be hard to summon sympathy for people who walk willingly into such working conditions. "Bart, don't make fun of grad students," Marge told her son on an oft-quoted episode of The Simpsons. "They just made a terrible life choice."
But all Americans should be concerned about adjuncts, and not only because adjuncts are the ones teaching our youth. The adjunct problem is emblematic of broader trends in American employment: the end of higher education as a means to prosperity, and the severing of opportunity to all but the most privileged.
In a searing commentary, political analyst Joshua Foust notes that the unpaid internships that were once limited to show business have now spread to nearly every industry. "It's almost impossible to get a job working on policy in this town without an unpaid internship," he writes from Washington DC, one of the most expensive cities in the country. Even law, once a safety net for American strivers, is now a profession where jobs pay as little as $10,000 a year - unfeasible for all but the wealthy, and devastating for those who have invested more than $100,000 into their degrees. One after another, the occupations that shape American society are becoming impossible for all but the most elite to enter.
The value of a degree
Academia is vaunted for being a meritocracy. Publications are judged on blind review, and good graduate programs offer free tuition and a decent stipend. But its reliance on adjuncts makes it no different than professions that cater to the elite through unpaid internships.
Anthropologists are known for their attentiveness to social inequality, but few have acknowledged the plight of their peers. When I expressed doubt about the job market to one colleague, she advised me, with total seriousness, to "re-evaluate what work means" and to consider "post-work imaginaries". A popular video on post-graduate employment cuts to the chase: "Why don't you tap into your trust fund?"
In May 2012, I received my PhD, but I still do not know what to do with it. I struggle with the closed off nature of academic work, which I think should be accessible to everyone, but most of all I struggle with the limited opportunities in academia for Americans like me, people for whom education was once a path out of poverty, and not a way into it.
My father, the first person in his family to go to college, tries to tell me my degree has value. "Our family came here with nothing," he says of my great-grandparents, who fled Poland a century ago. "Do you know how incredible it is that you did this, how proud they would be?"
And my heart broke a little when he said that, because his illusion is so touching - so revealing of the values of his generation, and so alien to the experience of mine.
Sarah Kendzior is an anthropologist who recently received her PhD from Washington University in St Louis.
1208
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/2012820102749246453.html
Grant Goodman suspension
Editor's note: An example of the injustice of the justice system against an honest lawyer who would not be corrupted. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Appended are briefs and testimony from the Goodman suspension, including the Arizona State Bar 8-page ‘response’ [page 59] to the trial testimony and law referenced in Goodman’s briefings. Please feel free to publish—it’s now a matter of public record. Grant H. Goodman3104 E. Camelback Road, #563Phoenix, Arizona 85016
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15658009/TransportRoom.pdf
Appended are briefs and testimony from the Goodman suspension, including the Arizona State Bar 8-page ‘response’ [page 59] to the trial testimony and law referenced in Goodman’s briefings. Please feel free to publish—it’s now a matter of public record. Grant H. Goodman3104 E. Camelback Road, #563Phoenix, Arizona 85016
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15658009/TransportRoom.pdf
Ill. police chief says teen knew captor socially
Aug 24, 5:22 PM EDT
Editor's note: This went on for three years???? Small town?? Nobody reported it??? Is your ProbateShark the only one who smells a rat! Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Ill. police chief says teen knew captor socially
By JIM SUHR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON PARK, Ill. (AP) -- A teenager held captive in a house for more than three years before escaping with a relative's help initially went there voluntarily but wasn't allowed to leave when she wanted to go home, an Illinois police chief said Friday.
Washington Park Police Chief David Clark said the 19-year-old St. Louis woman bolted from the home Monday and told investigators her time in captivity included almost daily beatings and sexual assaults. One of those attacks resulted in a now-2-year-old boy rescued when a police SWAT team raided the home Thursday and arrested a 25-year-old man and his mother, Clark said.
The police chief said the three-day lag between the teen's report and the raid on the home was largely spent trying to substantiate her story. Clark also said investigators were working a separate sexual-assault case and lacked the manpower to go any faster.
No charges have been filed in the case. State law gives prosecutors until about 5 p.m. Saturday - 48 hours after the arrests - to either charge the suspects or release them.
Clark wouldn't publicly identify the suspect, his mother or the teenager, citing the ongoing investigation.
He said investigators planned to have the child's DNA tested to determine whether the man is his father.
St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly, the county's top prosecutor, told The Associated Press on Friday that conditions in the home were "definitely deplorable."
Initial evidence suggests that "some of the details are consistent with what the young lady is saying, and I think there's something to it." he said. "We're still trying to figure out what the heck is going on."
Clark said the teenager met the man socially "through someone else when they were partying, and a relationship built," eventually leading to her visit of his home about the time she was reported missing.
"When she (soon) decided to go back to her parents, he wouldn't allow it," Clark said.
He said the man's mother helped detain the young woman and helped falsify medical records when she bore her son in the first year of her captivity. The teen told investigators the man and his mother coerced her into using a false name when giving birth to conceal that she was under-aged, Clark said.
The young woman has told police she repeatedly tried to escape the house, which is on Washington Park's busiest street and next door to a convenience store, just a half mile from a freeway. But her captor chased her down each time and forced her back to the home at gunpoint, Clark said.
Washington Park is a village of 4,200 people tucked on the edge of East St. Louis in one of Illinois' poorest regions. Known for its strip clubs and poverty, the community has grappled for years with corruption and violent crime punctuated by the 2010 shooting death of the village's mayor, John Thornton.
The village twice has filed for bankruptcy since 2004, the last time in 2009.
Neighbors told The Associated Press they had little reason to suspect anything amiss at the one-story bungalow on a parcel cluttered with trash, including a stack of six mildewing mattresses on a concrete slab surrounded by tall weeds. A child's car seat, baby stroller and car tires were nearby.
A neighbor, Lakeitha Smith, opened her front door a crack and told the AP that during the few times she saw the young woman outside, the teenager didn't appear bruised or traumatized. Smith said the man would step away from the home at times with the toddler, who "looked like a healthy baby," and often came to Smith's house, where he played with her 3-year-old son.
"They was like normal people," Smith said. "I really didn't know what was going on over there. I never knew it was something like that."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GIRL_HELD_CAPTIVE_ILLINOIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-24-17-22-47
Editor's note: This went on for three years???? Small town?? Nobody reported it??? Is your ProbateShark the only one who smells a rat! Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Ill. police chief says teen knew captor socially
By JIM SUHR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON PARK, Ill. (AP) -- A teenager held captive in a house for more than three years before escaping with a relative's help initially went there voluntarily but wasn't allowed to leave when she wanted to go home, an Illinois police chief said Friday.
Washington Park Police Chief David Clark said the 19-year-old St. Louis woman bolted from the home Monday and told investigators her time in captivity included almost daily beatings and sexual assaults. One of those attacks resulted in a now-2-year-old boy rescued when a police SWAT team raided the home Thursday and arrested a 25-year-old man and his mother, Clark said.
The police chief said the three-day lag between the teen's report and the raid on the home was largely spent trying to substantiate her story. Clark also said investigators were working a separate sexual-assault case and lacked the manpower to go any faster.
No charges have been filed in the case. State law gives prosecutors until about 5 p.m. Saturday - 48 hours after the arrests - to either charge the suspects or release them.
Clark wouldn't publicly identify the suspect, his mother or the teenager, citing the ongoing investigation.
He said investigators planned to have the child's DNA tested to determine whether the man is his father.
St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly, the county's top prosecutor, told The Associated Press on Friday that conditions in the home were "definitely deplorable."
Initial evidence suggests that "some of the details are consistent with what the young lady is saying, and I think there's something to it." he said. "We're still trying to figure out what the heck is going on."
Clark said the teenager met the man socially "through someone else when they were partying, and a relationship built," eventually leading to her visit of his home about the time she was reported missing.
"When she (soon) decided to go back to her parents, he wouldn't allow it," Clark said.
He said the man's mother helped detain the young woman and helped falsify medical records when she bore her son in the first year of her captivity. The teen told investigators the man and his mother coerced her into using a false name when giving birth to conceal that she was under-aged, Clark said.
The young woman has told police she repeatedly tried to escape the house, which is on Washington Park's busiest street and next door to a convenience store, just a half mile from a freeway. But her captor chased her down each time and forced her back to the home at gunpoint, Clark said.
Washington Park is a village of 4,200 people tucked on the edge of East St. Louis in one of Illinois' poorest regions. Known for its strip clubs and poverty, the community has grappled for years with corruption and violent crime punctuated by the 2010 shooting death of the village's mayor, John Thornton.
The village twice has filed for bankruptcy since 2004, the last time in 2009.
Neighbors told The Associated Press they had little reason to suspect anything amiss at the one-story bungalow on a parcel cluttered with trash, including a stack of six mildewing mattresses on a concrete slab surrounded by tall weeds. A child's car seat, baby stroller and car tires were nearby.
A neighbor, Lakeitha Smith, opened her front door a crack and told the AP that during the few times she saw the young woman outside, the teenager didn't appear bruised or traumatized. Smith said the man would step away from the home at times with the toddler, who "looked like a healthy baby," and often came to Smith's house, where he played with her 3-year-old son.
"They was like normal people," Smith said. "I really didn't know what was going on over there. I never knew it was something like that."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GIRL_HELD_CAPTIVE_ILLINOIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-24-17-22-47
Probate Court: Where Some Elderly Citizens Disappear; the Case of Former WestConn Professor Eli Schutts (Second in a Series)
Probate Court: Where Some Elderly Citizens Disappear; the Case of Former WestConn Professor Eli Schutts (Second in a Series)
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
By ANDY THIBAULT
And JACK CORAGGIO
Previously on countytimes.com: Eli Schutts and Edith Johnson of Bethlehem: A Tragic Love Story at Life's Final Turn, and Probate Court’s Most Recent Ruling On Eli Schutts And Reaction.
TORRINGTON—Probate court rulings and administrative practices vary widely in Connecticut, which has a sordid history of failing to oversee commitments of elderly citizens to nursing homes.
The horror stories are legion: Tales of officials draining the estates of those they are charged with protecting, and friends and neighbors disappearing into the bowels of a secretive system with little, if any oversight. One significant case of unlawful imprisonment culminated with a state Supreme Court ruling this year, stripping layers of immunity from lawyers appointed by probate courts, and from conservators and nursing homes. Aggrieved family members can now sue those officials and nursing homes if they ignore the wishes of the clients they are charged with serving.
Daniel Gross had been held against his will in a Waterbury nursing home, the victim of collusion among a court-appointed lawyer, a conservator and a probate judge. He was freed after a year by superior court Judge Joseph Gormley, who called the case “a terrible miscarriage of justice.” Mr. Gross died in 2007, but a civil rights lawsuit filed by his daughter resulted in the high court ruling five years later.
The operations of probate courts still lack consistency, according to several elder care lawyers interviewed by The Litchfield County Times. Two of the lawyers who practice in the probate courts requested anonymity for fear of retribution. They had been asked to review court records and other documents related to the case of Eli Schutts, Ph.D., a retired philosophy professor at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury who is now at the Litchfield Woods nursing home in Torrington, based on a probate court ruling.
Mr. Schutts, 86, had complained about his placement at another nursing home in Kent, according to court records. As his health deteriorated, he was transferred to New Milford Hospital and then Litchfield Woods.
Wednesday afternoon at Litchfield Woods, Mr. Schutts reminisced about a boxing exhibtion he saw many years ago and his colleagues at WestConn. His expressions were linear in thought and coherent. Coughing and breathing with difficulty, he was assisted with an oxygen feed. An aide checked to see if he was due for a breathing treatment.
“I’m trying to get out of here,” Mr. Schutts said. “I’m trying to build up my leg so I can go.”
He described the boxer he saw in New York, Ezzard Charles, as “a pretty clean fighter.”
While able to converse at leisure for about half an hour, Mr. Schutts repeatedly struggled to breathe and hear his visitor.
“I’m trying to beat the bronchitis,” he said. “I don’t know where the hell my hearing aids are.”
Mr. Schutts’ fate seems to be uncertain. The Litchfield Hills Probate Court had appointed a temporary conservator for him, but that order expired Aug. 12. Another probate hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 27 at 9:30 a.m. at Litchfield Woods, and it will be open to the public. The former temporary conservator is expected to seek permanent appointment.
Deborah Logue, a lay minister at Christ Episcopal Church in Bethlehem who has visited Mr. Schutts and followed the case closely, said she was deeply concerned about his well-being.
“Think, if this was one of your parents—or you—and someone was toying with your existence—locked up and possibly over-drugged,”Ms. Logue said. “Something is not right.”
Ms. Logue had notarized a durable power of attorney on behalf of Mr. Schutts for his longtime girlfriend and former colleague at WestConn, Edith Johnson of Bethlehem. The power of attorney, however, was not recognized by the Litchfield Hills Probate Court. Judge Diane Blick questioned whether Mr. Schutts knew what he was signing.
“I sat with Eli for one hour and asked him, repeatedly: ‘Do you want to get out of this place and give Edith power of attorney?’ ” Ms. Logue said. “His answer, repeatedly, was ‘Yes.’ ”
Asserting that Ms. Johnson and Mr. Schutts have a viable relationship, Ms. Logue said she has known Ms. Johnson for 35 years. “Six months ago,” Ms. Logue said, “Eli was ambulatory and able to go to dinner and the movies with Edith. Someone needs to advocate properly for Eli. This is not done by pulling a conservator out of who knows where.”
Had the court recognized the power of attorney, it would not have been able to appoint a conservator.
“If she has durable power of attorney, they cannot appoint a conservator absent a finding that she did something improper,” said attorney Marilyn Denny, an elder care lawyer for Greater Hartford Legal Aid. “Why is he still in a nursing home? He should be able to go home, assuming that he can be discharged.”
Or, as another elder care lawyer put it: “If there was no conservator, he could have just walked out and given them the finger. It’s an assault to keep someone there against their will.”
Conservators are appointed when a person is unable to live independently. Generally, the fiduciary duty of conservators compels them to act in the best interests of the protected person. They cannot benefit at the expense of the protected person. They must submit an inventory of assets balanced with an accounting of bills paid. The court must approve fees.
Connecticut has no training for conservators, according to a probate court official. The probate courts themselves provide the only oversight. Still, many actions of conservators are never reviewed by probate courts in Connecticut, according to the National Disability Rights Network.
Ms. Johnson claimed the former temporary conservator, Lorraine Seely, threatened her with retaliation if she complained to the press about Mr. Schutts’ treatment. Ms. Johnson said Ms. Seely told her: “If this gets in the paper, I’ll make sure you never see him again.” Ms. Seely denied that in a statement faxed to The Litchfield County Times, questioning Ms. Johnson’s intentions and credibility. In a voicemail Wednesday, Ms. Seely also urged the County Times to investigate Ms. Johnson’s background.
The Litchfield Hills Probate Court informed parties in the case, including Mr. Schutts’ son and daughter—who live abroad—of the alleged threat, but did not investigate it or take any action. “The Court … leaves it to the parties of interest to take any action deemed necessary,” the Litchfield Hills court said.
A Litchfield Hills Probate Court official said notice of the alleged threat was not forwarded to the Torrington Area District Court. On Tuesday, the County Times reached out to ask Torrington Probate Judge Michael Magistrali if he would be conducting an investigation. Mr. Magistrali did not respond to the inquiry or to phone messages left Wednesday at his law office and the probate court. An official at the court did confirm that documents about the alleged threat had been received.
While finding that Mr. Schutts’ condition is such that he needs serious physical, mental and psychosocial care, Judge Blick cited the following testimony from Mr. Schutts: “He is very happy with all that Lorraine Seely has done for him;” and, “He is very happy at Litchfield Woods and finds it most congenial.”
Ms. Johnson has complained repeatedly that Mr. Schutts has been medicated improperly. She said Tuesday that she was able to persuade a physician to re-evaluate use of a drug she claimed was causing him to hallucinate. In addition, several sets of his hearing aids appear to be missing, Ms. Johnson said.
“Lorraine Seely said she would see that I had a list of Dr. Schutts’ drugs being given at Litchfield Woods,” Ms. Johnson said. “Instead, she flashed it before me, yanked it and ran.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Johnson also complained that an ongoing credit card balance of Mr. Schutts’ was among bills that had not been paid recently. She also produced financial records showing substantial withdrawals from an account held by Mr. Schutts. Prior to his confinement, Ms. Johnson said, she paid Mr. Schutts’ bills and improved his credit rating.
“The conservator should be paying down his bills,” an elder care lawyer said. “Ms. Johnson can request an accounting.”
In the voicemail left by Ms. Seely Wednesday morning, the former temporary conservator said she hoped the Fax she had sent “would pretty much cover my thoughts and where I’m at with this.”
“The only thing I can tell you,” Ms. Seely said, “is that Dr. Schutts is getting excellent care at Litchfield Woods and his health continues to improve.”
However, Wednesday afternoon Ms. Seely called to say: “I am disturbed by what she [Ms. Johnson] is saying. I won’t allow it to happen any more. This person has a long list of problems.” Ms. Seely would not elaborate.
At the conclusion of the call, Ms. Seely said someone had developed a statement, allegedly by Mr. Schutts, that addressed concerns about Ms. Johnson. She said a social worker could produce the statement. A Litchfield Woods staff member said Wednesday afternoon that she would forward a message to the social worker.
As for Ms. Johnson’s background, the County Times obtained a State Police report in which Ms. Johnson stated she was trying to alert doctors at Sharon Hospital to what she asserted was an unnecessary procedure opposed by Mr. Schutts. State Police asked her to leave the hospital and she complied in a quiet manner.
The Rev. Jim Speer, the priest in charge of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, said of Ms. Johnson: “She is a very honorable person.”
“She’s a very spiritual person,” Reverend Speer said. “She’s very dedicated to Eli and concerned that he not be cheated, that he doesn’t get medications he doesn’t need.”
Reach Andy Thibault by e-mail at tntcomm82@cs.com. Follow him on Twitter @cooljustice. Reach Jack Coraggio by e-mail at jcoraggio@ctcentral.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcoraggio.
http://www.countytimes.com/articles/2012/08/15/news/doc502beadaf1b5e342538502.txt?viewmode=default
KawamotoDragon.com
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
By ANDY THIBAULT
And JACK CORAGGIO
Previously on countytimes.com: Eli Schutts and Edith Johnson of Bethlehem: A Tragic Love Story at Life's Final Turn, and Probate Court’s Most Recent Ruling On Eli Schutts And Reaction.
TORRINGTON—Probate court rulings and administrative practices vary widely in Connecticut, which has a sordid history of failing to oversee commitments of elderly citizens to nursing homes.
The horror stories are legion: Tales of officials draining the estates of those they are charged with protecting, and friends and neighbors disappearing into the bowels of a secretive system with little, if any oversight. One significant case of unlawful imprisonment culminated with a state Supreme Court ruling this year, stripping layers of immunity from lawyers appointed by probate courts, and from conservators and nursing homes. Aggrieved family members can now sue those officials and nursing homes if they ignore the wishes of the clients they are charged with serving.
Daniel Gross had been held against his will in a Waterbury nursing home, the victim of collusion among a court-appointed lawyer, a conservator and a probate judge. He was freed after a year by superior court Judge Joseph Gormley, who called the case “a terrible miscarriage of justice.” Mr. Gross died in 2007, but a civil rights lawsuit filed by his daughter resulted in the high court ruling five years later.
The operations of probate courts still lack consistency, according to several elder care lawyers interviewed by The Litchfield County Times. Two of the lawyers who practice in the probate courts requested anonymity for fear of retribution. They had been asked to review court records and other documents related to the case of Eli Schutts, Ph.D., a retired philosophy professor at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury who is now at the Litchfield Woods nursing home in Torrington, based on a probate court ruling.
Mr. Schutts, 86, had complained about his placement at another nursing home in Kent, according to court records. As his health deteriorated, he was transferred to New Milford Hospital and then Litchfield Woods.
Wednesday afternoon at Litchfield Woods, Mr. Schutts reminisced about a boxing exhibtion he saw many years ago and his colleagues at WestConn. His expressions were linear in thought and coherent. Coughing and breathing with difficulty, he was assisted with an oxygen feed. An aide checked to see if he was due for a breathing treatment.
“I’m trying to get out of here,” Mr. Schutts said. “I’m trying to build up my leg so I can go.”
He described the boxer he saw in New York, Ezzard Charles, as “a pretty clean fighter.”
While able to converse at leisure for about half an hour, Mr. Schutts repeatedly struggled to breathe and hear his visitor.
“I’m trying to beat the bronchitis,” he said. “I don’t know where the hell my hearing aids are.”
Mr. Schutts’ fate seems to be uncertain. The Litchfield Hills Probate Court had appointed a temporary conservator for him, but that order expired Aug. 12. Another probate hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 27 at 9:30 a.m. at Litchfield Woods, and it will be open to the public. The former temporary conservator is expected to seek permanent appointment.
Deborah Logue, a lay minister at Christ Episcopal Church in Bethlehem who has visited Mr. Schutts and followed the case closely, said she was deeply concerned about his well-being.
“Think, if this was one of your parents—or you—and someone was toying with your existence—locked up and possibly over-drugged,”Ms. Logue said. “Something is not right.”
Ms. Logue had notarized a durable power of attorney on behalf of Mr. Schutts for his longtime girlfriend and former colleague at WestConn, Edith Johnson of Bethlehem. The power of attorney, however, was not recognized by the Litchfield Hills Probate Court. Judge Diane Blick questioned whether Mr. Schutts knew what he was signing.
“I sat with Eli for one hour and asked him, repeatedly: ‘Do you want to get out of this place and give Edith power of attorney?’ ” Ms. Logue said. “His answer, repeatedly, was ‘Yes.’ ”
Asserting that Ms. Johnson and Mr. Schutts have a viable relationship, Ms. Logue said she has known Ms. Johnson for 35 years. “Six months ago,” Ms. Logue said, “Eli was ambulatory and able to go to dinner and the movies with Edith. Someone needs to advocate properly for Eli. This is not done by pulling a conservator out of who knows where.”
Had the court recognized the power of attorney, it would not have been able to appoint a conservator.
“If she has durable power of attorney, they cannot appoint a conservator absent a finding that she did something improper,” said attorney Marilyn Denny, an elder care lawyer for Greater Hartford Legal Aid. “Why is he still in a nursing home? He should be able to go home, assuming that he can be discharged.”
Or, as another elder care lawyer put it: “If there was no conservator, he could have just walked out and given them the finger. It’s an assault to keep someone there against their will.”
Conservators are appointed when a person is unable to live independently. Generally, the fiduciary duty of conservators compels them to act in the best interests of the protected person. They cannot benefit at the expense of the protected person. They must submit an inventory of assets balanced with an accounting of bills paid. The court must approve fees.
Connecticut has no training for conservators, according to a probate court official. The probate courts themselves provide the only oversight. Still, many actions of conservators are never reviewed by probate courts in Connecticut, according to the National Disability Rights Network.
Ms. Johnson claimed the former temporary conservator, Lorraine Seely, threatened her with retaliation if she complained to the press about Mr. Schutts’ treatment. Ms. Johnson said Ms. Seely told her: “If this gets in the paper, I’ll make sure you never see him again.” Ms. Seely denied that in a statement faxed to The Litchfield County Times, questioning Ms. Johnson’s intentions and credibility. In a voicemail Wednesday, Ms. Seely also urged the County Times to investigate Ms. Johnson’s background.
The Litchfield Hills Probate Court informed parties in the case, including Mr. Schutts’ son and daughter—who live abroad—of the alleged threat, but did not investigate it or take any action. “The Court … leaves it to the parties of interest to take any action deemed necessary,” the Litchfield Hills court said.
A Litchfield Hills Probate Court official said notice of the alleged threat was not forwarded to the Torrington Area District Court. On Tuesday, the County Times reached out to ask Torrington Probate Judge Michael Magistrali if he would be conducting an investigation. Mr. Magistrali did not respond to the inquiry or to phone messages left Wednesday at his law office and the probate court. An official at the court did confirm that documents about the alleged threat had been received.
While finding that Mr. Schutts’ condition is such that he needs serious physical, mental and psychosocial care, Judge Blick cited the following testimony from Mr. Schutts: “He is very happy with all that Lorraine Seely has done for him;” and, “He is very happy at Litchfield Woods and finds it most congenial.”
Ms. Johnson has complained repeatedly that Mr. Schutts has been medicated improperly. She said Tuesday that she was able to persuade a physician to re-evaluate use of a drug she claimed was causing him to hallucinate. In addition, several sets of his hearing aids appear to be missing, Ms. Johnson said.
“Lorraine Seely said she would see that I had a list of Dr. Schutts’ drugs being given at Litchfield Woods,” Ms. Johnson said. “Instead, she flashed it before me, yanked it and ran.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Johnson also complained that an ongoing credit card balance of Mr. Schutts’ was among bills that had not been paid recently. She also produced financial records showing substantial withdrawals from an account held by Mr. Schutts. Prior to his confinement, Ms. Johnson said, she paid Mr. Schutts’ bills and improved his credit rating.
“The conservator should be paying down his bills,” an elder care lawyer said. “Ms. Johnson can request an accounting.”
In the voicemail left by Ms. Seely Wednesday morning, the former temporary conservator said she hoped the Fax she had sent “would pretty much cover my thoughts and where I’m at with this.”
“The only thing I can tell you,” Ms. Seely said, “is that Dr. Schutts is getting excellent care at Litchfield Woods and his health continues to improve.”
However, Wednesday afternoon Ms. Seely called to say: “I am disturbed by what she [Ms. Johnson] is saying. I won’t allow it to happen any more. This person has a long list of problems.” Ms. Seely would not elaborate.
At the conclusion of the call, Ms. Seely said someone had developed a statement, allegedly by Mr. Schutts, that addressed concerns about Ms. Johnson. She said a social worker could produce the statement. A Litchfield Woods staff member said Wednesday afternoon that she would forward a message to the social worker.
As for Ms. Johnson’s background, the County Times obtained a State Police report in which Ms. Johnson stated she was trying to alert doctors at Sharon Hospital to what she asserted was an unnecessary procedure opposed by Mr. Schutts. State Police asked her to leave the hospital and she complied in a quiet manner.
The Rev. Jim Speer, the priest in charge of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, said of Ms. Johnson: “She is a very honorable person.”
“She’s a very spiritual person,” Reverend Speer said. “She’s very dedicated to Eli and concerned that he not be cheated, that he doesn’t get medications he doesn’t need.”
Reach Andy Thibault by e-mail at tntcomm82@cs.com. Follow him on Twitter @cooljustice. Reach Jack Coraggio by e-mail at jcoraggio@ctcentral.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcoraggio.
http://www.countytimes.com/articles/2012/08/15/news/doc502beadaf1b5e342538502.txt?viewmode=default
KawamotoDragon.com
Conservatorships: Beware!
Conservatorships: Beware!
Posted: 08/15/2012 7:05 pm React Amazing
Over the past several years, there have been many newspaper articles and television stories on the increasing abuse of elders who have been placed under conservatorships. In July 2012, the San Jose Mercury News published three-part series on how private guardians have stolen millions of dollars from their charges. In November of 2005, the Los Angeles Times also published an in-depth story on conservatorships by private fiduciaries. Even though these exposes clearly gave the public a warning, the problem continues to this day.
Prior to modern medicine, few people lived long lives as they do today. Those that did live a longer life were usually provided for by family members. With societal changes and the fragmentation of the family, some people live too far from family members or have no family members to care for them. Many of these elderly people are ending up in acute hospitals for one reason or another... a broken hip, pneumonia, heart disease, etc. In some cases, the elderly person may have a family member nearby who holds the Durable Power of Attorney, but in too many cases, the person holding that power does not live in the area and is not easily available. This leaves the elderly person vulnerable for a conservatorship.
Once a conservatorship is in place, the ward can no longer direct anything about their life, such as where they will live, how they will spend their money, who they can socialize with, and if there is abuse, court appointed attorneys are reluctant to file any actions against the conservator, especially if the conservator is a public guardian. When this occurs, the ward is deprived of civil liberties.
Guardians and the courts are supposed to do what is best for the conservatee and what the conservatee wishes. However, in too many cases, this is not what transpires. What happens often is decisions are made in the best interest of the conservator instead of what is best for the conservatee and the overall condition of the conservatee, both financially and personally, begins to deteriorate. FATE's experience has shown that most people placed under conservatorships are not allowed to remain in their homes or keep their possessions and within a short period of time are placed in some type of institutionalized care, such as a nursing home. The conservatee deteriorates rapidly because of not being in familiar surroundings and die within a short period of time. To make matters worse, the conservator is usually absent and does not visit or monitor the care of the person once in institutionalized care. This is particularly true of public guardians.
My first encounter of conservatorships was in 1986 when I received a phone call from Charlie Fish who I had helped after his brother died under mysterious circumstances in a nursing home in Northern California. Charlie began to visit other patients in this facility and befriended those patients who did not have family or friends to watch over them. This is how he met Isabel Miller, who was blind, abandoned by a family member and placed in a nursing home under a conservatorship. Her tragic story was the subject of an Associated Press article that was published nationwide. Then in 1987, Charlie and I went to New York and Geraldo Rivera aired what happened to her in this nursing home while under conservatorship, which was the first nursing home abuse case aired on national television. The story was so compelling and the events so true, even today, that I put the video on YouTube. It can be viewed on the FATE web site at www.4fate.org.
Isabel was a very beautiful and interesting woman. In her youth, she was the model for Pears soap and also did some acting in Hollywood. By the early 1980s she was blind, still had her mind, living in her own home with few medical problems. She had been placed in this facility by a granddaughter and subsequently conserved by the Placer County Public Guardian. Charlie would visit Isabel and she would tell him that she had money and personal belongings that she never saw again after being placed in this nursing home. She alleged that the staff was mean to her and gave her pills that made her dizzy and unable to walk. Charlie began to tape record his conversations with her. When Charlie told me of her, I went to the facility to meet her and was denied a visit as the public guardian had to approve my visit. It took me four months after numerous visits to the public guardian's office, phone calls to the head of the Health Department and the district attorney's office before I was allowed to see her. When I finally saw her, she was so happy to have me visit and also to have Charlie by her side as he was also barred from seeing her for months. A couple of weeks later, Isabel died and pictures of her body show that she was riddled with bed sores, which caused her death in a very ugly and painful way. Where was her conservator?
Since Isabel, FATE has documented over 300 cases of conservatorship abuses all over the country by both public guardians and private fiduciaries. I also was a guest on the Sally Jessie Raphel Show along with Scott Harshberger, who at the time was the Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts. At the time, he was touted as the most aggressive Attorney General in the country prosecuting perpetrators of elder abuse. His segment focused on fiduciary and physical abuses by family members. This type of abuse by family members happens more than people realize. Mr. Harshberger brought an elderly victim of abuse onto the program; however, the man was reluctant to talk bad about his son, even though his son had been arrested for abusing him. Conservatorships happen over these types of abuses, but also they take place when family members start fighting over who is going to be in control of the care and money of mom and dad when they can no longer care for themselves. A suggestion is made that a third-party, such as a private or public guardian, should take over the control in order to keep peace within the family. Keeping in mind that FATE only gets the bad calls, our experience is that too many private and/or public guardians end up misappropriating the estate, guardians and their attorneys end up with all the money and the children end up without their inheritance and, worse of all, the expressed wishes of the person conserved are violated.
After the L.A. Times expose on Guardianships, California established legislation requiring all private fiduciaries to be licensing by the newly-formed California Fiduciary Bureau. As of this date, I believe California is the only state that requires the licensing of private fiduciaries and also provides a means of filing a complaint when a private fiduciary breaches his/her duties. This is only a beginning in an attempt to protect vulnerable citizens who cannot properly care for themselves. The best one can do while still competent, is to execute a will and trust appointing a member of the family. However, if that is not possible, then it should be a person you most trust to handle your finances and your care instead of a third-party you do not know that will make life decisions for you. Although this seems like the best way and surely the courts will abide by your decision, it is not always the case. I have seen courts place guardians in charge of vulnerable adults who did have a will and a power of attorney totally take over against what the person's wishes clearly stated in a legal document. How can this happen? The probate courts are sanctioning it. Hopefully, with more exposes by the major news networks, the public will become educated on this... yet another national disgrace of abuse of our most vulnerable citizens.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-herman/conservatorships-beware_b_1785309.html
Posted: 08/15/2012 7:05 pm React Amazing
Over the past several years, there have been many newspaper articles and television stories on the increasing abuse of elders who have been placed under conservatorships. In July 2012, the San Jose Mercury News published three-part series on how private guardians have stolen millions of dollars from their charges. In November of 2005, the Los Angeles Times also published an in-depth story on conservatorships by private fiduciaries. Even though these exposes clearly gave the public a warning, the problem continues to this day.
Prior to modern medicine, few people lived long lives as they do today. Those that did live a longer life were usually provided for by family members. With societal changes and the fragmentation of the family, some people live too far from family members or have no family members to care for them. Many of these elderly people are ending up in acute hospitals for one reason or another... a broken hip, pneumonia, heart disease, etc. In some cases, the elderly person may have a family member nearby who holds the Durable Power of Attorney, but in too many cases, the person holding that power does not live in the area and is not easily available. This leaves the elderly person vulnerable for a conservatorship.
Once a conservatorship is in place, the ward can no longer direct anything about their life, such as where they will live, how they will spend their money, who they can socialize with, and if there is abuse, court appointed attorneys are reluctant to file any actions against the conservator, especially if the conservator is a public guardian. When this occurs, the ward is deprived of civil liberties.
Guardians and the courts are supposed to do what is best for the conservatee and what the conservatee wishes. However, in too many cases, this is not what transpires. What happens often is decisions are made in the best interest of the conservator instead of what is best for the conservatee and the overall condition of the conservatee, both financially and personally, begins to deteriorate. FATE's experience has shown that most people placed under conservatorships are not allowed to remain in their homes or keep their possessions and within a short period of time are placed in some type of institutionalized care, such as a nursing home. The conservatee deteriorates rapidly because of not being in familiar surroundings and die within a short period of time. To make matters worse, the conservator is usually absent and does not visit or monitor the care of the person once in institutionalized care. This is particularly true of public guardians.
My first encounter of conservatorships was in 1986 when I received a phone call from Charlie Fish who I had helped after his brother died under mysterious circumstances in a nursing home in Northern California. Charlie began to visit other patients in this facility and befriended those patients who did not have family or friends to watch over them. This is how he met Isabel Miller, who was blind, abandoned by a family member and placed in a nursing home under a conservatorship. Her tragic story was the subject of an Associated Press article that was published nationwide. Then in 1987, Charlie and I went to New York and Geraldo Rivera aired what happened to her in this nursing home while under conservatorship, which was the first nursing home abuse case aired on national television. The story was so compelling and the events so true, even today, that I put the video on YouTube. It can be viewed on the FATE web site at www.4fate.org.
Isabel was a very beautiful and interesting woman. In her youth, she was the model for Pears soap and also did some acting in Hollywood. By the early 1980s she was blind, still had her mind, living in her own home with few medical problems. She had been placed in this facility by a granddaughter and subsequently conserved by the Placer County Public Guardian. Charlie would visit Isabel and she would tell him that she had money and personal belongings that she never saw again after being placed in this nursing home. She alleged that the staff was mean to her and gave her pills that made her dizzy and unable to walk. Charlie began to tape record his conversations with her. When Charlie told me of her, I went to the facility to meet her and was denied a visit as the public guardian had to approve my visit. It took me four months after numerous visits to the public guardian's office, phone calls to the head of the Health Department and the district attorney's office before I was allowed to see her. When I finally saw her, she was so happy to have me visit and also to have Charlie by her side as he was also barred from seeing her for months. A couple of weeks later, Isabel died and pictures of her body show that she was riddled with bed sores, which caused her death in a very ugly and painful way. Where was her conservator?
Since Isabel, FATE has documented over 300 cases of conservatorship abuses all over the country by both public guardians and private fiduciaries. I also was a guest on the Sally Jessie Raphel Show along with Scott Harshberger, who at the time was the Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts. At the time, he was touted as the most aggressive Attorney General in the country prosecuting perpetrators of elder abuse. His segment focused on fiduciary and physical abuses by family members. This type of abuse by family members happens more than people realize. Mr. Harshberger brought an elderly victim of abuse onto the program; however, the man was reluctant to talk bad about his son, even though his son had been arrested for abusing him. Conservatorships happen over these types of abuses, but also they take place when family members start fighting over who is going to be in control of the care and money of mom and dad when they can no longer care for themselves. A suggestion is made that a third-party, such as a private or public guardian, should take over the control in order to keep peace within the family. Keeping in mind that FATE only gets the bad calls, our experience is that too many private and/or public guardians end up misappropriating the estate, guardians and their attorneys end up with all the money and the children end up without their inheritance and, worse of all, the expressed wishes of the person conserved are violated.
After the L.A. Times expose on Guardianships, California established legislation requiring all private fiduciaries to be licensing by the newly-formed California Fiduciary Bureau. As of this date, I believe California is the only state that requires the licensing of private fiduciaries and also provides a means of filing a complaint when a private fiduciary breaches his/her duties. This is only a beginning in an attempt to protect vulnerable citizens who cannot properly care for themselves. The best one can do while still competent, is to execute a will and trust appointing a member of the family. However, if that is not possible, then it should be a person you most trust to handle your finances and your care instead of a third-party you do not know that will make life decisions for you. Although this seems like the best way and surely the courts will abide by your decision, it is not always the case. I have seen courts place guardians in charge of vulnerable adults who did have a will and a power of attorney totally take over against what the person's wishes clearly stated in a legal document. How can this happen? The probate courts are sanctioning it. Hopefully, with more exposes by the major news networks, the public will become educated on this... yet another national disgrace of abuse of our most vulnerable citizens.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-herman/conservatorships-beware_b_1785309.html
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Former professor charged with theft over false degree claim
Editor's note: Many years ago, in the Highland Park, IL school district, a similar case evolved. A very wealthy woman used her maiden name which was one letter off from another woman's legitimate master's degree to "steal" that woman's master's degree. She then used the illicit master's degree to obtain a child therapeutic position in the school district. Later, in her "career" she purchased a doctorate from a Florida company specializing in fake documents. She then received payment from the school district commensurate with a "doctor" with her assumed education.
This Shark heard about her from a retired teacher from the school district and began to investigate the "doctor". This Shark found out that the "doctor" had been coercing Italian immigrants in the school district into placing their children up for foster care and ultimately...for adoption. This Shark also discovered that the "doctor" was wearing a white lab coat and visiting patients in the local hospital...and being called "doctor". Needless to say the hospital staff frog walked her out of the hospital after this Shark reported her.
The reader may ask him or herself why this Shark was more believable over the protestations of validity of the "doctor". Because this Shark CALLED THE REAL HOLDER OF THE MASTER'S DEGREE AND SHE CORROBORATED THIS HUMBLE SHARK'S EVIDENCE!!!!! Needless to say, she was pissed that she worked 2 years at school in Iowa, slaving as a waitress to get the money to pay for her schooling and her degree!!!
Your ProbateShark often reflects on the lives of those Italian immigrant families that were shattered by this "Doctor Frankenstein"
Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateShark.com
Former professor charged with theft over false degree claim
By Jennifer Delgado
Tribune reporter
4:21 AM CDT, August 23, 2012
A former City Colleges of Chicago professor falsified a doctoral degree to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent pay, Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday.
Carol Howley, a nursing professor at Richard J. Daley College, was indicted on charges of theft of government property for allegedly pretending to be enrolled in doctoral classes at Rush University when she was hired in 1995. Two years later, she falsely claimed to have earned the doctorate and provided a forged transcript detailing the courses she claimed to have taken, prosecutors said Wednesday.
With pay based in part on educational experience, Howley was overpaid by $307,000, according to the charges.
The theft came to light when a Colorado employer considering whether to hire Howley tried to verify her doctoral degree, according to John A. Gasiorowski, the inspector general for City Colleges.
Rush told Daley College it didn't have any records of Howley ever attending the school, prompting the inspector general's office to investigate. The probe uncovered that Howley lied about graduating with the doctorate in January 1997 and had never enrolled in the school's doctoral program.
"Rush told us, 'We don't even have graduation in January,'" Gasiorowski said.
Gasiorowski said Howley attempted to resign in December 2010, but that the City Colleges' board of trustees fired her in February 2011 based on his office's findings.
Howley, 64, who now lives in Fort Collins, Colo., couldn't be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said the department is working with authorities in Colorado to bring the former professor to Cook County.
At a news conference, Alvarez also announced indictments against two former Chicago Public Schools employees and a former City Colleges official.
Sonia Lopez, 49, who worked as a teaching assistant and treasurer at Marshall Middle School, was charged with theft after she allegedly wrote 14 unauthorized checks to herself for more than $21,000 and took an additional $3,000 from student fees and payments, Alvarez said.
Louis James, 58, a former manager of sports administration for CPS, was accused of stealing $9,000 and using the money to buy sparkling wine, flowers, chocolates, condoms and a king-size mattress at Costco. He was indicted on charges of theft and official misconduct.
Natatia Trotter-Gordon, 43, a former director of business and industry at Kennedy-King College who coordinated a conversational Spanish program for employees at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, was charged with forgery for allegedly stealing more than $51,000. The scheme was uncovered after the hospital notified the school that Trotter-Gordon requested that she personally pick up the payments instead of mailing them to the school, authorities said.
jmdelgado@tribune.com http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-former-professor-charged-with-theft-over-false-degree-claim-20120822,0,1441382.story
This Shark heard about her from a retired teacher from the school district and began to investigate the "doctor". This Shark found out that the "doctor" had been coercing Italian immigrants in the school district into placing their children up for foster care and ultimately...for adoption. This Shark also discovered that the "doctor" was wearing a white lab coat and visiting patients in the local hospital...and being called "doctor". Needless to say the hospital staff frog walked her out of the hospital after this Shark reported her.
The reader may ask him or herself why this Shark was more believable over the protestations of validity of the "doctor". Because this Shark CALLED THE REAL HOLDER OF THE MASTER'S DEGREE AND SHE CORROBORATED THIS HUMBLE SHARK'S EVIDENCE!!!!! Needless to say, she was pissed that she worked 2 years at school in Iowa, slaving as a waitress to get the money to pay for her schooling and her degree!!!
Your ProbateShark often reflects on the lives of those Italian immigrant families that were shattered by this "Doctor Frankenstein"
Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateShark.com
Former professor charged with theft over false degree claim
By Jennifer Delgado
Tribune reporter
4:21 AM CDT, August 23, 2012
A former City Colleges of Chicago professor falsified a doctoral degree to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent pay, Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday.
Carol Howley, a nursing professor at Richard J. Daley College, was indicted on charges of theft of government property for allegedly pretending to be enrolled in doctoral classes at Rush University when she was hired in 1995. Two years later, she falsely claimed to have earned the doctorate and provided a forged transcript detailing the courses she claimed to have taken, prosecutors said Wednesday.
With pay based in part on educational experience, Howley was overpaid by $307,000, according to the charges.
The theft came to light when a Colorado employer considering whether to hire Howley tried to verify her doctoral degree, according to John A. Gasiorowski, the inspector general for City Colleges.
Rush told Daley College it didn't have any records of Howley ever attending the school, prompting the inspector general's office to investigate. The probe uncovered that Howley lied about graduating with the doctorate in January 1997 and had never enrolled in the school's doctoral program.
"Rush told us, 'We don't even have graduation in January,'" Gasiorowski said.
Gasiorowski said Howley attempted to resign in December 2010, but that the City Colleges' board of trustees fired her in February 2011 based on his office's findings.
Howley, 64, who now lives in Fort Collins, Colo., couldn't be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said the department is working with authorities in Colorado to bring the former professor to Cook County.
At a news conference, Alvarez also announced indictments against two former Chicago Public Schools employees and a former City Colleges official.
Sonia Lopez, 49, who worked as a teaching assistant and treasurer at Marshall Middle School, was charged with theft after she allegedly wrote 14 unauthorized checks to herself for more than $21,000 and took an additional $3,000 from student fees and payments, Alvarez said.
Louis James, 58, a former manager of sports administration for CPS, was accused of stealing $9,000 and using the money to buy sparkling wine, flowers, chocolates, condoms and a king-size mattress at Costco. He was indicted on charges of theft and official misconduct.
Natatia Trotter-Gordon, 43, a former director of business and industry at Kennedy-King College who coordinated a conversational Spanish program for employees at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, was charged with forgery for allegedly stealing more than $51,000. The scheme was uncovered after the hospital notified the school that Trotter-Gordon requested that she personally pick up the payments instead of mailing them to the school, authorities said.
jmdelgado@tribune.com http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-former-professor-charged-with-theft-over-false-degree-claim-20120822,0,1441382.story
Ex-hospital worker admits stealing files, harassing patients
Ex-hospital worker admits stealing files, harassing patients
Staff report
2:44 PM CDT, August 22, 2012
A former worker at the Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital has admitted stealing patient files and using the information to harass patients, authorities say.
Michelle Morrison, 52, of Elk Grove Village, worked as a patient advocate at the hospital and sent threatening letters to patients from Feb 2011 until June 2012, according to court records and the Cook County sheriff's office. She worked at the hospital from Nov. 23, 2005 until July 28, 2010, when she was fired, officials said.
Authorities allege that Morrison stole files of three patients and hospital stationery and, after she lost her job, sent letters to the patients telling them their electroshock treatments were insufficient and recommending frontal lobotomies.
Morrison admitted to authorities that she typed and sent the letters, saying she wanted to embarrass the hospital "for terminating her employment there,” the sheriff’s office said.
Morrison appeared this morning in a Cook County courtroom in Rolling Meadows on felony forgery charges. Her bond was set at $50,000. She did not speak during the hearing. Her public defender said she has no criminal record and is a single mother with one daughter.
The sheriff’s office said Morrison’s letters contained "vulgar comments, references to confidential medical information and psychiatric treatment received by these patients. Additionally, the letters included threats of exposing sensitive mental treatment material to the patients' families, friends and co-workers."
An investigation into Morrison was launched after patients who received the letters contacted the hospital, authorities said.
A message left with the hospital wasn't immediately returned this morning.
Each of the three counts of forgery for which Morrison was charged carry a penalty of probation to two to five years in prison upon conviction, officials said.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-former-hospital-worker-accused-of-stealing-files-harassing-patients-20120822,0,3120622.story
Staff report
2:44 PM CDT, August 22, 2012
A former worker at the Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital has admitted stealing patient files and using the information to harass patients, authorities say.
Michelle Morrison, 52, of Elk Grove Village, worked as a patient advocate at the hospital and sent threatening letters to patients from Feb 2011 until June 2012, according to court records and the Cook County sheriff's office. She worked at the hospital from Nov. 23, 2005 until July 28, 2010, when she was fired, officials said.
Authorities allege that Morrison stole files of three patients and hospital stationery and, after she lost her job, sent letters to the patients telling them their electroshock treatments were insufficient and recommending frontal lobotomies.
Morrison admitted to authorities that she typed and sent the letters, saying she wanted to embarrass the hospital "for terminating her employment there,” the sheriff’s office said.
Morrison appeared this morning in a Cook County courtroom in Rolling Meadows on felony forgery charges. Her bond was set at $50,000. She did not speak during the hearing. Her public defender said she has no criminal record and is a single mother with one daughter.
The sheriff’s office said Morrison’s letters contained "vulgar comments, references to confidential medical information and psychiatric treatment received by these patients. Additionally, the letters included threats of exposing sensitive mental treatment material to the patients' families, friends and co-workers."
An investigation into Morrison was launched after patients who received the letters contacted the hospital, authorities said.
A message left with the hospital wasn't immediately returned this morning.
Each of the three counts of forgery for which Morrison was charged carry a penalty of probation to two to five years in prison upon conviction, officials said.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-former-hospital-worker-accused-of-stealing-files-harassing-patients-20120822,0,3120622.story
New child sex charges against former McHenry deputy have potential severe penalties
New child sex charges against former McHenry deputy have potential severe penalties
By Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune reporter
August 17, 2012
A former McHenry County sheriff's sergeant accused of child sex crimes faces a detention hearing in Rockford on Friday that could mark the beginning of a long stay behind bars.
Gregory Pyle, 36, of Crest Hill, formerly of Crystal Lake, faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted of federal charges that he transported a minor across state lines to sexually abuse the child and created child pornography.
Before the new charges were filed Tuesday, Pyle, a former Internet sex crimes investigator for the sheriff's office, had been freed on bond after he was accused by county authorities in January of predatory criminal sexual assault against a juvenile. He pleaded not guilty in that case.
Sheriff Keith Nygren's office had placed Pyle on paid administrative leave after the initial charges, but he used up his sick days and vacation time and was taken off the payroll Tuesday, the same day the federal charges were filed, said Deputy County Administrator Jon Labaj.
The federal investigation of Pyle arose independent of and long before the state charges, court records show.
According to a sworn statement from an FBI agent, during an investigation of online child pornography in August 2010, federal investigators executed a search warrant on a home in St. Anne. The person living there admitted trading child pornography over the Internet and the next month identified two screen names that were later traced to Pyle, according to court documents.
The informant also exchanged text messages with someone using a phone number that was found to belong to Pyle, and investigators confiscated images of a man sexually assaulting the victim with a Doubletree Hotel menu in the picture, authorities said.
When investigators interviewed the boy, he said Pyle had sexually abused him on multiple occasions since he was 8, including on overnight hotel trips to Wisconsin in December 2008 when the child was 10. Doubletree Hotel records in Brookfield, Wis., showed a room rented at that time under the name Gregory Pyle who was accompanied by a child, the complaint stated. The child also told investigators that Pyle produced child pornography that was later transmitted over the Internet.
All the charges involve the same victim, though Justice Department spokesman Randall Samborn said that investigations of such cases typically remain open.
Pyle's defense attorney in state court, Jack Donahue, said Pyle has a reputable background as an Army veteran, former member of the sheriff's SWAT team and a graduate of Joliet Catholic Academy and Marquette University.
"We were very surprised by the nature of these allegations," Donahue said.
In addition to federal penalties, the state charges against Pyle carry penalties of six years for each of 10 counts, or a potential total of 60 years.
rmccoppin@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/mchenry/ct-met-mchenry-deputy-sex-abuse-20120817,0,5776181.story
By Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune reporter
August 17, 2012
A former McHenry County sheriff's sergeant accused of child sex crimes faces a detention hearing in Rockford on Friday that could mark the beginning of a long stay behind bars.
Gregory Pyle, 36, of Crest Hill, formerly of Crystal Lake, faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted of federal charges that he transported a minor across state lines to sexually abuse the child and created child pornography.
Before the new charges were filed Tuesday, Pyle, a former Internet sex crimes investigator for the sheriff's office, had been freed on bond after he was accused by county authorities in January of predatory criminal sexual assault against a juvenile. He pleaded not guilty in that case.
Sheriff Keith Nygren's office had placed Pyle on paid administrative leave after the initial charges, but he used up his sick days and vacation time and was taken off the payroll Tuesday, the same day the federal charges were filed, said Deputy County Administrator Jon Labaj.
The federal investigation of Pyle arose independent of and long before the state charges, court records show.
According to a sworn statement from an FBI agent, during an investigation of online child pornography in August 2010, federal investigators executed a search warrant on a home in St. Anne. The person living there admitted trading child pornography over the Internet and the next month identified two screen names that were later traced to Pyle, according to court documents.
The informant also exchanged text messages with someone using a phone number that was found to belong to Pyle, and investigators confiscated images of a man sexually assaulting the victim with a Doubletree Hotel menu in the picture, authorities said.
When investigators interviewed the boy, he said Pyle had sexually abused him on multiple occasions since he was 8, including on overnight hotel trips to Wisconsin in December 2008 when the child was 10. Doubletree Hotel records in Brookfield, Wis., showed a room rented at that time under the name Gregory Pyle who was accompanied by a child, the complaint stated. The child also told investigators that Pyle produced child pornography that was later transmitted over the Internet.
All the charges involve the same victim, though Justice Department spokesman Randall Samborn said that investigations of such cases typically remain open.
Pyle's defense attorney in state court, Jack Donahue, said Pyle has a reputable background as an Army veteran, former member of the sheriff's SWAT team and a graduate of Joliet Catholic Academy and Marquette University.
"We were very surprised by the nature of these allegations," Donahue said.
In addition to federal penalties, the state charges against Pyle carry penalties of six years for each of 10 counts, or a potential total of 60 years.
rmccoppin@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/mchenry/ct-met-mchenry-deputy-sex-abuse-20120817,0,5776181.story
Crystal Lake business owner charged with defrauding veterans
Crystal Lake business owner charged with defrauding veterans
By Robert McCoppin
Tribune reporter
7:38 PM CDT, August 21, 2012
A Crystal Lake business owner who ran a nonprofit for disabled and homeless veterans was indicted Tuesday on charges that he defrauded veterans and the military for money, federal prosecutors said.
John Blanchard, 51, of Crystal Lake, owner of several businesses including the National Association of Systems Administrators, Inc., was charged with fraudulently obtaining and carrying out federal contracts meant to help veterans, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Rockford.
Also charged, according to the Department of Justice, were four people who had worked for Blanchard’s companies: his wife, Joanne Blanchard, 49, of Crystal Lake, who managed the finances and payroll for her husband’s companies; his brother, James Blanchard, 55, of McHenry, who was a project manager for Liberating Solutions Corp. and managed security; Eric Behler, 51, of Curlew, Wash., who was a contracting officer for Liberating Solutions; and Amy Johnson, 50, of Elkhart, Ind., who oversaw NASA Education.
None of the five people indicted could be reached for comment late Tuesday.
The indictment alleges three different scams.
In one, prosecutors said, the defendants falsely claimed that the majority of Liberating Solutions was owned by veterans who were disabled in the military. That was a requirement to quality for certain federal contracts, authorities said.
To win other federal and local contracts, prosecutors charged, the defendants indicated their businesses would pay veterans prevailing wages, based on a survey of the rate of pay to other workers in the area, as required by law, but did not.
Prosecutors also charged that the defendants allowed NASA Education, a not-for-profit corporation, to keep excess grant funds from its Stand Down events by padding expenses. Some invoices claimed that security for the vets was provided by Bull Dog Security, though security had been provided by unpaid veterans.
The NASA Education Website states that Blanchard served eight years in the U.S. Navy and in 1997 founded NASA Corp., a software development company. The following year, the site says, he established NASA Education to prepare disabled, homeless and other veterans for work and reintegration into the community, including housing, counseling and job training.
NASA Education hosted a twice-annual Stand Down event for veterans, combining a job fair with charitable giveaways of clothing and services.
The indictment by a federal grand jury includes a total of six counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and 10 counts of providing false statements and documents. Each count of wire and mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and each count of false statements carries a maximum penalty of five years, plus fines of up to $250,000.
rmccoppin@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/crystal_lake/chi-crystal-lake-business-owner-charged-with-defrauding-veterans-20120821,0,1386285.story
By Robert McCoppin
Tribune reporter
7:38 PM CDT, August 21, 2012
A Crystal Lake business owner who ran a nonprofit for disabled and homeless veterans was indicted Tuesday on charges that he defrauded veterans and the military for money, federal prosecutors said.
John Blanchard, 51, of Crystal Lake, owner of several businesses including the National Association of Systems Administrators, Inc., was charged with fraudulently obtaining and carrying out federal contracts meant to help veterans, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Rockford.
Also charged, according to the Department of Justice, were four people who had worked for Blanchard’s companies: his wife, Joanne Blanchard, 49, of Crystal Lake, who managed the finances and payroll for her husband’s companies; his brother, James Blanchard, 55, of McHenry, who was a project manager for Liberating Solutions Corp. and managed security; Eric Behler, 51, of Curlew, Wash., who was a contracting officer for Liberating Solutions; and Amy Johnson, 50, of Elkhart, Ind., who oversaw NASA Education.
None of the five people indicted could be reached for comment late Tuesday.
The indictment alleges three different scams.
In one, prosecutors said, the defendants falsely claimed that the majority of Liberating Solutions was owned by veterans who were disabled in the military. That was a requirement to quality for certain federal contracts, authorities said.
To win other federal and local contracts, prosecutors charged, the defendants indicated their businesses would pay veterans prevailing wages, based on a survey of the rate of pay to other workers in the area, as required by law, but did not.
Prosecutors also charged that the defendants allowed NASA Education, a not-for-profit corporation, to keep excess grant funds from its Stand Down events by padding expenses. Some invoices claimed that security for the vets was provided by Bull Dog Security, though security had been provided by unpaid veterans.
The NASA Education Website states that Blanchard served eight years in the U.S. Navy and in 1997 founded NASA Corp., a software development company. The following year, the site says, he established NASA Education to prepare disabled, homeless and other veterans for work and reintegration into the community, including housing, counseling and job training.
NASA Education hosted a twice-annual Stand Down event for veterans, combining a job fair with charitable giveaways of clothing and services.
The indictment by a federal grand jury includes a total of six counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and 10 counts of providing false statements and documents. Each count of wire and mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and each count of false statements carries a maximum penalty of five years, plus fines of up to $250,000.
rmccoppin@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/crystal_lake/chi-crystal-lake-business-owner-charged-with-defrauding-veterans-20120821,0,1386285.story
Corruption charges against 3 suburban officials
Corruption charges against 3 suburban officials
By Joseph Ryan
Tribune reporter
1:42 PM CDT, August 21, 2012
Cook County prosecutors laid out charges against three suburban public officials today in two separate cases, accusing them of fleecing taxpayers from Bellwood to Harvey and Dixmoor.
The former superintendent and a board member of West Harvey-Dixmoor School District 147 were charged with multiple felony counts of theft. The board member, Mable Chapman, didn’t appear in court today for her bond hearing, and a judge said he was issuing a warrant for her arrest. It wasn’t immediately clear if Chapman was still an elected board member of the district as of today.
Alex Boyd, 65, who retired as superintendent last year after about a decade at the helm of the struggling district, is accused of fraudulently cashing out about $350,000 worth of sick and vacation time and racking up $57,000 in unauthorized credit card charges. The Richton Park man was taken into custody after his bond hearing and will have to post $15,000 to be released before his next court date.
Chapman, 58, of Harvey is accused of helping Boyd bilk the district while having family members hired by the district and taking family members on taxpayer-funded trips across the country.
Meanwhile, prosecutors unveiled further details of the charges against former Bellwood administrator Roy McCampbell during his bond hearing today.
McCampbell is accused of inflating his salary at the western suburb to nearly half-a-million dollars by misleading the village board about the details in his contracts. McCampbell, 57, of Schiller Park was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month on multiple counts of felony theft and official misconduct. He was granted a recognizance bond today.
McCampbell retired from his post in late 2009.
Boyd and Chapman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. McCampbell’s attorney said his client is innocent and being used as a political scapegoat.
jbryan@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-corruption-charges-against-3-suburban-officials-20120821,0,620140.story
By Joseph Ryan
Tribune reporter
1:42 PM CDT, August 21, 2012
Cook County prosecutors laid out charges against three suburban public officials today in two separate cases, accusing them of fleecing taxpayers from Bellwood to Harvey and Dixmoor.
The former superintendent and a board member of West Harvey-Dixmoor School District 147 were charged with multiple felony counts of theft. The board member, Mable Chapman, didn’t appear in court today for her bond hearing, and a judge said he was issuing a warrant for her arrest. It wasn’t immediately clear if Chapman was still an elected board member of the district as of today.
Alex Boyd, 65, who retired as superintendent last year after about a decade at the helm of the struggling district, is accused of fraudulently cashing out about $350,000 worth of sick and vacation time and racking up $57,000 in unauthorized credit card charges. The Richton Park man was taken into custody after his bond hearing and will have to post $15,000 to be released before his next court date.
Chapman, 58, of Harvey is accused of helping Boyd bilk the district while having family members hired by the district and taking family members on taxpayer-funded trips across the country.
Meanwhile, prosecutors unveiled further details of the charges against former Bellwood administrator Roy McCampbell during his bond hearing today.
McCampbell is accused of inflating his salary at the western suburb to nearly half-a-million dollars by misleading the village board about the details in his contracts. McCampbell, 57, of Schiller Park was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month on multiple counts of felony theft and official misconduct. He was granted a recognizance bond today.
McCampbell retired from his post in late 2009.
Boyd and Chapman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. McCampbell’s attorney said his client is innocent and being used as a political scapegoat.
jbryan@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-corruption-charges-against-3-suburban-officials-20120821,0,620140.story
Battling the Yakuza
Battling the Yakuza
Japan's authorities are clamping down on the criminal underworld, but the mighty Yakuza refuse to back down.
101 East Last Modified: 18 Aug 2012 12:08
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Japan's criminal underworld, the Yakuza, has links that go back 400 years to the Edo era. The various gangs that make up the Japanese mafia have different origins, but many claim that the Yakuza descend from Robin-Hood-like characters who defended their villages against roving bandits.
But their days of protecting the weak against the strong are long gone. Today, the Yakuza is a mighty and entrenched criminal network with nearly 80,000 members operating in 22 crime syndicates, and raking in billions of dollars a year.
Connect with 101 East
With their links to drug and prostitution rings, corporate crimes and deadly shootings, Japanese officials want choke the Yakuza's existence by starving them financially.
A new law, the Organised Crime Exclusion Ordinance, was implemented nationwide late last year. Under this law, the National Police Agency and other government departments are trying to get businesses to stamp out mafia links, directing banks to increase safeguards to stop money-laundering, cut off loans to mob-related companies and deny bank accounts to individuals with known gangster ties.
One of the main targets is the nation's multi-billion dollar construction industry where the Yakuza have long run rampant by pressuring developers to pay 'protection money', or using front companies to win lucrative contracts.
But the mobs refuse to back down. In desperation, some are retaliating viciously against civilians while others are finding clever ways to survive.
KawamotoDragon.com
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/08/201282115458449808.html
Japan's authorities are clamping down on the criminal underworld, but the mighty Yakuza refuse to back down.
101 East Last Modified: 18 Aug 2012 12:08
inShare12 EmailPrintShareFeedback
Japan's criminal underworld, the Yakuza, has links that go back 400 years to the Edo era. The various gangs that make up the Japanese mafia have different origins, but many claim that the Yakuza descend from Robin-Hood-like characters who defended their villages against roving bandits.
But their days of protecting the weak against the strong are long gone. Today, the Yakuza is a mighty and entrenched criminal network with nearly 80,000 members operating in 22 crime syndicates, and raking in billions of dollars a year.
Connect with 101 East
With their links to drug and prostitution rings, corporate crimes and deadly shootings, Japanese officials want choke the Yakuza's existence by starving them financially.
A new law, the Organised Crime Exclusion Ordinance, was implemented nationwide late last year. Under this law, the National Police Agency and other government departments are trying to get businesses to stamp out mafia links, directing banks to increase safeguards to stop money-laundering, cut off loans to mob-related companies and deny bank accounts to individuals with known gangster ties.
One of the main targets is the nation's multi-billion dollar construction industry where the Yakuza have long run rampant by pressuring developers to pay 'protection money', or using front companies to win lucrative contracts.
But the mobs refuse to back down. In desperation, some are retaliating viciously against civilians while others are finding clever ways to survive.
KawamotoDragon.com
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/08/201282115458449808.html
STRUCK v. COOK COUNTY PUBLIC GUARDIAN
STRUCK v. COOK COUNTY PUBLIC GUARDIAN
James T. STRUCK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COOK COUNTY PUBLIC GUARDIAN, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 07-2420.
-- November 26, 2007
Before POSNER, WOOD, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.
James T. Struck, Chicago, IL, pro se.
The plaintiff appeals from the dismissal of his suit, which the district court held was outside its jurisdiction. The complaint alleged that an Illinois state court had appointed a guardian for the plaintiff's mother because she was incompetent to manage her own affairs, and that the plaintiff had asked the court to revoke the guardianship because the guardian was abusing his mother, refusing to let him visit her, and denying him access to her records, mail, and assets. Turned down by the state court, he brought this suit in federal district court against the Cook County Public Guardian, the public official who had designated the guardian of the plaintiff's mother. The suit charges violations of both the plaintiff's and his mother's federal constitutional rights.
The plaintiff is not his mother's guardian and therefore is not authorized to sue on her behalf; and to the extent that he is seeking appellate review in a federal district court (or in this court) of the decision by the Illinois state court, his suit is barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. But his complaint, though none too clear (he does not have a lawyer), appears also to be claiming misconduct by the guardian that continued after the judgment in the plaintiff's unsuccessful state court suit.
And the plaintiff does have a claim on his own behalf-that the guardian is preventing him from seeing his mother and by doing so is depriving him of liberty protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, liberty that he argues includes the right of an adult child to associate with his parent. Whether the argument has merit has split the circuits, as explained in Robertson v. Hecksel, 420 F.3d 1254, 1258-60 (11th Cir.2005), but remains an open question in this circuit. Jones v. Brennan, 465 F.3d 304, 308 (7th Cir.2006); Russ v. Watts, 414 F.3d 783, 790 (7th Cir.2005). We need not try to answer it in this case. For the preliminary question is whether the suit is barred by the doctrine that excepts from federal jurisdiction certain probate and domestic-relations cases, such as will contests, custody battles, and suits for divorce; and we think it is barred.
The exception is usually described as two exceptions, one for probate and one for domestic relations. But the two exceptions are materially identical. The fact that they are two rather than one reflects nothing more profound than the legal profession's delight in multiplying entities.
In Jones v. Brennan, supra, 465 F.3d at 306-07, we pointed out that the exception originally was thought compelled by the phrase “judicial Power of the United States,” in Article III of the Constitution. The federal judiciary was modeled on the three British royal courts at Westminster, and in Britain in the eighteenth century most domestic-relations and probate matters were consigned to other courts. But the modern understanding is that the exception, except insofar as it bars the federal courts from entertaining nonadversary proceedings, such as the uncontested appointment of a guardian or the uncontested probate of a will, which are not cases or controversies within the meaning of Article III, is based on a pragmatic interpretation of the statutes that give the federal courts jurisdiction over cases at law and in equity (the current term, covering both, is “civil actions,” e.g., 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1332). Such terms need not be interpreted to embrace all domestic-relations and probate matters, even if they are real cases. Typical adversary proceedings involving domestic relations or probate, such as child-custody proceedings and proceedings to resolve disputes over the administration of a decedent's estate (or as in this case and in Jones the estate of a living person who is incompetent to manage his affairs), are, like the nonadversary probate and domestic-relations proceedings, still in rem in character. That is, they are fights over a property or a person in the court's control. And a court other than the one that controls the res-the subject of the custody battle or the property in the decedent's estate-should not be permitted to elbow its way into such a fight. As the Supreme Court explained in Marshall v. Marshall, 547 U.S. 293, 311-12, 126 S.Ct. 1735, 164 L.Ed.2d 480 (2006) (citations omitted), “when one court is exercising in rem jurisdiction over a res, a second court will not assume in rem jurisdiction over the same res. Thus, the probate exception reserves to state probate courts the probate or annulment of a will and the administration of a decedent's estate; it also precludes federal courts from endeavoring to dispose of property that is in the custody of a state probate court. But it does not bar federal courts from adjudicating matters outside those confines and otherwise within federal jurisdiction.”
State courts, moreover, are assumed to have developed a proficiency in core probate and domestic-relations matters and to have evolved procedures tailored to them, and some even employ specialized staff not found in federal courts. The comparative advantage of state courts in regard to such matters is at its zenith when the court is performing ongoing managerial functions for which Article III courts (as distinct from the Article I bankruptcy courts, specialists in in rem proceedings analogous to administering wills and supervising the custody of children and other legal incompetents) are poorly equipped. So the “exception” is akin to a doctrine of abstention.
The purpose of a legal doctrine frequently limits its scope, and this is true of the probate/domestic-relations exception. The plaintiff in Jones v. Brennan had charged a conspiracy between a guardian and others to violate her rights in the course of their administration of her father's estate. We ruled that such a suit could be litigated in federal court. The father had died and the probate of his estate had been completed, so that the plaintiff was not seeking to inject the federal court into the administration of the estate and wrest a res from the control of another court, just as, in Marshall v. Marshall, a suit charging the plaintiff's stepson with tortious interference with her expectation of a bequest from her deceased husband, the plaintiff was seeking a judgment against the stepson personally, not against the estate.
This case is different. The res-the plaintiff's mother-is in the control of the guardian appointed by the state court, and decisions concerning the plaintiff's right of access to his mother and to her assets, her records, and her mail are at the heart of the guardian's responsibilities and are supervised by the court that appointed him. Unlike the plaintiff in Jones, our plaintiff is seeking to remove into the federal court the res over which a state court is exercising control. That is the sort of maneuver that the probate/domestic-relations exception is intended to prevent. The dismissal of the plaintiff's federal suit is therefore: Affirmed.
Editor's note: Unfortunately, as the saying goes, it is not easy to fight city hall. While the federal court in this case stated that the state court (Cook County Probate Court) should be proficient in these matters, our ProbateSharks investigative team has found a level of proficiency that the federal court may not be aware of.
Our shark investigators have found that the Corrupt Cook County Probate Court is indeed proficient in the following: the quick-sales of properties (6 weeks on average--in good and bad real estate markets); placing of wards' estates into OBRA Special Needs Pooled Trusts (resulting in public aid placement, even for the rich); maintaining cases that are out of Cook County's jurisdiction (wards live in another county, yet funds are held hostage by OPG); spending down of disabled wards' estates with guardian and legal fees; and yes, as in the case above, restricting family members from inquiring about their loved one, and restricting family from visiting their loved one when concerns over the spending of the estate are raised to the court.
Yes, the level of proficiency in the Cook County Probate Court system is amazing indeed. Even the FBI would be amazed at the proficiency of the fraud that occurs on the 18th floor of the Daley Center. KawamotoDragon.com
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Lawyers across US urged to give more free services
EDITOR'S NOTE: Try and tell the bottom feeders in the Probate Court of Cook County to give free services. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Aug 19, 12:42 PM EDT
Lawyers across US urged to give more free services
By DAVE COLLINS
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Jennifer Garcia stood alone before a judge with a stack of legal papers in her hands, answering questions about her personal life.
She has acted as her own lawyer in state Family Court in a paternity, child support and visitation case on and off for three years, but representing herself in a courtroom full of strangers still makes her nervous.
"Sometimes I get this gut feeling because you never know what the judge is going to say," said the 23-year-old single mother of two from Hartford.
Garcia is part of a crush of people who are representing themselves in the nation's civil courts because they can't afford lawyers, who typically charge $200 to $500 an hour. The boom has overwhelmed courts and sparked new efforts to get attorneys to meet what the American Bar Association says is its professional responsibility to offer free legal services to people in need.
The increase in self-represented parties stems from a recession that has left fewer people able to afford lawyers and created new waves of foreclosure, debt collection and bankruptcy cases, judges and lawyers say. Judges say self-represented people are slowing down court dockets because they typically don't know what legal points to argue or what motions to file.
"There's a crisis in this country," said John Levi, board chairman of Washington, D.C.-based Legal Services Corp., the nation's largest funder of civil legal aid for the poor. "Courthouses are being filled with people just showing up, trying to figure out what their rights are. If you're a low-income person and you have a legal need, it is not easy to get it addressed."
Legal Services has a 58-member pro bono task force comprising judges, attorneys, law school deans and other legal experts working on recommendations due out next month on how to get more lawyers to provide free services.
At a time of rising demand, LSC has been dealing with funding cuts. Federal government funding for LSC dropped 17 percent to $348 million this year, compared with $420 million in 2010. LSC funds 135 legal aid groups across the country and serves about 900,000 clients a year, but it has to turn away about the same number of people seeking help because of a lack of staff.
Less than 20 percent of the legal needs of low-income people are addressed with the help of a private or legal aid lawyer, LSC says.
And the number of Americans with incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level - the income limit for qualifying for legal aid - is expected to reach an all-time high of 66 million this year. A family of four earning 125 percent of the federal poverty level makes about $28,800 a year, government figures show.
Several states report high percentages of civil and family cases with at least one self-represented person. In Connecticut, 85 percent of the more than 45,000 family law cases in the 2011 fiscal year had at least one self-represented party.
Pro bono work by large law firms has declined in the past few years amid downsizing because of the economy, according to the July and August issue of ALM's The American Lawyer magazine. Average pro bono hours per lawyer in large firms dropped to about 54 last year, a 12 percent decrease from a 2009 peak, the magazine reported.
Laurel Bellows, a Chicago attorney and president of the American Bar Association, said the magazine's findings conflict with an increasing pro bono trend that she sees. The ABA has several pro bono programs including one that helps military families.
"The need is extraordinary," Bellows said about pro bono services. "You not only have the poverty level community, but also the middle class community. We're really very proud of our lawyers because they're stepping up to the plate and helping more people who need assistance."
An ABA survey last year said 75 percent of lawyers believe that people who represent themselves are more likely to lose their cases.
Court officials say the recession from 2007 to 2009 and its aftermath sparked new waves of foreclosure, debt collection and bankruptcy cases and left fewer people able to afford a lawyer.
Garcia, the Hartford mother, said she can't afford an attorney. After several court appearances, she said she is beginning to feel more comfortable representing herself.
State judicial systems have taken steps to deal with self-represented parties, including offering legal forms and help online and setting up court service centers to answer questions. Some states, including Illinois, Georgia and Arkansas, even have pro bono cellphone apps to help lawyers find volunteer opportunities.
But state officials are trying to increase pro bono work to help meet demand.
New York will become the first state in the country to require lawyers to do pro bono work - 50 hours - as a prerequisite for obtaining a law license starting next year. The state of Washington's Supreme Court in June approved a landmark rule allowing non-lawyers to offer pro bono help in some cases after they receive training.
In June, Connecticut Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers urged members of the Connecticut Bar Association to help address what she called her No. 1 concern: the increase in self-represented parties. Judicial officials also held a pro bono summit for lawyers and judges last fall.
"Our feeling was that we needed the lawyers, the legal community, to understand the problem. It was getting worse and worse," said Judge William H. Bright Jr., chairman of the Connecticut Judicial Branch's Pro Bono Committee, referring to people representing themselves.
Sharonne Martin believes Connecticut should provide public defenders for civil cases like it does for criminal ones. She's been representing herself for two years in Family Court in Hartford and is now fighting an attempt by the father of two of her three children to gain full custody of them.
"The pressure is overwhelming," Martin, 28, of New Britain, said about representing herself. "Just keeping up with the paperwork and being organized, it's nerve-racking. It's been hard because ... you're on your own."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_REPRESENTING_YOURSELF?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-19-12-42-18
Aug 19, 12:42 PM EDT
Lawyers across US urged to give more free services
By DAVE COLLINS
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Jennifer Garcia stood alone before a judge with a stack of legal papers in her hands, answering questions about her personal life.
She has acted as her own lawyer in state Family Court in a paternity, child support and visitation case on and off for three years, but representing herself in a courtroom full of strangers still makes her nervous.
"Sometimes I get this gut feeling because you never know what the judge is going to say," said the 23-year-old single mother of two from Hartford.
Garcia is part of a crush of people who are representing themselves in the nation's civil courts because they can't afford lawyers, who typically charge $200 to $500 an hour. The boom has overwhelmed courts and sparked new efforts to get attorneys to meet what the American Bar Association says is its professional responsibility to offer free legal services to people in need.
The increase in self-represented parties stems from a recession that has left fewer people able to afford lawyers and created new waves of foreclosure, debt collection and bankruptcy cases, judges and lawyers say. Judges say self-represented people are slowing down court dockets because they typically don't know what legal points to argue or what motions to file.
"There's a crisis in this country," said John Levi, board chairman of Washington, D.C.-based Legal Services Corp., the nation's largest funder of civil legal aid for the poor. "Courthouses are being filled with people just showing up, trying to figure out what their rights are. If you're a low-income person and you have a legal need, it is not easy to get it addressed."
Legal Services has a 58-member pro bono task force comprising judges, attorneys, law school deans and other legal experts working on recommendations due out next month on how to get more lawyers to provide free services.
At a time of rising demand, LSC has been dealing with funding cuts. Federal government funding for LSC dropped 17 percent to $348 million this year, compared with $420 million in 2010. LSC funds 135 legal aid groups across the country and serves about 900,000 clients a year, but it has to turn away about the same number of people seeking help because of a lack of staff.
Less than 20 percent of the legal needs of low-income people are addressed with the help of a private or legal aid lawyer, LSC says.
And the number of Americans with incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level - the income limit for qualifying for legal aid - is expected to reach an all-time high of 66 million this year. A family of four earning 125 percent of the federal poverty level makes about $28,800 a year, government figures show.
Several states report high percentages of civil and family cases with at least one self-represented person. In Connecticut, 85 percent of the more than 45,000 family law cases in the 2011 fiscal year had at least one self-represented party.
Pro bono work by large law firms has declined in the past few years amid downsizing because of the economy, according to the July and August issue of ALM's The American Lawyer magazine. Average pro bono hours per lawyer in large firms dropped to about 54 last year, a 12 percent decrease from a 2009 peak, the magazine reported.
Laurel Bellows, a Chicago attorney and president of the American Bar Association, said the magazine's findings conflict with an increasing pro bono trend that she sees. The ABA has several pro bono programs including one that helps military families.
"The need is extraordinary," Bellows said about pro bono services. "You not only have the poverty level community, but also the middle class community. We're really very proud of our lawyers because they're stepping up to the plate and helping more people who need assistance."
An ABA survey last year said 75 percent of lawyers believe that people who represent themselves are more likely to lose their cases.
Court officials say the recession from 2007 to 2009 and its aftermath sparked new waves of foreclosure, debt collection and bankruptcy cases and left fewer people able to afford a lawyer.
Garcia, the Hartford mother, said she can't afford an attorney. After several court appearances, she said she is beginning to feel more comfortable representing herself.
State judicial systems have taken steps to deal with self-represented parties, including offering legal forms and help online and setting up court service centers to answer questions. Some states, including Illinois, Georgia and Arkansas, even have pro bono cellphone apps to help lawyers find volunteer opportunities.
But state officials are trying to increase pro bono work to help meet demand.
New York will become the first state in the country to require lawyers to do pro bono work - 50 hours - as a prerequisite for obtaining a law license starting next year. The state of Washington's Supreme Court in June approved a landmark rule allowing non-lawyers to offer pro bono help in some cases after they receive training.
In June, Connecticut Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers urged members of the Connecticut Bar Association to help address what she called her No. 1 concern: the increase in self-represented parties. Judicial officials also held a pro bono summit for lawyers and judges last fall.
"Our feeling was that we needed the lawyers, the legal community, to understand the problem. It was getting worse and worse," said Judge William H. Bright Jr., chairman of the Connecticut Judicial Branch's Pro Bono Committee, referring to people representing themselves.
Sharonne Martin believes Connecticut should provide public defenders for civil cases like it does for criminal ones. She's been representing herself for two years in Family Court in Hartford and is now fighting an attempt by the father of two of her three children to gain full custody of them.
"The pressure is overwhelming," Martin, 28, of New Britain, said about representing herself. "Just keeping up with the paperwork and being organized, it's nerve-racking. It's been hard because ... you're on your own."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_REPRESENTING_YOURSELF?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-19-12-42-18
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