An attorney's shocking crimes show how easy it is to steal millions from seniors.
Part One
Shannon Mullen, @MullenAPPShe has broken no law, committed no crime.
Yet Helen Hugo, a soft-spoken, grandmotherly, 84-year-old "Wheel of Fortune" fan, is a prisoner of the state.\
Its laws and bureaucracy have forced the retired secretary into a nursing home. Disposed of her antiques and other belongings. Separated her from her cat, Sweetie Pie. Barred her closest relatives from visiting her, and exhausted her life's savings to pay the legal fees of the attorneys involved in her guardianship case.
In the court's eyes, Hugo is mentally incapacitated and requires a state agency to serve as her guardian and manage her care and finances.
That's what a judge ruled in 2012, after a five-day trial that Hugo didn't attend, except for a private conversation with the judge. She spent all of 33 minutes in the courtroom.
A sturdy, brown-eyed woman with warm, silky hands and wavy hair that's still more brown than gray, Hugo says the court ruling three years ago was "a lot of nonsense."
"Probably the people calling me nuts," she says, "are crazy themselves."
The terms of her guardianship aren't so easily dismissed. As a ward of the state, Hugo can't vote, write a check, receive her own mail, or make decisions for herself. Inmates in New Jersey have greater legal autonomy.
Helen Hugo, trapped by New Jersey's guardianship laws, was declared incapacitated and left broke by the court system.
Hugo has lived under those restrictions since the day she first met Barbara J. Lieberman.
An esteemed elder law attorney and respected member of the New Jersey bar, Lieberman, 63, served as Hugo's court-appointed temporary guardian prior to Hugo's capacity trial.
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| Attorney Barbara Lieberman in Superior Court in Atlantic County earlier this year. (Photo: Staff photo/Bob Bielk) |
At the same time, Lieberman was leading a double life as a thief. Using her legal skills and her status as a trusted insider, she stole millions of dollars in other cases involving 16 seniors in their eighties and nineties.
Among them was the 85-year-old widow of the former head of the Ocean County Police Academy in Lakewood.
Lieberman moved some into nursing homes and sold their homes. With several, she manipulated their wills so she could keep stealing from them even after they died, authorities have said.
More than a year after Lieberman's crimes came to light, Hugo, who never married and was living alone prior to her guardianship, is still fighting to be free again, to go where she wants, when she wants, even to be reunited with her beloved Sweetie Pie.
The problem is, she can't.
(Continued in Section 2)
Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust: Part 1
Betrayal of trust: Part 1 - Section 2
Like tens of thousands of elderly New Jerseyans, and at least 1.5 million Americans, she's consigned to a guardianship system that's shrouded in secrecy, tangled in red tape, and rife with corrupting temptation.
Across the U.S., the vast majority of court-appointed guardians do difficult, honest work, providing a critical service for society's most vulnerable citizens.
But there are some who have exploited a system with few checks and balances, using the supreme authority the courts grant them over their wards' lives to enrich themselves.
The lawbreakers have included family members, attorneys, professional guardians, even a high-ranking judge in Minnesota.
Corrupt guardians have stolen millions in New Jersey in recent years, and perhaps billions across the country.
No one knows for sure.
New Jersey's top judge says these crimes are "deeply troubling."
"There are simply too many cases in which individuals who've been granted authority, who've been granted responsibility, take advantage of the very people that they have ...promised to assist," New Jersey Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said June 15 at an elder abuse conference at Stockton University in Galloway.
The crimes are easy to commit and even easier to hide. Few courts across the country have the resources, or will, to police the guardians they appoint.
At risk is the biggest treasure chest of all: $30 trillion — yes, trillion — that today's graying baby boomers have amassed in assets over the last 50 to 70 years. That's enough money to run the U.S. government for three decades.
Why does all this matter to you? Because every cent stolen is more money that the government will have to pony up through Medicaid payments, and your tax dollars, to care for the elderly and infirm admitted to nursing homes.
And the next victim could someday be your loved one — a parent, a brother or sister, an aunt or uncle.
Maybe even you.
(Continue to Section 3)
Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust: Part 1
Across the U.S., the vast majority of court-appointed guardians do difficult, honest work, providing a critical service for society's most vulnerable citizens.
But there are some who have exploited a system with few checks and balances, using the supreme authority the courts grant them over their wards' lives to enrich themselves.
The lawbreakers have included family members, attorneys, professional guardians, even a high-ranking judge in Minnesota.
 |
| Guardianship investigations in New Jersey and other states. |
No one knows for sure.
New Jersey's top judge says these crimes are "deeply troubling."
"There are simply too many cases in which individuals who've been granted authority, who've been granted responsibility, take advantage of the very people that they have ...promised to assist," New Jersey Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said June 15 at an elder abuse conference at Stockton University in Galloway.
The crimes are easy to commit and even easier to hide. Few courts across the country have the resources, or will, to police the guardians they appoint.
 |
| State Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner |
Why does all this matter to you? Because every cent stolen is more money that the government will have to pony up through Medicaid payments, and your tax dollars, to care for the elderly and infirm admitted to nursing homes.
And the next victim could someday be your loved one — a parent, a brother or sister, an aunt or uncle.
Maybe even you.
(Continue to Section 3)
Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust: Part 1
Betrayal of trust: Part 1 - Section 3
Hugo's story shows just how convoluted and confounding guardianship cases can be.
Lieberman hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing in her handling of Hugo's affairs, and a New Jersey appellate court has affirmed the judge's decision to strip Hugo of her legal rights.
Yet four different psychiatrists who have examined Hugo have said she doesn't need to be in such a restrictive type of guardianship.
One even said she showed no signs of dementia.
On her most recent cognitive test, earlier this year, Hugo scored 28 out of a possible 30 points. A score of 23 or lower is considered a indicator of cognitive impairment.
Nearly four years after being diagnosed with "progressive cognitive decline," she's sharp enough to hold a long conversation, critique President Barack Obama's leadership skills, and discuss the legal process that led to her placement in a county-owned nursing home, Meadowview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, in Northfield, Atlantic County.
"Did I need to be here? No," Hugo told an Asbury Park Press reporter who visited her in the cramped room she shares with another resident.
"Because my life was OK before. I used to go to the senior center. I had Meals on Wheels," she said.
The life she knew is a distant memory now. Outside the window by her bed, a summer sunset splashed golden light and lengthening shadows across the grass and trees.
Another day had passed her by.
"I miss my own stuff. I miss my cat. I miss being able to come and go, cook my own food. I just miss having a normal life.
"And this," Hugo said, looking around her disinfectant-scented surroundings, "is not what I consider a normal life."
(Continue Reading)
Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust: Part 1
Lieberman hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing in her handling of Hugo's affairs, and a New Jersey appellate court has affirmed the judge's decision to strip Hugo of her legal rights.
Helen Hugo speaks about her life after a guardian took control.
Yet four different psychiatrists who have examined Hugo have said she doesn't need to be in such a restrictive type of guardianship.
One even said she showed no signs of dementia.
On her most recent cognitive test, earlier this year, Hugo scored 28 out of a possible 30 points. A score of 23 or lower is considered a indicator of cognitive impairment.
Nearly four years after being diagnosed with "progressive cognitive decline," she's sharp enough to hold a long conversation, critique President Barack Obama's leadership skills, and discuss the legal process that led to her placement in a county-owned nursing home, Meadowview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, in Northfield, Atlantic County.
"Did I need to be here? No," Hugo told an Asbury Park Press reporter who visited her in the cramped room she shares with another resident.
"Because my life was OK before. I used to go to the senior center. I had Meals on Wheels," she said.
The life she knew is a distant memory now. Outside the window by her bed, a summer sunset splashed golden light and lengthening shadows across the grass and trees.
Another day had passed her by.
"I miss my own stuff. I miss my cat. I miss being able to come and go, cook my own food. I just miss having a normal life.
"And this," Hugo said, looking around her disinfectant-scented surroundings, "is not what I consider a normal life."
(Continue Reading)
Full Article & Source:
Betrayal of trust: Part 1
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