Our mission is to expose and remedy corruption in the Probate Court of Cook County, Illinois. We assist, educate and enlighten families of the dead, the dying, the disabled and the aged to better understand their rights in order to protect themselves from the excesses of the Probate Court of Cook County. ProbateSharks.com is dedicated to networking the human element of people to people. We join together in reforming the corrupt Cook County Probate Court system.
My beloved State of Illinois and my beloved country are in serious financial straits. Illinois is not paying its bills and is on the verge of Bankruptcy. It would grieve me terribly to have to suffer the shame of Illinois going into bankruptcy. I need your help in attempting to save it.
No, this is not a plea for money. Illinois, like most States, has plenty of money due it in taxes, interest and penalties, but for reasons that I do not understand the Illinois Department of Revenue is uninterested in collecting it. Apparently my writing skills are suspect and I do not comport myself well in writing as it appears that few if any attempts are being made by the taxman to collect the billions of dollars in taxes interest and penalties that are due from the corrupt lawyers, corrupt judges, corrupt judicial officials, corrupt public officials who have all banded together to fleece the elderly and the disabled of their life savings and other financial assets.
The Wall Street Journal yesterday exposed some of the crimes occurring in an article that can be accessed athttp://on.wsj.com/1KKSb51’ Similar official criminal activity can be garnered at the NASGA, Probate Sharks, MaryGSykes *** sites on the internet. The corrupt public miscreants all took an oath to protect the Constitution and thus were all aware that using public office for private gain was not only criminal but a taxable event in itself. As lawyers most of the public sector (or Judicial sector) miscreants are also aware of 18 USCA 371, and 18 USCA 242 and that any intentional act take in pursuant of a conspiracy (as defined in 18 USCA 371, and/or 18 UsCA 242) creates personal liability for tort damages and income taxes jointly and severally with all the other members of the conspiracy.
Thus, as a practical situation, as an example, Lawyer MS being well aware of Rule 8.3 and 18 USCA 4 uses her position as an employee of the Illinois lawyer disciplinary board (IARDC) to attempt to silence Lawyer JoAnne Denison’s complaints on her blog concerning the non-inventory by another cadre of lawyers of assets that were taken from various Illinois estates. Lawyer MS , well knowing that 47 USCA 230, 320 IlCS 20/4, and 735 ILCS 1 et seq. as well as Article 1 of the Illinois Constitution and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution all protect Attorney Denison’s right to speak out, uses her position to attempt to silence Ms. Denison. In her activity she is joined by several other lawyers who also enjoy the same knowledge and act overtly to aid lawyer MS in her wrongful conduct. All are liable not only for the tort but the taxes due.
The targeted senior citizens usually have savings and other assets that disappear during the probate process. It is an assumption on my part that the non-disclosed assets that disappear are also not reported on the 1040 tax form, and thus are subject to tax evasion fraud. I make this assumption because so many lawyers are part of the scheme and unless they were sure that lawyer disciplinary boards (and their kangaroo panels) were going to look the other way few would gamble their law licenses.
I need you to alert the taxing authorities that the money to fund the bailout of my beloved State and beloved country is in the hands of these deep pocketed corrupt judges, lawyers, judicial officials, and public officials. No tax raise is necessary! All that is necessary is normal collection activity by State, local and Federal authorities.
·The breach of fiduciary relationship is a taxable event.
·Constructive receipt applies to the entire fund
·Each 18 USCA 242, and 18 USCA 371 conspirator has joint and several liability for both the tort and the taxes.
My communicate skills need some polishing, ergo, as the simple proposition that I am making does not seem to be effective I hope that you personally can improve on my presentation. A greater tax burden on the ordinary citizen is unconscionable when deep pocketed corrupt public figures laugh all the way to the Bank.
Thank you in advance for your help in saving my beloved Country and State.
THORNER: NORTH SHORE SCHOOL DISTRICT ATTEMPTS TO COVER-UP TEACHER ABUSE
By Nancy Thorner -
It is often said is that a cover-up is worse than the deed itself. Especially egregious is when the cover-up takes place in a public school system for the purpose of keeping negative information from citizens that would otherwise tarnish and possibly subject its behavior to the scrutiny of law enforcement.
An incident involving an assault of a Highland Park District 112 elementary student took place at a Special Needs Elementary School located in Northbrook on May 27, 2014. North Shore Academy Elementary is a therapeutic elementary school where a number of schools send children who are in need of special attention that their own school districts can't provide. Highland Park's District 112 is a participant. At the time six NSSD112 children attended this therapeutic elementary school from H.P. The assaulted child was one of the children. He had attended the same school from 1st grade and was a 5th grade student at the time.
Near the end of the day on May 27, 2014, a teacher assistant became frustrated with the subject and with force laid hands on him. Upon returning home from school, the subject's mother saw that her child's neck was red and was told by the child about the aggravated assault that had taken place.
The mother immediately, on the same day, called school officials at North Shore Academy Elementary to report the assistant teacher's assault on her child; however, the school officials had no knowledge of the incident, and, as required by law, no certified teachers were present or near the classroom at the time of the assault. Neither did the teacher assistant tell anyone about the incident. The mother was informed that proper school and district policy and procedures would be pursued.
What followed was that school officials requested the family not go to the police, maintaining that the school's policy and procedures were adequate to conduct an investigation. Upon completion of the investigation, administrators assured the family that the teacher assistant had been placed on leave and later on that he had been disciplinary fired for not following protocol. Because of the action taken, the family trusted that the school had dealt appropriately with the matter by following its policy and procedural investigation. Of note is that shock was expressed at the time by administrators regarding the behavior of the teacher assistant. He was considered "a nice guy."
In April, May and June of this year, the mother, greatly concerned about the placement of her special needs child into a public special education class room in HP District 112, filed a due process of disagreement on placement and education. Her filing was based on a breakdown of school trust perceived by the entire subject's family. District 112 was seemingly seeking to implement a public school program to save the district money by not paying to send the subject to a special therapeutic middle school for the 2015-2016 school year.
The child's family was in agreement over how it viewed the situation. A school trust breakdown existed, which elicited the need to look into how school officials had handled the assault investigation. What was ascertained is that school administrators were untruthful in telling the family that all established policy and procedures had been followed by both the school and district. Further research revealed that no reports of the incident had been submitted to the police or the DCFS, which district policy and Illinois law mandates.
The North Shore Academy Elementary (NSA-E), North Suburban Special Education District (NSSED), and District 112 are now claiming that the assistant teacher hadn't been fired as the mother was told a year earlier, but instead tendered his resignation. In so doing the assistant teacher's Illinois state board of education teaching license remained free of any noted disciplinary infractions. His teaching license to this day still remains clear of any derogatory remarks.
According to public record, on July 29th, 2015, the NSSED teacher assistant at North Shore Academy Elementary therapeutic day school in Northbrook, Illinois, was arrested, after admitting his guilt, by the Northbrook Police Department and charged with battery pursuant to the cover-up of the classroom assault occurring on May 27th, 2014, during school hours of a District 112 student. It was concluded that administrators and school personnel failed the Illinois mandated laws of policy and procedure to call and report the abuse of a student to local police and DCFS during their own "investigation". In this case administrators were protecting their own instead of a student with special needs.
It is shameful that NSSD112 wants to save money by trying to cut corners instead of meeting the educational needs of ALL students in District 112. As District 112 has decided it no longer wants to fund NSSED (North Suburban Special Education District), the cost to District 112 is $60,000 per child to attend.
Discrimination should not be taking place on the backs of those students who are needy both emotionally and mentally and physically handicapped in contrast to those who are at the top of their class in intellect and ability. Also, the assault of a disabled child should be treated with the respect and honesty it deserves, as the education of every child matters, whatever their potential may be.
It was only after the family became involved that the DCFS (Department of Children Family Services) was notified and became involved. District and school employees routinely call DCFS (Department of children family services) to report abuse of children in a school situation. While some of the calls may be unwarranted. as well as intrusive, the incident that took place warranted a call to DCFS. It involved a school employee who intentionally assaulted a student with disabilities associated with autism, as well as serious health conditions of epilepsy and asthma. Yet administrators turned a blind eye, failing to placing a "good faith" mandated reporter call (all administrators are mandated reporters) to evade public attention. The family does not want this to happen to any other student, special needs or not , and appreciates all the support shown and given during this unfortunate time.
Incidents of cover-ups are frequent in all walks of life. School administrators will continue to hide undesirable happening from the public which might damage them in the public's eye, unless concerned citizens take on the role of becoming citizen reporters. Knowing that the public isn't in a state of comatose and that actions are being scrutinized, will hopefully result in justice being served and in administrators who are forthright initially so a cover-up isn't necessary.
Editor's note: This Shark believes charges of mail fraud, money-laundering , extortion, and Wire Fraud all also were sanctioned by the Probate Court of Cook County in the Estate of Alice R. Gore. Yet, this corrupt county empire did not fall! Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
One minute you’re the king of New York, never mind what Andrew Cuomo thinks, and 10 months later it’s all dust — your lawyers are preparing for a trial that could send you to prison for a very long time, and your friends in high places are falling over like bowling pins.
The announcement that Merryl Tisch will be standing down as chancellor of the state Board of Regents — the most powerful position in New York education — marks an end to whatever lingering influence former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver may have had over public affairs in the Empire State.
Similarly, the pending retirement of Court of Appeals Chief Justice (and trial-lawyer partisan) Jonathan Lippman removes Silver’s once extremely influential hand from the state court system.
Both Tisch and Lippman grew up on the Lower East Side with Silver — the one-time master of all that mattered in Albany and clearly a man who both treasured loyalty and rewarded old relationships.
Tisch owed her elevation to the chancellorship to a quirk in the state Constitution that effectively vests control of the Board of Regents in the incumbent speaker — a power Silver exercised with ruthless competence.
Lippman benefited from the outsized influence Silver brought to all politics in New York during a period when lassitude, followed by explosive scandal and then breathtaking bumbling, reduced the state’s executive branch to near impotence.
There is no small irony in the fact that Silver’s alleged abuse of the trial courts — US Attorney Preet Bharara charges that Silver abused his high office to corruptly make it rain for the power-house tort firm Weitz & Luxenberg — led to his own indictment. Modal TriggerMerryl TicshPhoto: AP Silver is scheduled to go on trial next week on seven charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, money-laundering and extortion connected with what the indictment terms “monetary transactions involving criminal proceeds” of at least $4 million. The former speaker will sit there as witness after witness testifies that Shelly traded legislative favor X for “legal fee” Y, among other humiliations.
But there is no doubt that before it all went south, the empire Sheldon Silver created was very, very good to him.
It extended far beyond Tisch and Lippman, of course. The same constitutional quirk that led to her chancellorship, for example, allowed the speaker to hand-pick state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli after then-incumbent Alan Hevesi left office en route to his own prison term.
But let’s stick with Silver’s LES cronies.
Lippman, who’s leaving the court only because he’s reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, not only was tort-bar friendly. He also championed the sort of uber-liberal policies that Silver’s left-leaning Assembly conference was so appreciative of. Modal TriggerJudge Jonathan LippmanPhoto: AP Tisch, who talks as tough a game as anyone on education standards and teacher evaluations, somehow always manages to resolve issues in ways that the state’s fundamentally corrupt teachers unions find unobjectionable.
To be fair, both Lippmann and Tisch have been bright, competent partisans for intellectually defensible points of view. It’s just that those viewpoints aligned with Silver’s interests far too often to be coincidental.
And that — the federal penal code aside — is arguably Silver’s most objectionable offense: He turned an entire branch of government to his personal advantage. So it shouldn’t surprise that he decided to make big bucks on the side — as Bharara alleges.
Whether there is substance to those charges will be resolved beginning next week, in a federal courthouse. Whatever the outcome, though, two things seem beyond dispute.
One is that there most likely will never be another Sheldon Silver — or, rather, another New York legislator who possesses the intelligence, skill, patience and ethical indifference needed to construct an empire of the sort the former speaker ran for more than two decades.
The other — and this is essentially just a sidebar: The departure of Merryl Tisch and Jonathon Lippman from public life is every bit as epoch-ending as Silver’s exit.
Happily for them, no handcuffs will be involved.
Editor's note: This Shark notes that the court sanctioned financial abuses of the Probate Court of Cook County would not be included into the WSJ article. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Abuse Plagues System of Legal Guardians for Adults
Allegations of financial exploitation and abuse are rife, despite waves of overhaul efforts
ENLARGE
Court-appointed guardians controlled much of 74-year-old Linda McDowell's life for 30 months. A judge ended the guardianship in 2014, and she now lives in her mobile home with her dog, Sam, much of her savings gone.PHOTO:STUART ISETT FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
One day in March 2012, 71-year-oldLinda McDowellreceived a knock at the door of her small Vancouver, Wash., home. Ms. McDowell needed court-appointed help, the visitor told her.
It turned out that Ms. McDowell’s former housemate and companion had pushed for a court petition claiming Ms. McDowell was unable to take care of herself. The petition said Ms. McDowell had recently made an unsafe driving maneuver, had been disruptive in a doctor’s office and, in a recent phone call, had seemed confused over the whereabouts of some personal papers.
Based on the motion, a judge ordered an attorney to act as a temporary guardian with control over Ms. McDowell’s money and medical care. Ms. McDowell was also to pay for these services.
“I was shocked,” says Ms. McDowell, who once worked as a conference manager for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration before a second career in real-estate investing. “I had never met this person, and here she was telling me I basically belonged to her.”
The visit marked the start of a 30-month stretch in Washington’s guardianship system that upended her life and drained much of her $700,000 in assets. People involved in her case still disagree about whether Ms. McDowell ever needed a guardian. But by the time a judge decided that one wasn’t necessary, the value of her assets had dropped by about $470,000, much of which was spent on several guardians and related expenses, court and bank records show.
“My savings are gone,” says Ms. McDowell, now living in a motor home near Sequim, Wash., with her dog, Sam. “They took everything.”
For decades, states have granted courts the power to appoint guardians or conservators for elderly or disabled people unable to tend to their basic needs. Most appointed guardians are family members, but judges can turn to a growing industry of professional, unrelated guardians.
The caretakers’ authority varies by case and jurisdiction, but often they are granted broad authority over a ward’s finances, medical care and living conditions. Unlike a power of attorney, which one person can grant to another and revoke at any time, guardianship is established by a judge and can only be revoked by the court.
But guardianship systems across the country are plagued by allegations of financial exploitation and abuse, despite waves of overhaul efforts. As a result, critics say, many elderly people with significant assets become ensnared in a system that seems mainly to succeed at generating billings. “These laws which were designed to protect the vulnerable are being used against them to exploit them,” saysDr. Sam Sugar,founder of Americans Against Abusive Probate Guardianship, an advocacy group.
Because guardianship systems vary by state and county and record-keeping systems are inconsistent, precise national data is unavailable. But the roughly 1.5 million adult guardianships in the U.S. involve an estimated $273 billion in assets, according toAnthony Palmieri,auditor for the guardianship fraud program in Palm Beach County, Fla.
According to a survey on guardianship conducted last year by the Administrative Conference of the United States, a federal agency, 64% of the 855 judges and staff who responded said their courts had taken action against at least one guardian for misconduct-related issues in the previous three years.
ENLARGE
Ernestine Franks with her sons Charles, left, and Douglas, celebrating Easter in 2013. A dispute between the brothers prompted the court to name a legal guardian, who restricted the Frankses from visiting their mother.PHOTO:DOUGLAS FRANKS
Guardians across the country have faced prosecution for wrongdoing in the past year. In July,Stephen Grisham,a guardian in Minneapolis, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay restitution of nearly $160,000 after pleading guilty to stealing from his wards. He is “a very good person who made a horrible mistake,” says his attorney,Thomas Plunkett.
The problems are more urgent as aging baby boomers cause the population of seniors nearly to double by 2050, according to Census estimates. In New Jersey, the number of adult guardianships added annually increased 21% from 2009 to 2014, to 2,689 cases.
Guardians properly supervised by courts typically do a good job protecting elderly people from exploitation by acquaintances and others, saysCatherine Seal,a guardianship attorney in Colorado Springs, Colo., and president-elect of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. “The worst cases that I see are the ones where there is no guardian,” she says.
In one case Ms. Seal handled several years ago, she says an elderly woman was befriended by a neighbor who persuaded her to buy a condo and include the neighbor’s name on the title. A year later, the neighbor had the woman transfer full ownership to her and moved in to the unit. After Ms. Seal was appointed conservator, she sold the condo and recovered the investment for the elderly woman.
Expenses that arise as a result of a guardianship, including lawyers for both the guardians and wards, typically get paid from the ward’s assets. (In some jurisdictions, there is a public guardian’s office that handles cases for indigent clients.) The financial arrangement, critics say, encourages lawyers and guardians to perpetuate guardianships indefinitely.
Brothers’ dispute
Charles andDouglas Frankssay that is what happened to them. As their 89-year-old mother grew increasingly frail, the brothers clashed over where she should live—close to Charles in New Orleans, as he wished, or in her own home in Pensacola, Fla., as Douglas wanted. In 2012, Charles says he followed the advice of a financial adviser and petitioned a state court in Pensacola to appoint a guardian to settle the matter.
Their mother,Ernestine Franks,had granted Douglas a power of attorney and signed advance directives designating him as her guardian if she were ever deemed incapacitated. But a probate judge nullified the power of attorney and appointed a professional guardianship company instead. “There seems to be a lot of conflict” involving the Franks brothers, said JudgeJan Shackelfordin the initial proceeding, according to a transcript. A judicial assistant says Judge Shackelford couldn’t comment on pending cases.
Soon after being appointed, the guardianship company, Gulf Coast Caring Solutions in Pensacola, suspended the brothers’ visits to Ms. Franks for three weeks and later permitted them for only a few hours at a time, citing their conflict. The brothers, who have since repaired their rift, say their relationship with the guardians quickly became contentious. As a result, the judge ordered that their visits with their mother be supervised by a monitor, who charges Ms. Franks $100 an hour.
Under guardianship, withdrawals from a $1.3 million trust set up to pay Ms. Franks’s expenses jumped to $297,000 in 2014 from $94,000 in 2011, when Ms. Franks mostly made her own financial decisions, according to documentation provided by the Franks brothers. More than $75,000 in 2014 went to lawyers for Gulf Coast, which has been embroiled in litigation with the Franks brothers over issues ranging from expenses to home-care providers. The company said in a court filing this month it was resigning as guardian and recommended the appointment of a successor. A new judge overseeing the case scheduled a hearing for November.
Gulf Coast and its attorneys didn’t respond to requests for comment. In court filings, the company accuses the brothers of harassing its caregivers and of unsettling their mother with the squabbling. Gulf Coast says that from the start, the brothers have “engaged in a relentless battle against the guardian” in an attempt to get the company removed and “regain control of their mother and her finances.”
Charles Franks says initially he thought seeking a guardian would be “a good thing.” Now, he says, “I am tortured by that decision.”
Ginny Casazza,president of the National Guardianship Association, says some critics of guardians’ fees don’t realize how time-consuming some duties are, such as accompanying wards to medical appointments. Many charges billed to a ward don’t come from guardians, she says, but from other professionals like lawyers—whose hourly rates are usually much higher than those of guardians.
Ms. Casazza says fee disputes can be minimized if guardians at the outset provide an estimate of their annual fees, as the NGA recommends. She also says the current inconsistency in fees—which usually are determined by what a court finds reasonable—could be addressed by establishing fee guidelines like those created in Arizona in 2012.
Guardianship expenses are usually filed to courts for a judge’s approval annually, though some guardians submit requests for approval of fees more frequently. The accountings vary in detail, but generally they include some breakdown of costs, such as food, prescription medication and travel to medical appointments.
Some legal experts say guardianship laws aren’t well-enforced by overworked judges in underfunded courts who too often rubber-stamp expense reports filed by guardians, or don’t crack down when the documents aren’t filed on time.
ENLARGE
Judges acknowledge they struggle to keep up with the rising flood of paperwork. Some, likeJean Stewart,a former probate judge in Denver, point fingers at state lawmakers who haven’t increased judicial budgets to address the problem. “It’s just plain manpower,” said Ms. Stewart, who recalled spending “many Sunday afternoons” reviewing guardianship reports.
In recent years, states have tried to stamp out abuses: From 2004 through 2014, legislatures passed a total of 292 bills addressing adult guardianship, according to the American Bar Association. Many states now screen the financial and criminal backgrounds of potential guardians and require guardians to post bonds at the outset of a guardianship to insure that a ward’s assets will stay protected.
Florida lawmakers this year added restrictions on suspending a power of attorney that a potential ward has granted a family member, and enacted a requirement that suspected abuse, neglect or exploitation by a guardian be reported to a state hotline.
And Texas passed a law this year believed to be the first in the U.S. to establish an alternative to guardianship known as “supported decision-making.” Under the model, disabled individuals voluntarily sign agreements with people who can help them make decisions on finances and other specific issues.
In 2011, the Washington state legislature added training requirements for prospective guardians and gave courts the authority to sanction a guardian if the guardian fails to file a required report or attend a hearing.
The changes weren’t enough to keep Ms. McDowell in Vancouver from a costly trip through guardianship.
In early 2012, Ms. McDowell and her longtime friend and housemateAnnette Snyderwere going through a difficult period in their relationship. Ms. Snyder had recently moved out of their shared home.
Petition filed
Ms. Snyder says she became concerned that an emotionally distraught Ms. McDowell would do something rash before they could settle their differences over their finances and possessions. She consulted a lawyer who suggested guardianship. Rather than file the petition under her own name and risk further stoking tensions with Ms. McDowell, Ms. Snyder asked a mutual friend to do it.
On March 8, 2012, a guardianship petition filed with the Clark County Superior Court claimed that Ms. McDowell had behaved erratically throughout much of the previous year. She recently had been admitted to a hospital for a small stroke, it alleged, but “became unjustifiably fearful, pulled out her IV, and left the hospital against medical advice.”
The court held a hearing that same day, after which Clark County JudgeScott A. CollierappointedKathleen McCann,an attorney, to become a temporary guardian. Ms. McCann was asked to investigate and offer an opinion on whether the court should appoint a longer-term caregiver.
On May 4, Ms. McCann advised that long-term care was needed. She submitted a report from a psychologist who said that Ms. McDowell displayed paranoia and “cognitive disorganization” and “impaired” reasoning ability. Ms. McCann didn’t respond to requests for comment.
ENLARGE
Legal documents in Ms. McDowell’s case. A former housemate had pushed for a court petition claiming Ms. McDowell was unable to take care of herself.PHOTO:STUART ISETT FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
At the May hearing, the court-appointed lawyer for Ms. McDowell,James Senescu,appeared but didn’t oppose the petition for guardianship. Ms. McDowell says she stood up and tried to object, but to no avail. “My attorney said nothing, and the hearing was over in about three minutes,” she says. Mr. Senescu declined to comment.
Stacey Bollingerof Halo Guardianship Service Inc. was appointed her new guardian and remained so for nearly two years.
The bills piled up. Ms. Bollinger billed Ms. McDowell $332.50 to take her to breakfast, $95 for a one-hour birthday visit and $47.50 for a phone call on Thanksgiving, according to Halo Guardianship invoices filed with the court. Ms. McDowell was allotted a $500 monthly allowance. Over her objections, her house was sold, effectively forcing her into an assisted-living facility.
In early 2013, Ms. McDowell enlisted lawyer MarCine Miles to help her. Ms. Miles, who says she worked pro bono because her client didn’t have the authority to pay the fees, says there are still far too few checks on the system.
Guardians “hand their bills to a court, and the court just says ‘OK,’ ” she says. Judges “never seem to ask why it took a guardian three hours to look over a bank statement.”
Calls to the Clark County Superior Court administrator,Jeffrey Amram,weren’t returned.
Months later, Ms. Miles arranged for her client to move out of assisted living into her motor home, and in March 2014, she helped Ms. McDowell get a court order appointing a new guardian who might get along with her better.
Dorine Brightof Riverside Guardian Services Inc., who ended up working with Ms. McDowell for seven months, charged her thousands of dollars for a variety of tasks, including personal visits, mail “processing” and “marshaling assets,” according to Riverside invoices filed with the court.
Steve Turner, an attorney for both Ms. Bollinger and Ms. Bright, said that some of the assets that Ms. McDowell lost were actually owned by Ms. Snyder, including her house, which was jointly owned, and divided up as part of a separation. He said working through the separation required extra lawyers’ fees. He also said that many of the meetings and phone calls billed were made to discuss the separation with Ms. Snyder and to safeguard Ms. McDowell’s interests. “There was never any evidence that either Ms. Bollinger or Ms. Bright acted improperly in any way,” he said.
Of the nearly $300,000 in total cash expenses Ms. McDowell paid during the guardianships, more than half went to professionals, including lawyers and other “caregiver services,” according to bank statements and court records. At the end of the guardianship, Ms. McDowell was left with about $25,000 in cash, in addition to her motor home and a car.
In the summer of 2014, a court—at the urging of Ms. Miles—appointed an investigator to assess the situation. In September, he issued a report citing a variety of doctors and others who over the years of guardianship had examined Ms. McDowell and had attested to her relative well-being. The report included input from a social worker who in March 2013 said that while Ms. McDowell had been “labeled with Dementia by her caretakers and the court,” he had seen no impairment in “her level of functioning” during 11 one-hour sessions.
Shortly thereafter, JudgeRobert A. Lewisended the guardianship. All told, a total of 11 people—10 judges and one commissioner—on the Clark County Superior Court made rulings in Ms. McDowell’s case. Judge Lewis declined to comment.
Ms. Snyder now says she “deeply regrets” her role in putting Ms. McDowell into guardianship. “At the time, I had no idea what guardianship actually meant, and had no idea that Lin would be taken for such a ride,” she says.
Ms. McDowell, now 74 and getting by on about $1,000 a month in Social Security and annuity payments, says that despite some health issues, she feels fine. But the time battling guardianship is “gone forever,” she says.
Editor's note: This Shark believes that FLU should study the classic case of elder exploitation... The Irving F. Faskowitz Estate by the Solo-Faskowitz clan. Even after the FL Attorney General's office discovered the fraud...nothing was done to punish the perps. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Florida State University to study elder financial exploitation in The Villages
The Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partnership with Merrill Lynch and Seniors vs. Crime, will be conducting research on elder financial exploitation in The Villages.
To kick off their research, the College will be holding Town Hall Meetings on financial fraud at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 9 at Eisenhower Recreation Center and at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 at Savannah Center.
Residents of The Villages are encouraged to attend one of the two Town Hall Meetings to learn about financial fraud occurring in The Villages, how to report financial fraud, and prevention tips from Seniors vs. Crime.
Thomas Blomberg, dean and executive director of the Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research at FSU, will be studying financial exploitation in The Villages
Additionally, the Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice will be conducting surveys about residents’ experience with financial fraud. Interested residents will be asked to participate in upcoming focus groups and interviews that the college will be conducting.
The college will use the information collected from surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gain insight into financial exploitation victimization and avoidance. The study’s focus will be on identifying some of the salient risk and protective factors associated with elder financial exploitation.
“We believe that what we know in official statistics is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Thomas Blomberg, dean and executive director of the Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research. “We want to have a better empirically valid description of how extensive this problem is. In order to develop a better identification of risk and prevention tactics we have got to get a better indicator of the incidents and then the characteristics of those who are victims of fraud and those who are not.”
To find out more contact The Village’s Seniors vs. Crime office at (352) 689-4600 Ext. 4606.
