All they got was a slap on the hand.’ Is California low-balling penalties in nursing home death investigations?

All they got was a slap on the hand.’ Is California low-balling penalties in nursing home death investigations?

 

Editor's note: This Shark sees the same problem with the Illinois Probate Court of Cook County.  The parasites running this "criminal financial enterprise" preying upon the elderly and disabled are making a grand income and life style including Malibu beach houses.  Until the new administration in Washington takes a serious look, these criminals will continue fleecing both fat and thin estates.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com P.S.  When the estates are depleted they feast on the wards' government entitlements.

Armando Reagan was 30 when he bled to death, rushed from a Southern California nursing home as blood soaked his sheets, pooled on the floor and as he pleaded with staff: “Help! Help! I do not want to die!” according to state public health records.

Paralyzed 11 years earlier in a drive-by shooting, Reagan, who was taking blood thinners, died later that day at a nearby hospital, where the emergency room documented profuse bleeding from bedsores in his groin.

Marleen Aparicio, a relative, assumed that the nursing home – Verdugo Valley Skilled Nursing & Wellness Centre in suburban Los Angeles – would receive the maximum punishment from the state: a Type AA citation and $100,000 fine, a penalty reserved by the California Department of Public Health for the most egregious deaths of nursing home residents.

Aparicio was mistaken. Instead, the department issued the facility a milder A citation and $20,000 fine over Reagan’s death in July 2010, concluding that nursing home staff did not adequately monitor the young man for adverse drug reactions.

“To know he was crying out like that,” said Aparicio, 61, a second cousin of Reagan, who had always called her “auntie.” “All they got was a slap on the hand: ‘Don’t do it again.’

“They made a mistake and, oops, that’s it?” she asked. “This is a mistake we know about. What about all the ones we don’t?”

Controversy over how the state penalizes facilities over suspicious patient deaths has been simmering for years, with elder-care advocates pushing for tougher oversight and harsher fines. The nursing home industry, meanwhile, has maintained that inspectors for the Department of Public Health have been uneven in their approaches, depending on which district office is in charge of an investigation.  (Click to Continue)

Full Article & Source:
All they got was a slap on the hand.’ Is California low-balling penalties in nursing home death investigations?

Nursing home to pay $3.5 million to settle illegal patient transfer allegations

Nursing home to pay $3.5 million to settle illegal patient transfer allegations

Editor's note: This Shark wonders why "No hard time for these crooks"? Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

A California nursing home and two physicians who worked at the facility will pay more than $3.5 million to resolve allegations that they took part in an illegal patient transfer scheme, authorities announced on Friday.

The settlement, reached in early August, resolves a whistleblower lawsuit brought by a former employee of Westlake Convalescent Hospital in Los Angeles. The employee's suit claims the facility paid kickbacks to a “care consortium” the city's Skid Row district to transfer patients to a hospital for unnecessary medical services between 2008 and 2010.

The patients were then transferred from the hospital to Westlake for unnecessary skilled nursing stays. The facility also allegedly billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for these services.

Jasvant Modi, M.D., a physician at the facility, allegedly admitted patients from the nursing facility to the now-shuttered hospital and back again to extend their Medicare-covered stays. His wife and fellow physician, Meera Modi, M.D., also reportedly signed medical orders for non-payable services provided to patients admitted through the scheme.

McKnight's call to Westlake for comment was not returned by press time.

The case is linked to a larger scheme to defraud federal and state health programs by illegally recruiting mostly homeless Skid Row residents for medically unnecessary hospital and nursing home stays, authorities said. Another physician pleaded guilty to his involvement in the scheme in 2013.

Ricardo Gonzales, the whistleblower who brought the case, received $534,471 from the settlement.

Full Article & Source:
Nursing home to pay $3.5 million to settle illegal patient transfer allegations

Coto de Caza man faces 120-plus felony charges in $2 million loan modification scam

Coto de Caza man faces 120-plus felony charges in $2 million loan modification scam

Kevin Frank Rasher

On YouTube, the 44-year-old Coto de Caza man says he can help homeowners in danger of losing their homes.

“If you’re in need of foreclosure proceedings to be stopped, payments to be more affordable, and interest-rate reductions to be done, I’m your man,” he says.

But prosecutors allege that Kevin Frank Rasher, who goes by “Kevin Carter” in the video, actually was running a loan-modification scam that bilked more than 400 troubled homeowners out of $2.2 million.

Rasher was arrested at his home in May and charged in July with more than 50 felony counts including grand theft and burglary.

On Thursday, he was charged with more than 70 new felony counts including money laundering, grand theft, and financial exploitation of an elder, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said.

Prosecutors said Rasher, from 2011 to this April, falsely represented himself as a Housing and Urban Development attorney even though he never has had a law license in California.

Prosecutors said he had a $10,200-a-month rental home in Coto de Caza, only some homeowners ultimately got loan modifications, and the alleged scam left at least three victims without their homes.

If convicted, Rasher faces up to 98 years in prison. He was being held in lieu of $2 million. Before posting bond, he must prove that the money is from a legal source.

Full Article & Source:
Coto de Caza man faces 120-plus felony charges in $2 million loan modification scam

Book Review: EXILE by J. Phelan

TOPICS:Janet Phelan Katherine Hine

August 12, 2016

By Katherine Hine

From its opening words of dedication, Janet Phelan’s EXILE hooks the reader with her intuitive grasp of the work’s place in history as she warns those of us awake enough to question the American Dream:

To the ones who came before, in gratitude And to the ones who will come after, so that you may know the magnitude.

From this point on Phelan takes the reader on a terrifying early millennium roller-coaster ride through a series of bizarre, seemingly coordinated attacks in some five countries – a ride she barely manages to survive.
Delivering on the widely acknowledged promise of her writing, Phelan produces another spellbinding work of investigative journalism, this time meticulously woven into memoir and punctuated by poetry. Despite exhausting struggles to survive brutalities that seriously threaten her and her mother’s lives, Phelan’s passion for the subject at no point diminishes her ever-present journalistic integrity – well supported by website references and a series of exhibits at the end of the book. The title “Exile” may evoke ambivalence in the growing numbers of North Americans who are fleeing the late, great “land of the free and home of the brave” to seek safety and sanity, if not liberty exactly, outside the U.S. Those contemplating such a dire step may call themselves emigrants but when such a move is made only as a last resort it may more accurately be considered exile.

The account begins with a police officer’s betrayal packaged as collaboration, which then seamlessly unfolds into the main course to explain the context of that betrayal. Phelan’s descriptions of the naiveté of her earlier self are sure to grip the reader with a stab of recognition as Phelan’s younger self initially silences her inner warning voice [p. 17]. This resonance is particularly acute as she deals with a man she does not know is playing a role – government operative/love interest Jack Smith. Over the course of the book we learn a bit of how, through repeated betrayals tucked away in a culture of pretty lies and inverted values, we have learned to not recognize what is wrong, to not protect ourselves, and to believe ourselves helpless.

Intertwining Threads

As the reader becomes immersed in Phelan’s edginess about the new arrival in her life, Jack Smith, she is injured in a traffic “accident”. The police pronounce the collision to be her fault and leave her at the scene with a bleeding head wound and no one to see her home. Even her neurologist repeatedly denies Phelan an appointment. When she seeks help at a local hospital emergency room she is surprised to be kept waiting some ten hours and politely asks for assistance. That assistance takes the form of a 250 pound attendant wielding a large syringe who attacks Phelan with it. When she awakens in a psychiatric lockup, she is told it was all a “mistake.” [pp. 20-21] Indeed. As Phelan later observes:

The normal supportive functions of society were being removed from my life. [p. 21]

Still weighed down from not receiving expected help for her injuries, Phelan faces the vague menace from her inner circle –“Jack Smith,” a man with no history prior to the 1990s, and her sister, Judy, a person “not bound by normal restraints” [p. 29] and known to kill the family pets and steal from their parents. [p. 30]

Just as the reader engages with the growing sense of foreboding close to home, a more external threat emerges – the now notorious “Elder Cleanse” guardian Melodie Scott [www.fiduciary.ca.gov/public/pf-545_2016_06_01_rev.pdf], then known as “the richest and most powerful conservator in California.” [p. 39]. Following an injury apparently inflicted upon their mother Amalie by Phelan’s sister Judy, Amalie falls prey to Scott and her partner in crime, attorney David Horspool. [p. 40] Scott initiates the typical predatory guardian attacks on Amalie’s wealth, including the use of force to isolate her from Phelan. Step by step Scott’s thievery and sequestering of Amalie would prove to be fatal to Amalie and to the plans she had made for Phelan to have any kind of financial security. Like so many elderly and other vulnerables targeted for predatory guardianship, Amalie had no need of a conservator, and would remain fully cognizant of all the crimes Scott was perpetrating on her, just as she remained alert to Phelan’s love and considerable but ultimately futile efforts to save her. Depleted financially and undermined by Judy’s collusion with Scott, Phelan finds she is no match for their combined criminality, all backed by those in the probate system who call themselves the judiciary.
As Phelan walks us through the parallel realities of a system turned upside down, some of this is familiar –The New Normal. Acts of evil are now described as good – and in need of defense. When Scott is caught cleaning out artwork and jewelry from Phelan’s parents’ home, it is Scott who claims outrage – and vengeance – for having to suffer Phelan’s interferences with her thievery.[Ex. 2] Yet Scott’s seizure of the perfectly competent Amalie, even when it results in evidence of life-threatening medical neglect [p. 55], generates no sanctions in California’s topsy-turvy probate system. That system instead uses restraining orders to sabotage the efforts of Phelan simply to get her mother medical treatment [p. 57] or to report her abuse to the designated “authorities” [p. 69]. In the surreal world of probate court and predatory guardianship, acts of benevolence and love for one’s parent are now deemed illegal and subject to restraining orders if not prosecution. [http://www.activistpost.com/tag/katherine-hine] Phelan discovers, as has this reviewer, that those we expect to provide help or at least accountability offer nothing of the sort. Not the touted “human rights” attorneys [p. 50], not the initially friendly politicians Boxer and Feinstein [p.129], not the California Attorney General or its DOJ., not Dennis Kucunich, nor Ron Paul. [pp. 129-130] Not surprisingly there was also no help to be had from Reporters Without Borders [p. 275], now known to be on the U.S. State Department payroll [www.counterpunch.org/2005/05/17/reporters-without-borders-unmasked/].What we call “law enforcement” becomes for Phelan, as for many of us, another dead end or worse. When Jack assaults her, they arrest him but the charges mysteriously disappear.[pp. 67-69]
The more Phelan struggles against the injustices of probate “court”, the more hostile the rest of her world becomes. Phelan’s house begins to burn as she sleeps. [p. 72] Her paperwork about the guardianship begins to disappear. Her home is repeatedly ransacked and drugs are planted there. [pp. 73-74] Phelan barely escapes arrest for this well known form of entrapment. She finds herself suddenly treated differently – sometimes violently – in public places where she had once been welcomed, or at least safe. [pp. 130-131] As too many of us have already experienced, “law enforcement” no longer take reports if they do not wish to. They tend to prefer targeting the citizen bringing in the complaint. At one crucial juncture law enforcement officers maneuver Phelan into a squad car where they gas her and tell her she is about to die. [p. 107] They take her to a place where she is injected, waking up days later in some sort of psychiatric lockup – complete with a roommate wearing brass knuckles. [p. 112] Phelan would later find by x-ray that she was chipped during that period of unconsciousness.[p.157] Her quick wits enable her to survive this round of weaponized psychiatry, but when efforts to find new housing go south, she is forced onto the streets where she learns to overcome the hazards of homelessness.
She tries homelessness in different states and encounters others who help change her paradigm but also finds out that a hit has been put out on her. Phelan finds herself repeatedly attacked with chemical weapons. Some “suits had come around offering” 10K to other homeless people should she be found dead. No reason given. Later the reward would go up to 50K. [p. 195] Many who would befriend her shrink back. Others offer only manipulation and deceit. She learns to recognize who is who.
At several points Phelan flees the country – once to Israel. When robbed re-entering Mexico from Guatemala she asks simply to be deported to California, but is instead again detained, this time for over a month. Overt life-threatening events from seemingly multiple sources continue – too many to elaborate – and they happen outside of the U.S. as well as inside it.
As Phelan learns to survive on the streets, she continues to be plagued by Scott and Judy’s joint plunder of Amalie’s estate and sabotage of her right to see her mother, whose death they finally succeed in bringing about. Each contact with the “court” system results in something worse. As her writing career takes off and she nears the end of homelessness in 2006, she becomes wise enough that when approached by a police officer in California wearing Hazmat gloves while handling her passport, she knows to wash off whatever he wiped on it. [p. 209]
Through an ambivalent “friend” Phelan finds what seems to be a safe place to live – in Oregon. Later the entire town where she moves is sprayed [p. 218] – this in addition to the chem trails we all experience as the “new normal.”
As Phelan becomes increasingly traumatized and uprooted, she shows her true mettle as a survivor, backed by the guiding spirits of both parents. Little by little she makes a name for herself exposing police brutality cover-ups via Internal Affairs boards [http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/01/385516.shtml], municipal water line blueprints showing alternative delivery systems [http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/10214.php], and, more recently, attacks on first world journalists. [http://journal-neo.org/2013/12/18/persecution-of-first-world-journalists-ignored-by-human-rights-agencies/]. In 2011, Phelan presents at a review conference of the U.N.’s Biological Weapons Convention [BWC] in Geneva, Switzerland and she reveals what others will not – the probable location of some of the stockpiles and the significance of Sec. 817 of the U.S. Patriot Act, enacted in violation of its responsibilities under U.N. conventions seeking to protect human rights, including the BWC. Phelan’s presentation summarizes the methods by which the U.S. continues to perpetrate human rights abuses, specifically demonstrating to the U.N. body and the world how the U.S. is “engaged in an offensive bio weapons program” [p. 260] and believes itself capable of doing so with impunity, according to Sec. 817.

Epilogue:

The Epilogue draws conclusions some might feel are unwarranted from the evidence presented. To avoid mixing cause with effect the reader should not miss the fact that Phelan had not been a typical target at the time Jack Smith was placed into her world. She was not a whistleblower or even a controversial figure at the beginning of the attacks. Her conclusion that certain select groups have been genetically pre-selected is well supported throughout the book and in 20th and 21st Century history. There is plausible evidence that simply by being Jewish, both Phelan and Amalie could have been included in such a genetically pre-selected group targeted for the de-population agenda. However her father, investigative journalist Jim Phelan, did happen to be a controversial and effective whistleblower.[pp.33-34] Given the underworld dogma that counsels serving up of revenge as a cold dish, nothing could be more cold than visiting the “sins” of the father onto the next generation. Then again, for those for whom murder and hatred are a way of life, perhaps any reason is sufficient – or no reason at all.
The answers to the issues we have good reason to know exist are no doubt multi-faceted. Exile devotes some attention to many of them – corporate plunder in the form of predatory probate “courts”, decades long chemical and biological attacks on our food supply, the terrorism of the psychiatric/pharmaceutical/prison/industrial complex police state, the unending wars, the mass incarcerations, and the fascination with the population’s every move, communication and genome, and the whistleblowers who warn us. All roads seem to lead to the genocide Phelan and others warn us is on the horizon. Genocide has historically been introduced by limiting the opening attacks to groups who are already despised, as Hitler did with the Jews, Communists and gypsies. Exile provides ample support in its Epilogue for the conclusions Phelan reaches to explain the elaborate lengths some entity or entities had to have gone to implement the relentless campaign she continues to have to resist. If ever there are to be answers for us at this time in history, it behooves us all to follow Janet Phelan’s relentless search for a truth that has eluded humanity throughout its intractable struggle to remove the boot from its neck.
An inactive attorney who practiced over 30 years in the courts of Oklahoma and Ohio, Katherine Hine is now with WLJA radio: www.wljaradio.net, hosting weekly broadcasts exposing illegalities of forced psychiatry in Ohio and the consequences of our current lack of judicial accountability. She continues to serve as executive director of the Ross County Network for Children in Ohio, was instrumental in 2008-2009 in helping rid the City of Chillicothe, Ohio of its traffic cameras through citizen initiative, has authored articles critical of forced psychiatry in the Columbus Free Press and one article addressing retaliation in the treatise: Expose: The Failure of Family Courts to Protect Children. She can be reached at katherinehine@wljaradio.net.
2014; Pub: BookPatch.com; ISBN: 1620309572, 9781620309575
Price: $15.99
348 pages, book size: 6” x 9”
Other books/J. Phelan:  Held Captive – pub. 2016, The Hitler Poems – pub. 2005

Largest Calif. nursing home chain accused of wrongful death

Czersale Hilton, right, with her mother Geneva

CBS Los Angeles

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LOS ANGELES-- The owner of California's largest chain of nursing homes has come under fire, accused of abuse and wrongful deaths.
CBS Los Angeles reports the daughter of a resident of one of their nursing homes has filed a lawsuit, claiming her mother died prematurely as a result of the care she received.
Czersale Hilton's mother, Geneva, 68, was admitted into Centinela Skilled Nursing & Wellness Centre West in Inglewood in 2014. Five weeks later, she was dead.
"I was shocked. Of course, I was shocked, because the last time I spoke to my mom, she was herself," Hilton recalled. "I loved my mother with all my heart, and I miss her every day."
Los Angeles millionaire Schlomo Rechnitz owns Centinela West. His charitable efforts have been chronicled on television. He's the same man who reportedly gave thousands of lottery tickets to some of his employees earlier this year.
During a layover in Ireland, he gave 400 American soldiers $50 each so they could purchase a meal.
Rechnitz's companies own 81 nursing homes in California, the most in the state.
In 2014, CBS Los Angeles' investigative reporter David Goldstein tallied $500 million in taxpayer Medicare and Medi-Cal money. But they have come under fire for allegations of neglect, abuse and wrongful deaths, something that is well known to elder-care experts like Molly Davies.
"We see the same persistent problems. So that speaks to me of an unwillingness to make the necessary changes," Davies said.
Hilton has sued Centinela West, claiming elder abuse and negligence. According to the lawsuit, her mother "was admitted for rehabilitative care following a hospitalization for chest pains. Her lungs were clear and she was in good condition."
But five weeks later, she was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, suffering from pneumonia, dehydration and a body temperature of lower than 80 degrees.
According to the lawsuit, doctors suspected elder neglect. "So, something went on there. I am still not clear on what happened over there," Hilton said.
Goldstein visited Centinela West with a hidden camera. He witnessed a patient moaning, and his producer smelled human waste.
According to the most current 2015 Medicare nursing home profile, Centinela West has an overall rating of 3 out of 5 stars.
But the nursing staffing and health inspection categories both got only 2 stars, something Medicare considers below average.
Centinela West is not the only nursing home with multiple complaints connected to Rechnitz.
"It was like zombies walking around here," said South Pasadena police chief Art Miller, who described patients at South Pasadena Convalescent Hospital when it used to be owned by Rechnitz.
The federal government decertified it last year, denying its eligibility to get Medicare money. It happened after Courtney Cargill, 57, set herself on fire.
The FBI has also raided two of Rechnitz's facilities, including the Alta Vista Healthcare & Wellness Center in Riverside. No charges have been filed.
The California attorney general filed involuntary manslaughter charges against the Verdugo Valley Skilled Nursing facility in Montrose and two staff supervisors after a 58-year-old male patient died.
The attorney general tried unsuccessfully to block Rechnitz from owning more nursing homes saying his "continued and repeated refusals to comply with industry laws and regulations was harming the skilled nursing industry."
Patricia McGinnis with the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform asked: "If that's the case, why are you giving out more licenses to this company?"
"Under his particular company, we've had more closures and more decertifications in such a short period of time than any time that I can think of in the last 30 years," McGinnis added.
The California Department of Health, which licenses nursing homes, refused a request for an on-camera interview about Rechnitz's facilities.
After several requests for an on camera interview, a spokesperson for Rechnitz issued a statement: "Mr. Rechnitz has for years been an integral part of providing quality nursing home services to Californians, rescued 59 institutions from insolvency, preserved 6,000 jobs, provides life-aiding services to thousands of Californians."
The spokesperson said Rechnitz has gone above and beyond what is necessary to deal with the challenges of the industry.
As for Hilton, she is still searching for answers and hopes telling her story will help others. "I didn't want my mom's death to be in vain."
In response to the accusations, the company provided the following statement to CBS Los Angeles:
"No matter how much one sensationalizes a story with foreboding music, hidden cameras and scurrilous charges, the fact remains that Mr. Rechnitz has for years been an integral part of providing quality nursing home services to Californians throughout the state.
Regardless of the accusations of the rapacious plaintiffs bar, the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform and other special interests, the facts are clear:

Mr. Rechnitz has rescued 59 institutions from insolvency, resulting in the continuation of care for more than 6,000 patients and the maintenance of 6,000 jobs.

He currently provides life-aiding services to thousands of Californians; and

He has dealt with any challenges that these homes have faced by going above and beyond what is necessary to meet those challenges.

Any claims to the contrary ignore the facts in favor of the kind of salacious, cheap headlines that do little more than damage someone who is working tirelessly to help a population that is far too often underrepresented."

California judiciary’s toothless watchdog

California judiciary’s toothless watchdog

Editor's note: This Shark believes the CA Commission is similar to the ARDC and Judicial Review in Illinois that is for the protection of judges and lawyers rather than the citizens.  The criminals operating the Probate Court of Cook County could not fleece the public without the protection of the above commissions.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

The Commission on Judicial Performance is a little-known agency that has one of the most important jobs in California — to protect the public by investigating complaints against judges and disciplining misconduct. The commission is effectively responsible for maintaining the integrity of California’s courts.

Such an important watchdog should be transparent about its operations and should have enough teeth to deter misconduct. But its practices and discipline statistics indicate that it does neither.

The panel recently released its 2015 Annual Report revealing that it publicly disciplined just four judges out of the 1,231 complaints it reviewed. An additional 37 of these complaints resulted in a private advisory letter or private admonishment, wherein the name of the judge was withheld from the public and only a brief description of the misconduct was provided in the annual report. The commission withheld all information about the 1,190 complaints it dismissed without discipline, 90 percent of which were dismissed without an inquiry or investigation.

Court Reform LLC, a San Francisco Bay Area advocacy firm, compared the discipline rates of the commissions of California, Texas, New York and Arizona over the past 10 years and the results are troubling.

Judicial oversight
    Court room 2M, 150 seats in the San Mateo County Superior Court is where Scott Peterson trail will be held just across the street from his one room jail cell at the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City. Officials expect about 200 reporters, photographers and producers will cover the high-profile trial, scheduled to rev up with pretrial hearings Feb. 2 City:Ê 1/26/04, in Redwood City, CA. Frederic Larson/The Chronicle;

    San Mateo judge reprimanded over treatment of women in courtroom

    Appeals court reins in judge in Sagebrush Rebellion case

Arizona’s overall discipline rate was four times higher than California’s and its public discipline rate was five times higher. Texas investigated three times as many complaints, publicly disciplined three times as many judges, and removed six times as many judges.

New York had more than 10 times as many complaints (358) as California (34) result in judges leaving the bench with complaints pending — a likely indication that New York’s judges know their watchdog has teeth, while California’s watchdog may be asleep.

The Commission on Judicial Performance is as secretive about its operations as the CIA. In response to a public records request from First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit that has greatly improved Californians’ access to government records, the panel refused to disclose complaints or even the number of complaints filed by judge or by county.

Its practices also prevent the public from being an informed electorate, its foremost duty. California has the lowest opposition rate in the country for judicial elections, at just 8 percent. In comparison, New York’s opposition rate is over 80 percent. The commission withholds information about misconduct from voters that may impact an election. In doing so, it takes the stance that it must separate true from false and important (public disciplines) from unimportant (private disciplines) because the public cannot be trusted to make such determinations for itself.

As Judge Damon Keith of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal opined, “When government begins closing its doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people. Selective information is misinformation. The framers of the First Amendment ‘did not trust any government to separate the true from the false for us.’ … They protected the people against secret government.”

The Commission on Judicial Performance is precisely the kind of secret government that Keith condemned.

The commission’s mandate is to protect the public, but its policies are contrary to that mandate. The lifelong impact of legal rulings and the effect of case law on the public are too important to risk a sleeping watchdog over the largest court system in the country. The commission should serve its public by eliminating its practices of secrecy.

Joe Sweeney is the founder of Court Reform LLC, a Bay Area advocacy firm. Tamir Sukkary is an adjunct professor of political science at American River College, San Joaquin Delta College and Sierra College.

Full Article & Source:
California judiciary’s toothless watchdog

Attorney Targeted Elderly in Ponzi, Says SEC

Tuesday, April 19, 2016Last Update: 12:02 PM PT

Attorney Targeted Elderly in Ponzi, Says SEC By DON J. DEBENEDICTIS ShareThis        LOS ANGELES (CN) — Using ads in USA Today, an attorney and a businessman defrauded 250 people, mostly retirees, of nearly $12 million by promising huge returns from investing in lawsuits, the SEC claims in court.      The SEC accused Michigan tax attorney James A. Catipay, Washington state legal marketer David A. Aldridge, and their California-based company Prometheus Law of four counts of securities fraud, in an April 15 lawsuit in Federal Court.      The scheme capitalized on the growing business of "litigation funding," in which investors underwrite attorneys' high-dollar commercial lawsuits, in hope of profiting from settlements.      Catipay and Aldridge took money from small investors, allegedly to fund personal injury and mass tort cases, but the SEC says it was a Ponzi scheme.      "Catipay and Aldrich spent millions of dollars on personal items, including a million-dollar loft in downtown Los Angeles and paying Aldrich's personal income taxes. So when the first approximately $120,000 of investor returns came due, the defendants used money raised from new investors to pay the existing investors — payments that both Catipay and Aldrich admitted were, in fact, Ponzi payments," the SEC says in the lengthy complaint.      They defrauded investors "by repeatedly downplaying the risks associated with their investments and the fact that their entire business model was unrealistic to afford the exorbitant returns promised," Michele Layne, the head of the SEC's Los Angeles office, said in a statement.      Catipay and Aldridge told victims their money "is never at risk," the SEC says, citing the defendants' 2014 "information packet." They promised to spend the money lining up plaintiffs to bring class actions against drug companies and medical device makers, and guaranteed returns of 100 to 300 percent, according to the complaint.      They offered what they called "forward contracts" that would pay off after a specific number of months, and said the mass tort cases "had settlement funds just waiting in escrow to be claimed," the SEC says. But "In fact, the investments were highly speculative and risky."      Also, the SEC says, it is illegal for an attorney and a non-lawyer — such as Aldridge and the 250 investors — to share legal fees. Such fee-splitting "is widely prohibited, and therefore potentially unenforceable."      Aldridge came up with the idea to market investments in medical litigation in mid-2013, but had trouble finding a lawyer to join him. Before meeting Catipay, he interviewed approximately 100 attorneys, who all "declined because of the ethical prohibition against fee-sharing with non-lawyers," according the complaint.      After beginning in October 2013, Aldridge and Catipay's venture attracted $11.7 million, generally in small investments ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. The two struck a deal with a personal injury lawyer in Seattle — called "Attorney A" in the complaint — to represent any tort plaintiffs they found and to give their company one-third of any fees he collected.      But they spent only about a third of the investors' money on looking for tort plaintiffs. And by early this year, those marketing efforts had returned less than $10,000 in attorneys' fees from the plaintiffs, the SEC said.      The men spent most of the money on themselves. Aldridge withdrew $3.7 million of the investors' money, including $1 million to buy a condo and another $1 million to pay state and federal taxes, the SEC says.      Catipay took $1.87 million for himself. After a dispute and lawsuit between the partners, Catipay acquired Aldridge's condo in a settlement.      The SEC seeks freezing of assets, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and civil penalties.      Attorneys representing Catipay and Aldridge did not return calls seeking comment Monday.

The haunted twilight of Richard Simmons

The haunted twilight of Richard Simmons

Richard Simmons opened his front door, frail and trembling. Mauro Oliveira, a visual artist who was also Simmons’ masseur and former assistant, greeted him on the front porch, concerned about his friend. After receiving an ominous phone call from Simmons, Oliveira had driven his truck to the Hollywood Hills, past the two metal gates that Simmons had left ajar for him, and into the driveway. He reached the porch through the white columns that recalled an antebellum Southern mansion, and past Simmons’ bronze statue of a regal Dalmatian.

Wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants, a gaunt Simmons led Oliveira through the foyer, and into the living room. “Mauro, we can no longer see each other,” Simmons told him in a quiet, defeated voice.

It was April 2014. Oliveira, a 49-year-old from Brazil with the burly arms and trim physique of a gym rat and close-cropped black hair, had met Simmons 13 months earlier, and the two became fast friends. But he was catching a weird vibe lately, and hadn’t seen him in a while, before the then 65-year-old Simmons summoned him to the mansion, saying only that they needed to talk.

“What’s going on, Richard?” Oliveira asked. “Why are you saying that?”

“I don’t know,” Simmons replied. “I just want to be by myself, and I want to be in the house, and we’re never going to see each other again.”

Simmons’ home is a mixture of classical architecture and design that recalls his New Orleans youth.
He collects offbeat pieces, including a menagerie of dolls highlighted by a rare Barbra Streisand model and the colorful work of Mexican painter and sculptor Sergio Bustamante. As they spoke, he and Oliveira stood near an ornate grand piano.

“Let’s talk it over,” Oliveira said. “I want to sit here, and make sure you’ll be OK. Let’s go upstairs, I’ll give you a massage and relax you.”

Simmons called up to Teresa Reveles, his live-in housekeeper of nearly three decades. “Mauro is going upstairs with me,” he said.

“No, no, no!” Reveles shouted from the second floor, according to Oliveira. “Get out! Get out!”

Oliveira looked at his friend, who told him in a soft voice, “You’ve gotta go.”

Oliveira leaned in toward Simmons. “Is she controlling your life now?”

As Oliveira tells it, Simmons looked down, and with one resigned word confirmed his worst suspicions: “Yes.” This was the last time he saw his friend.

With Reveles shrieking behind him, Oliveira hustled out to his truck, picked up his cell phone, and asked an intermediary to contact Simmons’ older brother, Lenny. He and Lenny did not have a close relationship, but Oliveira knew of nowhere else to turn.

Oliveira is calm as he recounts this story, but irritation enters his voice as he recalls a threat leveled that day, nearly two years ago. “Later that evening, Richard called me and said that his manager and Teresa wanted to put a restraining order against me — you can see how controlling they are — and I said, ‘What restraining order? You are the one who called me. I’m not invading your privacy, or your house.’ That was the end of that. No restraining order was put against me.”

Oliveira has spoken briefly about his privileged access to Simmons during this dark period, but never in this much detail. He recently underwent a heart procedure, which he blames on Simmons-related stress, and is reluctant to invite further strain. But he agreed to elaborate on a Hollywood mystery that has previously been told only in a few cryptic tabloid items.

Richard Simmons has vanished from public view, and many who know him best say they haven’t had any contact in more than two years. All repeat the same message, some anonymously and some on the record: Simmons stopped returning calls and emails more than two years ago, behavior that is highly out of character, and his housekeeper is blocking access to him at home. Indeed, for a generous and intensely social public figure, one who taught classes at his Beverly Hills gym until a few years ago; has sold more than 20 million exercise videos, including the mega-popular “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” series; appeared many times on David Letterman’s shows, “General Hospital,” his own talk show and infomercials; and was a seemingly ubiquitous presence for decades, the silence is striking.  (Continue Reading)

Full Article & Source:
The haunted twilight of Richard Simmons

Emeritus at Santa Rosa nursing home to pay $1 million in settlement

Emeritus at Santa Rosa nursing home to pay $1 million in settlement 

 Editor's note:  This Shark wonders why this kind of crap goes on every day in Chicago nursing homes...and yet nothing is done to the crooks?????  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
    



(2 of 3) The family of Eleanor Buckingham, center, with her children Kent and Deborah, will receive $1 million from a high-end Santa Rosa nursing home after the settlement of a wrongful death and elder abuse lawsuit. (Family photo)



(3 of 3) Brookedale Fountaingrove in Santa Rosa (WWW.BROOKDALE.COM)



(1 of 3) The family of Eleanor Buckingham, center, with her children Deborah and Kent, will receive $1 million from a high-end Santa Rosa nursing home after the settlement of a wrongful death and elder abuse lawsuit. (Family photo)



(2 of 3) The family of Eleanor Buckingham, center, with her children Kent and Deborah, will receive $1 million from a high-end Santa Rosa nursing home after the settlement of a wrongful death and elder abuse lawsuit. (Family photo)



(3 of 3) Brookedale Fountaingrove in Santa Rosa (WWW.BROOKDALE.COM)



(1 of 3) The family of Eleanor Buckingham, center, with her children Deborah and Kent, will receive $1 million from a high-end Santa Rosa nursing home after the settlement of a wrongful death and elder abuse lawsuit. (Family photo)



(2 of 3) The family of Eleanor Buckingham, center, with her children Kent and Deborah, will receive $1 million from a high-end Santa Rosa nursing home after the settlement of a wrongful death and elder abuse lawsuit. (Family photo)
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PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | February 23, 2016
  
  
   
  

  
 
A high-end Santa Rosa nursing home has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a wrongful death and elder abuse lawsuit alleging it allowed a patient to die from complications of a bedsore, attorneys said Tuesday.
Emeritus at Santa Rosa, since renamed Brookdale Fountaingrove, agreed to the payout in the 2013 death of Eleanor Buckingham, 87.
Her family alleged nursing staff erred in treating a pressure ulcer that developed on her back, withholding proper care until it became infected.
She died of sepsis after being taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, said attorneys Jeremy Fietz and Sandy Horowitz.
They said the case shows even the most expensive nursing facilities make mistakes. Emeritus charged patients about $100,000 a year to stay in the Fountaingrove Parkway facility, the attorneys said.

“I think it’s really important that people watch very carefully, no matter what nursing home their loved one gets into,” Fietz said.
Sue Becker, nursing home administrator and executive director, did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment. She was named in the suit, filed in Sonoma County Superior Court, along with Jennifer Abramson, the former director of nursing. A spokeswoman for the Tennessee-based company, Shawna Zody, did not comment.
Brookdale bought Emeritus Corporation in 2014 for a reported $1.4 billion in stock. The company owns at least three other facilities in Sonoma County.

The company released a statement Tuesday saying it has made unspecified changes since the merger, and highlighting that the lawsuit concerned events that predated the merger.
“While there were defenses to the allegations, we ultimately decided to resolve this case to put our focus on what matters most, the health and well-being of our residents,” said the statement from spokeswoman Shawna Zody.
A Bay Area watchdog said the $1 million settlement is significant since damages for simple negligence are capped at $250,000 under state law.
“A million dollars is a statement,” said Patricia McGinnis, executive director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. “It says, we did something wrong.”
She said her group receives frequent complaints about corporate-owned nursing homes, including those operated by Seattle-based Emeritus and Brookdale.


“They are large, for-profit chains trying to provide healthcare,” she said. “I’m not sure they are capable of doing it.”
Buckingham, a San Francisco native who served as a civilian airplane spotter during World War II, moved to Santa Rosa with her late husband, Warren, in the 1950s. She raised two children and eventually became a pilot herself, joining the Ninety-Nines, an international organization for female fliers.
After suffering a bout of cellulitis about four years ago, she was admitted to Emeritus in November 2012 for rehabilitation with plans to return to live with her daughter in Windsor, her attorneys said.
Emeritus staff noticed the bed sore on her back at admission but did not take immediate action to treat it, the lawyers said. Instead, they allowed the wound to double in size and held her at the facility until Jan. 15 — the last day covered by Medicare, Fietz and Horowitz said.
At that point, Emeritus downgraded her treatment from skilled nursing to assisted living, the lawyers said.

 



    

 
It wasn’t until a specialist examined her four days later that Buckingham was sent to Memorial Hospital with a serious infection on her back, Fietz and Horowitz said. She died of sepsis eight days later.
Her family alleged the nursing home cut corners by employing people without proper training. It also let profits dictate its treatment decisions, they said.
The settlement came on the eve of trial, set for March 4.
  
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$23 million award in wrongful death suit 
   
The attorneys said the fact the damages exceeded the $250,000 cap is equal to a jury finding Emeritus committed elder abuse. Also, they said the company agreed to waive the usual confidentiality clause — another acknowledgment of blame.
“Being able to talk about this is very rare in the nursing home setting,” Fietz said. “They don’t want you to know about these things.”
You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne

Vet, 82, Battles Attorney Over Stolen Inheritance

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Grover Gordon is a survivor. He bears the scars of war. But these days, this 82-year-old Korean War veteran is fighting another battle, a battle over a stolen inheritance.

"She had me completely buffaloed," said Gordon. "And since you don't know nothing, you can't say anything."

Vet, 82, Battles Attorney Over Stolen Inheritance

NBC 7's Consumer Bob speaks with Korean War veteran Grover Gordon, 82, a recent victim of theft. An attorney that Gordon trusted recently pleaded guilty to stealing a thousands of dollars out of an inheritance left to Gordon by a friend. (Published Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013)

Gordon is talking about Sydney Kirkland, an Escondido, Calif. attorney hired to take care of Gordon's finances. But she did more than that.

Gordon received more than $280,000 from a trust that was left to him after the death of his good friend, Bobbi Letman.

Kirkland was Letman's attorney, so when the money changed hands, Kirkland added her own name as a co-trustee and beneficiary of the trust.

"He didn't have a family, he needed someone to trust," said Escondido police detective Tom Phelps. "And this person totally took advantage of him."

Within weeks of adding her name to the trust, Sydney Kirkland started taking money out of the inheritance. After just a few months, the $285,729 was down to $10,096. She had taken more than $275,000 without Gordon's knowledge.

"He didn't understand how trusts work," said Detective Phelps. "He feels totally betrayed."

But Grover Gordon noticed something was wrong.

He got a property bill that he thought was paid for by his attorney. That prompted him to hire a second attorney to investigate, and that's when the deception started to unravel.

"I'm telling you, boy, it's a shock, a terrible shock," said Gordon.

The Missouri native quickly found out that his money was gone. Investigators were called in, and eventually Kirkland admitted what she had done.

Det. Phelps said Kirkland had started living the high life, paying off debts, donating to charity and flying to Europe with her antique Packard to drive around France.

She even posted photos of the trip on her Facebook page.

"I did something horrible, I can't imagine how this could have happened," Kirkland told Vista Superior Court Judge Aaron Katz on Monday.

She pleaded guilty to three felony charges including grand theft, embezzlement and financial abuse of an elder and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Kirkland has also been ordered to pay back the money to Gordon that she stole from him.

Published at 5:26 PM PDT on Sep 17, 2013

Source: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Stealing-from-Seniors-Grover-Gordon-Sydney-Kirkland-224149901.html#ixzz40QqtaptK
Follow us: @nbcsandiego on Twitter | NBCSanDiego on Facebook

Court Clerk in California Caught fixing Cases

Editor's note:  This Shark would love to have those "pesky F.B.I. agents" meddling into the crooks at the Probate Court of Cook County. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

 

Court Clerk in California Caught fixing Cases

January 03, 2016   legalbeagle   No comments

It appears California is on the cutting edge of judicial corruption howbeit in the opposite direction.  There were several times in my life that I wish I could have paid someone at the courthouse to make a charge/ticket go away.  In  Orange County, California, that dream was a reality from 2010 to 2015. Had it not been or those pesky F.B.I agents that were meddling their way into Orange County’s litigation processes, it probably would be going on right now.

Citizens have been getting notices to appear in Orange County Superior Court despite the record which reflects that cases were plead out or dismissed.  Apparently, this scam has been tied to a Court Clerk that, by happenstance, recently resigned from the Superior Court Clerk’s Office.  It’s difficult to believe a Clerk went for 5yrs fixing cases and taking bribes and without being caught.  In fact, the FBI alleges the Clerk assigned counsel to represent these defendants who paid upwards of 10k to make these cases go away.   When reaching out to counsel of record for these purported defendants, attorneys allege they have no idea who these people are that they never represented them.   What is not clear is how and who the citizen paid these large sums of money to.  According to the LA Times defendants were paying large sums of money to “middlemen” who would then remit the cash money to someone known as the “fixer” who would quietly make the case[s] go away.
At some point, the Feds caught wind of this hustle which, according to the LA  Times, was targeted towards Latino men and began unravelling this tangled web woven in Orange County.  An educated hunch would lead a reasonable person to believe cuplability goes much higher up the food chain than the Clerk of the Court.  Don’t be suprised if you never hear anything about this case again because as soon as the Judges get caught in this sting — the Feds will surely blackmail them and it will all be swept under the rug.
http://www.latimes.com/local/orangecounty/la-me-oc-fixed-tickets-20150620-story.html
If you have any information about courthouse corruption, pictures, audio, video or otherwise newsworthy content about any Courthouse “actors” please let use know.

Mickey Rooney’s Kids Come Out with Shocking Accusation About How Their Dad Died

Editor's note:  This Shark believes the timing of the death of Alice R. Gore coinciding with the almost complete depletion of her estate by the Probate Court of Cook County is also suspicious.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

Mickey Rooney’s Kids Come Out with Shocking Accusation About How Their Dad Died

By Britt D.B. (9 days ago) | Crime

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PGRpdiBjbGFzcz0ibWlkX2FydGljbGUgIiBpZD0ibWdhLWFkLWNvbnRlbnRfbWlkX2FydGljbGUiID48ZGl2IGNsYXNzPSJwdWJuYXRpb24gY3VzdG9tIiBkYXRhLXRhcmdldD0idGJ4MDEiIHN0eWxlPSJ2aXNpYmlsaXR5OiBoaWRkZW47Ij5yZXBvcnQgdGhpcyBhZDwvZGl2Pgo8IS0tIFRhYm9vbGFYIE5lZWRzIFRoaXMgSGVyZSAtLT4KPC9kaXY+

In a shocking new claim, members of deceased Hollywood icon Mickey Rooney’s family have accused his step-son, Mark Aber, of foul play.
In fact, Rooney’s estranged wife Jan Chamberlain and some of his children have accused Mark of poisoning the 93-year-old actor.
Suspicions rose after Rooney signed a new will, just weeks before his death. In the revised document, the “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” star cut his biological children and Jan out of the will entirely.
Rooney’s entire estate, which amounted to merely $18,000, was left to Mark and his wife Charlene.

Image Credit: Getty/ Evan Agostini

However, two of the star’s children, Kerry and Kelly, want a post-mortem toxicology test done to prove their claims. Kelly even snipped a strand of Rooney’s hair as he laid in his coffin for later examination.
The pair, along with Jan and her other son Chris, reportedly noticed eerie signs pointing to foul play, like ‘literature’ over how to poison someone in the mail. The mother and son pair are filing a suit which will likely be followed by a ‘fresh autopsy.’
That’s right: They want to exhume the body.
But this isn’t the first time Rooney’s money troubles and family sparring have reached the public eye.

Image Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN / Staff

According to CNN, the actor accused Chris Aber of elder abuse and money extortion back in 2011.
Though Kelly cannot currently afford to run forensic tests on her father’s hair samples, she’s hopeful new evidence will uncover any wrongdoing.

FBI raids Riverside nursing home. Why the sudden interest?

Editor's note: This Shark asks his readers why hundreds of people have viewed this posting in the last few days?  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

 

Sunday, November 1, 2015

FBI raids Riverside nursing home

Editor's note: Your ProbateShark can suggest some Chicago area nursing home owners who are equally as criminally involved as Shlomo for FBI raids.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com 


FBI raids Riverside nursing home

Documents taken from Alta Vista Healthcare & Wellness Centre
Facility owned by Shlomo Rechnitz, subject of Bee investigation
Two more Rechnitz employees criminally charged in separate incident

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Shlomo Rechnitz faces more scrutiny as arrests and warrants related to his large collection of nursing homes have gone forward in recent days. Paul Kitagaki Jr. pkitagaki@sacbee.com

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/nursing-homes/article41344296.html#storylink=cpy

sacbee.com

By Marjie Lundstrom
mlundstrom@sacbee.com

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California’s largest nursing home owner is facing a new round of government scrutiny as the FBI served search warrants last week at his Riverside facility, and two more of his former top administrators have been charged criminally by the state attorney general’s office.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller confirmed Saturday that FBI agents executed search warrants “seeking evidence in relation to alleged criminal activity” at a 99-bed facility in Riverside owned by nursing home magnate Shlomo Rechnitz.

Eimiller said she could not comment on the exact nature of the federal probe because the affidavit in support of the warrants is under seal. However, the FBI spokeswoman said it was her understanding that agents took documents, and that “patients were not removed or even disturbed” during Thursday’s raid at the Alta Vista Healthcare & Wellness Centre.

We are not aware of any basis for the (FBI) investigation, but are cooperating fully with authorities.
Sallie Hofmeister, spokeswoman for Shlomo Rechnitz and his facilities

The latest investigations shine the spotlight again on Rechnitz, a 44-year-old Los Angeles entrepreneur whose facilities have been the focus of multiple local, state and federal probes, along with stepped-up scrutiny by health officials.
His stable of nursing homes in California has expanded rapidly in the last decade, giving him control of about 1 in every 14 skilled nursing beds in the state, according to a Bee investigation. With an estimated 80 homes under his control, Rechnitz has widespread influence on the quality of care being delivered in skilled nursing facilities, which serve some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.
The Bee found that homes he owned for all of last year were tagged with nearly triple as many serious deficiencies per 1,000 beds as the statewide average in 2014, according to the latest figures from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Sallie Hofmeister, a spokeswoman for Rechnitz and his facilities, said Saturday in an email to The Bee: “We are not aware of any basis for the (FBI) investigation, but are cooperating fully with authorities. We cannot comment on the specifics of the discussions with the authorities, but at this time we have no reason to believe the investigation has anything to do with patient care. Alta Vista is proud of the care and treatment it provides to its patients.”
Besides last week’s FBI raid, several Rechnitz employees are facing their own legal challenges.
The former administrator and former top nurse at one of his Orange County nursing homes were charged criminally in August in connection with the alleged abuse last year of two residents – one of two criminal cases filed by the California attorney general in August against employees at facilities owned by Rechnitz.
Joseph Munoz III and Milagros Victoria Soqueno have been charged with four misdemeanor counts each of inflicting injury on an elder adult and failing to report elder abuse. Munoz had been the administrator of the 80-bed Mesa Verde Post Acute Care Center in Costa Mesa, and Soqueno was the nurse in charge at the time of the 2014 incidents, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Soqueno’s and Munoz’s charges stemmed from the discovery last year by a Department of Public Health inspector that a resident at the facility had been inappropriately touching other patients, and staff knew about it but failed to immediately report the incidents or protect residents from further harm, said AG’s spokeswoman Kristin Ford. After prompting from health officials, the facility eventually filed the mandated abuse reports, she said.
Arraignment is set for Dec. 10 in Orange County, and the case is being handled by the AG’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse.
Hofmeister, spokeswoman for Rechnitz and his facilities, said that “no employees were arrested at Mesa Verde Post Acute Care Center.”
“The facility investigated the allegations and the employees are no longer with Mesa Verde,” she said in Saturday’s email. “The facility has cooperated with authorities and has not been cited for the incident.”
Also in August, Attorney General Kamala Harris announced that her office had filed involuntary manslaughter charges against Verdugo Valley Skilled Nursing & Wellness Centre LLC, a 138-bed facility owned by Rechnitz in suburban Montrose, near Glendale. In that criminal case, the AG’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse brought felony charges against two registered nurses at the facility, accusing them of dependent-adult abuse in connection with the death of a burn victim, who allegedly was neglected. The preliminary hearing in that case is set for Dec 8.

Bee staff writer Phillip Reese contributed to this report.

Marjie Lundstrom: 916-321-1055, @MarjieLundstrom

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Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/nursing-homes/article41344296.html#storylink=cpy