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December 2007

FLORIDA  

Florida Attorney Accused Of Theft From Estates

North Country Gazette

12-17-07 --  A former St. Petersburg attorney has been charged with two counts of first degree grand theft for allegedly stealing funds from several estates he was hired to administrate. . . . Martin Watson, 47, had been hired by representatives of two estates.  He began receiving funds from each estate and placing the money into his bank account.  The money was to be distributed to the heirs of each estate. . ..  According to St. Petersburg Police, during this period, from July 2006 until May 2007, Watson began experiencing both personal and business related expenses which caused financial hardships for him. To cover his expenses he used money from both estates without authorization. Heirs to the Estate of Evelyn Cromwell suffered a financial loss of $244,623.05. Heirs to the Estate of Julia Cooke suffered a financial loss of $256,446.41.

Email from a concerned friend of Judge John L. Phillips

NEW YORK ATTORNEY NEEDED FOR RETIRED JUDGE

10-14-07 -- “I am concerned about my friend, retired Judge, John Phillips who had over $10 million dollars stolen from him.  No one is being held accountable for this. He is 84 years old and has no immediate family in New York.  Judge Michael Pesce and others are in on ruining this man. I need help in finding a good lawyer to assist him in getting his property and money back and his name restored. . . . More on the story follows:”

Erasing the Kung-Fu Judge

by Christopher Ketcham, The Brooklyn Rail

The case of the plundering of the estate of retired judge John L. Phillips is the nexus where corruption and a rainbow coalition of cliché meet, Brooklyn-style: you have an Irish hack district attorney and an Italian magistrate who is either a greedhead or an imbecile, plus a Jewish money-man for the D.A. allegedly buying up property at fixed auctions, not to mention a viper’s nest of well-dressed blacks from the neighborhood getting their taste. Indeed, Kafka, Dickens and Scorsese together would have a hard time fictionalizing the web of courtroom criminality that has ensnared 84-year-old Phillips, himself retired from the very Brooklyn “justice system” that has presided over the dissolution of his affairs. . . . Phillips was once known as the Kung-Fu Judge for his habit of employing martial arts moves on the bench. He grew up poor on a Kansas farm, served in World War II, was the first black man to be admitted to the Montana State Bar, studied kung-fu in Japan, and eventually became a self-made millionaire buying up real estate in Bedford-Stuyvesant. When he ran for a judgeship in Brooklyn civil court in 1976 as the anti-machine candidate, his hired sound-trucks blasted the hit song, “Kung-Fu Fighting.” . . . Fast-forward a quarter-century: In 2000, Brooklyn D.A. Charles “Joe” Hynes, a master of the tricks of the law who had become one of the most powerful machine politicians in the borough, began a secret action to seal up Phillips’ assets and declare him mentally incompetent. Hynes claimed he was concerned about the old man’s health—Phillips was 77 years old at the time, long retired from the bench, and had no close relatives, and so Hynes sought to “help” him, according to public statements. But others wonder if Hynes’ concern was a calculation of the coldest kind: Phillips had tried to run for the D.A.’s seat in 1997—until Hynes’ election lawyers knocked him off the ballot—and the humiliating loss Hynes suffered in the 1998 race for governor suggested the D.A. was vulnerable again in 2001, when he was up for a fourth term. Phillips was thus considered a potential challenger to Hynes in 2001.

Be Wary of Waiving Your Rights
By Ken Connor

10-14-07 -- "America needs more lawsuits. That's the message hundreds of plaintiffs' trial lawyers from across the country are taking to Capitol Hill this week as they lobby Congress to make it easier to bring more lawsuits." It was clear from the opening paragraph of Lisa Rickard's article "Lobbying for Lawsuits" (posted 10/3/07) that Town Hall readers were in for yet another trip into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's fantasy land, where "greedy trial lawyers" abuse the legal system with "frivolous lawsuits." . . . No one should be surprised that this latest excursion was led by Ms. Rickard. She is head of the Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform and its chief in-house advocate for measures to erode individuals' rights in the civil justice system. . . . But Ms. Rickard started this trip off on the wrong foot. The lawyers who were on Capitol Hill last week were there primarily to lobby members of Congress to support the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007, a bill that supports voluntary arbitration while preserving the constitutional guarantee of citizen access to the courts. . . . You see, what the Chamber of Commerce and its corporate members want is mandatory binding arbitration—the kind of arbitration that permanently precludes deserving individuals from ever seeking legal redress in the courts when they are injured by the negligence or misconduct of others. . . . As a trial lawyer who specializes in cases of nursing home abuse of the elderly, I am frequently confronted with the Chamber's model of arbitration in my practice. In many small communities across America, the elderly and their families often have only one nursing home conveniently available to them. Capitalizing on their monopoly, these facilities often require incoming residents (many of whom are demented, medicated or otherwise suffering from some form of diminished capacity) to check their rights at the nursing home door by waiving their right to receive justice through America's court system. No waiver of rights, no admittance! The alternative that's offered to residents who may suffer abuse or neglect at the hands of their caregivers is "mandatory binding arbitration," a system rigged in favor of nursing home owners. The owners provide a steady flow of business to those arbitrators who predictably "low ball" residents victimized by abuse or neglect. A tremendous boon to the corporate bottom-line, of course, but it has little to do with justice. . . . The elderly in nursing homes are not the only Americans affected by mandatory binding arbitration and the loss of their legal remedies to achieve justice.

July 2007

NEW YORK  

Evidence of Missing Funds From Retired Judge’s Estate

Latest Accounting Reveals Financial Mismanagement
By Charles Sweeney, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

7-9-07 -- A retired judge’s former court-appointed property guardian may be on the hook for a considerable amount of money, if a recent accounting of her tenure as financial manager of his estate is accurate. . . . The most recent accounting of attorney Emani P. Taylor’s tenure as property guardian, prepared by Court Examiner Seth Cohen, has recently been filed with the presiding judge overseeing retired Judge John Phillips’ guardianship case. If the figures are correct, Taylor will have to answer for several expenditures — including $119,300 in disbursements she made to herself during 2006 and $49,813 she made in 2004. . . . According to a source familiar with the accounting, in 2004, Taylor made cash withdrawals from the retired judge’s account for $49,813. In some instances, Taylor withdrew the funds as cash directly from one of Phillips’ accounts, then used the funds to make out bank checks to herself. In the past, Taylor has been accused of using Phillips’ bank accounts to write checks directly to a mortgage company, payments on a property she owns on Decatur Street — the same Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood where Phillips remains a local legend. More evidence that Taylor used Phillips’ bank accounts to make mortgage payments on the townhouse appears in this latest accounting.

FEDERAL COURTS

2nd Circuit Re-Examines Standard for Probate Exception

Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal

7-5-07 -- A retired attorney's long-running fight with the Bank of New York and a White Plains, N.Y., law firm over her parents' estate gave a federal appeals court the chance to explore the new standard on the probate exception to federal diversity jurisdiction. . . . The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision changed the scope of the exception and the circuit's own case law, with the result that some of the claims brought by Adrienne Marsh Lefkowitz against the bank and McCarthy, Fingar, Donovan, Drazen & Smith can stay in federal court. . . . Second Circuit Judges John Walker and Peter Hall, with Southern District of New York Judge Denise Cote, sitting by designation, decided Lefkowitz v. The Bank of New York, 04-0435-cv. Hall wrote for the panel. . . . Lefkowitz had made several claims against the bank and the law firm, including that the bank paid inflated and fraudulent bills to McCarthy Fingar from 1990 to 1999, refused to distribute some personal property to her from her parents' estate and refused to pay her legal fees for the probate contests over the estates.

June 2007

RHODE ISLAND  

Judge: Neither daughter is fit to be guardian

By Tracy Breton, Journal Staff Writer

6-27-07 -- Superior Court Judge Alice B. Gibney decided yesterday that neither of Laurette Borduas Eifrig’s grown daughters is suitable to be her guardian, saying there is too much animosity between them to put either in charge of their mother’s care and finances. . . . In a 33-page decision issued shortly before the courthouse closed for the weekend, Gibney ordered that North Providence lawyer Paula M. Cuculo remain as guardian of Eifrig, a 90-year-old retired schoolteacher who is blind and suffers from dementia. Only Cuculo has the right to access any of Eifrig’s trust funds, the judge decreed. While she said Cuculo should “consider Mrs. Eifrig’s wishes” regarding her finances, health care and place of residence, “ultimately … Ms. Cuculo will be responsible for making all final decisions.”

TEXAS  

Questions, allegations surround Texas probate courts
Observers say Harris County has most flagrant cases

By Lise Olsen, Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

6-25-07 -- A Houston Chronicle investigation of hundreds of records and thousands of court-ordered payments, as well as interviews with judges and lawyers, found evidence of questionable billings and favoritism in Texas probate courts — with the most troubling examples in Harris County. . . . The Chronicle documented cases in which probate judges allowed appointees to charge more than $200 an hour for nonlegal work, including selling cars, visiting pawnshops and arranging to get the lawn mowed. . . . Earlier this year, one Harris County judge approved paying $1,000 in fees to a lawyer for attending her ward's funeral and burial. . . . In several complex cases, judges approved unusually high fees as well as questionable deals and expenditures, the newspaper found. . . . Statewide, 2,000 lawyers report they primarily practice probate law. But, according to a Chronicle analysis of approved court fees over three years, a handful of attorneys handled the most lucrative probate court deals. . . . The Texas Code of Judicial Conduct says judges should avoid "favoritism and nepotism." Jurists are further instructed to avoid regularly conducting business with those likely to appear in their court.

Perry Whatley battles probate court to the end
When probate court threatened to take away his assets, Perry Whatley gave up and fled — and ultimately died far from his home

By Lise Olsen, Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

6-25-07 -- Perry ''Bit" Whatley, 84, a former Baytown refinery worker and lifelong Texan, spent his final days in self-imposed exile, a fugitive from a more than two-year-old fight with the state probate courts. . . . Whatley was living in Arizona when he died, but it was not where he wanted to be, away from his home, cut off from his family and his $2 million fortune. . . . It was an unlikely, but perhaps unavoidable, end for the retired machinist, a frugal man who had wisely invested his savings in Humble Oil, which became Exxon, then Exxon Mobil. The investment made him a millionaire nearly twice over, and yet for 20 years after his retirement he lived a simple life in a simple Baytown bungalow until last summer, when he fled the jurisdiction of Harris County Probate Court. . . . Whatley died Feb. 14 in a rental home in Tempe in the company of his longtime caregiver, Dawn Johnson Whatley, 63, whom he married in a bedside ceremony in January 2005. His wife was his sole heir. . . . The Whatleys, both seniors with serious health problems, abandoned their own home and went into hiding together last summer. They left to avoid a hearing and, later, orders issued by Probate Judge Mike Wood that declared Whatley incapacitated, took away control of his assets and could have forced him into a nursing home.

A Catch-22 if you want lawyer's work reviewed

Initially, the cost of investigating comes from estates of those who were allegedly harmed

Houston Chronicle

6-25-07 -- Probate courts do have an internal mechanism for reviewing the work of court-appointed lawyers. . . . However, the cost of investigating, at least initially, comes from personal estates — the people allegedly harmed in the first place. . . . Houston lawyer Sheila Latham was a top-paid guardian in Harris County until her accounting got sloppy. . . . A lawyer appointed by Probate Judge Mike Wood to review her work discovered Latham had taken about $72,000 from a bedbound and nonresponsive elderly man, powerless to complain. She cashed her ward's CD and put the money in her greeting-card business, records show. . . . Latham eventually was convicted of theft and misapplication of fiduciary property and lost her law license. She could not be reached for comment for this report. . . . In 2004, after six years, attorneys managed to obtain a $97,000 settlement for the elderly man's estate. . . . By then, the man was dead.

CALIFORNIA  

RPV lawyer convicted of embezzling from client

Jurors took only two hours to decide attorney was guilty of pilfering money from a trust fund. The couple he stole from are both dead now.

From staff reports

6-18-07 -- A Rancho Palos Verdes attorney was convicted Friday of embezzling $150,000 from an elderly client who once served as Walt Disney's secretary, the District Attorney's Office said. . . . Jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court took two hours to find Salvatore Patrick Osio, 69, guilty of theft from an elder, grand theft, forgery and perjury. . . . Prosecutors charged Osio last year, alleging that shortly after Alicia Waters and her husband, Henry, hired him in July 2002, he pilfered the money from their trust fund. . . . Mrs. Waters, 89 at the time, discovered the theft after her husband's death and filed a report with the California State Bar. She died in November 2005 at 92. . . . Judge George Lomeli scheduled sentencing for July 11.

RHODE ISLAND  

Judge limits daughter’s access to ailing mother

By Tracy Breton, Journal Staff Writer

6-13-07 -- A Superior Court judge is now prohibiting Laurette Borduas Eifrig’s Virginia daughter and only grandchild from having unsupervised contact with 90-year-old Eifrig, who is in an assisted-living facility on Smith Street. . . . The new restrictions on family visits isolate Eifrig, a former schoolteacher who is blind and suffers from dementia, from all immediate family members and has left her with no visitors except two lawyers, one of whom is her guardian. . . . Over Easter weekend, Judge Alice B. Gibney issued an order blocking Eifrig’s Rhode Island daughter, Suzette Gebhard, the former head of the Rhode Island League of Women Voters, from having any contact with her mother, calling her a “kidnapping risk.”

May 2007

OHIO  

Lawyer's license suspended for overbilling elderly clients

By Kevin Mayhood, The Columbus Dispatch

5-18-07 -- A Columbus lawyer who went toe-to-toe with Franklin County Probate Judge Lawrence A. Belskis took it on the chin this week. . . . Bryan Bright Johnson, who charged in 2002 that Belskis had spent public funds on golf, Christmas parties and tickets to the Memorial Tournament, had his license suspended for six months by the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday. . . . Johnson's allegations about Belskis' ethics came after Belskis complained that Johnson grossly overbilled two elderly sisters. . . . "I caught him stealing" and the allegations were retribution, Belskis said in a 2002 interview.

NEW YORK  

Court Orders Release of Retired Judge from Nursing Home,

OKs Transfer to Park Slope Assisted Living Facility

By Charles Sweeney, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

5-14-07 -- After spending just over two years living in a cramped, foul-smelling room in a bleak nursing home at the outer reaches of the Bronx, a beloved, retired Brooklyn judge is finally being transferred to an assisted living facility closer to his Brooklyn home. . . . At a guardianship hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday, a judge ordered retired judge John Phillips’ release from East Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility in the Bronx, where he’s languished for more than two years while court-appointed lawyers haggled over his mismanaged estate. . . . State Supreme Court Justice Michael Pesce ordered Phillips transferred to Castle Senior Living on Prospect Park, an assisted living facility close to the retired jurist’s Bedford-Stuyvesant home neighborhood. There, Phillips will reside in a private room, in a facility with many of the amenities of home — while simultaneously receiving the proper care he requires for his Alzheimer’s condition. Calling his decision “a milestone moment” given the travails that Phillips suffered due to financial mismanagement in the past, Pesce called the transfer “a step that will be much better for John Phillips, and a considerable improvement from where he’s at currently.” . . . Pesce gave the job of managing the nuts and bolts of Phillips’ transfer to Castle Senior Living to court-appointed geriatric specialist Sam Rausman, who said Phillips’ move could be affected in “24 to 48 hours,” provided there was an opening at the facility. . . . Castle on Prospect Park will provide Phillips with far more freedom of movement than he ever had at East Haven, attorney Ezra Glaser said. Glaser is the attorney representing Phillips’ niece and personal guardian, Symphanie Moss.       

At 95, NY Lawyer Fights a Neverending Battle for Fellow Seniors

New York Lawyer, By Janine Friend, New York Law Journal

5-14-07 -- Elizabeth Fass has a reputation for doing all she can to help senior citizens in her role as pro bono attorney in the senior affairs bureau of the Kings County District Attorney's Office. So her colleagues were not surprised when she went the extra mile for Frances Lundstrom. . . . Ms. Fass, who is 95, signed onto the seniors bureau, started by District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, in 1992 and has spent the last 14 years educating the elderly on how to avoid becoming crime victims. . . . Ms. Fass says she has spent "endless hours" traveling to senior centers around the borough, lecturing and answering questions on topics such as mortgage fraud, predatory lending and personal safety. She is also hands on, assisting elderly victims of crime during grand jury testimonies and lengthy interviews with assistants. Seniors feel comfortable with her, she said. . . . The elderly cannot relate to young, "fresh, bright and strong" attorneys, Ms. Fass said. They lack one thing she added, "grey hair and a few wrinkles." . . . It was her familiar presence in the community senior centers as the legal expert that prompted Grace Brandi, director of the Surf Solomon Senior Center in Coney Island, to call Ms. Fass in December 2005, after she heard a comment from Ms. Lundstrom, who took part in the center's recreational activities. . . . Ms. Lundstrom, a resident of Haber House Senior Center in Coney Island, told her friends she had won the "El Gordo" lottery. Ms. Brandi reported to Ms. Fass that Ms. Lundstrom was asked for the number of the account where the money was to be deposited.

NEW YORK  

At long last, please set Judge Phillips free

By Christopher Ketcham for The Brooklyn Paper

5-11-07 -- Could the tragic, six-year-long saga of retired Brooklyn Civil Court judge John L. Phillips finally be nearing a conclusion? . . . In 2001, Phillips was placed under a county-run guardianship program because he was declared to be “mentally incompetent” and needed the aid of government. . . . Now, six years later, this self-made multi-millionaire who served honorably for 13 years, is destitute and confined against his will to a Bronx nursing home. He is barred from receiving visitors or mail or even phone calls without permission of the court. His property has been sold off in unpublished and possibly illegal auctions. Millions in assets have disappeared.

• • •

Judge Phillips’s epic troubles began when Assistant District Attorney Steven Kramer, who worked for DA Joe Hynes, sought to have a guardian appointed for Phillips, claiming concern about the safety of the old man’s considerable assets. Phillips was 77 years old at the time and had no family, and Hynes sought to “help” him, according to letters his office has written to The Brooklyn Paper and elsewhere. A question exists, however, that Hynes may have had another concern — after all, Phillips had tried to unseat the DA in 1997 and was gearing up for another run.

April 2007

RHODE ISLAND

Family face-off hits courtroom

By Tracy Breton, Journal Staff Writer

4-21-07 -- Suzette Gebhard, the former head of the Governor’s Justice Commission, went on trial yesterday for obstruction of justice, a charge that stemmed from her secreting her 90-year-old mother, who suffers from dementia, in her house in Warren, keeping a court-appointed guardian from seeing her. . . . If convicted of the misdemeanor charge, Gebhard, 60, a one-time Democratic congressional candidate who also served as head of the Rhode Island League of Women Voters, faces up to one year in prison and/or a $500 fine.

NEW YORK

The Tax Travails Of the ‘Kung-Fu Judge'

By Joseph Goldstein, Staff Reporter of the Sun

4-18-07 -- To see a man with really bad tax troubles, look no further than the East Haven Nursing home in the Bronx, home to a retired judge who owes more than a million dollars in taxes. . . . For the last six years, April has come and gone without a tax return from John Phillips, who was for decades a prominent political figure in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. . . . Mr. Phillips, 84, suffers from dementia and is hardly a tax cheat. Since 2001, the responsibility for his taxes has been with a string of law guardians appointed by the state court since 2001. . . . But for reasons that are not yet clear, the lawyers involved in the case never filed tax returns. . . . Mr. Phillips, who is neither married nor has any heirs, was put under the care of a legal guardian at the request of the office of the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes. Prosecutors had begun to suspect that Mr. Phillips's real estate holdings were being fraudulently stolen, and that Mr. Phillips was no longer able to care for himself, Mr. Hynes has said in the past.

February 2007

CALIFORNIA  

SF: District Attorney Speaks On Elder Financial Abuse

2-20-07 -- (BCN) San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris helped kick off a public awareness campaign this morning designed to educate elders who are prime targets for financial abuse. . . . The term refers to crimes committed by people close to senior citizens, usually caretakers or those in a position of trust who defraud their victims of retirement savings, according to the Elder Financial Protection Network. . . . The network, which organized this morning's conference, reports that these types of crimes are particularly destructive because many over 65 years old are unable to recoup their losses and may even lose their ability to live independently. . . . Typical methods of elder abuse include: using stolen ATM and credit cards; deceiving an elderly person into signing loan papers; abuse of power of attorney; telemarketing and sweepstakes scams; predatory lending; and identity fraud. . . . Harris announced today that along with law enforcement, financial institutions and a number of nonprofit organizations, she would be launching an initiative to get the word out.

December 2006

CALIFORNIA  

Bail set at $1M for lawyer accused of embezzlement

By: North County Times wire services

12-29-06 --A lawyer accused of embezzling more than $900,000 from the estate of an Orange County woman and using much of it for online gambling had her bail set today at $1 million, while her arraignment was postponed. . . . Jennifer Ann Wenger, 53, of San Juan Capistrano, is accused of embezzling more than $900,000 from the estate of Goldie Carlova while serving as the court appointed conservator and administrator of her estate between Oct. 12, 2004 and Feb. 28. . . . She is charged with 73 counts of grand theft, along with enhancements for committing aggravated white collar crime over $500,000 and property damage of more than $150,000, said. . . . If convicted, Wenger faces up to 56 years in prison, said Susan Schroeder of the Orange County District Attorney's Office. . . . Defense attorney Ann Cunningham declined to comment on her client's behalf.

NEW YORK  

NY Lawyer Arrested in Las Vegas, Charged With Stealing $1 Million From Aunt

New York Lawyer, By Daniel Wise, New York Law Journal

12-29-06 --A White Plains attorney was held without bail yesterday after being charged with stealing money entrusted to her by her aunt. . . . Shelley Ann Rivera, who was holding more than $1 million from the sale of the aunt's two houses, failed to produce the $860,000 the aunt, Annette Rivera, needed to close on a new home in Riverdale on Oct. 11. . . . After failing to turn over the funds, the attorney went to Las Vegas, where she was arrested, according to the Westchester District Attorney's Office. . . . In a letter to her family, Ms. Rivera apologized and acknowledged a gambling problem, according to Joel J. Reinfeld of Fischer, Porter & Thomas, who represents the aunt in a lawsuit to recover the funds. . . . Ms. Rivera, who represented her aunt in the two earlier sales, faces automatic disbarment and a maximum sentence of 5 to 15 years if convicted on the second-degree grand larceny count charged in the indictment.

'Grand' $Lam On Estate Lawyer

By Alex Ginsberg

12-20-06 -- The lawyer accused of mismanaging the affairs of an elderly ex-judge while improperly paying herself $300,000 will have to pony up a grand each day she fails to turn over documents relating to the botched case, a judge ordered yesterday. . . . "Starting tomorrow, $1,000 a day," Justice Michael Pesce told the lawyer, Emani Taylor, after finding she'd failed to hand over a single tax document in connection with her three years' work as guardian. . . . The delay is preventing Taylor's successor guardian from filing tax returns on the estate of the Alzheimer-stricken ex-Judge John Phillips. . . . "How can I prepare returns?" asked the successor, James Cahill. "Should I write hypothetical numbers?"

Nation's Guardianship System Plagued by
Attorney Conflicts of Interest

HALT (An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform)

12-15-06 -- On December 4, a Seattle Times investigation revealed that lawyers often use the guardianship system for their financial benefit to the detriment of America's most vulnerable consumers.

A guardianship begins when an individual petitions the court to show that someone else is unable to care for themselves. Courts often appoint professional guardian lawyers, who charge fees as high as $95 an hour, to make decisions on behalf of the incapacitated individual.

In one case, Karen Weed suffered brain damage in a car accident and subsequently received a cash settlement. For help managing the money, her family was referred to a lawyer specializing in guardianship law. The lawyer recommended the guardianship company Ethicare, but when the family became unhappy with the company’s actions, the attorney represented Ethicare in the case rather than the Weeds, and then charged the family for his services.

According to the Seattle Times, conflicts of interest like this regularly occur in guardianship cases. In most areas of law, lawyers specialize in representing one side or the other. Prosecutors, for example, never represent criminal defendants. But only a small circle of lawyers practice in the guardianship field and many represent both the guardianship companies as well as the people subject to those companies’ control.

“Attorney abuses and unchecked conflicts of interest are the guardianship system’s dirty little secret,” stated HALT Associate Counsel Suzanne M. Blonder. “Tens of thousands of guardianship cases in this country are removed from public record so there’s no way to monitor the lawyers entrusted with making critical financial and life style decisions for our most defenseless citizens.”

The Karen Weed file, for instance, has been stamped secret, and the Seattle Times found that judges and court commissioners in Washington State alone have sealed the entire file in at least 398 guardianship cases since 1990.

HALT has worked before to fix the broken guardianship system that allows attorneys to take advantage of conflicts of interest and profit from being paid multiple times for the same work. In 2004, HALT submitted comments to the District of Columbia Superior Court urging the court to fix its standards for attorneys working in guardianships, following an investigation by the Washington Post.

“Meaningful reforms in the guardianship system are long-overdue in jurisdictions across the country,” stated Blonder. “Courts need to strengthen oversight of attorney guardians and records need to be available for public scrutiny.”

Click here to see HALT’s comments to the D.C. Court.

Flint attorney on other side of the law

Shannon Pitcher charged with 4 counts of embezzlement

(WJRT) - (12/15/06)--A Flint attorney has found herself on the other side of the law. Shannon Pitcher has been charged with four counts of embezzlement. . . . Authorities say she stole money from vulnerable clients who the court appointed to be their guardian or a conservator. . . . Investigators say over the last five years, Pitcher stole nearly $500,000 from different clients. Much of the money is unaccounted for, and Pitcher buried it in different back yards. . . . Shackled and in tears, Pitcher faced a judge Monday who charged her with four counts of embezzlement. . . . Investigators started looking into Pitcher's actions in October when attorney Margaret Brandenburg noticed the accounting on one of her client's father's estate didn't add up. . . . Brandenburg claims Pitcher never provided the records she needed and Pitcher was eventually held in contempt of court and jailed. . . . Months later, investigators estimate as his conservator Pitcher stole $286,000 from Elvin Brittain, who died last year at the age of 91.

WASHINGTON   

Prolific sealer of files also accused of ethical lapses

By Cheryl Phillips & Maureen O'Hagan, Seattle Times staff reporters

12-04-06 -- For years, King County Superior Court Commissioner Stephen Gaddis oversaw the guardianships of thousands of vulnerable people. He also hid more of these court cases from public scrutiny than any of his colleagues. . . . Gaddis sealed at least 48 guardianship cases in their entirety since 1990, according to a Seattle Times review of available sealing orders. Not one was properly sealed. . . . He also seemed to play favorites in court, go on tirades, and take glee in spotting paperwork flaws, according to complaints filed against him. . . . In some cases, wards paid the price. . . . The state Commission on Judicial Conduct and King County Superior Court both reprimanded Gaddis. Last year, he retired from the King County bench.

Secrecy hides cozy ties in guardianship cases

Your Courts, Their Secrets

By Cheryl Phillips, Maureen O'Hagan, & Justin Mayo, Seattle Times staff reporters

12-04-06 -- Karen Weed nearly lost her life when a cement truck crushed her car. She survived a coma and cardiac arrest, broken bones and brain damage. . . . But she was determined not to lose her independence. After Weed got a significant insurance settlement, a family lawyer filed papers to have her declared a ward of the court, saying she couldn't manage her money without professional help. . . . Weed and her family later objected, but the lawyer persisted. So they fired him. . . . Yet when Weed's family walked into a Snohomish County courtroom last March for a hearing on whether a guardian would be appointed, there he was again: Michael Olver, the lawyer they had told to get lost. . . . "What's he doing here?" wondered Weed's daughter, Laura Box. . . . Olver had switched sides. He now represented EthiCare, the company trying to become Weed's guardian. The same company had been Olver's client for years — and would soon take control of Weed's life, charging her thousands of dollars along the way.

Missing money points up flaws in state oversight of guardians

Your Courts, Their Secrets

By Maureen O'Hagan & Cheryl Phillips, Seattle Times staff reporters

12-04-06 -- When Mabel Miller died in 1998 at the age of 94, she wanted her estate to be divided among relatives and a Seattle neighbor who had cared for her. . . . But when the heirs tried to collect their money, a big chunk of it — about $140,000 — was missing. Miller's guardian had no idea where it was and had kept the problem secret for years. . . . This case of the missing money reveals flaws in the oversight of guardians, both by the courts and the state Certified Professional Guardian Board. . . . Washington's guardian system offers more protections than do those in most states. Only a handful have a board that regulates guardians. Wards here have the right to a lawyer. Formed in 2000, Washington's board decides whether applicants are qualified to be guardians, provides them training and investigates grievances.

Where to learn more

Information on guardianships and less-restrictive alternatives for care can be obtained from the AARP and the Washington courts. The state Certified Professional Guardian Board, which handles certain complaints about guardians, can be reached at guardians.program@courts.wa.gov. Its Web site is www.courts.wa.gov/programs_orgs/Guardian.

You can get advice about guardians at the AARP Web site: www.aarp.org, or by calling 1-888-OUR-AARP.

NEW YORK  

NY Lawyer Faces Ethics Probe Over Guardianship of Former Judge

New York Lawyer, By Tom Perrotta, New York Law Journal

12-01-06 -- The attorney accused of mishandling a former state judge's estate did nothing criminal, but she may be in line for disciplinary action by the Appellate Division, First Department, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said yesterday. . . . The lawyer, Emani Taylor, was appointed as a law guardian to retired Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John L. Phillips in 2003. She was removed from the case at her request this year, and the new guardian discovered that Ms. Taylor had written $200,000 in checks to herself from the judge's accounts. . . . After an investigation, the Brooklyn district attorney concluded that Ms. Taylor was owed that money for her work, but had failed to collect the necessary paperwork for the checks from the judge presiding over the case, Justice Michael Pesce, according to Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the district attorney.

November 2006

Elder Abuse/Neglect Proposal & Recommendation

By: Tom Fields / tvfields@aol.com

Please click here to link to a proposal that interested 2005 White House Conference on Aging delegates, including  Senator Feinstein's delegate Helen Karr.

Please click here to link to a common sense recommendation co-published 14 years ago by the Ohio Department of Human Services and Ohio State Medical Association.

TEXAS  

A Broken Trust: Denton County Judge fails another ethics test

Dallas Morning News Opinion

"11-27-06 -- A judge shall not allow any relationship to influence judicial conduct or judgment. A judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others." . . . –Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, Canon 2, Section B

In eight lawyerly canons, the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct outlines basic ethical guidelines for our state's judges, from justices of the peace to justices on our highest courts. . . . That includes Denton County Probate Court Judge Don Windle, although he apparently doesn't see it that way. His disregard of these standards is breathtaking. . . . As Dallas Morning News reporters Kevin Krause and Brandon Formby revealed, the issue is Judge Windle's handling of the elderly Veatch sisters, Mildred Erle and Helen, and their joint estate, worth nearly $825,000. . . . Probate courts typically preside over cases involving those unable to care for themselves and their estates, mental health and custodial issues and guardianships. . . . Told that neither Veatch sister was able to manage their assets, Judge Windle placed them under guardianships in his court, moved them to a nursing home and restricted access to them. . . . And that might have been fine, except for this: When Mildred Erle followed her sister into death last summer at age 95, her will – rewritten less than a year into her guardianship – left a large amount of the estate to Judge Windle, his court or people he assigned to manage the estate. Among the new beneficiaries? The judge's former wife and his personal accountant. Legal? Possibly. Ethical? You be the judge.

TEXAS  

Local attorney, accountant spend elderly client's estate, now facing prison time

11-19-06 --  A local attorney and accountant are facing prison time for taking more than half a million dollars from an 82-year old man, who was one of their clients. Andrew Huffmeyer will serve five years, after pleading guilty on Monday, and Colin Kaufman is awaiting his punishment, after he was found guilty by a jury Friday. . . . They were charged with misapplication of fiduciary property, which is not quite the same as stealing. They had permission and authority to spend some of their client's money, but not half a million dollars and not for the purposes that they spent it. . . . What makes this a disturbing story is the victim, Arthur Carothers, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. . . . "An 82-year old man, who was a 30-year Army veteran, who lived a nice quiet life, amassed a small fortune, and was tragically hit by a car," Assistant Attorney General David Glickler said.

Piece of estate left to those paid to guard it

By Kevin Krause & Brandon Formby / The Dallas Morning News

11-16-06 -- By all accounts, the sisters in their 90s were no longer able to look after each other or their $824,766 joint estate. Mildred Erle Veatch began to show signs of senility and delirium in 2001. Her sister, Helen, was in worse condition and would die later that year. . . . Their doctor notified Denton County's probate court that neither sister was able to manage her assets anymore. There were no other relatives to help. . . . Probate Court Judge Don Windle immediately placed both sisters under court-appointed guardianships, moved them to a Denton nursing home and restricted access to them. By early 2002, Mildred Veatch was rewriting her will – which had not been updated since 1960 – with the help of her court-appointed guardian and attorney. . . . When Erle, as she was known to friends, died this summer at age 95, the rewritten will was opened and contained a few surprises. Among the 10 beneficiaries were:

•Judge Windle, who was to receive $50,000.

•Beverly McClure, the court-appointed guardian of Ms. Veatch and Jud