Posted on 05/01/2021 5:34:14 AM PDT by Kaslin
Mudslinging and character assassination is an expected part of politics. It’s what you signed up for. Running for public office means opening yourself up to intrusive probings into your personal life, hit jobs from political reporters, and even attacks on your close friends and family members.
These types of dirty tricks, common in politics should be nowhere near our legal guardianship systems. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The legal system is supposed to provide a refuge of justice and protection for the innocent and the abused. It should never be used as a weapon to steal an unsuspecting person from their hard-earned possessions as well as their dignity.
Jan Garwood, 70, of Longwood, FL, was deemed to be incapacitated and placed under guardianship after being injured in an automobile accident while grieving the death of her son. She soon found herself an “inmate” at a locked-down memory care unit called the Palms of Longwood Assisted Living Facility in Seminole County.
Unsure where to turn for help, Garwood used a cell phone smuggled into the facility by a family member, to post a plea for help on social media. Garwood contacted WFTS ABC Action News I-Team, via Facebook, after watching their series on Florida’s broken guardianship system - The Price of Protection.
Hillary Hogue, a guardian reform advocate, also heard Garwood’s call for help. Hogue visited Garwood at the Longwood memory care facility and did not feel she medically belonged there. Hogue then put Garwood in touch with attorney Vitto Roppo.
Roppo worked with Garwood’s attorney of record to file a motion requesting Garwood’s capacity be re-examined. The judge agreed to the motion and following a doctor’s evaluation, Garwood was released from the control of the guardian.
For his efforts, Roppo was threatened by the attorney representing the Garwood’s guardian. In a letter, Roppo was put on notice he would face a Motion for Sanctions upon denial of his motion seeking a new medical evaluation for Garwood. Roppo was advised to “Govern yourself accordingly,” a phrase often included at the close of a legal correspondence intended to bully or intimidate the recipient.
Although vindicated and free, Garwood’s ordeal was not over. While under her control, the guardian sold Garwood’s home, below market value, directly to an employee of the Palms of Longwood. The guardian also placed all of Garwood’s belongings, valued at $300,000, in storage; however, the guardian is unable, or unwilling, to tell her the location of her property.
As the saying goes, “Once is happenstance.”
Consider the case of Joann Bashinsky, a beloved Alabama philanthropist with an estate estimated to be worth $200 million. Bashinsky was placed under Emergency Guardianship after two of her employees, John McKleroy and Patty Towsend, petitioned the probate court claiming she had dementia and was unable to manage her finances. At the same time the Emergency and Permanent Petitions for Guardianship were being filed, Mrs. Bashinsky was terminating their employment for ignoring and undermining her directives.
In a miscarriage of justice, a Jefferson County, AL Probate Court judge deemed Bashinsky had dementia and appointed a close associate of the ex-employees as guardian. Mrs. Bashinsky’s family and friends came to her aid and helped her fight back. In the summer of 2020, the Alabama Supreme Court (ALSC) vacated the guardianship, stating, “Ms. Bashinsky’s constitutional and statutory rights of due process” were violated by the probate judge when she was deprived of counsel and prevented from presenting evidence she was not incapacitated.
A strong rebuke by the Alabama Supreme Court has not persuaded the petitioners and Guardian Greg Hawley to remove their claws from Mrs. Bashinsky’s estate. The ALSC only ruled on the emergency petition, as the permanent petition had yet to be heard by the probate court. There was still a chance the ex-employees could see the permanent petition for guardianship enforced.
The legal battle took its toll on Mrs, Bashinsky, who passed away in January, after more than a year of fighting for her rights and freedom.
The petitioners and their lawyers, showing you a glimpse of what kind of people they are, filed new motions 8 minutes after Mrs. Bashinsky’s funeral service began. Family members and her legal team attending the funeral simultaneously received text messages alerting them they were being served new motions.
McKleroy and Townsend filed a motion to block a request by the Bashinsky estate to dismiss the permanent petition following Mrs. Bashinsky’s death, a motion to apply sanctions against Mrs. Bashinsky for comments she made in a reporter a week before her death, and (who is surprised by this?) a motion to seek compensation for attorney fees and other expenses.
To her family, friends, and the hundreds of people who were helped by Mrs. Bashinsky’s philanthropy, she lives on in their hearts and memory.
Probate Judge Lee Tucker now oversees the permanent petition for guardianship filed by McKleroy and Townsend, and despite having passed from this Earth, Mrs. Bashinsky’s case is still very much alive. We all know why…the “motion to seek compensation for attorney fees and other expenses” tells us why.
“This is a predatory and exploitive a case as I have ever seen,” stated legal counsel for the Bashinsky estate.
“Twice is coincidence.”
Mary Sykes noticed $4,000 missing from her bank account; she soon realized her oldest daughter was responsible. Sykes sought an order of protection from her daughter and reached out to the Illinois Department of Aging for assistance. Her daughter countered and filed a petition seeking to be appointed guardian. In a combined hearing a week later, Sykes found herself not receiving protection from her daughter, but being subjugated to her control.
When neighbors of Sykes heard what happened, they contacted Kenneth Ditkowsky, a Cook County, IL attorney (now retired). Ditkowsky had previously represented Sykes in a separate civil matter.
Ditkowsky began investigating and learned the contents of a safe deposit box belonging to Sykes, which contained over $1 million dollars in gold coins and other valuables, had vanished. He also learned Sykes’s primary care physician refused to certify her as incompetent, but the court system found a doctor who contradicted that diagnosis. Ditkowsky was no stranger to corruption in the Chicago legal community, having been encouraged years earlier a bribe to the judge would secure victory for his client. Many of these attorneys and judges were later indicted in Operation Greylord.
Shortly after seeking copies of filings in the Sykes case and reaching out to her physician, Ditkowsky received threatening calls from the guardian ad litem (GAL) and the attorney for the plenary guardian. Ditkowsky, who had been practicing in notoriously corrupt Chicago for years and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, laughed off the threats.
The GAL and others filed complaints with the Illinois Attorney Disciplinary Review Committee (IARDC), claiming Ditkowsky defamed the court by calling out the corruption. For speaking out and trying to help a former client, the IARDC upheld the allegations against and suspended Ditkowsky’s law license for four years.
“Three times is a pattern.”
It is said that politics brings out the worst in people, as it taps into the things about which people are most passionate. The same can be said for the love of money. When power and money are at stake, it’s no surprise unscrupulous people will resort to dirty tricks and intimidation.
Guardianship abuse is real; these cases are just the tip of the iceberg.
This is scary
“This is scary”
Yes, it is. The common link here is having some assets. If you don’t have anything to steal, they leave you alone.
Yikes! This is shameful and scary. Seems it can happen to anyone who isn’t liked by others for whatever reason.
What it tells me is don’t ask anyone for help.
Some people need to get dead.
Having lived through this sort of thing with my mother...
The law is stacked against concerned family members.
All that is required is the elder to say there is no problem and you have zero recourse. Especially, when the abuser lives with that elder and can gaslight the elder into beleiving that the other family members are simply “money grubbers” instead of genuinely concerned.
After that... you are powerless.
If there was a POA and that person could not get the subject out of the mess, that's even scarier.
Of course, if the POA goes bad, I'm not sure what the cure would be for that.
The legal/judicial hoops we had to jump through were beyond belief...and we almost lost (but won in the end).
The research I did on the subject at that time suggested that there was a time when it was very easy to get legal guardianship of a person and that,as a result,many people were exploited and abused in many ways...physically,financially and in other ways as well. But today,in some states at least,it's *too* difficult to get guardianship and,as a result,people are suffering (and dying) needlessly.
But under the current system the lawyers are always* well represented...and compensated.
Yup,not being married at the moment...and having no kids..I named my sister as my heath care proxy,my POA and the executor (executrix?) of my estate. My lawyer told me that the documents I signed give her the most authority allowed in every scenario (coma,respirator,emergency surgery,mental incompetence,etc,etc) allowed under state law.
See Post #9
“What it tells me is don’t ask anyone for help.”
What it also tells me is stay away from predatory lawyers who can exponentially increase the financial abuse by churning fees for themselves.
We have experienced these situations in our family and it is really bad. The system needs to be shut down.
It’s not just the elderly, one lady I know has been traveling no to get out for even get years. She had a brother who died and her parents are dead. She is 40.
“been traveling no to get out for even get years.”
what?
Well you have to trust your sister. I wouldn’t trust either of mine.
.
Watch the documentary, “The Guardians.” Abuse in Nevada. Some people there have been jailed, the kingpin of the system who dictated to the Family Court judge, has not been jailed nor charged. This is Jared Shafer, who is a close family friend of the former attorney general, now Senator from Nevada, Catherine Masto.
If you look deeper, there are allegations that some of the funds pilfered were used as kickbacks to buy votes for candidates of both parties. Only one source for this, he claims illegal aliens (he calls them undocumented citizens) were forced to vote or be deported. I don’t know if he is reliable, why would you pay illegals if you were forcing them to vote?
Perhaps a guardianship would be appropriate in her case.
The problem is people can change on both sides after good agreements have been set up in a trust.
Don’t be afraid to redo your trusts as time goes by.
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