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Victims of indicted attorney Robert Graham suffer hardship

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Wheelchair bound, with cerebral palsy since birth, Sharona Dagani no longer takes frequent trips to buy groceries and attend church.

The former Las Vegas woman, 29, has no money to fix a broken-down van her caregivers use to take her on errands.

And she can’t afford to pay those caregivers for a large portion of the help she needs to get through each day with a neurological disorder that has left her with an impaired voice and limited use of her hands and legs.
 
It all went away in December after probate attorney Robert Graham abruptly shut down his Lawyers West office in Summerlin, leaving Dagani without the remaining $476,423 in her special needs trust.

Dagani, who now lives in Texas, is one of hundreds of former clients whose funds authorities say were stolen by Graham. In all, he is accused of taking $17.2 million over at least a decade from clients who trusted him to guard their savings.

The victims include three young children who survived a car crash that killed their parents in 2010 and the heirs to an estate that was to be their security in retirement.

In interviews with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dagani and other victims described their frustration with Graham as they fought, sometimes desperately, to get him to turn over their funds in the years and final months before he closed his law practice.

“He stole millions of dollars to feed his ego and desires for wealth and power, and he used his law license to do it,” Janeen Isaacson, a prosecutor for the State Bar of Nevada, said at a disciplinary hearing for Graham last month. “He projected his image through advertisements, expensive houses, nice suits and other trappings of success, but he didn’t get those things through talent and hard work. He got them off the backs of his clients.”

Clark County prosecutors charged Graham, 52, in January with the theft of $2.1 million in three of his cases, with more potential charges on the horizon. He remains in custody on $5 million bail and faces disbarment.

Until Graham walked away from his law practice, Dagani said, she was using about $300 a month from her trust fund to pay an array of personal expenses. The fund also paid for her auto insurance and maintenance for the van and powered wheelchair.

The extra cash helped her maintain control of her life, control she said she is losing.

“Instead of being the boss, I’m now at the caregivers’ mercy,” said Dagani, who corresponded with the Review-Journal in emails and telephone calls.

Cutting back care

Dagani said she relies on her caregivers from the time she wakes up until she goes to sleep.

On a typical day at her rented home in San Antonio, she needs help getting out of bed, going to the bathroom, brushing her teeth, combing her hair and making meals. Caregivers also do her housekeeping and laundry and help with her online business selling decorative fingernail wraps.

Medicaid covers 51 hours a week in home care for Dagani, about 20 hours less than what she needs.

She has no money to pay her three caregivers for the additional time. She has had to cut back on the more pleasurable things in her life, such as shopping for clothes, attending concerts, and taking vacations.

Dagani said she relies on $155 a month in food stamps when she’s able to buy groceries at a store near her home, but doesn’t have money for basic items such as shampoo, soap and toothpaste. She has a 51-inch flat screen television but can’t watch it because she has no money to pay her cable bill.

Her mother, Joan Albstein, who lives in New York where Dagani was born, said she has been trying to help fill the financial void, but doesn’t have the money to pitch in much longer.

Albstein, 62, an elementary school teacher, said she paid for a scaled-down version of her daughter’s auto insurance and has supplemented the salary of her caretakers.

“I was determined not to see her lose what she had become used to,” Albstein said.

She said her daughter had a series of setbacks after she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Her father abandoned the family when she was 1. At age 3, she had surgery to correct a cross-eyed condition.

And when she was 11, Dagani had a cancerous tumor removed from her lower intestine.

“Despite everything she’s been through, she always wakes up with a smile on her face,” Albstein said.

This time, Dagani is counting on her religious faith to get her through her growing financial difficulties.

“I have to believe that God will take care of my needs,” she said.

But she may need more than faith.  (Click to Continue)

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Victims of indicted attorney Robert Graham suffer hardship

Hearing reset for former court-appointed guardian in Vegas

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LAS VEGAS (AP) - A court hearing was reset in Las Vegas for a former court-appointed financial guardian accused of siphoning more than $550,000 out of accounts of people assigned to her business as wards of the court.

A court official said Monday that April Parks is due to have another lawyer when she appears again in court on Wednesday.

PREVIOUS STORY: Private guardian April Parks behind bars in Las Vegas

Parks is being held at the Clark County jail following her arrest in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on a massive 270-count criminal indictment filed March 8.

It alleges that more than 150 victims lost money to Parks, her employee Mark Simmons, and Parks' friend, Gary Neil Taylor, through overbilling by her business, called A Private Professional Guardian.

They're accused of racketeering, theft and exploitation of a vulnerable person.

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Hearing reset for former court-appointed guardian in Vegas

Court-appointed guardian accused of stealing appears in court

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LAS VEGAS - A woman accused of scamming hundreds of thousands of dollars from senior citizens and vulnerable adults appeared in court Monday.

April Parks pleaded not guilty. She faces 212 felony counts of racketeering, theft and exploitation over a five-year period.

Some of her alleged victims say this day couldn't have come soon enough.

April Parks, along with her husband and another business partner, ran a private professional guardian LLC.

Guardians take care of wards of the court -- people who are found unable to no longer care for themselves.

A 270-count indictment from the Clark County District Attorney's Office says Parks and her company did everything but take care of the people.

"It had ruined our life," said Rudy North.

North, 80, says he lost everything after April Parks came to his door in 2013.

"Her and her partner called themselves the officer of the court," North said.

Confused, that's what North says he was, when Parks gave him three choices.

"My wife and I go to a psychiatric ward. Two, go to jail or three, to an assisted living facility."

He and his wife chose the third option.

It took their daughter, Julie Belshe, four frantic days to find out where her parents had disappeared to.

"She actually walked into my parents' home and took them out of their house and said she was an officer of the court and took them without notifying me," Belshe said.

During that time, Parks gained control of the couple's assets. It took Julie Belshe nearly two years to get her parents released from Parks' guardianship.

Parks pleaded "not guilty" to 232 felony charges of racketeering, theft, exploitation, perjury and fraud.

The 123-page indictment alleges she was the ringleader of a scam that bilked $550,000 from the Norths and 148 other victims.

In the indictment, Parks is only one on the hook for exploiting about $1,500 in fees for fraudulent services, but North says she stole a lot more.

"She took over a million dollars of my assets, that's cash, gold, silver, and in furnishings and artwork," North said.

Now, Parks is behind bars after fleeing to Pennsylvania last year.

It's a moment many victims thought they would never see.

"She's where she belongs," North said.

District Attorney Steve Wolfson says he will seek restitution for the victims. But, he cautions there is a low likelihood of regaining any significant portion of these families' assets. He says many, if not most, of the victims outlined in the complaint have died.

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Court-appointed guardian accused of stealing appears in court

Steve Miller: Jason Hanson's Case May Have Been Compromised

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Requests made to move investigation from local police to FBI after mysterious visit by LVMPD Abuse and Neglect Detail officer

"She (the officer) said there was no evidence that (Jared) Shafer did anything underhanded and was just doing his job like he was supposed to." - Jason Hanson, victim of exploitation
INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller AmericanMafia.com April 10, 2017 LAS VEGAS - In the highly publicized case of guardianship fraud involving 27 year old cerebral palsy victim Jason Hanson, a cryptic Facebook message posted on Friday, April 7 is causing wide spread concern:

Hanson informed INSIDE VEGAS that the plain clothes officer did not show her badge or credentials during her visit to his workplace at Opportunity Village. She also reportedly gave Hanson her personal private phone number instead of her LVMPD office or cell number which raises the question whether she was visiting Jason on her own time, or Metro's?

Hanson told INSIDE VEGAS, "I did not bring up any names. She accused Steve Miller and Becky Olvera Schultz (daughter of guardianship fraud victim Guadalupe Olvera) of not having the complete story and only using parts to help with their own crusades against Shafer."

"The officer said Steve Miller didn't know how to read court documents or was intentionally misreading them to twist my story around."

"She didn't seem to think Shafer was an upstanding citizen but she seemed to think Miller and Olvera Schultz had some personal grudge against him. She said that Steve and Shafer had once been friends and they had a falling out and since then Steve has wanted to take Shafer down," stated Hanson.

Hanson continued, "I was at my father's home about 2 or 3 weeks prior to his death and the home didn't look bad. It didn't smell."

Jared Shafer and I attended the same high school in the early1960's, but never had a personal friendship. Mrs. Olvera Schultz is reserving comment until after she consults with her attorney. Her family is currently suing Jared Shafer et al in U.S. Federal Court under the Civil RICO Act for violating her father's civil rights and bilking over $430,000 from his estate. I have never met or talked to the police officer who visited Jason, though its obvious she has spoken with Shafer.

Sources at LVMPD have informed INSIDE VEGAS that the female officer who visited Hanson is the same officer who is investigating the Guadalupe Olvera guardianship fraud case against Shafer.

Court Minutes of June 13, 2006 show the names of parties who were court appointed to protect Hanson's person and assets during the nine years when hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen from his inheritance.

Local businessman accused of exploiting elderly

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The owner of a home repair business was charged with felony financial exploitation of the elderly in Buchanan County.

Prosecutors allege Michael Anthony Stewart, 43, attempted to deprive a homeowner of the use of her property. Stewart owns a company called Budget Home Repair of St. Joseph.

Stewart told News-Press Now that he is “innocent and will have paperwork to prove it.”

The homeowner had a sump pump failure and the defendant allegedly represented the cost of repairs to be $25,700. Stewart is alleged to have claimed failure to do so would require the homeowner to have to tear the property down, according to court documents.

Richard Shelton, a St. Joseph Police Department detective, stated in court documents that Stewart overcharged for work not needed and did so by making false claims.

Stewart was arraigned Monday before Buchanan County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Robb. He appeared with his attorney, Michael Insco.

Insco waived formal arraignment for his client and asked for a one-month delay to try and work the case out with Ron Holliday, the assistant Buchanan County prosecutor.

Holliday asked that the case be assigned for trial.

Robb set the case for a three-day trial beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 23. The judge also set the case for status review at 9 a.m. Friday, May 26.

Stewart remains free on a $25,000 cash bond.

The company, started in 1976 by Stewart’s uncle, advertises on several Internet sites as a foundation specialist. Home Advisor, an Internet company, shows Budget with four rating comments up until 2014, with a five-star rating.

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Local businessman accused of exploiting elderly

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State Supreme Court considers limits on judicial misconduct probes

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LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) - A new rule being considered by the state's highest court could limit complaints of misconduct against judges.

Michigan's Supreme Court justices are considering adding a three-year statute of limitations to complaints filed against judges with the Judicial Tenure Commission. According to the proposed rule, “any complaint filed more than three years after the grievant knew…or should have known...shall be dismissed.”

Since 2014, 34 judges across the state have faced some sort of action that began at the Judicial Tenure Commission, which can range from a letter of caution to being removed from the bench entirely.

"There’s just all kind of reasons why trying to defend something three years after the fact is difficult," said Brian Einhorn, an attorney in support of the rule change.

Einhorn has represented dozens of judges accused of misconduct, from former Judge Wade McCree—who carried on an affair with a litigant—to ex-Justice Diane Hathaway, who was sent to prison for bank fraud.

"If a person knows that a judge did something three and a half or four years ago, I don’t think it’s fair to the judge to have to defend himself," Einhorn said.

But not all attorneys agree. Peter Henning is a former federal prosecutor and today is a law professor at Wayne State University.

"You’re talking about an individual who has immense power and can be quite intimidating," Henning said. "If you have certain types of cases, say for example a sexual harassment case, that may take years to surface because the individual who was harassed is going to be intimidated and might not have the strength to come forward for four or five years."

The proposed rule allows for claims outside of the three-year statute of limitations to be considered for "good cause," but critics fear the term is vague and could lead to prolonged legal battles.

"Should the judge be able to get off simply because (misconduct) happened more than three years ago?" asked Chanel 7's Ross Jones.

"But we’re dealing with something that’s probably not going to happen very often," Einhorn responded.

But there have been past examples of misconduct that could have been thrown out with a statute of limitations.

In Wayne County, Judge Bruce Morrow was disciplined for misconduct that happened years before a formal complaint was filed, including giving bond to a man after he was convicted of rape, even though state law didn’t allow it.

Morrow was suspended for two months.

Today in Livingston County, Judge Teresa Brennan is under fire for her affair with a state police officer that testified in a murder trial in her courtroom. His testimony helped to send a man to prison. Their affair happened more than three years before it was finally discovered. It’s unclear if the JTC is investigating Brennan.

Still, attorney Brian Einhorn says judges shouldn’t have to defend themselves from years-old allegations, after memories fade and evidence becomes stale.

"There’s timing for doing everything," Einhorn said. "And there’s nothing different about a judge being accused of misconduct to a lawyer being accused of malpractice to a doctor being accused of malpractice."

Except in Michigan, there is no statute of limitations for complaints against lawyers or doctors, either. Giving judges special protection would be unique and improper, argues Carl Marlinga, who is a judge himself.

"The unintended effect, certainly, is to offer a level of protection for bad judges," Marlinga said. "With the judiciary, maximum integrity is the minimum qualification. Anything that would protect or shield a judge from scrutiny I just think is wrong."

A decision on the proposed statute of limitations and scores of other rules currently being considered by the Michigan Supreme Court could come any day.

"What is the benefit?" asks Wayne State's Peter Henning. "What is the upside, other than what appears to be giving judges added protections?"

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State Supreme Court considers limits on judicial misconduct probes

Corrupt judge not enough for new trial

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A man who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life before a corrupt judge did not provide enough evidence to prove his constitutional rights were violated, a state appeals panel held Friday.

After a jury trial in 1984, defendant Robert Gacho was convicted of murder, armed robbery and aggravated kidnapping for his part in killing Tullio Infelise and Aldo Fratto in 1982.

He was initially sentenced to death but later received a life sentence after the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed his conviction but remanded his case for resentencing.

His case was tried separately but simultaneously with co-defendant Dino Titone, who elected to have a bench trial before former Cook County judge Thomas Maloney. Maloney was later indicted on bribery charges in 1991 in connection with a state and federal investigation into claims that judges were “fixing” trials.

Maloney was convicted in April 1993 of “fixing” three murder cases for more than $100,000 in bribe money in the Operation Greylord scandal.

Gacho argued in an evidentiary hearing stage post-conviction petition that he should get a new trial because Maloney’s corruption, among other things, deprived him of initially receiving a fair trial. But a 1st District Appellate Court majority affirmed the trial court’s decision to dismiss his petition, finding Gacho failed to present evidence outside of affidavits citing hearsay to prove his case.

The defendant first filed a post-conviction petition with his corruption claim in February 1991 on behalf of himself.

After new post-conviction counsel was appointed, Gacho supplemented his petition in July 2008 to include an affidavit from Titone’s father, which described the scheme in which the father paid Maloney $10,000 to find his son not guilty.

He also supplemented his petition with an affidavit from himself, asserting his pretrial attorney had also suggested Gacho bribe Maloney.

Cook County Circuit Judge Diane Gordon Cannon dismissed Gacho’s petition without an evidentiary hearing in May 2009. In 2012, a unanimous 1st District panel affirmed Cannon’s dismissal of one claim but remanded Gacho’s case for an evidentiary hearing on other pleadings, including his judicial corruption claim.

During that hearing, Gacho testified he retained new counsel after his previous attorney, Daniel E. Radakovich, lost interest in his case once he learned Gacho couldn’t come up with the money to bribe Maloney. Radakovich denied Gacho’s statements when he later testified as a witness for the state.

The court also heard testimony from a Menard Correctional Center inmate, who testified Titone told him about paying the $10,000 bribe.

Cannon accepted into evidence the affidavit from Titone’s father as well as other affidavits that supported Gacho’s claims before her on remand.

However, Cannon found Gacho’s testimony unbelievable and dismissed his petition in October 2013, finding he failed to demonstrate that his constitutional rights had been violated.

Gacho contended on appeal that Cannon’s ruling was “manifestly erroneous” in the face of evidence that showed a connection between Maloney’s bribe corruption and his personal interest in the outcome of Gacho’s trial — where a $10,000 bribe to find one co-defendant not guilty meant finding Gacho and other defendants, who were indicted but being tried separately, guilty.

However, the appellate panel’s majority opinion held Gacho failed to present direct evidence that Maloney actually solicited, received or agreed to accept a bribe to influence the rulings in his case, since he eventually found Titone guilty of the crime for which his father allegedly paid the judge for a not guilty verdict.

The panel ruled the evidence upon which Gacho relied wasn’t enough to support a claim that warranted relief pursuant to the Illinois Post-Conviction Hearing Act.

“There is no question that, if Maloney possessed a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the defendant’s trial, the defendant would be entitled to relief under the [a]ct in the form of a new trial,” Justice Thomas E. Hoffman wrote in his 10-page majority opinion. “However, the defendant’s entire argument in this regard rests upon the affidavit of Titone’s father which consists of nothing more than hearsay.”

The fact that Titone’s father allegedly bribed Maloney for Titone’s trial did not inherently mean the judge wasn’t impartial during Gacho’s trial, the panel found.

It held Gacho would have been deprived of due process if Maloney harbored a compensatory bias against him during trial, but Gacho failed to prove a connection between Maloney’s corruption in other cases and any adverse findings in his. It also found Gacho failed to present evidence of any actual bias that resulted from Maloney’s conduct.

“Distilled to its finest, the record in this case establishes only that the defendant was tried simultaneously with a co-defendant who, as we have assumed for purposes of analysis, bribed a corrupt trial judge; thus giving rise to a claim of compensatory bias which we believe is governed by the holding in [People v.] Fair,” Hoffman wrote. “There can be little doubt as to Maloney’s pervasive corruption in other cases … but Maloney’s pattern of bribe taking … cannot alone support an inference that he engaged in compensatory bias to the defendant’s case.”

Justice Mary K. Rochford concurred in the panel’s majority opinion.

However, Justice Mathias W. Delort wrote in his six-page dissent that Gacho shouldn’t need direct evidence to receive a new trial.

“Criminal defendants have the right to an impartial judge no matter how compelling the evidence against them,” he wrote, noting the U.S. Supreme Court has previously held it is not necessary for a defendant claiming judicial bias to show their judge was actually biased.

“Accordingly, Gacho should prevail if the circumstances show that ‘the probability of actual bias on the part of the judge’ was ‘too high to be constitutionally tolerable,’” Delort wrote.

Cannon’s ruling, Delort held, should be reversed because Gacho “clearly” showed a connection between Maloney’s conduct and the outcome of his case as well as an actual bias that arose from the conduct.

He cited the 1st District’s first opinion on Gacho’s case — which Hoffman also authored — that found both Gacho’s and Titone’s trials were both presided over by a man who the state conceded had an interest in the proceedings.

“We cannot view Gacho’s case in isolation, but instead acknowledge that the taint of Titone’s case fatally infected the entire proceeding,” Delort wrote. “The egg, as it were, was irreversibly scrambled when Gacho’s and Titone’s cases were tried simultaneously using the same evidence and the same witnesses, and before the same judge, as a single judicial proceeding. It cannot now be unscrambled to sift Gacho’s case out from Titone’s case.”

Brett Zeeb, an assistant appellate defender in the 1st Judicial District Office who represents Gacho, said he and his client were disappointed in the majority’s ruling.

He said they agree with Delort’s dissent, which provides a good basis upon which they will “definitely” file a petition for leave to appeal before the Illinois Supreme Court.

Cook County Assistant State’s Attorneys Alan J. Spellberg and Jon J. Walters represented the state. A spokesperson in Cook County State’s Attorney Anita M. Alvarez’s office did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.

The case is The People of the State of Illinois v. Robert Gacho, 2016 IL App (1st) 133492.

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Corrupt judge not enough for new trial

Former Collegeville lawyer charged with stealing from special-needs clients

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Patrick J. Bradley
A disbarred lawyer from Montgomery County has been charged with stealing money from clients with special needs.

Patrick J. Bradley, 45, of Collegeville, hired as the trustee for trust accounts or to do legal work on their behalf, allegedly took more than $145,000 from 12 clients. Bradley stole from the accounts or failed to perform work for which he had been paid, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said at a news conference Tuesday in Norristown.

"He used these accounts as his own personal ATM," Steele said.

Bradley used stolen funds to pay his mortgage, cellphone and utility bills, and purchase gas, meals, movie tickets, and sporting goods, Steele said.

The withdrawals from his account, made after depositing funds into it from clients' accounts, included items purchased at Wawa, Walmart, and grocery stores, McDonald's restaurants, and drug stores -- and even a $10 donation to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign for president, according to an arrest affidavit filed in the case.

The state Supreme Court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel referred the case to prosecutors in August after receiving complaints about Bradley and conducting its own investigation.

Steele said the disciplinary office suspended Bradley's license in 2015, but he continued to practice law without it until he was disbarred in September.

Bradley came "into this role as a guardian for these folks, and has taken advantage and preyed upon them, the most vulnerable," Steele said.

Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, treasurer of the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security, said the fund would be used to reimburse some of Bradley's clients. The fund collects money from annual fees Pennsylvania lawyers pay to maintain their law licenses.

“It is my hope that through the fund we can restore the trust in the legal profession," she said at Tuesday's news conference.

Bradley was arraigned Monday and was released on unsecured bail.  He is facing multiple felony charges of theft and other crimes.

There was no answer Tuesday morning at the phone number listed for his home in Collegeville, and he does not yet have a lawyer listed in court documents. The phone line at his former law office has been disconnected.

Steele said there may be more victims, and urged anyone with information to contact investigators.

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Former Collegeville lawyer charged with stealing from special-needs clients

She believed her mom died peacefully. Two years later, a nurse wrote to say what really happened

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Family had been kept in the dark about mother's final moments at Kindred Hospital Sugar Land

Manuela Chapa, on her 85th birthday in 2012.

The package came in January: An anonymous letter and a stack of government records, stuffed in a yellow envelope with no return address and mailed to her late mother's home in Damon.

Cris Chapa ripped it open and began to cry.

She thought of the day, March 12, 2015, when medical staff at Kindred Hospital Sugar Land sat her down in a waiting room. They'd said there was nothing anyone could have done. Led her to believe her 87-year-old mother's death had been the inevitable result of her bout with pneumonia.

The stranger's letter told a different story:

Her mother hadn't died peacefully, it said. Instead, a doctor had attempted a procedure without Chapa's knowledge or legal consent, and it had gone badly. Blood poured from a tube in her mother's neck. Soaked her hospital gown. Caused her heart to stop.

Why hadn't anyone told her what happened? Why didn't anyone tell her three months later, when the state sent someone to investigate? Why didn't anyone tell her a few weeks after that, when the federal government cited the hospital for violating her mother's rights?

For nearly two years, Chapa and her family had been kept in the dark. Until now.

She didn't know it then, but the stranger who'd written the letter had mailed duplicates to two of her siblings. Chapa's hands shook as she studied the documents, looking for clues to who'd sent them, but found only an email address.

That night, she logged onto her computer and typed a message: "Can you call me?"

***

Linda Patton read the email twice, unsure how to respond. She'd been hesitant to contact Chapa in the first place, even anonymously. She'd already lost so much.

This wasn't the life she'd hoped for when she accepted a job as a nurse practitioner at Kindred Hospital Sugar Land in September 2014. She knew it had been a risk leaving Houston Methodist Hospital for a less-prestigious facility, but Kindred had offered her a more senior position and an opportunity to mentor young nurses, which was her passion.

Patton noticed problems right away, she said. On daily rounds, she'd quiz nursing staff on what medications patients were taking. What side effects they should be looking for. Basic stuff. Routinely, though, nurses didn't know the answers, and some seemed agitated by her attempts to educate them.

"That just kind of shocked me," Patton said.

She hadn't realized her new hospital had a history of mistakes. In the three years leading up to her first day at Kindred, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had cited the facility for 10 separate violations of state rules governing patient care.

Among the citations, obtained by the Houston Chronicle through a public records request: Kindred nurses weren't adequately trained or supervised. Patients had been unnecessarily restrained. Others had suffered infections after staff mishandled contaminated materials or failed to properly wash hands. Administrative safeguards weren't in place to prevent future mistakes.

In 2012, according to one citation, a patient in Kindred's intensive care unit became disconnected from a breathing machine and was left to die, even as an alarm sounded, alerting staff of the problem. One staffer who heard the beeping said she didn't know what it meant.

J. David Cross, the chief executive officer of Kindred's Houston-area district, defended the hospital's quality of care, noting that the facility exceeds national benchmarks for complication rates.

"We take seriously any issues brought to our attention by regulatory authorities, and work with them to address any concerns," Cross wrote in an email to the Chronicle. "We share the same goal — to provide quality care to our patients."

Patton was troubled by the problems she saw but felt she'd begun to make progress. Some nurses had become receptive to her on-the-job training, she said, and hospital leadership initially seemed to appreciate her efforts to instill a more professional culture.

She'd been there seven months when Cris Chapa brought her mother, Manuela, to the hospital with pneumonia.

Patton checked on her daily and saw her condition grow worse over the course of two weeks. The illness put a strain on her frail heart. Her lungs began to fail. So did her kidneys.

Before leaving for the day on March 12, 2015, Patton checked in on Chapa once more. It seemed clear to her that she might not recover.

Patton assumed doctors would soon be meeting with the woman's family to discuss their options.

***

The next morning, as she arrived at work, a respiratory therapist grabbed Patton by the arm and pulled her aside: "Oh my God, Linda," she said. "It was terrible."

The therapist had been in the room the afternoon before, when Dr. Yassir Sonbol, an interventional cardiologist, tried to insert a catheter in a major vein in Chapa's neck, in the hopes of starting dialysis.

 The treatment might have eased the burden on Chapa's kidneys — but it also came with risks.

On his first attempt at inserting the line, according to medical records and witnesses, Sonbol couldn't get the catheter to stay in the vein. So he tried again on the right side, but this time, the wire got stuck, and Sonbol struggled to get it out.  (Click to Continue)

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She believed her mom died peacefully. Two years later, a nurse wrote to say what really happened

Weighted Blankets in Dementia Care Reduce Anxiety and Improve Sleep

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Alzheimer’s and dementia often cause older adults to feel agitated, anxious, or have disturbed sleep.

A weighted blanket or lap pad is a simple, non-drug option that can be used day or night. They reduce anxiety, calm nerves, provide comfort, and promote deep sleep.

The heaviness of the blanket provides something called deep pressure therapy. When the body feels the gentle pressure, it produces serotonin. That improves mood and promotes calm.

Source:
Weighted Blankets in Dementia Care Reduce Anxiety and Improve Sleep

Assisted living facility fined $15,000 after 'plague' of bed bugs

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Click to Watch Video
Midtown Manor, a 105-bed assisted living facility near downtown Hollywood, has been fined $15,000 after battling a severe bed bug infestation.

A pest control company found 4,000 bed bugs in 20 rooms on May 2016, state records show. The problem has since been remedied.

“I’ve never seen that severity of a bed bug problem,” said Brian Lee, a former eldercare ombudsman for the state. “You literally have a plague of bed bugs. That was deeply disturbing.”

Officials with Midtown Manor could not be reached for comment..

Bed bugs, small insects that live on the blood of animals or people, like to hide in mattresses, box springs and bed frames and then come out at night to feed. Their bites can turn into itchy welts and females can lay hundreds of eggs over a lifetime.

The assisted living facility, at 2001 Polk St., will be allowed to remain open but must hire a consultant to provide oversight every three months.

State officials are also requiring the resignation of Roni Herskovitz, one of the owners.

Coolidge Palms, an assisted living facility in Hollywood with the same owners, was forced to close in April 2016. A state investigation found an aide had hit an 80-year-old woman in the head several times with a water pitcher, drawing blood and forcing a visit to the hospital for stitches.

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Assisted living facility fined $15,000 after 'plague' of bed bugs

Guardianship oversight in Texas needs to be strengthened

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Imagine a family member or friend unable to make decisions about their healthcare, money, living situation and property. After a hearing, a court names you as the guardian, giving you the duty and power to make decisions on their behalf about money, property, living arrangements and medical decisions, among others.

You would have an awesome responsibility, and you would not be alone.

There are approximately 55,000 active guardianships in Texas today, with $5 billion in assets under the control of guardians and the courts. And the numbers are rising.

In the past five years, guardianships cases in Texas have risen by 66 percent. That’s just the beginning. The population of Texans age 65 and older is projected to double by 2030 to almost 6 million. According to the state demographer, our population age 85 and older will increase more than 500 percent between 2010 and 2050 — from 305,000 to 1.6 million.

The vast majority of guardians are selfless people who do very important work, often out of a sense of love, loyalty or duty. Their jobs aren’t easy. For example, in addition to keeping an eagle eye year-round on personal financial affairs, guardians are required by law to file annual reports of their charge’s well-being as well as an accounting of the financial transactions of the guardianship estate.

As with any other arrangement, not all guardians are fully up to the task, and worse, sometimes a guardian misuses or mismanages guardianship assets. To prevent such bad outcomes, the courts need adequate resources to monitor guardianship cases.

And that’s crux of the problem: There are too many guardianship cases throughout Texas today and not enough supervision. Specialized probate courts with trained monitoring staff are located in the largest metro areas, but many of the cases are not. As a matter of fact, about four of every 10 active guardianships in Texas are in counties with insufficient resources to monitor them.

Two years ago, the Texas Legislature set up a pilot program recommended by the Texas Judicial Council, the policymaking body of the judiciary, to improve compliance and to help courts protect the state’s most vulnerable citizens and their assets by reviewing adult guardianship cases, auditing annual accountings and reporting findings to the court.

In this year’s State of the Judiciary, Chief Justice Nathan Hecht noted that the pilot project has reviewed more than 10,000 cases in 18 courts and 11 counties. In almost half of the reviewed cases, guardians had not complied with the law and the courts did not have the resources to monitor the cases. The Texas Judicial Council, which Hecht chairs, is recommending that the compliance project be extended statewide.

State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, filed Senate Bill 667 to do just that, and Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo and chair of the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence, filed a companion, House Bill 3631. AARP fully supports their efforts, which would expand the pilot project throughout Texas, including hiring 28 new guardianship compliance specialists/auditors. The project would cost the state $3.2 million a year, a small investment in a high-quality program that oversees $5 billion of Texans’ assets. After stripping the funding for the pilot program from the introduced budget, the Texas Senate fully funded the program’s expansion in its version of the budget; the Texas House has yet to include funding for the program, but may consider it during budget deliberations.

Guardians are essentially financial caregivers. As with other caregivers, they play a critical role in our society, helping preserve individual assets and human dignity while saving taxpayers billions. Just recently, AARP partnered with Texas Appleseed to release five “Managing Someone Else’s Money” guides, a toolkit for financial caregivers in Texas who manage money or property for those unable to do so for themselves. This interactive series of guides, in English and Spanish, is available in print and online.

Texas needs a protective umbrella to ensure proper oversight of guardianships. Today, the system is overwhelmed and needs to be strengthened. SB 667 and HB 3631 would extend a lifeline to some of our most vulnerable citizens — at a very modest cost to our state.

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Guardianship oversight in Texas needs to be strengthened

Nashville judge faces federal criminal charges

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NASHVILLE — The federal government on Tuesday filed criminal charges against a Tennessee judge, alleging he tried to bribe a woman to recant her allegations against him.

General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland, 59, was charged with attempting to obstruct justice through bribery and witness tampering, Acting U.S. Attorney for Middle Tennessee Jack Smith announced. Moreland was taken into custody Tuesday morning and appeared in court Tuesday afternoon.

The chains around Moreland's ankles, clanking on a tile floor, could be heard even before he was led into the courtroom. U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Brown read the possible penalties Moreland is facing, including a maximum 20-year prison term.

"Do you understand what you're charged with and the possible punishment?" Brown asked.

"Yes sir," Moreland replied, seated in a button-down and khakis next to his lawyer, Peter Strianse of Nashville. Asked for comment as he was leaving the courtroom, Moreland did not respond.

Moreland will next appear in court Friday afternoon for a hearing to determine if he will remain in custody pending trial.

Moreland, a judge since 1998, was the subject of an FBI investigation related to allegations that he helped people he knew in exchange for things — including sexual favors, travel and lodging. Among the allegations documented in police reports and accounts were that he intervened in a traffic stop for a woman he had a personal relationship with and waived jail time for his future son-in-law.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Moreland tried to pay a woman thousands of dollars to recant her allegations against him. That occurred after March 1, more than one month after the FBI began an inquiry.

"The allegations set forth in the indictment set forth egregious abuses of power by a judge sitting here in Nashville," Smith said in a statement.

A criminal complaint based on an affidavit of FBI Special Agent Mark Shafer lays out the investigation, which used confidential sources who are unnamed in the complaint.

A man, who initially lied to FBI agents about his role, later said he had schemed with Moreland.

According to the affidavit, that man said the judge was concerned their calls were being monitored, so he purchased for the judge a “burner phone,” a temporary cellphone that is often associated with criminal activity.

On March 11, while the confidential source was working for the FBI, he met with Moreland. In that meeting, the man told the judge he had met with a woman making public allegations against Moreland and that she would sign an affidavit saying she had lied.

The meeting was recorded, according to the FBI, and during it Moreland handed over the draft affidavit, $5,100 cash and an explanation.

“This right here gets me out of trouble,” Moreland said, according to the FBI documents. Federal officials say Moreland instructed the man to get the woman "liquored up real good" before asking her to sign the affidavit.

After being told the woman wanted to make changes to it, Moreland handed over another $1,000 to sign it as-is, federal officials said.

Moreland also discussed a plan to have drugs planted on the woman, and then discovered by police during a traffic stop he would orchestrate, according to the complaint. Federal officials said the goal was to destroy the woman's credibility.

Also Tuesday, as the charges were being announced, Metro Councilman Jeremy Elrod filed a resolution calling for Moreland's resignation. And Mayor Megan Barry said resigning would "seem to be in the best interest" of residents who depend on the integrity of the courts.

"Nashville deserves to have absolute trust in our judiciary, and Casey Moreland, based upon the allegations in the federal complaint, seems to have clearly violated that trust," Barry said in a statement.

Moreland is one of 11 General Sessions judges in Nashville. Each earns $170,000.

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Nashville judge faces federal criminal charges

Undercover Recordings At Center Of Moreland Case

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Undercover FBI video and audio recordings shed light on the charges against Davidson County General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland.

Federal prosecutors played the recordings in Moreland's preliminary hearing on Friday.

He is charged with obstruction of justice through bribery and witness tampering.

The recordings show Moreland talking about planting drugs on his former mistress and reveal his efforts to pay her in exchange for signing an affidavit recanting parts of her story.

Moreland had no idea the man he was meeting in his home on March 16 was helping the FBI.

The man had a video camera and told Moreland about a fictitious discussion he had with a police officer who offered to plant drugs on Moreland's former mistress, Natalie Amos.

Moreland asked, "What does he want?"

The informant responded, "I don't know if he wants anything. He just... I think his thing is as long as it don't come back to him. And I said "Don't worry about that.'"

Moreland asked, "Is he going to be the one to pull her over?"

The informant responded, "He'll be the one to pull her over. But he's just, his main thing is that it don't come back to me."

Judge Moreland then asked if the officer had a drug dog.

He also wanted to know where the officer worked.

"Who does he work for?" Moreland asked.

"He does something for the DEA and he works part time for another agency," the informant said.
Prosecutors emphasized there was never an officer who was going to plant drugs.

Toward the end of their meeting, Moreland asked the informant if he still had Amos' license plate number which Moreland had given him earlier.

The informant said, "I got it written down where nobody could see it. So yeah, I still got the tag number. So I got that."

Moreland said, "You ought to be able to find her with that."

The phone calls deal with Moreland trying to get Amos to sign an affidavit.

Through the same informant, Moreland offered her money if she would sign.

But the FBI pretended that Amos wanted to keep marking out parts of the affidavit.

"Tell her I have to have that," Moreland said on the phone.

The informant responded, "You gotta have that there was no sex in the office?"

"Right," Moreland answered.

Prosecutors say Moreland wound up paying $6,100 in exchange for Natalie Amos signing the affidavit.

They found the affidavit with Amos' fake signature in the possession of Moreland's attorney, Worrick Robinson.

"I can't talk about the affidavit or anything surrounding the affidavit other than what was discussed today in open court," Robinson said after court Friday.

Moreland's other attorney, Peter Strianse, indicated the plan was to leak the affidavit to the media.

He claimed leaking a document to the media would not be obstruction of justice, which is a federal crime.

He said it may just be an example of poor judgment.

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Undercover Recordings At Center Of Moreland Case

Casey Moreland's law license suspended

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NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - Casey Moreland has now been banned from practicing law.

The Tennessee Supreme Court temporarily suspended Moreland’s law license on Wednesday.

The decision was made “upon finding that Mr. Moreland poses a threat of substantial harm to the public.”

An extensive Channel 4 I-Team investigation exposed how Moreland was doing legal favors for women who claim to have had sexual relations with him.

Moreland was charged with federal crimes last week, including obstruction of justice.

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Casey Moreland's law license suspended

Clever Mom Invents Special Shopping Cart That Helps Special Needs Kids - and the Elderly too!

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As the world becomes increasingly aware of the needs of the young, sick, and elderly, people are beginning to find new and innovative ways to help them and their caretakers. Drew Ann Long was one such mother who decided to get crafty when she was having difficulty maneuvering her wheelchair-dependent daughter while trying to keep track of her two-year-old son during their frequent shopping trips.

She decided to start Caroline’s Cart, a company, named after her daughter, that specializes in a unique type of shopping cart that incorporates an adult-sized seat within the cart itself. The product quickly began to spread across the country in many major outlets like Food Lion, Giant, Kroger, Target, and Walmart, among others.
The goal for Long began simply with the desire to incorporate her daughter into her regular activities, but it’s quickly caught on with many senior citizens and wheelchair/scooter dependent people that want to be active in their day with their family and/or caretakers.

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Clever Mom Invents Special Shopping Cart That Helps Special Needs Kids

88-year-old Indiana man makes blankets for police to give to children

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Clayton & Delores Shelburne
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ZIONSVILLE, Ind. - It started off as a hobby his wife enjoyed, and now Clayton Shelburne is making blankets on his own after her death.

The 88-year-old Indiana man has already made several dozen blankets, supplying enough for one to go with every patrol car with the Zionsville Police Department and the Boone County Sheriff's Office.

"I just felt there was a need," Shelburne told WXIN.  He said he remembered one story about a father leaving his sleeping son in a broken-down vehicle along a highway while the father went to get help.

Police said the blankets would go a long way.

“We could show up to a crash and the weather could be like it is now where it’s nice and cold and that blanket will come in real handy when you wrap it around somebody in need," said Sgt. Adrian Martin of the Zionsville Police Department.

Shelburne said his wife first started making blankets with a camping club, which would donate the blankets to different organizations in the area. Clayton joined in and the couple made blankets together for about ten years.

"She was the seamstress," he said. "I was never a seamstress. This is a new ballgame because I was always an outside person.”

Clayton's wife, Delores, died in May of 2015.

"My time is nothing," said Shelburne. "I’m 88 years old, I can do this when it’s raining outside and I enjoy doing it. I’m sure if my wife was here she would be happy I’m doing this too.”

Shelburne decided to help police in his county after talking with his son, who is an officer in Zionsville.

"For an individual, a civilian for that matter, to take it upon themselves to not only take their time and invest their money and their personal stake into a product or event that benefits any law enforcement agency, particularly Zionsville, we appreciate that,” Martin said.

Shelburne plans to make more when police run out and is already making new batches for the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital. He already has a dozen ready to go.

“I may have bitten off more than I can chew," said a laughing Shelburne. "I’m going to keep doing it as long as I got some money to make blankets, and I’m sure there’s a need for it over there.”

Shelburne said he spends very little of his own money making the blankets. Most of the funds come from friends, family and others who hear about his work and want to contribute.

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88-year-old Indiana man makes blankets for police to give to children

West Virginia Financial Exploitation Task Force Fights Back Against Elder Financial Abuse

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The victim “was left in a nursing home, recovering and wanting to go home,” said Taylor, an attorney at Legal Aid of West Virginia. Another family member was dispatched to the victim’s home to ready it for her return, only to find the locks had been changed and the house emptied.

By the time authorities caught up with the woman’s granddaughter, the victim’s nest egg was much smaller. Though they were able to recoup the stolen stocks, bonds and other valuables, a lot of the victim’s money had already been spent.

“It’s a very big issue,” said Taylor, who also maintains her own solo practice. “Nationwide, financial exploitation is the fastest-growing silent crime in the country. It costs consumers across the country over $5 billion per year.”

The National Adult Protective Association says elder financial exploitation is a fast-growing form of abuse targeting seniors and adults with disabilities. Most often, it’s a trusted family member or caretaker who diverts the victim’s assets to their own use.

“You’d be amazed at the people who put mom in a nursing facility and then take the money and run,” Taylor said. “That’s how it first came to my attention: People were placing their parents, their siblings and even their kids in nursing homes and not paying their bills. Then, when you dig into it, you find out they’re living off mom’s Social Security and pension, using it to pay their own bills (instead of) paying for mom’s care.”

The West Virginia Financial Exploitation Task Force characterizes exploiters as criminals, “but sadly they are also often friends, family members or others that victims thought they could trust.” If the victim gives the person power of attorney rights, “the exploiter has legal access to the funds as the resident’s agent, but has a duty to use the money for the victim’s benefit.”

“A power of attorney is not a license to steal,” said Suzanne Messenger, ombudsman for the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services and Acting Chair of the task force. “The power-of-attorney representative sometimes forgets the person that gave them that power of attorney didn’t evaporate the moment they signed it.

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Task Force Fights Back Against Elder Financial Abuse

Philadelphia district attorney pleads not guilty to bribery, corruption charges

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Seth Williams
Philadelphia district attorney Seth Williams pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal bribery and corruption charges and signed a $50,000 bond, according to various reports.

He also handed over his passport, according to reports.

His plea comes a day after his indictment by a federal grand jury on charges related to what officials described as a five-year corruption spree that included accepting tens of thousands of dollars in concealed bribes, a trip to the Dominican Republic and a 1997 Jaguar.

The charges against Williams, 50, a Democrat, also included confiscating $20,000 money intended for a relative's nursing home care and using the funds to pay for his mortgate and electricity, according to official documents and the Philadelphia Inquirer. The news organization identified the relative as Williams' mother, Imelda Williams.

Williams' lawyer, Michael Diamondstein, spoke to reporters outside of court Wednesday and urged the public not to rush to judgment about his client.

"Seth Williams categorically denies ... that he's guilty of any crime," Diamondstein said. "This indictment is 24-hours old and yet too many politicians and commentators have already tried and convicted Seth Williams in the media. Simply because the government makes explosive allegations in a complaint doesn’t mean they’re going to be proven in a court of law."

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who expressed disappointment over the developments, asked Williams to resign, the mayor's office confirmed Wednesday night.

The evidence surfaced in part via text messages in which Williams offers himself up to two business owners for assistance.

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recused his office from the investigation.

The formal charges announced Tuesday by acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick, who is overseeing the case, include bribery, extortion, honest services wire fraud, and also defrauding a nursing home and family friends by taking the funds earmarked for the relative's nursing home fees. Honest services fraud is when a public official denies someone his or her intangible right to honest services.

"The indictment alleges that as District Attorney, Mr. Williams compromised himself and his elected office by standing ready to help those who were willing to pay him with money, trips and cars," Fitzpatrick said in a statement. "Mr. Williams' alleged willingness to compromise his position of public trust in exchange for private financial gain is all the more unfortunate given that he was elected to protect the interests of the people of Philadelphia as their chief law enforcement officer."

Williams' office requested privacy on the matter.

"The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office does not have any comment at this time," the office said in an e-mail to USA TODAY. "The DA is not in the office today because he is spending time with his family. I ask that you respect his privacy and the privacy of the men and women of the office so all of us can continue to do our jobs without the distraction of additional media attention."

Williams' lawyer, identified by the Inquirer as Michael Diamondstein, told the news organization his client would fight the charges. Sources told the Inquirer that Williams rejected a plea deal earlier this week.

"Mr. Williams vehemently denies that he ever compromised any investigation, case, or law enforcement function," Diamondstein told the Inquirer.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Harpster in a statement called the alleged misconduct "brazen and wide-ranging."

Kenney, the mayor, condemned the alleged behavior.

"It is deeply shameful that the city’s chief law enforcement officer has been implicated in such a flagrant violation of the law," Kenney said in a statement. "At a time when our citizens’ trust in government is at an all-time low, it is disheartening to see yet another elected official give the public a reason not to trust us. That this comes at the head of our justice system is even more troubling. We must all greatly raise the bar for our behavior and show the citizens of Philadelphia that we are capable of carrying out our most basic responsibilities as elected officials, upholding the law.”

The indictment comes during a period of alleged corruption and misspending in Philadelphia. The city controller has charged that a former aide to former Mayor Michael Nutter used a non-profit that operated under the mayor as a "slush fund" for the mayor's office. In December, former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, a Democrat from Philadelphia, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal racketeering and bribery charges.

Williams took office in 2010, with much hoopla made over the fact that he was the first black district attorney in Philadelphia and the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In his younger years, he showed much promise. At Penn State, he was president of the Undergraduate Student Government and the Student Black Caucus. He graduated from Georgetown University's law school as a Public Interest Law Scholar.

As an assistant district attorney for a decade with the city of Philadelphia, he launched and led a Repeat Offenders Unit. He was elected district attorney in 2009, attracting more then 75% of the vote. In 2011, his office brought charges against an abortionist who allegedly killed infants who survived the procedure and the abortionist was convicted and sentenced to life.

But things turned for Williams. In 2015, he was criticized for not going after prosecutors who were found to be sharing pornographic and racially derogatory e-mails on government computers. Last year, his a woman identified in the Philadelphia media as his girlfriend turned was sentenced to probation for slashing his tires in 2015. In January, Philadelphia's Board of Ethics fined him $62,000 for failing to disclose $160,000 in gifts. And last month, he announced he would not seek a third term as district attorney because he had "cast an unnecessary shadow" over his office.

The alleged misconduct cited in Tuesday's indictment took place from 2010 to 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Williams also attempted to conceal the bribes and gifts by filing misleading personal financial statements from 2012 through 2015, the Department of Justice said.

With one of the business owners, Williams accepted a vacation to the Dominican Republic, a custom sofa, a $502 dinner at a Philadelphia restaurant, a $7,000 check, $2,000 in cash, an iPad, Burberry watch and a Burberry purse for his girlfriend, according to the indictment. In return, the district attorney agreed to help the business owner with security screenings when he returned from foreign travel, and asked a police official to help the business owner avoid a screening.

Williams also agreed to help with an associate of the business owner with criminal charges. The business owner texted Williams that the associate would "take any punishment" but "just doesn't wanna do jail," according to the indictment. Williams responded, "I will look into it." Williams then asked about a second future trip to the Dominican Republic to be paid for by the business owner and texted, "I am merely a thankful beggar and don't want to overstep my bounds in asking ... but we will gladly go."

With another business owner, the owner of a bar, Williams accepted 16 round-trip airline tickets to Florida, San Diego, Calif., and Las Vegas for himself, his girlfriend and family members, the indictment alleges. He also asked for and accepted a 1997 Jaguar XK8 and at least $900 in cash, according to the indictment.

In exchange, Williams appointed the bar owner as a special advisor to his office, even though the bar owner was on federal probation resulting from a 2010 federal tax conviction, the indictment said.

Williams also sent a letter to California officials attempting to influence a hearing to revoke or suspend the bar owner's California liquor license.

Williams sent texts to the bar owner that read, "I wish I could help more," "Can I be a celebrity greeter or celebrity bartender to work off my debt ... ?" and "I was serious about just doing whatever I can to help you guys," according to the indictment.

Regarding the nursing home funds, the indictment alleges that Williams diverted pension and Social Security payments intended for one of his family members to pay for his own personal expenses. The funds were to pay for the relative's nursing home costs and Williams was under an agreement with the nursing home to make the payments. Williams also lied and told a nursing home employee that his family member spent the money, according to the indictment. In addition, Williams accepted $10,000 from friends of his relative to cover nursing home expenses and spent the money on himself, the indictment alleges.

The relative was Williams' mother and he used the funds to pay his mortgage and electricity bills, according to the Inquirer.

Williams is expected to surrender and be arraigned Wednesday afternoon, the Inquirer reported.

Also working on the case are the FBI, IRS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Two prosecutors from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania will work on the case under the supervision of prosecutors from New Jersey.

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Philadelphia district attorney pleads not guilty to bribery, corruption charges
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