URBANA — A former Vermilion County man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to being involved in a sexual assault scheme that preyed upon dementia patients at a local assisted-living facility has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Dean Goble, 22, was sentenced Friday morning on the single count of attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault of an 88-year-old woman living at the Bickford of Champaign Senior Living and Memory Care, 1002 S. Staley Road, C.
Goble was one of four men arrested in 2015 in connection with a scheme to sexually assault women with dementia and videotape the activity.
Goble is already serving a seven-year prison sentence for a Vermilion County burglary conviction, which he received in 2015, and he also was convicted of possession of a stolen vehicle in 2012.
Goble's attorney, Katie Jessup, said her client is young and came from an early life in foster homes.
Testifying on his own behalf, Goble said he was the one who brought the Bickford Senior Living acts to light by disclosing them to Vermilion County authorities in August 2015.
Assistant State's Attorney Matt Banach sought the 14-year sentence.
Champaign County Judge Heidi Ladd acknowledged Goble was relatively young and had a less than ideal childhood, which included adjudication as a delinquent minor in 2006, being made a ward of the state in 2010, early alcohol use, then mental health issues.
However, she also called his crime despicable and deplorable, and said the gravity was enhanced, if possible, by the fact that he was paid to do it.
"It is conduct that crosses every line of decency in a civilized society," Ladd said.
Some of Ohio’s most vulnerable residents, elderly people often residing in retirement homes and hospitals, might gain new legal protections under a bill unanimously passed Wednesday by the House.
House Bill 68 would expand laws typically used to protect minors from sexual exploitation and obscenity to include impaired people — an intentionally broad definition that covers people recovering from strokes to those suffering from mental impairments such as dementia.
The legislation would make a broad array of crimes a third-degree felony — essentially treating sexually explicit material created with an impaired person the same as if it was created with a minor.
“Basically (the bill is) to protect those who are vulnerable to predators, whether they are suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s or of advanced age and they don’t know what’s happening to them,” Rep. Marlene Anielski, the bill’s sponsor, said. “It’s adults that have any type of mental or physical condition that they are impaired. It could be of advanced age, but not necessarily.”
The Cleveland-area Republican proposed the legislation to address what she said is a shortcoming in state law that leaves adults with cognitive impairments vulnerable. The bill was supported by Cleveland-area detectives and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association. No organization provided dissenting testimony during committee hearings.
The impetus of the bill is a 2014 case in Cuyahoga County in which about a dozen people in a health care facility were exploited by their caregiver. Two Cuyahoga County detectives detailed the case while providing proponent testimony in a March committee hearing.
All of the victims suffered from cognitive impairment, either recovering from a severe stroke or suffering from a developmental disability, dementia or Alzheimer’s. The explicit photographs of the elderly victims were found on the suspect’s cellphone when police served a warrant during an investigation into the sexual abuse of four young boys.
The county prosecutor did not press felony charges, saying current law does not protect elderly or impaired individuals — only children — from certain types of pornographic exploitation.
Kristen Henry, an attorney with Disability Rights Ohio, warned that the intentionally broad new bill has the potential to infringe on the rights of disabled people. While the intention is positive, she said, there could be unwarranted criminalization for consenting behavior. However, her group does not oppose the proposal.
“With bills like this, it’s important to strike a balance to ensure persons with disabilities have full rights to engage in sexual activities they consent to,” Henry said. “We certainly are opposed to acts of exploitation. ... We just want to make sure the legislature is careful in crafting a response so they don’t restrict the rights of people with disabilities.”
The House on Wednesday also elevated Perry County’s part-time judge to a full-time position. The bill arose after the Ohio Supreme Court determined that a full-time municipal court judge was necessary in the southeastern Ohio county.
VENICE — A family whose members said they are victims of a Venice lawyer arrested Tuesday for exploiting the estates of at least three elderly clients said they were going to use the money from their deceased uncle’s estate to pay for their children’s college education in the fall.
The family said they spoke to detectives Friday morning and that estate attorney Adam Miller, 38, of Venice has not been charged in connection with their case yet. A family member, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Miller was placed in charge of their uncle’s estate after he died in 1999.
“All I know is that my children’s trusts are gone, almost $500,000,” the woman said. “My youngest was supposed to start college after summer vacation; my oldest daughter has two small children, and my son is only 10. “I can’t believe that he did this, I find it so unreal.”
The woman said that even after Raymond Miller — the father of Adam Miller — was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to four years in prison for stealing nearly $1 million from the estate of Holocaust survivor Beila Millet of North Port, her aunt transferred the account to Adam Miller.
The aunt passed away in 2014, the woman said.
“It makes you lose trust; my children are devastated,” the woman said.
The woman said her uncle made his money operating bowling alleys. She said she expected detectives to file charges in connection with their case this week.
On Tuesday, Adam Miller was charged with one count of exploitation of elderly, and three counts of scheme to defraud three different estates. He allegedly misappropriated $408,850 from the estate of a deceased Englewood couple.
Raymond Miller had pleaded no contest to a charge he stole $941,256 from Beila Millet of North Port. She reportedly survived medical experiments in a Nazi concentration camp.
As part of the plea agreement, Raymond Miller was sentenced to four years in prison and was placed on probation until he paid back the money.
Millet had left the money to Israeli hospitals, schools and veterans’ groups when she died at age 93 in 2006. Raymond Miller only disbursed about $122,000 within months, but more than 50 beneficiaries never received their money, which is now gone.
According to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office:
Adam Miller, who was not involved in the 2010 case, also was tapping into the trusts of his clients.
George and Eileen Johnston hired Adam Miller as their trustee and power of attorney in August 2013 to control six financial accounts, but immediately following their deaths (Eileen in 2014, and George in 2015) Adam Miller allegedly began to write and deposit high-dollar checks to himself or his law firm from accounts belonging to the Johnstons’ Trust. The funds were beyond normal attorney’s fees, detectives stated in the report.
Financial records show that Adam Miller received an estimated $130,000 from the Johnstons’ Englewood Bank account from July 2014 until George Johnston died in Febrary 2015. The attorney also received an estimated $24,500 from a Fifth Third Bank account from November 2014 until November 2015. The checks were drawn by Miller or counter withdrawals.
After the sale of the Johnstons’ Englewood home in March 2015, Adam Miller opened an Englewood Bank and Trust account to deposit a check for $264,389.37 under an account titled “George and Eileen Johnston Trust.”
Adam Miller allegedly received another $231,000 from the Englewood bank account from November 2015 to March 2016.
Detectives determined that Adam Miller paid the Johnstons’ beneficiaries only $25,500 after the couple’s deaths. None of Adam Miller’s business or personal bank accounts show the funds being disbursed to beneficiaries, the sheriff’s report said.
Sheriff’s detectives, along with the FBI, executed a search warrant on Adam Miller’s business and home and identified at least two other estates that were allegedly victims of fraud.
The Sheriff’s Office said the investigation is ongoing and additional charges could be filed in the case.
A Tennessee board has turned down parole for a disbarred Nashville attorney who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1.3 million from wards and estates he had been appointed to oversee and protect.
The state Board of Probation rejected parole for John E. Clemmons, 69, who is serving a 25 year sentence after pleading guilty to stealing funds from wards and estates in Davidson and Rutherford Counties.
Clemmons began serving the sentence on Nov. 8, 2013. He is currently an inmate at the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Hartsville.
He will not be eligible for another try at parole until May of 2020. Without parole his sentence will not end until 2038.
A spokeswoman for the board said the decision to deny parole was based on the seriousness of the offenses he committed. According to board records Clemmons could have been released next month had the board approved.
Board spokeswoman Melissa McDonald said the first votes cast on Clemmons' case were three concurring votes to deny parole and review again in three years. The vote affirmed a recommendation from a board hearing officer, she said
Clemmons' thefts were first detected by John Bratcher, clerk and master of the Rutherford County Chancery Court.
Bratcher said he had no sympathy for Clemmons and he was pleased with the board's decision.
"John Clemmons stole from the people he had taken an oath to protect. He stole from the weak and incompetent, and he did it over a period of 10 years. He caused almost unspeakable anguish for the families of his victims. He should serve his sentence day for day," Bratcher said.
Clemmons had been named conservator for Russell Church, a retired Rutherford County teacher then living in a nursing home.
In 2013 Bratcher testified that Clemmons stole over $123,910.02 from Church's estate. He said that overall Clemmons took $1.3 million from four victims Clemmons eventually entered a guilty plea to Rutherford theft charges. Church, court records show, was the only victim to fully recover the stolen funds.
In court documents Bratcher said that Clemmons' began stealing from Church on the very first day of his appointment. On that day, Nov. 22, 2011, Batcher said, Clemmons took $21,644.46 from three of Church's accounts. He said in a statement to the court that Clemmons apparently used the funds to gamble at a Mississippi casino.
Following the discovery in Rutherford County an investigation of the dozens of cases Clemmons was appointed to oversee in Davidson County turned up three more cases in which Clemmons had stolen thousands of dollars.
He entered guilty pleas in all three Davidson cases.
Tersesa Lyle, whose mother, Nannie Malone, was one of Clemmons' victims, said she only learned of Clemmons' parole bid when contacted by a reporter.
She said the family was only able to recover a small fraction of the amount Clemmons admitted to stealing. The recovery came from a bond Clemmons was required to post when he was appointed as Malone's conservator in 2008.
But Lyle said the bond value was well below the nearly $1 million in assets, including a 68-acre farm, Clemmons took control of. Records show some of Malone's properties were sold off at auction for back taxes Clemmons failed to pay.
Records show within a matter of days of his appointment as Malone's conservator by Davidson Probate Judge David "Randy" Kennedy, Clemmons began writing checks to himself.
Malone died on Oct. 25, 2012.
One of the Davidson victims, Donald Griggs, did recover $10,000 under a court settlement with Metro. The February settlement came in a suit filed by Paul Gontarek, who replaced Clemmons as Griggs conservator. He charged that had court officials done their job in monitoring Clemmons' activities, the $157,850 could never have been stolen.
Adult children often call lawyers asking them to prepare durable power of attorneys for parents. This question inevitably leads to further conversation.
The threshold question is, "Why are your parents not calling themselves?" If an attorney is going to be able to do legal documents, the clients need to be able to express what they want and understand the documents that they asked to be prepared.
If the child is calling because the parents lack the cognitive ability to express their desire or to understand the implications of the documents, no attorney is going to be able to ethically proceed with preparing a power of attorney.
Sometimes the children are calling because the parents are unwilling to seek legal and long term planning advice. Again, if that is the case, an attorney will not be able to comply with the requests by the child.
If either of the above situations is occurring, an attorney may be able to assist the child, but the answer may not a power of attorney. If the parents have lost legal capacity, a guardianship may be necessary. Guardianship is an involved and expensive legal proceeding which should not be used if there are other less restrictive options.
So before advising a family to seek guardianship, an attorney should analyze how assets are held, and what problems are being encountered. If the problems can be solved in other ways, guardianship is not an appropriate solution.
Sometimes the family members call when they do not agree with the elder’s choice of fiduciary named in existing documents. The attorney should then determine whether there are acts of exploitation or self-dealing taking place that are legally actionable. If there is a misuse of trust or if there is a criminal exploitation occurring, appropriate civil or criminal action should be pursued. If, however, it is merely a child second-guessing the parents’ decision of fiduciary, no legal action should be pursued.
Sometimes at this juncture, families attempt "DIY" remedies by finding a power of attorney form online or copying another family member's power of attorney. No legal requirement exists that requires attorneys to be involved with the preparation of a durable power of attorney. However, in 2011, the Florida Legislature significantly changed the power of attorney statute, making a Florida durable power of attorney a very complex document. Many powers have to be specifically enumerated and initialed to be operative. Using a family member’s document as a template may cause the document to be unenforceable if it is not compliant with current law.
Many families often start thinking about powers of attorney for their parents when they begin to notice changes in health and cognitive functioning. The elders may have a window of time to put legal documents in place. Further, this is the time to analyze not only the sufficiency of the legal documents, but also a realistic plan of care going forward. Estate planning documents that were done for other situations may not include sufficient flexibility to engage in asset protection planning that should be considered if long term care needs are foreseeable.
Twenty-four-hour care in the home costs between $180,000-$200,000 per year in Collier County. If the family cannot afford to pay this cost from income, then planning for this type of care long-term will cause a depletion of assets that could mean total impoverishment. While 24-hour care is seldom needed initially, planning must include consideration of the disease trajectories and comorbidities. If home care is not feasible with the assets available, other options have to be considered.
The use of government benefits including VA Aid and Attendance and Medicaid can significantly help to prevent impoverishment. Asset protection planning requires appropriate legal authority which must be built into the legal documents, including the durable power of attorney. If a DIY power of attorney was used while the elder had capacity and that DIY proves insufficient when government benefits are needed, the family will have made a costly mistake.
Yesterday the Oregon Senate Rules Committee passed out Senate Bill 494 on a party-line vote. Touted as a “simple update” to Oregon’s current advance directive, this bill is designed to allow for the starving and dehydrating to death of patients with dementia or mental illness.
Senate Bill 494 is little more than the state colluding with the healthcare industry to save money on the backs of mentally ill and dementia patients. This bill would remove current safeguards in Oregon’s advance directive statute that protect conscious patients’ access to ordinary food and water when they no longer have the ability to make decisions about their own care.
“It’s appalling what the Senate Rules Committee just voted to do,” said Gayle Atteberry, Oregon Right to Life executive director. “This bill, written in a deceiving manner, has as its goal to save money at the expense of starving and dehydrating dementia and mentally ill patients to death.”
“Oregon law currently has strong safeguards to protect patients who are no longer able to make decisions for themselves,” said Atteberry. “Nursing homes and other organizations dedicated to protecting vulnerable patients work hard to make sure patients receive the food and water they need. Senate Bill 494, pushed hard by the insurance lobby, would take patient care a step backwards and decimate patient rights.”
“Oregon Right to Life is committed to fighting this terrible legislation every step of the way,” said Atteberry. “We have already seen the outrage of countless Oregonians that the Legislature would consider putting them in danger. We expect the grassroots response to only increase.”
SB 494 was amended in committee yesterday. However, the amendments did not solve the fundamental problem with the bill. To learn more about what SB 494 will do, please watch testimony made to the Rules Committee on behalf of Oregon Right to Life yesterday by clicking here. SB 494 likely heads to a vote of the full State Senate in the coming weeks.
Three additional bills (SB 239, SB 708 and HB 3272) that also remove rights from vulnerable patients were introduced this session.
“There is a clear effort to move state policy away from protecting the rights of patients with dementia and mental illness and toward empowering surrogates to make life-ending decisions,” Atteberry said.
Senate Bill 494 makes many changes to advance directive law, eliminating definitions that can leave a patient’s directions left open to interpretation. SB 494 would also create a committee, appointed rather than elected, that can make future changes to the advance directive without approval from the Oregon Legislature. This could easily result in further erosion of patient rights.
(WXYZ) - The 7 Investigators have been exposing a disturbing pattern of some public officials and real estate brokers taking over estates after someone dies, leaving the rightful heirs with very little.
Here’s what’s been happening: Real Estate Broker Ralph Roberts has teamed up with some Attorney General-appointed lawyers called Public Administrators. The Public Administrators and Roberts’ company, Probate Asset Recovery, bill the estates for thousands of dollars, plus Roberts gets real estate commissions when they sell the homes that are at stake in the estates after someone dies. The Public Administrators then take legal fees from the estate.
“I find properties. I believe there’s a benefit, so I then tell a public administrator, here’s the benefit there,” Roberts told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo in November 2016.
Cecil St. Pierre was one of those Attorney General-appointed Public Administrators. He’s also the Warren City Council President.
“They messed with the wrong family this time,” said Petar Georgievski. When Georgievski’s mother passed away last August, she used a Quit Claim Deed to give her Warren house to her son.
Georgievski says he later found out that money was owed for a small loan on the home, and his lawyer tried to address it with the bank. But without warning, Georgievski says the house was sold at Sheriff’s Sale. (Click to Continue)
WEST YORK, Pa. (WHTM) – A southeastern Pennsylvania woman is accused of leaving an elderly, disabled woman and a blind dog in a filthy home with no food or water.
Jennifer M. Dorsey, 40, is charged with neglect of care for a dependent person, reckless endangerment, and cruelty to animals.
Police said they were called to Dorsey’s West York home on Monday after a neighbor reported the dog was constantly barking and that she hadn’t seen anyone entering or leaving the home for three days.
An officer who entered the home said trash was scattered throughout the house and that an odor from dog feces in the living room, dining room, and kitchen was almost unbearable.
The elderly woman — the grandmother of Dorsey’s husband — was lying on her back in a bed covered with her own feces and she appeared to have been lying in the same position for more than a day.
The woman was malnourished and frail, no food or water was accessible from the bedroom, and no food was found in the refrigerators, the officer wrote in a criminal complaint.
Dorsey admitted to police that she lived with the woman but had been staying with a family member in Shrewsbury. She said the last time she saw the woman was on Friday.
She said her son had been checking on the woman and that he last visited the house at 8 p.m. that day. Police told her they were at the house and trying to find the homeowner at that time.
The elderly woman was taken to York Hospital where she was in stable condition but confused, police said.
Dorsey’s dog was placed in the custody of the SPCA. A codes enforcement officer condemned the home because of its condition.
Dorsey was sent to York County Prison on $15,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 13.
Numerous food pantries across the United States generously offer groceries to humans in need, and now there are pantries focused on the other members of the family – pets!
The Pet Food Pantry of Orlando, Florida, focuses on serving the pets of low-income seniors. Without this service, many of these seniors would be unable to keep their pets, as the cost to feed them is often beyond what their fixed budgets allow. Volunteers deliver monthly boxes of pet food and treats to the seniors, allowing them the ability to stay home if there are any mobility issues. The service is truly a life saver for all, allowing families to stay together.
KayCee
In addition to the Pet Food Pantry in Orlando, many animal shelters across the country have pet food banks for those in need. Call your local Humane Society, animal shelter, or veterinarian if you or someone you know needs assistance.
SOUTH PASADENA, Calif. -- South Pasadena's police chief says he'll ask for criminal charges to be filed against a nursing home where a patient walked away last year, doused herself with gasoline and set herself on fire.
Chief Arthur Miller said Wednesday that among other things, the former South Pasadena Convalescent Hospital recruited younger patients that included rapists, robbers and drug addicts.
He says police received 1,100 calls over a decade from the facility, which Miller says wasn't equipped or licensed to handle those types of patients.
It was decertified by regulators this year and has a new name and ownership.
Former owner Shlomo Rechnitz is being sued over November's death of the suicidal woman.
ALBANY, N.Y. - By the time Roseann Keiles realized a scam artist had his hooks in her mother, the damage was done. The 82-year-old Long Island woman, who had Alzheimer's disease, had mailed away thousands of dollars in little envelopes to a man calling himself "Mr. Cashman" who phoned every day asking for money.
"My mother and I were banking at same branch of Chase. I went in one day and the bank manager pulled me aside and said, 'I just want you to be aware your mother has been coming in every three days taking out $300 in cash,'" Keiles said.
A bill now under consideration in the New York Legislature would give banks the ability to temporarily freeze the accounts of older adults when they notice activity uncharacteristic of spending habits.
Many New York banks already have standards and training for employees to spot financial exploitation, but in the past, reporting of suspicious activity was "chilled by the absence of guidelines and sufficiently unambiguous protections for banks and their employees who might have suspected abuse but were deterred by the lack of unambiguous appropriate protection from liability," said Roberta Kotkin, New York Bankers Association general counsel and chief operating officer.
The measure was unanimously approved by the Senate in March but has faced resistance in the Democratic-led Assembly and hasn't been scheduled for a vote.
Some Assembly members worry it plays into stereotypes that all seniors have diminished brain function. Other opponents, including a committee of the New York State Bar Association, have said it could encourage banks to put needless transaction holds on the accounts of seniors, with no consequences for mistakenly delayed transactions.
Few, though, disagree financial exploitation of elders is a problem.
Every year, financial fraud costs New York seniors an estimated $1.5 billion, according to the state's Office of Children and Family Services. As many as 5 million older Americans are victims of financial abuse each year, and in New York the number of financial exploitation allegations increased more than 35 percent between 2010 and 2014, the agency said.
Caregivers can easily swipe credit cards and cash Social Security checks for years before some seniors notice.
The New York attorney general's office said scammers often try to play on a victim's fears and emotions, with urgent phone calls falsely claiming a grandchild has been arrested abroad and needs money for bail, or allegations the victim owes money to the IRS.
Prosecuting offenses can be tough, too. Embarrassment keeps many victims from coming forward, said New York AARP director Beth Finkel.
"There's a stigma," Finkel said. "Who wants to raise their hand and say, 'I've been a victim?'"
She called on the governor and the leaders of the Senate and Assembly to come together and find a solution to pass the law.
"This is not solving for nuclear war," she said. "This is someone who walks into their local bank and is protected."
Mike Adamski, of Webster, said he would have welcomed alerts from banks that someone was emptying out the accounts of his 78-year-old grandfather while he was in a nursing home.
The culprit, he said, was a relative who siphoned off as much as $250,000 by cleaning out his savings and selling his possessions, including the three-piece suit the man was supposed to be buried in.
"By the time I really got involved, it was too late," Adamski said.
There are perfectly valid reasons to evict, discharge, or transfer someone from a nursing home: A resident has recovered and no longer needs specialized care, a resident has become a threat to staff or other residents, or if at a private facility, they are unable to pay for the services provided. But what about residents who are evicted without any reason? The practice, referred to as involuntary discharge, is on the rise and nursing homes in Illinois are guilty of it. In fact, the number of involuntary discharges from Illinois nursing homes has more than doubled in the past 5 years.
In a May 26th article on NPR.org, Illinois and Maryland were both called out for their high eviction rates. Maryland’s attorney general, Brian Frosh, has filed a Medicaid fraud lawsuit on behalf of the state against one particular chain of nursing homes, Neiswanger Management Services, alleging that they are guilty of seeking reimbursement for discharge planning services that it never provided. Discharge planning requires nursing homes to discuss plans of an eviction with a resident and their loved ones, as well as preparing detailed records for the resident to give to their next facility or care provider. According to the attorney general, the particular chain that has been named in the lawsuit has eviction rates that are 100x higher than any other nursing home in the state of Maryland. Why are the eviction rates so much higher at a Neiswanger-owned facility than at others in Maryland? The state believes it’s due to the reimbursement rules for Medicaid vs. Medicare. Medicare reimbursement is only good for the first 100 days of long term care treatment. Once residents transition to Medicaid, they’re less attractive to the facility because reimbursements under Medicaid are also lower. Frosh noticed that many of the evicted residents had been evicted right as their 100 day Medicare reimbursement period was ending, proving that Neiswanger wanted to empty beds to take in more Medicare residents.
Not only were residents wrongfully evicted, but many, including those suffering from dementia, were left on family members’ doorsteps, at homeless shelters, and in hospital waiting rooms.
Candidate for Governor Drafting Legislation Against Involuntary Discharge In Illinois, gubernatorial-candidate and state senator Daniel Biss is pushing for legislation that will prevent nursing homes from involuntarily discharging residents and refusing to take them back. To Biss, it was evident that many nursing homes have a clear preference for the type of resident they wish to attract and retain. At these facilities, residents who pose little challenge to the staff are clearly preferred and if a resident becomes difficult in any way, they are able to easily evict the resident and wash their hands of the situation. In our state, even if a resident is wrongfully evicted, the nursing home can refuse their readmission.
The NPR article highlights the story of Vincent Galvan, an Illinois nursing home resident who was supposed to be receiving physical therapy after having his leg amputated and receiving a prosthesis. When he complained to staff that he needed physical therapy and more attention, he was ignored. So he called the company that owned the nursing home. Still no response. Ultimately he was driven to a hospital and accused of being schizophrenic and depressed. Despite the hospital’s assessment that he suffered from neither of those conditions, the nursing home refused to take Mr. Galvan back. He believes complaining made him too big of a burden for his nursing home. Rules Exist but Many Don’t Follow
Late last year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated their nursing home regulations for discharging a resident. Although the rules exist, many residents and their loved ones are unaware of their rights and despite knowing that the practice feels unfair, aren’t sure where to turn. As a reminder, here are the new guidelines on valid conditions for involuntary resident discharge:
1. The facility cannot meet the resident’s needs 2.The resident no longer needs nursing facility services 3. The resident’s presence endangers the safety of others in the facility 4. The resident’s presence endangers the health of others in the facility 5.The resident has failed to pay 6. The facility is closing
If you or a loved one suffered serious injury or death as a result of an improperly handled involuntary discharge, please let the Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys of Levin and Perconti review the facts of your situation and advise you of any legal remedies you may have. As we now know from the rising number of involuntary discharges, Illinois nursing homes are getting away with evicting innocent and vulnerable residents and facing little, if any, consequences. Our consultations are always free, confidential, and handled by one of our skilled attorneys. Click here to fill out an online request form or call us toll-free at 1-877-374-1417 or 312-332-2872.
SANTA TERESA – Juanita Ramirez doesn’t speak English, but no matter. The despair shows in her eyes.
She sits close to her 35-year-old son, Omar, to whom she has devoted the last 16 years.
She watched him struggle after three brain surgeries. She was there during the long recovery from the horrific 2001 New Year’s Eve accident in which he hit a cow that wandered onto State Road 28 in southern New Mexico. The cow’s horn went through the windshield upon impact, leaving Omar with brain trauma that the family says requires 24/7 care.
Omar Ramirez is able to walk and talk but cannot take care of himself or his finances.
His mother is his legal guardian. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)
At 54, Ramirez figured her eldest son, who was 20 years old at the time, would be taken care of into his old age with a court settlement of about $1.2 million, after attorney fees, reached in 2005 with the rancher who owned the cow.
But the family’s bad luck has returned.
A woman from the state Adult Protective Services Division showed up at Juanita Ramirez’s door in April with unbelievable news: Omar’s settlement money is gone – even though the family provided his care and drew sparingly over the years from the trust account that should have grown with prudent investments.
Meanwhile, the court-appointed trust company managing his settlement, Desert State Life Management of Albuquerque, is under investigation by state and federal agencies. Up to $4 million appears to have been diverted from the nonprofit trust company’s client asset accounts and into business accounts controlled by CEO Paul Donisthorpe.
Criminal theft is alleged, but no one has been charged.
Meanwhile, Donisthorpe reportedly has suffered brain damage from either a stroke or a botched suicide attempt in February – although his signature appears on court divorce papers in March.
Ramirez and her family don’t know where to turn.
“I just felt so bad,” she said in Spanish, with her son Armando translating during a Journal interview last week in their home near the New Mexico-Texas border. “I had so much confidence in them (Desert State). We depended on that money for his future.”
The state Financial Institutions Division filed a petition May 31 seeking a court order to place Desert State in receivership. The state has set up a hot-line for clients and their families to call, and has asked for an expedited court hearing to try to help the estimated 70 or so vulnerable people, like Omar, who relied on Desert State to pay their living expenses and manage their assets.
The case is assigned to Chief District Judge Nan Nash in Albuquerque, but no hearing had been set as of Friday.
Mike Unthank, superintendent of the state Regulation and Licensing Department, told the Journal his agency will help as much as possible but chances of recovering all the missing money for clients are “slim.” Legal “clawback” efforts could end up in lengthy court battles, he added.
“I feel awful about it,” Unthank said. “It’s a terrible situation.” (Click to Continue)
Our guests this evening: Atty. Lisa Belanger & David Arnold (physicist, Ret.)
We will be discussing a really ugly case of guardianship and what might be the underlying cause that drives this system of human trafficking.
From Psychology Today: According to the articles on the website of Psychology Today, titled, “Psychopathy” and “PlainSight” psychopaths appear perfectly normal. However, they lack conscience and empathy.
“The most dangerous predators often look harmless — until they strike.”
As explained by Dr. J. Reid Meloy, author of The Psychopathic Mind: Origins, Dynamics, and Treatment, psychopathic serial killers are emotionally disconnected from their actions and, therefore, indifferent to the suffering of their victims. Their ability to dissociate themselves emotionally from their actions and their denial of responsibility effectively neutralizes any guilt or remorse that other people would feel in similar circumstances
Considering the number of victims of predatory guardians, could we really be dealing with the most dangerous individuals in society? Indifferent to their actions? Denying responsibility? No guilt or remorse?
~David Arnold:
“In my opinion the power, immunity, and lack of oversight of guardians may be attracting people with dangerous hidden personality traits. This is potentially very serious. However, it would need to be evaluated by someone with the proper expertise in psychology.”
"Nancy" (not her real name) had lived in a nursing home for five years. She worked in the community and did not need the level of services that the nursing home provided. Like many who live in institutions, Nancy was isolated and segregated for no reason. She felt ready to live in the community, and the nursing home supported her in that decision. But her guardian did not support the goal and blocked her plans to move out. Nancy contacted DRO for help.
DRO told the guardian about HOME Choice and Recovery Requires a Community - two statewide programs that help nursing home residents return to life in the community with the services and supports they need to succeed. Because of DRO's intervention, the guardian agreed to support Nancy in applying for HOME Choice.
DRO worked closely with the HOME Choice team and staff at the nursing home. Our advocate monitored activity and negotiated with the guardian and others to ensure that the plan moved forward. After 11 months, Nancy moved into her own apartment. DRO helped her to get vocational services to help her find a new job close to her new home. Now, instead of being isolated at the institution, she enjoys spending time with her friends at a local day center.
Although premature and lacking in reliable data, Compassion & Choices (C & C, formerly the Hemlock Society) is already declaring the law is “working very well” in a recent press release - stating also: “Personal Stories, Statistics Show Law is Working as Lawmakers Intended.”
However this report is full of dubious statistics that begs more questions than it feigns to answer.
In lieu of real data, C & C has offered this figure and rationale for how often the law has been employed by Californians: “At least 504 terminally ill adults in California have received prescriptions for medical aid in dying based on inquiries to Compassion & Choices” adding, “However, the total number of prescriptions written statewide will be significantly higher since not every terminally ill Californian who wanted an aid-in-dying prescription contacted Compassion & Choices.”
State statistics are not set to be released for another month (July 1) but this preliminary projection begs the question: no matter what this figure is, how many bottles of unused poison remain in medicine cabinets or otherwise accessible as a danger to those for whom it was not prescribed?
While it is important to know (rather than estimate) the number of people who obtained a prescription for the lethal drug, actual vital statistics provided by valid death certificates are critical to determining not just how many actually followed-through suicide rather than those who had a change of heart- how many died of their underlying natural illness or how many even may have been misdiagnosed and have gone on to live long and healthy lives - a circumstance that has been known to happen for people who have rejected euthanasia.
These stories provide a sobering counter-argument to those in the C & C press release from the families of assisted suicide victims, since of course those who died of assisted suicide cannot speak for themselves like those who rejected it.
By championing the charge to hide real data on cause of death, C & C assured that this is something we can never know. It also assures that lethal drugs remain perilously accessible to those who did not consume them- a public health threat in California.
The Trump administration has proposed revising a rule that hasn’t even gone into effect yet, with the goal of making sure that nursing home residents and their loved ones can not sue these long-term care facilities in the event that something horrible happens.
Amid concerns about the treatment of patients at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, a growing number of the companies that operate these businesses have begun including forced arbitration clauses in their residents’ contracts.
These clauses take away the patient’s constitutional right to a day in court, and shunt all legal disputes into private (often confidential) arbitration. Additionally, most arbitration clauses also include a ban on class actions, so multiple residents of the same facility who were each wronged in the same way would nonetheless be barred from having their issue heard jointly. Rather, each resident would be required to go through the arbitration process on their own.
In 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) passed a new rule that would stop almost all long-term care (LTC) facilities from forcing new residents to sign binding arbitration agreements. Basically, if an LTC wanted to accept either Medicaid or Medicare it would need to abide by this rule.
However, the American Health Care Association — an LTC industry trade group — sued the government almost immediately to prevent this rule from taking effect, and in Nov. 2016, a federal judge in Mississippi granted an injunction temporarily barring CMS from moving forward with implementing the ban on arbitration agreements.
The Department of Health and Human Services had until last Friday, June 2, to file with the court to continue the government’s appeal, but instead allowed their appeal to lapse [PDF], indicating that HHS has no intention of defending this rule.
That intention was made clear this week, when CMS officially proposed a revision to the arbitration ban; rather, it’s less a revision than it is a deletion.
The new administration, which has openly derided the federal court system when judges have disagreed with the White House, is here embracing the opinion of the Mississippi judge, saying that “After [the Nov. 7, 2016] decision, CMS reviewed and reconsidered the arbitration requirements in the 2016 Final Rule.”
The CMS proposal — which comes only days after representatives for the industry actively lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill — claims to increase the transparency of arbitration clauses by making sure they are written in plain English, that they must be explained to the resident, and that the resident must specifically acknowledge this clause.
But what good does transparency do when the resident has no choice?
“Mr. Adams, signing this clause means you won’t be able to sue Sally’s Nursing Funhouse in court, even if we’ve been deliberately charging illegal fees to you and all the other residents for years.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound good. I don’t think I’ll sign that.”
“Okay then. You can’t live here.”
“Fine. I’ll just take my business to Jimmy’s Assisted Livatorium.”
“They’re actually owned by our parent company, and even if they weren’t, every other nursing home in the area has basically the same clause, so you’re likely out of luck.”
“Oh well, at least now I know I’m powerless to fight back. Thank you CMS for this new, glorious layer of transparency!”
The Fair Arbitration Now coalition, a group of consumer and legal advocacy groups (including our colleagues at Consumers Union), is calling shenanigans on CMS’s decision to let the LTC industry win this battle.
“Anyone who has ever had a family member move into a nursing home, or anyone with an ounce of sense and compassion, would recognize that seniors and their families undergoing an incredibly challenging transition are in no position to bargain over obscure contract terms – terms they probably do not even understand,” says Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a member of the FAN coalition. “The Trump administration apparently thinks it is okay for nursing homes to force seniors into signing contract terms that give up their right to sue in court if they are subsequently victimized by neglect or abuse. It’s hard to imagine a more callous policy.”
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on June 15 turns public attention to elder abuse. Famous victims include multimillionaires “Top 40” DJ Casey Kasem, Peter Falk of “Columbo,” and New York socialite Brooke Astor, whose grandson, Philip Marshall, successfully stopped her financial exploitation and psychological abuse.
However, with 10,000 elders retiring daily and 50 million elders projected to be 65 and older by 2020, the number of vulnerable elders with lesser incomes and assets is soaring.
Too often, elders lose their civil rights, their homes, and lifelong savings through undue influence and coercion, intimidation, isolation and misrepresentation. There may be questionable dementia or incapacity diagnoses and misuse of health care proxies, powers of attorney, guardianships and conservatorships.
Elder abuse circumstances often are improperly dismissed as purely “family” matters. In reality, families may face systemic abuse in which elders, their families and their assets, properties and homes are targeted by multiple outside parties, sometimes for years, to benefit the abusers.
These abusers may include financial, legal or medical professionals and those in the courts, government agencies, law enforcement, protective services, the clergy, long-term care and real estate businesses. Fighting these networks of abusers through the legal system can be protracted and expensive. Once the elder’s assets are depleted, the elder’s “usefulness” has passed and the elder dies.
Often isolated, the elder may have been needlessly medicated with antipsychotics, opioids or, sometimes, lethal doses of morphine. Abusers know the likelihood of being held accountable for their collective actions is slim.
Elder justice is slow. An October 2014 Massachusetts Legislative Special Commission report on elder protective services cites a severe lack of training in financial exploitation and the screening out of abuse complaints without investigation.
In March 2015, the Maine Attorney General’s “Task Force Report on Financial Exploitation of Elders” went further; besides adult protective services, the Maine report includes judges and their court system, law enforcement, and prosecutors among those who lack training. Little has changed in Maine, the state with the highest per capita elderly in the country, and in Massachusetts.
Financial exploitation of elders and their families and the premature turnover of elder assets has become a lucrative industry nationally with unscrupulous players cashing in on the lack of oversight, protections and consequences.
In 2015, Georgia passed RICO legislation making conspiracy and racketeering to exploit an elder a felony. I have been working on similar legislation with Massachusetts lawmakers. Please contact me at PO Box 2496, Woburn, MA 01888 with examples of elder financial exploitation and abuse. Thank you to those who already submitted their examples.
A troubled Philadelphia nursing home recently achieved a dubious distinction from a federal agency: lowest rated, based on inspections nationally of 139 homes insured by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development.
On a scale of 100, Bala Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Wynnefield Heights scored a 2. Federal inspectors found 58 “safety and health” violations, including 37 that put residents in the 180-bed facility in jeopardy. Among them: Missing or broken handrails. Blocked or locked fire exits. Exposed wiring and missing protective plates. Multiple broken “call-for-aid” devices. Rodent infestation.
“From the report,” said David B. Miller, whose family has owned the home since the 1990s, “you’d think this was a dump.” It’s not, he said.
Bala Nursing, at 4001 Ford Rd., is a two-story masonry building surrounded by manicured shrubs and flower beds. On approach, it appears attractive. Its lobby is spotless.
But on a recent tour, a reporter stepped into its kitchen only to be mistaken by an employee for the exterminator who’d been summoned.
“They want to shut down the kitchen,” the employee, a woman named Angela, explained. She pointed to a mouse hole at the base of a wall. “We can’t get rid of them.”
Told he was a reporter, she replied, “Oh, my!”
Bala’s abysmal HUD score was mostly based on the physical safety of the building and its residents.
An examination of the nursing home’s overall quality of care, using city, state, and federal health inspections, revealed 20 years of chronic violations and modest fines for failing to give residents sufficient food, allowing rodents to roam unabated, not having enough staff to prevent harm, and other failings.
Medicare, which has a five-star rating system for the thousands of nursing homes across the country, gives Bala an overall two-star rating – well below average, but above the agency’s lowest-rated homes in Philadelphia. Medicare has rated six of Philadelphia’s 45 nursing homes with one star. Bala has a one-star rating for its staffing levels.
Bala’s troubled history also raises a larger question about Pennsylvania nursing homes: whether regulators have done enough to force facilities to follow the rules. In 2003, for example, the state Department of Health levied 89 fines on nursing homes. In 2012, the agency had none.
“There’s no incentive to provide adequate care when the enforcement agency is not going to penalize you,” said lawyer Samuel Brooks, a nursing-home specialist at Philadelphia’s Community Legal Services.
Fines did pick up again in 2015, and have soared in the last four months. Since 2015, 14 homes in Philadelphia have been fined a total of $109,000, but not Bala.
Miller disputed HUD’s findings, saying the agency improperly used higher safety standards to evaluate the nursing facility, ones typically applied to apartment buildings. The businessman did acknowledge he missed the 30-day deadline to appeal the findings but would not detail why he believed inspectors were mistaken.
“I can’t throw HUD under the bus because we haven’t cleared” the 58 violations, he said.
The Miller family at one time operated two nursing centers and 16 residential homes for the mentally ill in Washington.
In 2000, federal officials temporarily cut off Medicare and Medicaid funding for its Wynnefield Heights nursing center after inspectors found that 151 residents were in “immediate jeopardy” from safety problems. That year, Bala was fined $23,500 for 46 deficiencies that state inspectors found, Pennsylvania Health Department records show.
Among the problem: residents with bedsores, patients receiving insufficient food or water, some who were supposed to participate in therapy three times a week but had sessions only twice a month, and people who suffered from dementia being allow to smoke cigarettes without supervision.
In 2002 and 2008, regulators found more deficiencies and levied several fines.
When HUD inspected Bala Nursing in November 2011, it gave it a grade of 37. Inspectors cited six “life-threatening” problems, all of them electrical wiring issues, and 12 “non-life-threatening” deficiencies, including mold and broken circuit breakers.
HUD inspects only a sliver of the nation’s 15,662 nursing homes because the vast majority have private insurance. Of the 139 nursing homes HUD inspected in the last five years, the only one that had a score near Bala’s, a HUD spokesman said, was a facility in Maryland that last year was given a grade of 4.
Since 2011, state and city officials have cited Bala for an array of health violations. During the last year, for example, city public health workers have cited Bala for having rodents or insects in the kitchen on four consecutive inspections, records show.
One specific concern that Miller raised about the most recent HUD inspection involved citations for windows that could not be used as emergency escapes. HUD had labeled these as “life-threatening” defects, a finding that decimated the home’s ranking.
But Miller said the nursing home purposely installed stops on the windows to prevent them from being opened wider than six inches. He said staffers needed to prevent elderly residents from climbing outside. He said he never intended the windows to be used for emergency escape.
HUD spokesman Jereon Brown said Miller was correct that HUD uses many of the same standards in nursing homes and apartment buildings. But Brown said Miller had never sought a variance for his windows or any other rules, which had been in place for two decades.
A July 2016 Medicare inspection report also noted that Bala failed to follow a safety plan for a patient who ended up falling three times from her bed last year, once in January and twice in June.
The report said that the woman’s bed was unsafely elevated to its highest position, although aides were supposed to keep it close to the floor. The report said Bala workers blamed the woman, saying she would inadvertently elevate her bed by rolling in her sleep on top of an electronic remote control.
Although the Medicare report did not identify the patient, a lawsuit filed last month in Philadelphia, identified her as former postal worker Dorothy Gillard, 80, of West Philadelphia.
Darryl Gillard, son of Dorothy Gillard, meets with his attorney, Martin S. Kardon. CAMERON B. POLLACK / Staff Photographer The complaint said she died of a brain injury caused by repeated falls from her bed at Bala Nursing. The suit also said Gillard endured other indignities while she lived there. In March 2016, Gillard was taken to a hospital because extensive bites from bedbugs or mites caused her to develop scabies, according to court records.
After she fell twice from her bed in June 2016 and was hospitalized for a brain injury, hospital staff determined that she also had a urinary-tract infection and a severe form of malnutrition caused by not eating enough protein, the lawsuit said.
She was discharged to a suburban nursing home, where she stayed until she died Feb. 2.
Miller did not respond to requests for comments about the lawsuit. Gillard’s son, Darryl, 53, of Collingdale, said in an interview that he put his mother in the Wynnefield Heights nursing center in August 2015 after she suffered a stroke and “I was desperate.”
Accompanied by lawyer Martin S. Kardon, Gillard said in an interview that his goal in suing Bala Nursing wasn’t to make money. “I want to prevent this from happening to others,” he said. “I want them to be held accountable.”
That may be happening already, Brooks, the legal services lawyer, said. (Click to Continue)
