With her mother, Mildred Willis, struggling with impending death of her father in 2010, Stacey Willis consulted with a Chicago attorney named Terrance Godbolt who suggested that to relieve some of the stress, Stacey take over temporary guardianship over her mother.
On October 18, 2010, Stacey Willis was named plenary guardian by the Cook County Superior Court.
“He gave me a brochure,” Stacey Willis told RebelPundit, and said she never knew that she’d be responsible for creating a detailed budget, financial plan, and be responsible for accounting for every dime she spent of her mother’s money.
Furthermore, Willis says, after filing all the proper forms for guardianship, Godbolt disappeared, stopped returning phone calls, and was otherwise unavailable to help her navigate the process.
A message to Godbolt’s office was left unreturned.
Willis said she had no idea that in Cook County there is a special office, the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office, which watches all guardianship cases like a hawk and is ready to step in whenever the office feels there is trouble.
That’s exactly what happened when the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office led by Robert Harris accused Stacey Willis of misspending $164,000 of her mother’s money. The office asked the probate judge, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Carolyn Quinn, to have Willis removed as her mother’s guardian and instead have the office appointed on December 17, 2012.
Willis said the charges against her are lies, citing the fact that her mother didn’t have anywhere close to $164,000 in liquid assets to misspend. Stacey Willis told RebelPundit that her mother had about $30,000 in cash at the start of the process along with a treasury bond worth about $22,000.
Full Article and Source:
How the Cook County Public Guardian Can Take Your Home
See Also:
In Retaliation for Downtown Protest, Cook County Public Guardian's Office Evicts Senior Citizens, Sets Family Belongings on Curb
Cook County Public Guardian's Office: About Us
Statement from Cook County Public Guardian's Office
Response from Mildred Willis' daughter, Stacey