A knock on the door from a bureaucrat has led to nightmare lasting more than two years: leaving the family matriarch alone, isolated, and drugged, her daughter accused of theft, and her other daughter on the brink of being removed from the family home.
In January 2013, Tivia Olson a representative of Montgomery County Aging and Adult Services (MCAAS) showed up on the front door of Lillian Gibson’s home telling her that MCAAS had received a complaint that she was being financially exploited.
Several weeks later, Gibson, who was living in a home she shared with her daughter, Jocelyn “Austin” Gibson, received a letter from Montgomery County Orphan’s Court stating that the elder Gibson was suspected of being incapacitated and a hearing was scheduled to determine if she should be placed into guardianship, the case wound up in the court room of Judge Stanley Ott.
In late February 2013, Gibson hired Gerald Clark, an elder law lawyer, as her attorney but Ott barred Clark from representing her instead appointing Diane Zabowski as her counsel.
In April 2013, Ott ruled Gibson to be incapacitated and placed her in guardianship. Rather than appointing a family member guardian, Ott appointed Kalpana Doshi of Adjustments, Inc., as her guardian.
Kalpana, Zabowski, and MCAAS, didn’t respond to phone calls for comment. Judge Ott’s office has previously told Rebel Pundit that he, as a matter of policy, doesn’t comment on ongoing cases.
Ott made this determination after Robert Slutsky, a local attorney who was acting as the solicitor for MCAAS, accused Gibson’s daughter, Dr. Alvianette Gibson-Kennedy, of misspending $136,000 of her mother’s money, said she was malnourished and being fed a steady diet of junk, and also claimed she was totally incapacitated.
Slutsky, according to a lawsuit filed by the Gibson family, then introduced testimony from Gibson’s family’s long-time physician Gerald Hansen.
Slutsky asked Dr. Hansen, “Do you think Mrs. Gibson could be financially exploited?”
“Yes,” Dr. Hansen replied, though that reply could apply to every human.
Slutsky, an attorney, then listed off a series of ailments which he claimed Gibson suffered from as further evidence she needed to be incapacitated.
Both Alvianette and Austin Gibson denied misspending their mother’s funds and mistreating her in multiple court filings.
“Reverend Kennedy refuted the ‘alleged bank/accounting documentation as being inaccurate and unsubstantiated, that is to say, that no element of the banking documentation was certified either by a CPA or other credible source,” according to a lawsuit filed by the family.
Though Slutsky accused Dr. Kennedy of major theft, his accusation was made strictly in orphan’s court and this evidence has never been presented to the county’s district attorney’s office.
In a previous Rebel Pundit expose from Chicago, the Cook County Public Guardian similarly accused Stacey Willis of theft of more than $30,000 of her mother’s money, but only made that charge during guardianship and didn’t report it criminally.
Initially while in guardianship, Lillian Gibson was allowed to continue to living in the family home she shared with her daughter Austin but in April, after the guardian complained that the elder Gibson missed repeated doctor’s appointments, Gibson was moved to a nursing home, Spring Meadows in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
But Austin Gibson said this is not accurate.
“It was me who missed the appointments not my mother,” she said, something she made note of to several of the players in guardianship.
Austin Gibson, who doesn’t drive, said she’s seen her mother only about ten times since she’s been moved; she said they speak on the phone nearly every day.
Lillian Gibson was also put on a cocktail of drugs: donepezil for Alzheimers, diltiazem for high blood pressure, and hydrochlorothiazide also for high blood pressure.
Because her mother was moved out of the family home, a reverse mortgage came due and now Austin Gibson is being threatened with being evicted.
A reverse mortgage, available exclusively to elderly like Lillian Gibson, is a loan which rather than having payments due, gives a lump sum payment to the borrower which comes due when the borrower passes away or moves.
The Gibson family said that there was over $100,000 in the reverse mortgage account which has now disappeared.
“Even more to the point, when this all began, $114,000 was in an account from RMS (Reverse Mortgage Specialists, the reverse mortgage company). They are a reverse mortgage company. I have requested time and again that those funds be returned. According to Judge Ott’s order two years ago, those funds were to be returned. Yet, I am being told that the amount of the foreclosure is $190,000. Where is that money? Why hasn’t it been returned?” Austin Gibson wrote to Judge Ott and Zabowski in an email from June 22, 2015.
Starting in December 2014, RMS has sent a series of threatening letters demanding payment of more than $130,000 and has started foreclosure proceedings in the last two months.
The family also said they’ve never been told how much the nursing home costs monthly or how much of Lillian Gibson’s money has been spent on her behalf.
“They have not given my mother even a dollar to buy stockings with her own money.” Austin Gibson said.
In the beginning of June 2015, Lillian Gibson was transferred to Addington Lansdale Hospital with stomach pains. Though she had been diagnosed with dementia, Gibson was moved to the hospital in an isolated room with no guardian.
After being informed by Spring Meadows, Austin Gibson frantically called all involved in her mother’s care until reaching Doshi later that day.
“I don’t have time for this, I’m leaving to go on vacation; I have a flight to catch.” Austin Gibson remembers Doshi saying.
After pressure from the family, Lillian Gibson was transferred to Presbyterian Hospital where she was diagnosed with blockage in her intestines.
But purportedly a surgery was out of the question because with her dementia the surgery would kill her, doctors said.
Austin Gibson said a family doctor diagnosed her mother with dementia in 2012 but attributed that dementia to depression caused by the death of her husband. Austin said that while the dementia diagnosis was not used as evidence to put her mother into guardianship, it was used to put her into a wing of the nursing home which was far more expensive.
With death near, Diane Zabowski sent the family an email stating that she intended to file an emergency motion making Lillian Gibson’s two daughters her medical guardian.
Dr. Robinson informed me that, unfortunately, your Mother has a mass in her colon which is most likely cancerous. The location of this mass means that it has created a bowel obstruction. Abington wants to transfer your Mother to HUP for further evaluation.
I intend to file an Emergency Petition with the court to request that both of you be given the authority to make medical decisions and any end of life decisions for your Mother. I intend to email a consent form to you for your review and signature.On June 17, 2015, Zabowski followed up with an email with an attachment with the order which she intended to file the next day making the two daughters guardians.
Later that same day, inexplicably, the surgery was approved and performed successfully, putting into doubt the diagnosis which has put Lillian Gibson into guardianship in the first place.
Zabowski never filed the order as promised and instead an emergency hearing was held and guardianship was changed temporarily from Doshi to Sheila Weiner of Intervention Associates. Neither of Gibson’s daughters attended this hearing because they were with their mother still recovering from surgery.
Weiner didn’t respond to an email for comment. The elder Gibson has been recovering nicely but continues to be in guardianship.
Full Article & Source:
Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania
See Also:
Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania Part 2
Guardianship Abuse Spreads to Pennsylvania
Boomers Beware of Guardianship Abuse
Harvey Whitten, Pennsylvania Victim