The Shame of Elder Abuse and the Silence of Washington

As we close the holiday season, we are reminded that one sad reality, elder abuse, takes no holiday. In fact, recent studies show that abuse of older adults, especially financial abuse, increases dramatically during the holiday season. Today, more than one in ten older adults will be victims of some form of elder abuse, with a collective loss of almost $3 billion a year.

Just before adjourning for the holiday, Congress passed a massive spending bill for the rest of this fiscal year. For the second year in a row, Congress failed to provide funding for the only comprehensive federal elder abuse prevention law -- the Elder Justice Act. This is both shameful and shortsighted. Less than two years ago, in a bi-partisan basis, Congress enacted the Elder Justice Act and signaled its recognition that elder abuse is a growing problem that requires a coordinated and comprehensive federal response to effectively combat it. This law simply authorizes funds. A second bill must be passed to actually put the law into action. President Obama asked Congress to provide $21.5 million in startup funds for the Elder Justice Act in his budget for 2012, and Congress ignored this request.

Victims cannot march on Washington to demand justice, and they should not have to. One victim, legendary actor Mickey Rooney did, when he testified before Congress about his personal experience as a victim of elder abuse. Mr. Rooney drew many cameras to the hearing, but his story did not motivate the rest of Congress to provide critical funding.

We are about to start a new year. The focus for 2012 will be both policy and politics. Both parties will covet and compete for the older voter. Older voters continue to be the most reliable voter and their numbers are increasing. Older voters represented 23 percent of the voting population in 2010 -- up from 16 percent in 2008. They respond to actions taken, not promises made. The older voter is concerned about threats to the future of Social Security and Medicare, and more directly, their own safety and financial security. Elder abuse is an ever present threat which must be thwarted, and they expect the federal government to be involved.

Our bi-partisan 3000-member Elder Justice Coalition intends to make funding for elder abuse prevention a political imperative to Congress and to candidates for President. Funding for the Elder Justice Act will promote jobs, protect older adults and prevent unnecessary spending by Medicaid and Medicare. The amount needed to fund elder justice is about $200 million a year, or about 5 percent of what was recovered last year by the federal government in fraud and waste in Medicare and Medicaid. It is time to end the shame and fund elder justice.

Robert B. Blancato is the National Coordinator of the Elder Justice Coalition, Washington D.C. http://www.elderjusticecoalition.com/.

Death and Taxes Blog

He's leaving!  Accepted a new position!  Here's his post.  I'm completely devastated by his decision, doesn't he know there's not many good attorney's out there?  And why can't he keep the blog?!

He's selling off his domain name too and I hope he just doesn't hand to anyone.  He's been so dedicated to blogging, giving us facts, explaining the law, it's a really good site and I'm sad to see it go..... now, who's going to keep me informed that's honest or has integrity?!  Who can I trust?  I'll have to find out what that Tom Oloffson is up to.....

Retired NYC School Teacher Fights for Her Freedom

Retired NYC school teacher fights for her freedom

By Barbara F. Hollingsworth

Ella Card had it made in America. After emigrating to the United States from her native Belize, she earned a masters degree and taught third grade in the New York City Public School system for three decades.

She and her late husband Raymond, who died as a result of taking the recalled painkiller Vioxx, had saved and invested their money wisely, so Card was looking forward to a comfortable retirement.

But her well-laid plans took a terrible detour when she suffered temporary dementia after being struck by a car in 2010. Her two sons, whom she says lost their jobs as corrections officers due to drug abuse, petitioned the Brooklyn Supreme Court for guardianship over her affairs.

And after recovering from her injuries, the 73-year-old widow -- a naturalized U.S. citizen who retains dual citizenship in Belize -- finds herself in an ongoing guardianship nightmare that has now gone international.

On March 16, Brooklyn Judge Betsy Barros held one of five ex parte hearings on Card, appointing a temporary guardian. On April 26, Barros ignored Card's durable power of attorney, irrevocable trust, and two quit claim deeds and read the still-very-much-alive woman's will in open court before declaring her "incapacitated."

The court transcript obtained contains this Kafkaesque passage: "... the Incapacitated Person, Ella Card, vigorously contested the proceedings."

"It felt like a hanging. I was the only one sticking up for my mother," Card's 43-year-old daughter Cindy told us. "Every one of them standing there and allowing it knew my mother was not incapacitated."

Card was then placed under the near total control of a court-appointed guardian, The Vera Institute of Justice, located in the same Brooklyn courthouse. The Vera Institute of Justice's website describes it as "an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit center for justice policy and practice." According to IRS records, $16.7 million of its $24 million annual funding comes from government grants.

Card told The Washington Examiner that The Vera Institute of Justice promptly froze all of her assets (valued at approximately $1 million), including her teachers' pension, began collecting rent on the property she owned, and forced her to live in her own home without heat, hot water or access to her own money.

Card petitioned the court to remove the guardianship. Her petition was denied. She had to borrow money to travel to Washington where, on June 14, she was one of 40 people from 17 states to tell a congressional listening session chaired by Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, about abuses of the guardianship system that strip vulnerable seniors and disabled people of their civil and constitutional rights.

Card was the only witness deemed "incapacitated" to testify for herself: "I was sold like a slave to The Vera Institute ... which closed all of my bank accounts, took control of my money, filed a change of address to get my mail, demanded keys to my properties and contacted Belize to try to take control of my property and bank accounts in that country. ..."

Card says her niece, who works in the American consulate, told her that the Belizean authorities confirmed she was living there, but refused to give The Vera Institute of Justice any other information.

The Examiner has learned that Nestor Mendez, Belize's ambassador to the United States, read a November letter from Card requesting his protection and passed it on to the embassy's legal division for follow-up.

Karen Goldstein, the Vera Institute of Justice's general counsel in New York, said she would look into the matter. We're still waiting for her response.

Meanwhile, the feisty Card -- who clearly demonstrated her mental and verbal acuity in an interview with this newspaper -- continues to fight for her freedom.

Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner's local opinion editor.

Devon Bank Trust Department - Putting Them Out of Business

I’ve been diligently working on letting the entire world know this bank is financially exploiting their elderly and disabled clients through guardianships. I Xeroxed their court files, wrote a 33-page report describing (in detail) financial abuse to 19 of their clients (in seven years), mailed it to every State and Federal agency I could think of, spoke to all those agencies (absolutely lovely people), Senator Kirk ordered a Federal investigation (along with everyone else in DC), I walked my adopted victims up Capitol Hill, spoke to all our legislators about the problem, sent it to the probate court judges and Chief Judge (because Devon Bank was hiding their 2011 court records from me) then I put it on Congressional record a few months ago. Devon Bank, Janna Dutton and Josh Mitzen made history. I even set up a blog on the victims’ behalf.

Last week, one of the probate court judges refused to approve Devon Bank’s fees. She said they charged way too much to manage an estate. God love that judge for looking out for the best interests of her wards.  I will publish the fees for the other banks so you can find one much more reasonably priced.  I try to court watch for all my adopted victims, make sure I know what's going on..... and now I'm adopting others while I'm on the 18th. 

I’m hoping to put that bank out of business or at least the Trust Department. I made a commitment to Rick Block (Senior VP of Trusts) and Snipped that I would do something about the fact that Snipped which just got worse. Why would Janna Dutton set up a trust account at the most expensive bank in the city if she was looking out for her clients best interests? I know, she was only looking to trap her client in guardianship to set up her retirement fund. For those of you emailing and complaining about this woman, don’t worry, I’m onto her next. If you’re upset about Josh Mitzen, email me at TamiGoldmann@aol.com. Someone is collecting information about him and will file a complaint. I don’t have time but send me the case number and information.