Congressman Mario Diaz Balart - Helpless to Assist Abused South Florida Elders?

Congressman Mario Diaz Balart said that Elder Abuse is a "State Matter" but that he was unable to sponsor or write any bills condemning the on-going epidemic of elder abuse that is affecting so many elders in South Florida and in other communities in the Nation.

Elder Financial Abuse is a plight that is spreading throughout all of Florida's communities with an alarming immunity!

Senior members of ElderAbuseHelp.Org accompanied Dr.Robert Sarhan to Congressman Balart's office in Miami, Florida in order to plead for help in his well documented case of elder financial abuse involving his elderly mother.

Dr. Robert Sarhan recently granted ElderAbuseHelp.Org an interview as to the nature and outcome of his meeting with Congressman Mario Diaz Balart, during which the Congressman repeatedly asked Dr. Sarhan; "What do you want me to do ?"

Dr. Sarhan expressively asked the Congressman for E.A. to be present during the meeting and the Congressman denied E.A. access to the meeting and only spoke with Dr. Sarhan.

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E.A. - Good evening Dr. Sarhan, and thank you for granting E.A. an interview with you concerning your recent meeting with Congressman Mario Diaz Balart.

Dr. Sarhan - Thank you, and you are quite welcome.

E.A. - First of all, what was the purpose of your interview with Congressman Balart?

Dr. Sarhan - To make him aware of elderly abuse and guardian exploitation in South Florida as well as around the entire State of Florida, and to discuss with him the fraud and abuse that has been taking place in many local guardianship cases in his district and throughout all of Florida.

I wanted to express to the Congressman the urgency to protect these elderly people from abuse and exploitation here in Miami and to show him what is taking place in our local courts.

I then showed him documents that clearly showed a pattern of racketeering schemes which involved local Judges, Attorneys and Guardians that rule elderly people incompetent so as to steal their money.

I was petitioning the Congressman to take action, as special legislation needs to be made to stop elder guardian abuse and exploitation here in the South Florida.

For instance, in my situation, I showed him documents that clearly proved that my mother, Yvonne Sarhan was forced into a guardianship and her civil rights were taken away from her.

I told Congressman Balart that her guardian case needs to end and that my mothers civil rights need to be restored, especially since she was deemed competent by several court appointed professionals and yet she remains in a forced guardianship.

I spent almost an hour explaining the evidence to the Congressman that the Judges, Attorneys and Guardians are all working together to extort millions of dollars from elderly people and I showed the Congressman documentation to back up that up.

E.A. - Dr. Sarhan, how much time did you spend trying to get a meeting with Congressman Balart?

Dr. Sarhan - I have been trying to work with his office for over two and a half to three years to try to get help from his office in order to help my mother get out of her improperly established Guardianship and to restore her civil rights.

When I first contacted him, he only wrote a couple of letters to Katherine Fernandez Rundle, of the State Attorneys office, which in my opinion has clearly accomplished nothing since there has been nothing done about this serious issue as of yet.

E. A. - When you were finally granted a meeting with Congressman Mario Diaz Balart, did you feel that ElderAbuseHelp.Org was instrumental in obtaining your interview with the Congressman?

Dr. Sarhan - Absolutely, I don't believe I was going to be granted a meeting unless E.A. printed the letter requesting this meeting.

E.A. - How were you received at the Congressman's office?

Dr. Sarhan - I was greeted very nicely, they wanted me to sign in and establish that I was in the Congressman's district, and there were two security agents present that checked my brief case and then escorted me to the Congressman's office and then once the meeting was over they both escorted me out of the back door of the Congressman's office.

E.A. - Did you make any specific requests of Congressman Mario Diaz Balart?

Dr. Sarhan - Yes, I requested that several of the senior members of E.A. be allowed in the meeting with me as witnesses and to be there to help clarify the issues of elder abuse and elder financial abuse, however that request was denied by the Congressman.

E.A. - Did the Congressman offer you a reason for denying the attendance of the members of ELDERABUSEHELP.ORG?

Dr. Sarhan - The Congressman stated that he had 800,000 people in his district and that he could only meet with people that were part of his district.
I explained to the Congressman that they were not here to speak unless he wanted clarification on the issue of elder abuse and judicial fraud concerning elder guardianship, and that I wanted them to be a witness to this meeting, but he just said; "No."

E.A. - O.k., so now what steps had you taken before you went to Congressman Mario Diaz Balart for help?

Dr. Sarhan - I had gone to Katherine Fernandez Rundle at the State Attorneys office many times and asked for help, but it seems that Katherine Rundle knows about the elder abuse and exploitation and looks the other way while these crimes are being committed regarding the fraud and the racketeering involving the courts and court appointed guardians.

I and others believe that by her looking the other way and not stopping this elder abuse, that she knows the Judges, and the attorneys, and knows the guardians and just looks the other way while these people destroy lives and rob the elderly and their families of every dime that they have ever earned and all that they have saved.

We also believe she knows exactly what is happening in the probate courts and looks the other way, and so that is the problem. When dealing with Katherine Rundle, you will find that she will only forward documents to the Guardian Association who are complicit in stealing millions of dollars from elderly people.

I believe that the job of the State Attorney is to put criminals away, yet it seems that since there is no measure of accountability for their actions, the Judges, Attorneys and Guardians feel that they are above the law.

The Judicial System is supposed to work on the behalf of protecting our elders, but this is what happens when you have corruption in the system and it is very very difficult to get help when you have corrupt judges.

This is why Attorneys and Guardians are robbing these elders at an alarming rate because they know that there is no one to help us them or the victim's family. There is nobody watching while they are making millions of dollars by placing elders in improper guardianship's contrary to the spirit of Guardianship Laws which were put in place to protect elders and their families under certain circumstances.

E.A. - How did the Congressman react to your concerns regarding this issue of elder abuse by the courts and forced guardianship's and the alleged judicial corruption?

Dr. Sarhan - Well , I first handed him an article by the title; " Stolen Lives" by Ines Carr and then we went on to the medical reports showing that my mother was competent yet she was deemed by the court incompetent. They are ruling elderly people incompetent in order to steal their money, and I showed and read from each document, reports from doctors in which my mother clearly stated that she was happy with the care she was receiving from me, her son, Robert Sarhan and the Doctors were all very impressed by the care that my mother, Yvonne Sarhan received from me.

E.A. - In other words, your mother Yvonne Sarhan had already decided long ago whom she trusted to take care of her in the event that she became incapacitated?

Dr. Sarhan - Yes, absolutely! She had advance directives and a durable power of attorney. These are documents that are prepared specifically to avoid these types of situations where a stranger is appointed by a court and takes over an elders assets and then bills the elderly person down to their last few dollars.

E.A. - Did you leave Congressman Balart with any documents as part of your presentation?

Dr. Sarhan - Yes, I wanted to show the congressman that we had a clear case of elder abuse and exploitation so I left him with documents that clearly showed that the attorney that was representing my mother, was also representing the guardian at the same time. When we asked the lawyer representing my mother if he was also representing the guardian he denied it, therefore, he was misleading and committing fraud on the court.

So it was important to give him those documents to show him that indeed fraud and corruption is taking place and is a widespread problem not only in my mother's case but in many cases locally by the misuse of power in the probate courts.

E.A. - How did the Congressman react to your presentation of the facts?

Dr. Sarhan - Congressman Mario Diaz Balart asked me; "What do you want me do to?"

He told me that he did not have much power to do anything, and that he would write some letters to Katherine Rundle, the State Attorney and suggested that I write a bill to protect the elders and submit it to him for consideration.

E.A. - Once he went over the information with you, did you leave him any hard copy and or muti-media materials?

Dr. Sarhan - I left him with documents of my mothers mental examinations that show her competent and I left him documents that showed him fraud and corruption in regards to my mothers case. I also left him a copy of a video documentaries from various news an TV channels that were documenting cases of guardianship abuse and corruption committed upon the elderly people of our country.

E.A. - As the meeting with Congressman Balart was coming to a close, and after you told him everything that you knew about this problem, how did you feel when the Congressman said that there was nothing that he could do for you?

Dr. Sarhan - I was very disappointed! I felt that the Congressman took the time to review my material and evidence and that he realized that this is a very serious case of elderly exploitation, but he left me feeling as if he wasn't going to help. Don't get me wrong, I was grateful that he granted the meeting, but I felt he would just give a letter to the States Attorney and I would be back at square one again. The Congressman was simply saying that he could do nothing and did not have the power to introduce any special legislation!

He also told me to talk to my State Senator. Well, I had already sent a packet before to the Senator, but they never responded, then when I called my State Senator later, his assistant said he had it on his desk for months but didn't know what t0 do with it!
My zip code is 33170 and he sent me to two Senators that I wrote to but never heard back from either.

E.A. - How did the meeting end?

Dr. Sarhan - I pleaded over and over again to the Congressman, asking if he could write some kind of special legislature such as the "Palm Sunday Compromise" in the Terry Shiver case to get my mother out of this fraudulent guardianship case and back home where she belongs, but he said said he did not have the power to do that.

He said he could not help me, the only thing he could do was write a letter to the State Attorney.

E.A. - Well, thank you Dr. Sarhan.
Now may we contact you in the future for any follow up information regarding this issue?

Dr. Sarhan - Yes, absolutely!

E.A. - Great, that would be greatly appreciated by the members of E.A. and our readers as well!

Dr. Sarhan - Thank you E.A. for all of your help and support and without this organization, I believe I would have never gotten very far and thousands of your readers would never know that they were not alone in elderly abuse and the fraud we all refer to as a National Epidemic concerning the Elderly Citizens of this Great Nation.

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Editor's notes:

"We looked up Congressman Mario Diaz Balart's records on his web site and he has already sponsored H.Res. 995 (introduced 2/25/08) Commemorating the 12th anniversary of the 1996 shooting down of 2 unarmed Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft, licensed by the United States, by the Cuban regime.

He also has sponsored H.Con.Res. 260 (introduced 11/15/07) Condemning the kidnapping and hostage-taking of 3 United States citizens for over 4 years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and demanding their immediate and unconditional release.

Yet, he seems to be unable to intervene in the corrupt practice of declaring elder people incompetent in order to separate them from their families, their wealth, and thus destroying their lives, their families and anyone that stands in the way of this practice."
In Brake v. Murphy, 736 So.2d 745
(Fla. 3d DCA 1999), wherein the Third District, in reversing an order awarding attorney’s fees, states "probate court has become repugnant to a great many citizens."
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Recent Comments :

A Congressman and the FBI said they could not do anything about this? I am assuming this means the letters that I am in the process of writing about the corruption here are going to yet again fall on deaf ears?What's the point of the National Association of Elder Law and Attorneys then?

In the United States?

Abuse and Neglect is okay as long as your not drowning your puppydog?I do not have the mindset to comprehend the statements you heard made by the Congressman and the FBI.

I would like to know this Congressman's name and the reasoning behind his comments?

Thank you..

Angela imangeiam@aol.com