Letters From Readers -Attorney Mitchell I. Roth -So Where is my husband?

Absentee Attorney
Joe M.Tolley’s Life is in Danger, So Where is my husband?

Dear Attorney Mitchell I. Roth,

This message is from Ruthie Tolley, my mother, and the following is what she and I believe. My mother has asked me to e-mail the following message to you.

August 24, 2010

Mitchell , it has been almost 2 weeks since you said “I will call you back in 5 minutes.” Yesterday, I learned that my husband was in the hospital (you probably already knew this) and maybe that is part of the reason you did not return my calls. As you know, my daughter Donna Tolley will not answer the phones so we would have to go to the house to see my husband and ask the Police to meet us there. As you know, I am staying with my son Tommy and not at the Rancho Cucamonga house because of safety issues and you are supposed to be helping me get my husband out of Donna's unhealthy care and to get Donna out of the house. In my last e-mail I told you, as I have many times before, to get Donna Tolley out of the house and I would move back in with my husband where he could receive 24 hour health care. I still have not heard from you.

On August 24th, 2010, you finally called me to tell me that we need to talk. Talk about what? The only thing we need to talk about is getting my husband out and to safety. You said we need to make Donna Tolley take a deposition. Why now? If there is any truth in your statement, why did you not do this when I first met you 8 to 9 months ago? I believe you just want to continue to delay and deny me because Donnasue Smith Ortiz and Judge J. Michael Welch have been anticipating my husband’s slow but planned death, or the closing of escrow of the Pasadena property that they are all stealing under the guise of Conservatorship.

Listen to me, I want my husband home with me as I stated in my last e-mail to you. You are completely ignoring what I want. Now you said there is nothing that you could do for my husband, it is up to Attorney Donnasue Ortiz. If there is nothing you could do, why did you promise all of these things? For 9 months, you promised that my husband would not end up in a rest home, and that we would just get Donna out of the Rancho Cucamonga house. Promises and more promises, more delays and more denials. What else would your purpose be but to promise, delay and deny?

I believe that your assignment by Judge J. Michael Welch was to delay and deny me, while my husband is being killed off. I feel that you are being completely heartless.

Mitchell, when you finally called, you mentioned nothing about the restraining order, nor about my e-mailed responses to your letters about getting Donna out of the Rancho Cucamonga house, nor about my husband and I moving back in together, nor that my husband Joe Tolley would continue to receive 24 hour care at home as I stated in my e-mails to you. I do not believe that you plan to help me get my husband back together with me. Mitchell, you should be helping me to fight this "Restraining Order" which has yet to be served even as of today, August 31th, 2010.

On August 21st 2010, I learned that my husband was hospitalized at the San Antonio Community Hospital for a urinary tract infection. The doctors and nurses at San Antonio Community Hospital all said he could receive the care and treatment for his urinary tract infection at home. But as in the Probate Murders, I believe my husband is being isolated from the family. For example, Donna's restraining order, being appointed temp-conservator by a corrupt Judge (Welch), suspected of real estate fraud by using the Conservatorship Courts, and the right Court Forced Attorneys (CFAs) to mislead the elderly and the defenseless as their estates are raped and family members (conservatees), slowly being killed off.

Me, my son Tommy and along with other family members, Marian, my other daughter, and her daughter a registered nurse, went to the Hospital Sunday August 22, 2010. We had not seen him in so long. Again, since Judge J. Michael Welch appointed my daughter Donna Tolley as Temp Conservator, my husband’s health has deteriorated. I believe you did nothing to help me get my husband Joe out from under Donna’s unhealthy care on purpose by not objecting to her continued Temp-Conservatorship at our last Court date, instead you later claimed that Donna was already the Temp-Conservator so you did not object. Again that made no sense at all but, I believe this only allowed Donna Tolley and Attorney Donnasue Smith Ortiz to continue their plan to get rid of my husband of 65 years. Mitchell, your actions and non-actions have caused my family greater continued grief. There is nothing funny about this.

As you know, our goal is and always has been to get my husband to safety and out of Donna’s unhealthy care. Donna and my son Kenneth came to the hospital, and Donna told everyone including me Joe Tolley's wife to “get out” of the room, stating that she was in charge. I believe Donna later called the Upland Police who said Donna showed them a restraining order against me, Ruthie Tolley, and my son Tommy, and that we could not come within 100 yards of my husband of 65 years, and that I could not go within 100 yards of my own house in Rancho Cucamonga. We have not been served with any restraining order. We explained the situation to the Police and our safety concerns for my husband as well as to Doctor Gee and the hospital staff, but we were asked to leave by Upland Police.

My husband is being drugged and cannot seem to wake up. He asked, barely speaking, that my son Tommy must help him. However, we could only do so much because I believe of the corruptedness of Judge J. Michael Welch and Donnasue Smith Ortiz. Donna Tolley and another doctor said that my husband is going to a rest home. Imagine a judge, two greedy daughters, and one greedy son stealing everything you have, then allowing your husband to be drugged into a zombie like state and your lawyer doing nothing, and then stealing your last piece of Pasadena property as an excuse for taking care of your husband, while knowing he is being slowly murdered.

Not only that, your appointed lawyer then claims to be putting the proceeds in an account for your husband while you have you no reason to trust him.

I believe that my husband is being slowly killed. I believe that Judge J. Michael Welch and others will funnel the proceeds from the sale of my property, perhaps to pay back a loan that he and others may have taken out on his or their own personal properties. I believe the third party involved with funneling money back to the Judge Welch would be someone appointed to handle the account. I have been declared capable and competent of handling my own affairs by three different doctors. Two of them court appointed. That includes handling my husband’s affairs, which I have always done in the past. It should have all ended after being declared competent.

If Donna is doing such a good job, as I believe Judge Welch’s co-conspirator Donnasue Ortiz claims, why is my husband unable to speak and suddenly be immobile? My husband, even after the stroke, was able to speak and was strong and mobile. My husband Joe M.Tolley had never been bed ridden. I believe that he is just being drugged by Donnasue's doctors and nurses and I believe my daughter Donna is helping. By drugging the conservatee, Donnasue Ortiz and my daughter ensures that my husband cannot do anything for himself.

He was able to walk until Donnasue and Donna took over and got me out of my house. I strongly believe that he is being drugged. Just like the Probate Murders. I will never see those proceeds from the sale of any building and you know it. We are going to find out what is going on, Mitchell.

The reason why I have this suspicion is because a few years ago, a doctor named Cohen tried to experiment on my husband with Donna’s help when I was in control. Donna took my husband to see Dr. Cohen. I had it stopped, and I believe that this Doctor is experimenting on my husband’s brain now as he tried before. I had to stop him. I believe he is killing my husband slowly. You could have helped to stop this Mitchell, but you did not speak for me as I had asked. I believe that you did what Donnasue Smith Ortiz wanted, to keep Joe M.Tolley under Donna's unhealthy care and put him up for sale. I believe you know this is all about money. Donna Tolley said Doctor Cohen is not seeing my husband, but I believe so strongly that was a lie.

Mitchell, everything that you promised me would not happen, did in fact happen. Do not try to blame this on Tommy or undue influence. I believe that this case has been orchestrated by Judge J. Michael Welch and Donnasue Ortiz from the beginning when the Judge first denied me my rights to choose my own attorney, and then ordering me to take you as my attorney or else he, Judge Welch, would just appoint a conservator for me. Judge Welch then appointed my daughter Donna Tolley asTemporary Conservator even after I told him of the physical abuse and assault on me by my daughters Donna Tolley and Carol Ann Harris. He then ordered my son Tommy to take me and my husband back to the house where the assaults occurred. I believe that Judge Welch and Donnasue Ortiz want Donna Tolley in control because Donna has our money and Judge Welch and Donnasue are following the money. Judge Welch wants my property sold so that he can funnel it through an account and eventually into his own pockets. But for this to work, my husband would first have to be slowly killed off. Just like the Probate Murders.

As of Monday morning Aug ust 23rd, 2010, I have not been served any “restraining order” but I am waiting. Do not try to say Todd has to or can only do this or do that. Mitchell, you should have been doing the things that you are trying to say Todd should be doing. Remember, Tommy just recently hired Todd. Do not tell me to call Donnasue Ortiz as you have before, you should be communicating with Donnasue on my behalf about all my concerns in writing. You and Donnasue Ortiz are, as you stated “colleagues,” remember? I believe that you do not want to write anything negative about Donnasue Ortiz because you are friends and colleagues. I believe that you did your job, but it was primarily to make me believe that my daughter Donna would be held accountable, so you could keep promising, denying and delaying.

You continued to make promises to me knowing that they would not hold water until we get to the point in the case where we are today with nothing and my husband drugged, dying and under Donnasue and Donna Tolley’s unhealthy care and Donnasue’s doctors and nurses. All this time, you are not insisting and have not produced any documented effort to have Donna Tolley removed as Temporary Conservator, to get her out of the house, nor have you called to compel the Court to have Donna produce any documentation for this case. I believe that you could have accomplished this at our last court meeting but I do not believe this was your true intent as evidenced by your own silence.

I believe that Donnasue Ortiz made a deal with Donna Tolley back in July of 2009 or sooner, to turn the Rancho Cucamonga House over to my daughter Donna and compensation as well as Judge Welch’s will come from the sale of the Pasadena property. I believe that Donnasue wants my husband so that she can finish him off in a rest home and to isolate all other family members so that no one will know what happened to him just like the Probate Murders. You, Mitchell are part of this. As I have told you before, my husband is not a slave, the proverbial carrot, or human sacrifice for sale for experimentation being used for barter. He is a human being. I believe this is what Judge Welch and Donnasue Ortiz are doing, with no regard for human life, only filling their own pockets and mortgages.

I believe that Donnasue lied and should have been removed off this case a long ago. You said Judge Welch likes Donnasue and yourself. I am sure he does for many reasons. Judge Welch threw away document proof provided by my son Tommy that Donnasue Otiz was lying to the court right in front of my son Tommy while in court. Remember you thought this was so funny when I told you about this and you said that you are going to tell Donnasue Ortiz about it as if it were a joke. I just called the hospital and learned that my daughter Donna had taken my husband out of the hospital. No one will tell me where he was taken to. Where is he, Mitchell? I believe that the actions Judge J. Michael Welch, Attorney Donnasue Smith Ortiz, Maryellen Ross (Donna Tolley’s attorney) are those parallel to the “Probate Murders.”

I believe it is quite clear that Judge J. Michael Welch and Donnasue Ortiz and their doctors and nurses all have every intention of slowly killing my husband, Joe M. Tolley Sr. As you may know, I believe that Donnasue Smith Ortiz worked with or for Ms. Melodie Scott of the C.A.R.E. Inc. Ms. Scott’s license as a fiduciary was denied recently. I believe family members of those under Ms. Scotts C.A.R.E were complaining about the way their family members were being treated and eventually dying under doctors working with C.A.R.E. and not being able to have any control over the conservatee. I believe, according to the San Bernardino Sentinel and other publications, Judge Welch tried to defend Ms. Scott.

Mitchell, I have a right to know what is happening to my husband of 65 years Joe M. Tolley Sr. I have a right to know his medication, the doctors involved in his care, where he is, why he is so heavily medicated to the point where he sleeps all day and cannot recognize me, speak or barely raise his arm. I believe your actions and non-actions are supporting Donna Tolley and Donnasue Ortiz’s efforts to isolate my husband from his family.

On August 26th, 2010, I found out that my husband was taken to Heritage Park Rest home in Rancho Cucamonga. Tommy and I went out to see him. We visited for about an hour, we could not wake him up. The nurse said he could not eat by the mouth and is being fed intravenously by way of his arm and stomach. I/we saw the feeding lines personally. The nurse said that he has not eaten any solid foods since he arrived. Donna had told me that my husband was sitting up and had eaten mashed potatoes. After seeing him in this condition, I was convinced that Donna lied about my husband eating such solid foods.

I believe I have been set up by Judge J. Michael Welch in the following ways:

- Mitchell, I believe this has been a set up from the beginning and you knew your role in it.
- Judge Welch denying my rights to my own attorney.
- Forcing me to take you as my attorney or else he (Judge Welch) stated that he would just assign a conservator for me. Then changing the court transcripts.
- Assigning Donna Tolley as Temp-conservator, I believe he and Donnasue and Maryellen Ross knows that she is hiding our money but claiming it to be all gone. If it is all gone as Donna and Maryellen Ross, you and Donnasue Ortiz, claims, then who is paying the mortgage? Where is the proof?

- After telling Judge Welch about the physical abuse by my two daughters, He ignored me and ordering my son Tommy to take me and my husband back to the house where we were assaulted.
- Ordering me to be psychologically evaluated by two court ordered doctors. Each doctor stated that I am capable of handling my own affairs including another phyciatrist through my own doctor . But I believe Judge Welch and Donnasue wants my estate to liquidate and to feed their own pockets so they ignored the positive results.

- No proof all our money is gone. Just take the Tolley family property anyway. You did nothing to discover, to force, or compel the Courts for an accounting from Donna Tolley.
- Donna Tolley not taking my husband to the hospital. Tommy took him to the hospital and learned that he had pneumonia. Donna would not take my husband complaining of the costs.
- Putting a hostile Conservator ( Donna Tolley) in complete charge of the Conservatee’s estate so that even family members cannot see them. Such as putting a restraining order against family members. Even the wife of 65 years. Isolation as in the Probate Murders.
- Putting my Pasadena property up for sale claiming for my husbands benefit. I believe this will eventually go into Judge Welch’s and other attorney’s pockets just like the Probate Murders.
- Isolating family members from the Conservatee.

- Liquidating the estate for no justifiable reason. I can handle my own affairs.
- Slowing killing and drugging the conservatee until their body just shuts down. Just like the Probate Murders.

I believe that Judge J.Michael Welch is one of the leaders of this corruption and is using the Conservatorship courts to steal and abuse the elderly and the defenseless. I believe Judge J.Michael Welch is a co-conspirator to murder. Others of our family believe the same.

As of today August 31, 2010 I, nor my son Tommy have ever been served with any "Restraining Orders" and do not know the content of any accusations they may contain. I am told that there is a September 7, hearing date but we have not been notified. They could only be false accusations based on the sole purpose of isolating me, the wife of 65 years, and my son, Tommy, who has always had our best interest in mind.

Ruthie M. Tolley

Protect Your Ass-ets, The March Toward Capital Controls is Quickening

A little while back I told you how what EstateOfDenial.Com calls IRA, Involuntary Redistribution of Assets, and which I call confiscation is taking place, as they were a little less subtle with me when they mailed me the confiscation letter which reminded me of Castro's Cuba in 1960 when my families assets were confiscated the first time.

For those of you not familiar with the 'Confiscation Letter' here is a link to it for your cultural enlightenment=>>Confiscation Letter

Those of you who think that when your parents assets were confiscated was due to an anomaly and because of a few bad apples within the system, and that some new legislature in the works will solve your problem so that it will not happen to you, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your assets are being confiscated right now as we speak.

Allow me to explain: last summer in June 2010 you could buy an ounce of silver for under $18 dollars today it would take $29.00 of your devalued dollars to buy that same ounce of silver, likewise it would take $8.63 to buy a bushel of wheat, roughly twice what it cost last summer, when I get letters like these from my highly regarded Capital Research Companies, it triggers alarms bells and I feel compelled to pass the warning on to those of you who will listen:
-----------------------

Dear Ray,

I've said before that the US Dollar was in BIG trouble... but as of
tonight, it's on DEFCON 1 RED ALERT TROUBLE.As the below chart shows, the greenback needs to rally and rally hard if we're not going to head into a SERIOUS collapse shortly.

What you're looking at is the US Dollar right on its multi-year trendline. If we take this out now, then we are heading into an inflationary death spiral in very short order.

Indeed, once we take out this line, we're just a few ticks away from triggering the MASSIVE Head and Shoulders pattern the greenback has formed over the last 20 years.

In case you're wondering, this pattern has an ultimate target of 40...a full 50% lower than where the US Dollar is today.

We're talking about hyper-inflation on an order that would make Weimar Germany proud. And if we break the green line above, we're THAT much closer to this becoming a reality.

As you can see, we're literally on the ledge of a cliff. Do not, I repeat DO NOT put off preparing for this now. I've long thought the US Dollar had one last rally in it, but looking at the charts
tonight I could very likely be wrong.

Indeed, inflation is already exploding worldwide, which means paper money in general is going to be worth less and less on its way to worthless.

If you think the US is immune to this situation, you're in for a very RUDE surprise in the coming months. Indeed, the Fed just announced it might even implement QE 3!!! And this came from one of its supposedly ANTI-QE members!?!?

Let's be blunt... the end game is fast approaching if not already here.Smart folks are already preparing their families and portfolios for what's to come, which is why I've recently published four reports designed to help folks cover all the bases in terms of protecting their loved ones,
savings, and portfolios for what's coming.

To find out more about Capital Research's work click here=>>Capital Research
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Point being that even under normal circumstances "Inflation has now been institutionalized at a fairly constant 5 percent per year. This has been determined to be the optimum level for generating the most revenue without causing public alarm. A 5 percent devaluation applies, not only to the money earned this year, but to all that is left over from previous years. At the end of the first year, a dollar is worth 95 cents. At the end of the second year, the 95 cents is reduced again by 5 percent, leaving its worth at 90 cents, and so on. By the time a person has worked 20 years, the government will have confiscated 64 percent of every dollar he saved over those years. By the time he has worked 45 years, the hidden tax will be 90 percent. The government will take virtually everything a person saves over a lifetime."

Let me put it to you another way, Janet Phelan's mother had meant for the fruits of her sweat,blood and tears, a lifetime of savings, to be passed on to Janet as her lawful legacy before it was confiscated! Likewise Dr.A.J and Clara Fernandez also had a legacy to pass on to their heirs before it was confiscated, only myself having lived through prior confiscations (Communist Cuba 1959)I was able to wise up a lot quicker than a lot of you will and left the country before the totality of the Estate could be confiscated, others like Bonnie Reiter and too many to mention all here weren't so lucky.

However I have no doubt had I NOT taken the right precautions in order to be sure that my mother Clara now 94 is taken care of that there would have been nothing left after the guardian exhausted all liquid assets and allowed others like Real Estate to be lost by being auctioned off on their courthouse steps by the "Guardian" of my mother's assets, to be sold off by their failure to maintain and pay Real Estate Taxes on a timely basis... Real Estate Auction happens after three years of nonpayment of real estate taxes, my mother Guardianship battle lasted 5 years.

Ok, my point is this, had Janet Phelan's mother moved her assets overseas on a timely basis, (Before, she became incapacitated) do you have any doubt that Janet would be in complete control of her legacy, as it should be, out of reach from the greedy Guardianship Cartel that knows no bounds and knows of no decency and is inhumane to human suffering?Even going to the point of prematurely ending the elder's life after the money is gone? As documented here,here and here :

• The Probate Murders: Part Two
• The Probate Murders: Part Three
• Another Probate Murder?

For those who have already experienced asset confiscation , either subtly or not so subtly , those like Tom Fields whose legacy was subverted and opportunists struck while his father lay in bed on a morphine drip , See his Facebook Page=>>here

To those who have eyes to see and those who have ears to listen here is a letter from Simon Black that you will all do well to heed, if you wish to say NO Thanks and leave the lemmings pack before they jump off the cliff..........

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Date: February 10, 2011
Reporting From: Santiago, Chile

In the late 1920s, the economy of the Weimar Republic was beset by numerous fiscal troubles. The global depression spread quickly to Germany, undermining the government's ability to make its reparation payments from the Great War.

Fearing a return to hyperinflation, many Germans who had spent the last decade building up a small fortune during the Weimar Republic's own 'Roaring 20s' decided to pack up and leave; they remembered the days when banknotes were used as wallpaper and had no desire to repeat the experience.

In 1931, Chancellor Heinrich Bruning imposed a 'flight tax', which levied a 25% tax on the value of all property and capital for Germans leaving the country.

Total revenue collected from this tax amounted to roughly 1 million Reichsmarks (RM) in its earliest days ($56 million today). By the late 1930s under Hitler's rule, flight tax revenue soared to RM 342 million ($21.5 billion today) as more people headed toward the exits.

This flight tax constitutes one of the earliest modern examples of capital controls. They've evolved substantially since the days of Hitler, but the end goal is the same-- governments controlling the flow of capital across borders.

Governments impose these for a variety of reasons-- rapidly developing nations may want to restrict the flow of capital into their country, preventing 'hot money' from pumping up prices and affecting local markets. We see this today in places like Brazil and Thailand.

In other instances, bankrupt governments seek to trap capital within their borders, maximizing the amount available for subsequent taxation or other forms of confiscation. This tactic is usually employed when lost confidence has impaired the government's capability to borrow.

We're seeing strong indications of both examples today, though the latter is the most alarming. As I scan the headlines and hear from colleagues in the US and Europe, it's clear to me that the march towards stricter capital controls is quickening its pace.

The British government, for example, just announced an increase to its bank levy that taxes UK-domiciled banks on their worldwide balance sheets. In response, HSBC has indicated that it may move its headquarters elsewhere.

I suspect the British government will enact legislation to discourage or prevent this from happening, likely with a modern day corporate flight tax (albeit with a more patriotic sounding name).

Capital controls can take a variety of other forms-- including taxation on outward remittances, restrictions on the movement of financial instruments, bureaucratic approval processes for foreign transactions, reporting requirements for foreign assets, and government control over banks.

This last is important-- when politicians and bankers are in bed with each other, banks can be compelled to loan a portion of their deposits to the treasury at unrealistic terms, sticking bank customers with sub-optimal yields below the rate of inflation.

In the US, I think retirement accounts will be the first to go. They're the easiest to grab because most people hold their retirement accounts domestically with a large financial institution that will happily sell every customer down the river when the government comes calling.

The way they'll do this is simple-- the next time there's a market meltdown (bear in mind that insiders are selling like crazy right now...), the government will step in with new legislation that requires these institutions to invest a portion of their accounts in the 'safety' of government securities.

Insider politiconomists like Teresa Ghilarducci have already strongly advocated for government managed retirement accounts in the US, and we've seen numerous examples of other bankrupt nations from Argentina to Hungary moving to seize their citizens' pensions.

The next step would be against retail bank accounts, specifically setting up provisions that discourage moving money overseas... and eventually restrict it altogether.

This would happen through new approval processes at the banking level, additional reporting requirements for foreign accounts, and disincentives for foreign banks to accept US customers.

Curiously, all of these have started to happen.

For example, while there are still a multitude of banks around the world who happily accept US customers, Americans are unwelcome at most foreign financial institutions thanks to continuous threats and pressure from the IRS. As one banker in Hong Kong told me recently, 'they are very scaaaaary'...

Also, the new HIRE Act legislation imposes additional reporting requirements and restrictions for foreign accounts that gradually phase in over the next two years.

This certainly jives with the timeline of the US government's ticking debt bomb; at a minimum, the market will require higher yields, and politicians will need cheap sources of capital to continue financing their waste.

I've said before-- it's imperative that everyone establish a foreign bank account, even with a small deposit. There are several banks like Caye Bank in Belize where you can open an account through the mail with just a nominal deposit.

This way, if you ever need to move the bulk of your funds in a hurry, you'll at least have the established infrastructure to do it.

For US taxpayers, I think the more immediate threat is to your retirement account. If you have an IRA, you can set up an Open Opportunity structure, take back control over your own savings, and be free to move your funds overseas.

(I think this is a no-brainer; you can read more about how to protect yourself with an Open Opportunity structure from my friend Terry Coxon's book Unleash your IRA, which he's now offering at a steep discount for Sovereign Man readers.)

Government playbooks are limited-- when confidence falters, new taxes fail to produce substantial revenue, and inflation causes a loss of popular support, capital controls are the answer. Problem is, we live in a world where legislation passed late at night can take immediate effect while we all sleep.

I know it's easy to kick the can down the road, but as the political and economic support for capital controls is spreading around the globe, I would urge you to take action immediately.



Until tomorrow,


Simon Black
Senior Editor, SovereignMan.com


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The Probate Murders

by Janet C. Phelan ( janetcphelan@yahoo.com ) From The American's Bulletin--

The War on the Vulnerable Through our Courts

“Oceania is not at war with East or Eurasia. Oceania is at war with you.”—George Orwell, “1984”

“THIS CAN’T HAPPEN HERE” On a quiet tree-lined street in Redlands, California, in a low, architecturally unremarkable beige building, the war has come home.

Nestled behind the Redlands Police Department, the Redlands Superior Courthouse is housing a systematic and covert assault on the lives and life-savings of San Bernardino County's elderly and disabled.

A smiling, bespectacled security officer, sporting a platinum blonde ponytail, runs the visitors through a metal detector as they enter. One walks into a lobby area, with two courtrooms off to the side: Department E1 and Department E2. Only traffic and probate are now heard in the Redlands Court. At the far end are the filing windows, where smiling and attentive clerks will retrieve files and accept court filings.

In the California Superior Court system, one must pay a filing fee in order to enable the court to dismantle one's life and estate. Across from the clerk's office, the East wall is lined with photographs of San Bernardino Court judges, beaming beatifically, and posing in their black robes. However, Judge Michael Welch is not smiling. Welch is one of only two probate judges in the entire San Bernardino County, and as such is the point man for the probate conveyor belt, which is grinding up the elderly and turning them into cash, through the court conservatorship and guardianship programs.

This is how it works: Read it all here =>>

Conservator Melodie Jo Scott under investigation

By Jack Leonard and Evelyn Larrubia L.A.Times

A state agency denies a license for the former president of the industry group that represents professional guardians and says she made false claims on her application. She denies lying.

One of California's most prominent professional conservators has been denied a license by the state and is the focus of a grand jury investigation.

The decision to deny Melodie Jo Scott a license marks a significant shift in the oversight of professional conservators, who answered only to probate judges until a 2005 Times series highlighted abuse in the field and prompted a licensing requirement that took effect in January.

Until this year, conservators, who control the healthcare and finances of adults deemed in Probate Court to be incapable of looking after themselves, were less regulated than hairdressers and guide-dog trainers. The Times series described how some were able to gain control over the lives and finances of elderly adults without their knowledge or consent, neglect their wards, isolate them from relatives, run up fees and in some cases steal from their clients.

The state's Department of Consumer Affairs alleges that Scott, a former president of the state industry group that represents professional guardians, falsely claimed on her license application she had never stepped down from any case -- or settled a dispute -- after a complaint had been filed against her in court.

In denying Scott's application, the agency cited three cases it said she should have disclosed.Two of those cases were among dozens reported by The Times that examined allegations of abuse by professional conservators. The articles prompted lawmakers to enact sweeping reforms of the state's conservatorship system and to create the licensing board that denied Scott's application.

In an interview, Scott denied lying on her application. She accused state officials of singling her out for political reasons in the wake of the newspaper's reports.Scott, whose business is based in Redlands, has appealed the denial but said she will have to halt work temporarily.

Riverside County's Probate Court has scheduled hearings next month to determine whether she should be removed from several cases because she lacks a license."I'm done. I'm out," Scott said. "When I get my license back, I can start again. But, hey, I'm 50."

Scott's licensing problems come as the San Bernardino County grand jury is examining many of her cases as well as others handled by a former associate, Lawrence A. Dean II.Records show that Probate Court officials began delivering case files involving both conservators to the grand jury in October. They provided more files as recently as last month.Scott said one of her clients was called to testify before the panel. She said that the probe is the second investigation by a grand jury into her work and that she expects the panel will find she has acted properly."Let the grand jury do their investigation," Scott said. "There's nothing to find."Dean, who is licensed by the state, did not return calls seeking comment.Among the cases the state cited in refusing to license Scott was that of Helen Jones, a Yucaipa widow who fought to get out from under Scott's control. Jones' case became a symbol of the system's flaws during debates in Sacramento on the need for reform.

Nearly deaf and having a rare nervous-system disorder that limited her mobility, Jones insisted that she had not understood what she was signing when she agreed to allow Scott to become her conservator in 2002.Scott spent about $200,000 of her client's life savings on new appliances and caretakers, items Jones said she did not want nor need.

Jones sought to end the conservatorship, complaining in court papers about Scott's spending and treatment of her. In 2006, Scott resigned when Jones' step-grandson, Mike Tomazin, agreed to replace her.Jones died two years ago of pneumonia and other complications. Tomazin said Jones would have been happy to learn that Scott's license was denied as a result of her fight."I guess what goes around comes around," Tomazin said.

Scott said that she did nothing wrong in Jones' case and that she was simply caring for someone unable to manage her own affairs. She said she was unfairly portrayed in the dispute and stopped taking new cases after the Times articles.

The client's daughter complained about the arrangement in court filings. As a result, Scott settled the case, agreeing to resign as conservator in favor of the daughter.State officials said the third case cited in their denial was a San Bernardino County conservatorship that also involved the settlement of a legal complaint.Scott said she did not believe the legal objections in the three cases would be counted as complaints when she filled out her license application in March 2008. In addition, she accused the state of allowing other conservators who filled out the application form in a similar fashion to make amendments.

"I did what I should have done," Scott said. "When it got uncomfortable and she was uncomfortable with me, I resigned."In another of the cases cited by the state, Scott was accused of allowing another professional conservator, Sarah Kerley, to live rent-free in a mentally ill client's Glendale house for months. Kerley was married to Scott's brother at the time.

The state's Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, which licenses professional conservators and guardians, added a precise definition of what constitutes a complaint to its application form after Scott filed hers.

But state officials said they told conservators on their website two weeks before Scott signed her application that legal objections should be counted as complaints.

Even before then, they said, applicants should have been aware of what would constitute a complaint."It's pretty clear," said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the bureau."The law said complaint, which is pretty darn broad. So any complaint of any sort would have qualified," he said.Heimerich said no applicants were given the opportunity to amend their forms if they wrote that they had not resigned or settled a case.

jack.leonard@latimes.com
evelyn.larrubia@latimes.com

Melodie Scott was the subject of Probate Murders Part Two, published in The American's Bulletin last year. http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/01/371355.shtml

Related:Guardians for Profit , Murder for Profit

Please Let My Mother Live!

On Tuesday, January 18, KPFK in Los Angeles ran a groundbreaking interview concerning conservatorship abuse. I appeared on the program to discuss the abuses being inflicted on my mother (and myself) through the Los Angeles probate court. Janet Phelan also appeared on the show, to give her perspective as a reporter who has been covering the issue of abusive conservatorships.
Access Unlimited 90.7 FM, 2:00-3:00 PM, Dr. Henry Slucki, USC, moderator.
Here is the link to the KPFK interview:

http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/mp3/kpfk_110118_140050au.MP3

In February 2010, my mother was wrongfully removed from her lovely Los Angeles, Westwood home (in violation of the probate court’s own statute Probate Code 2253(g)) and had her home and all her assets taken by the temporary conservator. My mother was quickly declared incompetent and incapable of expressing her needs and wishes so that her statements that she wants to live with me in her own home could be ignored.
At the same time, I was also wrongfully removed from this Westwood home, my residence of 8+ years where I had been living and caring for my parents. The Court revoked my durable powers of attorney for health care and assets and the appointment of me as conservator. I was thrown out even though I am a principal first beneficiary. I had even been paying their expensive mortgage for almost half a year in order to prevent foreclosure.
COURT, PVP, TEMPORARY CONSERVATOR AND HER ATTORNEY, SIBLINGS
In June 2009 my brother and sister, without any notice to me filed papers to be named our mother’s permanent conservators. Their papers contain outright falsehoods about my isolating mother. This filing was done right after they put our father, a former director of the Federal Reserve Board, San Francisco and Los Angeles on “comfort care” at a west Los Angeles hospital, against his wishes, and against the wishes of his wife and me and despite our valid durable powers of attorney for his health care and the fact that neither had a valid power of attorney. His death was thereby accelerated to May 21, 2009. I went to court to bring father home from the hospital but he “died” that very day.
I had been living with and caring for my parents since 2002 without criticism or complaint from my brother and sister, during which time, neither of whom provided much of any financial assistance or personal assistance for their care beyond sporadic occasional/
limited visits and help. They in fact praised my care in writing with greeting cards and gifts to me.
Copies available upon request.
My brother told the probate court that he had been handling our parents financial matters for the past 20 years. Documentation shows however, that rather than manage their business (after father’s retirement from the company that he and mother founded) in order that they be provided for in their old age, under his management only the house and substantial tax liens remained.
Seeking to protect themselves against the repercussions for their own behavior and seeking to remove my mother from my care and deprive me of my home, they did the following. Without evidence of any wrongdoing by me or by the caregivers, the caregivers were changed on 2/8/10. I was then thrown out of my home on 2/18/10 based upon false elder abuse charges made by the new caregivers, the temporary conservator and sister in documents prepared and filed by the temporary conservator and her lawyer and the court appointed lawyer for my mother.
There was no evidence of wrongdoing by me, and they never proved their allegations. They never bothered to try the charges because these allegations were used as a ploy to remove me from the house. The pvp attorney, the siblings attorney, the temporary conservator and her attorney came to the house on 2/18/10 and made me leave. My attorney was also present. On that same day they took my mother out of her home and kept her in the siblings underground basement converted to a unit until March 27/10 based upon more false statements that her house was unfit to live in.
The legal bill for the lawyer of the first temporary conservator dated 12/17/09 states: Review correspondence from CW (temporary conservator) re getting Jeannie out of the house. Taking the conservatee to a new doctor; correspondence to CW re same.”
The temporary conservator’s notation for services rendered for 2/4/10 states: “Telephone call from CT (sister) regarding her expectations of the hearing on 2/10/10. She expressed her frustrations about the lack of progress in changing caregivers and moving her sister, Jeannie out of the house.”
VIOLATION OF CIVIL RIGHT PROTECTIONS
The Constitutional-civil rights protections of speech, religion, right to own arms, procedural due process, right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures and cruel and unusual punishments are supposed to protect my mother and me as her long time familial caregiver,
but these laws are disregarded by the probate system as described below.
In September of this year, the temporary conservator violated my personal privacy by breaking into three locked suitcases and examining confidential and private papers, despite the fact that I had expressly told her she did not have permission to do so.
　
NO EVIDENCE PRESENTED, YET ORDERS ISSUED FOR RESTRICTIONS
Without any evidence or pending accusations, and based totally on unfounded hearsay, I am forbidden by the probate court from caring for my mother, talking to her about her medical care, diet, residence, vitamins/supplements/medications and speaking in Japanese with her. My mother’s health condition has greatly deteriorated since I was removed from her care.
　
By court order, although I cared for her 8+ years and am her daughter, I am not allowed to cook any food for her or make any juices, take her pulse, blood pressure or weigh her or speak with her caregivers or any medical personnel caring for her. I am not allowed to see my mother or talk to her by phone when I want to or when my mother wants to see me or talk with me. The temporary conservators have arbitrarily canceled visits without notice, shortened times of my visits, changed visit days without reason or based upon untrue statements even when mother has begged and pleaded to be with me, to have me by her side, to have longer visits, more frequent visits. (taped).
Since February 2010, my mother and I have been forced to pay $50/hr. for monitored visits without any evidence having been presented for this requirement and despite my objections and requests for unlimited, unmonitored visits with my mother. I was not allowed to take her out at all--to eat or on rides for months.
Just recently, we are charged for visits over an hour and if I take
my mother out. The minimum charge is $100 per visit.
A one hour visit time is too short to go to Church. One hour visits are extremely too short and cruel, especially where both mother and daughter have repeatedly asked for more time together. I can only bring one visitor at a time to the basement unit with me so there is no more Bible study.

My mother is denied phone calls from her friends and visitors. When she was living at her home, her answering machine was turned off by the conservators. The pvp has prohibited all of my mother's previous caregivers, even if they are personal friends, from visiting her, in all likelihood to prevent them from seeing her sudden deterioration and poor current care.

CONSERVATOR, SIBLING HARASSMENT

When I brought a scale to a visit in order to weigh my mother--before the court‘s order that I can not weigh her, the police were called by the temporary conservator and sibling. I left before they arrived. In June 2010, based on totally false accusations, the temporary conservator, in the plain view of my mother, had the police take me in handcuffs to the police station in West LA. I was immediately released because the accusations were completely false.

Mother’s court appointed lawyer blatantly and constantly misrepresents in open court, and makes untruthful statements such as mother’s home is unfit to live in, mother does not want to live in her home, mother prefers to live in the basement unit. The pvp told me that I would never be able to live in my mother’s home with her again without giving me a reason and she told me and the court that she is intending to put my mother in a nursing home rather than let her go back to her home. My mother does not need to go to a nursing home and can easily live in her own home (with me) and with me in my condo. The pvp’s first legal bill to my mother who has extremely few assets was $9,000 for that first month.

MOTHER’S DEPRIVATION SANCTIONED BY THE COURT

Although her blood pressure became unstable and measuring 160's-170's, she has been denied all of her Dr. L prescribed normal blood pressure maintaining supplements and not prescribed any substitutes, nor is she being given any blood pressure medication; She slurs her words because of high blood pressure when she blood pressure reaches the 140‘s. She has developed swelling hands and severe dental problems. She was kept terribly cold last year Feb. March 2010, now she is kept warmer because of all my complaints. She had been kept so cold in the winter that she was shaking from the cold. She still has cold hands & feet from the poor diet and because they don't let her wear a little hat/cap. She continually has cold hands and icy cold feet even in warm weather, she is being given laxatives instead of proper fluids and diet, and was being given seeds and nuts when she has diverticulitis. She has developed new and serious dental problems.

There was an attempt to take her to a new, unknown doctor the day before my mother was to turn 94. We fought hard on this issue and notified all concerned that we thought this was a strange appointment and why wasn‘t she being taken to her own doctor of over 10 years. One of her medical reports states that she has at least another 8 good years ahead if she does not develop certain ailments which since the sister and temporary conservators have taken over, she is suddenly developing the ailments which list includes blood pressure problems, urinary tract and other infections.
The siblings absolutely refuse to sit down and talk settlement despite 8-10 attempts that I have made. I am concerned about the numerous life insurance policies that might exist as mentioned in my father’s personal financial statements on the life of my mother, and the termination of benefits provisions in older policies should an elderly survive past 94-95 years of age. I want my mother to outlive any termination of life insurance beneficiary benefits provisions.
　
WASTE OF ASSETS

The probate courts are supposed to help those in need conserve their assets (which is why the persons they appoint are called “conservators”). Recent disclosures by a report from the GAO reveal that conservatorship abuse is rampant. My own 94 year old mother is being held in a small, damp, poorly ventilated, 3/4 underground unit where she is denied good nutrition and proper medical care, and her court appointed temporary “conservators” are squandering her assets.

Over a year later, a disputed accounting has just been filed in December ‘10 for questionable spending through May ‘09 only. This “accounting” is mainly being used to present as fact, irrelevant hearsay and totally false allegations unsupported by any evidence to further defame and slander me. The current “conservator” has likewise been allowed to avoid accounting for her spending since she took over in June ’09 to date so that all that we know now remains is my mother’s home in Westwood. The Court therefore, completely refused to acknowledge any of my mother’s wishes to live in her home and to be with me and has allowed her funds to be spent with hardly any accountability.
Mother has not received any of her long term care insurance benefits. Her long term care insurance reimburses payments for a caregiver is at the daily rate of $100. The temporary conservator changed the caregivers on February 8, 2010, firing our $100/day caregivers and replacing them with $195/day caregivers, many of whom could hardly read, write or speak English well and most of whom did not take proper care of mother. (Didn't get up at night to tend to her, did not give her adequate liquids or healthy meals, clean her adequately, provide daily activities for her, talk to her, etc.) The temporary conservators to date, have not obtained the long term care insurer's $100/day reimbursement for mother's caregiver payments.

MOTHER’S HEALTH DETERIORATION

Since I have been put out of the house and not allowed to care for her, my mother has collapsed 5 times in 9 months, twice losing consciousness and in July foaming at the mouth. She has had to be transported unconscious by ambulance to emergency where she had to be hospitalized twice in 2 months. She has had 5 urinary tract infections (uti) in 9 months. Under my care she had 1 (uti) in 8 years and she had never collapsed or been hospitalized during those 8+ years.
　
After I was removed from the house in Feb. 2010 she had all her doctor prescribed supplements stopped without any reason given. She had been taking these supplements for over 8 years. Under my eight years of care her blood pressure and cholesterol were kept normal with doctor prescribed supplements only. She had no osteoporosis or dental problems. She was healthy, lively, energetic and walking around with her walker. Visitors thought that she was in her 60's.
This is no longer the case. Her care became the following: The removal of her warm clothing, warm blankets, little cap on her head to conserve body energy; inadequate amounts of nutritious liquids, complex carbohydrates, proteins, vegetables, dairy and other healthy foods so that she constantly complains of great fatigue, she can no longer walk unassisted, and her cholesterol has drastically increased with bad cholesterol up from 99 to 155. She is given 3 laxatives daily and now suffers from swelling hands, dental problems that she had never experienced under my care.

REMOVAL OF MOTHER FROM HER HOME

My mother was taken out of her home against her will and understanding on 7/13/10 and not allowed to return. There has been no medical reason given, or any medical emergency. Her requests to go back home have been ignored and she has been told that if she does go back she will live there alone and not be able to see her grandchildren or her great grand children and that her home is dirty, unsanitary not habitable and that it costs too much money to live there. The court has been presented with false statements about the condition of her home.

Despite my constant suggestions both verbal and email, my mother continues to be given an improper diet, improper care so that she is frequently constipated and is given 3 laxatives instead of adequate nutrition. She is frequently seriously ill from urinary tract infections, has to take harsh antibiotics and be hospitalized, continues to suffer from the complete withholding of her nutritional support and supplements that she has taken for 8+ years and greatly suffers from a forced separation from me and is unable to attend church or travel with me.

My mother has been suffering physically from the substandard care being provided by the siblings and the temporary conservators. And they are doing everything they can to separate me from my mother, since I am in the way of their taking her house and all of her assets, and even her life.

These atrocities must not be allowed to continue, especially after the pvp, the conservators and their attorneys and the court have been advised repeatedly of these matters.

I am frankly afraid that my mother will not survive much longer under these conditions. If my story were unique it would be simply sad. Given the pervasiveness of these sorts of abuses, the situation cries out for exposure.
Recent disclosures by a report from the GAO reveal that conservatorship abuse is rampant. Report to the Chairman, Special Committee on Aging, U.S. Senate United States Government Accountability Office GAO September 2010 GUARDIANSHIPS.
www.guardianshipcert.org/files/GAO_report.pdf

This, from newspaper The Arizona Republic, dated December 11, 2010:
Score one for the old, the sick and the vulnerable – which, in Arizona, is saying something. The Arizona Court of Appeals on Thursday tossed out a probate judge's ruling that R.B. Sleeth must pay $265,000 to a lawyer who spent most of his time fighting the old guy's wishes. Sleeth, as you may recall, is the 81-year-old Paradise Valley man who spent 10 weeks imprisoned in a lock-down unit for advanced Alzheimer's patients in Scottsdale, never mind that he didn't have Alzheimer's. It took him nearly two years to extricate himself from Maricopa County's probate court. Unfortunately, by then his $1.4 million estate had been reduced to “virtually zero”, according to court records.
To see what is happening to my mother and to other elderly and disabled people throughout the state of California and to understand the extent of the probate court/conservator/guardian peril to the citizens of the United States, please see on the Internet:
1.
An Open Letter to Congress and the White House. www.anopenlettertocongress.info/
2.
The Probate Murders by Janet Phelan. janetphelan.com
3. The map of the US at
www.guardianshipgonebad.com and note the many complaints.
4. noethics.net provides information re problem judges, attorneys;
5. angr.us, elderabusehelp.org, estateofdenial.com.
6. Blind, dementia sufferer Lee Peters’ horror story of law breaking and civil rights abuses in the probate court system against vulnerable senior, Lee Peters can be seen at
www.avivakbobb.com Bobb retired in May 2008.
7. Janet Phelan: The Ithaca Report - Parent Advocates ... REPORT TO THE UNITED NATIONS ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA See:
www.parentadvocates.org/index.cfmfuseaction=article&articleID=7790
8. CBS Evening News 12/23/10 , Ms. Couric and Ms. Attkisson did an informative program about guardianship abuse of Marie Long by Sun Valley!
My mother and I are also experiencing squandering, seizure and removal of home and assets, and grossly incompetent care by court appointed conservators and certain family members.
9.
California Probate Code Section 2253(g): The court may approve the request to remove the conservatee from the previous place of residence only if the court finds (1) that change of residence is required to prevent irreparable harm to the conservatee and (2) that no means less restrictive of the conservatee' s liberty will suffice to prevent that harm. If an order is made authorizing the temporary conservator to remove the conservatee from the previous place of residence, the order shall specify the specific place wherein the temporary conservator is authorized to place the conservatee. The temporary conservator may not be authorized to remove the conservatee from this state unless it is additionally shown that such removal additionally shown that such removal is required to permit the performance of specified non psychiatric medical treatment, consented to by the conservatee, which is essential to the conservatee's physical survival. A temporary conservator who willfully removes a temporary conservatee from this state without authorization of the court is guilty of a felony.

PLEASE HELP MY MOTHER SURVIVE.

PLEASE HELP CALIFORNIANS, ALL AMERICANS!

Jeannie Tanaka
P.O. Box 241256
L.A., CA 90024
310-903-8730

"Who bought the free press?"

by Janet Phelan as published in Scamraiders.Com

“Conservator Provided Proper Treatment, judge rules” declared the headline in the Press Enterprise on July 20, 2007.

The article, by PE reporter John Berry, was brief and to the point. San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael Welch ruled that Elizabeth Fairbanks, who suffered a head injury in 2005 before dying from pneumonia in 2006, received appropriate medical care from her conservator, Melodie Z. Scott, President of C.A.R. E. Inc.

The article by Berry omitted one basic fact. Elizabeth Fairbanks died of pneumonia because
Melodie Z. Scott ordered antibiotics withheld from her charge, when Fairbanks fell ill.

When confronted with the omission in Berry’s story, the managing editor of the Press Enterprise, John Gryka, had only this to say: “No comment.”

Back in 2005, the Los Angeles Time ran a much touted series on conservatorship, entitled “Guardians for Profit.” Once again, Melodie Scott was in the spotlight. The kick-off story to the four part series focused on the plight of Helen Jones, under conservatorship with Melodie Scott. While the Times claimed that they “examined the work of California’s professional
conservators, reviewing more than 2400 cases, including every one they handled in Southern California between 1997 and 2003, the Times reporters failed to report on the repeated complaint of the family members — that their beloved parents were dying prematurely due to the actions of the professional conservators.

It didn’t take much time or effort to figure that out. A few visits to the basement of Riverside Probate Court produced names of family members of conservatees of Melodie Scott. A review of local phone books provided numbers.

The stories were notable in their similarity. Doris Baker’s catheter was ordered removed against Doctor’s orders, but on order of Melodie Scott, who had obtained Power of Health Care over the elderly woman. As a result, according to Baker’s daughter-in-law, Johanna , Doris died an excruciating and premature death. According to Judy Lampuu, her aunt, Ann Cole, wasn’t even unhealthy when Melodie Scott obtained conservatorship over her. As the family was kept away from Ann, Judy states she has some concerns as to how she died, so quickly, under the care of the woman whose nickname is “the Black Widow.”

The continued cover-up in the mainstream media of “the
Probate Murders” provides insight into the political nature of these crimes.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution follows:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The behavior by the press reveals complicity in covering up these crimes. The reluctance to address these crimes against the most vulnerable of our citizens, the elderly and disabled, is perpetuated by the State Attorney General, who is refusing to legally accept or acknowledge petitions for redress. The Press is failing in its mandate to watch-dog the courts, the AG’s office and the activities of agents of the court, the professional conservators.

The San Bernardino Sun has been equally culpable in failing to report the conservatorship issue. Jeff Horwitz had been assigned to this story, but according to his editor, Frank Pine, Horwitz had failed to substantiate any of the allegations.

In conversation, Horwitz expressed to me that he had concern that C.A.R.E. was using unlicensed contractors to make repairs to the homes of the elderly conservatees. Having
documentation of far more serious violations, I then personally delivered to Horwitz court and other documents conclusively proving theft, embezzlement and worse by C.A.R.E., and collusion with members of the justice system in covering up her crimes.

No subsequent story under Horwitz’s byline, or any other byline, ever appeared in the Sun about Melodie Scott. In an email to a Jeremy Price, Sun Managing Editor Frank Pine insisted allegations against C.A.R.E. and Melodie Scott had been unfounded. Pine has not returned calls from this reporter requesting verification on the accuracy of his statement, given this reporter’s personal knowledge of what Horwitz had in his files.

Back in 2002, I had scheduled an appointment with a television news reporter to turn over my files on Melodie Scott. The appointment was firm, but on the day of the appointment the reporter never showed up at her office.

The L.A. Times again soiled itself through the behavior of Times reporter Evelyn LaRubia, who showed up at a demonstration in front of the San Bernardino County Courthouse in October of 2006. The demonstration was planned by and held in support of Beth Fairbanks, who was contesting Melodie Scott’s dispensation of her mother and her mother’s estate, previously mentioned in terms of Berry’s coverage. The picket signs held by the demonstrators pointedly addressed what the Times had failed to address in their much-hailed series: that the elderly were dying prematurely under the "care" being dispensed by Scott. The picket signs blared out the message and no one could possibly miss it: "HOW DID ELIZABETH FAIRBANKS DIE?" "HOW DID DORIS BAKER DIE?" "STOP KILLING OUR PARENTS FOR FINANCIAL GAIN!"

LaRubia failed to file a story on the demonstration, which was covered by the Press Enterprise and the local ABC affiliate. When this reporter contacted LaRubia to find out what impelled her decision not to cover the event, she stated that the L.A. Times doesn’t cover the Inland Empire.

The Los Angeles Times Inland Empire edition is published Monday through Friday.

Nursing Home Residents Killed Because They Were Difficult to Deal With

submitted by Lisa of Surviving.cc

Chicago, Illinois USA

A state report issued after there were six mysterious deaths at a Chicago, Illinois nursing home shows that the deaths may not have been mercy killings. The report indicates that the nursing home residents were killed because they were too difficult to deal with. The shocking report shows that the nurse talked openly of sedating or giving overdoses of drugs to patients who were either difficult to handle or who had lived long enough. The nurse in question has been charged with criminal neglect and possession of a controlled substance and her supervisor has been also been charged. Attorney Steve Levin stated that, “Other nurses had been reproving to the administration that the nurse under investigation was acting in strange and unusual ways and the administration ignored, if no encouraged, her actions.”

-----------------------------------------------------

We know this is going on behind closed doors, Reporter and Radio Talk Host Janet Phelan who was forced to leave the country because she knew too much talked about it in the Probate Murders, Series we know about Dr. Robert Sarhan , and we know about Corinne Branson and about Dr. Vernon Sinn whose court sanctioned looters could not wait until he was dead to loot his Estate and countless others too many to mention all here

This practice that is swept under the carpet, this is going on under the noses of probate court and judges who look the other way or are easily mislead by greedy attorneys who twist and lie in order to line their own pockets with the sweat equity of our elders.

It is scandalous and shameful practice, however ignoring it does not make it go away, stories like these that broke the news a few days ago are rather common and EA is printing it to illustrate the depths of the depravity to which we have sunk.

Collectively we no longer have a conscience, we have court sanctioned looting of assets that have taken a lifetime to build by people who produce nothing but only take and un able to produce anything of value they loot obscene fees from the equity of others who are disabled sick or infirm without missing a beat, not even batting an eye when they convert the social security earnings of elders who depend on it for their very survival in order to justify their own legal fees.

But there is no outrage, only deafening silence, there can not be outrage from people that no longer have a conscience.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6414314

At The Crossroads Once More! What Will You Do?

The year was 1959 and Fidel Castro said " I am not communist" never the less many saw the writing on the wall and gathered whatever they could, and left the country.
Many Cubans such as my father Dr. A.J. Fernandez M.D. prospered in the new land and built a sizeable estate to benefit future Fernandez's generations until the State Sanctioned white collar looters took it all away......Never the less Dr. Fernandez and his wife Clara Fernandez enjoyed many years of prosperity until they got old and became easy prey with No one willing to help or protect them but rather pile on the piñata, and grab all they could in their drunken greed stupor to get it all before someone else does......

Others Cubans who viewed my father's comments as alarmist and chose to stay in Cuba are not so lucky today and are dying in Cuban prisons as political prisoners forgotten by all but a few.... Babalu.Com

Again the year was 1939 and many saw the writing the wall and many Jews left Germany and went on to build prosperous lives in Brazil,Argentina, Israel,America and countless other places.... many dismissed this warnings as alarmists and stayed behind in Germany, these did not do so well....

Again history places us at a crossroads in our destiny and the writing is on the wall, the war on the elderly has been declared, with no punches pulled as the number of elderly under guardianship languishing in human warehouses is kept secret, the number of property confiscations are on the rise, the loss/lack of human rights for an entire segment of the population is astonishing......

Will you be the one who waits until you are too old to water your lawn and be hauled off kicking and screaming to a nursing home, of if you live in the northern climate will you wait until you are unable to come out after every storm to shovel snow off the sidewalks and likewise be declared 'incapacitated' in a closed non parte hearing in which you or your loved ones have NO say and have all your property confiscated, your social security income diverted to pay for guardian fees, and your property sold to satisfy legal fees for the cost of having you declared incompetent?

Will you be one of the ones who sees the writing on the wall in time or will you be one of the ones dragged off kicking and screaming into the nursing facility?

If you think you are immune and this only happens to other people, think again! The year was 2000 , the place was New York City

The Honorable Judge John L. Phillips, known to all as the Kung-Fu Judge. Upon learning of his candidacy in 2001, Brooklyn D.A. Joe Hynes filed an ex-parte (secret action) to seal up all of Judge Phillips' assets. Twelve apartment buildings and two movie Theatres were part of the millionaire judges' empire. The Court then appointed Hynes former Chief of Staff, Harvey Greenberg, as Judge Phillips' "Guardian."

The transcript of the probate court proceeding is chilling. Anyone can file a motion to declare a person incompetent. The county government, ithen steps in to appoint a guardian.What happens after that is best exemplied in Judge Phiilips's case.
Sometime between November and December of 2000, Greenberg was appointed "temporary guardian" of the "mentally incapacitated" Phillips.
The following winter, Phillips' heat was cut off, and neighbors found him living in squalor and poor health, wearing an overcoat and hat. As one acquaintance of Phillips' put it, "They wanted him to die."

All of Judge Phillips' properties were sold for pennies-on-the-dollar. Then the judges' home mysteriously burned to the ground, obfuscating any records he had been keeping. The guardians neglected to pay the insurance. Six years later, the once museum-like four story brownstone at 155 Herkimer Street still sits in the heart of Bed-Stuy as a boarded up shell. A monument to the tragic end of the Kung-Fu Judge.

Now, the undisputed facts, according to the IRS, are that between the years of 2000 and 2007, four separate guardians sold $10 million dollars of Judge Phillips' property and failed to pay or file any taxes. The undisputed facts of the case: Judge John L. Phillips, died homeless and broke. He owned 12 apartment buildings and 2 movie theatres.

Blog sites such as ElderAbuseHelp.Org, EstateOfDenial.Com and others are gathering evidence that this is not an isolated incident but a rapidly spreading racket that threatens every elderly citizen who manages to retire with any monies saved up for their old age...In fact this practice is become the norm more than the exception in a single day the same judge that declared Phillip's incapacitated , Judge Pesce handed 17 guardianships in a single day to a 38-year-old attorney named Dagmar Plaza! In 0ne single day!

If this can happen to a sitting Judge, you think it won't happen to you? Or are you feeding the sharks hoping they eat you last?

Will you be like Silvia Bush who at 78 years old, you can’t get up fast enough Your house is broken into; you are pulled off your chair as you are cleaning you coffee pot peacefully at your own kitchen table.· You are grabbed by your shoulder pulled off your chair onto the linoleum of your kitchen, hurting your shoulder.· On the floor, you are handcuffed.· Taken out of your house.· Loaded into an ambulance.· In the ambulance, your are forcibly constrained , taken to St. Anthony’s psychiatric, ward with no attempt to contact your family

You have time to make a call and leave a message asking for your son on Frank Sampson’s answering machine while they are breaking in. This tape recording is proof you are not delusional, gravely disabled, or a danger to yourself or others.

Reporters such as Maria Bartiromo who initiated a series on this racket had soon to change networks and report on financial matters instead, another Investigative Journalist whose family legacy has also been wiped out in the probate racket named Janet Phelan who initiated a series of articles titled "The Probate Murders" has been subject to un relenting and vile personal attacks being forced to leave the country in order to continue her investigations. This writer when writing about the atrocities committed against our elders became a target for retribution, and after spending the family legacy in legal fees, opted to leave the country in order to continue to speak against elder abuse in the hope that others will open their eyes before it's too late and take concrete actions to protect themselves and their families.

Melodie Scott : Who is Watching the Guardians?

October 16, 2009

Special to the San Bernardino County Sentinel

by Janet Phelan

As the October 20^th date of her licensing hearings looms, new allegations have surfaced concerning professional misconduct by conservator/fiduciary Melodie Scott.

Scott is president of C.A.R.E., Inc, a Redlands firm offering conservatorships, trusteeships and other services for the elderly. She was denied her professional license in August of 2008, when the newly created Professional Fiduciary Bureau began reviewing requests for licenses. The Professional Fiduciary Bureau was created by an act of the California Legislature in 2006, following a maelstrom of protest generated by a series in the Los Angeles Times, entitled “Guardians for Profit-When a Family matter becomes a business.” The series exposed questionable financial practices and outright abuse in the practice of a number of professional conservators. Melodie Scott was featured in the kick-off article, which was published in November of 2005. The California Legislature subsequently passed the Omnibus Conservatorship Reform Act of 2006, which created the Professional Fiduciary Bureau, mandated with the task of licensing the previously unregulated conservators and fiduciaries.

Black's law dictionary defines a conservator as a protector or guardian. Conservatorships are generally initiated through court proceedings when there are allegations that an individual lacks the competency to handle his or her own affairs. There are two types of conservatorships in the state of California—conservatorship of person and conservatorship of estate. A conservatorship of person allows the conservator to make personal decisions for the alleged incapacitated person, including whether or not the conservatee will be allowed to marry, where he or she will reside or whether the alleged incapacitated person will even be permitted to see family members and friends. At the initiation of a conservatorship of estate, all assets are transferred into the control of the conservator, including bank accounts and property, which may then be sold without the permission of the conservatee. In many cases the court will approve both types of conservatorships upon initial hearing.

Melodie Scott has been removed from most of her cases since her failure to achieve licensure. She has appealed the decision and the hearings, which have been ongoing since May, will resume on October 20^th in Oakland Administrative Court.

However, new allegations have arisen concerning her recent actions . A protest was recently filed in San Bernardino Court referencing her taking sixty thousand dollars out of a conservatee's account following her resignation from the case. Scott Viracola was under a conservatorship with Melodie Scott until she was replaced by another conservator on July 13, 2009. On August 12, 2009, almost a full month following her removal, Melodie Scott withdrew $60,000 from Viracola's trust account. The disabled man was left with a little over five thousand dollars in his trust. According to Viracola's wife, Gina Rilke, Scott returned the sixty thousand dollars last week as well as another fifteen thousand apparently taken under questionable circumstances after the new trustee, Lee Ann Hickman, filed papers attempting to retrieve the money.

Calls to Scott's attorneys on this matter, Bryan Hartnell and Jack Osborne, were not returned.

Over a year after her license was denied, Scott is still conservator over De'Wayne Cory. Allegations have surfaced concerning questions over a pool that Scott decided should be built for Cory, who is physically disabled. While a bid as low as $133,000 was tendered, Scott decided to go with the high bid of $185,0000, which was approved by Judge Welch (see September 11, 2009 Sentinel article on Welch). Sources close to Scott have suggested that Scott, who is divorced, has had a personal relationship with the winning bidder, Kirk Gillette. While work on the pool began in July, it slowed to a complete stop in late August. Gillette was contacted by the Sentinel but refused to answer any questions. Scott's attorney of record, J. David Horspool, could be reached for comment. John Thomas, at Rancho Cucamonga Building Inspection, did not return calls from the Sentinel inquiring as to the Cory pool.

In Riverside court a tort claim has been filed naming Scott and her attorney, J. David Horspool, claiming multiple acts of financial misconduct and elder abuse. Legal papers filed recently in this case alleged that felonies were committed by Scott and Horspool in the matter of the conservatorship. Neither Scott nor Horspool appeared at the court date, which was scheduled for 8:30 am on October 8.

Deputy Attorney General Jonathan Cooper is representing the State Fiduciary Bureau in the action against Scott. While Cooper is reportedly dissuading people who have been negatively impacted by Scott in their requests to testify at the hearings, he is nevertheless allowing positive character witnesses to testify. Several individuals who have had negative experiences with Scott are nonetheless planning on attending the open hearings in October, in attempts to be heard. Among these is Joe Quattrochi, who, after battling Scott for four years in San Bernardino Court, succeeded in having her resign as conservator of his father. " She lied on the stand and lied in her accountings;" said Quattrochi. "I want the judge in Oakland to hear what she did to our family."

Update to story at EoD:

CA conservator back to court over licensing denial
Astor case shows need, CA guardian case to show probate reform commitment
Scott licensing hearing approaches

Other Related Aricles by Janet Phelan

The Probate Murders

The Cover Up Continues : Melodie Scott

The War on the Vulnerable Through our Courts.-“THIS CAN’T HAPPEN HERE”

The War Comes Homes

How Conservatorships/Guardianships Are Used As Tools Of Theft and Corruption

Suit Against Guardians Filed in California Court by Janet Phelan

What A Tangled Web We Weave...

The Probate Murders

by Janet C. Phelan janetcphelan@yahoo.com phone: (310) 755-4469

From The American's Bulletin--The War on the Vulnerable Through our Courts

The Probate Murders Part Two: Melodie Scott and the State of California -- In the Business of Death?

“Oceania is not at war with East or Eurasia.Oceania is at war with you.”—George Orwell, “1984” “THIS CAN’T HAPPEN HERE”


On a quiet tree-lined street in Redlands, California, in a low, architecturally unremarkable beige building, the war has come home. Nestled behind the Redlands Police Department, the Redlands Superior Courthouse is housing a systematic and covert assault on the lives and life-savings of San Bernardino County's elderly and disabled.

A smiling, bespectacled security officer, sporting a platinum blonde ponytail, runs the visitors through a metal detector as they enter. One walks into a lobby area, with two courtrooms off to the side: Department E1 and Department E2. Only traffic and probate are now heard in the Redlands Court. At the far end are the filing windows, where smiling and attentive clerks will retrieve files and accept court filings. In the California Superior Court system, one must pay a filing fee in order to enable the court to dismantle one's life and estate.

Across from the clerk's office, the East wall is lined with photographs of San Bernardino Court judges, beaming beatifically, and posing in their black robes. However, Judge Michael Welch is not smiling.

Welch is one of only two probate judges in the entire San Bernardino County, and as such is the point man for the probate conveyor belt, which is grinding up the elderly and turning them into cash, through the court conservatorship and guardianship programs.

This is how it works: A family member, or even a neighbor, may notice that an elderly person is alone and may be increasingly vulnerable. Depending on the morality and authenticity of the concerned party, that person may contact Adult Protective Services, or may attempt to file for guardianship over the elder, in order to either protect or to gain access to that person's funds.

The police may become involved, if there are allegations of lack of capacity or of financial or physical abuse. This opens the door for the professional conservator, buttressed by her lawyers, to "move in for the kill."

A linchpin in this system in San Bernardino County is C.A.R.E., Inc.--Conservatorship and Resources for the Elderly-- which is located a mere stone's throw away from the Redlands Courthouse, in a quaint, two story building at 25 E. State Street. The “C.A.R.E. Group” consists of two conservators--Melodie Z. Scott, President and founder of C.A.R.E. and Lawrence Dean II-- and their attorneys. Up until last year, Scott was primarily represented by Hartnell, Horspool and Fox, which has split into two firms--Hartnell, Lister and Moore, and Horspool and Parker.

J. David Horspool appears as chief counsel on the lion's share of C.A.R.E. cases. Horspool, who was born in nearby Riverside, is a Mormon, and was educated at the Mormon stronghold of Brigham Young University, where he received both his undergraduate degree and his J.D. He is a former mayor pro-tem of Moreno Valley, and was implicated in a vote fraud issue there in the nineties, during his campaign for city council.

A smattering of “independent” attorneys also serve the “C.A.R.E. Group,” such as President of the High Desert Bar Association, Sherri Kastilahn. Some of the court-appointed counsel for potential conservatees are known to regularly lob their clients in the direction of Scott and Dean. These include attorneys Donnasue Ortiz and Lenita Skoretz, among others. By some estimates, the ”C.A.R.E. Group” now has its tentacles in 60-70% of the conservatorship and estate administration cases in San Bernardino County.

One attorney, speaking on condition of anonymity, voiced her opinion that all San Bernardino Probate cases were moved to Redlands recently to accommodate the "C.A.R.E. Group,” most of whom maintain their offices in Redlands, within walking distance of the courthouse.

At the apex of this group is Melodie Z. Scott, who has been referred to as the richest and most powerful conservator in Southern California. A tall, well-dressed blonde with a college education and a Private Investigator's license, Scott has a reputation as a “high-roller,” and frequently parties with elected officials and other members of San Bernardino's upper crust. Her resume reads like a poster-girl for an accomplished and respected conservator, and includes expert witness status, college level teaching experience (at California State University at Fullerton) a stint as President of the Professional Conservators of Southern California, as well as serving as a board member for Redlands Family Service. Like her attorney, Horspool, she has also run for public office.

However, behind the tasteful, expensive exterior at 25 E. State Street, an entirely different picture has emerged, revealing a reality as shocking and heinous as what went on behind closed doors in Hitler's eugenics labs. The “C.A.R.E. Group” is, in fact, preying on the life-savings of its helpless and vulnerable clients, who appear to die very quickly as soon as C.A.R.E. has sucked the lifeblood out of their estates.

According to Jerry Villanueva, an investigator with the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office, five separate counties have received complaints alleging criminal activity by Melodie Scott and her crew. Villanueva recently revealed that all incoming reports concerning Scott are being referred to the California Attorney General's office, which is patently refusing to investigate allegations of criminal activity by Scott's group.

“I don't 'do' families,” stated a brusque Melodie Scott, in response to a query by this reporter as to the services offered by C.A.R.E. A review of the court files in Redlands Superior Court
largely substantiates this. Time after time, C.A.R.E. has filed for conservatorship of elderly women, left vulnerable after the death of a spouse, with offspring or other family members either out of state or otherwise absent from the picture. When there are family members present to witness the actions taken by Melodie Scott, in concert with other members of the “C.A.R.E. Group,” they generally end up quite upset.

Case in point is the Elizabeth Fairbanks case, on file in the Redlands Court. Mary Beth Fairbanks, the daughter of deceased conservatee Elizabeth Fairbanks, first contacted this reporter in the Fall of 2006. Following what Mary Beth repeatedly referred to as the murder of her mother at the direction of Melodie Z. Scott, the younger Fairbanks organized a demonstration in front of the SB County Courthouse, timed with her appearance in Court on October 13, 2006, to lodge her protest with Superior Court Judge Frank Gafkowski. A number of family members,
conservatorship victims and others impacted by Melodie Z. Scott, showed up at the demonstration, which was covered on the local ABC affiliate and by local press.

A review of the medical records prior to Fairbanks' death substantiates Mary Beth's allegation that directives by Melodie Z. Scott, conservator of person and estate for Elizabeth Fairbanks, were instrumental in the elderly woman's death. Unbeknownst to the family, Melodie Scott had signed a "Do Not Resuscitate" order" shortly after achieving conservatorship over Fairbanks. TAB has retrieved the DNR from the court file, and Fairbanks signature does not appear on this document.

In 2006, Fairbanks fell ill with pneumonia, and at the apparent direction of Scott, received only two doses of antibiotics during the entire course of the illness. At a critical moment in her increasing respiratory distress, she was administered two doses of the opiate, Roxanol, which put Fairbanks into respiratory arrest. Two hours following the administration of the second, more powerful dose of Roxanol, Fairbanks died. Roxanol is contraindicated for patients with respiratory problems.

It was later revealed in the accountings that Elizabeth Fairbanks had no money left to fund the conservatorship.

The following statement was filed by Mary Beth Fairbanks in San Bernardino Court: “I have attempted since 2003 to find an attorney to help me with stopping what Ms. Scott was doing. No attorney would help me due to Ms. Scott’s power in the San Bernardino area....My mother died of pneumonia, which has a good success rate if treated aggressively and correctly. Why would Ms. Scott think if my mother was hospitalized and aggressively treated that she could end up a vegetable? If my mother had a stroke I could understand what Ms. Scott did but not to give my mother a chance is incomprehensible to me.”

Judge Michael Welch wrote a decision in the Fairbanks case, and diligently avoided any questions of possible criminal behavior by Melodie Scott. He took a quick detour around the issue of whether Fairbanks herself actually requested or even knew of the "Do Not Resuscitate" order. He wrote: “Apparently, shortly after Ms. Scott became the Conservator, the Conservatee had requested a “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) order. Ms. Scott’s notes reflect that the Conservatee had the capacity to make such a decision....The children all testified that they did not know their mother had made such a request. In fact, they were adamant that their mother had expressed to them just the opposite….”

Several points need to be made here. First, to state that “Apparently” Fairbanks had requested the DNR does not resolve the issue that there is no indication, other than the statement by her Conservator, that Fairbanks did so. Second, Fairbanks was under an LPS conservatorship, which was initiated because of her lack of capacity. She had a medical diagnosis of substantial mental illness. To state that a person who has been deemed incompetent has capacity to make a decision of this magnitude is a contradiction in terms. As Welch waltzed into a veritable legal briarpatch he only revealed his own intent —to exonerate Melodie Scott, no matter how absurd his own statements became.

Welch then quickly moved on. In a manner reminiscent of former President Bill “I feel your pain” Clinton, Welch wrote, “The last few days and, later, the last few hours before (Fairbanks’) death were very painful for her children. I could not help but note their grief and sorrow at the news of her passing.”

That being said, Judge Welch summarily approved all accountings and actions by the Conservator, Melodie Scott, and closed the case.

TAB has retrieved the DNR order, signed by Melodie Z. Scott and dated at the inception of the conservatorship. This is echoed by the DNR order issued and signed by Victoria Rains, MD, on July 13, 2005, and featured here. In tandem, these orders amount to Fairbanks' death warrant.

Dr. Rains is one of the doctors generally used by Melodie Scott, to care for her elderly clients. A review of death certificates reveals that Dr. Rains has listed “pneumonia” as cause of death for a number of C.A.R.E. conservatees. Calls to Dr. Rains requesting input as to whether she regularly withholds life-saving antibiotics from her elderly patients went unreturned.

“JUST DO IT!”

After gaining conservatorship over an elderly or disabled individual, Scott, as a matter of course, applies to the court for a "Power of Health Care." Armed with this legal sanction to
make life and death decisions, Scott usually signs a DNR order, thus cementing her power to withhold medical care at the point when her client is no longer of financial use to her.

In the case of Stevie Price, Scott used this "Power of Health Care" both to limit medical care and to issue directives for medical procedures which proved unnecessary and life-threatening for her disabled client.

At age nine, Stevie Price was critically injured in an emergency room foul-up, which left him with a permanent brain injury. His parents, Steve and Fae, sued Loma Linda Hospital and won.

A couple of years after the incident, Steve and Fae separated. It was during a custody hearing in 1997, in San Bernardino, when the elder Steve Price noticed an attorney sitting in the back of the courtroom, taking notes. The attorney, he later discovered, was one Walter Moore (now a partner in Hartnell, Lister and Moore), one of the attorneys who regularly appears as counsel for Melodie Scott.

Before they knew it, the court had determined that an 'impartial' third party was needed to represent Stevie. Judge Kathleen Bryant appointed Walter Moore as Stevie's attorney, who immediately nominated Melodie Z. Scott as guardian of Stevie's person.

Scott soon gained control over Stevie's trust, as well. After being appointed temporary guardian, Ms. Scott used $300,000 of Stevie's trust, in attorney's fees, expert witness fees, etc., to achieve the status of permanent guardian in a trial inexplicably held in a different city, before a traffic court judge, Judge Frank Heene of Chino Municipal court.

It should be noted that Heene was subsequently brought up on nine counts of misconduct, and retired from the bench.

According to Steve Price, the "C.A.R.E. Team" manipulated Fae in order to gain control of the Trust, promising her standing in the case, which never materialized. Steve Price ended up in a protracted legal battle with Scott, in an attempt to protect his son's life and the funds so necessary to care for the child.

On the very same day that Melodie Scott was finally removed from the case, Stevie Price died. The elder Price was then to discover, to his further horror, that Scott had run through the entire multi-million trust.

"The Trust should have been banking, not losing money," states Steve Price. Prior to Melodie Scott's appointment, Price had carefully researched his son's options, and had made decisions which would guarantee excellent medical care, while protecting the Trust, which was anticipated to last Stevie's lifetime. Price saw no reason that his son should not live to a ripe old age, if given appropriate care.

He had enrolled Stevie in a medical insurance plan which was funded by state tobacco taxes-- MR/MIP (Major Risk Medical Insurance Program) with Medi-Cal as a secondary insurance.

A chunk of Stevie's malpractice settlement had gone to settle his Medi-Cal bill, and to enable his enrollment with MR/MIP as his primary. With less than $100 as a monthly premium and no pay-back requirement on death, MR/MIP also provided a far higher standard of care than the bare bones, minimal coverage provided by Medi-Cal. Upon achieving guardianship, Melodie Scott voluntarily removed Stevie from this program, thus severely restricting his medical care to what the limited Medi-Cal program would cover. This also unnecessarily incurred a Medi-Cal claim of $532,607.39 at Stevie's death. What remained in Stevie's trust at that point in time was inadequate to cover this claim.

Steve Price claims that this action by Melodie Scott "seem(s) to have intentionally defrauded Medi-Cal into paying Stevie's medical expenses and exposed both him and his estate to harm." In a report to the California Attorney General's office, Price also states that "we believe that this was a major factor in his death."

In another aggressive move, which Price believes was an effort to remove Stevie from his father's watchful eye and to place him further under Scott’s control, she ordered that Stevie undergo a tracheotomy in 2000. Most institutional facilities which would be appropriate for someone with Stevie's injuries generally only accept patients with tracheotomies. Scott failed to provide any diagnostic proof of the necessity of this procedure, and in defiance of the opinion of Stevie's long term pulmonary specialist and home-health nurses, applied for and received court permission to have the tracheotomy performed.

Perched on the corner of a pleasant Yucaipa street, Steve Price's sprawling, ranch-style home is a virtual shrine to personal tragedy. The walls are bedecked with photographs of his young son, surrounded by family and friends. A framed poem, by Stevie's former nurse and now Price's fiancée, Tammy Hull, urges those on this side of the grave to remain strong and loving, even in the face of such wrenching loss. But for Steve Price, justice has become elusive. The California Attorney General's office expressed disinterest in his meticulously documented complaint, which included evidence of Scott's attempt to further pad her pocket by taking out TWO burial plots on young Stevie, one of which went unreported to the court, and was to be cashed in by Scott on the death of her client.

“EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW?”

The California AG's office received another bundle of complaints this past March. The carefully documented complaints alleged embezzlement, property theft, perjury, denial of due process by judges in C.A.R.E. cases, attempted murder and continued suppression of reports received by lower level justice agencies, including the Redlands and Temecula Police Departments and a local District Attorney's offices. These reports powerfully buttress the perception that the "C.A.R.E. Group" is wielding undue influence all the way up the California justice system.

These reports were received by Senior Assistant Attorney General Mark Geiger on March 6, 2007 and put back into the mail to the senders the same day. Casting around for a plausible explanation to explain his failure to act, Geiger lamely states, “....these are matters beyond my area of developed criminal expertise.” In a shocking effort to continue to cover-up C.A.R.E. criminal activity, he also falsely states that “.... the statute of limitations has run on many of the alleged offenses,” in direct contradiction to the evidence supplied in the March reports that the alleged crimes were reported well within the proscribed statutory time limits to local law enforcement agencies, which dutifully and consistently dropped the ball. Most tellingly, Geiger also neglected to assign a complaint number to the March reports.

As a matter of course, and for tracking purposes, an incoming complaint to the Department of Justice is always assigned a complaint number. By first omitting then stubbornly refusing to assign a number, Geiger tacitly revealed that he buried the reports. Legally, he put himself at risk for prosecution as an accessory after the fact.

Scott's influence appears to go all the way up to federal. The head of the Civil Rights Division for the Riverside F.B.I. told one complainant that there were “massive civil rights violations” substantiated by the complainant, but that agency took no action.” An agent in the Los Angeles office of the F.B.I. stated, with brazen inaccuracy, that conservatorships were a “civil” matter and that the F.B.I did not investigate civil matters. When that complainant provided evidence that crimes were being committed under the mantle of “civil” court procedures, she was funneled into a telephonic “black hole,” and was refused any more access to a duty agent.

“KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY”

Melodie Scott’s business dealings have regularly benefited members of her family. Her mother, Jo Williams, aka Anna Williams, works out of the 25 E. State Street offices as a “Client Care” specialist. Williams’ name also appeared on the property at 26735 Redlands Blvd, which was formerly the site of Orange Blossom, an unlicensed Assisted Living center, previously owned by Melodie Scott. The property, which burned to the ground recently, was subsequently sold to Loma Linda Hospital for a cool seven figures. Scott’s sister, Dona Zinck, has appeared on accountings as being reimbursed for grocery go-fer services. Another family member, Alvin Zinck, has been the recipient of at least one property transfer, which he apparently received free of charge. In 1994, Alvin and Lois Zinck were the recipients of a 1958 Terry Trailer, which had previously belonged to one Lois B. Nightingale, who was under conservatorship with Melodie Scott. The Bill of Sale, signed by Melodie Scott as Conservator for Lois Nightingale, notes that “This trailer traded for yard clean-up services and labor.”

“THE FAMILY HOME”

Under the laws governing conservatorships of estate, Scott has total access to all the conservatee's bank accounts and may, with the court's approval, sell the conservatee's property, in order to further pay for her services. An unusual pattern has emerged concerning the sale of real property, which is always approved by Scott's judges. Probate property, as it is called, be it under a conservatorship case or under the estate administration of the “C.A.R.E. Group,” is generally substantially under-appraised and sold at a still deeper discount from the initially low appraisal.

Here is a short list of such transactions, garnered from the Redlands Probate files and matched up with the San Bernardino's tax assessor's office:

Elmer Archie Heath 23538 Court St, San Bernardino
Appraised at $60,000
Sold at $28,600

Heath’s vacant lot on Joshua Road, Palm Desert
Appraised at $8,000
Sold at $1,000

Mary Titus 49888 Senilis Ave, Morongo Valley
Appraised at $35,000
1/2interest sold at $3000

Evelyn Townsend 1244 Ramona Drive, Redlands
Appraised at $140,000
Sold at $110,000

Mattie Kirby 1028 W. 9th, San Bernardino
Appraised at $65,000
Sold at $43,000

After selling off property at bargain basement prices, many of these properties suddenly and without explanation dramatically increase in assessed value. For example, the “C.A.R.E. Group” handled the estate administration for Rachel Norris, whose single family home in Victorville, California, was appraised at $2,788. No , that’s not a misprint. The home was sold to a Gary Salonsin, in November of 2004.

Incomprehensibly, the assessed value then jumped to $76,000, and Salonsin quickly sold it in a “flip” to Ilona Winegarden, where it was re-assessed at $96,900. Conservatee Arthur Gurley’s vacant Victorville lot jumped in assessed value from $7,273 to $44,880 when it passed into the hands of Eagle Assets & Management LLC in 2005, and his Victorville cabin also skyrocketed in value from $8,312 to over $57,000 when Eagle acquired this property, also in 2005.

The list goes on and on. Lena Peden’s retail business, appraised at $15,392, jumped in appraisal to over $81,000 as soon as it was acquired in 2006. The jumps and flips are too numerous to list here; however, it should be noted that the San Bernardino Tax Assessor, Bill Postmus, is currently under Grand Jury investigation.

As the sole heir of the estate of conservatee Una Haley, Sheryl Morgan received absolutely nothing. Morgan, who was Haley’s granddaughter, had applied to be her conservator, only to have this strong-armed away from her by the “C.A.R.E. Group.” Morgan has stated that this group outright stole the proceeds from the sale of Haley’s home. The court file reveals that conservator Lawrence Dean and his attorney Craig Parker (of Hartnell, Horspool and Fox) did an even divvy of the remains of Haley’s estate. In the final distribution, Dean and Parker declared to the court on August 26, 2003 that they each received $4,775.15. This poses some alarming questions. Parker’s fees as an attorney are roughly in the $200-$250 range, while Dean’s services are generally in the neighborhood of $40.00 an hour. There is simply no probable mathematical equation which could have resulted in the even divide of the remaining money.

TAB has uncovered another source of potential fraud. This reporter has unearthed partial General Ledger reports on two C.A.R.E. conservatorships-- Dora Pakuts, in San Bernardino and one from a Riverside case. In both ledgers, there are numerous skipped check numbers, with no explanation provided, such as a "Void" notation, should a check be cancelled out. TAB has been able to obtain a copy of one of these checks, written by Melodie Scott on a conservatee's account for over $4,000 and never reported to the court or noted in the General Ledger.

TAB subsequently contacted Melodie Scott, with questions about skipped check numbers, but she did not respond to these calls.

A phone call to C.A.R.E. attorney Sherri Kastilahn, however, was indeed returned. After poring over the conservatorship file of William F. Burke, now deceased, I had some concerns about what appeared to be a substantial amount of unaccounted for money. Burke had gone under conservatorship with C.A.R.E. conservator Larry Dean in late 2000, and had died in January of 2003. There was some ambiguity in the court file on a number of issues. Kastilahn and Dean reported to the court the sale of Burke's residence in September of 2001, but were still listing the house as an asset in March of 2002. The house had sold for $130,000, but Kastilahn and Dean reported only $45,000 left in the estate in February of 2003. To further confuse matters, Judge Pro-Tem E. Joan Nelms documented as estate assets over $87,000—nearly twice what Dean and Kastilahn had just reported-- two months later, in April of 2003.

Two months after Burke passed away, Kastilahn requested the court approve her placing $30,000 of the decedant’s estate into her own State Bar attorney-client account, for "further conservator compensation, costs and attorney fees to be incurred in the administration of the conservatorship proceeding." (direct quote from court file) I wanted to ask Ms. Kastilahn
what possible conservatorship services could be offered a dead man.

I was also intensely curious as to the distribution given the sole heir, one Lester Leroy Lorge. Kastilahn and Dean had declared to the court that it took them two years to locate Lorge. In an unusual departure from the typical receipt, Lorge only signed for his "full distributive share." I could find no notation in the court file as to what that might be, and had never before seen a receipt for distibution in these files which failed to note how much was received.

It only took me one call to a Private Investigator and forty-eight hours to locate Lester Lorge. He expressed surprise that Dean and Kastilahn seemed to have such trouble locating him. He stated that he had been close to conservatee William F. Burke for about fifty years, and was called by the hospital the day he died.

Lorge revealed to me that his “full distributive share” was, in fact, $25,940—a mere fraction of what Kastilahn and Dean had declared as the remainder of the estate.

Attorney Sherri Kastilahn's response to my call is recorded on my voicemail. She threatened me with a lawsuit, a Restraining Order and told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was not a reporter, and had no standing to ask questions about this case. It should be noted that none of the above questions were ever tendered to Ms. Kastilahn. When I spoke with her secretary I merely imparted that I had questions about "financial irregularities" in the Burke file.

So much for the First Amendment. And how about that "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" stuff?

Well, maybe the Founding Fathers weren't referring to the elderly. Or, as an alternate explanation, maybe our country is in battle mode. With the U.S. government waging wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and wars now spreading like forest fires across the globe, maybe what we are seeing is another war, against those least able to protect themselves, right under our very noses.
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I am requesting that those reading this article take action, and contact the California Attorney General’s office and demand that this office step up to the plate and DO THEIR JOB. The number for Dane Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General (and Mark Geiger’s boss) is (916) 445-2030. Attorney General Jerry Brown’s number is (510) 622-4180. Judge Larry Allen, Presiding Judge for San Bernardino County Court, may be reached at (909) 457-5680. The Fifth Commandment reads "Honor thy mother and father," not "Honor thy mother and father's cash, rob them blind, and then throw them away like old dishrags."

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Please Everyone take a look at this site and respond to this site! We need to flood this Outrageous slanderous site and let these slimeballs know that we support Janet and all those who are stealing our parents lives and money but now they are trying to steal the reputations of those who are "OUTING" them publicly

http://www.topix.net/forum/city/sandy-valley-nv/T8M6MSGH727SG2931