Alee Carrino-Ohio
What I’ve learned over the past 5 years being a National Guardianship Reform Advocate observing more than 50 probate guardianship hearings, both in person and zoom, across the country, is that this isn’t just an isolated issue. It’s a systemic crisis affecting millions. Families are being ensnared in a corrupt system that profits from the exploitation of human lives and estates. How do I know? My mother was put into a lockdown unit with an ankle monitor. She appeared to be overmedicated, neglected, and abused. As a concerned daughter I filed for emergency guardianship in 2020, when she almost died from sepsis. I spent thousands of dollars trying to save my mom’s life. I couldn’t free her. She was being isolated. Even though I was a nurse’s aide, I wasn’t allowed to take her out of the facility for any reason. For 5 years she was in two separate facilities from February 6, 2019, until she died January 15, 2024.
One judge determines the fate of an American citizen without hearing from the person, or seeing any of the evidence, and yet continues to make unjust rulings that negatively impact a person’s life and their family forever. The American Bar Association realizes there’s a problem and yet, regrettably, most fail to obey their oath as law officers of the court. I believe this abusive guardianship system should be abolished and end the unchecked power of qualified immunity. It isn’t about helping others but using courts as tools for human and estate trafficking. Families deserve the fundamental right to care for their loved ones without interference from profit-driven state actors who operate without oversight or consequences.
Geralyn Lambou-Florida
My parents lived in Florida for over 20 years. Our father (93) was diagnosed with dementia and allegedly influenced against his will by a group of elder care professionals, doctors, guardians, and lawyers who placed him into an undisclosed facility. His rights were taken away. He was isolated for over three years, and he died under guardianship as a ‘Ward’ of the State. The family was notified two months after his death. We fought a losing battle to honor his end-of-life wishes, expressed to his family long before his mental decline. He’d adamantly expressed his desire to stay in his home until his death and be free to engage in horticulture projects.
Even though we’ve gone through this dreadful nightmare, I find it hard to believe this happened to my family. The judges in our case have always ruled in their favor, despite high fees, laws broken, and many glaring mistakes. They successfully kept an elderly man away from his family in the last years of life. They kept us from visiting, saying goodbye, and mourning his death. They displayed no regard for the lifetime bonds his children and grandchildren had with him. Before this, I believed in the judicial process, but no more. It seems to us we’ve experienced a rigged system where elders are easily taken away from their loved ones and taken advantage of. We were robbed of precious time with our father in his final years and are still fighting in court for what little remains of the estate.
Dean Sallas- Illinois
Dean Sallas is an honorable veteran who served in the US Army with the Combat Engineers and in the Army Post office from 1960-66. He’s been denied visitation with his wife of fifty years through court appointed guardianship. Dean, in his own words…
“My wife and I are both in our 80’s. We were successful in our careers and 57-year marriage together in Illinois. My wife was an educator and taught 5th grade, a very sought after teacher. I was a real-estate agent, property manager with multi-million dollars in assets. We lived on our investments and earned income. We raised a son and daughter and put them through university with no loans.
At the beginning of 2006, a year before her retirement, while mentoring 3 other teachers, my wife suffered a cranial aneurysm, a stroke. She had enough sick leave days to last through the end of the school year in 2007. She survived an operation and at retirement she applied for her pension and so did our children. The Illinois teachers’ retirement system said too many people applied, stopped the pension, and suggested a guardian to determine where the pension should be sent. This landed us in the hands of the Probate court. Our son went to court to be her guardian. In 2010, the judge appointed one of their own as Public Guardian. My doctor suggested we should go for mental and physical evaluations, which we did. My wife went to two doctors, a PhD in psychological testing, and a psychiatrist MD. They found her competent and in no need of a guardian. I went to court and applied for her restoration, to free her from guardianship. We had a trial Oct 30.
Dec 2018: Even though I had been adjudged fully qualified through a PhD and Psychiatric testing, and people from discussion groups, her computer mastery class, and others who interacted with her within the community testified to her competence, neither my son, daughter, nor myself were appointed by the court, and she wasn’t restored, though each mental health professional had tested, and found her competent twice, a year apart. We lived in our home under their control for thirteen years. They found it to be acceptable living conditions. During this time, I retired and ran out of savings. The court controlled our monies, received the bills and agreed to pay our mortgage and utilities out of her $7,000.00 monthly retirement funds. Every year since 2010, they came every three months to check on the smoke detectors and furnace.
Once, when we were away, they came and said the refrigerator had rotten food and a toilet wasn’t working properly. We had several refrigerators, freezers, and toilets, all operational. That afternoon, we were told they’d gotten a court order to remove my wife from the house. This upset her so badly she checked herself into the hospital. A week later they showed up with a court order and removed her. My lawyer, my son and I weren’t allowed to know where she was. She was temporarily moved to my daughter’s house. I was allowed to call for a couple months. Then, she was moved to an assisted living facility with no visitation. They stopped paying our mortgage and utilities. Our house of fifty years was foreclosed on, losing more than half a million in equity. Everything we owned was gone. I believe the court was in violation of several laws including Illinois Statute. 755 ILCS 5/11a – 22.
I’m an 88-year-old veteran suffering emotional trauma, missing my wife, fighting to be reunited. Stay away from guardianship! A foundation recently put me up in a motel for three months. They stopped paying. I’m living in my current home, a 2005 Toyota minivan, for over three years in the summer heat and winter snow.
Beverly Shaw-Missouri
My husband suffered a stroke the day after Thanksgiving, November 2022. After a long stay at the hospital and a good nursing home for rehab, he was at home recovering. I’ve been taking excellent care of him doing physical and occupational therapy, giving him daily baths, keeping records of his meds, taking him to doctor appointments. I took him downtown every day and would talk about what we saw and who we talked to as a means of mind and memory exercise. He regained physical and mental health. We were back to resuming a happy life.
He wanted to go on a vacation after being cooped up for so long. We stopped off in Michigan and visited his hometown in Indiana. This is where our nightmare started. During our visit, in the extreme August summer heat he got dehydrated, so I took him to the local hospital for IV fluids. Medical intervention didn’t go well. Even though I had medical power of attorney we became entangled in a legal web in Indiana leading to a court appointed guardianship. They claimed I wasn’t taking care of my husband and he’s staying in guardianship permanently. I believe this to be a wrongful confinement far from where we lived in Missouri, what I call medical kidnapping. They took all my rights away, confiscated our bank account, and placed him in an Indiana nursing home. If there is any neglect or abuse
going on I’m not able to confirm my suspicions. I haven’t been
permitted to see him in nine months. My only hope to get him
back home was to give our son guardianship, but our
relationship was estranged.
In desperation, and love for my husband, I loaded up my van and went on an extraordinary journey to New York. I drove 15 hours, loaded with pictures, flyers, and his two emotional support goats, to get help from the media. I camped out in Rockefeller Center for two weeks, talking about my plight to whoever would listen. I got into the New York Times, WCBS Radio, Channel 12 Westchester News. SEE Blaise Gomez-Westchester News. 17 I raised $36,000 and hired a lawyer and fought for almost a year, conserving money for the legal battle, and to feed my goats, by eating only once a day. All together I spent $43,000 on attorneys. As soon, as I ran out of money, they separated us. I need to hire an attorney again, but that costs more money. I’m sixty-six years old, sleeping in my 2014 Hyundai Sonata van with my husband’s two goats, Marshmallow and Brownie. This isn’t the way I pictured my retirement years. I’m not done and will not stop till I get my beloved husband back home where he belongs and deserves to be. I love him! I’ll do whatever it takes.
https://westchester.news12.com/missouri-woman-travels-more-than-
1000- miles-to-ny-to-seek-help-reuniting-with-her-husband
Rebecca Harber-Georgia
Our nightmare began when we visited a rehab facility in Florida after my husband of thirty years suffered a stroke. When he was admitted it was determined he required a CPAP machine at night. The clinic referred him to a hospital in Florida, where I, Rebecca, expected to be trained on the CPAP machine to care for him at home in Georgia. During the eight days he was admitted, things went horribly wrong! I was falsely accused of removing the CPAP machine. APS was called. I was arrested and held for four hours on false charges. My rights as a medical durable power of attorney, healthcare surrogate, temporary guardian, and permanent guardian of my dying husband were disregarded, as was my status as estate administrator. I was denied access to court records and hearings involving my husband’s well-being. My access and visitation were denied during the final days of my husband’s life.
I believe all this was to hide the true causes of my husbands’ death, revealed in autopsy. Apparently, the court presumed I was guilty of outrageous conduct, a charge that was never proven. No evidence was presented to the court of assault, neglect, or not properly taking care of him. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) in Florida admitted they had only accusations, no evidence, that I’d done anything improper. I was then pressured into a $210,000.00 payment (out of our life savings to free my husband from Florida and transport him to a private facility in Georgia on or about April 23, 2021, under a guardianship. We were isolated from him for nine months. He died without me or his mother by his side.
Many people face similar interventions to gain guardianships and take from families what belongs to them. I became a national husband, and wives advocate to show a better way that if I’d known could have changed the direction of my case. I see the same pattern. I’ve learned that bogus charges often are made that include poisoning their spouse, not taking care of them properly, interference with medical care, or staff, verbal and physical abuse, all to gain a guardianship over someone. It’s important to know your rights. When you’re taken under a “for- profit guardianship” you have no idea what’s happened to you.
Elaine Mickman-Pennsylvania
Many people have no idea what goes on in our family courts system, specifically in divorce court. Elaine Mickman, tells a story of what can go wrong when a mother of five is faced with divorce, including two attempts to declare her incapacitated. Elaine’s story serves as a warning to all who are faced with divorce in our broken family court system.
Her book is on Amazon: Court-Gate…the Courts “Divorced from the Law” without Liberty or Justice at all. Elaine Mickman
Venus Gist-California-Care Advocate and Consultant, Seniors, and Family
My Family was hooked into a Probate Court conservatorship in California. We rescued my mother from a substantial residential care facility. I found evidence her life was in danger. If I sugarcoat my words, it won’t address past, current, and future cases within probate and family Courts. When decisions must be made in court concerning a family’s loved one probate and family judicial systems disregard family relationships. There’s no perfect family, but in many cases, like ours, there are family members who’ve been legally designated to govern family business. I have my B.A. in Family/Child Psychology and my M.S. in Family and Human Development, which is a blessing, but nothing supersedes being raised and cared for by a loving family.
Why do attorneys, conservators, guardians, etc., take advantage of families and plunder their estates and judges allow it? All my advocate associates agree, it’s all about the money!! Sure, some cases warrant court involvement when there’s no family, but when concerned family members are excluded, it may be unlawful, but courts do it daily. I feel, after my probate court experience, court officials lack integrity, respect, and accountability. There was poor communication, and a lack of concern. My parents had a trust, and my mother required higher quality care. It appeared to me there was evidence the conservator misappropriated funds.
Be careful when you call APS and CPS! Some social workers may not be on your side. There are those inside the system who abuse our seniors and children and build their wealth upon our family’s blood, sweat and tears. As advocates we yearn for the day, we, the people, know the truth. Our advice: “Don’t go to court!” The courts get rich from “family conflict.” It’s best to acknowledge family differences and collaboratively invest in a professional family mediator outside the court system. We’ve seen attorney fees in California run as high as $700 an hour. Every court official will get paid, but not the family. It’s a lucrative game you don’t want to play! God bless and protect us all!
Julie Belshe-National Guardianship Liberty Movement
My Parents, Rudy and Rennie North, were taken from their home in2013 by former guardian April Parks, currently in jail with her business partner Mark Simmons. Concerning these events, ‘The Guardians’ documentary directed by Billie Mintz is on Amazon Prime and YouTube. A New Yorker article “How the Elderly Lose their Right’s” 41 by Rachel Aviv is available to view. I’ve started a nonprofit organization called National Guardianship Liberty Movement. My goal is to offer public awareness and much needed assistance to help curtail and prevent exploitative and corrupt involuntary guardianships. Unfortunately, we’ve witnessed innocent family members and thousands of others become prematurely deemed incompetent, put into involuntary guardianships, and stripped of their constitutional and civil rights.
We’ve been proactive and, thankfully, been able to prevent individuals from becoming a guardianship statistic. It shouldn’t be this hard to fight to save someone’s life. It’s not easy and not enough. We want to end human and estate trafficking due to corruption taking place in our courts. Our team has 20 years, collectively, firsthand experience, and would like to hold Accredited Symposiums to educate others. Hopefully, guardianship will one day be far less restrictive, whether a temporary, or permanent situation. Thank you for this opportunity. We look forward to bringing this valuable resource to our fellow Americans.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-
rights accessed April 24, 2025, 5:15pm
Erica (afraid to share last name)-Losing My Friend to the Court
At one time, I believed in good old-fashioned, American Justice. I believed the laws in our country are there to protect everyone. Sadly, I found out the hard way. The gentleman I cared for very much grew to be a friend while I worked as his private caretaker. Our happy world was turned upside down. Thinking of protecting my friends’ rights, and my own, I reached out to lawyers, one for each of us, hoping they would help us. My friend and I were ripped apart from each other against our wills. He was forced into a guardianship. They issued a restraining order against me and put him in a nursing home at the peak of Covid. Nobody had the courtesy to explain to him what happened. He still called, begging me to visit. I wasn’t allowed to. Any asset or wealth is fair game. It’s designed to create fees, filing bogus motions and restraining orders, selling off the victim’s belongings, and answering emails. They’ll charge a fee for making a list of fees. All of this was done, I believe, to control my friends’ wealth. ($2.5M).
Janice Wolk (JW) Grenadier-founder of JudicialPedia
Janice is the ex-wife of a son of a judge, with an ex-mother-in-law that is divorce lawyer. My motivation comes from knowing the system from the inside out and not wanting what happened to me happening to anyone else. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail for not having $8,100 to pay my ex-husband. I spent 22 days in jail / 14 of those days in solitary confinement. Janice is a Certified ADA Advocate & Mediator and an expert on the “Judicial Crisis” in the United States of America. She has intervened in several guardianships, divorce, criminal, foreclosure, J6, Trump and government cases throughout the United States.
The Judges are ignoring the rule of law and the United States and the State Constitutions, the rights of the citizens and are ruling with bias of the Constitution and allowing their religious and political views to cloud their judgements. The reason for founding JudicialPedia is believing that the Constitution was what the Judiciary followed. I hope you will join me in making the needed change of Making the America Judiciary Accountable.
You can find JudicialPedia at Website: https://judicialpedia.com
Doug Franks-Georgia
Doug Franks spent four and a half years fighting Florida’s guardianship system to free his mother, Ernestine, from an unwanted guardianship in Pensacola, Florida. Ernestine faced the prospect of spending her final days alone, cut off from her family. In November 2016, Doug’s persistence paid off. After years of court battles and media campaigns, Ernestine was finally freed from guardianship and could return home to live where she chose. Both mother and son were overjoyed to be reunited.
Tragically, Ernestine’s freedom was short-lived. After just 45 days of enjoying her liberty including simple pleasures like her favorite ice cream, she suffered a massive heart attack and died in Doug’s arms. Since then, Doug has dedicated himself to guardianship reform, working with Florida legislators and families nationwide to strengthen guardianship and probate laws. His advocacy continues through his website: http://freeernestine.com
Tiffany Shabazz
In 2021, my husband suffered a stroke and was later hit by a car, which left him disabled but still mentally competent. Despite his repeated requests to be with me and our children, his sisters took control of his care without legal authority. They isolated him. The hospital cut off visitation rights. He begged to come home. I felt his care was neglected. He passed away on October 21, 2023. I’ve been exposing how families are trapped and silenced by probate court interference.
Marian Kornicki-New York
I’m part of a human rights coalition, the ‘Victims and Families Devastated by Guardianship Coalition,’ exposing intentional financial exploitation we’ve experienced. There’s a perverse incentive to push people into guardianship by courts, lawyers, and government agencies to take control of their assets. For decades, there’s been a persistent financial motive to exploit people by putting them into guardianships. What really happens to people and their families is so far beyond belief it’s hard for the public to grasp. Elected officials defer action with useless periodic legislation. We must seek to ensure the federal government stops funding guardianship. We need to light a fire under law enforcement. Do we want a system whose existence depends on taking away people’s rights?
Guardianship’s inappropriate for anyone. Once people understand there’s no benevolent component, being gas lighted as to what guardianship is, they’ll want to end it. I’ve written three articles published in “Mad in America. Guardianship Destroyed My Family” -January 10, 2022.
https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/01/guardianship-destroyed-family-draft/
accessed August 2, 2024, 11:00am
Laura “Pebbles” Martinez-Thrash-Texas
My husband’s been isolated from us for over 6 years. Being trapped in probate court hearings and being fed into a guardianship even after the judge had said a guardianship isn’t needed is like being sentenced to prison without ever committing a crime. We must continuously bring attention to systemic abuse of conservatorships and guardianships nationwide! There aren’t many things more traumatic than being isolated from loved ones.
Eliot Bernstein-Florida
My two adult children were conscripted into guardianship for minors without any hearings for competency or following any Florida Guardianship laws whatsoever with no due process. The guardian and courts ignored pleas for the lawyers, guardians, and judges to cease and desist this deprivation of their legal rights as adults. The guardianship was allegedly used to silence their legal rights as adults regarding their family’s inheritance, and seize from them monies yet unaccounted for, and other properties from trusts left by their grandparents. Attorneys for disgruntled relatives, who, with their children, were wholly disinherited from the estates and trusts, filed endless pleadings with the courts to facilitate this alleged fraud against the adult children, which the Florida courts entertained.
Despite legal notice of the problem, the courts continued to allow the attempted confiscation of real properties through this weaponization of the legal system, including their home. A foreclosure was filed against their home by the attorneys, and even though at the time of filing they were legally adults for many years, they were never served process as adults, as they were listed as minors in the pleadings, when factually, they weren’t. The alleged crimes against our family in the Florida courts, which the courts have facilitated, with guardians and lawyers, are continuous and ongoing. It seems anyone trying to expose what the courts are doing is retaliated against with their family members. Several have been falsely imprisoned for making the attempt. We’ve met over 500 victims in the last few years. The main difference in our guardianship horror story is that in most cases victims are elderly, not young adults.
Yes, here in Florida, at this time, you can be whisked off your porch and put in a facility, and with a short, 30-minute capacity hearing and medical evaluation that is usually rigged and shoddy, your entire legal and property rights seized. Often, you’ll be medicated. Sedated, while lawyers, guardians, judges, and probably the cops who protect them pilfer millions upon millions of your hard-earned monies faster than you or your family can protect them. This is a well-oiled international machine of legally trained wrongdoers. Now the crimes are against a family’s adult children. Apparently, your rights and property can be from you if they just state that you are a minor when you aren’t. One must ask where the press and police are to stop this madness.
Brandee Ritsema-Michigan
In 2000, my mother fell off a horse leaving her in a coma for seven years. When she woke, she was paralyzed and brain injured. For 25 years, I navigated the probate system, learned the law, and fought back. I successfully had the facility charged twice for abuse and neglect. I feel in retaliation they worked to criminalize me as advocacy grew. My children were entangled in the family court system. I refuse to be silenced.
Marsha Joiner-TS Radio
Marsha is a Podcaster and hosts the popular ‘Betrayed by Hospice’ Podcast on TS Radio Network. Marsha has been exposing the intentional hastening of end of life for many elderly who are unfortunate enough to be subjected to this organization whose main purpose is death. In her book the stories are similar, the drugs used, the lies and manipulation, the betrayal by medical staff. Marsha published her book ‘Betrayed by Ho$pice and Healthcare, stories from the Deathbed’ now on Amazon. We all die one day but t should be when it’s our time and not when someone else decides your life is of no value.
Her shows: https://tsradionetwork.buzzsprout.com/
Katherine (Katie)-Jackson Indiana
Katherine (Katie) Jackson, an Indiana mother, refuses to back down to the Department of Child Services after she claims they falsely framed her as negligent, denying her child’s legitimate medical diagnoses and doctor’s orders that resulted in her children being removed from her care for almost three years in 2022, portraying her as unfit and a danger to her children. Her child, being born severely premature at 23 weeks, retains significant illnesses and a multitude of developmental delays. Because she’s not a medical professional, doctors dismissed Katherine’s pleas and actively interfered with her advocacy for her daughter’s incredibly rare disease. The diagnosis of this genetic condition, known as Pilarowski Bjornsson Syndrome (PBS) was shared by only 10 individuals worldwide at the time, and is now recognized in 46 individuals. In addition, the child suffers from alopecia, a more common and visually identifiable condition, which presents as hair loss.
“Throughout this nightmare, I have been trying to advocate for my child in a world where mothers are consistently dismissed by medical professionals who think they know best,” said Katherine Jackson. “I refuse for my children to believe I have done anything but protect and love them, and I want nothing more than to have them back with me where they belong. I will continue to fight on behalf of my children, myself, and mothers everywhere who have suffered the same fate. You are not alone, and I will not back down.”
So far, this case has racked up three million dollars in court fees, legal expenses and associated costs. Katherine (Katie) is also fighting criminal charges against her with a possible sentence up to ten years in jail. As we see it the only ‘crime’ she is guilty of is loving her children. Visit her website: https://www.momfightsback.com/
Brenda Daniel-Maryland
Her mom was 96. Everyone called her Poochie. Brenda saw her mother on December 23, 2021, she was removed by a family member who has POA (Power of Attorney), removed from the facility, and Brenda has no idea where her mother was hidden for 351 days (about 11 and a half months). These injustices happen every day to our most vulnerable. We need to stand up and speak out. Brenda’s mom passed away a few years ago.
Joyce Lacey -Minnesota-June Lynne Lacey Foundation
My mother, June Lacey, was an amazing woman! Not a day went by that she wasn’t volunteering to help someone in need. She’d just returned from the Ms. Senior USA Pageant in Las Vegas, representing Minnesota, and was named Ms. Congeniality! We were volunteering for a walk when her breathing got slightly off. Because it was the weekend, I took her to the ER. When they saw her, they insisted she stay overnight for observation. I wanted the best for her, so I agreed. The next day, in walks a hospitalist doctor, a hospice representative, a social worker and a chaplain. They tried to convince me to put my mother as Do Not Resuscitate, (DNR), place her in a nursing home, and put her in Hospice! As Health Care Directive, (HCD), and Power of Attorney, (POA) for my mother, of course I said
“No”.
The hospitalist doctor, who had never seen me or my mother before, said
“You are a very poor POA! I have wasted 27 minutes on you!”
…then asked…
“By the way, are you the legal guardian?”
…I honestly replied I wasn’t. Before he left, I explained my mother was fully competent and didn’t need a guardian.
I never dreamed he’d go to the social worker, and they’d apply for an emergency guardianship and conservatorship! It seems, he claimed my mother had dementia! She wasn’t given the opportunity to prove she didn’t. The next day, they came in and declared my mother now had a guardian and conservator and was being transported 215 miles to a nursing home far from friends and family! I started getting her dressed to take her away, but security showed up, and I was told I no longer had any say, nor did my mother! We protested, and they forced her compliance with a shot of morphine. I was frantic! I called the guardian 27 times that day to let her know there was a good nursing home just a few miles from the hospital. The guardian wouldn’t pick up and never replied! I later found out the guardians’ company allegedly managed the home they’d chosen, and the ambulance company cost a fortune. Mom was scared. I drove 8 hours every day, four hours each way, to see her. I found an attorney who wanted a $9,000.00 retainer. The bank told me our accounts had been emptied the day before. It appears the guardian had taken all my mother’s money and our joint account, too! The nursing home allowed only a bedpan. No phone, and guests were threatened with arrest if they took her outside her door! Within three weeks, she developed pneumonia, a staph infection, septic blood, UTI, bed sores, 102 temperature, and bumps and bruises! I called Adult Protection Services, (APS), four times, and got letters from County Social Services stating they refused to investigate. So did the ombudsman. I called the local police. The head nurse was furious! The officer said he was sorry, but there was nothing he could do because of the guardianship. He said my mother would have more rights if she were a convicted criminal. The day nurse refused to take my mother to the ER, but the evening nurse called 911, and my mother, near death, was rushed to the hospital. She was given four IV Antibiotics and an enema. This was Monday. By Wednesday, she sat up, smiling, and able to eat. She was to be released Thursday. I found a bed at a nursing home a few miles from the hospital. The guardian refused and forced her to go 80 miles back to the nursing home her company managed. I said:
“I would rather go to jail than have her go back there! They nearly killed her in just three weeks!”
The case worker called security and had me removed from the hospital. When mom got back, I was only allowed one hour supervised visits Monday through Friday! She went downhill fast. I hired an attorney specializing in negligent nursing home cases. The nursing home refused to release records. Their doctor placed mom in hospice. We had the records from the hospital where my mother had no sepsis, staph, pneumonia, UTI, bed sores, high temperature, or bruises. It all happened in the nursing home. Hospice care was no comfort. At a meeting they wanted to take her off her necessary drugs and leave her only on morphine and oxycodone. The guardian approved, but I pointed out she could die, so they continued to give her some of her other medications. Within a few days I saw mom stop breathing. When I called 911 paramedics resuscitated her, but the ER doctor refused her admittance, saying her pulse was too low. The paramedics left, and very shortly, mom was gone. I asked for an autopsy. She died with a blood clot by her heart that could’ve been dissolved if she’d been permitted to go to the ER. She fought to live but wasn’t given the chance. In my moms’ honor I started the June Lynne Lacey Foundation to serve vulnerable adults and children, the elderly, disabled, and our veterans. We strive to uphold and protect their rights. In addition, we provide meals, groceries, necessities, holiday gifts, accessible playground equipment for physically challenged children and scholarships for graduating seniors.
Hillary Hogue-Florida (co-host)
Hillary Hogue called our show. She was nervous about speaking but conquered her fears. Before long, she was a fierce advocate, freeing victims from abusive guardianships. On July 25, 2018, she joined as a co-host.
My father, 87, was appointed a for-profit guardian and had no access to his own money or freedoms. Deprived of due process, he was never notified of the petition to determine his incapacity. His power of attorney (POA) was worthless, ignored and overruled by all the agencies that were supposed to protect his rights, elder affairs, politicians, and judges. No one did anything! I managed to free my father from Guardianship! Usually, the only way out is through death.
“After being blindsided by my father’s guardianship proceeding, I could have easily gone back to a normal semblance of life, but my own conscience, and love for justice obligates me to help other victims of for-profit Guardianship.
I decided to devote my life to making the public aware of the atrocities happening in probate courts throughout this country. I am a member of the Florida Guardianship Task Force, as a ward advocate. I’m devoted to making changes nationwide in the guardianship system. I fear the word ‘guardianship’, more than I fear the word, ‘cancer’.”
Debbie Carroll– considerationnonprofit.org (co-host)
Debbie Carroll defines herself as a family and children’s rights advocate. Her focus is on the family courts in Colorado. She felt the passion to host her show, ‘The Fourth Branch.’ We gave her a slot on our platform. She has 50 years in the classroom, 17 as a student and 33 as a teacher with degrees in English, social studies, education and school administration. When she met Stacy Slaton Champion in 2011, a victim in family court, her path widened massively. Debbie works with Rosemary Van Gorder, another advocate, both dedicated to making a difference by remedying difficult family situations.
“I’m committed to helping families in family court. I opened a non-profit 501-(C)(3) organization called Consideration39. It addresses the healthy family concept by empowering parents with life skills related to financial solvency, mental and physical help. We offer people resources to keep their families together against court interference. Consideration gives families a fighting chance.”
Marcia Martinez Friedman-Florida (co-host)
From Communist Cuba to True Crime Corruption in The U.S.A.
In Cuba, my father, Faustino Martinez, lost his father at eight years old. My grandfather was a Carbonero, a coal seller. He had a wooden wagon of coal pulled by a horse. One foggy morning he got off the cart and walked to the back to get a load of coal, and a driver, unable to see, ran into him, ending his life. About this time the Virgin Mary appeared to my father to encourage him to sell costume jewelry to help his mother. He felt like she gave him luck, and after she appeared he started selling a lot. This encouraged a lifelong devotion to her.
This was when he met the businessman, Benjamin Bravo, who took him under his wing. I came to know him as my Abuelo (Grandfather) Bravo. My father’s dream was to open his own restaurant. In Cuba, at the entrance of the town of Moron,
Camaguey my parents set up a Kiosk in their early twenties selling orange juice and sandwiches across from the famous El Gallo De Maron (The Rooster of Maron), a huge pewter statue of a rooster which was a tourist landmark in the park. The rooster would crow “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” every morning at 6:00 AM, and 6:00 PM so loudly that the whole town heard it.
My parents saved all their money to buy the property on the corner where the Kiosk was, and the corner across the street. They built a restaurant they named ‘LA CARIDAD’ after the patron saint of Cuba, the Virgin Mary, known as ‘La Caridad Del Cobre’, which translates to mean ‘Our Lady of Charity who appeared in the town of Cobre.’
By 1963, the restaurant became a famous landmark, patronized by Cuban Baseball players who came to eat Marisco, Camarones Enchilados, and Arroz Con Pollo when they visited after games. I was nine years old and looked forward to their visits because they would sit me in their laps and sign my autograph book. Because of Cubans’ love for baseball the restaurant became very well known, and this, as well as the quality of the food, meant it was very successful. My father would pray to the Virgin every morning and thank her. My mother and father invested their money wisely in Cuba. My parents’ dream was always to work hard and buy an apartment in South Florida. From the Kiosk to owning the whole block they had the restaurant, our home, rental properties, and buildings. Elsewhere they planted many acres of rice and had a huge rice farm. When Fidel Castro took power in 1959, he destroyed the landmark known as “El Gallo De Maron,” the rooster known as a symbol of a free Cuba, when he established a dictatorship, and instituted a communist government. The rooster’s crowing was forever silenced. I was 9 years old when the Cuban cops came in and told my parents…
“Castro’s government now owns this restaurant, bank accounts, and all your properties!”
My father, Faustino, told the communist military El Jedo:
“Tell Castro, if he has any balls, to come and tell me himself, because my wife, Lilia, and I have worked hard for years to own these properties!”
… as I watched with fear. He tore off his apron and threw it on the floor! The communist military, El Jedo, took him away and put him in jail without any due process, no hearing before a judge, and no trial. The price he paid for speaking out against Castro’s abuse of power was to be imprisoned when he voiced opposition.
The next day, my mother, Lilia, and I went to the prison. My mother asked me to beg for my father’s freedom. They didn’t let him out. Through secret channels, my father was told to ask to go to the bathroom when they were transferring him through a small town to another prison, where he was to be tortured, and killed, to get information. Arrangements had been made with the Ambassador of Uruguay. The bathroom window was left open so he could get out immediately. The ambassadors’ car was waiting. He was put into the trunk of the ambassadors’ car and transported to the Uruguayan Embassy in Havana, the Capital of Cuba, where the ambassador got him asylum, saving his life. Mom and I were not allowed to visit, but once a week we could send food. My father notified my mother to send Cuban cigar boxes filled with cigars, with a little bit of food on the top. We would go to where he could see us through a net, but neither of us was allowed to speak or wave to the other. Inside the Uruguayan embassy was a statue of the Virgin Mary. My father got a picture of himself standing next to her, and forever after claimed it was, she who had saved him. He stayed there for about eight months until arrangements were made to fly him and my brother, Joaquin, to Uruguay, then onto Miami, where they took their first steps to freedom since Castro took hold. My mother and I weren’t allowed to leave Cuba. Castro wanted to disempower people by tearing their families apart. Faustino, my dad, was one of the first Cuban immigrants to get asylum from the United States. He had no family here. He and Joaquin arrived with no money in their pockets, but a sizable stash of sealed boxes of famous Cuban cigars. He was able to sell them for one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), quite a bit of money in those days.
He connected with a friend to get Joaquin and himself jobs at the Moore Haven Sugar Mill cutting sugar cane. The cigar money allowed them to get an apartment, and soon they were sending money back to my mother and me, allowing us to survive. My mother and I were finally able to leave the country three years later, September 21, 1966, on the last freedom flight allowed by the Cuban Government.
My father and mother worked hard, saving all their money until we could purchase our first home in Clewiston, Florida. By this time my father was a foreman in the sugar mill. My mother worked for a packing house, where she kept getting very bad colds. One day I was riding my bike and saw this store location for rent, so I asked my father if we could open a store with my mother so she wouldn’t have to work a job where she’s getting sick all the time anymore. He said to me…
“But she doesn’t speak English…”
“I promise to work every day after school, and on weekends, and I will interpret. I can wear pretty clothes to school and bring my friends to the shop!” That is exactly what happened. We established LA CARIDAD VARIETY STORE in Clewiston, Florida. My father took my advice. We went shopping. He would say…
“Pick whatever you want!”
…then he would buy six of every outfit I chose… We rented the store. I would invite my friends from school, and we would tell them…
“You can lay it away, and pay over time…”
It taught me survival skills, and to believe in my ideas. It worked like a charm. The store became popular and did a booming business. People would come from towns for miles around to buy at our store. At one point we had saved enough money to purchase the building on Sugarland Highway. We kept the store and turned the rest of the building into commercial rental properties. It paid for my college education, brand new car, and my beautiful wedding. When my parents retired it provided additional income. It was understood that this was to become my inheritance since I was the child who worked so many years to help create a successful business out of it. I helped my parents achieve their dream of owning an apartment in Sunny Isles Beach. We upgraded to a bigger one in Hallandale Beach, which they purchased to be near their grandchildren and me. My father passed away April 7, 2004. I was their only surviving daughter since my brother, Joaquin, had suffered a tragic car accident in 1984. After my father died, I helped my mom with her financial affairs. She was well taken care of. In 2011, it became clear my mother was showing some cognitive decline, such as short-term memory loss, and behavior changes. At times, she lost track of where she lived. I was concerned she was becoming vulnerable to exploitation and wanted to get her proper medical care. The doctor recommended a neurologist after she got a mini memory assessment. This upset her. She couldn’t reason. A month later I called as her emergency contact next of kin and was told instead of getting an assessment, she changed doctors. He was surprised. She had been his patient for nine years. I didn’t know what else to do, so I went for counseling with the Alzheimer’s Association. I was told: “Your mother’s showing signs of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Since you couldn’t get her to a neurologist for a CAT scan and neurological evaluation, as her primary doctor recommended, the best thing you can do is file for guardianship.” That’s what I did, and it’s when all our problems began. The court appointed three examining committee members. One was a Spanish-speaking psychiatrist with a PhD. My mother didn’t speak English. He diagnosed Mom as suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia and said that her condition warranted a neurological evaluation. The court did not take action to incapacitate her or order such an evaluation at that time. The court assigned my late brother’s children limited co-guardians of property only, and health care surrogates, despite the fact mom chose to live near us before guardianship, and the evidence of her incapacity.
In 2014 Mom was told she was going for a 2 weeks’ vacation. Her limited co-guardians relocated her two counties away without a court order. Mom was placed into a room made from their garage. She was isolated from her loved ones for over a decade. A multitude of court hearings ensued attempting to enforce visitation. Mom couldn’t remember the logistics of visitation due to her incapacity. We were helpless because the judge indicated mom will keep her right to decide if she wants visitors, which seemed unfair to me. The judge granted supervised visitation, and though the magistrates’ orders noted I had her best interest, I was often denied by the limited co-guardians. I was targeted as the bad daughter. Her beach front property was sold without her consent in 2015. I was also denied when I requested not to sell her property. In June 2021, my mom was admitted to the hospital. I was saddened to find her dehydrated, with bed sores. When Mom saw me, her face lit up and she burst into joyful tears. She said…“Alegria! (Joy) …What took you so long?” She had been told I lived far away and didn’t want to see her. Soon she was moved to a rehabilitation facility. I knew she was becoming weaker and contacted my attorney to urge the judge to lift the supervision order. Instead, the judge ordered visits with my mother to be supervised. I would find and pay for a supervisor to come with me on visits. I called the courts to provide a list of supervisors, but there was none. Supervised visitation required four hours round trip for a thirty-minute visit with my 97-year-old mom. I had to find and pay for a supervisory person, with travel expenses each time. It was costly, but to be with my mother for a few precious minutes was worth it. As a daughter, my soul is crushed, my heart broken that I couldn’t spend the last few years with her. Mom kept saying…“Don’t Leave! I want you to stay and care for me!”
… words that still cut my soul. I felt sorry for her and so helpless, this was her cruel destiny. I only had a few visits before being notified she had died alone.
Coz Whitten-Scaife-TS Radio
I was introduced to the abusive guardianship system when my uncle became embroiled in it in 2011, in Pennsylvania. I was shocked and mortified to discover how easily the vulnerable could lose their human rights, property, and liberties, within minutes, in a hearing process that disregards the Rule of Law and court procedures. I discovered National Association to Stop Guardianship Abuse (NASGA).The shock and awe of the crimes against most our vulnerable, being perpetrated by so-called ‘professionals,’ was mind blowing. I was invited a few times to Marti Oakley’s T.S. Radio show and soon after I became her co-host for four years. Marti’s T.S Radio show debuted in 2010 and had over 2000 episodes on Blog talk radio. She has since had her Podcast land on Spotify, iTunes, and other platforms and now the world can hear and see. Marti had a huge presence at the Whistleblowers Summit, founded by Marcel Reid, where she spoke six times at the Summit on guardianship abuses. Her panel was one of the biggest draw cards and is still watched worldwide. We continued to represent Marti at the Whistleblowers Summit pulling off a showstopper in 2023, just three months after her untimely passing. Marti Oakley has changed the trajectory of the lives of those she met and touched. The torch she passed on to us and others is still, and will always be, burning brightly. November 2024, we received notice that Blog Talk Radio will no longer be operating. Marti Oakley TS Radio Network at https://tsradionetwork.buzzsprout.com/
Terri Black and Rick Black- Center for Estate Administration Reform (CEAR)
Their journey began when Rick’s father-in-law (Terri’s Dad) was put into a for-profit guardianship for two years in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rick and his wife Terri fought for a year to get guardianship of him. Rick and Terri are now national advocates educating to prevent abuse and leading reform in estate administration. CEAR is a non-profit advocate with a mission to educate and seek justice for Americans when they are threatened by the growing problem of abusive probate, trust, and guardianship fraud. CEAR is positioned to be the national resource on legal community exploitation, and the voice for the people in legislating state based and federal reforms to ensure that each state can best protect the rights of all its citizens and their heirs. The objective is to become the front-line defense against the betrayal of our most vulnerable citizens, and a powerful force that investigates those who pervert the courts and exploit the law for their own gain.
https://www.cearjustice.org/ accessed August 20, 2024, 5:30pm
Philip Ross (Phil)-San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio attorney Phillip Ross quietly resigned from practicing law to avoid facing wrongful discipline from the State Bar of Texas, including possible disbarment, ending a nearly 35-year legal career. He wasn’t just an attorney standing up against guardianship abuse representing his clients, but he became a whistleblower advocating against the abusive laws meant to protect the elderly being used against them, leaving them penniless, powerless and isolated from families. He appeared in the Netflix guardianship documentary “Dirty Money” in 2020.