Judge William Watkins’ Meltdown

The judge went ballistic because he assumed, among other things, that pastor Hage published an article in the local on-line news outlet, PutnamLIVE.com, about Judge Watkins’ late payments to the condominium where he lives.

The judge was wrong: it was the publisher of PutnamLIVE, who wrote the article, entirely on his own volition. Judge Watkins screams at the pastor, “I will personally make sure that you will never see a free day in your life! You are going to jail!” While the pastor is silent, the Judge repeatedly screams, “Shut up!”

Source:
YouTube: Putnam County, WV, Family Law Judge, William Watkins, May 23, 2012 MELTDOWN!!!!! and Fathers and Children Coalition

Fireworks in Grand Rapids Filming of "Lawless America – the Movie"

Judge Kevin Cronin agreed to speak at an event in Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 27, 2012. Bill Windsor took his film camera and went to the podium to ask questions of Judge Kevin Cronin. I told Judge Kevin Cronin that he will be one of the stars of Lawless America…The Movie.

Lawless America…The Movie is a documentary film exposing government corruption and judicial corruption in a 143-day road trip to all 50 states. Over 1,200 victims are being filmed.

Full Article and Source:
Fireworks in Grand Rapids as Bill Windsor of Lawless America calls Judge Kevin Cronin a Crook in Front of a TV Studio Filled with Cheering Cictims

See Also:
Lawless America – the Movie and the Filming of the Gary and Sara Harvey Case

CFPB Requests for Information Regarding Senior Financial Exploitation

Section 1013(g)(1) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank Act”) requires the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (“Bureau” or “CFPB”) to facilitate the financial literacy of individuals aged 62 or older (“seniors”), on protection from unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices and on current and future financial choices, including through dissemination of materials on such topics.Show citation box

In furtherance of this mandate, the CFPB’s Office for the Financial Protection of Older Americans (“Office for Older Americans”) seeks information on consumer financial products and services, financial literacy efforts, and fraudulent or deceptive practices impacting the lives of older Americans and their families.

Comment Due Date: August 20, 2012

You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CFPB-2012-0018, by any of the following methods:

http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: Monica Jackson, Office of the Executive Secretary, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW., Washington, DC 20552.

Source:
Request for Information Regarding Senior Financial Exploitation

Santa Clara judge reconsiders his early ruling on a trustee excessive fee case

SAN JOSE — In a case that has already spawned reforms in Santa Clara County’s probate court, the battle over a six-figure bill that a trustee charged a brain-damaged San Jose man landed back before a judge Friday.

Judge Franklin Bondonno agreed to re-evaluate the $146,500 he awarded just two months ago to a Los Gatos attorney for defending the trustee’s high fees.

Danny Reed, 37, took a bold stand in 2010 and opposed his court-appointed trustee’s $108,000 bill for just 4 ½ months’ work. When Reed and his public defender challenged those fees, trustee Thomas Thorpe and his attorneys charged more than twice that amount in legal costs to defend their original bills.

Friday’s showdown in court was the latest twist in a lengthy battle that has taken on far broader meaning than the average estate dispute. Reed’s case was at the heart of “Loss of Trust,” an investigation published this month by this newspaper that revealed how some Santa Clara County estate and care managers are charging excessive fees and how the court was doing little to stop it.

Reversing his own decision would be extremely rare, but there were signs the judge understood the objections.

In a nod to Reed’s pro-bono defense team, Bondonno said Friday the lawyers had “done a terrific job in saying: ‘Judge, there’s something that just isn’t right in how this whole thing played out.’ “

Full Article and Source:
Santa Clara judge reconsiders his early ruling on a trustee excessive fee case

See Also:
The Mercury News’ “Loss of Trust” Series (Anchor article)

Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules no out-of-county judge for Joan Orie Melvin trial

HARRISBURG — The state Supreme Court has denied Justice Joan Orie Melvin’s request for judge from outside Allegheny County to hear the criminal corruption charges against her.

Justice Melvin’s colleagues on the state’s highest court responded to her motion in an order issued Tuesday.

Her attorneys had asked that an out-of-county judge be appointed because Justice Melvin previously served in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and because one of her former staff members who allegedly did campaign work is married to another common pleas judge.

Judge Jeffrey A. Manning has twice rejected the request.

Full Article and Source:
Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules no out-of-county judge for Joan Orie Melvin trial

CANHR Releases ‘Operation Guardians’ Report

Untreated bed sores and infections, residents left for hours lying in their own waste, a resident with maggots in a festering rectal wound. Despite a generation’s worth of state and federal laws to guarantee a satisfactory standard of care in California nursing homes, an alarming number of facilities are failing to deliver decent humane care to their residents. This is the takeaway from CANHR’s hair-raising review of fourteen reports from California’s Operation Guardians, a project of the state Department of Justice’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse. The reports reveal a shameful state of affairs in the reviewed nursing homes that is fostered, in part, by a lack of statewide enforcement from the Department of Public Health (DPH).

Operation Guardians began in 2000 to conduct surprise, on-site inspections of California nursing homes in an effort to protect residents and improve care for elderly and dependent adult residents. (See Operation Guardians description) While the project has scaled back its number of inspections, it still manages to inspect about one new nursing home each month. Each inspection results in a report detailing the facility’s compliance with basic sanitation and quality of care standards. The reports are sent to DPH so it can conduct an independent investigation and issue appropriate enforcement actions. The reports are not made available to the public. CANHR made a Public Records Act request to obtain all reports issued from January 1, 2010 through March 7, 2012 and has subsequently posted the reports to its website. It is believed that CANHR is the first organization to publicly reveal the Operation Guardians reports.

Each of the nursing homes listed below were investigated by Operation Guardians staff between January 1, 2010 and March 7, 2012. If you click on the facility’s name, you will see a summary of the findings as well as a link to the full report and, where available, a supplemental physician’s report.

Bakersfield Healthcare Center – Bakersfield

Braswell’s Hampton Manor – Yucaipa

Desert Knolls Convalescent Hospital – Victorville

Evergreen Healthcare Centers of Vallejo – Springs Road (aka. Springs Road Healthcare) – Vallejo

Florin Healthcare Center – Sacramento

Golden Cross Health Care – Pasadena

Motion Picture and Television Fund Skilled Nursing Units – Woodland Hills

Plott Nursing Home – Ontario

Roseville Point Health & Wellness Center – Roseville

Sunrise Convalescent Hospital – Pasadena

Tarzana Health and Rehabilitation Center – Tarzana

Windsor Redding Care Center – Windsor

Winsor House Care Center (aka. Orchard Post Acute Care) – Vacaville

Yuba Skilled Nursing Center – Yuba City

Source:
Operation Guardians – Executive Summary

Press Release: Canhr Releases Attorney General Reports Showing Rampant Abuse and Neglect in Fourteen California Nursing Homes

Attorney General’s Description of Operation Guardians

California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform – CANHR

Possible Drug to Fight Alzheimer’s / Dementia

A new treatment for Alzheimer’s could halt deterioration in people with early symptoms of the disease, a limited human trial has shown. The treatment, called the “most exciting drug in development” by scientists, is currently prescribed to people with immune system problems but could have a significant impact on the quality of life of Alzheimer’s sufferers, the trial suggests.

The drug, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), prevented the decline in cognitive skills, memory and the ability to live independently, among patients with mild to moderate symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Those who took a placebo continued to decline. The small number of patients who took the highest dose of the drug for three years showed no decline in memory.

Medical experts said the drug could be used to treat Alzheimer’s within a decade and was “probably the most exciting drug we know about that is currently in the late stages of research”.

Dementia is one of the biggest challenges facing the NHS, with one in three people developing the disease – for which there is no cure – after the age of 65.

IVIg contains antibodies from blood donors and is normally used in the treatment of the immune system and serious infections. In the study of 16 patients carried out by Weill Cornell medical college in New York, the 11 patients taking various doses of the IVIg drug Gammagard showed more positive results than those who were taking a placebo. The five patients who were not initially given the drug declined more slowly after they were switched to Gammagard. The four participants originally given the highest dose and kept on that dose for three years showed no decline in cognition.

Full Article and Source:
Alzheimer’s Drug IVIg Could Halt Sufferers’ Decline

Pennsylvania Passes UAGPPJA

Laws, even popular and necessary ones, take some time to travel through the system. This fact became apparent again when Pennsylvania passed its version of a model uniform law for guardians with the jaw breaking title of the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act (UAGPPJA). The law will go into effect on Sept. 5, 2012.

In a model of cooperation, Pennsylvania’s law passed the House last year 196-0 and the Pennsylvania Senate this year 49-0. It was supported by the Pennsylvania Association of Elder Law Attorneys (PAELA) to which I belong and by the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
I first wrote about the need for uniform guardianship laws on May 4, 2009. See http://www.dailylocal.com under search for Colliton and 2009. Why the law is important to average people is because one of the specific problems it deals with is the issue popularly referred to as “Granny snatching.”

Suppose, for instance, you apply for guardianship in Pennsylvania for your mother who has lived here all her life. Another relative or acquaintance, without your knowledge, signs her out of a personal care home or takes her from homeand makes arrangements to transport her out of state. That person files for guardianship in another state. Without a uniform act where each state recognizes the other state’s proceedings, the result could be a nightmare.

Full Article and Source:
COLLITON: ‘Anti-Granny Snatching’ Law Passed in Pa.

KY: Insurance Agent Accused of Bilking Elderly Client Out of $500K Found Dead

The body of a man found hanging earlier this week in a northern Grant County barn has been identified as that of a Kenton County insurance agent who was accused of bilking an elderly client out of more than $500,000, police said Friday.

The body of Raymond Crosby, 49, of Hebron was found late Tuesday afternoon in a barn of the Lloyd Wildlife Management Area, a 1,100-acre recreation area near Crittenden, Kentucky State Police said in a release.

Kenton County police had a felony theft warrant for Crosby’s arrest so he could face charges that he stole money from an elderly client, said Detective Andrew Schierberg.

“We believe he misappropriated about $540,000 from one client,” Schierberg said.

Full Article and Source:
Man Found Hanged was Accused of Bilking Elderly Client Out of $500,000

Petition: Sen.Beavers, Rep. Gary Odom: Impeach Judge Randy Kennedy

Guardianship and conservatorship law is designed to “guard,” “conserve” and “protect” incompetent or disabled citizens, vulnerable elderly, and their estates.

Under Tennessee law, it is Judge Randy Kennedy’s duty alone, to decide whether or not a person is in need of a guardian or a conservator, and then to protect the vulnerable, elderly or disabled person. The law clearly states that the decisions Judge Kennedy makes should be in the best interest of the conserved person. Their best interest is NOT taken into consideration in his court and they are NOT protected!

• Judge Kennedy convenes emergency hearings without proper notice, in which people are conserved and their rights to due process and the law – federal and state – violated.
• Wards’ assets are depleted, property, and belongings quickly sold before they have the chance to prove they are competent. These people should NOT have to prove they are competent!
• Court appointed guardians and lawyers in these cases profit greatly at the expense of the very people they are appointed to protect, also sanctioned by Judge Kennedy.
• Judge Kennedy improperly seals files from public view.

Mrs. Jewell Tinnon, Ginger Franklin, and Danny Tate are citizens who were conserved by petitions being filed without their knowledge, had their assets depleted and property sold, (a combined worth in excess of $2.5 million) – all signed off on by Judge Kennedy. Mrs. Tinnon even pleaded before Judge Kennedy not to sell all the things she had worked hard for. He ordered the sell anyway!

THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!!!!

SIGN THE PETITION