Indiana May Seek Background Checks for Nursing Facility Workers

Early next year, Indiana lawmakers will consider a proposal to require workers in nursing homes to undergo background checks, in an effort to provide better protection for vulnerable elderly residents.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said he will also propose that the legislature make additional changes in state law to provide whistleblowers with legal protections. More broadly, Zoeller has asked an oversight panel that reviews licensing agencies to focus its scrutiny on the Indiana Health Facility Administrator (HFA) Board, the body that has disciplinary power over nursing home administrators.

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Indiana May Seek Background Checks for Nursing Home Workers

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Nursing Home 101: Being an Effective Advocate

Indiana Appellate Court Upholds Ruling

The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling by Bartholomew Superior Court Judge Chris Monroe that Will Miller and Sarla Kalsi acted properly in the handling of the estates of his Miller’s parents, J. Irwin and Xenia Miller.

In their ruling, members of the court dismissed many of the points of contention raised by appellant Hugh Miller, eldest son of J. Irwin and Xenia Miller and Will’s brother.

Hugh Miller had originally charged in a lawsuit that his brother and Kalsi, a long-time advisor to the Miller family, had breached their fiduciary duties and that Will Miller had personally benefited from actions he had taken while handling his mother’s business affairs.

Many of Hugh Miller’s complaints focused on repairs and improvements made on the family properties at 2760 Highland Way and the Irwin Home and Gardens on Fifth Street as well as an estate in Canada.

In that Xenia Miller had become incapacitated in the years following her husband’s death in 2005, the court agreed with Judge Monroe’s rulings that Will Miller and Kalsi as attorneys in fact were acting as they believed Mrs. Miller would have acted had she been able.

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Appeals Court Upholds Handling of Miller Estate

IN: Forgery Charge Added Against Lawyer

Allen County prosecutors added additional charges to the criminal case against local lawyer Daniel E. Serban after investigators said he admitted misappropriating money from an estate account.

Charged with corrupt business influence and theft, Serban, now faces additional charges of forgery and theft.

In the original charges, Serban is accused of failing to distribute money paid into Serban Law Office’s Trust Account to the appropriate clients or to those entitled by court order to receive it.

But when he was arrested Thursday, Serban told officers some of the money he used to pay off the original client, after he was confronted, had been taken from money put into the trust account for an estate. He told investigators he forged the name of the estate’s personal representative on the check.

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Forgery Charge Added Against Local Lawyer

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Attorney Charged With Fund Thefts

Election Commission Denies Challenge – Judge Remains on Ballot

The four-person Indiana Election Commission voted Thursday to deny a challenge against Allen Superior Judge Kenneth Scheibenberger, which means he remains on the fall ballot.

A group of citizens who filed the complaint said Indiana law governing the selection of Allen Superior Court judges prohibits people from running for election if they have had any Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission action.

The law is unique to Allen and Vanderburgh counties.

“I’m relieved. You never know what’s going to happen,” Scheibenberger said after the hearing. “This is going to fuel my vigor to go out and campaign to show who is the best candidate.”

Scheibenberger has argued the law does not apply to him because he was disciplined as a judge, not as an attorney.

Source:
Scheibenberger to Remain on Ballot

Attorney Charged With Fund Thefts

A prominent local attorney and non-profit board member has been arrested and charged with corrupt business influence and theft amid allegations he took more than $100,000from his clients’ trust fund accounts.

Arrested Thursday, Daniel E. Serban, 53, is accused of failing to distribute money paid into Serban Law Office’s Trust Account to the appropriate clients or to those entitled by court order to receive it. According to court documents, the behavior continued from January 2006 until Tuesday.

Both charges are felonies, and if convicted, Serban could serve two or more years in prison.

Attorneys are required to keep escrow-type accounts where money either coming from or going to their clients will be kept. Those accounts are to be treated with extreme fiduciary care and attorneys have a strong ethical responsibility to protect that money, according to the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office.

Much of the money misappropriated, according to prosecutors, came from a civil case filed in 2003. In that case, Serban represented R. Bruce Dye in a dispute with former business partners over money.

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Attorney Charged With Fund Thefts

More Education to be Required for Indiana Judges

The Indiana Supreme Court issued a new requirement for more education for judges in the state, based on the recommendation of a committee headed by a local judge.

It’s one step in a long-range plan to reform the Indiana courts, which Elkhart Circuit Judge Terry Shewmaker said is “one of the most complex judicial systems in the nation.”

Shewmaker and Marion Superior Court Judge Mark Stoner serve as co-chairs for the statewide strategic planning committee for court reform. They, along with Montgomery Superior Court Judge Peggy Lohorn, spoke with reporters in Indianapolis.

Shewmaker said the need for change is clear, because our courts are a “19th century agrarian-type system. Now is the time for change,” he said.

Stoner agreed. “We’re no longer in that culture. We’re in an electronic culture … Indiana is behind the times and the question is how we move ourselves forward.”

The first step, issued Wednesday by the Indiana Supreme Court, is to require more ongoing education for judges. Until now, their requirements were the same as attorneys: 36 hours of education every three years, with at least six hours each year.

The new standard will require all full-time judges, magistrates, commissioners and referees to get 1.5 times that much, according to Kathryn Dolan, public information officer for the supreme court.

Chief Justice Randall Shepard said in a written announcement Wednesday, “Indiana judges hold themselves to a high standard. They asked the court to require additional continuing education hours and recommended specific changes to mandatory continuing education requirements. I was pleased to sign the order making the changes they proposed a requirement for Indiana judges.”

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Plan Requires More Education for Judges

Charges Filed in Confinement Case

Madison County Prosecutor Thomas Broderick, Jr., filed nine felony counts Thursday morning against the three individuals accused of confining and abusing 65-year-old Anna Turner and stealing her social security checks and medications.

The charges include criminal confinement, theft, battery resulting in serious bodily injury, exploitation of an endangered adult, financial exploitation of an endangered adult, obtaining prescription by fraud, and possession of a controlled substance.

The Anderson Police Department was alerted to Turner’s situation thanks to a tip Adult Protective Service Director Tom Brown received. Officer Freddie Tevis went to the residence where he is reported to have found Turner locked in a small utility room.

All three individuals made an appearance by video before a judge, where not-guilty pleas were entered. Bonds were set at $100,000 each, full cash.

No further court dates have been set.

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Charges Filed in Anderson Confinement Case

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Woman Held Captive for Months

Ex-Disabilities CEO Gets Two Years

Ernest Beal knew it wasn’t his calling.

But taking the reins of Your Friends and Neighbors, a company that runs group homes for adults with developmental disabilities, was what his mother wanted before she died, he told an Allen Superior Court judge Friday.

Reluctantly, he headed the company as its chief executive officer per his mother’s dying wish nearly 20 years ago and never intended to harm anyone, he said.

Beal, 57, was sentenced to two years in prison for raiding his clients’ trust fund accounts to help his company make payroll, which included a pair of $300,000 annual salaries for him and his ex-wife. Charged with felony theft last year, Beal was convicted by a jury in April.

The trust funds of Your Friends and Neighbors clients hold money from their Social Security checks, paychecks and other income and are meant to pay for the expenses and care of residents. Over a 3 1/2 -year period, Beal “borrowed” from those accounts multiple times.

Beal testified that the money in the trust funds belonged to Your Friends and Neighbors and not the clients and that he planned to pay the money back with interest. Prosecutors acknowledged he eventually did that, but no payments were made until he was charged with theft last June.

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Ex-Disabilities CEO Gets 2 Years for Theft

Elderly Woman Held Captive for Months

Luigi Amalfitano offered 65-year-old dementia sufferer Anna Turner a place to stay and a tender hand when she was close to losing her home.

Instead, Madison County prosecutors said, Amalfitano forced her to live in a locked supply closet, 8 feet by 8 feet, that one police officer said was “barely fit to contain an animal, let alone a human being.”

Malnourished and beaten, Turner was discovered in a 105-degree supply closet in Amalfitano’s Anderson home, where she had been held captive for several months, police said.

Prosecutor Thomas Broderick Jr., who is expected to file formal charges next week, called the situation an “unbelievable inhuman treatment of an individual who could not help themselves.”

Amalfitano, 45, his son, Louis, 20, and Louis’ girlfriend, Stephanie L. Cole, 21, were charged preliminarily with felony confinement and exploitation of an endangered adult. Amalfitano and his son also were charged with battery. All were being held on a $100,000 bond at the Madison County Jail. Turner was admitted to St. John’s Medical Center.

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Police, Elderly Woman Held Captive for Months

Minister Convicted of Stealing From Trust Fund

Ernest Beal knew what was in his clients’ best interests.

At least that’s what he told an Allen Superior Court jury Thursday as the final day of his criminal trial wrapped up.

Charged with theft, Beal, 56, was accused of raiding the trust fund accounts of the developmentally impaired residents of his group homes – in order, he said, to pay operating expenses.

But after about 2 1/2 hours of deliberation, the jury didn’t believe him, convicting him of the charge.

Beal is chief operating officer of Your Friends and Neighbors, a company that runs group homes in Indiana and Georgia for adults with developmental impairments. A lawyer and licensed minister, Beal is also the pastor of Faith United Church of Christ in Fort Wayne.

Sentencing is scheduled for next month before Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull.

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Minister Stole From Trust Fund,Jury Rules

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Lawyer/Pastor Accused of Felony Theft