SJC Approves Disbarment of Lawyer

The state Supreme Judicial Court has approved the disbarring of a Gardner lawyer who was convicted of rape and other charges in 2005.

Gary R. LeBlanc, 56, of 20 Cross St., Gardner, has been disbarred from practicing law in Massachusetts, retroactive to Jan. 9, 2006, the date of his temporary suspension.

On Oct. 20, 2005, Mr. LeBlanc was convicted in Worcester Superior Court of two counts of rape, indecent assault on a person 14 or over, distribution of cocaine, providing alcohol to a minor and a drug violation in a school zone, after a trial in Worcester Superior Court. He was also convicted of drugging for purposes of sexual intercourse.

Mr. LeBlanc was sentenced to state prison and required to register as a sex offender. After these convictions, Mr. LeBlanc was temporarily suspended from practicing law. He is still incarcerated.

On Feb. 3, 2009, the state Appeals Court reversed the conviction for administering drugs for sexual intercourse, but affirmed the remaining convictions. Bar counsel filed a petition for discipline on Feb. 4, 2009. Proceedings were deferred while the criminal case was further appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court, which upheld all of the convictions except for drugging for purposes of sexual intercourse.

Mr. LeBlanc had been charged with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old Gardner High School senior on Feb. 2, 2004, after giving her cocaine and alcohol in his Gardner home. The decision says Mr. LeBlanc and the young woman knew each other through friends and family. She was 12 when she first met the lawyer.

On May 18, Mr. LeBlanc submitted an affidavit of resignation in which he maintained his innocence, but admitted that he had been convicted of the offenses charged in the petition for discipline and that the convictions established violations. On June 14, the Board of Bar Overseers voted to recommend to the Supreme Judicial Court that the affidavit of resignation be accepted and an order of disbarment be issued. The disbarment order was accepted on June 30.

Full Article and Source:
SJC Approves Disbarment of Lawyer

Federal Charges Against Man Accused of Defrauding His Grandparents

A New York man was charged in federal court with defrauding his elderly grandparent in Greenfield of more than $250,000.

Michael Ostrowski, 41, of East Patchogue, N.Y., was charged in an indictment with conspiracy to commit mail fraud; mail fraud; interstate transportation of stolen property; receipt, possession, concealment and disposition of stolen property that crossed a state boundary; engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from unlawful activity; and failure to file an income tax return, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Boston office of the Internal Revenue Service.

The indictment alleges that Ostrowski’s grandparent lived in Greenfield until June 2006. After that, the grandparent, who was identified in a Department of Justice press release only as S.O., lived primarily in hospitals or nursing homes in Massachusetts.

According to the press release, Ostrowski faces the following maximum penalties: five years imprisonment on the conspiracy charge; 20 years imprisonment on the mail fraud charges; 10 years imprisonment on the stolen property charges and the monetary transaction charge; and one year imprisonment on the tax charge. There would also be hefty fines for each conviction.

Full Article and Source:
Officials: Grandparents Defrauded

‘An Act to Protect Nursing Home Residents’

The author of a bill aimed at protecting nursing home patients is praising state Rep. Harriett Stanley for her role in moving the legislation forward in a new form.

Dr. Rachel Geller penned An Act to Protect Nursing Home Residents over three years ago to protect people in nursing homes from abuse after Geller had a bad experience with her aunt, Sally Miller.

Sally Geller Miller, living with advanced Alzheimer’s disease, was shuttled between five nursing homes in a seven-year period before being stranded for weeks in a hospital’s locked psychiatric ward after being kicked out of one home.

It is an experience that has led state Rep. Ruth B. Balser, a Newton Democrat, to propose a law to better inform patients and family members about nursing home regulations.

“The existing problem is there are already very good laws on the books, yet nursing homes routinely lie, break the laws, follow illegal procedures and omit information,” Geller said. “Because we as ‘consumers’ of nursing homes are unfamiliar with the nursing home regulations, we are automatically inclined to believe everything told to us by a nursing home.”

Full Article and Source:
Stanley Puts Her Stamp on Nursing Home Bill

Elderly Ex-Judge Objects to Choice of Conservator

Retired Probate Judge Edward F. Casey, who only last month approved naming state Rep. Bill Bowles conservator of his estate, has abruptly reversed course.

The 85-year-old judge, who suffers from dementia, signed court papers objecting to having Bowles oversee his financial affairs.

Now, the legal impasse involving Attleboro City Councilor Kim Allard – the elderly judge’s personal caretaker accused by Casey’s family of taking advantage of him – will probably have to be resolved by a jurist outside of Bristol County.

Because of the potential for conflict of interest, a court employee said, it is unlikely that a judge of the Bristol County Probate Court will hear the case.

Casey is a former judge in the court and his son, John, is a sitting probate judge. The case would most likely be heard by a judge from another jurisdiction, possibly Plymouth County, the worker said.

Bowles, D-Attleboro, was appointed conservator for the estate of the elder Casey with the support of the judge’s family.

Bowles and the family claimed that Allard was taking advantage of her relationship with the elderly judge.

Allard, also a long-time friend of the elder Casey, receives a $600 weekly salary for the judge’s care and was given title to a $328,000 house on Slater Street signed over to her by the judge.

The next step will be a pretrial conference, court officials say.

[Casey’s] filing was not accompanied by a statement giving reasons for the judge’s objections and his abrupt turnabout.

According to a box checked on the appeal form, the elder Casey plans to file an affidavit within 30 days.

Full Article and Source:
Ex-judge Objects to Plans for Oversight

See Also:
Retired Judge Victimized

Retired Judge Victimized

An elderly, retired judge with dementia was financially victimized by two women, including an Attleboro city councilor who persuaded the retired jurist to buy a $328,000 house for her, according to an affidavit filed in Bristol County Probate Court.

The women, City Councilor Kimberly Allard and Laura Hunt, separately ‘have used their position of trust to take advantage of” 85-year-old former Bristol Probate Court Judge Edward F. Casey, wrote William J. Bowles in the affidavit.

Bowles, who is a long-time friend of Casey as well as a state representative, last month was appointed Casey’s temporary conservator, which means he is in charge of the former judge’s financial affairs.

Allard, who took office in 2002, disputed she was taking advantage of the retired judge, and that the purchase of the house was his idea.

“If I was some horrible woman like they are making me out to be, who wanted his money, wouldn’t I have married him and had his pension for the rest of my life? And I didn’t do that,” said Allard, 39, who is married but separated, with two children.

Full Article and Source:
Court Papers: Retired Judge Financially Victimized by Two Women

See Also:
Controversy for Councilor

Attorney Explains Amendments in MA Guardianship Laws

The new UPC [Universal Probate Code] laws have changed several facets of the guardianship and conservatorship laws in Massachusetts. Gary Zalkin, Counselor at law, shares the nine notable changes made to the guardianship and conservatorship laws:

1. Guardianship of the estate
2. Spendthrift guardianship
3. Authority to admit or commit to a mental health facility
4. Authority to admit to a skilled nursing facility
5. Appointment of counsel
6. “Ward”
7. Health care proxy
8. Reports
9. Accounting requirement

Full Press Release With Explanation of All Nine Changes, and Source:
Attorney Gary Zalkin Explains Amendments Made to Massachusettes Guardianship Law

See Also:
General Laws of Massachusetts – Chapter 201. Guardians and Conservators

NASGA’s “An Open Letter to Congress and the White House”

Nursing Home Drug Use Puts Many at Risk

Nearly 2,500 nursing home residents in Massachusetts were given powerful antipsychotic drugs last year that were not intended or recommended for their medical condition, a practice that is more common here than in most other states, according to a Globe analysis of federal data.

Data collected by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that 28 percent of Massachusetts nursing home residents were given antipsychotics in 2009. Of that group, 22 percent – or 2,483 – did not have a medical condition that calls for such treatment.

That rate was the 12th highest in the nation, according to the federal data.

The use of such drugs is especially worrisome in nursing homes because a substantial number of residents suffer from dementia, a condition that puts them at greater risk of death when given antipsychotic medications.

The drugs, also known as “‘psychotropics,’’ were developed to treat people with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, not dementia, which is the progressive loss of memory or other intellectual function than can result from aging or Alzheimer’s disease.

Twice in the past five years, federal regulators have issued nationwide alerts about troubling and sometimes fatal side effects when antipsychotics are taken by people with dementia, including increased confusion, sedation, and weight gain.

Full Article and Source:
Nursing Home Drug Use Puts Many at Risk

Lawyers Ordered to Repay Thousands

For three months, a pair of attorneys hired by a dying Harwich Port millionaire’s family were paid to be his guardian.

Their fee? Half a million dollars.

The duo — Dennis-based lawyer E. James Veara and Boston attorney Gerald Nissenbaum — also spent $20,000 of their client’s money on a private investigator they hired to watch Kenneth Simon’s wife, Anne Flaherty Simon.

Both men are now being ordered by a judge to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars to Simon’s family, which sued the attorneys after he died in 2005.

Plymouth County Probate & Family Court Judge Stephen C. Steinberg chastised Veara and Nissenbaum for unethical behavior that includes overcharging the 71-year-old’s estate as the retired Harwich Port financial manager lay dying at Pleasant Bay Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Brewster.

“Nissenbaum and Veara wildly spent the ward’s money,” Steinberg wrote in the Jan. 14 decision.

Veara, who has been practicing at his father’s Dennis law firm, Zisson & Veara, for nearly 20 years, called Steinberg’s decision “retaliatory.”

“Anyone who knows me, knows I’m honest, fair, hard-working and, frankly, I didn’t do anything wrong here,” Veara said. “I’ll pursue my right to appeal.”

‘Lawyers lost their way’
The two attorneys “paid themselves approximately $500,000 for a temporary guardianship that lasted 83 days,” Steinberg stated.

An expert witness for the case claimed guardianship lasting that amount of time should cost between $20,000 and $40,000, according to court documents.

Judge Steinberg ordered Veara to repay $107,741.45, and Nissenbaum to repay about $199,000. They were also ordered to repay the $20,000 spent on a private investigator hired to get dirt on Flaherty Simon.

The Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers office has an open investigation of the case, and the two lawyers could be penalized further, said Charles Waters, of Sheehan, Phinney, Bass & Green, of Boston, who represented Simon’s two sons in the case against Veara and Nissenbaum.

“I think this is a sad story for two lawyers who lost their way … instead of following their fiduciary duties, they acted in their own self-interest,” Waters said.

Full Article and Source:
Lawyers Ordered to Repay Thousands

Lawyer Ordered to Refund Excess Legal Fees

A Massachusetts probate judge recently ordered prominent Boston family lawyer Gerald Nissenbaum and another attorney to refund a client’s estate nearly $329,000 in excess legal fees.

Plymouth County Probate and Family Court Judge Stephen Steinberg’s Jan. 14 order gave the attorneys 30 days to make the payments.

The Barnstable County probate case, In re Guardianship of Kenneth E. Simon, ended up on Steinberg’s docket after the Massachusetts Appeals Court recused Judge Robert Scandurra of the Barnstable Probate and Family Court in December 2007. The decision does not address the basis for that recusal.

According to Steinberg’s order, Simon’s guardian, E. James Veara of Dennis, Mass.-based Zisson & Veara, and Nissenbaum sought about $500,000 in attorney and guardian fees for an 83-day guardianship of Simon, which ended with Simon’s death on Nov. 2, 2005.

Steinberg’s order requires Nissenbaum to repay Simon’s estate more than $199,000 and Veara to repay more than $107,000. Together, the two lawyers must also repay the estate more than $21,000 for payments to legal vendors during the guardianship.

“From the very beginning of this case, the tactics undertaken by Nissenbaum and Veara were improper,” wrote Steinberg, who determined that “Nissenbaum and Veara wildly spent the ward’s money.” He noted that Veara, who did not return a call for comment, increased his billing rate to $400 per hour for the case from his average $100 to $300 per hour.

Full Article and Source:
Mass. Judge Orders Two Lawyers to Refund $329K in Excess Fees to Client’s Estate

Johnson and Johnson Accused of Drug Kickbacks

Johnson & Johnson paid kickbacks to the nation’s largest nursing home pharmacy to increase the number of elderly patients taking the antipsychotic Risperdal and several other medications, according to a complaint filed by the office of the United States attorney in Boston.

The payments violated the federal anti-kickback statute and led Omnicare, a pharmacy company specializing in dispensing drugs to nursing home residents, to submit false claims to Medicaid, the complaint charged.

The government’s civil complaint joins a whistle-blower suit against Johnson & Johnson brought by two former employees of Omnicare, which has headquarters in Covington, Ky.

Johnson & Johnson said it was reviewing the complaint and intended to address the government’s lawsuit in court. The complaint charges that Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, N.J., and two of its subsidiaries, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems, paid tens of millions of dollars to induce Omnicare to buy and recommend Risperdal for elderly patients as well as the drug maker’s prescription pain relievers Duragesic and Ultram, and the antibiotic Levaquin.

The complaint charges that Omnicare’s pharmacists engaged in intensive efforts to persuade physicians to prescribe the drugs from 1999 to 2004, a period in which the pharmacy’s annual purchase of Johnson & Johnson medications nearly tripled to more than $280 million, from about $100 million. During the same period, the pharmacy’s annual purchase of Risperdal rose to more than $100 million, according to the complaint filed in United States District Court in Massachusetts.

“Kickbacks in the nursing home pharmacy context are particularly nefarious,” Carmen M. Ortiz, the United States attorney for Massachusetts, said in a statement.

Full Article and Source:
Johnson and Johnson Accused of Drug Kickbacks