Efforts intensify in Michigan to protect elderly, vulnerable adults

Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith

Elder and vulnerable adult abuse in recent years was like child abuse in the 1960s, says Macomb County elder advocate Marty Prehn.
 

It wasn’t talked about. It was kept in the family.

  

But that is changing, as elder advocates in Michigan have instituted a slew of laws and initiated programs to create awareness and protect elderly and vulnerable adults, over the past year.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Rhonda Powell, former director of the Macomb County Senior Citizen Services Department and now deputy director of the state Office of Services on Aging. “There hasn’t been this big of a movement to protect elders in a long time. Unfortunately we’ve arrived at a point in time where these safeguards are needed.”

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Efforts intensify in Michigan to protect elderly, vulnerable adults

Disciplinary hearing begins for Wayne County Judge Bruce Morrow

(WXYZ) – Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Morrow is known by some inside his courtroom as “Cut ‘em loose Bruce,” a nickname started by those who think he’s too easy on accused criminals.

Now, it’s Morrow asking for leniency at his hearings before the Judicial Tenure Commission begin.

Today’s first witness was retired Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey Caminsky, who said Morrow “seemed to have some personal animus towards me.”

Caminsky said Judge Morrow improperly closed the courtroom in the high-profile murder case of Jean Pierre Orlewicz, after he’d been convicted of killing 26-year-old Daniel Sorenson.

When a hearing was held to ask for a new trial, Judge Morrow barred Channel 7 from attending.  But then he went further. Even though the defendant didn’t ask for it, Morrow closed the courtroom to the public, and the victim’s family.

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Disciplinary hearing begins for Wayne County Judge Bruce Morrow

Elmer Cerano: Guardianship bills must be changed

“Death panels,” but this time a panel of one, again rears its ugly head supported by those who cautioned against it in the past.

Several bills are pending in the Michigan Legislature that, if passed, will expand the role and the authority of Michigan guardianship laws. The bills, as written, will allow guardians to invoke a “do not resuscitate” order for a certain group of individuals with disabilities who can not communicate their wishes. This is a very dangerous first step that will allow individual and corporate guardians the authority to prohibit resuscitation of people with disabilities. Here are the problems:

1. Some guardians, primarily court-appointed public guardians, have no prior knowledge of the individual or any type of substantial relationship with the incapacitated person. We do not believe that such a person should be allowed to make decisions of this magnitude on behalf of someone they hardly know.

2. These bills, as written, do not take into account the physical health status of the patient. As result, a perfectly healthy individual could be stripped of a long life due to the decision-making of a person who very well might be a stranger.

3. It allows guardians who may be inconvenienced by — or who may financially benefit from the patient’s death — to decide whether or not to resuscitate.

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Elmer Cerano: Guardianship bills must be changed

Family: Lawyer Stole Money Left by Dying Father for Kids

Derek Tate had expected money from a $500,000 life insurance policy would help with things like college and weddings for his children after he died of cancer in 2007.

Instead, much of the money was drained by a Macomb County attorney from the trust fund set up to financially help Tate’s sons, authorities said.

Buschmohle, 40, was charged in February, accused of writing checks to himself over a four-year period from the trust fund. The boys’ mother complained to the Attorney Grievance Commission, which contacted Warren police, after Buschmohle failed to return her calls as the boys reached the fund distribution age of 19, authorities have said.

Stephen Tate said he believes the money went to Buschmohle’s family and friends.

Buschmohle was expected to plead no contest [5/29/13] to embezzlement of $100,000 or more, a 20-year felony, in Macomb County Circuit Court, but the plea did not go off.

Assistant Prosecutor Sian Hengeveld said there was some misunderstanding with the terms and conditions of the sentence the judge was going to give. She said the sentencing agreement was for one year in the county jail and $315,000 in restitution, with 10% due at or before sentencing.

She said the prosecution and defense agreed on the $315,000 figure but there was a separate agreement between the judge and the defense on the jail time. Hengeveld said the Prosecutor’s Office is not offering anything, including a plea offer, and “we are not in agreement with the sentence.”

Buschmohle was disbarred effective May 22 and ordered to pay more than $462,000 in restitution, according to a notice Friday of disbarment and restitution posted on the state Attorney Discipline Board’s website. He had a notice of reprimand and restitution from the board in 2009.

The notices did not detail specifics of the complaints.

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Family:  Lawyer Stole Money Left by Dying Father for Kids

The Case of Former Michigan Judge Sylvia James

Source: 
Former Inkster Judge Sylvia James Can Sue State, Local Officials

See Also:
Hearing for Inkster Judge Accused of Taking $130K

Supreme Court Removes 22nd District Judge Sylvia James

Former Inkster Judge Sylvia James Ordered to Pay $16,500 to Judicial Tenure Commission

SEC Sanctions MI Broker for Bilking Elderly Investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission has imposed a fine and a cease-and-desist order against Lewis J. Hunter for defrauding elderly clients of over $300,000.

In September 2010 and February 2011, the SEC found that Hunter recommended to two long-time elderly clients that they make a $250,000 investment in a Canadian bank. Hunter repeatedly assured the clients that the investment was guaranteed and provided the clients with Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs) from the bank. The GICs were purportedly issued by HSBC Bank Canada and guaranteed 15% monthly interest payments for two years.

However, Hunter fabricated the GICs and used the clients’ money to pay various personal and business expenses, the SEC says. In addition, Hunter used the clients’ own funds to make the 15% interest payments the clients expected to receive from the investment. Hunter also used the clients’ own funds to repay a personal loan the clients had made to Hunter.

In a separate instance, Hunter persuaded a third long-time elderly client to make a $54,000 investment in U.S. Bank, the SEC found. Hunter guaranteed the client that he would not lose any money. However, Hunter never invested the money and instead used the funds to repay the personal loan he had taken with the first clients and for other personal and business expenses.

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SEC Sanctions MI Broker for Bilking Elerly Investors

Michigan Scheduling Statewide Elder Abuse Summit in June

FLINT, MI — Genesee County will host a statewide summit exploring elder abuse — a problem that officials say is only expected to get worse.

Catherine A. Emerson, from the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, said Genesee County was selected to host the summit in part because of the success of an elder abuse task force headed by Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell.

Pickell said his program, which is funded through a county millage, has obtained more than 400 felony warrants, including about two dozen so far this year.

The sheriff added that his elder abuse program has the time and manpower to handle incidents that local police agencies may not have the time or specialized skills needed to properly investigate.

Emerson said the issue of elder abuse is a growing problem, particularly as a large number of Baby Boomers age.

“There’s a perfect storm out there,” said Emerson, noting the aging population and continued financial hardships felt by many in the state.

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Genesee County to Host Statewide Elder Abuse Summit in June

"Judicial Deceit: Tyranny and Unnecessary Secrecy at the Michigan Supreme Court"

Details of the infamous feud between Republican-nominated Michigan Supreme Court justices and flamboyant Democratic attorney Geoffrey Fieger is one of many allegations of judicial misconduct in a book by former Justice Elizabeth Weaver due out later this month.

 

In the wide-ranging, 750-page account of the high court’s inner workings, Weaver accuses former Chief Justice Clifford Taylor of offering to change his ruling on a Fieger matter if she would withdraw a public dissent accusing Taylor and three other justices of being biased and prejudiced toward Fieger.

 

Fieger asked the court in August 2006 to halt its reprimand against him for disparaging three appeals court judges in a malpractice lawsuit against Beaumont Hospital.

 

According to Weaver’s book, Taylor, in a memo to fellow justices, offered to change his vote against granting Fieger a stay if Weaver would withdraw a dissenting opinion that the so-called “Engler Four” — Taylor and justices Stephen Markman, Robert Young Jr. and Maura Corrigan — had a bias against Fieger, a political enemy who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to defeat them at the ballot box.

 

“These were deals, and I wouldn’t make the deals,” Weaver writes in the forthcoming book. “The majority of four simply were not liking that I wouldn’t be bullied. I was going to stand up, even alone.”

 

Weaver and co-author David Schock claim in “Judicial Deceit: Tyranny and Unnecessary Secrecy at the Michigan Supreme Court,” there were countless instances of unethical behavior among justices during her 16-year career on the high court.

 

“You can’t be bargaining like the Legislature, horse-trading on a case,” Weaver said in an interview with The Detroit News.

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Former Justice Alleges Supreme Court Misconduct in Forthcoming Book

Michigan Supreme Court Disciplines District Court Judge

The Michigan Supreme Court concurred with the State Judicial Tenure Commission and ordered a 30-day suspension without pay, along with a public censure, for Hudsonville District Court Judge Kenneth Post. The discipline stems from a December, 2011 hearing in which Post jailed an attorney on contempt charges for advising a client to plead the Fifth in answering questions from the bench about drug use.

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Supreme Court Disciplines District Court Judge

Murder Trial Postponed: Defense Attorney Faces Suspension

Accused child murderer Anthony Michael Bennett’s trial in federal court has been postponed, originally to give his attorney more time to prepare.

Now, defense attorney Anthony T. Chambers is facing suspension. Effective Monday, Chambers, who practices law in Detroit and has been licensed since 1985, is suspended for six months by the State of Michigan Attorney Discipline Board for misappropriating client fees, illegal use of client accounts, failure to keep clients informed and failure to respond to a grievance.
  
Chambers was also under investigation by the discipline board for allegedly not paying withholding taxes on wages he paid employees between November 2010 and November 2011 Formal complaints were filed against Chambers on July 26.

Roughly two months after being informed that he was to appear at a hearing, Chambers got an attorney, who requested Sept. 18 to postpone the hearing to give her time to prepare, according to documents obtained from the discipline board.

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Carnel Murder Trial Postponed