Remembering a Thanksgiving in Exile

One of the unspoken areas of guardian abuse is in the emotional toll it takes when vicious, self-anointed despots determine that they will not let their already scared “clients” see their families for important holidays or events. This is what happened in the case of Dorothy Wilson, for what would have been her final Thanksgiving on earth. As many of you who have been following the “heartbreaking” series of articles about elder abuse, this is a reminder to all of us of the emotional toll it can take. It drains not only the person who is being remanded and caught up in an unjust justice system, but also extended out to their loving family members and friends too.

Dorothy Wilson, who was 86 years old that November 2010, was pleading with anyone who would listen to help convince Mary Giordano, of Franchina and Giordano, in Garden City, NY, to release her from her unwanted stay at the Bristal Assisted Living Facility in Massapequa, NY. I felt it was the right time to write this article because as Thanksgiving approaches I have clear memories of Dorothy’s tears streaming down her cheeks as she could not understand why she was being locked up in a place against her wishes. She made it very clear that she wanted to be back in her own home or living with her favored daughter, Diane, in her warm, beautiful and safe abode. Instead, her “law” guardian, Mary Giordano, appointed by Judge Joel Asarch of the Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola, NY, vehemently opposed releasing Dorothy for even a few hours on Thanksgiving itself. Knowing that there was a lot of family tension, Mary “allowed” the family to come to the facility if they wanted. Obviously, this was not practical since this is a day of joy and gatherings, memories and memory-making times as most families cook and celebrate in their personal environment.

Full Article and Source:
Remembering a Thanksgiving in Exile

See Also:
Dorothy Wilson, NY Victim

Thanksgiving 2010

“I just want to go home…. It’s all I want…”

“You’ve got to do something to help me….”

Source:
YouTube: Thanksgiving 2010

Note: Dorothy Wilson died suddenly October 24, 2011. Until her final day, she begged and pleaded to go home, but she didn’t make it…

Veterans in Peril

Our current Veterans and heroes of past wars often fall victim to unlawful and abusive guardianship / conservatorship, either as a result of disability or advanced age. The numbers continue to grow.

The pirates target our young disabled Veterans – lured by their veteran’s benefits, disability pensions, and now even their Social Security benefits. Our aging Veterans are even more tempting – perhaps they have well-managed, nice sized estates to go with their pensions.

Denied the very rights and liberties they fought for; confined in nursing homes; left to languish; receiving perhaps just a pittance for their personal use from their guardians – after years of service and sacrifice to our country, is this what our Veterans have to look forward to?

Supporting the troops and our fallen heroes should mean supporting them not only when we need them – but also when they need us. And they need us fighting for them when they become vulnerable.

Source: NASGA: Veterans in Peril

Santa Clara County Public Guardian Under Fire for Isolating Elderly

Source:
Santa Clara County Public Guardian Under Fire for Isolating Elderly

See Also:
ABC News I-Team Investigates Santa Clara Public Guardian

Gisela Riordan: "I pray every night for God to take me.."

Gisela was an active vibrant woman, adored by her allergy patients at Kaiser Permanente. Known as the most gentle allergy technician, patients insisted Gisela be the one to administer their treatments.

Gisela was deeply in love with Eraldo, her companion of seventeen years. They traveled the world together until his death in 2007. Gisela moved back into her San Jose home where she raised her two children. Gisela’s son completely updated the home, and the two shared the home comfortably for several years.

Gisela’s idyllic life became a nightmare in 2010. While at Kaiser Hospital recuperating from an injury, Adult Protective Services (APS) took control of Gisela’s life. The Santa Clara County Public Guardian (PG) was appointed conservator on April 4, 2010.

The PG imprisoned and isolated Gisela at Villa Fontana, a San Jose residential care facility that turns a blind eye to elder abuse and neglect. For over two years, Gisela has been denied nearly all contact with the outside world. The PG and Villa Fontana denied Gisela some of her most basic personal rights and dignity.

Sobbing about missing her children, Gisela told an unauthorized visitor in April 2012, “I pray every night for God to take me”. Gisela’s world is dark, silent, and very lonely.

Source:
NASGA: Gisela Riordan, California Victim

T.S. Radio: Guest Illinois Attorney Ken Ditkowsky

T.S. Radio was very pleased to have Illinois Attorney Ken Ditkowsky join host Marti Oakley and Co-Host, Linda Kincaid, to discuss the ignoring of the law and statutes in elder abuse cases.

During the disussion, Attorney Ditkowsky defines “due process” in layman’s terms and explains the part due process plays (or doesn’t!) in unlawful and abusive guardianships and conservatorships.

Mr. Ditkowsky uses the Mary G. Sykes case to illustrate some of the horrific problems with guardianship in Illinois.

LISTEN to the archive of the show

See Also:
“Law 101 and Then Some!”

Attorney Ken Ditkowsky: The Need for an Honest, Comprehensive and Complete Investigation

NAGSA:  Mary G. Sykes, Illinois Victim

Attorney Ken Ditkowsky: The Need for an Honest, Complete, and Comprehensive Investigation

When the Courts’ function properly, the rights of senior citizens are protected; however, there are too many cases – such as Sykes, Gore, Tyler, Wyman et al in Illinois – in which the exploitation of the elderly is obvious and no one is interested in even investigatinig the outrageous conduct that is the hallmark of the protest. How can an abusive estranged husband be appointed as a guardian of his wife (Wyman)? How can a mentally ill grandchild – herself lacking competency – be appointed as a guardian (Gore)? How can a daughter who the alleged incompetent is seeking an order of protection be appointed plenary guardian (Sykes)? How can a common threat of large sums of money not being part of the inventory be ignored? 

In Illinois, we have a comprehensive legislative procedure to protect the elderly from miscreants using the courts to separate a senior from his/her liberty, property, civil rights and human rights. As illustrated by Sykes the entire procedure was and three years later is ignored. Indeed, it is unethical (according the ARDC) to complain. [This letter may generate another ARDC complaint against me even though it is clearly protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.]

What we ‘seniors’ need is for an honest, complete, and comprehensive investigation of this guardianship situation; and if it is determined that guardianship is a ruse to under color of statute for miscreants to deprive seniors of their liberty, their property, civil rights and human rights as I am many others have charged, the miscreants should suffer the full weight of the law.

~Ken Ditkowsky, Ditkowsky Law Office

See Also:
YouTube: Ken Ditkowsky’s Appearance on NorthShore Live: Cooper’s Corner

MarySykes.wordpress

NASGA: Mary Sykes, Illinois Victim

T.S. Radio: The Kidnapping of Dorothy Wilson

Listen to internet radio with Marti Oakley on Blog Talk Radio

On Sunday, September 23, 2012 we were privileged to have Diane Wilson, daughter of Dorothy Wilson as a guest on TS Radio. The discussion centered around the kidnapping, imprisonment and isolation of Dorothy Wilson. While isolated and moved from one home to another, her home was mortgaged, her personal possessions sold or given away.

At one point, Bristal Assisted Living facility charged Dorothy’s estate $53,000 for one month’s stay.

Her home was used to receive a reverse mortgage for $275,000. This, along with $2300 a month in income all disappeared with no acounting by the guardian. Two years after Dorothys’ initial kidnapping, the guardian had burned through $350,000 of the estate.

On October 23, 2011 after two years of abuse, neglect and isolation, Dorothy Wilson died of loneliness and despair. This woman who had lived a good life and had planned her retirement, had an ample income and valuable assets, was left penniless by the guardian. At this point the guardian petitioned the court to allow her to resign as Dorothy’s guardian. Dorothy died just one week before she might have been reunited with her daughter, Diane.

Source:
The Truth Squad: The Kidnapping of Dorothy Wilson

See Also:
NASGA:  Dorothy Wilson, NY Victim

Source: YouTube: Judicial Destruction of Dorothy Wilson

Source: YouTube: In Remembrance of Dorothy Wilson, Guardianship Victim

State bar association hears horror stories about problems with Tennessee’s conservatorship law

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Members of the Tennessee Bar Association heard an earful on Thursday from Tennesseans upset over the state law that they say allows unscrupulous people to take advantage of vulnerable adults.

The conservatorship law is meant to protect adults with diminished capacity because of age, disability, mental health issues or addiction. It allows a judge to appoint someone as a guardian to oversee their affairs. But the system does not always work as intended.

At the Thursday hearing in Nashville, Jewell Tinnon, who is 82 years old, said two grandsons took over her affairs through a conservatorship, selling her car and her house and everything in it. She eventually was able to get out of the conservatorship, but only after she had lost everything.

Tinnon begged the panel of attorneys listening to her testimony for help in finding somewhere to live.
“Next month, I’ll be outdoors,” she said. “I ain’t got nowhere to live.”

Songwriter Danny Tate told the panel he was placed in a conservatorship in 2007 by his brother, who felt he was a drug addict.

“They had no medical evidence, no police reports, no calls to 911, no complaints from neighbors,” he said.

Tate said he was a millionaire before the conservatorship began, with all his bills paid and near-perfect credit. Now he is in bankruptcy and the house where his children were born and raised was sold at auction.

Under a conservatorship, he said, “you cannot vote, marry or enter into a contract. Your signature is not valid.

“A death row inmate has more rights than a conserved ward of the state.”

Another speaker, Ginger Franklin, said a conservator was appointed for her in 2008 after she suffered a traumatic brain injury from a fall.

Although she recovered, the conservatorship process already was under way.

“I lost my home, my car, my job, the majority of my possessions; my credit was trashed — all because I fell down the stairs at my home. If it happened to me it could happen to you or anyone.”
Loretta Threatt and Jeanette Bryant told the panel one of their sisters had taken control of their 88-year-old father’s estate and placed him in various nursing homes and assisted living facilities. They said they are only allowed brief, supervised visits with him and that his pastor is not allowed any visits.

“It’s been done unfair and inhumane, and I feel like it’s unconstitutional,” Bryant said.

National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse President Elaine Renoir said problems with guardian and conservator systems are nationwide. Some people really do need a guardian, she said, but there are not enough protections for those that do not.

She said Tennessee needs better due-process protections that would allow someone who is being considered for a conservatorship to fight it. That includes allowing them to use their money to hire an attorney and letting a jury hear their case if they request it.

Full Article and Source:
State bar association hears horror stories about problems with Tennessee’s conservatorship law

"Another Victim of Franchina and Giordano, PC"

It seems that my Mom, Dorothy Wilson, was not the only one kidnapped by Mary Giordano, of the law firm of Franchina and Giordano in Garden City, NY!! AND Judge Joel Asarch was the judge in this case as well, along with Anne Recht as the geriatric “care” manager! How many other victims are out there?

This is what I was told by Kevin, Richard Maas’s grandson:

Kevin told me that he was living with his grandfather in his grandfather’s house, but once Mary Giordano took over as guardian, he was forced to move out. He told me his grandfather made sure that he would always have enough money to live in his own home for the rest of his life and NOT in a nursing home. Once Mary and Anne got involved, an aide was placed in there 24/7. One day, Kevin called his grandfather and the aide answered the phone. He told the aide he was coming over to visit his grandfather and received SHOCKING NEWS. She told him that Mary Giordano was at the house moving his grandfather into a nursing home!! Mary Giordano NEVER notified any family member that she was doing this.

Full Article and Source:
Judicial Destruction of Dorothy Wilson: Breaking News: Another Victim of Franchina and Giordano, PC

See Also:

Save Dorothy Wilson, Legally Kidnapped

NASGA: Dorothy Wilson, New York Victim