The Awakening

Life is strange. And the more I learn about life and what happens here, the stranger it gets.

[In]February, 2010 I read the Scene article – Court Ordered Hell – How an errant judge and a controlling sibling stripped Nashville rocker Danny Tate of his money, his livelihood and his legal rights. Initially, I couldn’t digest it; I had to read it two, three, four times. I’m STILL reading it. It tracks like a bad Mickey Spillane novel. It’s a horribly intriguing story, one that still leaves me gobsmacked; come on! How can that really happen? In the perfect and balanced world I’d held in my mind and heart, it couldn’t. But the ugly truth began to dawn: life is not what I thought it was. This kind if thing does happen, is happening, to people all over the country every single day.

I communicated with Kevin Montgomery, the friend who shared the article with me, and expressed my outrage.

“There’s a movement afoot for Danny. You need to be our boots on the ground in TN,” he told me. I was a bit knocked back on my heels. Who, me?! Kevin told me about the efforts to help this guy. He said he’d made me an admin on the Danny Tate FB group site.

“Okay,” I said. What have I gotten into?

“You and Danny need to meet.”

“Okay.” I was willing to meet; I was intensely curious. The concept of what had happened to this man haunted my thoughts, showed up in my dreams. How does this kind of thing happen? Who in their right mind would sanction any of this? The answer is, of course, that no ‘right mind’ would, but the Probate Courts are not about ‘right minds.’ At all.

Danny and I met the next week. He walked into the office, sat down, and began to share his story with me. I was overwhelmed by the things he was telling me. I interrupted often, asking questions. He was very patient with me, saying “That’s a great question, Cece.” He’d answer every question, and return to his story of what had transpired the past two-plus years. We talked for over two hours.

Through the next weeks and months we met and talked often. The more we met, the more the trust built, the more Danny shared with me.

At one point Danny told me, “I’m not the only one.” He shared the story of a woman who was being kept as a slave. She’d had a fall, went into a coma, was sent to rehab, and when she came out she discovered her car, house and belongings were gone, and she had been conserved. She’s now forced to work as a maid, house mother, cook, bookkeeper, and practical nurse … all while the courts have declared her “disabled.” And all without pay.

The woman’s name is Ginger.

I’ve since met and spent some quality time with Ginger. She and Danny have both become good friends of mine. They are so dear to me; I love them each so deeply, I cannot imagine life without them in it. It’s not a love based on pity; it’s a higher love … it’s a joining of tender hearts, and it brings tears to my eyes. It’s hard to believe that their horrific experiences are what brought us together, but I must. Because – on the surface – that in fact is what drew us. But it is not what will hold us together. Our faith, our values, and the moral imperative before us … these are what bind us. And, in spite of it all, the laughter we share.

I cannot know what I’ve discovered about the abuse of Danny and Ginger and untold others and not have it change the direction I’m going. So I will do what I can, as long as I can, to affect positive experiences and ultimate emancipation in the lives of those who have been wrongly conserved. If I am honest with myself, and I am, there is no other calling at this point. It’s as simple, and as complicated, as that.

Full Article and Source:
The Awakening

Another Curious Nashville Conservatorship

A newly-launched blog, Ginger’s Story, tells of a Nashville woman who after overcoming prolonged and extreme battles with cancer, fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury only to recover and find herself under the control of a court-appointed conservator who now requires Ginger to live in a group home caring for other mental health patients. Though Ginger is reportedly ordered to perform functions comparable to that of other employees, she only receives a $150 per month allowance.

Ginger’s plight is of an involuntary nature and presumably being treated as a lifetime contract.

An interesting twist on this case comes as the court that approved Ginger’s conservatorship is the same Davidson County (TN) probate court – that of Judge Randy Kennedy – which has come under significant scrutiny due to its handling of the Danny Tate conservatorship.

Requests by Ginger and her supporters for a termination of the conservatorship have been largely ignored. If the conservator is charged with protecting her ward’s “best interest,” it’s hard to see how this arrangement benefits Ginger Franklin!

Much more can (and will) be said about this case. Meanwhile, we urge you to take a look at Ginger’s Story.

Full Article and Source:
Ginger’s Story Tells of Another Nashville Curious Conservatorship

See Also:
NashvilleCriminals – Wasn’t Slavery Abolished?

TN: State Can’t Make Suspended Judge Pay Substitutes

When a General Sessions Court judge from East Tennessee was suspended with pay for numerous ethical violations, prosecutors took the position that the judge was essentially getting a paid vacation.

An effort to force Cocke County General Sessions Judge John Bell to pay the salaries of the replacement judges who will have to sit on the bench for him in Newport during his 90-day suspension failed this week because the Tennessee Constitution protects judges from having their salaries reduced during their term.

The section of the constitution that prevents judicial pay cuts also forbids judges from collecting pay raises during their terms or any fees or perks from the office.

The laws were designed to protect judges from politicians, one former judge says.

“It’s a protective type of constitutional provision that keeps the legislature from getting mad at the judges and tinkering with their salaries,” said Jerry Scott, a former Criminal Court of Appeals judge who sat on the Court of the Judiciary. Scott said he remembered one judge who drew his salary while serving time in prison.

Full Article and Source:
State Can’t Make Suspended Judge Pay Substitutes

Danny’s Diary

History will judge my case as barbaric and antiquated, even for its time.

I write this knowing that my former fiduciary has nothing better to do than read this site, so I use this forum to call him, and his partners in crime, out and educate them to certain Constitutional safeguards and rights such as Freedom of Speech. This court loathes our Constitution. It stands squarely in the way of its wayward purpose. Our Constitution trumps any law, be it written by legislators or made up “willy-nilly” in this court, which happens more often than not. And, by the way, I’ve just paraphrased the Judicial Code. Another little document that seems to be easily ignored in this court.

Yes, history will not judge this court kindly. It will judge it with the same measure of unmeasured mercilessness that it judges. And I hope the citizens of Nashville will wake up and give history a helping hand.

Full Article and Source:
FreeDannyTate!!!

See Also:
NashvilleCriminals

Facebook: Justice for Danny Tate

Observations of Danny Tate’s 8/20/10 Hearing

A Friday hearing once again brought the conservatorship of Nashville musician Danny Tate to the docket of Judge Randy Kennedy’s Davidson County probate court. The proceeding addressing Danny Tate’s case was enlightening as ever, but prior to his case being called, observing the interaction of Judge Kennedy and the attorneys before him reaffirmed impressions from previous visits to this and other courts of the disjointed relationship between members of the legal industry and the industry outsiders they theoretically serve.

Despite courts being a taxpayer-funded entity supporting a theoretical pursuit of justice, Friday’s court schedule illustrated how the court system is a workplace seemingly more attuned to the pursuit of income-generating employment endeavors. Within this environment, legal practitioners oversee the creation, advancement or termination of legal cases. Free markets and conditions that support healthy business enterprises are always a desirable goal. The legal industry’s “closed shop” protectionist attitudes along with ever changing, unpredictable interpretations of the law, procedures or rules are why the general public views the legal system with skepticism and those with direct experience may come closer to views bordering on complete contempt.

Judge Kennedy’s Friday sessions evidently provide a legal bureaucracy catch-up opportunity. They additionally appear to serve as a probate payday of sorts as attorneys line up to submit to the court legal fee approval requests for services rendered in estate cases. Administrative ease and casualness of process in executing major actions affecting people’s property and long-term welfare is something to watch and fear. While distinguishing the good guys from the bad isn’t something a court observer can necessarily determine, it’s easy to see that process and/or positioning often appear to outweigh any discussions of right and/or wrong.

Entering the courtroom to a view of lawyers amassed and awaiting time with Judge Kennedy is reminiscent of The Godfather scene in which people lined up for an audience with Don Vito Corleone in hopes the Mafia boss would grant a favor or help fix a problem. A kiss to his ring signaled respect and all involved had a tacit understanding that favors received would ultimately prompt future favors being returned. A significant degree of metaphoric ring-kissing indeed seemed the practice at Friday’s court session.

Full Article and Source:
Danny Tate’s Latest Hearing Provides ‘Inside Courts’ Teachable Moment

See Also:
NashvilleCriminals.info

Danny Tate Hearing

Facebook: Justice for Danny Tate

Danny Tate Hearing

Nashville songwriter Danny Tate lost his case and his temper Friday. After shouting and arguing with a judge, Tate was escorted out of the courthouse by a court officer.

[Tate’s] lawyer said Danny’s brother, David, exaggerated the severity of Danny’s cocaine habit and lied in court so he could be named his brother’s guardian.

“The evidence is clear that these allegations were knowingly false,” Danny Tate’s attorney, Michael Hoskins, told the court.

Kennedy had given David Tate control over Danny’s bank accounts, after David claimed Danny was spending $400 a day on cocaine.

The judge ruled the dollar amount of the habit wasn’t that important; he said David Tate was just trying to save his brother’s life.

He ruled against Danny Tate, and that’s when the shouting started. After raising his voice at the judge, Tate was told to leave the courtroom. He said later he felt frustrated the judge wasn’t listening to him.

Tate said his bank account has dwindled from $700,000 to nearly nothing after his brother spent money on legal fees and experts. He said he’s living in a horse trailer behind his house in Belle Meade. It was flooded in the May storms.

Earlier this year, Tate won his effort to have the guardianship dissolved. Now his attorney is in court trying to get some of his client’s money back.

Full Article, Video, and Source:
Songwriter Shouts at Judge, Escorted From Court

See Also:
NashvilleCriminals website

Memorandum of Law in Support of Respondent’s Motion for Relief From Judgment

Danny Tate Conservatorship, Part Three

A conservatorship (guardianship) can strip a person of their individual liberty and property rights. While Nashville musician Danny Tate admits his struggle with alcohol and drug issues may at a point have merited assistance, never would he – or most anyone else – have dreamed that such “help” would manifest as the near depletion of his $1.5 million estate and a continued assault on any future prosperity. These, however, are the circumstances directly resulting from a 32-month “temporary” conservatorship petition initiated in October 2007 by his brother David Tate, facilitated by attorney Paul T. Housch and sanctioned by Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Randy Kennedy. For this reason, supporters and friends of Danny Tate along with a growing host of interested parties will be watching an Aug. 20 court hearing in which Tate will ask the court to set aside prior orders that will further diminish Tate’s financial position on the basis of “Petitioner David E. Tate’s fraud on the court and misconduct throughout this proceeding.”

An act of God brought the early May flooding that took lives and destroyed the property of many in Nashville. Danny Tate lost his home and remaining possessions in the flood. Hard as that is, his real challenge is overcoming the acts of three men – David Tate, Paul T. Housch and Judge Randy Kennedy – who under the guise of working “in the best interest of a disabled person” appear to have destroyed the fruits of Danny Tate’s past efforts and thwarted his current ability to provide for himself in the manner which well-served him for years. And as legal expenses create mounting debt, the man who once had a solid financial status now has far more limited prospects for future prosperity.

An act of God casts light on the hardships of life, but that’s something with which we all have to deal. The acts of this probate court cast a frightening light on the fragility of freedom and property rights across America, and as this case shows, especially in Nashville, Tennessee. Beware.

Full Article and Source:
Musician Danny Tate’s Conservatorship: A Case of Caring or Corruption? (part three)

Danny Tate Conservatorship, Part Two

Danny Tate’s conservatorship/guardianship initially gained attention in part due to his status as a respected singer/songwriter. Upon a closer look, however, the circumstances of his plight raise interesting questions regarding the legal industry (courts and lawyers) and its potential to use probate venues as a vehicle for hijacking the liberty and property of American citizens. For that reason, a Tennessee probate court will once again come under scrutiny at an Aug. 20 hearing with all eyes focused on those most involved with the musician’s 32-month “temporary” conservatorship: Danny Tate’s former conservator (and brother) David Tate, attorney Paul T. Housch and Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Randy Kennedy.

Danny Tate’s Motion for Relief from Judgment, the motion to be heard at the upcoming hearing, describes David Tate’s methodical use of a POA to overtake his brother’s financial assets. Per the motion, David Tate acknowledged in deposition testimony Danny’s protest and disapproval of his actions. Nonetheless, his efforts continued and even expanded as Danny Tate accessed cash by liquidating securities from a Vanguard investment account as the company declined recognizing the POA being used by David Tate. In his deposition testimony, David Tate said: “Had they been restricted (the investment accounts), I would never have filed for conservatorship.”

The motion notes that all David’s actions were allegedly based upon Danny Tate’s rampant drug use though “David never called the paramedics, and never attempted to take Danny to the hospital or to an emergency room.” It further states “David felt he was at liberty to confiscate, transfer and spend Danny’s money as he saw fit, over Danny’s objections, because, in his words, Danny was a ‘pathetic crack addict.’ Even though, during his deposition, David admitted that Danny was ‘coherent’ in June 2007.” Despite Danny Tate renouncing the POA and asking his brother to find someone else to fill the role, David Tate continued to “exert control and dominion over his assets in spite of Danny’s disapproval.”

Three months passed during which the motion claims that David Tate wrote checks “to himself, his wife and his company, Signet, In., using Danny’s funds.” During this time, through deposition testimony, David Tate indicates he decided to file for conservatorship over Danny yet did not visit his brother in Nashville nor make any attempts to have him evaluated.

A conservatorship is no small matter. It can strip a person of their individual liberty and their property rights.

In the petition, David Tate represented that “for the past six months [Danny] has increased his crack cocaine and alcohol substance abuse, with usage of at least one-half ounce of crack cocaine per day and more on some days, at an average of $500 to $800 per day.” In the motion to soon be heard, Danny Tate responds with documentation of how these allegations, for instance in April 2007 would mean he spent $15,000 – $24,000 that month on drugs when a bank statement for that month shows he only withdrew $5,500 from his account in a comparable timeframe. Similar analysis follows for the subsequent five months. By David Tate’s numbers, Danny Tate was purported to have spent somewhere between $90,000 and $150,000 on drugs yet the documentation provided shows withdrawals of “less than half of the ‘low-end’ dollar figure alleged in the sworn Petition.” And incidentally, David Tate had access to the bank records used for the analysis upon filing his petition.

Indeed, the more one looks at this case, the more questionable it becomes. But the story’s far from over. Next up, the ex parte hearing in which the Judge Randy Kennedy’s Nashville court sanctioned what appears to be an unsubstantiated litany of charges that were used to hijack an American citizen’s personal liberty and property rights.

Full Article and Source:
Musician Danny Tate’s Conservatorship: A Case of Caring or Corruption?(part two)

Danny Tate Conservatorship

The actions of a Tennessee probate court will once again come under scrutiny as an Aug. 20 hearing becomes the next chapter in Nashville musician Danny Tate’s effort to undo the near depletion of his lifelong accumulation of assets and to stop the continued assault on any future prosperity – circumstances directly resulting from a 32-month “temporary” conservatorship (guardianship) initiated by his brother David Tate, facilitated by attorney Paul T. Housch and sanctioned by Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Randy Kennedy.

An awareness campaign moves forward as Tate friend Kevin Montgomery has blogged on Everything you need to know about the Danny Tate case-brilliantly presented by Michael Hoskins., the Friends for Danny Tate’s Defense Facebook group remains active and the Free Danny Tate web site continues providing sardonically witty commentary on case players and developments. With Milwaukee-based investigative consultant Ira Robins’ compelling presentation of case documents and related information on Nashville Criminals, the side of Danny Tate’s case either ignored or previously unaddressed through the Tennessee legal system is at least now available for public consumption. This information should serve as an important warning to an unsuspecting public regarding the full power and potential of probate actions.

The Aug. 20 hearing will largely center on a Danny Tate Motion for Relief from Judgment prepared by his attorney, Michael G. Hoskins, which asks the court to set aside prior orders that will further diminish Tate’s financial position on the basis of “Petitioner David E. Tate’s fraud on the court and misconduct throughout this proceeding.” The motion gives background on a series of visits starting in May 2007 that David Tate paid to his brother Danny who, prior to the conservatorship, lived unassisted in his Nashville home and was completely self-sufficient.

Full Article and Source:
Musician Danny Tate’s Conservatorship: A Case of Caring or Corruption? (Part One)

Editorial: Discipline Against Judge Exposes Flaws

Cocke County General Sessions Judge John Bell took his third disciplinary strike in June and was sent to the showers, but his bank account won’t suffer.

A judicial ethics panel last month suspended Bell for 90 days with pay – essentially a three-month paid vacation – after his third violation.

The decision makes one wonder what it would take to actually remove a sitting judge, and a revelation during the proceeding that a previous action against Bell has been shielded from the public view exposed a flaw in the process.

Bell was convicted in June for mishandling a relatively simple lawsuit. The Court of the Judiciary could have removed him, but instead opted to keep him off the bench for 90 days.

Once the decision was made to suspend him, the panel could not keep Bell from receiving his salary during the hiatus. The state constitution doesn’t allow the panel to take a judge’s pay.

Taxpayers also will have to pay the salary for a special judge who will have to hear Bell’s cases during the suspension.

Full Editorial and Source:
Discipline Against Judge Exposes Flaws