Court Upends 9-Year Fight on Housing Mentally Ill

A federal appeals court, ruling on procedural grounds, struck down on Friday a judge’s order that New York State transfer thousands of mentally ill adults in New York City from institutional group homes into their own homes and apartments. In doing so, the court brought a nine-year legal battle to an abrupt end without resolving the underlying issues of how the state cares for such patients.

Though the lower court judge had ruled the current system violated federal law by warehousing people with mental illness in far more restrictive conditions than necessary, the appellate panel said the nonprofit organization that began the litigation, Disability Advocates, did not have legal standing to sue.

The panel, comprising three judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, acknowledged that its decision essentially reset the long-running battle to its starting point.

“We are not unsympathetic to the concern that our disposition will delay the resolution of this controversy and impose substantial burdens and transaction costs on the parties, their counsel and the courts,” the opinion said.

Cliff Zucker, the executive director of Disability Advocates, who less than two years ago was celebrating the lower court’s order for immediate changes to the system, said he would now seek to reach a settlement with state officials. “We are hopeful that this administration has recognized that this is a problem that needs to be solved and we’ll be able to solve it without recommencing litigation,” he said.

Barring such a deal, it is also possible that the Justice Department, which intervened late in the case on behalf of the plaintiffs, could file a new lawsuit, Mr. Zucker said.

Disability Advocates brought the lawsuit in 2003 after a series of articles in The New York Times described a system in which residents were poorly monitored and barely cared for, left to swelter in the summer and sometimes subjected to needless medical treatment and operations for Medicaid reimbursement.

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Court Upends 9-Year Fight on Housing Mentally Ill

Dr. Richard Fine from 2010 and 2011

Full Disclosure Network presents a four-minute preview of hour long interview recorded in the L A County Central Men’s jail with political prisoner Richard I Fine who has never been charged or conviced of a crime but has been held in solitary, “Coercive Confinement” for over a year. Dr. Fine holds a PhD in International Law and was an anti-trust attorney with the DOJ in Washington D.C. before he was ordered to jail in civil contempt of court. Listen to him describe the corruption in L A County and the Justice System is a threat to our American Democratic process and to the nation. Then he reveals his simple solution to ridding the corruption from our government.

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YouTube: California Justice System on Brink of Collapse

Void Court Orders and judgments result when a Judge does not have jurisdiction to be able to enter the order. In Judge Yaffe’s case it was to due to taking $850,000 in payments from the County of Los Angeles, a party to the case. Under CCP Section 473 (d) a motion can be brought at any time to set aside the void judgment or order. So far four other Judges have been disqualified from sitting on Fine’s Motion to Null and Void Judge Yaffe’s Orders. They are Ann Jones, Robert O’Brien, Elihu Berle, and Carolyn B. Kuhl.

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Why Disqualified Judges Orders are Null and Void

Former Jasper County MO Administrator Rita Hunter Indicted for Fraud Scheme!

A former Jasper County Administrator is being indicted on a 200,000 fraud scheme.

A federal grand jury in Springfield accuses 59-year-old Rita Hunter of illegally obtaining federal medicaid and social security benefits and using them to subsidize the administration of her office.

The indictment includes two counts of health care fraud, two counts theft of public money, two counts social security and medicaid fraud, and four counts of document fraud.

The indictment alleges that hunter directed her employees to submit false medicaid applications for mentally disabled wards of the state.

According to the indictment, the applications said the individuals had assets below the $1,000 threshold, which is false.

Medicaid and social security benefits were allegedly then funnelled through the public administrators office.

Approximately $121,000 of the $200,000 200 was said to be used for administration fees, attorney fees, tax fees and court fees not related to the ward’s medical care.

Hunter was the Jasper County Public Administrator from 2005 to 2008.

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Former Jasper County MO Administrator Indicted

Home Care Provider to Pay $150 Mil in Fraud Settlement

A national home health care provider has agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations that it fraudulently billed Medicaid and other government programs for services that weren’t provided.

The agreement comes in a deal between Maxim Healthcare Services and the federal government in addition to more than 40 states.

Government officials had alleged that Maxim — which provides home health services to people with disabilities and other health needs — ran a “nationwide scheme” to bilk federal benefits programs out of over $61 million between 2003 and 2009.

The wrongdoing was first uncovered by Richard West, a New Jersey resident who noticed that Maxim had billed Medicaid for services he never received.

“This type of fraud uses patients as pawns in a game of corporate greed that puts cash over care, running up the bills on the very people our public health care programs are supposed to benefit,” said Tony West, assistant attorney general of the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

“We take full responsibility for these events… and we are pleased to reach a settlement that will allow us to move forward with the important work of caring for our patients and clients who depend on us each and every day,” Maxim CEO Brad Bennett said in a statement.

In addition to the payments Maxim has agreed to make — which will be divided between the federal government and states — nine individuals including eight former Maxim employees have already pleaded guilty to felony charges related to the fraud allegations.

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Home Care Provider to Pay $150 Million in Fraud Settlement

>Family Trying to Get DoJ Investigation

>The Britt family of Buffalo, NY is fighting to rectify the atrocities perpetrated against their elderly aunt, Lula Baity. Eighty-six year old Lula Baity, a then resident of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Complex, went to the rental office on September 30, 2003 to inquire about her current month’s rent payment. The money order had been returned to Ms. Baity, because the amount was deemed insufficient.

One hundred dollars and eighty-eight cents ($100.88) was remitted, as opposed to the one hundred eighty-eight dollars ($188.00), that would have served as the rental fee due for the month of September. Ms. Baity explained to the property manager that apparently, the corner store had made an error while issuing the money order. To assist Ms. Baity in resolving the discrepancy, the property manager directed her subordinate, a Housing Authority case management worker, to contact Ms. Baity’s family and Family Services (a non-official agency, community based center, located within the housing complex).

The Housing Authority’s case management worker did not assist Ms. Baity as instructed. Instead, she contacted Erie County Crisis Services, a community mental health outreach agency, with allegations that Lula Baity was not paying rent, was increasingly confused and disoriented, was unable to care for herself, and other false claims. The BMHA rental office was not an authorized reporting agency, approved by the Office of Mental Health. As the Housing Authority’s case management worker, this employee’s responsibilities fell within the scope of administrative and operational tasks, usually involving inspections and maintenance issues. It was not within her jurisdiction to request a mental evaluation of Ms. Baity. It has been confirmed however, that she identified herself, not as the Housing Authority’s case management worker, but as Ms. Baity’s “social worker.” After her call and without verification of her credentials, actions were taken effecting the involuntary removal of Ms. Baity from the home she’d lived in for over forty years.

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Kidnapping and Confinement of Elderly African-American Woman Prompts Family’s Request For Investigation By U.S. Dept of Justice