“Mama B” Bashinsky Guardianship Abuse Case Goes Back To Alabama Supreme Court
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., March 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, legal counsel for the estate of the late Joann “Mama B” Bashinsky, the beloved Alabama philanthropist, announced several developments in the case of the permanent guardianship petition that haunted her for the last 18 months of her life before she passed away on January 3, 2021.
On Friday, Bashinsky’s counsel filed an appeal with the Alabama Supreme Court on one motion challenging an order issued by Judge A. Lee Tucker to pay a guardian ad litem fees for his own attorney on a prior matter. Following their appeal, Judge Tucker hastily ruled on numerous motions that have been delayed for weeks. Most notably, Tucker made a highly unusual ruling to deny the motion to dismiss the case in light of Mrs. Bashinsky’s death, further highlighting the numerous conflicts of interest among those involved in the case, including the judges and petitioners. The family is now forced to have to go to the Alabama Supreme Court once again because Judge Tucker won’t let the case die.
“These new decisions by Judge A. Lee Tucker are extremely disheartening, and confirm the corruption within the Jefferson County guardianship system at the hands of temporary conservator Greg Hawley and guardian ad litem Ken Guin, as directed first by Judge Alan King and now by Judge Tucker,” said attorney Susan Walker. “In my opinion, his latest rulings show that this court is failing to provide justice and fairness, as the Judge continues a case that has tormented the friends and family of Mama B, who suffered great distress for the last months of her life because of the permanent petition for guardianship and for conservatorship that threatened her finances and independence.”
The case has taken many unseemly twists and turns from the first day Mrs. Bashinsky’s fomer employees, John McKleroy and Patty Townsend, filed a petition to place her under a guardianship the very day she appropriately terminated them. On July 2, 2020, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an opinion declaring the emergency petition failed to establish an emergency and holding Mrs. Bashinsky was denied her constitutional due process rights. Since her death, the burden of exorbitant and unnecessary expenses on her family has endured as they navigate a case that would have typically died with the subject.
“Since the Alabama Supreme Court last saw this case, in my opinion it’s clear that petitioners McKleroy and Townsend along with former temporary conservator Hawley and guardian ad litem Guin are not acting in the best interests of Mrs. Bashinksy, but in their own financial interests, especially considering that they continue to pursue the assets of an elderly widow no longer alive to defend herself,” said attorney Walker. “There is no plausible explanation in my opinion as to why Judge Tucker would drag out the case of a deceased woman other than that it’s in the best interests of his friends in a system ripe with corruption and financial exploitation.”
PRNewswire
LOSTMESSIAH 
I’ve shared a lot of your stuff on Gothamist and a rather liberal site called Raw Story. I think some of the issues are that most people can’t or won’t read anything longer than a couple of simple paragraphs, the subject material is either complex or unpleasant or marginal (like Israeli diamond smugglers). This blog is just way too specialized.
On a local level it’s a sad fact that we have been reduced to LoHud, Patch, Clarkstown What They Don’t Want You To know and whatever those local papers are they give away at the supermarket. Of course this is true everywhere. If you know of any other good local blogs I’m all ears.
Maybe we might now have a more receptive Congress.
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Maybe….
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You postings on the nursing home industry are some of the most horrific pieces I have ever read.
Yet the main stream media flits from dirty flirty Andrew to Tiger Woods to Dr Seuss to some rich royals that have the sads.
You deserve a bigger forum.
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Thanks. Yeah… I could use one. Not a lot of Twitter followers either. In fact today I received a Gmail to Shmarya which made me chuckle. Anything you can do to share would be appreciated. I have a letter I am now getting edited which is being sent to members of Congress. It is about time that this problem change. Someone in the industry recently told me that my references to “moral bankruptcy” are incorrect because it presupposes morality was a part of the equation initially. He said it is completely devoid of morality. That was the most substantive comment – kind of disturbing.
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