Elder Abuse
Abuse of the Elderly – Mama B and Guardianship – a Case in Alabama
“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
Guardianship in Massachusetts “Medical Kidnapping” – an Attorney’s Accounts and her Subsequent Suspension
Note to Reader: Lisa Siegel Belanger, the attorney who should be honored for her courage has been suspended for two (2) years. Why? She and her sister wanted to get her father out of the Massachusettes Guardianship system. On the bright side, they did not have the same leverage, a Bar license, to use against her sister. Please read the story. Please also note that Netflix removed her story. That said, “I CARE A LOT” tells the same story.
The real perpetrators of elder abuse & exploitation: Medical kidnapping by state public officials
by Lisa Siegel Belanger, Esq.
Health Impact News
More than 30 years ago, throughout the United States, state governments created agencies known as “elder protective services.”
As seen by such designated titles, these agencies are made to appear as though state governments are helpful resources for citizens.
However, nothing could be further from the truth.
These so-called protective agencies are, in fact, wolves in sheep’s clothing that I can attest to from not only my direct personal experiences, but also from years of research.
Details of my family’s ongoing travesty of justice can be found at FreeMarvin.com. (See also: Massachusetts Senior Citizen and Attorney Medically Kidnapped – Estate Plundered – Represents National Epidemic.)
Upon years of my reviewing and obtaining voluminous court documentation throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—particularly, in my professional experience as an attorney, there is no doubt, whatsoever, that public officials have been operating a racketeering enterprise through the probate and family courts, feeding off our most vulnerable citizens, the elderly.
These public officials do so through physical and financial exploitation of the elderly. [1]
In 2015, I filed a federal civil action in the District Court of Massachusetts providing overwhelming and irrefutable documentation that state elder protective agencies is one cog of many in a long-embedded governmental money laundering and embezzlement enterprise.
“Adult/elder protective services” is a money-making industry, which should set off nonstop warning bells to the public—especially, given the revelation of the magnitude of absolute corruption by government officials with hard cold supporting indisputable facts to the credit of our 45th President Donald J. Trump. (Editor’s note – See: National Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in Charges Against Over 412 Individuals Responsible for $1.3 Billion in Fraud Losses – Largest Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action in Department of Justice History.)
As laid out in my 2015 federal racketeering complaint, illicit monies are funneled through kickbacks arising from prescribed medications (especially antipsychotics) and fraudulent billings for Medicare & Medicaid services.
The indisputable fact is that these state “protective” agencies have a financial incentive to unlawfully initiate court proceedings in the Probate & Family Courts to have our family members judicially declared wards of the state.
For example, Medicaid services are reimbursable for “all of the activities involved in an APS (Adult protective services) investigations of allegations of abuse.” [2]
The Medicaid program process is called Administrative Claiming. For “non-providers,” funds for APS investigations are provided by Title XIX Medicaid Administration.
UNDER SEC. 2042. [42 U.S.C. 1397m-1], Social Security also provides funds specific to investigating reported elder abuse via the Department of Health & Human Services. In 2011, $3 million dollars from Social Security was funded for “investigative” services, and $4 million each year from 2012-2014.
As evidenced,
medical providers and nonmedical entities receive kickbacks for the mere reporting of elder abuse.
Add to that, medical providers have even more of a financial incentive to facilitate reports of elder abuse where they have a subsequent and additional steady stream of income to be made through providing medical services.
The way to keep that continuous flow of income, people are involuntarily forced into the Probate & Family Courts by state “protective” agencies where they ensue formal court proceedings to declare people “wards of the state” upon which they are then routinely admitted into rehabilitation and/or nursing home facilities against their will.
This is all facilitated by elders being judicially determined to be “incapacitated.”
As shown, the medical community works hand-in-hand with judges and attorneys of the Probate & Family courts to literally abduct our family members by design for pure greed.
These public officials use these court proceedings to do so by claimed “mental health” issues and/or physical illness. Through the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) own published reports, state agencies guised as “protective services” have an established pattern of profiting from dismantling the family unit for more than 30 years nationwide.
Once elders are officially deemed “wards of the state” by Probate & Family Court judges, due to state protective agencies use to hook their claws into our family members, the governmental reign of terror is embedded through these judges appointing guardians and conservators to take absolute control over “the ward.”
At that point, the elder is then stripped of all individual freedoms, including personal decisions involving medical, financial or otherwise.
There is an irrefutable and well-documented pattern of court appointed guardians isolating the ward from family and friends, so as to facilitate involuntary drugging of the ward with antipsychotics and other Big-Pharma medications through subterfuge with the ultimate objective of liquidating the elder’s estate and to use the elder as a means to funnel funds via kickbacks and Medicare & Medicaid fraud.
Do NOT Call Elder Abuse “Hotlines”!
Even more alarmingly, for decades, state Attorney General Offices have continuously bombard citizens with “public service announcements” urging citizens to call “hot lines” to report abuse of elders.
Often times these calls to “elder abuse” hot lines are made “anonymously” with obvious underlying ill-motives, while other citizens are conned into thinking that they are going to be provided help to keep their family unit together when the state government has an established blatant and flagrant pattern of doing the exact opposite—they overtly seek to dismantle the family unit.
Showing the true motives of the offices of the Attorney Generals, they disturbingly blast a narrative that the majority of elder exploitation supposedly occurs by family members. For example, see: [SOURCE REMOVED]
Established evidence shows that governmental abduction of family members involves all ages, all socio-economic backgrounds, and all ethnicities.
My family’s personal miscarriage of justice is a prime example that no one is beyond the clutches of this long-embedded systemic criminal enterprise.
Overwhelming court documentation shows that due process for accused family members is nonexistent.
In fact, it is business as usual for these public officials to fabricate and manufacture information to abduct our family members.
Don’t make the tragic mistake of thinking that state governmental medical kidnapping can’t happen to YOUR family.
Some short & fast tips to help avoid state governmental intrusion into your family:
- Do not initiate any proceeding in the probate & family court system
- Do not use services offered by state protective services
- Do not use services offered by local municipal organizations claiming to help the elderly, such as Council of Aging
- Do not call Abuse Hotlines
- Do not attend “free” publicly offered estate planning seminars
Seemingly, it is human nature for people to want to avoid horrifying topics of conversation like medical kidnapping—not wanting to even conceive of the thought that this could happen to their family.
People tend to bury their heads in the sand, but in reality, such reflex worsens the problem.
A unified and cohesive movement by we, citizens, for accountability, is so needed where the insidiousness in which governmental medical kidnapping is so deep. If not now, when?
Comment on this article at MedicalKidnap.com.
bout the Author
Lisa Siegel Belanger, Esq.
Education: Massachusetts School of Law, J.D.; Emerson College, M.A. in Communications; University of Massachusetts at Amherst, B.B.A. in Finance. bar admissions
Bar Admissions: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts; U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts; United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit; United States Supreme Court.
People’s Center for Law & Justice
Adult Medical Kidnapping Stories
References
[1] Belanger v. BNY Mellon et al. U.S. District Court of Massachusetts Docket No. 1:15cv10198-ADB http://www.belangerlawoffice.com/free-marvin/federal-civil-action-2015/
[2] National Adult Protective Services Association, APS Administrator Briefing Paper: Alternate Sources of Funding for APS Programs, prepared by Karl urban for the NAPSA Policy Committee (2015)
MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF BAR EXAMINERS INFORMATION:
https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5e9435324653d0752bc96c0f
Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers v. Belanger
| Plaintiff: | Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers |
|---|---|
| Defendant: | Lisa Siegel Belanger |
| Case Number: | 1:2020cv10445 |
| Filed: | March 4, 2020 |
| Court: | US District Court for the District of Massachusetts |
| Presiding Judge: | Indira Talwani |
| Nature of Suit: | Other Statutory Actions |
| Cause of Action: | 28:1446 |
| Jury Demanded By: | None |
RSS Track this DocketDocket Report
The Abuse of Nursing Home Patients from the Bottom to the Top – No Oversight, Covid-19
Nursing homes receive defective equipment as part of Trump administration supply initiative
Nursing homes with urgent needs for personal protective equipment say they’re getting gowns that look more like large tarps — with no holes for hands — and surgical masks that are paper-thin as part of the administration’s initiative to bolster supplies for vulnerable populations amid the pandemic.
“It would be funny if the stakes weren’t so high,” a Washington state official told CNN.
In late April, President Donald Trump announced an effort to shore up supplies to nursing homes, whose residents and staff have been among those most at risk of Covid-19. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was at the helm of the effort to send additional shipments to nursing homes.
For weeks, nursing home associations have tried to call attention to the elderly population and the lack of supplies to properly care for them.
“Too often, the only signs of FEMA’s much-hyped promise of PPE shipments—an allotment of gowns, gloves, masks and goggles based on staffing size of the provider—are scattershot delivery with varying amounts of rag-tag supplies,” said Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit providers of aging services, in a statement.
“As FEMA’s own deadline for shipment approaches, many nursing homes still don’t know if and when they’re going to receive anything,” she added. Sloan was among the attendees at the event where Trump initially announced the FEMA shipments.
To continue reading, click here.
Nursing Home Abuse – Woman, 91, Terrorized [VIDEO] – Conditions at Nursing Homes and Oversight
The following is a review of the Abington of Glenview Nursing Facility:
Family sues Glenview nursing home over video of aides taunting woman, 91, with dementia; aides charged and fired
GLENVIEW, Ill. (WLS) — Two nursing home aides in north suburban Glenview have been fired and charged after a Snapchat video showed them taunting a 91-year-old woman with dementia.
Margaret Collins’ family is outraged, and taking legal action. The family’s lawsuit seeks more than $1 million in damages and alleges the nursing home, despite that video, turned a blind eye.
In the video Collins appears to be in distress, arms flailing as she pushes away a hospital gown.
“She’s waving her arms because of one reason. She doesn’t have mobility to get away. That’s the only option she has to protect herself,” said Tom Collins, her son.
Collins’ family said the great grandmother has dementia, and was known by workers at the Abington nursing home of Glenview to dislike hospital gowns.
The video of the encounter, four days before Christmas, was posted to Snapchat with the caption “Margaret hates gowns” and two laughing face emojis.
“You’re just like, this is somebody’s sick idea of entertainment?” said Joan Biebel, daughter.
The family is now suing the Abington and the two nursing assistants, Brayan Cortez and Jamie Montesa. Cortez and Montesa are also charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
“Margaret’s privacy was clearly violated,” said John Perconti, attorney for the family. “They had no right to have cell phones in there.”
To continue reading click here.
FIGHTING BACK! Pt. 3 – Otswego, NY Nursing Home Families and Members – Report Abuse, Neglect and Safety Standards
NY knew for years about Oswego nursing home’s leaky roof, but didn’t get action
OSWEGO, N.Y. — A state agency responsible for safeguarding nursing home residents knew for years the roof of an Oswego nursing home was leaking water into residents’ rooms, but did not make the facility fix the problem.
The roof finally got repaired when the City of Oswego threatened to shut down the 80-bed Pontiac Nursing Home in March after a resident complained to the city’s code enforcement department. A city inspector found an elaborate jerry-rigged system of hoses and buckets collecting water leaks affecting about 20 residents. In some rooms, hoses running down from ceilings were wrapped around electrical outlets then threaded out windows.
The roof had been leaking for seven years, Syracuse.com/The Post-Standard revealed in a story last week.
The state Health Department is supposed to inspect every nursing home at least once every 16 months and make homes correct deficiencies.
But an advocate for nursing home residents said the situation at Pontiac Nursing Home shows the Health Department is not aggressive enough.
Richard Mollot of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a group based in Manhattan, criticized the health department for not slapping Pontiac with financial penalties in recent years to get it to fix the roof. “If you have citations and there is no penalty associated with them, then you are telling the facility, ‘This is OK,’” Mollot said.
A Syracuse.com/Post-Standard review of Pontiac Nursing Home inspection reports show Health Department inspectors discovered water-stained ceiling tiles and a hose running down from the ceiling of a resident’s room into a rusty bucket in 2015 and 2016.
During the 2015 inspection the nursing home’s maintenance director said the stained ceiling tile was from a roof leak. He said he couldn’t remember when it happened. In a plan of correction approved by the Health Department, the nursing home said it fixed the ceiling tiles, but made no mention of repairing the roof.
In a 2016 inspection report, the maintenance director said the rusty bucket and hose in Room 216 were used temporarily to capture water from a leak that had been fixed three months earlier.
But the ceiling in that same room was still leaking earlier this year when the Health Department returned March 7 to do another inspection after getting a complaint from the Oswego code enforcement department. During that visit, the maintenance director told the inspector “ … he had been telling the owner of the building it needed a new roof for 7 years, and for 7 years he had been applying band aids to the leaks.”
When asked twice why it did not make Pontiac repair the roof before the Oswego code enforcement department had to step in, the Health Department dodged the question.
“The Department has cited the Pontiac Nursing Home for multiple maintenance and housekeeping issues, which the facility subsequently addressed,” it said in a prepared statement.
To continue reading click here.
FIGHTING BACK – Pt. 2 – Nursing Home Patients and Their Families, Victims of Abuse, Report and Seek Counsel Representing Victims
Aurora nursing home sued again after resident beats wheelchair-bound 92-year-old woman
Jury awarded other plaintiff beaten by same resident $3.6 million
An Aurora nursing home is being sued for a second time over allegations that a resident with a history of violence continues to injure other residents and that the facility does not have enough staff to properly care for the Alzheimer’s and dementia patients who live there.
The lawsuit filed last week in Arapahoe County District Court accuses Renew Saddle Rock of putting its financial goals over residents’ safety by under-staffing the home.
In October, an Arapahoe County jury awarded a former resident a $3.6 million verdict after he was beaten by a fellow resident, who has been identified as “Anne B.” Two months after the verdict, the nursing home owners changed the facility’s name to Renew Saddle Rock from Peregrine Senior Living at Aurora, the lawsuit said.
The new lawsuit was filed by Denver attorneys Jerome Reinan, Jordana Gingrass and Beth Dombroski on behalf of Joanna Dryva, whose mother, Maria Pallman, was injured in the attack. Dryva is seeking more than $100,000 in damages against Renew and the nursing home’s corporate owners, First Phoenix-Aurora of Wisconsin and Peregrine Management of Colorado.
The latest lawsuit accuses Anne B. of pummeling Pallman, a 92-year-old, wheelchair-bound woman who also suffers from dementia. On May 29, Anne B. hit Pallman in the face as she sat in a wheelchair in a hallway, the lawsuit said. Pallman now suffers from anxiety, and recurring headaches that she didn’t have before the assault, the lawsuit said.
The nursing home has refused to turn over surveillance footage of the assault, it said.
RELATED: These Colorado nursing homes were poorly rated and eligible for federal oversight. Until this week, nobody knew.
Attempts to reach the director of Renew and the facility’s owners were unsuccessful.
The lawsuit also accuses former nursing director, Britny Otto, of violating state law when she denied that Anne B. had assaulted a staff member during testimony about the first lawsuit.
“Despite actual knowledge that it was understaffed, Otto and Peregrine aggressively marketed Peregrine as having higher staffing than its competitors, as well as a better activities program than its competitors,” the lawsuit said. Otto had failed to report Anne B.’s assault on a staff member to police or the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment as required by Colorado law, the lawsuit said.
Renew Saddle Rock’s website said the memory care facility offers “all of the services and amenities that provide residents and families complete peace of mind, while transcending the status quo with experiential innovations like custom jewelry design and woodworking with local artists or private concerts with wine and cheese pairings.”
Peregrine actually staffed the nursing home with only one worker for up to 28 dementia patients during night shifts and on weekends, the lawsuit said.
Dryva would not have admitted her mother to the nursing home if she had been told about the first assault and the fact that Anne B. was still living in the home, the lawsuit said.
Anne B. has also been accused of assaulting a third Renew resident, who was identified as “Josephine,” and a worker who quit because of the attack, the lawsuit said. The nursing home did not report the assaults to law enforcement or licensing authorities, the lawsuit said.
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LOSTMESSIAH 