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The American Way, "You don't pay, you don't stay." Man Tries To Evict His Mom, Mary Kantorowski, On Her 98th Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:48:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Peter Kantorowski wanted his 98-year-old mother to move into a nursing home or live with him. She wouldn't go; she didn't want to leave her home of nearly 60 years.
Finally, Kantorowski went to court – and served his mother with an eviction notice shortly before her 98th birthday in December.
Mary Kantorowski says she won't leave the small yellow house she's been in since 1953, raising her two sons and cooking for the church she attended daily. The house her late husband wanted her to stay in until she died; the house she says is her "everything."
"I don't know why he wants me to leave," she said Friday.
The epic mother-son feud is headed to court next month.
Peter Kantorowski, 71, became the owner of the Fairfield home several years ago when his mother transferred ownership to him but retained the right to live there, in what's known as a quit claim, Mary Kantorowski's attorney said.
The retired taxidermist said he's concerned about her well-being, that she's seemed disoriented and has been living in poor condition.
"I'm not throwing her on the street," he told WTNH-TV in New Haven. "At her age, at 98, I'm sure that she should be with people of her peers. She should have her meals on time."
Peter Kantorowski and his attorney didn't return telephone messages left by The Associated Press on Friday.

Her younger son, Jack Kantorowski, says his mother is in relatively good health. He's on his mother's side of the family feud.
"If there is a money problem or anything else, he should have said something a long time ago instead of just trying to get rid of his own mother," Jack Kantorowski said.
Peter Kantorowski, who lives about 20 minutes away in Trumbull, hasn't seen his mother for eight months, her attorney said.
"I'm appalled a son would do this," Bortolot said.
Jack Kantorowski said his father worked multiple jobs to buy the house and built additions over the years.
"He was always trying to protect my mom; she'd always have a place to live," he said. "If something happens to me, there was always going to be a home for her to stay for the rest of her life."
Peter Kantorowski filed a complaint against his mother in December after she refused to follow an eviction notice filed Nov. 30 to vacate the premises by Dec. 7. A trial is set to begin March 2 in Bridgeport Superior Court.
Source=>Huffington Post

Announcing the Guardianship Convention Against Torture Project

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:12:00 +0000

by Janet Phelan

While in Geneva, Switzerland recently I met with a number of disability rights oriented groups. It was suggested to me at that time that the guardianship victims bundle together our complaints and submit under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The U.S. has both signed and ratified this international treaty and thus is bound to its conditions. Most of us who have faced off the guardianship system have come to the realization that there is no domestic recourse for us. The C.A.T. ofers an international venue which seems to be tailor made to our experiences and concerns.

Here is the link to the C.A.T.: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
Please read it carefully to determine if your guardianship situation qualifies under the terms of the Convention. One thing to keep in mind is that the complainant must have exhausted his or her domestic remedies. Another thing to keep in mind is that the C.A.T. is about torture, not about loss of inheritance. So—if you have contacted the FBI or the US DOJ concerning your situation, you would qualify. As probate is a state issue, those who have contacted their State AG may also submit to this effort, per my understanding.
Please email me your submissions at writejanet@live.com . Please keep your statements concise. All submissions will be confirmed so if you do not receive a confirming email, please re-send.

We Will Not Forget:What We Witnessed - Bobbie Thompson- Part V

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:10:00 +0000

-by- Angela V. Woodhull, Ph.D.

Part Five: Bobbie ThompsonWe found another victim in the Seminole County court records—Bobbie Thompson—and decided to go visit her. We found her in a nursing home in a shared room. Although she didn’t make a lot of sense on certain topics, there was one topic on which she made perfect sense and on which she gave us a lot of accurate information.
Bobbie was most concerned about her grown son who had been living her. “He’s been applying for social security disability; he’s living at my house alone. What is going to happen to him?” She provided us with the correct address, so we decided to go pay Roy Thompson* a visit.

The exterior of the home seemed to be in need of some serious repairs. The grass also was very tall and needed cutting. In fact, we doubted that anyone lived at the residence. We peeked through the windows and saw that the living room furniture was in disarray with many items, such as a sofa and TV, missing.

We heard the sound of dogs barking when we knocked on the door, so we knew that someone must be residing at the home. Roy Thompson appeared at the door and looked suspicious and concerned.

“May I help you?”

I asked him if he had heard of a professional guardian by the name of Rebecca Fierle and I explained that I was the victim of that same guardian and I asked him if he would like to speak with me. Roy’s attitude and demeanor immediately improved and he graciously invited us into his home.

We sat down with him at the dining room table and he explained to us how Rebecca Fierle had taken control of his mother when she had gone to the hospital. Roy had lived with his mother for many years and so he assumed that he would become her guardian if one were ever needed. Fierle had written in the court records that Roy did not wish to become the guardian.

Roy had no money for attorneys’ fees to fight this inaccurate scenario.

After taking control of Bobbie Thompson through an emergency guardianship, Rebecca Fierle next set off to remove Roy from the home.

Although Roy is handicapped and had been applying for social security disability, Fierle had all utilities turned off at the home, leaving Roy and his dogs to live in the dark without a working refrigerator and no water or air conditioning. Lucky for Roy, he had a girlfriend who paid to have the utilities turned back on. Fierle had been moving furniture and items out of the house but had told Roy that if there was anything he wanted that had belonged to his mother, he could go ahead and keep it, but she had also provided him with an eviction notice. So far, Roy had been ignoring the eviction notice. His girlfriend stated that Roy could move into her condominium with her, but the condo association does not allow for pets and Roy was very concerned about and attached to the dogs that he loves and wanted to keep.

It was obvious that Roy was in a very dangerous situation and I warned him. “You could be next. I envision that if you don’t leave this house,

Rebecca Fierle is simply going to take an emergency temporary guardianship out on you and then she’ll come here with the deputy sheriffs and have you removed to a nursing home, especially since you’ve been applying for social security disability.

This triggered an alarm in Roy and he said, “Funny you should mention that. A package came in the mail for me just the other day. And when I opened it, it was these purple pills that are for depression. They arrived in my name. I’ve never ordered such pills and they are a prescription drug.”

David and I had been suspecting for several weeks that victims are overmedicated, such as my mother and Elizabeth Faye Arnold, and that it might have to do with Rebecca Fierle, who is married to a medical doctor.

“And have you been taking these pills?”

“Yes, I’ve taken some of these, since I really am depressed,” he stated.
“But they make me feel dizzy and disoriented.”

David spoke up. “This might be why the mysterious pills showed up in your mail box. If you are removed from this home and tested for mental capacity during the time you are under an emergency temporary guardianship, these pills would assist in having Rebecca Fierle’s doctors assess you and declared mentally incompetent. I think you should stop taking those pills.”

By now, we truly had Roy’s attention. “I think we should call my girlfriend on my cell phone. I have very little minutes left this month, but this is worth the call.” He dialed Mary Ann’s number. “Honey, could you come over here? Well, there’s these people here and I want you to meet them.” She sounded reluctant to come. “They know Rebecca Fierle.”

The girlfriend changed her tune. “I’ll be right over.”

Many Ann arrived. “So, what you’re telling me is that Roy might be in danger of losing his civil rights if he remains in this house?”

“It sounds like a real possibility,” we stated. We told her and Roy of other similar cases, especially the story of the Arnolds.

“Honey, I really think you should move in with me.”

“Does Rebecca Fierle know your address?

“No. She doesn’t even know that Roy has a girlfriend.”

“Good. I think you should keep it that way.”

“Most definitely.”

“But what about my dogs!?” Roy asked in a distressed tone.

I think you might have to select between your dogs and your freedom,”

Mary Ann stated. Roy’s eyes became filled with tears.

“But I don’t want to lose this house! Once I get onto disability, I will have enough money to make the mortgage payments. I told this to Rebecca Fierle. But she said she doesn’t care and that I have to get out. Maybe I can just wait it out just a little longer 'til I start getting my cheques.”

Roy also told us that one of Rebecca Fierle’s employees had called him one day and wanted to know when he expected to receive his first disability cheque.

***********************************

Back at the courthouse, we examined Bobbie Thompson’s file for a second time. We discovered that rather than make the mortgage payments on Thompson’s house, Rebecca Fierle had allowed the house to go into foreclosure. It turns out that a process server had attempted to find Ms.

“Fierle” and had gone to her residence that she had listed—sworn to as correct--on Bobbie Thompson’s emergency temporary guardianship—under penalty of perjury.

However, David and I already knew from the docier that had been provided to us by Suzanne McCormack that this was not Rebecca “Fierle’s”

Real address. In fact, Rebecca “Fierle” had sold her residence of 13037 S.
HIGHWAY 475, OCALA, FLORIDA 34480 almost a year before when she swore, under penalties of perjury on Bobbie Thompson’s emergency guardianship application, that this was her current address.

In reality, Rebecca “Fierle”, who signs property documents when she buys and sells properties, under sworn affidavit as Rebecca “Santoian,” was now living at 9384 S. MAGNOLIA AVENUE IN OCALA, FLORIDA but time and time again, in the court records we were viewing, Rebecca “Fierle”
was consistently stating in her petitions, under penalty of perjury, that her legal address and residence was 13037 S. HIGHWAY 475, OCALA, FLORIDA 34480—the place that she and her second husband, Dr. Edward Santonian, had already sold nearly a year before.

We now understood the benefit to Rebecca Fierle of using an alias and an incorrect address—under penalties of perjury—on her guardianship applications. The process server noted that he had been unable to located or serve Rebecca Fierle. He noted that the new residents of 13037 S. Highway 475, Ocala, Florida did not include a Rebecca Fierle and the new residents stated they had no idea where she might be. They stated that Dr. Edward Santoian might know where Rebecca Fierle might be.

The process server next knocked on the door of 9384 S. MAGNOLIA AVENUE IN OCALA, FLORIDA but was told by Dr. Edward Santonian that he didn’t really know Rebecca Fierle and had not seen her in several months.**

Therefore, Thompson’s house was able to be foreclosed upon without Rebecca Fierle, as the guardian of Bobbie Thompson, being sued for the balance of the mortgage payments.

***************************************

We returned to Roy Thompson’s residence to let know what we had found in the court records and to provide him copies. But this time, the house truly was vacant and the cell phone numbers that Roy had given us for himself and his girlfriend were not longer working.

Roy had selected freedom—at least for the moment, he was “safe.”

*****************************************

*Not his real name.
**Court records confirm that Rebecca “Fierle” is legally married to
Dr. Edward Santonian, a cardiologist. “Fierle” is actually the last name of
Rebecca “Fierle’s” first husband, Jeff Fierle, whom she filed bankruptcy with and also experienced a home foreclosure with back in 1997. “Fierle” therefore goes by three last names: When she buys and sells properties in Marion County, she signs the deeds as Rebecca Santonian, under notarization; when she applies for guardianships, she states she is Rebecca “Fierle,” under notarization and penalties of perjury, and when she opens guardianship bank accounts to“benefit the ‘wards,’” she uses her Florida driver’s license,which states that her legal name is Rebecca Fierle-Santonian.

*Note: Dr. Angela V. Woodhull, a licensed private investigator, spent more than two and a half years investigating court records in Seminole and Orange Counties, Florida and interviewing family members and victims in order to compose this story. All court records that verify the contents of this article were submitted as attachments to the editor of the F.B.I. journal as verification of accuracy. Woodhull can be reached at (352) 327-3665 or(352) 682-9033.

We Will Not Forget What We Witnessed: Elizabeth Faye Arnold and William Harold Arnold (Part 3-B)

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:05:00 +0000

-by-Angela V. Woodhull, Ph.D. © AV Woodhull, 2011

In Part “A” of Elizabeth Faye Arnold, I ended the factual story by posing a question: “What would a person be charged with for running a red light and hitting someone on a motorcycle who later dies?”

I have now called a few police departments and posed this as a hypothetical question to them. “It depends on the circumstances” was the
typical answer. “It could be anything from negligence to manslaughter.”

“Would the typical investigation by traffic homicide investigator be closed out completely within four hours?”
“Oh, no, ma’am” a Miami front desk officer stated. “To complete such an investigation would take at least a couple of months.”

*************************

On the surface, this factual story, so far, appears to be nothing more than an “unfortunate situation.” It’s early on a Sunday morning. William Harold

Arnold is off on his motorcycle, probably on his way to his church where he plays the piano. He’s sitting on his motorcycle at a large intersection in Orlando and when the light turns green, he takes off, when suddenly, from out of nowhere, a woman in a Mustang hits him broadside. The motorcycle skids to a dirt area on the side of the road. Tina Holland, allegedly remorseful, apologizes to the police officer for being distracted from eating a doughnut. The officer closes out the investigation within four hours. No further investigation is ever conducted. Holland is issued a ticket for “running a red light” and given a court date.

*************************

A careful look at the file, however, reveals some curious information.

It turns out that William Harold Arnold, a 53-year-old spinster who has been living with Mama his entire life, is well hated by his neighbors. There are several police reports where he has called law enforcement on the neighbors, and they, in turn, have filed reports on him. This has been an ongoing battle for many years. One report states that the neighbor children were trespassing onto his property. Another report states that the neighbor children were spraying a chemical on his car. The officer notes that the kids were allegedly spraying only water onto his car.

There appears to be another file of an emergency guardianship proceeding commenced several years ago on Elizabeth Faye Arnold. Elizabeth, it turns out, has gone to the hospital emergency room on several occasions for swollen legs and feet—poor circulation.

While at the hospital, Rebecca Fierle steps in and becomes the emergency temporary guardian. She then places Mrs. Arnold in a nursing home.

The son, however—enraged-- somehow is able to bail Mom out of these emergency temporary guardianships and bring her back home. The emergency temporary guardianships expire. This back and forth scenario goes on for a number of years, about three years.

************************
A background check on Tina Holland reveals that Holland has actually been in jail on several occasions for DUI, possession of crack cocaine, and
prostitution. On the morning when she hits William Harold Arnold, however, she is merely eating a doughnut.

A background on her work history reveals that she used to own a dumpster business with her ex-husband—the type of business that professional guardian Rebecca Fierle would hire when she needs to clean out a house.

The records further show that Tina Holland’s court date was changed on several occasions over the next two years, with the officer always being the one who requests a change of the date.

When the hearing finally comes about, no one is present at the hearing except for the officer. The judge asks if the man hit on the motorcycle is all right and alive. The office responds to the judge that yes, indeed, William Harold Arnold is well and alive.
The judge therefore, based on the officer’s testimony, institutes a $400
fine on Tina Holland for running the red light, and also mandates that she attend traffic school.

The paperwork in the file shows that William Harold Arnold—who was actually deceased—was served a subpoena of notice of the traffic hearing.

The subpoena was, however, returned to the court, undelivered—the process server noting that the house appears to be vacant and that there is a “For Sale” sign on the residence.

A further investigation into the file shows that Rebecca Fierle entered a
death certificate into the record on the date that the accident occurred.

That death certificate is then voided out and a new death certificate was created for another date—approximately two months later—when William Harold Arnold actually dies. Furthermore, the court records show that Fierle placed William Harold Arnold on Medicaid, even though she sold his home for $190,000.00. Fierle then was appointed as personal representative and there are outstanding medical bills that come forward as claims against William Harold Arnold’s estate. However, Fierle’s attorney states that the claims are too old, were not timely filed, and therefore don’t have to be paid. Fierle places the “Notice to Creditors” in an obscure little newspaper rather than the Orlando Sentinel.
****************************
We visit Elizabeth Faye Arnold in person. She is alert and appears to be
as mentally competent as a person can be. She has been tucked away in a marginal nursing home for quite some time now and she, too, has been trying to figure out just exactly what happened to her. “They came with an ambulance to my home the day that my son was hit on his motorcycle—even though I had not called for an ambulance.” Elizabeth, removed from her home by ambulance, was rushed to the hospital and then placed in the nursing home, where she has remained ever since.

She removes the blanket that is covering her feet. “Look at my feet,” she says. Her feet are so red and so swollen that there are stretch marks on them. “I’ve met Rebecca Fierle,” she states, “and she does nothing for me and does not give me any answers. I’ve looked out the window and I see her nice Mercedes that she drives. Can you get me out of here? Can you find out what has happened to my possessions, my furniture, my photographs? I don’t have even one picture of my son.”

“Would you be guardian? I want you to be my guardian,” she whispers to me, squeezing my hand.

************************

After much searching, I finally track down the only two witnesses who were allegedly at the accident scene when Tina Holland was eating her doughnut. The one witness just happens to be a city council member and his wife is the secretary for the state attorney’s office in Orlando. He appears to be extremely defensive when I ask him to recall what he witnessed at the accident scene. “Whatever it states on the report. That’s all I remember,” he states. “Read the report.” And he walks off hurriedly.

The other witness is a real estate broker. He, too, appears to be extremely defensive when I knock on his door and attempt to interview him. “How did you find me!?” he inquires. “I don’t remember what I saw,” he states.

“It was too long ago.”

*************************

I interview more neighbors. It turns out that the neighbor across the street is also well connected to city officials. “They were real problem people,” he states. “The yard and the house were always a mess. Nobody liked them.”

*************************

I track down a former landlord of Tina Holland’s but I was never able to actually locate Tina Holland herself. The landlord tells me that everyone in the neighborhood was aware of the motorcycle accident. “She killed a man on a motorcycle and got away with murder,” he stated. “It was the talk of the neighborhood.” “She’s a real problem person—a drug addict. Didn’t pay her rent.”

***********************

Elizabeth Faye Arnold’s house has been repainted. The yard is tidy.

The neighbors no longer call the cops. Everything is now happy and tidy on Silver Drive.

*********************
Related Post: We Will Not Forget What We Witnessed: Elizabeth Faye Arnold and William Harold Arnold (Part 3-A)*Note: Dr. Angela V. Woodhull, a licensed private investigator, spent more than two and a half years investigating court records in Seminole and Orange Counties, Florida and interviewing family members and victims in order to compose this story. All court records that verify the contents of this article were submitted as attachments to the editor of the F.B.I. journal as verification of accuracy. Woodhull can be reached at (352) 327-3665 or (352) 682-9033.

We Will Not Forget What We Witnessed: Part 6 Wade McNalley and his Father, Bruce McNalley

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

-by-Angela V. Woodhull, Ph.D. (Part 6)

Wade McNalley and his Father, Bruce McNalley*

Back at the probate court files in Seminole County, things were heating up. Rebecca “Fierle’s” attorney in my mother’s case (Reverend Attorney Anthony Nardella) actually began billing my mother’s estate every time I was observed reading the court files. Imagine that.

“Phone call from probate clerk stating that Woodhull is reading the probate files once again.” Charge: $58.”

The next file I began assessing was yet another veteran. By now, we clearly understood that Rebecca “Fierle” had quite an appetite for veterans, since she automatically receives five per cent of their monthly income—no matter what is done or not done during the course of a month.

Another veteran, Carlisle Bosworth, we noticed that $250,000.00 of his assets had been spent in a very short period of time.

What about Bruce McNalley, a veteran? First of all, becoming increasingly savvy at ascertaining the court records more quickly, we noticed that “Fierle” had placed McNalley in a regular nursing home, rather than a veteran’s nursing home. There is a “reason” for this. A veteran’s nursing home is free. Therefore, there would be nothing to bill for. However, if “Fierle” places a veteran in a non-veteran’s nursing home, not only can she bill, but she can also GENEROUSLY bill. I called the nursing home where McNalley was staying and posed as a concerned daughter looking to place my father somewhere in an upscale nursing home. The administrator told me that a top-of-the-line private room, with all the bells and whistles, would cost about $6,000.00 per month.

And what was “Fierle” claiming to the court? “Fierle” was claiming that she was spending $12,000.00 a month in McNalley’s care. We wondered: Where is the other $6,000.00 per month going?

Because of the exorbitant and completely unnecessary spending (to reiterate, McNalley is a veteran—between his monthly income and the fact that he could be placed in a veteran’s nursing home for free, McNalley should have had enough money to sustain himself indefinitely), “Fierle” had initiated a lawsuit against Wade McNalley, Bruce’s son. Wade was facing

being evicted from his homesteaded residence if he could not find the money to purchase his father’s half of a trailer home. The title was “joint tenancy with right of survivorship” but that hadn’t stopped Rebecca “Fierle” for attempting to make Bruce’s son homeless. It was time to visit Wade McNalley.

************************

How can I describe Wade McNalley? The words that come to mind are “fun” “vivacious” “opinionated” “strong willed” “straight shooter.” Wade likes to drink beer, kick back, tell a few jokes, and use a lot of colorful language, especially when describing his feelings toward Rebecca “Fierle.”

After introducing ourselves at his door, one of his first comments were, “Oh, don’t even get me started talking about that c---.” We knew we were in for an interesting evening.
Wade and his father had lived together quite amiably on several occasions. He described Dad as a “skirt chaser” and somehow he ended up in an expensive retirement center due to that fact where he could flirt with all the gals. There were some health problems and soon he had been transferred to a nursing home. Wade had been out of town when he learned, upon his return, that a woman named “Rebecca Fierle” was now his father’s guardian.

“What the hell was that sh-- all about!? You tell me. It’s gotta be about his money! The b---- just wants his money. Don’t even get me started talking on that subject. Then she moves Dad so far away that I can’t even get to go see him. I’m on a very limited budget and I suffer from arthritis.

How the hell am I supposed to go clear across town to visit my dad?

As far as that lawsuit against me, she can go f--- herself! I have an attorney on it and she ain’t gonna get a g—d---m dime outta me!”

Wade told us how his attorney had been very good to him. Wade had recently been released from a hospital and his attorney had actually been paying for groceries and delivering them to Wade’s door. “What a fantastic guy! I couldn’t ask for better.”

Truthfully, an attorney going out of his way THAT much for a client just didn’t sound right. We wondered what it all meant. We were soon to find out. Wade was in the middle of suing someone, a personal injury case.

The “nice” attorney was actually pre-spending the few dollars that Wade would end up with from the settlement. In the end, there wasn’t much left for Wade out of the settlement money, and at that time, “Fierle” just happened to want to “settle out” with Wade. She offered to let him stay in his homesteaded home if he would simply turn over $10,000.00 to her—the same, exact amount of money Wade was about to get in a settlement. (How ‘bout that there.)

We asked Wade, after he cooked us supper and gave us a few beers, if he would like to drive to the neighboring town and see his father. “Would you like to go see your dad this evening?”

“Hell, yeah, I’d love to go see my father! I’m going to get him the hell out of there once I get my settlement money and then I’m going bring him back home. I’m going to be the guardian! I mean, what the hell, I am his son! Who ever heard of some f------ c--- stranger being my dad’s guardian?! Who ever instituted this crazy f---ed up shit?! I was doing one hellofa job taking care of my dad and I know he was happy here. He needs to come home. There’s nothing mentally wrong with him. You’ll see.”

The three of us piled into my van and Wade directed us to the nursing home. It was late at night and we found his father laying in bed, this tall man who seemed very similar natured to his son. The hugs and tears between these two macho men brought tears to the eyes of both David and me. We were ecstatic to have brought them together. “Honey, let’s videotape this because I see no mental incompetence whatsoever.”

Bruce seemed a little startled at first that were videotaping him. “Don’t worry about it, Dad. These are my new friends. They’re here to help you.

I wanna get you back home, Dad, and this can help.”

Bruce was then all right with the videotaping. He stated on many occasions that he would like to come home, that he wanted his son to definitely stay in the trailer home and he was definitely upset to learn that Rebecca Fierle was in the process of trying to make his son homeless.

“When you bail me out of here, we’re going to sue the hell out of her.

Oh, yeah, just you wait and see,” Bruce declared adamantly.

Staff workers, not used to seeing visitors in Bruce’s half of the room, kept peeking into the room. We would hide the phone camera every time a staff worker appeared.

Soon, it was time to leave. “I don’t see any mental incompetence with your dad,” David stated. “Neither do I.”

“See? I told you so!” Wade responded. “We got to get him the hell out of there. I’ve never seen him in such bad physical shape. This place is killing him. I want my dad home.”

************************

The following day, Rebecca “Fierle” found out that Wade had managed to go see his father.

Her response? She had Bruce Baker- acted—put into a straight jacket and medicated on psychotropic drugs. She then contacted her attorney and they wrote a Petition to the court asking the judge to NOT permit Wade McNalley to see his father any more. “Fierle” claimed that it upset the father so much to see his son—and whom he “didn’t really want to see” according to “Fierle”—that she had to Baker Act him. Little did “Fierle” know that we have video footage of the father that is so contrary to these claims that it is rather surrealistic to even fathom that such a statement would be written in the court records.

Lo and behold, at the court hearing, Judge John D. Galluzzo actually decided he would not go along with “Fierle’s” petition. He denied the motion and stated that Wade was free to see his father any time he wanted.

However, Galluzzo’s decision did not stop Rebecca “Fierle” from wielding her unlimited authority. Her response? She simply moved Bruce McNalley to yet ANOTHER nursing home so far away that Wade would have to spend the entire day taking a series of buses just to get to the new location.

***********************
Wade never saw his father alive ever again.
**********************

The next time we saw Wade, he told us hold his attorney was planning on having “Fierle” removed as the guardian—a motion serious enough, that if awarded, “Fierle” could lose her license as a professional guardian.

“I thought we were moving ahead. Next thing I know, I’m getting a call from one of ‘Fierle’s’ staff members. The b---- didn’t even have the nerve to call me herself. Fierle’s employee stated to me, ‘Where do you want us to drop off your father’s ashes?’”

“What!?! My father died?! When did my father die?”

“More than a month ago,” the staff member responded in a flat tone.

“You mean to tell me my father has been dead for more than a month and this is the first time you’re even telling me about it! What the f--- bull---sh-- is this!?”

This big, warm-hearted man, a true man’s man, stood there in front of us and wept. He broke down and he literally wept.

“Oh, there’s a special place in hell for people like Rebecca ‘Fierle,’ Wade stated. “I didn’t even get to say good-bye to my father. My dad had a pre-paid burial plot. He didn’t ever want to be cremated! What the f--- kind of sh—is that?!” “Oh, believe you me, there’s gonna be a payback time!”

Wade could not stop weeping.

************************

Shortly thereafter, Wade became seriously ill – to the point of almost dying. He was hospitalized on several occasions and needed extensive home health care. “I can’t focus on any of this Rebecca ‘Fierle’ bullsh—any further,” Wade told us. “It literally ruined my health. At least that b---- wasn’t able to get a f------ dime out of me. At least I have my home.”

************************

*Not their real names.

***********************

*Note: Dr. Angela V. Woodhull, a licensed private investigator, spent more than two and a half years investigating court records in Seminole and Orange Counties, Florida and interviewing family members and victims in order to compose this story. All court records that verify the contents of this article were submitted as attachments to the editor of the F.B.I. journal as verification of accuracy. Woodhull can be reached at (352) 327-3665 or

(352) 682-9033.

We Will Not Forget What We Witnessed Lawrence Long - Part Four

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:36:00 +0000

-by-Angela V. Woodhull, Ph.D.

The next victim that we visited was a man in his early sixties living in an assisted living facility, Lawrence Long. Long was in the process of being sued by professional guardian, Rebecca Fierle.
Long’s crime? Rebecca Fierle had lost in her bid to become Long’s guardian. She was now suing Long for the unwarranted attempt at becoming his guardian—and charging Long for the cost of her hiring an attorney and pursuing an involuntary guardianship against Long.

Her attorney, Karen Goldsmith, who had assisted Rebecca Fierle in her quest to become Long’s unnecessary and unwanted guardian, had been sending threatening letters to Long. Using their favorite judges in Seminole County, Rebecca Fierle and Karen Goldsmith had managed to obtain a court order demanding that Long pay thousands of dollars to Goldsmith for their foiled attempt at taking away Long’s civil rights. A judgment had already been entered against Long—even though he had never been successfully served or appeared in court.

It was time to meet Long and ask him how he had managed to become victimized by this precarious and frightening situation.

We found Long alive and well and living in an upscale assisted living facility. He had his own efficiency apartment and seemed quite happy and fine in his surroundings. He enjoys playing on the internet, driving his car, and going shopping. It turns out that Long had suffered a stroke, which is what put him on Fierle’s “radar” but had now fully recovered.

Fierle seems to enjoy taking involuntary guardianships against veterans she finds in hospitals--probably because she is guaranteed, by Florida law, five percent of their monthly income—for doing practically nothing. Although “five per cent” does not seem to be a lot, multiply five per cent times 20 veterans every month and you have a pretty nice income for very little work.

Long was aware that Rebecca Fierle had sued him for the money she had spent in her foiled attempt to become his guardian.

There were stacks of unopened mail from Fierle and her attorney, Goldsmith, piled up in a corner of his small living room. Long said he didn’t want to open the mail because it was “too stressful” to deal with and he didn’t really know what else he could do except ignore the situation.

How was Long lucky enough to get out the unwarranted guardianship? Luckily for Long, he had been seeing his own personal psychiatrist for most of his adult life and his personal psychiatrist went to bat for him and wrote a letter to the court stating that he would not go along with the assessment that Long needed to be placed into an involuntary guardianship and have all of his civil rights removed.

However, the unpaid bill “owed” to Rebecca Fierle is actually an omen of what is to come. Banking on the “fact” that Long is getting older, it’s just a matter of time. Fierle can always re-apply at a later date to become Long’s guardian, having her favorite doctors declare him incompetent. At that time, the unpaid money for the first foiled attempt will be reimbursed to her out Long’s lifetime savings, since there is already a recorded judgment against Long.

We enjoyed the afternoon visiting with Long, sharing a pizza with him. We opened, with Long, the stack of unopened threatening letters Fierle and Goldsmith had sent to him, which confirmed what I had already read in the court files.

“Let her go f--- herself,” Long said, looking over the bills from Fierle and Goldsmith that increased in price every month, due to interest. Fierle’s attorney was adding interest for each month that Long had ignored the bills.

Long showed us websites that he likes to visit. Between surfing the web and driving around in his car, he has managed, for the moment, to escape the realty that his freedom will be short lived.

Long seemed to realize that he is a “marked man.” Even though she didn’t win the first round, it’s just a matter of time before Rebecca Fierle steps back into Long’s life to become Long’s “guardian.”

“I try not to think about it,” Long said. Long has been “marked for destruction.”*
___________________________________

“Marked for Destruction” is a term coined by John Caravella who became involved with yet another victim of a predatory guardianship. His book, Adele’s Diary, can be viewed at www.markedfordestruction.com

*Note: Dr. Angela V. Woodhull, a licensed private investigator, spent more than two and a half years investigating court records in Seminole and Orange Counties, Florida and interviewing family members and victims in order to compose this story. All court records that verify the contents of this article were submitted as attachments to the editor of the F.B.I. journal as verification of accuracy. Woodhull can be reached at (352) 327-3665 or

(352) 682-9033.

The Right Of Property...

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:45:00 +0000

The right of property is the guardian of every other right, and to deprive the people of this, is in fact to deprive them of their liberty."
- Arthur Lee

Viagra touted as life-saving heart treatment - after scientists find it makes heart muscles LESS stiff

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:06:00 +0000

Viagra helps ailing hearts to recover in a surprising way - by making them less stiff, scientists have learned.

The drug was first developed as a heart disease treatment - it's more well-known use was simply a lucky side-effect.

But now it seems that it might help heart patients after all.

The impotency drug causes too-rigid heart chamber walls to become more elastic.

The drug was initially developed as a heart treatment - but was thought not to work. Now it's surprising 'relaxing' effect might say lives, say scientists

The research explains how Viagra might benefit patients with diastolic heart failure.

People with the condition have abnormally inflexible ventricles, the heart's major pumping chambers, that do not fill sufficiently with blood.

This leads to blood ‘backing up’ in the lungs and breathing difficulties.

Scientists found that Viagra activates an enzyme that causes a protein in heart muscle cells to relax.

The effect was seen in dogs with diastolic heart failure within minutes of the drug being administered.

Study leader Professor Wolfgang Linke, from the Ruhr Universitat Bochum in Germany, said: ‘We have developed a therapy in an animal model that, for the first time, also raises hopes for the successful treatment of patients.’

Viagra has a similar effect on blood vessels, which is why it was originally developed as a treatment for high blood pressure and heart disease.

The drug's active ingredient, sildenafil, inhibits an enzyme involved in the mechanism that regulates blood flow.

However, the enzyme is slightly different in different parts of the body.

The British scientists behind Viagra found to their initial disappointment that it was not a great help to patients with high blood pressure. But it had a miraculous effect on men with erectile dysfunction.

The drug successfully suppressed the enzyme phosphodiesterasein the penis, increasing blood flow to the organ.

Prof Linke's team found that it worked on the same enzyme in heart cells. This had the effect of causing a cardiac muscle protein called titin to become more elastic.

‘The titin molecules are similar to rubber bands,’ said the professor. ‘They contribute decisively to the stiffness of cardiac walls.’

The research is published today in the journal Circulation.

Almost half of emergency patients admitted to hospital with heart failure have a diastolic condition.

Diastolic heart failure affects the ‘diastole’ half of the cardiac cycle, when the heart's chambers have finished contracting and are re-filling with blood.

Mentally ill flood ER as states cut services

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:27:00 +0000

CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - On a recent shift at a Chicago emergency department, Dr. William Sullivan treated a newly homeless patient who was threatening to kill himself.

"He had been homeless for about two weeks. He hadn't showered or eaten a lot. He asked if we had a meal tray," said Sullivan, a physician at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago and a past president of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians.

Sullivan said the man kept repeating that he wanted to kill himself. "It seemed almost as if he was interested in being admitted."

Across the country, doctors like Sullivan are facing a spike in psychiatric emergencies - attempted suicide, severe depression, psychosis - as states slash mental health services and the country's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression takes its toll.

This trend is taxing emergency rooms already overburdened by uninsured patients who wait until ailments become acute before seeking treatment.
"These are people without a previous psychiatric history who are coming in and telling us they've lost their jobs, they've lost sometimes their homes, they can't provide for their families, and they are becoming severely depressed," said Dr. Felicia Smith, director of the acute psychiatric service at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Increased demand in mental health services
http://link.reuters.com/sud75s

State mental health budget cuts

http://link.reuters.com/tud75s
Visits to the hospital's psychiatric emergency department have climbed 20 percent in the past three years.
"We've seen actually more very serious suicide attempts in that population than we had in the past as well," she said.
Compounding the problem are patients with chronic mental illness who have been hurt by a squeeze on mental health services and find themselves with nowhere to go.
On top of that, doctors are seeing some cases where the patient's most critical need is a warm bed.
"The more I see these patients, the more I realize that if it's sleeting and raining outside, the emergency room is the only place they have," said Dr. R. Corey Waller, director of the Spectrum Health Medical Group Center for Integrative Medicine in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Government agencies such as the National Institutes of Mental Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration could not provide fresh data on use of psychiatric services in recent years.
But doctors from more than a dozen hospitals nationwide, mental health advocacy groups and state-funded agencies told Reuters they are all seeing a marked increase in psychiatric emergencies.
A WORSENING PROBLEM
The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), an organization of state mental health directors, estimates that in the last three years states have cut $3.4 billion in mental health services, while an additional 400,000 people sought help at public mental health facilities.
In that same time frame, demand for community-based services climbed 56 percent, and demand for emergency room, state hospital and emergency psychiatric care climbed 18 percent, the organization said.
"This wasn't one round of cuts," says Ted Lutterman, director of research analysis at NASMHPD Research Institute. "It was three or four for many states, and multiple cuts during the year."
If the economy doesn't improve, next year could be worse because many community mental health agencies are cutting programs and using up reserve funds, says Linda Rosenberg, president of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare.
"It's been horrible," she said. "Those that need it the most - the unemployed, those with tremendous family stress - have no insurance."

In the emergency room, this increased demand has meant doctors and social workers are spending hours and sometimes days trying to arrange care for psychiatric patients languishing in the emergency department, taking up beds that could be used for traditional types of trauma.

More than 70 percent of emergency department administrators said they have kept patients waiting in the emergency department for 24 hours, according to a 2010 survey of 600 hospital emergency department administrators by the Schumacher Group, which manages emergency departments across the country.

Ten percent said they had "boarded" patients for a week or more.

And many hospitals are not prepared for the increased caseload of psychiatric patients, says Randall Hagar, director of government affairs for the California Psychiatric Association.
California cut $587 million in state-funded mental health services in the past two years, the most of any state, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a patient advocacy group.
"They don't have secure holding rooms. They don't have quiet spaces. They don't have a lot of things you need to help calm down a person in an acute psychiatric crisis," Hagar said.
"Often you have a patient strapped to a gurney in a hallway outside of the emergency department where social workers are desperately trying to find an inpatient bed," he said.
FROM CITIES TO SMALL TOWNS
In North Carolina, the state has cut its inpatient psychiatric capacity by half since 2005, says Dr. Bret Nicks, an emergency physician at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem and a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Nicks points to a report from the Institute of Medicine released in 2006 that found U.S. emergency departments were already overtaxed and overcrowded.
"Now you are adding in patients who are unsafe to leave but yet have nowhere to go," he said. "I consider patients with acute psychiatric needs as really the forgotten patient population in the U.S. right now."

Dr. Stephen Anderson is an emergency department doctor at Auburn Regional Medical Center, a mid-size suburban hospital outside of Seattle.

"When the economy is hurt they are some of the first to drop off the healthcare rolls," he said of local residents in the largely blue-collar community.
Anderson, who heads the Washington Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said the state has lost a third of its inpatient psychiatric beds in the past decade.
Lately he is seeing a marked escalation in patients with psychiatric problems turning up in the emergency department. In early December, a third of its beds were occupied with people in a psychiatric crisis who were not safe to return to the community.
The problem extends out to small towns.
Sullivan splits his time between the big emergency department at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago and St. Margaret's Hospital, a tiny facility in Spring Valley, Illinois, about 100 miles southwest of the city.
On a recent shift, a young woman with schizophrenia arrived at the hospital. She had just lost her job and apartment and was living with relatives. She could not afford the medications that were keeping her illness in check.
The woman asked Sullivan to switch her prescriptions to drugs that could be found on the $4 discount list at Wal-Mart and other discount stores.
"I didn't feel comfortable doing that," Sullivan said, noting that emergency physicians are being asked to deliver specialized care that should be handled by a psychiatrist.
He found a healthcare facility about 25 miles away with a psychiatrist who could help, but even that presented a problem for the woman, who had no way of getting to the appointment.

"It's almost akin to having a cardiac patient come in and say, 'I need someone to adjust my defibrillator.' In the emergency department, we can do a lot, but there are some things we have to leave with the specialists," he said.

(Editing by Michele Gershberg and Eric Beech)

Elder law awareness: 46-year old Minnesota man commits elder abuse against own 86 year old mother

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:23:00 +0000

As a family member ages, he can become more dependent on his healthier spouse or grown children to care for him, keep him healthy, and continue to protect him as his health fails.
Unfortunately, sometimes the tables are turned.
According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, about two-thirds of all elder abuse perpetrators are exactly those whom the victim might have trusted most. Financially dependent spouses or adult children are the most likely to take advantage of the elder’s financial resources. Sadly, this is often due to alcohol and drug abuse.
Dementia is a leading risk factor in all kinds of elder abuse, including financial exploitation. Even senior citizens who suffer from a milder form of cognitive impairment, not yet recognized or diagnosed, can be vulnerable.
Elder law professionals are tremendous advocates for senior citizens who need to protect their resources, but the largely secretive and unreported nature of the crimes makes supporting the rights of the victims challenging.
There are variations in elder law from state to state, but many states have increased penalties for the victimization, financial or otherwise, of senior citizens. Since 2010, 24 states have joined an elder exploitation prevention program, called the Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation Prevention Program (EIFFE) which guards against fraud and swindling by involving physicians. The senior citizen’s physician, while not usually privy to the financial climate of the victim’s household, can now identify risk factors, refer patients for screening if they suspect an abusive situation, and report any mistreatment to Adult Protective Services.
According to an elder financial fraud survey, possible one in five senior citizens is financially victimized. The EIFFE’s outreach to the physicians, including dentists, has seen early success in identifying patients who may be victimized but cannot advocate for themselves. Patients may be brought to their doctors’ appointments by the very family members who are mistreating them, and the EIFFE’s continuing medical education trains the doctors how to handle any warning signs they may notice, even in the possibly tense environment of the waiting room.
Last week, The Minneapolis Star Tribune (http://m.startribune.com/news/?id=134435633&c=y) reported that a 46-year-old Minnesota man was charged this month with swindling his 86-year-old mother out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The article reported the man used the money to fund, among other things, a phone sex and pornography habit. Records show he had been using his mother’s savings for over ten years.
The elderly mother had her checking accounts seized, her income garnished, and a lien put on her home after she could not pay her tax bill.
Luckily, this is a case that made the headlines of Minnesota, Indiana, and Nevada newspapers, gaining needed attention for senior citizens and the elder laws that protect their resources.
A Hennepin County prosecutor, Mike Freeman, is quoted in one of the many articles written about the current case (http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1476317) as stating that he has seen too many cases where an aging parent is swindled out of his or her own estate.
The son faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail and a $100,000 fine.

For further assistance with elder law please contact Adam Roa on his website Maryland Elder Law

22 Signs That The Thin Veneer Of Civilization That We All Take For Granted Is Starting To Disappear

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:23:00 +0000

In order for a society to function, there has to be a certain level of trust. Each day when we leave our homes, we take for granted that most people are not going to attack us for no reason, that there will only be isolated incidents of theft in our community and that rioting and violence are not going to erupt in the streets. Whether we realize it or not, we depend on the fact that the vast majority of the people around us are going to act in a civilized manner. Unfortunately, the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear. When I was growing up, I was taught that challenging times reveal our true character. There are many that believe that the declining economy is causing a lot of the chaos that we are now witnessing, but perhaps what is going on is that these challenging economic times are simply revealing the character that has been there all along. For decades, a "false prosperity" that was fueled by unprecedented amounts of debt has masked a lot of the internal rot that has taken hold in America. But now that our prosperity is crumbling, our lack of values is becoming startlingly clear.
Greed, corruption and extreme self-centeredness have deeply infected our society. We see this on Wall Street and in Congress, and we see this among those that are trying to survive on the mean streets of our largest cities.
Our nation is breaking down on every level. If by some miracle we were able to fix our economy, that would mask our problems for a while, but it would not solve them.
Unfortunately, as I write about nearly every day, there are a whole host of indications that our economy is about to get even worse. When it does, millions of Americans will become even more desperate, and as we are now seeing all over this country, desperate people do desperate things.
The following are 22 signs that the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear....
#1 In Detroit, 100 bus drivers recently refused to drive their routes out of fear for their own personal safety. An article posted on the website of the CBS affiliate in Detroit is quoting the head of the bus drivers union, Henry Gaffney, as saying that the drivers are "scared for their lives"....

“Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind of just topped it off, when one of my drivers was beat up by some teenagers down in the middle of Rosa Parks and it took the police almost 30 minutes to get there, in downtown Detroit,” said Gaffney.

#2 In Wilmington, Delaware recently, a man offered to help someone carry a television down the street, but quickly realized that it was his own television which had just been stolen out of his house....

A Wilmington resident who stopped home for lunch about noon today saw a man carrying a flat screen TV down the street and asked the man if he needed help.
He then recognized the television as his own, looked up and saw the door to his home ajar, said Master Sgt. Adam Ringle.

#3 Shocking video has surfaced of a young thug walking up to a defenseless elderly man in a Chicago subway station and knocking him out cold. In the video, the friends of the young man are cheering him on and laughing at how easy it was to knock the old man out cold.
#4 Beating up old people for no reason seems to be catching on all over the country. Just check out the following report from a recent article posted on philly.com....

AN 84-YEAR-OLD ex-university official savagely attacked by four young punks during a walk in Wissahickon Valley Park earlier this week theorizes that the beating he endured was a cruel game of "get the old geezer."
Jim Shea, a former vice president of university relations for Temple, from 1968 to 1983, walks up to five miles on Forbidden Drive, in Fairmount Park, three times a week, but that type of stamina wasn't enough to stave off the lowlifes who not only beat him bloody, but dealt a blow to one of the things he holds most dear - his pride.

#5 All over the United States, police are brutalizing Occupy Wall Street protesters and spraying pepper spray directly in their faces. Whatever you may think of the Occupy Wall Street protests, the reality is that this is not a sign that things are becoming "more stable" in America. You can see video of one very disturbing confrontation right here.
#6 Clashes between police and protesters in Oakland, California recently became so violent that at one point the streets of Oakland resembled a war zone.
#7 Unfortunately, as the American people become increasingly frustrated with out system many of them are actually starting to consider violence as a solution. According to one recent survey, 31 percent of all Occupy Wall Street protesters "would support violence to advance their agenda".
#8 In New York recently, a confrontation between two female customers and a frustrated cashier ended with the cashier beating the living daylights out of them with a metal rod. The following is how a local CBS affiliate in New York described this incident....

It appeared to have started when two female customers argued and yelled obscenities at the cashier when he questioned a $50 bill they gave him.
One of the female customers then slapped the cashier. A woman is then seen jumping over the counter while the other woman goes behind the register.
That’s when the cashier can be seen on the video disappearing into the back of the fast-food restaurant. He comes back with a metal rod and begins hitting the women.

You can see video of this violent confrontation right here.
#9 These days, many Americans are so "on edge" that just about anything will make them snap. For example, a 60-year-old woman in New Mexico recently repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend because she thought that he was cheating during a game of Monopoly.
#10 If you thought that the above example was crazy, just check out what one man down in Georgia did recently. He actually firebombed a Taco Bell because they did not put enough meat in his Chalupa.
#11 In Cleveland last week, a 49-year-old man was sent to the hospital after a poll monitor working for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections tried to bite his nose off.
#12 Not only do TSA agents make us feel like dehumanized cattle as we go through airport security, some of them are evening making fun of us at the same time. For example, one TSA agent recently scribbled “GET YOUR FREAK ON GIRL” on a TSA inspection notice after discovering a sex toy in the luggage of one female traveler.
#13 Identity theft is rising to very alarming levels all over the United States. For example, a recent article in the Palm Beach Post described what has been going on down in Florida this year....

In the first half of this year, the Federal Trade Commission received more than 20,000 complaints from Floridians whose identities had been stolen -- nearly as many as in all of 2010. More than half of those reporting their Social Security numbers or other personal information had been ripped off and used to commit fraud or theft were in South Florida, with heavy concentrations in parts of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach.
"That kind of increase is really shocking,'' said Vance Luce, deputy special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service in South Florida, which investigates identity theft and financial crimes. "The fact that it's on the upturn doesn't surprise me at all, but that's pretty alarming.''

#14 In the Seattle area, an elderly couple in their eighties was recently brutally attacked by a 31-year-old man armed with a crossbow and a hatchet. The following description of this brutal crime comes from King 5 News....

Prosecutors say 31-year-old John Chase was walking down the highway when he saw Ralph Aldrich, 88, in his back yard. Detectives say Chase shot and killed Aldrich with a crossbow and then went inside the home and repeatedly hit 83-year-old June Aldrich with a hatchet.

#15 As America falls apart, more of us than ever are taking medication for depression. At this point, more than 1 out of every 10 Americans over the age of 12 is taking prescription antidepressants.
#16 In some areas of the country, people have been literally tearing apart their own cities in an attempt to find things to sell. I recently discussed this phenomenon on The American Dream Blog....

In Fresno, California the damage caused by thieves stealing copper wire from city street lights is costing the city about $50,000 a month. So far, about 2,500 street lights have been stripped of their wiring.

#17 As people become more desperate, we are starting to see some truly bizarre crimes in many parts of the nation. In northern Alabama, one team of crooks has been using a forklift to pull entire ATM machines out of the ground.
#18 Most Americans don't realize this, but all over the U.S. livestock is being stolen from ranchers in unprecedented numbers. The following is from a recent Associated Press article....

While the brazenness may be unusual, the theft isn't. High beef prices have made cattle attractive as a quick score for people struggling in the sluggish economy, and other livestock are being taken too. Six thousand lambs were stolen from a feedlot in Texas, and nearly 1,000 hogs have been stolen in recent weeks from farms in Iowa and Minnesota. The thefts add up to millions of dollars in losses for U.S. ranches.
Authorities say today's thieves are sophisticated compared to the horseback bandits of the rugged Old West. They pull up livestock trailers in the middle of the night and know how to coax the animals inside. Investigators suspect it's then a quick trip across state lines to sell the animals at auction barns.

#19 At this point, thieves are becoming so bold that they will steal literally anything that they are able to cart away. For example, in the San Francisco area a while back thieves actually stole a copper bell that weighs 2.7 tons.
#20 According to the FBI, the number of gang members in the United States has increased by a staggering 40 percent since 2009. Right now, there are 1.4 million gang members terrorizing citizens on the streets of America.
#21 Down in Miami, thieves have become so bold that they have actually been breaking into parked police cruisers and stealing guns and ammo out of them. Many of those guns undoubtedly are ending up in the hands of gangs members.
#22 Be careful who you befriend online. They might just hold you captive and use you as part of a Satanic sex ritual. The following description of an incident that recently happened in Milwaukee comes from thesmokinggun.com....

Two young Milwaukee women were arrested this week after an 18-year-old Arizona man--who traveled to Wisconsin by bus after meeting one of the suspects online--told cops that he was held captive in the duo’s apartment for two days and slashed and stabbed more than 300 times as part of an apparent satanic sex ritual.

Anger and frustration are growing to unprecedented levels in this country, and all of this anger and frustration is manifesting in thousands of different ways.
As I have written about previously, the rioting, the crime and the violence that we are seeing now is only just the beginning of what is coming.
Unless a miracle happens, our country is going to keep heading down the road toward societal collapse. For even more examples that show that our country is starting to come apart at the seams, please see the following articles that I have authored previously....
-"18 Signs The Collapse Of Society Is Accelerating"
-"12 More Signs That Society Is Collapsing"
It won't happen all at once, but unless our nation changes direction dramatically, we will see things get progressively worse and worse.
Instead of teaching our children to love and care for one another, we have taught them to be incredibly self-involved. Today, way too many Americans deeply love themselves, deeply love money and are deeply addicted to entertainment. Each new generation seems to be even more prideful, even more arrogant and even more violent. As a nation, we are losing our empathy for others, our compassion for the needy and our respect for the elderly. Our family units are breaking down and thousands of our communities are being transformed into hellholes.
What in the world is happening to America?
If you have a thought on this topic, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving a comment below....

THE ROBING ROOM where judges are judged

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:47:00 +0000

I just found this website that every family victim and advocate can use:

THE ROBING ROOM where judges are judged

Click on this link: http://www.therobingroom.com/

Just click on your state (lower left) or on your region of the country. Then, follow the prompts! You may rate, post comments, and contact others who have posted.

I was doing a google search, to see if any of my postings were surfacing, for the judges who perpetrated the “guardianship” crimes against my, elderly, parents. One link opened, directly, to the rating page for the judge in Maryland who, first, took my parents into guardianship, Judge Louis Becker. He has, all, low ratings.

I’ve been behind the scenes, for awhile, but, my advocacy continues in the efforts to find justice for my parents, William and Ada Morris, who passed away, last year, still under this abusive and illegal guardianship. Their lives were stolen, under the guise of protecting them, by Howard County, Maryland, Circuit Court Judges, Louis Becker and Dennis Sweeney and continued with Timothy McCrone. This was, also, orchestrated by Ofelia Ross, caseworker from the Howard County Office on Aging and the “court appointed attorney”, Ria Rochvarg. When my postings went “viral”, last year, Ofelia Ross was replaced by Marcia Soergel, another caseworker. Here, again, are the links to my parents’ story:

1) Neglect & Abuse of William & Ada Morris: http://elder-abuse-cyberray.blogspot.com/2010/04/william-l-morris-and-ada-v-morris.html

2) Letter to Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley: http://elder-abuse-cyberray.blogspot.com/2010/06/racketeering-scheme-against-elderly-and.html

3) Intent to Murder (my father): http://elder-abuse-cyberray.blogspot.com/2010/06/intent-to-murder-by-howard-county.html

4) Condemned to Die (my father): http://elder-abuse-cyberray.blogspot.com/2010/07/condemned-to-die-real-death-squad.html

5) Even in Death, They Plague Us: http://elder-abuse-cyberray.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-nightmare-even-in-death-they.html

Time has not permitted me to write a full account of events that took place at Howard County General Hospital. Here is a, brief, summary: Corruption knows, no, limits. This was obvious with the “bait and switch” by one of the head doctors, “Intensivist”, Dr. David Nyanjom, in the HCGH Intensive Care Unit. He had a meeting/conference call with our family and he told us that he supported my father having a feeding tube. My father lay in his hospital bed, another week, while waiting for an “expedited” court hearing regarding the feeding tube. Dad had, already, told me he was in favor of the tube. But, his wishes were denied. Dr. Nyanjom’s peer (another intensivist), Dr. Fernando De Leon, was the doctor to show up in court. He testified, against, my father having a feeding tube. When I, later, confronted Dr. Nyanjom on the “bait and switch”, his unprofessional and uncaring demeanor validated his participation and complicity. The Howard County Office on Aging had, already, spent all of my parent’s money and Medicaid was, not yet, available, for them. Since my parents’ social security and pension income was not enough to pay for both of my parents, in assisted living, and as the Office on Aging was determined to keep control, they, no longer, wanted my father to live.

To keep other complicit social services, and attorneys, accountable, here are their names: Janis DiSibio, Shareese Kess-Lewis, Debbie Beares, Peggy Rightnour, Phyllis Madachy, Susan Rosenbaum, Sue Vaeth, Charlene Gallion, Beverly Heydon and Anthony Doyle. Administrative Judge Diane Leasure was, also, complicit as were, at the state level, former Maryland Secretary of Human Resources, Brenda Donald, Maryland Secretary Department on Aging, Gloria Lawlah, the Office of Health Care Quality and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. Assisted living owners, who gained thousands of dollars a month, from my parents’ estate, and who, willingly, lied against family members, are: Carmen Collandrea and Richard Collandrea owners of Bryant Woods Inn Assisted Living, Columbia, Maryland and William Singh and Elmira Singh, owners of Pfefferkorn Assisted Living, West Friendship, Maryland.

My mother’s birthday is this Saturday, August 13th. She would have been 91. Mom and Dad, rest in peace!

Barbara Morris

Daughter and Advocate for Justice

A Heartbreaking Story of Elder Abuse and Legal Thievery

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:26:00 +0000

by Jim Fargiano

Until relatively recently, I was unaware of how rampant elder abuse is within the legal court system. For almost the last two decades, my life has been consumed by helping as many people as I could in a different way than most give help. I have informally counseled and helped thousands of people through the publishing of my book, as well as in private sessions as a medium/psychic. It was not until my good friend started to share her story with me that my eyes were opened to something far more prevalent than I was cognizant of; at least on a conscious level.

I have been privileged to know Diane for over five years. During that span, she has never been anything but helpful, loving and compassionate to everyone. Doing what I do for a living generally makes me able to be a pretty good judge of character. Ironically, it is a judge and his decisions that prompted me to write this article. The choices and attitude he has expressed have been protected by legal statutes. While they might be legal, they are far from moral, ethical or compassionate.

This all began approximately two and a half years ago. Diane's mother had given her power of attorney and named her the healthcare proxy. Like many families, there were disagreements with the siblings. Diane was being told that her brother and sister wanted to sell their mother's home and place her in a nursing home. While this elderly woman, Dorothy, had some early dementia and knee problems, she was still a vibrant, cognizant person. She had no interest in being displaced so that those two could have her money. Diane's family suggested she file for legal guardianship to protect her home and to protect her mother's life as well. It seemed to make an abundance of sense.

To tell the events of what unfolded quickly is really an injustice to the elder abuse that has incurred since. The siblings contested the petition for guardianship.

Instead of reaching a mediated agreement, the judge listening to the case decided he would be better at making decisions for everyone. He assigned a law guardian and a healthcare manager. It appears these three have worked together before.

Diane was immediately removed from what her mother wanted; to have her take care of her needs if there was any reason for it. As it was, Dorothy would spend many weekends at Diane's house. It must be noted that Diane works from home and took care of her father in his last years. It would give Dorothy a change of scenery and much appreciated love and companionship. All of that was about to change.

Diane, rightfully, brought in a lawyer to help overturn the judge's decision. This attorney had handled her parents' legal needs in the past. Not only was he familiar with the family dynamics, but he had intimate knowledge of what Dorothy wanted. He was even going to represent Diane pro bono. All he wanted to see was that this aged woman was allowed to live happily at her own home, or with Diane.

The Supreme Court judge, based in Nassau County, New York, took it upon himself to unfairly disallow the attorney's generosity and right to represent Diane. It was the first step in a string of negatively prejudicial rulings against my friend.

The law guardian requested that a reverse mortgage be approved for $275,000 on Dorothy's home of six decades. In open court, opposed by some, this magistrate authorized the financial decision and stated that the money would allow Dorothy to remain in her home for at least five years. It is now only two years later and all of that money has been spent. In addition, social security and a couple of small pensions were still coming in. In a mere twenty-four months, more than $325,000 had been frittered away!

As of the writing of this story, the judge has ordered Dorothy into a nursing home. In his ruling, he admits this goes against Dorothy and the family's wishes. The law guardian, healthcare manager and another person showed up unannounced and told Dorothy they were taking her to the doctor to check on a problem she was having. Dorothy, now eighty-seven years old, willingly went with them. She was hustled to a nursing home that was a distance far from the only child who has been battling for her freedom. She is frightened beyond belief.

The lie to get her into the car is one of a long string of deceptive tactics used by the law guardian, healthcare manager and the judge himself. There has been hearing after hearing over the last thirty or so months where the three of them have waged a war of defamatory statements, incredulous lies and perjury against Diane. They have fought the only daughter looking to do the right thing for her mother, with their end game being a complete bleeding of Dorothy's modest estate.

Her health has been compromised, and from my outsiders view, it was done solely to line their own pockets. The tragic thing in all of this has been that the judge, elected to uphold the rights of all people, has spearheaded his attack on an elderly woman.

How I wish I could condense hundreds of pages of documents into a short article. There was the theft of over thirty thousand dollars of jewelry. Dorothy stated that her other daughter absconded with it and she has been asking to have it returned. The supposed law guardian knows about it, but has refused to step in.

There was a sworn statement from another legal person stating that from all of the interviews she had with people familiar with the family, that Diane was seen as the most loving and giving child of the three. It states that her brother is known to have a violent temper and would be a danger to his mother. In court, the very same woman stood before the judge and said that this same man would be the best person to have Dorothy live with. In my opinion, these egregious actions of Diane's siblings has been overlooked in exchange for their support in allowing all of this to go on without their objections.

As I sum this up, I would share with you that there was a previous time that Dorothy was locked away for thirty days in another facility. She was denied the chance to be taken out by Diane for Thanksgiving, nor was she allowed to attend her only great granddaughter's christening; something that she wanted very much to be a part of. In trying to support Diane in whatever limited way possible, I have found that elder abuse is a much broader problem than I was aware of.

The National Association To Stop Guardian Abuse (NASGA) has stepped in to help with this case; one of a multitude they are bringing to the attention of Congress and other law related committees. It seems like power-hungry people who are trusted to protect the rights of our senior citizens run amuck and take advantage of them, their families and so forth. Justice is supposed to be blind, yet it is those in society who need not be blind to the fact that this goes on far too often. If you find yourself in a position to make a difference by correcting the wrongs of these judges and guardians, make sure you do not wait for someone else to fix it. What would you do if this was your Mom or Dad; if it was your family faced with this?

About the Author

Jim Fargiano is a student and teacher of spirituality and universal awareness. He has shared his ability to communicate with Spirit with thousands of people. There is a daily blog for like-minded people who are willing to improve their lives. Jim can be reached at http://www.JimFargiano.com.

Follow Jim Fargiano's daily blog at http://www.JimFargiano.blogspot.com

Source=>>here

War on the Elderly ! - Rense & Marti Oakley – Guardianship – Theft, Looting And Murder

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:09:00 +0000

It happens everyday in every state. Elderly or disabled individuals are kidnapped under the guise of “guardianship” by predatory guardians who then begin bleeding off the estate.

Corrupt probate judges, attorney’s, social agency workers, nursing home operators, doctors and the ever present predatory guardian, all begin hammering away at the vicitms assets until nothing is left. The family is restrained from visitation while hearsay charges are levied against them by the predators. No evidence required.

If you think this can’t happen to you, think again. Congress is well aware of this crime. Your state agencies, police departments, state attorney’s general, the FBI, the DoJ …all are fully informed and yet refuse to do anything to stop this theft and looting while holding an elderly or disabled victim hostage.

There is money to be made by converting a human being to chattel property!

And if a victim escapes the prison of the nursing home? A warrant is issued for “escaped human property”…….It could happen to you.

Source=>>Here

Watch You Tube Interview =>>Here

this story is as relevant today as when the story ran on 07/07/2011

Rense Steps up to the Plate, Runs Guardianship Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:06:00 +0000

by Janet C. Phelan

On June 29, six days after an article appeared on novakeo.com highly critical of Jeff Rense’s avoidance of the guardianship issue, the talk show host broke his years-long silence on the pervasive and problematic issue of adult guardianships and ran an hour interview with reporter and talk show host Marti Oakley.

The interview covered the main concerns of those in the guardianship reform movement, and stressed not only the theft of assets but also the fact that many of the wards are having their lives shortened through actions taken by the guardians themselves, who are ostensibly pledged to protect the wards' assets and well being. Oakley also discussed the legal machinations which are used to separate the ward from family and friends, among other issues which make adult guardianship a disturbing blip on the civil rights radar.

A small firestorm had begun to rage on the novakeo site, following the publication of the article by this reporter, which tied some of Rense’s prior pro-Nazi statements to his avoidance of the guardianship issue. Guardianship has been called a "holocaust on the elderly" and likened to the T-4 program in Hitler’s Germany. T-4, which targeted the same population that are potentially afflicted by guardianship (the elderly and disabled) was the first extermination program launched by Adolph Hitler.

Oakley had rushed to Rense’s defense, denying she had written emails concerning Rense’s pro-Nazi views which were first referenced by this reporter then posted in their entirety in the comments section. In a virtual news black- out on this subject, Oakley had run a number of guardianship interviews on her own blog talk radio show a few of months back.

The purpose of a free press in a democratic society is to watchdog the government and, when necessary, to oversee the actions of other members of the press. The guardianship issue has been woefully underreported in the past and Oakley and Rense are to be congratulated for a fine, although somewhat tardy, show on this controversial subject.

Related Articles:Rense & Marti Oakley - Guardianship - Theft, Looting And Murder

Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist whose articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The San Bernardino County Sentinel, The Santa Monica Daily Press, The Long Beach Press Telegram, Oui Magazine and other regional and national publications. Janet addresses the heated subject of adult conservatorship, revealing shocking information about the relationships between courts and shady financial consultants. She also covers issues relating to international nuclear weapon treaties. Her poetry has been published in Gambit, Libera, Applezaba Review, Nausea One and other magazines. Her first book, The Hitler Poems, was published in 2005. She currently resides abroad.

The heads of old age ...

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:37:00 +0000

Robinson Jeffers "The heads of strong old age are beautiful beyond all grace of youth."

“You can ignore reality........

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:35:00 +0000

“You can ignore reality,but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” -Ayn Rand

Letter to Editor -Help My Mother-

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:32:00 +0000

Elder abuse is a growing epidemic, one that the criminal justice community fears will only get worse as the Baby Boom generation starts to age. Illinois Department on Aging statistics reveal a 31 percent jump in reported cases of elder abuse statewide between 1997 and 2003. Elder abuse victims, most of whom are women, suffer physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect, often at the hands of people they trust: their children, primary caregivers, and those they depend on for survival. These victims are fragile, ill, and sometimes incapacitated.

My mother will cooperate, you just need to get her out of the Toerpe house and with the people she loves and trusts, me, Aunt Yo, Kathie Bakken, Debbie Holda, even cousin Joe. Attached please find the letter to the Judge from NASGA a bona fide national organization in the business of protecting elders and people with disabilities from abuse and financial exploitation. They received the verified court documents and did an independent investigation. I only ask that you do the same, before it's too late.

"Cop accused of passing as elderly father in attempt to steal pension money" is the recent headlines across Chicago-land. Unfortunately, the investigation wasn't completed until the father mysteriously died of alleged complications of dementia (over medicating?). Carolyn Toerpe has already lied to the Court about mother's health insurance coverage, stating that all she has is medicare, when in fact, she has incredible coverage through the Chicago Police Department, Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Carolyn Toerpe told the court that mother (and father, retired Sargent Charles Sykes, CPD) lived in poverty, that my father had no savings, and either did mother. That too is incorrect! My father saved at minimum $2000 a month for for about 20 years! He and his nephew Al Bibby (the Bibby Estate) invested in silver and gold (coins and bars) and dad's home was paid off in 1975!. He not only had an pension, but additional income from a tenant. Both my sister and I were out of college and on our own. My parents didn't gamble, drink, and/or purchase flashy new cars or even own flashy cars. Mother earns a good living too, as a dress maker, tailor, and seamstress: she also made and sold crafts, quilts, et cetera! Mother worked until the day she was kidnapped on June 30, 2009, by Toerpe.

I've asked for a wellness check, and I would like to be present, and now I just need a wellness check. The Two Guardians Ad Litem need to isolate Mother because if mother is allowed to leave or be away from Toerpe, Mother will ask for an attorney, again, or refuse to return home. I'll give you Debbie Holda's phone number and call her: she supervised 6 visits between mother and me: mother played winning hands of canasta, bowled, miniture golfing, socialized at church, took long walks... this is not a person with Alzheimer as they tell you. Mother's primary doctor refused to sign the medical reports.

Please, I'm begging you to investigate this before my Mother is murdered. At least do a wellness check tonight or tomorrow and take mother out of the house, away from the Toerpe's influence, and she will talk to you. Ask her if she wants to return to her home. She may say, "Lexington Street" because that is where they tell her she owned a home which was sold a long time ago. Tell her Norwood Park, and she will say, 6014 n. Avondale. Tell her I'm living in her home, and she will be very excited. She will probably ask if she can spend a few days with me. She may tell you that I'm working all the time and ***. I work out of the house. They've just had be evicted from Mother's home as they've sold it in order to get rid of me.

I don't know what else you need. Mr. Kenneth Ditkowsky, Kathie Bakken, Scott Evans, Yolanda Bakken, all of these people are not crazy, or abusers, we're just trying to save my Mother's life. My sister is seriously sick, she's a proverbial lie, an opportunist, et al. She told the court that she's a psychologist and signed legal documents with PhD after her name. What will it take for one of you to do the right thing?

I will bring in all of the court transcripts for your review. I will show you digital recordings, and recent audio recordings of phone conversations. You can see and hear for yourself the abuse. The gasligthing The sadness of all of this. My daddy is turning in his grave.

There is no order of protection against me, but a petition for an order of protection against Teorpe. Please read the attached. For my Dad, a former Chicago Police Officer, investigate. Do you think that I would testify at the House (Rayburn Building) and open myself to the Illinois Department of Justice, the political elite, or an organization like NASGA if I were the perpetrator? If I am wrong, then your friends, Cynthia Farenga, Adam Stern, Peter Schmiedel and The Toerpes win. If I am right, you'll be saving a person's life. Thank you.

Gloria Jean Sykes

Bon Ami Productions, Inc.
773.910-3310(cell)
773.251-8387 (Bon Ami Foundation)
773.631.7701 (fax and office line)

Are you Cognitively Impaired or Vitamin Deficient?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:42:00 +0000

By Irene A. Masiello
Certified: Holistic Counselor, Adult Educator & Stress Management Consultant

My book, Paradise Costs, A Victim’s Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse, is a chronicle of my father’s deterioration into the abyss of severe cognitive impairment. This was the consequence of Alzheimer’s and resulted in his subsequent abuse and exploitation by neighbors in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Dad’s tragic decline took years. It was heartbreaking to see a robust and vibrant man once captivated by his love for animals and nature become apathetic, depressed and withdrawn.

Writing Paradise Costs took ten years to complete. It was a stressful marathon filled with agonizing memories, requiring intense focus while processing deep sorrow. Most of my time was spent indoors in front of my computer. I’ve attributed some health issues to the stress and, recently, I was diagnosed as a possible diabetic.

Over the course of this past year, I developed severe and crippling pain in my shoulder, rib cage, chest and foot. I felt weak and exhausted all the time no matter how much rest I got. I was unable to concentrate, was unsteady on my feet and unable to make decisions. I felt overwhelmed and anxious over slight matters and somewhat immobilized.

My internist, a wonderful man (and a consultant for Paradise Costs), was looking towards a diagnosis of diabetes, especially, since my Dad was insulin dependent. However, under his supervision, I went on a crash diet and lost over 20 lbs. Fortunately, he diagnosed me as glucose intolerant rather than diabetic.

My glucose numbers were not extremely high. But, rather, they jumped around with great sensitivity to what time I ate, how I slept, the amount of pain I had, stress, etc. The numbers did not follow a pattern and, ultimately, were low enough for my internist to conclude that I needed no medication for diabetes but rather very careful monitoring of carbohydrate and glucose consumption. Exercise was advised but that was tough for me because I was feeling so weak.

Because of a blood issue I have and my hematologist’s orders, I had stopped taking a multi-vitamin years ago. Though I recently asked her again about vitamins, she was adamant. My body is making too many red blood cells and its thought that vitamins would stimulate my bone marrow to produce even more of them.

However, with this new diagnosis of glucose intolerance limiting what I could eat, some vague yet alarming red flags were swirling around my head and I was struggling with them. While somewhat immobilized and beleaguered, I started to wonder if I could be properly nourished since I could not eat fruit, drink a glass of orange juice, have a white potato, etc. How could I consume enough vitamins and minerals to stay healthy now?

I started thinking about the trace minerals I was doing without. I wondered about Vitamin C and my immune system because it seemed that all this pain had started around Christmas last year when I came down with a fever and stayed sick for months. During this time, the symptoms mentioned earlier seemed to be getting worse.

I was struggling to string this together but really, cognitively, I was not sure I was the person I once was. I justified it saying, “Well, none of us are who we used to be.” A couple of my friends seemed to be saying the same things, too, and feeling somewhat like me. More justification came with our saying “we’re all aging.”

Then one friend reported that he had been diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency. Once a gal pal was diagnosed with the same shortly after, I hit the Internet running. What I saw online horrified me for I was described perfectly in the pages of symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. It explained so much. I called my internist who said, “Most people are D deficient so you probably will be too. We’ll check.”

He was shocked at the result and stated he never saw a vitamin D level so low. The normal range of vitamin D in the blood is 30-74. Mine was NINE! The Net said this level of vitamin D deficiency is dangerous.

Vitamin D deficiency is a contributing factor in diabetes and glucose intolerance. It’s thought to help safe guard us against breast, bladder and colon cancer. Deficiency of vitamin D causes body pain, weakness, cognitive impairment, confusion, brittle bones, exhaustion, more.

Vitamin D’s presence in the blood stream regulates the absorption of calcium (a lack of calcium causes osteoporosis, etc.) in the body and my doctor told me my calcium number was high.

The Net says calcium cannot be absorbed without vitamin D and that any slight deviance from the normal calcium range could change someone’s personality both emotionally and cognitively. It pointed out that magnesium was critical to the absorption of both vitamin D and calcium as well.

After only three and a-half weeks of vitamin D therapy, the pain I wrestled with for months was reduced by about 60%. The confusion and lethargy lifted somewhat, I felt more cognitively aware and I started to return to who I was. My glucose numbers came down, too. Finally, I was well enough to start walking without feeling faint.

On an outing with a childhood friend, I remarked, “Imagine what could have happened to me had I fallen and broken a hip, landed in a nursing home, and lost ability to make cogent decisions for myself all because of a vitamin deficiency.”

It’s too easy to look at the changes in oneself and dismiss them as simple aging. It’s more difficult to stay informed and active in the information loop. As we age, our nutritional needs change and, certainly, anyone who is bedridden or a shut-in needs more careful medical supervision and monitoring.

Your physician’s assistance and support is critical. Doctors know a lot but they don’t know everything and, usually, they’re the first ones to admit it. Certainly, mine did.

Our healthcare system has dramatically reduced the quality of medical care. Doctors spend too much of their very valuable time complying with insurance company mandates and doing paperwork rather than practicing the art and science of medicine which they love and have dedicated their lives to.

We, as patients, must remain pro-active and do our homework in partnering with our doctors. With the state of our health care system in shambles and it failing us all, both doctors and patients need to work together as a team.

Please find an informed advocate to help you navigate the system, if possible, and, remember, nutrition is a science. Please discuss your nutritional needs with your physician and ask him or her about consulting with a nutritionist. Many insurance companies will pay for this care.

Question….do you get 15 minutes of sunlight every single day? If not, please ask your doctor for the blood test as soon as possible for you may be vitamin D deficient.

Irene A. Masiello is the author of Paradise Costs, A Victim’s Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse, www.ParadiseCosts.com, afterword by Bennett Blum, MD, www.BennettBlumMD.com, and proprietor of Kayla Grace Designs affordable handmade jewelry especially created for baby-boomers see: www.etsy.com/shop/kaylagracedesigns. PLEASE NOTE: The above article is not a replacement for the care of your licensed healthcare professional. Please consult your physician for all your healthcare needs. © Copyright, June 2011, Irene A. Masiello, All rights reserved. Do not reprint without permission of the author. Reach her at irenemasiello@msn.com.

Matricide—The Gift that Keeps on Giving

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 01:34:00 +0000

Ray Fernandez

On May 9, Judy Phelan got another installment of the pay-off money for her involvement in the death of her own mother. Amalie Phelan had been a clinical psychologist and widow of controversial investigative reporter and best-selling author, James Phelan.

The ongoing saga of the Phelan murder, intended to be a hush job, ended up spilling into the independent media when Judy’s sister, Janet Phelan, survived the attempt to silence her, an attempt botched by the Long Beach Police Department. Janet was unconscious for several days in a Long Beach hospital but ultimately survived the attack, which she states was spearheaded by LBPD Officer Loren Dawson. She has since left the U.S.

If Janet had succumbed, her sister Judith would have been the sole beneficiary of the Phelan estate, valued at around $1 million dollars.

According to the available records, Amalie nearly died in June of 2002, while under the “care” of her daughter, Judith and conservator Melodie Scott, who acted in concert with Redlands attorney J. David Horspòol and a shadowy agent for an alphabet intelligence agency, who goes by the name of “Jack Smith.” (http://www.phillyimc.org/en/happy-birthday-agent-smith) Judy, who was living with her mother at the time, was the “hands-on” part of the operation.

Janet Phelan was alerted to her mother’s distress and rushed to Temecula from Los Angeles on June 11,2002. She drove her mother to the ER at Rancho Springs Hospital in Murrieta, where Amalie was admitted and emergency surgery was performed. On returning to her mother’s home, Janet Phelan states she discovered evidence at the scene and contacted the Temecula Police.

Two days later, she was served with notice that Melodie Scott has gone to court and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order blocking her from seeing her mother again. In the application for the TRO, Scott falsely states that Janet “unnecessarily” transported her mother to the hospital, thereby upsetting her.

The Restraining order never came to hearing. Instead, Judge Stephen Cunnison signed a permanent restraining order in chambers, violating the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Shortly thereafter, he issued a second Restraining order, blocking Janet from contacting any agency which could have possibly intervened and helped her mother.

“I was restrained from contacting the Department of Justice, the police, Adult Protective services and the Ombudsman for Nursing homes,” states Janet.

The records support Janet’s contention that she reported these events to every appropriate agency of record.

“I called the Temecula Police right after taking Mom to the ER,” she recalls. They came, they took a report which states it went to the D.A. for investigation. The D.A. denied receiving it. I then filed a report with the Special Investigations Unit of the District Attorney’s office, and the report “disappeared.” I filed a report with the California Attorney General. This went to Deputy AG Mark Geiger, who removed it from the system so that it couldn’t be investigated. I then filed a complaint with Geiger’s boss, Dane Gillette. Gillette failed to respond. I finally filed with the United States Department of Justice and got a letter back falsely stating that the statute of limitations had expired—on murder? I don’t think so—and that there was nothing they could do.

“I filed with the Commission of Judicial Performance, the State Bar, APS, the FBI and even with the California Professional Fiduciaries Bureau. There was a blockade at every juncture,” she says.

“I also contacted Internal Affairs at the LBPD after the cops tried to take me down and

I was told—incredibly—that I wasn’t “allowed” to contact Internal Affairs. They cited that second restraining order as a reason not to take my report and threatened me with arrest if I called them again.”

Amalie died shortly thereafter under suspicious circumstances. Janet Phelan was not informed that her mother had died until weeks after she had been buried.

In a concerted effort to reward Judy for her crimes, Melodie Scott first cut Janet off the Trust for a protracted period of time and utilized one of Amalie’s accounts at Bank of America to funnel money to Judy, an account she never reported to the court in the conservatorship proceedings.

The estate has dwindled, due in part to the pay- offs and also to the fact that Janet , who is a beneficiary, survived against all odds. The Trusteeship passed on to the Riverside Public Guardian’s office and in another effort to make sure that Judy is amply rewarded, the Deputy Public Guardian Elizabeth Aquarian recently made false declarations to the court concerning prior accountings in order to tap into Janet’s share and turn it over to Judith. On May 9, Riverside Superior Court Judge Thomas Cahraman signed the order approving this.

“My sister keeps reaping the benefits of attempted murder. It’s all about money for Judy,” she says. “I want her behind bars. But not only is justice being denied, these people are actually padding her pockets with blood money.

“I can hardly believe that this is happening in our country,” declares Janet. “If people are murdering their parents for money, with the full approval and sanction of the State, what does that say about our way of life? What does that say about our values and our system of justice?”

“We have a great system—on paper. In actuality, what we have is utter lawlessness and courts of privilege, abuse and pursuit of the Almighty dollar.”

Judith Phelan could not be reached for comment. Court records indicate that she is living in the San Francisco Bay area under an assumed name.

Jeff Rense: “Hitler wasn’t such a bad guy”

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:43:00 +0000

Concerns are swirling around the conspiracy circuit as to who Jeff Rense really is and what his real agenda might be. Allegations of neo Nazi affiliations have followed Rense since he first began to host a radio show, back in the nineties. These are the facts:

When approached to run a story on the guardianship crisis, which has been likened to the T-4 program in Hitler’s Germany, Rense responded with an apologia for the Nazis: “It would have moderated after awhile.” When the retort was that it would have “moderated” when Hitler murdered all the people he wanted to, Rense responded in defense of Adolph Hitler. “He wasn’t such a bad guy,” volunteered Rense.

The guardianship crisis has cut a deep slash into the civil rights of an entire generation. Given the brutal disregard evinced for the wards ,it has become a given in the guardianship reform movement that the guardians are actually killing many of their wards, through medical neglect and worse. Assets have been plundered and a subsequent generation, who might stand to inherit, has been impoverished through the actions of unscrupulous guardians.

But Jeff Rense thinks this is a “Jewish conspiracy.” Forget the fact that a disproportionately large number of the victims are Jewish. Forget the fact that a large number of the perpetrators are not. Rense sees a Jew behind every issue and damn the facts!! Full speed ahead…

Radio talk show host and journalist Marti Oakley was recently invited by Rense to come onto the show. Oakley had picked up on the guardianship story and had been running interviews and articles concerning this issue. Rense, however, “forbade” Oakley from discussing this on his show. When it appeared that Oakley would then not appear, he relented and told her she could discuss this in the second half.

According to Oakley, when the commercial break came he asked her if she could continue on with the other issues she was discussing and come back on at a later date to discuss guardianship. She agreed but Rense never got back to her as he had promised.

Nice trick. Oakley was fuming after the show.

Up close and personal, Rense attracts a large audience, hungry for the truth . But in typical counterintelligence fashion, he slides in the poison and those feasting on his anti-government rhetoric may not even notice that they are being fed hate speech. The fact is that the U.S. government is now engaged in killing off its own citizens in a multitude of ways, guardianship being one of the most “unmentionable.”

This reporter contacted Rense a few years back, attempting to get him to cover guardianship. “Be careful, Janet, “ he warned, inexplicably.

Careful? People are being killed in these guardianships. When did “careful” ever have anything to do with saving lives?

For a short period of time, while Rense was opining to get Oakley on his show, his website,http://www.rense.com/, carried a few stories about guardianship. He subsequently removed all the links to these stories.

Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist whose articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The San Bernardino County Sentinel, The Santa Monica Daily Press, The Long Beach Press Telegram, Oui Magazine and other regional and national publications. Janet addresses the heated subject of adult conservatorship, revealing shocking information about the relationships between courts and shady financial consultants. She also covers issues relating to international nuclear weapon treaties. Her poetry has been published in Gambit, Libera, Applezaba Review, Nausea One and other magazines. Her first book, The Hitler Poems, was published in 2005. She currently resides abroad.

You may browse through her articles (and poetry) at janetphelan.com

Janet Phelan is a regular columnist for Veracity Voice

Japan Radiation Coming To The US

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 21:57:00 +0000

By Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

At this point in time, most of us can say “no” to vaccines, genetically modified (GM) food, fluoride, and Big Pharma drugs. But we can’t “just say no” to radiation in the air all around us coming from Japan, and through oceanic contamination resulting from the BP Gulf incident. So, the difficult question is not how do we avoid this contamination, but rather, how we mitigate our exposure.

Let’s face it. We are surrounded by radioactive contaminants in the air, water, soil, and in our food, which is grown outdoors. We cannot control the air, which contaminates the soil, water, and plants. So, if we cannot get away from the problem, then what do we do? We can start by making sure that we have the knowledge to do the right things and collect the right resources to lessen our exposure. The following is a collection of some of the materials and applications that can be used to mitigate radiation exposure.
Personal detoxifying – people and animals

Unless we live in a bubble, our bodies will be contaminated with radioactive particles, so don’t just wait until someone tells you that you have been exposed, do something about it now. There are certain materials that will help detoxify the body without ill effects whether or not you have been exposed to these harmful materials. Some of these are:

•Zeolite Clay
•French Green Clay
•Bentonite Clay
•Baking Soda
•Boron
•Certain foods

Read it all=>> Here

Attorney Defies Subpoena in Alleged “Murder-For-Money” Scheme

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:06:00 +0000

A San Bernardino County attorney has defied a court issued subpoena mandating that he turn over bank records which would allegedly implicate him in a “murder-for-money scheme.” The account in question belonged to a conservatee and was subsequently taken over by the attorney’s client, conservator Melodie Scott.

Attorney J. David Horspool has consistently denied knowledge of any Bank of America account pertinent to Amalie M. Phelan. However, records already obtained show that Horspool and Scott drilled the safety deposit box held in Amalie Phelan’s name at the very Bank of America branch location where the account was situated, calling into question his profession of ignorance.

According to Janet Phelan, Horspool and Scott withheld from the court all records pertaining to this account and also withheld information about two Bank of America VISA cards and used these to pay off Judith Phelan, Amalie’s eldest daughter, who then allegedly withheld Amalie’s necessary cardiac medicine in an effort to kill her in 2002.

Medical records confirm that Amalie Phelan was admitted to Rancho Springs Hospital on June 11, 2002, where she was then operated upon and a pacemaker implanted to regulate her heartbeat. Janet Phelan had transported her to the hospital. Amalie Phelan’s pulse at the time of going into surgery was listed as 37.

Within a couple of days, Janet Phelan was subsequently served with notice that Scott and Horspool had applied for a Restraining Order against her, to legally restrain her from her mother. The application for the RO, signed by Melodie Scott, states that Janet Phelan “unnecessarily” transported her mother to the hospital, thereby causing emotional trauma to her mother.

The matter was to come to hearing on August 1, 2002. Court records and a notarized witness statement confirm that Phelan was in court from the opening to the closure of court and that Judge Stephen Cunnison never called this to hearing and restrained Phelan from her mother without due process.

“This was going to be very simple, “ states Janet Phelan. “I was going to ask the judge to subpoena the medical records, which were at that time only available to the conservator, not to me. I was going to tell him that the hospital trip was absolutely necessary and that as a result of the surgery my mother’s life was saved.

“Judge Cunnison violated the very cornerstone of our legal system—the right to due process. He also ensured my mother’s demise.”

The sanctions for ignoring a court authorized subpoena are severe, involving citation of contempt of court and monetary sanctions. Phelan predicts that Horspool will skate on this.

“The judge accommodated his murderousness back in 02 by restraining me without due process,” she says. “This court has no regard for the law, the Constitution or human life. I will be very surprised if Horspool is sanctioned for his ignoring the subpoena.

“My mother was a government employee for twenty seven years,” adds Phelan. “She had a doctoral degree and was a supervisor at the Long Beach Health Department. But the way the court behaved, she might just as well have been a Jew in Nazi Germany.”

When given the opportunity to respond as to why he has ignored the subpoena which he was served with on April 29, 2011, Horspool attacked Phelan, saying, “I got your idiotic, stupid, insane mentally ill fax…”He goes on to assert that “you previously subpoenaed the same records,” and also suggests that “if you think you got something, file it with the court instead of lying about it like you continually do.” He also states that “You have been provided with everything I have. “

A review of the court records shows no prior subpoenas issued by any party to this case. The record also shows that Phelan filed a lawsuit against Melodie Scott on June 1, 2009. The lawsuit was shut down by Judge Stephen Cunnison on May 5, 2010 at a hearing which was not legally noticed and at which Phelan was not present. During the course of discovery for the lawsuit, Phelan explicitly requested the records of the payments made to Judith Phelan and the court ruled against giving these to her.

Phelan made a police report concerning several bottles of undispensed heart medication on June 11, 2002. The police report states it was forwarded on for investigation. The DA denies receiving the report and no investigation took place.

Judith Phelan is now residing in the San Francisco Bay area under an assumed name.

"I Want Your House! "

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:54:00 +0000

By Janet C. Phelan

It seemed that the struggle over the conservatorship of Jean Tanaka couldn’t get more bizarre. Well, it just did.

On June 2, 2011, Tanaka conservator Linda Cotterman asked the court to have Mrs. Tanaka’s daughter, Jeannie, declared to be in contempt of court, an action which may involve jail time and will most likely cost Jeannie her job (Jeannie is an attorney with the State).

Cotterman is apparently steaming that Jeannie Tanaka, who is the Trustee for the Tanaka Trust, has asserted her rights as Trustee and is cleaning up the Westwood house which was left vacant when her mother, Jean Tanaka, was forcibly removed in the summer of 2010.

Jean Tanaka is under a conservatorship and Linda Cotterman is, peculiarly, the conservator, even though the Tanaka Trust documents clearly list Jeannie Tanaka as the person to assume that position.

The fact that Jeannie Tanaka was adhering to advice of her counsel, Robert Canny, in asserting her rights to clean up the property does not seem to concern Linda Cotterman. Jeannie and Jean had been residing together in Mrs. Tanaka's large Westwood home until Cotterman went to court to have Jeannie evicted and her mother taken forcibly from the house. Per the court orders, Jeannie was given three hours to remove her belongings. She moved out in February of 2010.

Upon her return to the house in May of this year, Jeannie found a terrible disarray, which she alleges was the result of Cotterman sacking the house. This is how she describes what she found:

“All of parent’s dresser drawers were emptied! Pictures torn off the walls, paint torn off, many damaged areas requiring painting of especially kitchen and stairway walls. Curtains in bedroom drawn, refrigerator light bulb was put in the ceiling, replacing the 100 watt bulb Mama’s large bathroom trashed clothes, papers, trash thrown all over the counter and floor. All of her expensive perfumes, colognes,cosmetics, toiletries, etc. removed.

Dining room trashed: parents personal belongings pulled from all over the house and piled in the dining room. When attorneys had a meeting in fall 2009 (creutz, reed, lodise, carol white) the room was of course neat and clean.

2 cabinet doors torn off hinges: one in kitchen, one in laundry room.
Expensive carpets in kitchen and laundry room removed and replaced with tile. Told the carpets were dirty and instead of cleaning, were removed. Flooring under the sink had been ripped out and I had to have it replaced. All kitchen pots and pans missing, cabinet shelves emptied, pantry emptied, all recipe books removed. Boxes and boxes of photo albums pulled into the kitchen and stacked All of Mama’s nick knacks removed from the living room. Mama’s 3 mink coats missing, chinchilla coat missing.

Large box of Japanese swords, including numerous national treasures worth millions missing. Upstairs bathroom door frame pulled off wall by someone who locked themselves out of the bathroom. Garage piled high with black trash bags of parents’ personal belongings,
unprotected clothes-moth eaten. Garage trashed: once neatly packed and stacked boxes were rummaged through contents thrown in heaps. Piles and piles of unwashed sheets and clothing found thrown in piles upstairs closet and living room.

Up until Mama was taken to the basement unit, I was not allowed to enter other rooms when I visited Mama. It was when we changed the locks and went in beginning May that I could see the full extent of what the temporary conservators and christine (ed. note—Christine Tanaka, Jeannie’s sister) were doing.”

Jeannie Tanaka then hired a couple of helpers and began spending her weekends trying to clean up the mess. The contempt of court pleadings claim that Jeannie is now living on the property, which a court order last year denied her from doing. Jeannie maintains she lives in her condo in West L.A.

The conservatorship of Jean Tanaka will probably go down in the annals of legal abuse of the elderly in pursuit of their money with the apparent goal here being the Westwood house, valued at several million dollars. The elderly Tanaka, a Japanese American, was detained during WWII in the Death Valley detention center, along with her then infant daughter, Jeannie. The conservatorship was launched in a hearing wherein Tanaka siblings made allegations demonizing Jeannie’s care of her mother, with whom she had been residing for eight years. The court ignored evidence to the contrary and discounted the legal documents, which named Jeannie as conservator and Trustee.

This reporter has reviewed letters and cards previously sent to Jeannie Tanaka by her sister, Christine, congratulating her on the wonderful care she was giving her mother. But things changed abruptly when Mr. Tanaka passed on, leaving the mother more vulnerable. Almost immediately upon his demise, Christine Tanaka filed for conservatorship, attacking her sister Jeannie for the very efforts she had so highly praised her for.

Jeannie must now pay $100 an hour in monitoring fees to see her mother and is restricted to three visits a week. Ironically, one of the allegations hurled at Jeannie in an attempt to wrest the conservatorship from her was that she was isolating her mother.

A medical doctor, Dr. Laura Moire, became concerned that medical care was being withheld Jean Tanaka by her conservator. The doctor then called Adult Protective Services and the police to make a complaint.

In a Kafkaesque maneuver, Judge Reva Goetz then slapped Dr. Moire with a restraining order, prohibiting her from making further reports about the welfare of Jean Tanaka. The fact that Dr. Moire is, as a physician, a mandated reporter of elder abuse didn’t seem to bother Judge Goetz, who seems intent on isolating Mrs. Tanaka from anyone and everyone who might be concerned for her welfare.

Dr. Moire’s report detailed numerous concerns that Mrs. Tanaka’s health was being negatively impacted by Cotterman’s care. Of special note was the discontinuation of physician prescribed supplements which had previously stabilized Mrs. Tanaka’s blood pressure, normalized her cholesterol levels, built bone density, and strengthened her immune system and cognitive functioning. Dr. Moire noted that this discontinuance has been followed by several back -to- back urinary infections, at least four collapses and several hospitalizations where she was transported unconscious by ambulances none of which were brought to the attention of a cardiologist. Mrs. Tanaka has reportedly further suffered weight loss, lack of basic dental care, isolation and restrictive monitoring of highly limited visits with her daughter, Jeannie.

Dr. Moire was also concerned about the apparent placement of Mrs. Tanaka on “comfort care” in the absence of any terminal condition or diagnosis, which has resulted in not only the continued withdrawal of care (such as supplements) which were deemed beneficial to the ninety-five year old woman but the denial of care for other medical problems, including her now painfully swollen hands, extreme fatigue, and erratic blood pressure.

The Tanaka Will and Trust had left all the property to Jeannie, including the Westwood home, located in a prime real estate location. The actions by Cotterman, supported and endorsed by Judge Goetz, have effectively nullified the Will and the Trust.

According to a couple of the helpers who have been assisting in cleaning up the Tanaka residence, Cotterman has lately been hanging around the house, showing up early in the morning and late at night, taking pictures and verbally accosting the helpers. One of the helpers, Nahid , quit the job this past weekend. She told this reporter that Cotterman confronted her on a couple of occasions recently outside the house, demanding information from her and snapping her picture and pictures of her vehicle. Nahid reported she was “frightened” by Cotterman.

In the pleadings to the court to have Jeannie deemed in contempt of court, Cotterman’s attorney made a statement which may reveal Cotterman’s real interest in this case.

Attorney Scott Schomer writes; “If respondent’s position (that all conservatee’s assets belong to the Trust) is correct, then there are no assets in the conservatorship and there is no conservatorship of estate.”

And if that were true, Cotterman and Schomer wouldn’t be able to charge a dime. Conservatorships are very expensive, with legal bills running in the tens of thousands a year and conservatorship fees running a close second.

Calls to Mr. Schomer were not returned.

Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist whose articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The San Bernardino County Sentinel, The Santa Monica Daily Press, The Long Beach Press Telegram, Oui Magazine and other regional and national publications. Janet specializes in issues pertaining to legal corruption and addresses the heated subject of adult conservatorship, revealing shocking information about the relationships between courts and shady financial consultants. She also covers issues relating to international bioweapons treaties. Her poetry has been published in Gambit, Libera, Applezaba Review, Nausea One and other magazines. Her first book, The Hitler Poems, was published in 2005. She currently resides abroad. You may browse through her articles (and poetry) at janetphelan.com

Death of 91-year-old spotlights line between care and killing

noreply@blogger.com (Ray) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:49:00 +0000

Maria 'Concha' Lopez, living with her great-niece, dies weighing 35 pounds and covered with sores. Was the 91-year-old's death murder or natural causes?

By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times June 2, 2011

Reporting from Madera, Calif. -- 'Don't leave me," Stephanie Hernandez implored, as she fumbled with her cellphone to dial 911. "I need you. I need you."

Hernandez had just changed her great-aunt's diaper and was coaxing her to take a sip of water when Maria "Concha" Lopez, 91, stopped breathing.

CPR was out of the question, Hernandez told the emergency dispatcher: "She's too fragile. We could break her, her bones." The dispatcher talked the distraught 26-year-old through the basics of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

But when firefighters and paramedics opened the door to the little house on South A Street that December morning, they were immediately overwhelmed. By the stench — urine, feces, rotting flesh. By the mess — soiled diapers, used bandages, a stained mattress.

Most of all, though, by Lopez's body. The bed-bound woman who'd suffered from dementia and shied away from doctors weighed just over 35 pounds and was covered in bedsores, some so deep they bared bone. A metal rod from hip surgery was visible.

Hernandez was arrested and then charged with murdering the woman she had bathed, fed and changed for three years. She would be put on trial, accused not of any overt violence against the woman who had raised her but of failure as a caregiver.

During five weeks of emotional testimony this spring, defense attorneys portrayed Hernandez as a loving niece whose meticulous efforts kept an old woman alive even as she lost 65% of her body weight. Projecting gruesome autopsy photos on a big white screen, the prosecutor described neglect so severe it amounted to criminal negligence.

In the end, the trial showcased the difficult questions facing doctors, courts and families today, when the "old old," 85 and up, are the fastest-growing segment of the population, when more than 43 million Americans care for aging relatives or friends and when neither science nor the law has kept pace.

What is elder abuse? When does inadequate care become criminal? Can the elderly be forced to seek help? And what exactly does a "normal" death look like?

"I would say that first responders and medical examiners haven't seen a lot of cases like this — yet," said Dr. Brad Stuart, chief medical officer for Sutter Care at Home and a researcher in the management of advanced illness. "But this is not going to be an unusual case in a few years."

It is April, mid-trial, and Hernandez reminisces from behind a thick plastic barrier in the visiting area of Madera County jail. She has been held here for more than a year and in the process lost custody of her 4-year-old daughter, Alyanna.

Hernandez had lived on South A Street in this hard-knocks farm town since she was 4 months old. Her mother, an agricultural worker, needed to go back to the fields and left the infant in the care of her four great-aunts — Guadalupe, Ramona, Frances and Concha Lopez.

Guadalupe retired from the fields to care for Hernandez but died when the girl was 12. Neither Guadalupe nor her sisters ever married.

"I was basically her daughter," says a tearful Hernandez. "Her last words were, 'I love you, Stephanie' in the hospital."

Madera Community Hospital is less than a mile from the jail. Hernandez knows the squat, tan facility well; she spent long days and nights there as her great-aunts fell to the scourges of age.

"Ramona declined in my senior year in high school, '01," says Hernandez. "She had a massive heart attack and a mild stroke at home. I was there. She had fallen.... I picked her up and called 911."

Frances died in 2003. Ramona went three years later. Concha Lopez had watched her sisters die in medical facilities and made her family promise to spare her such an end.

Then she broke her hip.

Hernandez had been working her way through Fresno City College by selling cellphones. She left school when she became pregnant with Alyanna in 2006, and her family pressed her into caring for Lopez.

Read the complete story in the L.A. Times