Source: https://marygsykes.com/2018/08/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 13:26:50+00:00

Document:
On May 15, 2018, federal judge Lee H. Rosenthal in Houston issued a landmark ruling allowing a wrongful death lawsuit to proceed against the $500,000 public official bond of state probate judge Christine Butts in Harris County. The claim against Judge Butts’ bond was brought to the Southern District federal court of Texas by Sherry Johnston who alleges Judge Butts turned a blind eye to the preventable decline of her aging mother Willie Jo Mills while she was a ward of the State of Texas under guardianship.
In North Carolina, Ginny Johnson claims she had been named her father Hugh Beverley Johnson’s power of attorney and health care proxy but after a sibling filed for guardianship in Wake County’s Special Proceedings Estate Division Probate Court, a professional guardian was appointed instead.
Johnson says she cared for the 95 year old Hugh in the colonial home she was raised in for 35 years until one day, three months after her dad had been guardianized, she came home to find herself locked out of their Raleigh house with no trace of her Dad.
“My father was in great shape until he was warehoused by the court appointed guardian in a care center that starved him, restricted him from seeing me and didn’t shower him regularly,” Johnson said.
A year later, the elderly military veteran, who had owned a dry cleaning business, passed away at 96 years old, according to Johnson who has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit with the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
“We are the state’s designated tribunal/court for tort claims against the State of North Carolina and, as such, we simply cannot comment on any potential, pending or adjudicated claim before us,” said J. Brian Ratledge, general counsel with the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
Johnson is among a growing number of adult children who regret involving their local court to stop the negative dynamics of their dysfunctional families.
“Family dysfunction and sibling rivalry are the primary reasons the matriarch or patriarch of a family is typically guardianized and ultimately starved, drugged or isolated to death unless they are restored to capacity,” said Dr. Sam Sugar, founder of Americans Against Abusive Probate Guardianship(AAAPG) in Hollywood, Florida.
Errol Rappaport has taken to standing in front of the residence daily where his 100 year old mother Frances resides with a sign that says, “I want to see my Mommy” in order to draw attention to the emotional pain he is experiencing at being alienated from his parent who is under a court appointed guardianship.
Rappaport says he was taking care of his elderly mother and father just fine but after his father died, relatives allegedly asked to sell the family’s $6 million apartment located at 200 Central Park South apartment and 59th Street.
When Rappaport opposed the sale, he says he was hauled into housing court where a judge appointed a guardian over his mother who was then moved to an apartment in Queens. Originally, the devoted son could visit the elderly Frances 5 hours a day but now he is allegedly only allowed to visit 2 hours and he has to schedule that time 48 hours in advance.
“What are they hiding?” Rappaport said.
The court appointed guardian in Rappaport’s case is Sabrina Morrissey, an attorney who declined to comment.
“Even though a guardianship should be used to honor the best interest of the ward, it’s become clear that the system has become a business,” said Pardalis.
A “ward” is a legal term used to describe a senior citizen who has been guardianized due to cognitive decline, such as memory loss. But younger adults are also at risk for becoming a ward of the state due to autism, mental illness or car accidents that lead to disabilities.
The AAAPG’s Dr. Sugar says he gets new calls daily from adult children who are either left penniless, restricted from visiting their parents or both.
Active pending adult guardianship cases in the U.S. range from fewer than 1 million to more than 3 million, according to the National Center for State Courts, but with baby boomers entering their golden years and experiencing Alzheimer’s or dementia, that number is on the rise.
By 2020, some 14 million seniors are expected to be afflicted, according to the Alzheimer’s Association data, and they will be at risk for guardianization by the courts.
“The court and the court appointed guardian cannot strip the person of all their assets unless they first declare the individual incapacitated at which point the guardian owns them the way a master owns a slave,” said Dr. Sugar who authored the best selling book Guardianships & The Elderly:The Perfect Crime.
That’s because once an individual is placed under guardianship, he or she becomes a ward of the state, forfeiting their assets while losing all of their rights.
Critics claim guardians appointed by judges, whether they are greedy family members or court insiders, rob the estate by overcharging for tasks and duties that family members perform out of love.
Orders of restricted visitation can also be very expensive.
For example, Mary Bush in West Chester, Pennsylvania is required to pay $50 to visit her 87 year old mother Genevieve Bush who resides at Park Lane nursing home.
An APS worker and a Sheriff must also be present, according to Bush’s visitation order.
The Honorable Judge Katherine Platt of the Chester County Court of Common Pleas declined to comment specifically on the Bush guardianship but stated that neither the county nor the state profit from senior citizens who are wards of the state of Pennsylvania under guardianship.
Judge Platt says she has witnessed court appointed guardians and judges alike being pulled into the dynamics when a parent of a dysfunctional family is guardianized.
“If a court appointed guardian has to deal with dysfunctional relatives of an incapacitated person, they are entitled to be compensated for the time it takes to intercede,” said Judge Platt, an Orphans’ Court judge.
But Philadelphia Attorney Alan Denenberg defined severity in a federal lawsuit he filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against two Westtown East Goshen Police Officers whom he alleges conspired to violate Ms. Bush’s 4th Amendment Rights under the U.S. Constitution by using excessive force in the parking lot of Park Lane nursing home where Ms. Bush’s mother resides under guardianship.
Bush v. East Goshen Township et al, against Sergeant James Renegar and Ted Lewis of West Chester, outlines four counts including assault and battery under state law.
The adult guardianship system in the U.S. is in plain need of greater oversight. But in the meantime, in order to avoid a full-on custody court battle that leads to restricted visits with relatives at the end of their lives, Judge Platt recommends professional mediation.
Meanwhile, the adult children who feel defrauded and are restricted from visiting their elderly relative are increasingly joining immigrant parents who are protesting being separated from their children under detention.
Case shows just how easy it is for seniors to lose control of their lives and finances.
Oliver Bivins was allegedly living in a dirty and uncared for condo in Palm Beach, Florida, when his son Julian wanted to relocate him back to Amarillo, Texas, where the Bivins family had made their fortune in oil and gas.
“I thought it would be a no-brainer to transfer Oliver home,” said attorney J. Ronald Denman, litigator with the Bleakley Bavol Law, whom the younger Bivins had hired in 2011.
Instead, the case dragged on for six years. Denman had unwittingly signed on to an elder guardianship case in which a diagnosis of incapacitation had turned Oliver Bivins into a ward of the state of Florida along with his tens of millions of assets.
“Once Oliver was in that system, my client Julian couldn’t get his dad or assets out of it,” said Mr. Denman.
In his doting age, Bivins had reportedly fallen prey to a care manager’s emergency application for court-appointed guardianship on a weekend trip to Florida.
Court-appointed guardians Curtis Rogers and Stephen Kelly allegedly filed a motion to prevent Mr. Bivin’s son from living with his grandfather and when a judge approved it, he was ordered to move out and leave Oliver to fend for himself.
“The lawyers hired by the court-appointed guardian began attacking Julian, making him out to be a bad guy when the truth is that Julian loved his dad and wanted to take care of him,” Mr. Denman said.
About 21.6% of 1.4 million Palm Beach County residents are aged 65 years or older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and according to the Clerk & Comptroller of Palm Beach County’s chief communications officer, Nannette Rodriguez, the number of guardianship cases has fluctuated from 2,700 to 3,000 since 2014 but Ms. Rodriguez stopped short of commenting on any specific case and declined to confirm or deny whether complaints had been filed with the Clerk & Comptroller’s office about any of the defendants.
When an individual, such as Oliver Bivins, is deemed a ward of any state of the U.S., he is stripped of his constitutional rights, civil rights and ability or right to enter an attorney/client relationship. As a result, Mr. Bivins was forced to rely upon a court-appointed guardian to do so on his behalf.
“In Oliver’s case, he was still quite aware of what was occurring but was helpless to do anything to change the direction of the guardians or the attorneys they hired,” Mr. Denman said.
It was not until Denman filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida West Palm Beach Division against the guardians, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Rogers, and their attorneys Brian O’Connell and Ashley Crispin that the devoted son found relief.
The September 2015 Bivins v Rogers lawsuit alleged that Mr. O’Connell and Ms. Crispin in their role as lawyers for Mr. Rogers, while he was acting as guardian for Oliver Sr., owed similar duties to Oliver Sr. and were fully aware that the work they were doing for Mr. Rogers was for the benefit of Oliver Sr. but that Mr. Rogers and his attorney s were negligent and reckless in the exercise of their fiduciary duties to Oliver Sr., resulting in damages.
Attorney Brandon J. Hechtman, who was part of the defendant’s legal team, stated in an email that he could not provide PacerMonitor News with specific commentary.
According to court records, defendant’s counsel argued that they were representing the guardian directly as opposed to the ward and therefore should not be held responsible for the condition of Oliver Bivins or his estate because they had no direct attorney-client relationship with the ward.
“In reality, the attorneys are supposed to act in the best interest of the ward, who in this case was Oliver Bivins, because they get paid by the ward’s money,” said Mr. Denman.
For years, watchdog groups like Americans Against Abusive Probate Guardianship (AAAPG) have advocated for federal and state authorities to outlaw elder guardianship not only in Palm Beach County but in all 50 states.
Under guardianship, seniors are often starved, overmedicated, abused, robbed and isolated, and family members are banned from visiting, according to Dr. Sugar, who founded AAAPG in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Attorneys for Ms. Crispin and Mr. O’Connell have not responded to Pacer Monitor’s requests for comment.
To win the Bivins case, Denman based his argument on Saadeh v. Connors, in which a 1996 opinion of former Florida Attorney General Robert Butterworth stated services performed by an attorney who is compensated from the ward’s estate are performed on behalf of the ward even though the services are technically provided to the guardian. After emigrating from Jordan with his wife, Karim Saadeh raised a family of three children and became a very successful businessman. After his wife’s death in 2007, Mr. Saadeh met a younger woman and allegedly began loaning her money, which his adult children objected to by contacting an attorney named Colette Meyer.
According to the Bivins’s federal complaint, the Palm Beach County court-appointed guardians had not only allowed several of Bivins’s properties to deteriorate but also reversed the transfers of money the older Bivins initiated for Mr. Bivins, his beneficiary son.
A federal jury sympathized with Mr. Bivins plight, ruling that Ms. Crispin and Mr. O’Connell, the attorneys appointed to oversee the estate of Oliver Bivins, were deemed liable for professional negligence and for breaching their fiduciary duty to the elderly Bivins who died in 2015 at 98 years old.
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge in two of Illinois’ highest profile cases has been removed from hearing all his criminal cases after it was revealed he exchanged emails with an employee at the U.S. attorney’s office in which he commented on and joked about one of his trials in progress at the time.
Some legal experts said Tuesday the matter could lead to a review of hundreds of cases to see if Judge Colin Bruce had sent out similarly inappropriate emails during trials before, a review process that could create trial delays and logjams at the U.S. District for Court for central Illinois.
The Urbana-based Bruce had been presiding over ex-U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock’s corruption case and the case of Brendt Christensen, accused in the 2017 kidnapping and slaying of Yingying Zhang, a Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois. Neither case has yet gone to trial.
Schock, a Peoria Republican, resigned in 2015 and was indicted on allegations of misusing funds in 2016. The 37-year-old has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Christensen, saying he tortured Zhang, 26, before killing her.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Shadid said in a one-sentence statement Tuesday that he had “temporarily reassigned” all of Bruce’s cases in which federal prosecutors are a party. He didn’t say why.
Bruce’s emails to a paralegal at Springfield’s U.S. attorney’s office came to light last week in a motion for a new trial by Sarah Nixon, convicted in December 2016 of international parental kidnapping. She was sentenced last year to just over two years in prison. The U.S. attorney’s office disclosed the emails to the defense in May, saying it had only recently become aware of them, according to Nixon’s motion.
Turner said Bruce’s comments, if conveyed to the trial prosecutors, could have helped them adjust how they questioned witnesses.
Bruce’s office declined any comment Tuesday, as did prosecutors.
But in a filing last week following Nixon’s motion for a new trial, Bruce recused himself and defended his emails to someone he described as a longtime friend. He said the point of the emails was to explain why he hadn’t attended a retirement party for an outgoing U.S. attorney.
“At the time it was sent, and now, I consider the email exchange to be innocuous and merely a private email conversation with someone entirely uninvolved in this case,” he wrote.
Turner said he expected many defense attorneys whose clients were convicted in cases heard by Bruce to ask for an investigation, which he said would include examining the judge’s email archives.
The temporary reassignment of Bruce’s cases, he said, could easily end up becoming permanent, saying an argument could be made that the judge should be booted from the bench entirely.
From EF: On Wells Fargo and Mortgage Fraud in Illinois=where is her property?
I am going to appear before Judge Thomas Allen to present a Motion to reinstate my case against Wells Fargo bank and reverse VOID orders entered by a cohort of corrupt Illinois Judges, most of whom received substantial amounts of money from Wells Fargo lawyers Mayer Brown LLP.
I will report how Judge Thomas Allen will proceed in my case and whose side he will take – the LAW and INTEGRITY or ??????
In US Bank v. Pote, 2017 IL App (1st) 162077 Justice David Ellis (Mr. Madigan’s crony who approved my text-book fraudulent foreclosure in favor of a fake Plaintiff in my 2014 Appeal Case, without key evidence) confirmed:” It is true that, when a judgment is void, it may be attacked at any time”.
But when I as a ProSe bring the same argument, supported by a mountain of evidence and a load of binding precedents, I am ALWAYS subjected to endless judicial threats, bullying, and harassment while Wells Fargo and their lawyers never able to produce even a copy of documents based on which Judge Senechalle helped them to steal my property.
It is absolutely obvious that Illinois Court operates on double standards; and deny ProSe litigants any protection under the law while prefer to serve only those who pay judges directly – banks and their lawyers.
I also want to comment on Wells Fargo bank’s most recent statement that they “accidentally” foreclosed 400 homeowners due to a years-long “computer glitch”. This is a most cynical lie I ever heard from Wells Fargo. (please read recent cases attached by links) Wells Fargo and their legal gangs committed endless fraud upon the Court; forgeries; perjuries. In my case lawyer Douglas Oliver lied 7 times on 3 pages claim, and ARDC dismissed all my complaints against Wells Fargo’s lawyers, so Oliver now leads a famous McCalla/ Pierce legal mob).
An African American immigrant got 6 years in jail for “perjury” when he told Judge Lynch that his niece is not married while she purportedly was. Lawyer Douglas Oliver filed forged Assignment and relentlessly lied that he represents the Plaintiff, Deutsche Bank (not a plaintiff), whom Oliver never represented because he was hired by Wells Fargo; and that MERS (not a mortgagee) transferred its “interest” to a “current mortgage” Deutsche Bank (lie again) – and Wells Fargo walked away with my property without telling me a single word because this entire mob action was orchestrated and enabled by JUDGES.
Wells Fargo and their lawyers laundered trillions of dark money though US Court system for Wells’ Gigantic $5.3 trillion Ponzi scam; fraudulently foreclosed millions of American to STEAL their properties for very shady investors, who can be anyone – even drug cartels.
These properties were illegally resold to third parties, while shady investors failed to register void US Securities (fake REMIC Trusts mortgages) purchased from Wells Fargo on foreign exchange markets, without ANY registration with US authorities, which makes about 100% of all foreclosure sales essentially void.
Judges and the Government repeatedly aided and abetted Wells Fargo Ponzi scam, which caused enormous damages to our economy, created a huge number of homeless, and ruined public confidence in justice, resulting in a skyrocketing level of violent crimes (over 150 people were shot between Aug 3-23 in Chicago, at least 18 killed, including Wells Fargo top lawyer Shapiro). Here are no safe area in Chicago; and the Government already cannot control this situation.
It is clear for everybody (except judges, of course, specially those whose elections bankrolled by banks and their lawyers), that Judicial support to WFB’s fraud defeats the substantial ends of justice; and rewards parties who have played a major and unlawful role in the theft of someone’s home.
The legal setbacks have demoralized homeowners and their attorneys and caused them to question the integrity of justice system. Some attorneys say courts exhibit an institutional bias in favor of the banks  which has done enormous damage to the economy.
And the trial judge rewarded their fraud and forgery with a Final Judgment .
Pennsylvania attorneys claim that JUDGES knowingly and intentionally created foreclosures in Family court. See link below.
In Hawaii Third Circuit Court judges engaged in foreclosure fraud and judicial corruption . In the case (see link below) has been ongoing for eleven years and serves as a study of how political influence over justice is regularly administered in “paradise.” Here, on the Big Island of Hawaii, people’s lives and families are ruined as their real estate is regularly stolen by “bar members” administering white collar organized crimes.
Moreover, people in ALL States are repeatedly asking WHERE ARE THE MONEY from the National Mortgage Settlement???
No one in Illinois knows where are $2.8 billion received by Lisa Madigan (whose father helped at least 85-90 % of all sitting IL Judges to get judicial seats), most of which disappeared in her hands, and I guess were diverted to enrich Madigan’s clout, some sort of a free “grant” to turn a blind eye to gigantic money laundering and foreclosures mill operated by Mr. Madigan’s judicial cronies in IL Court system.
The worst part of this scam that its about to collapse at any minute; and dwarf 2006 crisis.
According to most recent cases, investors and insurers finally woke up and realized that their money were stolen by banks; and now insurers are on the hook to cover for banks’ fraud upon the Court with their fake REMIC Trusts, approved by judges.
The most recent case was filed in NY on August 16, 2018, AMBAC v. Deutsche bank, N.T. where Ambac asked a New York federal court Thursday to release it from an obligation to insure some of the $900 million in losses suffered by a residential mortgage-backed securities trust managed by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., saying the banking giant did not hold the underlying loan issuer accountable.
This case provides additional support that the Plaintiff in my case, Trust GSAMP 2006FM1 is a scam to defraud investors, insurers and homeowners. The entire securitization scheme was built on layers of false information and false premises. A false sale was created with fabricated documentation. The originator never owned the loan, but rather served as a sham conduit for another conduit masquerading as an aggregator for an investment bank masquerading as an underwriter (and Master Servicer) and using the name of a nonexistent fictitiously named trust. Even insurers realized that they were defrauded with banks’ bogus “securitization”.
Worth to mention, on December 4, 2013 I told Judge Senechalle (Madigan’s crony) that decision entered by Judge Rooney (Madigan’s crony) was void because the Plaintiff (Trust GSAMP 2006FM1) does not exists. Senechalle laughed in my face and said “Deutsche Bank does not exist?” – while I said that the TRUST does not exist.
Clearly, Judge Senechalle not only extraordinary corrupt and dishonest jurist, but also professionally incompetent because he should know that the “Plaintiff” in my case was a the TRUST, while Wells Fargo was posing as Deutsche Bank, a fictitious “Trustee” .
Recently Servicer Ocwen complained that certain companies engaged in “ a covert criminal conspiracy” through “ devious, criminal and unlawful scheme ” which was “wrong in every respect – legal, contractual, public policy and moral”, and hired Servicers, (like WFB) who would support their “ruthless strategy” for “ gouging enormous profits from the forced foreclosures and confiscation of the homes of hundreds of thousands of struggling families”; to “reap ill-gotten gains by relentlessly and unlawfully pursuing foreclosures ”. Erbey Holding v. BlackRock, filed on April 12, 2018 in Virgin Islands Court.
So, even OCWEN and Insurers claim that REMIC Trusts are fakes and foreclosures mill operated by certain Servicers in US Courts is fraudulent and criminal.
But every foreclosure requires a Court order signed by a judge to proceed. I am wondering that was judges’ rationale when they approved these wrong in every respect – legal, contractual, public policy and moral foreclosures, contrary to the laws, regulations and policy, and confiscated the homes from struggling families for banks and their fake Trusts solely operated as a Ponzi scam with thin-air derivatives? Are these orders valid?
According to most recent case decided on Aug. 22, 2018 in GA Appeal Court, MCGinnis v. Am. Home Mortgage Servicing, the homeowner was awarded $3.6 million damages.
Judge Boyko (OH) ruled “courts must act as gatekeepers, because “this Court possesses the obligations to preserve.. integrity” because the “ judicial integrity of the US[.]Court is ‘Priceless’”. 2007 WL 4056586 (S.D. Ohio, Nov. 15, 2007).
I don’t know that happened to judicial integrity in Illinois Court, but all orders entered in case 11-CH-28887 by Judge Senechalle; approved by Appeal Court and supported by Judge Der-Yeghian are void orders since they were procured by a classic fraud upon the Court; due to the only reason – judges are corrupt , extremely bias against ProSe litigants; and very supportive to well-connected lawyers, especially those who bankroll judicial elections.
This ill-driven practices must be stopped immediately.
I respectfully request to re-open and investigate Wells Fargo bank’s compliance with Nat’l Mortgage Settlement and ORDER them to provide REAL compensation for damages directly to homeowners, at least the amount of full price for each stolen by Wells Fargo property.
When WFB steal hundreds of billions and pay a fine that is a small percentage of what they stole that only gives the thieves incentive to steal even more.
From FB; how many of you have found this to be true?

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