After Parks was charged, no judge lost his job. Norheim was transferred from the guardianship court to the addiction court, where he now oversees cases of abused and neglected children. Shafer is still registered in the Clark County court system as a trustee and administrator in several ongoing cases. He did not respond to several emails and messages left with his accountant, who answered the phone from his office but would not say if he was still in practice. He appeared at one of the public meetings of the commission, which was set up to analyze the shortcomings of the guardianship system. “What all this started was me,” he said. He went on to criticize local media coverage of the issue, saying a TV journalist he had spoken to briefly did not know the facts. “The system works,” Shafer continued. “It`s not the guards you have to pay attention to, it`s more family members.” He was wearing a blue polo shirt, uninhibited, and his head was shaved. He looked old, his arms covered with sunspots, but he spoke confidently and casually. “The only person you should think about when you change things is the resort.
It`s their money, it`s their life, it`s their time. Family members don`t count. [00:05:53] Bob: The Albuquerque Journal has done a series of investigations in recent years into cases of chaotic guardianship in New Mexico, including numerous articles on the case of the Ayudando Guardian. Colleen Heild is one of the journalists who worked on these stories. At Belshe`s urging, the paper`s political editor, Rana Goodman, visited the Norths and published an article in The Voice in which she described Rudy as “the most articulate and gentle person I`ve ever met in a very long time.” She called Clark County`s guardianship system “abusive (legal) fraud of the elderly” and urged readers to sign a petition calling on Nevada legislatures to reform the laws. More than three thousand people have signed. In the United States, one and a half million adults are cared for by guardians, family members or professionals, who control about two hundred and seventy-three billion dollars in assets, according to an auditor of the Guardianship Fraud Program in Palm Beach County. Little is known about the outcome of these agreements, as states do not keep full figures on guardianship cases – laws vary widely – and in most jurisdictions, court records are sealed. A 2010 report on government accountability states, “We could not find a single website, federal agency, state or local agency, or other organization that compiles comprehensive information on the subject.” A study published this year by the American Bar Association found that “an unknown number of adults languish under guardianship” when they no longer need it or never need it. The authors wrote that “guardianship in general is `permanent and leaves no way out — until death separates us.” To further combat guardianship fraud, I also have two bipartisan bills with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) – the Freedom and Right to Emancipate from Exploitation (FREE) Act to give people under guardianship an escape from abusive private guardians, and the Guardians Aren`t Above Prosecution (GAAP) Act to clarify this fraud ordered under guardianship is still fraud, which is punishable by law.
In addition, along with Congresswomen Darren Soto (D-Fla.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), I introduced the bipartisan Guardianship Accountability Act to implement additional oversight and data collection of the guardianship system. When the Norths were driven from their homes, they joined nearly nine thousand adult resorts in the Las Vegas Valley. Over the past twenty years, the city has applied to be a retirement paradise. Attracted by the state`s low taxes and a dry, sunny climate, seniors leave their families to settle in newly built retirement communities. “The whole city shone and attracted seniors with the prospect of the American dream at a reasonable price,” a former real estate agent named Terry Williams told me. About thirty percent of people who move to Las Vegas are seniors, and the number of Nevadans over the age of eighty-five has increased by nearly eighty percent over the past decade. For an explanation of how guardianship can be both a vehicle for abuse and a cure, see the National Center on Elder Abuse issue brief, Guardianship: Remedy vs. Enabler of Elder Abuse. The film is a fiction, but the story is all too familiar to thousands of Americans whose elderly parents have been held captive by unproven guardianship programs. Many speak of a sense of powerlessness in the face of the system of abuse, neglect and for-profit exploitation of vulnerable people.
[00:22:30] In 2019, 33 states enacted 58 new laws, only on adult guardianship, which is an increase from 2018, when 22 states enacted 39 laws. The bill also directs the SSA to report to Congress semi-annually on the number of Social Security payments diverted to non-family beneficiaries so that we can finally determine how many Americans are actually under guardianship. [00:20:43] Bob: However, winning was associated with high costs. Larry spent over $50,000 on legal bills and other expenses. The fee for Kisse`s estate is expected to exceed $140,000 during his ordeal. Nevertheless, Heild is happy to have been able to see a happy ending. A court with jurisdiction over a guardianship case could uncover evidence of abuse through surveillance, or a person or government agency may need to file a complaint or ask the court to respond to the abuse. These courts can take the following types of actions: He adds: “The elderly are deprived of their rights: every penny, every asset, every participation, every account. Everything passes under the control of a guard who is neither supervised nor monitored. [00:25:05] Diana Noel: I think elder abuse in general, whether by a guardian or someone else, is one of the least reported crimes, but there is certainly a lot of effort to really fight this abuse across the country.
I really want people to know that we, AARP, are fighting to protect vulnerable seniors who rely on guardians and others to help them make important decisions. We are moving away from the use of terms such as ward or incompetent or disabled person. We are really talking about your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your friend, your loved one, and remember that everyone, whether under guardianship or not, has the right to be cared for with respect and to live free from crime, abuse and neglect. Pamela Teaster, director of Virginia Tech`s Gerontology Center and one of the few women scientists in the country to study guardianship, told me that while most tutors carry out their duties for good reasons, the guardianship system is “a quagmire, a total mess.” She said: “It`s not scrupulous that we don`t have data when you think about the enormous power given to a guard.
