The Fierle File

From Public information and private investigator

Rebecca Fierle-Santoian (legal name on Florida driver’s license; also the name used at banks to open guardianship accounts)

Rebecca Santoian (notarized name used in Marion County when buying and selling properties with current husband, a cardiologist

Rebecca Fierle (name consistently used on court documents when petitioning for guardianships and when advertising Geriatric Management, Inc. and Geriatric Care Management, Inc.

Her name was obtained from first husband, Jeff Fierle with whom subject filed for bankruptcy in 1997–which should have disqualified her from any Guardianships!

Becky Dobbins – maiden name/family of origin name— last name of brother Michael Dobbins who is used by Fierle when creating invoices on car repairs of wards’ vehicles. Michael Dobbins owns Mickey’s Auto Repair in Orlando, Florida.

Rebecca “Fierle” has owned more than 350 guardianship wards in 13 Florida counties since commencing her career as a professional guardian. (Orange, Seminole, Lake, Alachua, Duval, Brevard, Polk, Osceola, Holmes, St. Lucie, Clay, and Pineallas, and Marion.  The majority of guardianships have been obtained in Orange and Seminole Counties. During the late 90’s, Fierle worked as a care manager for the greater Orlando Council on Aging (now known as “Seniors First”) Fierle would approach elderly persons at their homes to see if they needed any free services, such as free transportation to doctors’ appointments, new glasses, or Meals on Wheels. Rebecca “Fierle” also used to man a hotline in Orlando where seniors in distress would call to report various incidents, according to Orlando police records.

Through these  and other methods that Fierle found her wards. Rebecca “Fierle” also has been referred by social workers at hospitals and nursing homes when they feel a patient needs a guardian. It has been alleged that Fierle also checks with Fire and Rescue and police records to obtain information on potential wards.

She also volunteers at Department of Children and Family Services and making it unlikely that she would be investigated without some bias by DCF, since she is a part of their team.

From Court records: During the late 90’s and early 2000s, Fierle obtained powers of attorney over several elderly victims. For example, in the case of Florence Barbour, Fierle obtained a power of attorney over Barbour in May 2002. Fierle then sold the Barbour house for $80,000.00 and placed Barbour in Palm Gardens in Orlando. In November 2002, Barbour died and the court records indicate that there was approximately $1,480.00 left in Barbour’s estate, from which Fierle, as personal representative,paid to the heirs, two long-time friends of Barbour who live in Ohio.  There was almost $80,000.00 unaccounted for in just this one case.

Wow!!–an unprecedented major breakthrough. An honest judge (Thorpe) with an honest court investigator is all it takes to finally begin to deal with one of Florida’s most prolific professional guardians who for years has wreaked havoc in multiple counties across the state, according to dozens of her victims.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-ne-guardianship-rebecca-fierle-20190711-devbsarodvgc3git7v63rs6a2a-story.html

So far lost in this story is the identity of the lawyer who, despite most recently distancing himself from her, represented her for years (this is public record) in so many of these cases, Thomas P. Moss of Sawyer and Sawyer in Orlando Florida. What role did he play in enabling this activity? How much did he profit from the estates of the Wards? Why was there never any scrutiny from the BAR?

And how about the Judges who aided and abetted the exploitation of hundreds of estates in nearly a dozen Florida Counties–from just one guardian!? And where were the Clerk’s audits, the Medicare Fraud Unit, the Medicaid Fraud Investigators, the Court auditors, the Coroners, OIG inspectors, the accountants, bankers with fiduciary obligations, APS, the Doctors who followed orders to overmedicate wards—where were they over the last 2 decades while was this going on?? If there have been investigations why have there be no arrests or indictments?

The fact is, this oft seen guardian behavior reveals what has now become obvious–the government has completely failed to reign in this extreme form of ageism which has destroyed countless innocent people and their families and fortunes for decades. It is high time that Florida’s AG Ashley Moody stop hiding behind her desk and finally issue indictments of the gang of criminals who have been reported to her and her predecessor Pam Bondi in detail and who have been perpetrating these crimes in Probate Courts for decades with impunity. It is high time for Governor Ron DeSantis to take executive action to freeze all new guardianships until this mess can be straightened out. It is time for the people to take back their courts. All that is needed is an honest investigation– the facts will then speak for themselves.

Here is more–Thomas Sawyer, the Founding Partner at Sawyer and Sawyer the firm that represented Fierle in dozens of cases with lawyer Thomas P. Moss (who went to Stetson Law School) is a Florida Licensed Physician (Radiation/Radiology) and get this, for years and as of today he is still one of only 2 MD’s on the Probate Examining Committee in Orlando.

https://flcourts18.org/docs/sem/SEMINOLE_GUARDIANSHIP_EXAMINING_COMMITTEE_MEMBERS.pdf

So this ensemble has the means, methods and opportunity to identify potential wards at various medical facilities, quickly have incapacity hearings where the examiner outcome might be predetermined and guaranteed, start guaranteed ETG’s to which conflicted guardian was routinely appointed, lawyer up to start billings impoverishing the families, get appointed by a judge for a permanent guardianship, start and never stop billing and utilize providers who profited from her scheme. Isn’t this overt and blatant racketeering at its finest. This is so obvious–why did every agency and governmental safeguard turn a blind eye to it? Something is very wrong here.

Why won’t the FL AG Ashley Moody act? Why didn’t former Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi act?

Because these cases all involved and originated with untouchable judges in the 18th judicial District of Florida.

Judges John Galluzzo, Nancy Alley, and Toby Monaco and even Judge Thorpe herself who for years and years granted all these guardianships are not stupid. No rational person could believe that these judges were unaware for decades of the brutality they were fostering and the damage they were doing to innocent citizens in their district by turning a blind eye and for all anyone knows to this point, possibly profiting themselves in some fashion.

Other law firms have gotten in on the act in recent years as the cases and the heat and scrutiny and hubris of Fierli built up and many firms avoided representing her.

Public records show Leslie Tamara Yadi, who is a licensed clinical social worker and graduated law school only a few years ago and entered the BAR in 2015 runs a solo law practice and has become very visible by representing this guardian in her more recent guardianships. Her unique combination of experience and talents allows her to leverage resources in both fields to bring fresh new cases.

Philip J Wallace http://www.growerketcham.com/profile.asp?id=10 represents hospitals and has become active in many of these cases supporting the guardian. It should go without saying that he is in a position to identify countless potential wards in the institutions he represents and to advocate positions which protect and enrich the hospitals he represents.

Eric Mashburn https://will-lawyer.com/why-you-should-choose-my-office/ has been practicing law for four decades and has in the last decade been heavily involved in cases when numerous other lawyers refuse to become involved.

But the most intriguing lawyer working this scheme was this one.

From 2007 – 2012, Fierle also employed Attorney Anthony Nardella.
According to one advocate and probate victim….
In addition to assisting and defending Fierle, Anthony Nardella is also a licensed Christian minister with his own church in Clearwater, Florida.  He and his  friends have a non-profit organization known as Hearts of Titus.  They fly down to Ecuador where they help the blind to see again and the deaf to hear.  Back when Nardella was representing Fierle, he was in Ecuador, at one point, and allegedly also billing hours from a ward’s estate, claiming he was reading the court records at the same exact time that he was healing the deaf and blind in Ecuador. Allegedly, advocates have found evidence of double billing where  he personally was the guardian on children’s estates.  For example, he would ask the judges for $25,000 in fees.  But when comparing attached billing statements, he would actually take $50,000.
For years, Attorney Anthony Nardella and Judge Joseph Galluzzo worked together in court in many of the cases involving Fierle.
And that is not all.
Also, during this time period, Fierle used both Attorneys Ian Gilden and his wife Ann Marie Giordano Gilden.  Ian would represent Fierle and the judges would appoint his wife to represent the wards in Seminole County. Is that not a clear conflict of interest?
There are many more characters in just this one guardian’s story.
But the most amazing aspect of this incredibly sad and disappointing story is that it has gone on for decades unchecked, unmonitored, unsupervised, untouchable and fully endorsed by nearly half a dozen sitting probate equity judges over time. All of these individuals have been reported multiple times to the appropriate state and federal agencies. Yet despite the dozens of officially responsible governmental agencies, committees, review boards, disciplinary organizations in Florida, this probate racketeering industry has remained unscathed to unleash abject terror on innocent individuals and families with no fear of repercussions or recriminations. To this day, there has been only one attempt to decertify any Florida professional Guardian and it is being strongly contested and may take years to reach a conclusion.
At this moment Rebecca Fierle is still a certified Florida professional Guardian and so far the only allegations against her have to do with do not resuscitate orders. Nothing about racketeering, nothing about theft of funds, nothing about elder abuse, nothing about conspiracy to commit fraud, nothing about manslaughter or a host of other legitimate potential charges.
And remember: all of the foregoing is about just the one guardian. There are over 600 guardians in Florida and while many of them are honest hard-working good people, there are far too many criminally abusive guardians in far too many judicial districts. The judges, lawyers and guardians and everyone in their networks who have rained terror on innocent victims all throughout the state while dishonoring their oath’s, besmirching the legal profession and perverting the statutes designed to provide protection to the vulnerable ALL need to be outed and brought to justice.
There is no need for new legislation. The laws that are currently on the books intended to protect those in need are good enough but are simply being ignored because judges can do that with their unlimited latitude in their judicial fiefdoms. Law enforcement has failed miserably  to recognize that these cases are not civil but criminal. The Florida BAR and Judicial Qualifications Commission have provided cover for these heinous acts and must be called to task for their failure to protect the innocent citizens of this state.
In short what AAAPG has been writing about in this space for nearly a decade is now becoming well-known. We have a crisis across the United States. Guardianship as it is currently constructed and executed in far too many courtrooms in America is far too often an antiquated, archaic, dysfunctional Unamerican but highly profitable “industry” run by a sizable minority of insiders in our equity court systems. It poses an existential threat to the freedom of every aging American and has the potential to engulf an ever-expanding number of families as the baby boomer generation becomes a wealthy, juicy low hanging target for predation.
The existence of this “industry” is no secret. Countless complaints from endless numbers of victims and their families have been dismissed and ignored by politicians, legislators, court management, the mainstream media, and a disbelieving public who cannot imagine that abusive guardianship could intrude on their lives until it actually does.
This conflicted and often illegitimate system and the predators in it must be called out and brought to justice.
Want to learn more? go to www.aaapg.net

 

Comments welcome– especially from the legal and law enforcement communities.