What is Abusive Guardianship?

AAAPG.net, is dedicated to exposing and reforming a corrupt, rampant industry of abuse that has the potential to emslave huge numbers of boomers as they age and become frail or demented in what has been called “The Silver Tsunami.” Over the last year, we’ve received calls from new victims just about every day:

“My mother has been kidnapped and is being tortured. When she was taken from us, her home given away, her possessions sold off, and even her name changed, I was dumbfounded. I do not know where she is. The last time I saw her she was drugged up and incoherent. It all happened so fast, I could not protect her. I never thought a Judge could make it legal.”

“I love my mother. I am so terrified.”

“Please help me.”

“I am afraid I will never see her again.”

“I never thought this could happen in the USA.”

In courts all over the USA, lawyers, judges and professional Guardians wage a merciless war on the rights and property of innocent Americans. The laws intended to protect the frail and poor among us have been perverted to allow sophisticated predators in court to illegitimately amass great fortunes at the expense of innocent victims and families.

The stories are so terribly sad.

But, they play out every day in Probate courts around the country and in particular in states with large elderly populations like Florida. The stories that come out of Probate court are so horrific that they border on being incomprehensible.

The families of “Wards” (the replacement name given to those who have been declared “incapacitated” by the court) are treated worse than murderers. They are forcibly separated from loved ones who have been chemically restrained and often moved from location to location under cover of night to prevent any contact with a loved one so as to maintain total sadistic control over an innocent’s life. Families often spend their entire life savings trying to rescue a loved one from Guardianship, to no avail. The saying among the victims’ families is that “in guardianship battles there only three outcomes—”you wind up broke, crazy or dead”

In Miami Dade County alone there are over 7000 active guardianships. In Florida, it is thought that between 70-100,000 are Wards. In Palm Beach County the number of guardianships has been increasing by 15% for the past three years and the court clerks who are tasked with auditing and watching out for fraud by the predators are overwhelmed. All over the state horror stories keep piling up, lives are ruined, fortunes stolen and families destroyed. It is a system that just does not pass the smell test. On any level, this is not how government is supposed to work.

Exposing this system is a challenge. Even though it is a real threat to anyone with assets of any kind, the court cases are called “mental health issues” and so are hidden from the public. Until you are targeted you will never even hear of Guardianship, but when it comes calling, with a knock on the door from total stranger saying you are wanted in court in 48 hours for a hearing on whether you can manage your own affairs, it is already far too late.

When a Judge hears the outrageous allegations—they do not need to be true or even provable—about how a frail person has been “exploited” or subjected to “undue influence” there is no hesitation to impose the “civil death sentence” of Guardianship.

http://www.stopguardianabuse.org/mary_and_francis_leuschner.htm retells the horrifying and ongoing saga of the Leuschner family

We were taught that America was the home of the free and the land of the brave. I believed that we, as American citizens, had freedom; that our basic God-given rights were fully intact; that elder abuse was not tolerated; that state agencies were put in place to protect the elderly, not do them more harm.

What I discovered was the exact opposite. We are not free. The state agencies in place to protect the elderly do not protect them. I started researching elder abuse and guardianship. What I discovered had me reeling; for days I couldn’t catch my breath. How could I be so unaware of such a huge issue? After all, I read the newspapers, listen to the radio and watch the news. Shouldn’t such huge criminal acts and travesties of justice be headline news items? Isn’t kidnapping illegal? I still remember hearing about the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, an incident that happened in 1932, a story that is as ingrained in America’s history as all of the World Wars and the assassination of President Kennedy. So why is the kidnapping of the most vulnerable members of our society being ignored? Why is it allowed to go on? Why aren’t the criminals that perpetrate these acts in jail?

In 2013, AAAPG introduced SB 412 and HB 1157 into the Florida Senate through Senator Miguel Diaz De la Portilla and Rep. Daphne Campbell to reform the Florida Statutes on Guardianship

The Bills were vehemently opposed by every organization that profits from the Guardianship process. We will re-double our efforts in 2014-15

WE ARE ASKING THESE QUESTIONS AND DEMAND ANSWERS

  • Why is it legal to abuse and rob the elderly in guardianships?
  • Why is it legal to force an allegedly incapacitated person into guardianship with an emergency or some other hearing without due process of the law where the ward is not present and/or not properly represented by counsel?
  • Why are constitutional due process rights under the 14th amendment and Article 2 of the Constitution of the State of Florida not protected in guardianships?
  • Why is it legal to isolate a ward, to over medicate, to chemically restrain, to sterilize, and even authorize an early death through hospice in guardianships?
  • Why is it legal for one person (a judge) to give one human being to another private citizen (the guardian) then walk away, and let that person have their way with the incapacitated person and their estate?
  • Why are there no jury trials in Probate Court?
  • Why are these wards of the State in guardianships not being protected by the State? Are they not wards of the State?
  • Why do the American Rules of Civil Discovery not apply to guardianship proceedings?
  • Why do we need to have emergency hearings for guardianships when Adult Protective Services should be able to do their job and protect the vulnerable alleged incapacitated person until they can be afforded due process?
  • Why is it legal to bill tens and hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to a ward for services that do not benefit them in breach of any fiduciary duty and yet it is not called a crime, it is called protection of the ward?
  • Why is it legal for a guardian to deny visitation to a ward, to allow them to be isolated from their community and their loved ones?
  • Why are Guardians who handle multimillion dollar estates unlicensed?
  • Why is there not a single government agency that supervises or provides oversight for these unlicensed Guardians?