My sister challenged our father’s directives to his grave in late 2007, dispensed with them beyond it, moved into our mother’s house, endangered her life and exploited her funds.  Co-agent General and HealthCare Durable Power of Attorney (P/sOA) status provided legal basis for the actions.  Until then, we shared authority on paper, only; our parents delegated responsibilities to me because they did not trust my sister.  They had visibly confirmed the fact when they ripped up POA drafts that named her as their sole legal agent and refused to sign redrafts without my name.  I filed petitions to appoint a guardian and conservator in February 2008, toward more binding accountability of authority over my mother’s life and estate, regardless of appointee.  With POA and legally designated nominees as primary candidates, the court was required to validate the legal documents.  My mother signed her POA papers too late, under legally questionable circumstances, at my sister’s insistence.  The attorney who created the documents is my mother’s godson, a family relation, my sister’s lawyer and our parents’ legal advisor.  The godson-attorney fashioned a contested case for my sister’s autonomy and influenced the court, Guardians Ad Litem (GAL) and the future appointee.  He offered the court a perfectly sound reason to usurp authority when he sent his son/law partner to the hearing with a false allegation of major criminal embezzlement to counter my relatively minor charges of financial mishandling. 
 

Macomb County Probate Court, Michigan:  Sins of guardianship can be traced to the doors of a derelict court.  Among Michigan’s 83 probate courts, several preserve the archaic practice of appointing lawyers as guardians and conservators — Macomb is one.  The court was subject to media attention just after my mother’s hearing with former Chief Justice Kathryn George.  Suspecting cronyism, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered an audit of some of her conservatorship cases and found what it was looking for.  In May 2008, she lost her crowning title and all of her cases were transferred to her political rival, Judge Pamela Gilbert O’Sullivan.  Vowing to monitor the court’s shenanigan’s, the State Court Administrative Office (SCAO) told the court administrator to “Leave” and sent an acting chief justice to bring order to the court.  This court and its appointee have violated nearly every statute relevant to my mother’s cases. 
 

Hearing on Petition to Appoint a Guardian and Petition to Appoint a Conservator for an Alleged Legally Incapacitated Individual — former Chief Justice Kathryn George:   The GAL filed a biased report, to my denigration.  He failed to ask the court to appoint an attorney for my mother.  The court ignored its obligation to do so, nobody represented my mother’s interest and she did not attend her protective proceeding.  The judge failed to validate PsOA and legally designated nominees and ignored the entire guardianship petition.  The godson-attorney’s son alleged embezzlement; Judge George declared “schism”.  The young attorney committed perjury in defense of his conflicted interests.  Judge George said she needed time to “unravel this mess,” stated her Decision to appoint an “Interim Conservator” from among the court’s stable of public attorneys, closed the hearing and dismissed parties.  After the hearing, she wrote an Order for a Full Guardian and Full Conservator (G-C).  I sent a letter to the court about the hearing’s deficiencies and legal inconsistencies; somebody edited the transcript – point ● by ● point. 
 

The godson-attorney, my sister and the G-C formed an alliance.  She received valuable collections, property of choice, authority to sell remaining possessions (including mine) and the right to use fraudulent, “revoked” PsOA to claim title to additional property and oversee our mother’s medical care.  To me, the G-C granted the privilege of spending three weeks with my mother after the hearing.  Her house had been ransacked; I took her to the hospital, again.  Five days after I left, the G-C and my sister moved her from her home for 44 years to a ‘granny dump’ in a remote location — 15 minutes from my sister and a day’s drive from me.  She arrived at Belle River Pines Adult Foster Care home on May 14, 2008 with two garbage bags of clothing and the first of two letters from the G-C prohibiting “all contact” with my husband, my son and me —  and anyone with our surname.  Somebody created a “restricted list” of more prohibited contacts.  I located my mother on May 23 but could not speak with her.  Eventually, persistent family, friends, State workers and other professionals induced the G-C to relax restrictions.  After seven weeks, he said my mother could call me “just once,” on my birthday.  She cried for 17 minutes:

 I’m all alone.  Nobody can find me here.”
My Mother, Belle River Pines, June 2008

Two weeks later, the G-C said I could visit my mother — if supervised, if I agreed not to “kidnap” her.  She was hard to find, 20 minutes from the nearest 4-corners’ town.  Staff said one person had visited her “a few minutes —a couple times” during more than two months of personal rights restrictions.  The guardian does not contact me when she is ill or in the hospital.  My visits are limited, due to the court’s interference.  She is alone, most of the time. 

"Dear Mr. (G-C],

I have enclosed photos of my mother illustrating her physical deterioration between May and December 2008 under your guardianship . . . deprived of contact with her loved ones for months . . . forced to take sedating drugs when distressed over her apparent abandonment. . . she suffered from negligent injuries, including concussion, contusions, lacerations and an alleged broken arm, unset (not to be confused with two broken wrist bones that were not set in a cast before she arrived at Belle River Pines) . . . classified as “independently mobile” with a walker for placement in an unsupervised setting . . . .unaided, she bumps into walls and stumbles. . . cannot seat herself or raise herself from a sitting position now . . . has fallen over, into and out of furniture and on the floor while wrapped in her bedding . . . has not received customary in-residence therapies following hospital treatments . . . has sat for hours in . . . sacrificing her dignity and health.  Repeated infections of obvious derivation were untreated for months, during which time her health was jeopardized in every conceivable way . . .  unable to eat her dinner due to “shaking” . . . fails to distinguish some foods on her plate because of dramatically aggressed vision disturbance . . . has also adapted to living without bras, wearing others’ clothes, trying to walk in slippery socks with slacks dragging on floors and more, for the convenience of others.  She has suffered from utter neglect.  Her injuries, illnesses and aggressively declining health are not a natural result of pre-existing physical or mental conditions.  Were it possible to prove otherwise, shortsightedness would be as obvious as apathy. "

[My Mother] received the best personal care and medical attention available until her husband of 62 years passed away.  Shortly afterward, you assumed the court-appointed roles of Guardian and Conservator.  You have acted against her husband’s wishes, against her physician’s advice, in exclusion of one person critical to her well-being. 

You have failed to protect her life and to provide for her care in the manner to which she was accustomed, according to her means; you have failed as her Guardian. 

The only way you could have sped up her demise would have been to put her on a block of ice and float her out to sea. 

Hearing on Petitions to Revoke the Guardianship and Conservatorship — Judge Pamela Gilbert O’Sullivan:  The court suppressed subpoenaed evidence.  The judge said she was not familiar with communications and case records about my mother’s plight because Judge George appointed the G-C and “I’m not Judge George!”  Concerning the G-C’s and the court’s failures to observe rules governing moving my mother to a ‘more restricted environment’ and reporting an Inventory of her estate, this Judge stated on the record, “We don’t do that here,” and “We don’t follow those laws, either.”  She said she based her Decision to support the G-C on GAL #2’s Recommendation, expressed as my mother’s wishes in the following idiopathic logic:
 

The GAL stated, “I am certain that she did not understand much of what we talked about.”  “She had no opinion regarding
the conservatorship and guardianship when I asked her.” “She lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to make or
communicate informed decisions.”  The GAL concluded, “She is completely satisfied with Attorney [M.] as her
Guardian and Conservator.” 
 

The conservator’s Inventory was due within 56 days of appointment.  He filed a fraudulent Inventory nine months after legal deadline, seven months beyond Notice on Deficiency, two months after a private Show Cause Event — the Court accepted it.  He declared one personal asset – a car under-valued at $1,220 — and omitted all other required listings.  He failed to file the required Annual Accounting of the estate and his Letter of Authority lapsed.  He retains control of my mother’s estate, to date.*    After the SCAO asked for information, the court scheduled another Show Cause Event.  When the Event takes place, if it does, the attorney will have evaded his annual reporting duty by 6.5 months.  Cumulative Inventory and Annual Accounting delinquency will be over 16 months, with no major assets reported to the court; e.g. rental income, VA benefits, appraised collections and sold property.  ‘Home Clear of Mortgage’ figures do not add up.  
 

He also failed to file an Annual Report on Condition of the Guardianship.  His Letter of Authority lapsed.  Two months later, GAL #3 conducted the mandatory Annual Review of the Guardianship.  The G-C did not return calls to discuss the guardianship and the GAL expressed concern over incongruous estate figures that he faxed.

 

“My recommendation is as follows: . . .  that this Court review the required annual filings on both the Guardianship/Conservatorship files andupon the filing of said documents it would be prudent for the Court [sic] look to the accuracy and content of the information submitted.”
Guardian Ad Litem #3
May 25, 2009

Three days after GAL #3 filed her Review, Judge O’Sullivan reissued his guardianship Letter for three more years; at the time, the Annual Report was two months’ overdue.  His filing dates conflict on the docket.  The G-C failed to copy me with his delinquent Annual Report, precluding statute procedure toward a hearing in the matter.  With hundreds of probate cases, the attorney exerts profound influence over courts in two Michigan counties.

 

*September 21, 2009