The Rocky Guardianship Debate: Does it Prevent Or Perpetrate Abuse?

By Paul Greenwood

So you don’t really need a guardian?” asked Judge Cynthia Dianne Steel, Eighth Judicial District Family Court, of Rennie North during a June 2015 hearing in Nevada.

“True,” replied North.

“Do you want a guardian?” the judge probed.

“No,” North emphatically responded.

With that brief exchange, Judge Steel terminated the guardianship that had since 2013 haunted Rennie, her husband Rudy and her daughter Julie Belshe. At that time, April Parks, a private fiduciary, had been appointed by a court in Las Vegas to become Rennie’s and Rudy’s guardian.

As Rennie left the courtroom, she said she felt as if “a rope around my neck has been removed.”

By January 2019 Rennie faced another battle. This time, health problems prevented her from seeing April Parks being led out of a Las Vegas courtroom in handcuffs upon receiving a prison sentence of between 16 and 40 years, imposed by Judge Tierra Jones. Two months earlier, Parks had pled guilty in two separate cases to three counts of elder exploitation, two counts of theft and one count of perjury.

At the sentencing hearing, multiple victims made impact statements. They described losing their life savings and their dignity. Rudy orth compared Parks to Hitler and told the court, “This lady should be banished.”

Another victim, Barbara Ann Neely, described how Parks had isolated her from family and friends. “She was not a guardian to me; she did not protect me. As each day passed, I felt like I was in a grave, buried alive,” said Neely.

Egregious Abuse Exposed in Documentary

These chilling accounts of how a private guardian and her co-defendants were able to seize control of the lives and the assets of numerous older adults have caught the attention not only of advocates but also of Billie Mintz, a film producer and director. In May 2018, he released an investigative documentary called “The Guardians.” I have watched this film twice, and I am now urging every
probate court judge, every elder law attorney and every Adult Protective Services case worker in the United States to make this mandatory viewing.

I have been a lawyer for more than 40 years, both in the U.K. and in California. For 25 years, I was a prosecutor at the San Diego District Attorney’s office, where for 22 years I headed up the Elder Abuse Prosecution Unit. I have heard many shocking tales of elder abuse during that assignment, including homicides, but rarely have I been so shocked or moved as I was by what I learned from the Parks case.

Thus, I ask this question wherever I speak across the country: “Could there be an April Parks working as a guardian or conservator in your jurisdiction?”

For example, in June 2019, William S. Harris, the husband of the former president of the now-defunct Ayudando Guardians—one of New Mexico’s largest nonprofit guardianship firms—pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud vulnerable and special needs clients in a federal U.S. District courtroom in Albuquerque, before Judge Jerry H. Ritter. As part of his plea agreement, Harris will receive a seven-year prison sentence. A September 2019 trial date has been set for three other defendants. What happened in Nevada and New Mexico is occurring in every other state.

Guardianship: Evil or Under-Regulated?

The sad reality is that for too long guardianship abuse has been a hidden secret in this country, despite the best efforts of victims and their families to tell their stories. And it would benefit us all if we could find the right balance in seeking a remedy. In my experience, there appears to be a widening gulf between advocates who describe guardianship as evil and defenders of guardianship who refuse to accept that the current system unchecked lends itself to opportunities for exploitation.

During my career, I have seen examples when a victim has benefitted from being conserved by a probate court. I have witnessed professional guardians intervene on behalf of an exploited older adult by rapidly involving law enforcement, assisting in freezing a suspect’s bank account and testifying at trial.

On the other hand, I also have seen a fiduciary take full advantage of their position to fleece a victim. In one notable case out of San Diego, Teresa Laggner, a private fiduciary who was part of the San Diego County multidisciplinary financial abuse specialist team and who prepared the booklet, “How to Choose a Caregiver,” was convicted in federal court of stealing thousands of dollars from client trust accounts in order to feed her secret gambling addiction. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Significantly, several states have introduced legislation that marks a shift away from the last resort concept of guardianship and toward a supported decision-making process. Such a trend is consistent with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that such persons have the right to make their own decisions and that governments
have the obligation to support them in doing so.

It is my hope that as the guardianship abuse debate heats up we can find some middle ground that will provide a measure of greater protection for our most vulnerable populations that may be in danger of being exploited—whether by scammers or guardians.

Our probate courts need more training and resources. Judges should be encouraged to look for appropriate supported decision-making alternatives and discourage an atmosphere of familiarity. 

Professional conservators and guardians should be more carefully held to account. Law enforcement and prosecutors must understand that allegations of guardianship abuse are not “just civil matters.” And elder law attorneys need to be ever vigilant on behalf of their clients to ensure that another April Parks is not lurking, ready to pounce.

Describing the impact of what Parks did to him and his family, Rudy North said, “Our souls were scarred.” And he has challenged us all with this rallying cry: “What we want to do is bring this terrible, horrific racket down. We want it to stop.”

Paul Greenwood recently retired from his position as deputy district attorney in San Diego, Calif. He is spending his post retirement time providing trainings for law enforcement and prosecutors around the country on how to put a criminal case of elder abuse together. He serves on the Aging Today Editorial Advisory Committee.

https://www.asaging.org/blog/rocky-guardianship-debate-does-it-prevent-or-perpetrate-abuse