GEAR Tracking: Elder Abuse and Exploitation of Women in Coeur d’Alene and the Inland Northwest

Compromised Professionals Knowingly Exploit Vulnerable Elderly and Disabled Women in the Inland Northwest.

Repeating Inland Northwest exploitation circumstances were the initial catalyst for the development of an online nationwide elder abuse & exploitation research repository. Several vulnerable person advocates from the Idaho, Washington, Oregon and North California had been working with private investigators, elder justice organizations and other journalists as far back as 2000 compiling evidence on what was occurring to vulnerable elderly and disabled women in the area..  Several elderly women and younger disabled women had been repeatedly exploited by family and professionals that had them sign documents to look out for their affairs. Several regional newspapers, independent journalists and private investigators are privy to the following facts that are addressed in several Inland Northwest Exposés. Listed below is a tiny sampling on probate related matters and opportunist professionals who knowingly exploited and abused the elderly and disabled women in the Inland Northwest.

1. An Inland Northwest attorney agrees to an 18-month suspension for misconduct that included setting himself up to receive an elderly client’s $170,000 life-savings if the client died.

2. Coeur d’alene Mayor is sued because 73-year-old old woman freezes to death in a property he owned with outdated, faulty heating system. Case is settled before trail for small penalty.

3. Justice In Ageing advocacy organization sues Idaho over senior discrimination health care rationing policies.  “Older adults are facing serious risk of discrimination, resulting in death,” because of Idaho’s crisis standards”, Justice for Aging attorneys wrote in their complaint letter.

4. An elderly woman is purportedly pressured  to change her will just 2 days before passing to disinherit family and name an endowment charity as beneficiary.

5. 86-year-old St. Maries. Idaho man abused and medicated to death at a North Idaho nursing home. Ward was chemically restrained and overdosed with Haldol. Eymann, a lawyer for the son said: “Nursing home abuse, including the use of sedating or mind-altering drugs to profit off senior citizens, will not be tolerated. It is our hope that the verdict will help change the culture in nursing home care.”

6. Disabled daughter is removed from the family trust against her mother’s long-established wishes. Kootenia County Probate Court dismisses nation’s leading expert in undue influence testimony. 

7. Public official whom sat on board of large family Trust successfully schemes with a family PoA/trustee and another lawyer to have memory-compromised elderly woman disinherit her other children.

8. Disabled woman was exploited, extorted and  threatened for years by her guardian-attorney and the guardian’s estate services partner; a convicted murderer whom the guardian met at a state prison.

9. Guardian and estate planner team pose as students when attending court hearing on disabled person to learn facts so they can place themselves as guardian over the disabled persons and their estate.

10. “Get a lawyer and prove it,” was the challenge an 86-year-old Coeur d’Alene woman faced from corporate heads when her family became alarmed that she may have been robbed and over medicated at a Coeur d’Alene retirement home. Coeur d’alene Jury says woman did prove mistreatment, spurs elder abuse bills.

11. Guardian steals identity of disabled person to collect their social security benefits, an Idaho senator's office has to intervene to stop the federal identity theft crimes.

12. Guardianship services company owners whom also work at large hospital coordinate to restricted access of family of elderly woman while accepting court visitor appointment with probate attorneys within their referral network.

13. Tax strategist attorneys partner with estate planning attorney to devise schemes to transfer assets from, memory impaired elderly woman with out her knowledge.

14. Dubious professionals work in-concert to concoct an illegitimately drafted living trust designed to take away an elder woman’s assets.

15. Greedy family Power of Attorney's (Attorney in fact) and professional limited financial power if attorneys/estate planners devise schemes to transfer asset from seniors through changes beneficiaries, altered trust documents, covert joint bank withdrawals, theft of natural resources and several other illicit activities

16. Greedy family forces elderly physical and memory impaired female to pay them home-care provider fees twice the standard rate and 1100’s of thousands in annual gifting even against court ordered agreements

17. Intentional breached court-mediated agreements used as a means to get crony-aligned conservators to take over seniors financial matters and retain services of predatory persons as the conservators legal and home-care service providers.

18. A younger woman visits an attorney to seek a divorce from her psychically violent husband and walks out under state guardianship and her estate is thereafter plundered by a pack of professionals she is paying to look out for her best interests. 

19. Eldercare assisted Living center grossly taking Advantage of severely vulnerable adults,  forging  signature’s multiple times and chemical restraints being given to a female resident in order to get her to take the COVID vaccine.

20. Use of estate planning attorneys preferred psychiatric professionals whom perform vulnerable person diagnosis with out medical records of recent heart/kidney failure triggering hypoxia a condition present in related acquired brain damage, use of psychiatrists to manipulate or sway bias in  questionable, short,  easy to administer MMSE neurocognitive questionnaires that fail to detect mild to progressing cognitive impairment, deficiencies in executive function, early stage dementia/Alzheimer’s, spectrum or acquired brain injuries and related undue influence related variables (currently, there is no clinically accepted means to measure undue influence) .  Psychiatric professionals are mandatory reporters. Many do not report suspicions circumstances when they are retained to preform cognitive, evaluations just prior to estate documents signings.

21. Predatory home-care providers working in-concert with attorneys to change elderly women Primary Care Physician (PCP) during estate planning. Long established Primary Care Physicians are at the front line to determine elder abuse and undue influence matters so the changing of a PCP is a serious red flag.  

22. New Primary Care Physician or their physician’s assistants intentionally concealing substance dependency and neurocognition matters , acquired brain injuries (AB) or Alzheimer related matters in court required physician declarations and potentially from other specialist physicians.  

23. Not so timely Idaho Facility Standards complaint response: “Idaho Facility Standards, FS, finally made an appearance at the facility 14 months after my initial complaint.  This assisted living facility was found guilty of abuse by Small Claims court deeming it necessary for me to remove my Mom.”

24. Compounding conflicts of interest through cross-referring professional networks in the inland northwest that consist of Conservators, Guardians, Guardian Ad Litems and Elder law attorneys whom have satellite businesses in fiduciary or financial/estate services management and repeating referral arrangements with court visitor companies whose owners also work as licensed social worker patient advocates and/or case mangers at elder care facilities or hospitals. 

25. Guardians, conservators  and lawyers who improperly use guardianship as criminal enterprises to defraud the elderly and incompetent, which is a violation of the RICO statute.

26. Grieving widow is subjected to repeating defamation, undue influence and duress as means to remove her from a Trust.

27. Vulnerable women’s assets are intentionally concealed from the court in various investment or holding vehicles such as hidden Trusts and Omnibus accounts.

28. Conservators dismiss State Statutes and court agreements enacted to protect the best interests of the elderly and disabled women’s health and estate so the Conservators and its estate paid vendors can pursue their own financial interests at the expense of the female Ward. 

29. Multiple probate ligation circumstances involving attorneys committing undue influence related violations on their own mothers.  some also occurred while same lawyers orchestrating similar circumstances in their other probate cases and with other elder law attorneys working in-concert.

30. A disciplinary action was filed against attorney involved in over 70 Living Trust Services schemes which the Court characterized as “a living trust scam targeted at seniors.”

31. Attorney drafted a Will for a patient suffering from dementia which left all of the estate to the caregiver. He also caused the caregiver’s 19-year-old son to be named as the attorney-in-fact for the patient/client. Attorney had no prior relationship with the testatrix, and only met her at the time of execution of the documents. He did little or nothing to determine the testatrix’s competency.

32. A family law attorney was admonished for having had direct contact with a personal representative, when he knew the personal representative to be represented by a lawyer, in violation of RPC 4.2.

33. Without any investigation into his client’s continuing competency, an estate planning attorney for an elderly client wit dementia  assisted a to obtain the client’s power of attorney, which the child then used to steal funds from the estate planning attorney’s client. The attorney was was reprimanded, having been found to have violated his duty to his client.

34. An attorney affiliated herself with non-lawyers who marketed living trust packages. She delegated legal work to non-lawyers and assisted non-lawyers in the unauthorized practice of law, which were violations of RPC 5.4 (sharing fees with non-lawyers). The attorney was suspended for 2 years. Though a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct and the law are different charges, query whether the attorney’s conduct would have been found to be a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct had §§48.24.280 and 48.23.525 then been in effect, each of which permits life insurance companies to offer “non-insurance benefits” as policy benefits, including “will preparation services, estate planning services, and probate and estate settlement services.”

35. A Washington Attorney resigned in lieu of disbarment for having participated in an arrangement by which, for $75 per case, the attorney reviewed living trust “applications” prepared by insurance agents selling living trust packages on behalf of an Estate Planning and Insurance Services enterprise. At the time of his resignation, the attorney was facing disciplinary charges of incompetence (RPC 1.1), participating in the unauthorized practice of law (RPC 5.5), sharing fees with non-lawyers (RPC 5.4), and conflict of interest (RPC 1.7). See section 2.2.7.

36. The Supreme Court suspended an attorney for 18 months for having drafted a Will for the domestic partner of the attorney’s mother which left the attorney’s mother $10,000, which, at the time, was a violation of RPC 1.8(c). RPC 1.8(c) as adopted by both Washington and Idaho has broadened the definition of “related persons,” which probably would have immunized this bequest. The same attorney was also found to have mischaracterized as estate assets funds in a joint account that, but for such mischaracterization, would have passed to one of the domestic partner’s children outside of probate, in order to fund the bequest to her Mother.

37. An estate planning attorney was disbarred for having written a Will (his defense was that his legal assistant had drafted the Will) naming himself as sole beneficiary of an aged client’s estate. In addition, the attorney borrowed substantial sums from the client, and, when challenged, urged that in doing so, he had complied with RPC 1.8. The Court held that the attorney could prevail on his RPC 1.8 argument only if he could prove: “(a) there was no undue influence; (b) he gave the client exactly the same information or advice as would have been given by a disinterested attorney; and (c) the client would have received no greater benefit had she dealt with a stranger.”

38. An attorney was disbarred by the Washington Supreme Court related to four counts of misconduct arising out of litigation involving his mother’s estate. The attorney, was named as the Personal Representative of his mother’s estate and and his siblings were the only beneficiaries of the Estate. As a result of his actions during the administration of his mother’s Estate, the hearing officer determined that the lawyer knowingly made false responses to discovery requests and withheld documents to conceal his dishonest responses (RPC 3.4), and filed motions for relief, vacation or judgment, disqualification, and/or neutral judge that were frivolous (RPC 3.1 and/or RPC 8.4). The hearing officer found that the attorney violated seven factors which aggravated the causes of action (1) dishonest or selfish motive, (2) a pattern of misconduct, (3) multiple offenses, (4) bad faith obstruction of the disciplinary proceedings by intentionally failing to comply with the rules or orders of the disciplinary agency, (5) refusal to acknowledge the wrongful nature of conduct, (5) refusal to acknowledge the wrongful nature of conduct, (6) substantial experience in the practice of law, and (4) indifference to making restitution.

39. An attorney resigned from the Washington State Bar in lieu of disbarment as a result of her conduct involving an elderly client. The lawyer represented an elderly client and communicated with the client and the client’s daughter.  The attorney obtained an extra credit card that belonged to the client and used the card to make unauthorized personal purchases. On at least one occasion, the attorney forged the client’s daughter signature on the card to make personal expenditures for herself.

40. An attorney resigned from the Washington State Bar in lieu of disbarment as a result of her conduct involving an elderly client. The lawyer represented an elderly client and communicated with the client and the client’s daughter.  The attorney obtained an extra credit card that belonged to the client and used the card to make unauthorized personal purchases. On at least one occasion, the attorney forged the client’s daughter's signature on the card to make personal expenditures for herself.

41. Idaho Supreme Court suspends, an established  35 year Coeur d’Alene lawyer. The attorney who failed to provide any information to the beneficiaries and (b) paid himself approximately $104,000 in fees on a $500,000 estate. Court ordered an accounting, in which he fabricated his time and rate to justify the fees. In addition, he lost, or at least failed to safekeep, the decedent’s allegedly valuable jewelry.

42. For profit Guardian company has a lawsuit filed against them for breach of fiduciary duty, civil conspiracy, and violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act. Owner had filed has filed bankruptcy and should never had been certified as a guardian. Certified Professional Guardianship Board for violations include multiple breaching of Standards of Practice. Guardian purportedly bounced checks, let their victims go to collections for non-payment, and let their liability insurance lapse twice in one case.

The list could fill many pages and that is just in the Inland Northwest. All statements are verifiable through victims, Public State Bar records, corporate news articles, third party testimony, financial and litigation paper trails including accounts witnessed by various state and federal agencies including grant funded programs that fall under various Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) protocols.  Unfortunately, exploitative probate matters are often sealed from the public as this 2010 Seattle, King county article confirms; Secrecy hides cozy ties in guardianship cases.

“Judges and court commissioners across the state have sealed the entire file in at least 398 guardianship cases since 1990, The Times found during its ongoing series investigating concealed court records. Most of the cases were sealed in King County.”

In many of cases the elderly and disabled women are isolated from family and friends that want to help them, if they try they are repeatedly threatened by family, strangers, felons, professionals and even law enforcement/state agencies. In some cases attorneys who also tried to assist were admonished, suspended or disbarred..In ongoing efforts to alert and inform the public, current and forthcoming online reports will include: expert and elder exploitation consultant diagrams, the Geographical Information System (GIS) based GEAR article repository, additional articles by corporate news outlets; their regional affiliate reporter investigations, independent journalists, grassroots elder rights advocacy organizations analyses and progress reports on legislative front, Dept of Justice public releases on perpetrator arrests and the DoJ’s Elder Justice Initiative programs, as well as individual elder rights advocate reports from the battlefront.

Since the “Silent Epidemic”  is a nationwide corruption plague, the private-sector GIS repository will continue to add useful tech features to cross-references events by adding additional criteria and regional investigations. Worth noting is that the organizations behind this endeavor are also examining several legal reform initiatives such as supportive decision making as well as leading psychiatric professionals and criminologists with knowledge of various legal matters including assessing the conditions that make cult victims susceptible to undue influence; a primary cause of elder psychological abuse and exploitation. These professional have contributed vital research in the field of Elder abuse and exploitation and the insidious mindset of the perpetrators who premeditated elder exploitation schemes. 

Although it may be hard to comprehend some aligned geriatric service professional in the legal, conservatorship and medical field have built professional networks that prey on elder women predominantly but also elder men. Ethical professionals whom try to assist others whom sacrifice all to try and assist an elder loved one can be ostracized in their profession to the point of disbarment, fired from the facilities where they work or lose their state occupational license. These circumstances makes mandatory reporting a huge risk, so some remain silent or even reluctantly acquiesce to whatever carrots buys their silence.   Elder exploitation is an organized racket of the most insidious nature. 

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Elder Abuse & Exploitation Processes: Undue Influence, Asset Theft and Document Schemes Diagrams.

I. THE ELDER EXPLOITATION FRAUD TRIANGLE

Adapted from the Fraud Triangle and Combined with Leading Undue Influence Models & Various State Elder Exploitation Statutes.

OPPORTUNITY

The ability, timing and circumstance to exert undue influence & commit elder exploitation crimes. This occurs when vulnerable victims become physically and memory compromised and dependent on others. Memory compromised senior’s dependent on/protective of their exploitative care providers are often viewed as unreliable witnesses.

Reference Undue Influence Models: Singer/Nievedel Model | Blum IDEAL Model | Bernatz SCAM Model | Brandle/Heiser/Stiegel Model

Restatement of Contracts
“Undue Influence is unfair persuasion of a party who is under the domination of the person exercising the persuasion or who by virtue of the relation between them is justified in assuming that that person will not act in a manner inconsistent with his welfare”  - Massachusetts Psychiatry Academy

PRESSURE/INCENTIVE

Pressure, incentivizes a false justification of financial need or desire (greed). With elder exploitation a perpetrator may feel it’s time for the senior to surrender their assets or they owe it to them in exchange for care services. Predators may also feel pressure to take the elders assets before others do in probate proceedings; this includes other heirs, creditors, medical expenses, and taxes. In some cases, estate planning attorneys and financial professionals managing the elder's legal affairs and assets may be incentivized by the opportunity and assist perpetrator by facilitating illegal transfers knowing Probate Courts are abetting or overwhelmed. creating false justifications based on the perpetrators perception of current circumstances, past injustices or fairness/equity and how that can be equalized through dubious estate document provisions and covert estate transfers.

RATIONALIZATION

Rationalization is how an individual or professional justifies committing fraud related elder exploitation. Fraudsters often see themselves as victims of unusual circumstances and develop a narrative to make illegal behavior acceptable. White or Silver Collar Crime often includes gaining a legal/financially unsophisticated, naively trusting vulnerable person's signature on dubiously drafted documents; living trusts, PoA, deed transfers and joint bank accounts. Common justifications or excuses in elder exploitation matters include; "the senior doesn’t need the money", "they are going to die soon anyways", "I need the money more than they do" and "they will never know the assets are gone". Those working in collusion with others can further justify that each party will cover for the other.

MAP 3: National Probate Map: County-by-County Research on Organized Elder Exploitation Crimes, Abuse, Negligence Events, Repeating Patterns & Trends. Click here to view full page, repeating patterns and trend analysis 

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MAP 5: Forprofit Guardainship, Conservatorship & Trustee Service Eenterprises that e profit from racketeering activity, Corruption & Arrests Map. National Probate Map: County-by-County Research on Organized Elder Exploitation Crimes, Abuse, Negligence Events, Repeating Patterns & Trends. Click here to view full page, repeating patterns and trend analysis 

Research assistance, educational resources and citation’s courtesy of regional newspapers, grassroots elder rights advocates, affiliated vulnerable person organizations, State & Federal Act ordinances.

BUSINESS ALLIES COMMUNITY FOCUSED SERVICES FOR COMMERCE & HUMAN RIGHTS.

Business Allies is a Profit to Nonprofit Northwest Business Alliance. Advocate researchers are based in the following areas: Seattle & Spokane Washington, Sandpoint, Coeur d’alene, Kootenai County region each are focused in human rights projects for elder justice. Data aggregation sources and leads focused on family rights and community safety, Advocates use trustee Research Education & Fiduciary Training Services/TREFTS Platforms to research for Guardianship, Conservatorship practice standards, abuse, exploitation & negligence, and how that gets enmeshed in probate court conflicts of interest and corruption matters. Public data aggregation sources and leads include regional newspapers, VP Taskforce, AltrueSoft Tech Platforms, Citizen to Citizen Reporting, Citizen’s Bureau of Investigation, Northwest Journal News, Grassroots Elder Advocate Organizations, state & national GAO research monitoring & grant projects. Some data advocate researchers examine is provided by Department of Justice elder rights Initiatives (EJI) and investigation protocols used by Adult Protective Services or aw enforcement, prosecutors and trauma recovery specialists such as:

• National Adult Mistreatment Report System (NAMRS) collects state-level adult protective services data.
• National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) collects state-level law enforcement data.
• FTC Consumer Sentinel Network collects consumer complaints from multiple sources.
• Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) collects data on suspected elder financial exploitation submitted by financial institutions.

Key advocate research search terms: grant research objectives & administrative rules for Adult Protective Services, State Health Departments, Elder Abuse and Exploitation requirements legislated by the Code of Federal Regulations, Social Security Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and Older Americans Act. Aggregated & direct interviews via Citizen research and complaints focused on elder abuse, exploitation and negligence, human trafficking, corruption, professional cronyism among state licensed service providers such as Estate Planning Attorneys, Doctors, Physicians, Clinicians & coordinated medical ethics for elder care, neurocognitive & capacity evaluations, Conservator, Court Visitor, LSW, Guardian, Guardianship, Trustee, Management Services, Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rules of Civil Procedure, State Bar Ethics Commissions, CMS, Hospital, Facility Management, SEC, FINRA, Code of Federal Regulations,Tax Fraud, Wealth Management Services, Certified Financial Forensics & CPA Investigation manuals, Uniform Code and many more industry compliance guidelines . Supported by research from over site sources, Bureau of Occupational Licenses and all State Statutes relevant to Negligence, Exploitation & Abuse including Probate Court monitoring, Senate Hearing on “Toxic Conservatorships“, recent state & federal legislation, Acts of Congress, Elder Justice Act, Elder Abuse Guide For Law Enforcement (EAGLE), American Bar Association & American Psychologists Association Resources on & Elder Abuse & Vulnerable Person Legislation.

Courtesy of Citizen’s Public Safety Network & Citizen’s Bureau of Investigation Community Safety Projects | Spokane; Washington, Sandpoint & Coeur d’alene; Kootenai County, Idaho Elder Abuse Advocates & Grassroots Networks.