Along with all the other issues that are eroding our culture and our republic this is, what I consider to be, the most destructive aspect to America, today. Family courts, and the huge bureaucracy that has become “family service” type departments, (Children and Family Services, Child Protective Agencies, Guardians Ad Litem, etc.) are cutting the American family off at the knees by intervening, often times against the will of the family, in the care and oversight of children and adults, when extended family is available and willing to take responsibility. When you read this post, that appeared in Rebel Pundit, understand that is NOT an isolated incident. It’s happening all over the country, in every state and county, right under your nose. H/T to MF for sending this to me.
Following multiple RebelPundit reports on guardianship abuse, our latest investigation reveals this problem is widespread across the country and there is top to bottom corruption in court appointed guardianship in Harris County, Texas.
After speaking to victims, lawyers, and activists, the investigation reveals that the probate court in Harris County works much like a good ole boys club where judges receive campaign contributions from lawyers who then receive favorable rulings. In a court with little oversight, several victims suffered physical and mental abuse and were left to effectively be euthanized.
Guardianship is a court created power to take decisions of healthcare and finances away from those the court has deemed incapacitated and unable to make those decisions for themselves.
Initially started to protect the elderly and mentally challenged from being taken advantage of, it has often been corrupted, having the opposite effect. Those perfectly healthy who are effectively jailed and held against their wills, often end up in nursing homes away from their families.
Sherry Johnston told RebelPundit her mother was one of those victims. Her mother died in September 2014, weighing less than thirty pounds her normal weight. She provided Rebel Pundit with a series of photos which showed bruising, bed sores, and she made a You Tube video of doctors and guardianship professionals refusing to provide her mother with treatment, instead choosing to send her to hospice care to die.
Johnston said her ordeal started when a family dispute led to an order placing her mother, Willie Jo Mills, in guardianship. Rather than choosing a family member to be her guardian, Judge Christine Butts, appointed David Dexel to be the guardian.
The judge also appointed a Guardian ad Litem (GAL) and an Attorney ad Litem to oversee the case, all at the expense of the estate. Rather than allowing Mills to live with Johnston, as both wanted, Dexel placed Mills in the Silverado Nursing Home in Kingwood, Texas, in the spring 2009.
The estate was charged $7,000 a month for the care.
“At Sliverado she was abused, isolated and neglected,” Johnston told RebelPundit.
Dexel, whose name came up repeatedly in the investigation, is out of the office until December, according to his law office, and didn’t respond with a statement on this and other cases.
According to campaign finance records, Dexel contributed $1,000 to Butts’ campaign while the GAL in the case, Howard Reiner, contributed $2,500 to Butts campaign in 2013.
Reiner didn’t return a phone message left at his law office.
Butts was re-elected in November 2014.
Johnston said her mother’s estate has been charged nearly $300,000 in total fees by court professionals, including lawyers like Dexel and Reiner who charged between $250-300 per hour for their services.
Debbie Valdez, President of Guardianship Reform Advocates for the Disabled and Elderly (GRADE) is not surprised and said poorly thought out legislation has led to problems in the State of Texas and Harris County.
She told Rebel Pundit that her group has received complaints against three of the four elected probate judges in Harris County.
The most notorious judge is Mike Woodwho has been featured in a number of exposes in Houstonarea media. Valdez said in 2005, Woods was one of several judges to testify in front of the Texas legislature to argue for more ambitious guardianship laws, claiming elderly would be victimized without them.
The result was bill SB 6, which Valdez told RebelPundit has done the opposite, leading to far more corruption and abuse.
One problem is that the law turned Texas into a court initiated guardianship state. By this Valdez explained, once any report is made of an individual to probate court, they are immediately put into the guardianship system even before its determined, if in fact, the ward is incapacitated.
“We see court initiated guardianship as very dangerous.”