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> Without realizing it, the Norths had become temporary wards of the court. Parks had filed an emergency ex-parte petition, which provides an exception to the r

> Without realizing it, the Norths had become temporary wards of the court. Parks had filed an emergency ex-parte petition, which provides an exception to the rule that both parties must be notified of any argument before a judge. She had alleged that the Norths posed a “substantial risk for mismanagement of medications, financial loss and physical harm.” 1. That's horrifying, especially considering their daughter was minutes away. How was she not involved or at the bare minimum notified? This does sound like a kidnapping. 2. The couple and daughter had no relationship with April Parks (the guardian) prior, how did she get involved? More importantly, how did she get letters from the couple's doctor? 3. How was Parks allowed to hold a hearing without involving at minimum the emergency contacts for the couple? The doctor would have had that information. 4. Once underway, it appears that further hearings, costs, etc can be billed to the estate. How f*d is that?

caseysoftware 9y ago
> "After the Norths left, Parks walked through the house with Cindy Breck, the owner of Caring Transitions, a company that relocates seniors and sells their belongings at estate sales. Breck and Parks had a routine." Almost every paragraph has some completely f*d up situation. I can't believe this isn't flagged as a conflict of interest. Fleecing old people must be a great business.
- notyourday 9y ago
  That's because we as a society tolerate it. This behavior is no different from jewelers taking gold teeth in Nazi Germany or art dealers pretending that they did not know where the paintings came from. As a marginally civilized society, we have dealt with it - it involved international tribunals, nazi hunters, quick trials and bullets between the eyes after which gold dealers as if by magic were not taking gold teeth and art dealers were not taking magically re-appearing artworks.
CoolGuySteve 9y ago
They explain a little later in the article how Parks did her research: > O’Malley described a 2010 case in which Parks, after receiving a tip from a social worker, began “cold-calling” rehabilitation centers, searching for a seventy-nine-year-old woman, Patricia Smoak, who had nearly seven hundred thousand dollars and no children. Parks finally found her, but Smoak’s physician wouldn’t sign a certificate of incapacity. “The doctor is not playing ball,” Parks wrote to her lawyer. She quickly found a different doctor to sign the certificate, and Norheim approved the guardianship. (Both Parks and Norheim declined to speak with me.)
- busterarm 9y ago
  Obviously I don't have all the facts, but from my read of this, Ms Parks deserves to be locked in a deep, dark, damp hole, for as long as possible.
  - revmoo 9y ago
    Racketeering, kidnapping, elder abuse? Yeah.
  - CoolGuySteve 9y ago
    If you read further, she did get indicted: > Last March, Parks and her lawyer, along with her office manager and her husband, were indicted for perjury and theft, among other charges. The indictment was narrowly focussed on their double billings and their sloppy accounting, but, in a detailed summary of the investigation, Jaclyn O’Malley, who led the probe for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, made passing references to the “collusion of hospital social workers and medical staff” who profited from their connection to Parks. At Parks’s grand-jury trial, her assistant testified that she and Parks went to hospitals and attorneys’ offices for the purpose of “building relationships to generate more client leads.” But I agree with you. Having lived in this country for 10 years, I am still shocked by the audacity of these kinds of legal loophole scammers and also amazed that we don't see more retaliatory murders when the legal system fails, considering how easy it is to get a gun in most of these states.
    - GigabyteCoin 9y ago
      >amazed that we don't see more retaliatory murders when the legal system fails, considering how easy it is to get a gun in most of these states You're amazed that most Americans do not resort to murder when the legal system fails them? That's why we have appeals courts. To appeal decisions by judges that you believe have failed you. Where do you come from if you don't mind my asking?
      - guelo 9y ago
        The appeals courts and all other levels of government failed these people for years until a newspaper finally took interest.
Shivetya 9y ago
Welcome to the hell that bureaucracy perpetuates. Criminals learn the system and it is easy to exploit when government workers have no concern other than to process work. So we end up with a professional class who preys on those who cannot defend themselves as they have the power of the courts on their side. this is the type of law and regulation that only gets changed if something outlandish gets championed by the local press or they step on the wrong person' toes. seeing how this goes down I would not be surprised if people like Parks hire detectives to dig up possible "clients" just so they know who is an easy take. Most certainly needs to be changed and those participating need to be held accountable.
- raugustinus 9y ago
  Those participating quite often love the unaccountability the bureaucracy provides them. Hiding behind a procedure is often preferred as to being out there making a difference. The indifference some people show, especially here in my country, to this bureaucracy is astounding. Makes my blood boil. Which might be the reason I'm having difficulty discussing it with them.
- a_c_s 9y ago
  This is also the kind of law that makes people hate lawyers & judges. No judge should approve guardianship unless they have substantial proof that the family has been notified. Facilitating fraud like this is blatantly unethical: if only 'legal ethics' actually stood for anything worthwhile
cabaalis 9y ago
Any time I hear these latin legalese terms I forget that we're living in 2017. It appears our justice systems would prefer that we were all subjects to Roman emperors whenever it suits them. EDIT: I've been downvoted, so maybe I should explain my complaint. The article describes an "emergency ex-parte" hearing as one in which only one side is represented. Does that feel like 2017 justice to you, especially in the context of the article?
- kbutler 9y ago
  Your complaint was with the "latin legalese terms" - extolling your ignorance as a virtue. This is unlikely to be popular on a site that exists to gratify intellectual curiosity. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - lovich 9y ago
    I'm inclined to agree with 'cabaalis on this point. Using Latin phrases in law still feels too much like medieval clergy only reading the Bible in Latin and telling the laypeople to trust them. Yes, there will be jargon in every profession that most people won't get, but if it's in the same language you can at least make an educated guess about it. Using dead language for your jargon feels like it specifically keeps laypeople out of the loop
    - solidsnack9000 9y ago
      > Using dead language for your jargon feels like it specifically keeps laypeople of the loop. This is not really a fair assessment. Law and contracts aren’t all rewritten every few years — old and settled law must be read and understood in the style it was written in, as must precedents and contracts. At one time, the largest settled body of law was the Roman law and so a lot of Latin got dragged forward into the English legal system (and from there into the American, Hong Kong, Canadian, &c.). The situation is like that in medicine, biology and many other sciences, where the long history of Latin as a language of scholarship is still felt in the choice of technical terms.
ryandrake 9y ago
I'm shocked at how docile and accepting those old folks were! I mean if someone comes to my house and tries to kidnap me and my family against our will, they better come armed.
- Lxr 9y ago
  I imagine when you get old, sick, weak and lose your ability to think quickly and argue properly things become more challenging.
- defined 9y ago
  Some people criticized Holocaust survivors for not resisting (I am not equating you with such critics, btw). They didn't realize that initially, the victims were hoodwinked into thinking they were being relocated, and when they learned the truth, they were weakened and disoriented by being crammed into a train cattle-car without food or water for some days. In the camps, the people were systematically starved and beaten to maintain their helplessness. Even so, some did try to rebel and were killed. The people who heard whispers about what had happened couldn't believe it - it was too vile to contemplate. The parallels between that unspeakable crime and this story are: - People who have become marginalized (our society does not exactly honor the elderly, except - sometimes - relatives). - Preying on unsuspecting people with their guards down. - State-sanctioned abuse (if unintentional) in the name of protection. - Victims who lacked the mental capacity and physical stamina to understand what was happening and to resist. - "Somebody else's problem"; disinterest in the plight of the marginalized people who some see as less than human. - Trust in authority figures.
  - pa7ch 9y ago
    To add to this, past the initial elder-knapping, it looks like they drugged the elders to keep them from rebelling/attending court dates. From the article: >During Rennie North’s first year at Lakeview Terrace, she gained sixty pounds. Parks had switched the Norths’ insurance, for reasons she never explained, and Rennie began seeing new doctors, who prescribed Valium, Prozac, the sedative Temazepam, Oxycodone, and Fentanyl. The doses steadily increased.
  - 9y ago

caseysoftware 9y ago

> "After the Norths left, Parks walked through the house with Cindy Breck, the owner of Caring Transitions, a company that relocates seniors and sells their belongings at estate sales. Breck and Parks had a routine." Almost every paragraph has some completely f*d up situation. I can't believe this isn't flagged as a conflict of interest. Fleecing old people must be a great business.

notyourday 9y ago
That's because we as a society tolerate it. This behavior is no different from jewelers taking gold teeth in Nazi Germany or art dealers pretending that they did not know where the paintings came from. As a marginally civilized society, we have dealt with it - it involved international tribunals, nazi hunters, quick trials and bullets between the eyes after which gold dealers as if by magic were not taking gold teeth and art dealers were not taking magically re-appearing artworks.

CoolGuySteve 9y ago

They explain a little later in the article how Parks did her research: > O’Malley described a 2010 case in which Parks, after receiving a tip from a social worker, began “cold-calling” rehabilitation centers, searching for a seventy-nine-year-old woman, Patricia Smoak, who had nearly seven hundred thousand dollars and no children. Parks finally found her, but Smoak’s physician wouldn’t sign a certificate of incapacity. “The doctor is not playing ball,” Parks wrote to her lawyer. She quickly found a different doctor to sign the certificate, and Norheim approved the guardianship. (Both Parks and Norheim declined to speak with me.)

busterarm 9y ago
Obviously I don't have all the facts, but from my read of this, Ms Parks deserves to be locked in a deep, dark, damp hole, for as long as possible.
- revmoo 9y ago
  Racketeering, kidnapping, elder abuse? Yeah.
- CoolGuySteve 9y ago
  If you read further, she did get indicted: > Last March, Parks and her lawyer, along with her office manager and her husband, were indicted for perjury and theft, among other charges. The indictment was narrowly focussed on their double billings and their sloppy accounting, but, in a detailed summary of the investigation, Jaclyn O’Malley, who led the probe for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, made passing references to the “collusion of hospital social workers and medical staff” who profited from their connection to Parks. At Parks’s grand-jury trial, her assistant testified that she and Parks went to hospitals and attorneys’ offices for the purpose of “building relationships to generate more client leads.” But I agree with you. Having lived in this country for 10 years, I am still shocked by the audacity of these kinds of legal loophole scammers and also amazed that we don't see more retaliatory murders when the legal system fails, considering how easy it is to get a gun in most of these states.
  - GigabyteCoin 9y ago
    >amazed that we don't see more retaliatory murders when the legal system fails, considering how easy it is to get a gun in most of these states You're amazed that most Americans do not resort to murder when the legal system fails them? That's why we have appeals courts. To appeal decisions by judges that you believe have failed you. Where do you come from if you don't mind my asking?
    - guelo 9y ago
      The appeals courts and all other levels of government failed these people for years until a newspaper finally took interest.

Shivetya 9y ago

Welcome to the hell that bureaucracy perpetuates. Criminals learn the system and it is easy to exploit when government workers have no concern other than to process work. So we end up with a professional class who preys on those who cannot defend themselves as they have the power of the courts on their side. this is the type of law and regulation that only gets changed if something outlandish gets championed by the local press or they step on the wrong person' toes. seeing how this goes down I would not be surprised if people like Parks hire detectives to dig up possible "clients" just so they know who is an easy take. Most certainly needs to be changed and those participating need to be held accountable.

raugustinus 9y ago
Those participating quite often love the unaccountability the bureaucracy provides them. Hiding behind a procedure is often preferred as to being out there making a difference. The indifference some people show, especially here in my country, to this bureaucracy is astounding. Makes my blood boil. Which might be the reason I'm having difficulty discussing it with them.
a_c_s 9y ago
This is also the kind of law that makes people hate lawyers & judges. No judge should approve guardianship unless they have substantial proof that the family has been notified. Facilitating fraud like this is blatantly unethical: if only 'legal ethics' actually stood for anything worthwhile

cabaalis 9y ago

Any time I hear these latin legalese terms I forget that we're living in 2017. It appears our justice systems would prefer that we were all subjects to Roman emperors whenever it suits them. EDIT: I've been downvoted, so maybe I should explain my complaint. The article describes an "emergency ex-parte" hearing as one in which only one side is represented. Does that feel like 2017 justice to you, especially in the context of the article?

kbutler 9y ago
Your complaint was with the "latin legalese terms" - extolling your ignorance as a virtue. This is unlikely to be popular on a site that exists to gratify intellectual curiosity. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- lovich 9y ago
  I'm inclined to agree with 'cabaalis on this point. Using Latin phrases in law still feels too much like medieval clergy only reading the Bible in Latin and telling the laypeople to trust them. Yes, there will be jargon in every profession that most people won't get, but if it's in the same language you can at least make an educated guess about it. Using dead language for your jargon feels like it specifically keeps laypeople out of the loop
  - solidsnack9000 9y ago
    > Using dead language for your jargon feels like it specifically keeps laypeople of the loop. This is not really a fair assessment. Law and contracts aren’t all rewritten every few years — old and settled law must be read and understood in the style it was written in, as must precedents and contracts. At one time, the largest settled body of law was the Roman law and so a lot of Latin got dragged forward into the English legal system (and from there into the American, Hong Kong, Canadian, &c.). The situation is like that in medicine, biology and many other sciences, where the long history of Latin as a language of scholarship is still felt in the choice of technical terms.

ryandrake 9y ago

I'm shocked at how docile and accepting those old folks were! I mean if someone comes to my house and tries to kidnap me and my family against our will, they better come armed.

Lxr 9y ago
I imagine when you get old, sick, weak and lose your ability to think quickly and argue properly things become more challenging.
defined 9y ago
Some people criticized Holocaust survivors for not resisting (I am not equating you with such critics, btw). They didn't realize that initially, the victims were hoodwinked into thinking they were being relocated, and when they learned the truth, they were weakened and disoriented by being crammed into a train cattle-car without food or water for some days. In the camps, the people were systematically starved and beaten to maintain their helplessness. Even so, some did try to rebel and were killed. The people who heard whispers about what had happened couldn't believe it - it was too vile to contemplate. The parallels between that unspeakable crime and this story are: - People who have become marginalized (our society does not exactly honor the elderly, except - sometimes - relatives). - Preying on unsuspecting people with their guards down. - State-sanctioned abuse (if unintentional) in the name of protection. - Victims who lacked the mental capacity and physical stamina to understand what was happening and to resist. - "Somebody else's problem"; disinterest in the plight of the marginalized people who some see as less than human. - Trust in authority figures.
- pa7ch 9y ago
  To add to this, past the initial elder-knapping, it looks like they drugged the elders to keep them from rebelling/attending court dates. From the article: >During Rennie North’s first year at Lakeview Terrace, she gained sixty pounds. Parks had switched the Norths’ insurance, for reasons she never explained, and Rennie began seeing new doctors, who prescribed Valium, Prozac, the sedative Temazepam, Oxycodone, and Fentanyl. The doses steadily increased.
- 9y ago