Probate Fraud
Justice for Frank Jackson

Authorities sent Frank Jackson's family on a wild-goose chase through the probate court system to find justice for Frank.

Law enforcement and the district attorney kept telling his family it wasn't their jurisdiction. In the end, Frank became another victim of fraud denied justice and his victimizers were the people in charge with helping him.

 

 

The System Failed Us

 

 

 

By Wendy Wendland-Bowyer
Detroit Fee-Press Staff Writer
Posted: May 25, 2000

In the three years that Frank Jackson has had a guardian, the 61-year-old man said he has seen her only once: When she tripped over his wheelchair in court.

LaDonna Wicks, owner of LaDon's Guardianship Services, says she or someone from her staff of eight visit all of her clients monthly. Her company has 290 cases in Wayne County Probate Court, court officials said.

Critics of Michigan's guardianship system say the guardians' large number of cases makes it nearly impossible to visit wards on a regular basis -- or at all.

Another common complaint is a lack of accountability. Under Wicks' watch, at least three foreclosure notices were issued on Frank Jackson's home of 20 years.

His home and garage were eventually destroyed -- burned by arsonists, then bulldozed. His family says they could not get past the front door of the district attorney's office to file a complaint.

Frank's water bill hadn't been paid since the fall of 1997. Wicks was suspended from Jackson's case three times for failing to file records on Jackson's finances. The Jacksons have documented many of the problems but are frustrated.

Because of the lack of oversight with Michigan's guardianship system, families like theirs feel they have nowhere to go.

"The system just failed us," said Franiece Jackson.

Frank Jackson's wife, Evelyn, died in 1992 and his health started to deteriorate. He lost some mobility, some dementia settled in, and soon he was living with a female companion.

His daughters say the woman was exploiting him, so Tempie Bunton, his eldest daughter, filed a petition with the Wayne County Probate Court in December 1996 asking to be appointed her dad's guardian. She thought with the legal authority, she could get the woman to move out of her dad's house and she could take care of him.

When a petition is filed, a probate court judge appoints an attorney -- a guardian ad litem -- to meet with the petitioner, investigate, and issue an opinion as to whether a guardian is needed.

Court files show Jackson told guardian ad litem Wendy Turner Lewis in January 1997 that he wanted his girlfriend -- not his daughter -- to be his guardian. Lewis believed Jackson clearly needed a guardian and wrote that it did not appear his companion was taking good care of him.

In a compromise, Wayne County Probate Judge June Blackwell-Hatcher appointed a professional guardian, LaDon's Guardianship Services, to Jackson. By August 1997, LaDon's was also appointed conservator. Conservators manage a person's money, pay their bills and handle their property; a guardian handles everything else.

Almost immediately, there were problems. Like many cases, arguments on both sides are difficult to sort out, a tangled web of he said-she said, but the documents are clear.

On Sept. 23, 1997, VIR Corp., which owned Jackson's land contract, issued a notice of forfeiture, saying he was behind $491 in payments. VIR issued another notice of forfeiture March 13, 1998, saying he was behind $246 -- then again on Oct. 2, 1998, when he was behind $492, records show.

Jackson's bank records show his account had -- $11,380 as of July 26, 1998.

Wicks at first denied making payments late, then said if the payments were late it was Jackson's daughters' fault, that they did not forward the bills to her quickly. Yet, as guardian and conservator, Jackson's bills went to her, not the daughters.

Records at the Detroit Water Department show Jackson's bill wasn't paid since November 1997, roughly the time when Wicks started being responsible for paying his water bills. At least $445 in bills plus penalties and interest remained due as of March this year, records show.

Wicks also fell behind in filing reports with the court on how she spent Jackson's money. She was suspended in December 1997 for not promptly filing an inventory listing Jackson's belongings and their worth; she was reinstated in January 1998 after filing it. The report listed the contents of Jackson's home as being worth $500 -- an amount Jackson's daughters say is ridiculous for a three-bedroom house full of furniture and appliances.

A notice of suspension was mailed to Bunton in September 1998 for Wicks failing to file the first annual financial report on time. She was reinstated shortly afterward, only to be suspended again in January 2000 for failing to file the second financial report. As of early May, court records show the report still wasn't filed.

Wicks said in mid-April that she went to court once to file the second report but was unable to do it since Jackson's court file was checked out. She said she will file the report soon.

"We do not go down every day," Wicks said, of Wayne County Probate Court.

Technically, when someone is suspended from a case, they don't have legal authority to continue acting as guardian and conservator. But it appears Wicks continued supervising Jackson during her three suspensions, and other than a sheet of paper in Jackson's file, there were no repercussions.

Jackson and his daughters say Wicks and her staff don't visit him and don't know his needs. In her second annual guardian report with the court, Wicks wrote that she visits Jackson monthly, spending 20-30 minutes with him each visit.

But her first annual guardian report has several inconsistencies.

She wrote that she visited Jackson monthly to bimonthly for 20-35 minutes per visit, with her last visit in May 1998. Yet the report is signed Nov. 10, 1998, six months later, and was filed even later, in early March 1999. The report also states that Wicks "worked with conservator to investigate other income" -- yet Wicks was the conservator then.

Bunton has tried to have Wicks removed. The companion is gone, and Bunton wants to be her dad's guardian and conservator -- something that Jackson said he would like as well.

In September 1998, when Wicks was late filing the first financial report, Bunton filed a request with the court asking that she replace Wicks as guardian and conservator. The judge appointed Avery Bradley as guardian ad litem to investigate.

In his Oct. 27, 1998 report, Bradley wrote that Wicks told him she could provide an explanation as to why some bills were paid late, and so there "doesn't appear to be a sufficient reason to terminate conservatorship at this time."

Whether a further explanation was ever provided wasn't indicated in court records. Also, it wasn't clear why a daughter wouldn't be given preference when she was requested by her father.

Jackson moved to a nursing home in early 1999, for a recovery period. His home was empty for a few months. Then drug dealers moved in. Every effort the daughters made to get help from law enforcement or the district attorney, fell on deaf ears, they said. They said they were told it wasn't the DA's jurisdiction and that the family had to deal with the probate court to get things resolved.

In July 1999, Jackson's garage was set on fire. In early August, the entire house burned down. The Detroit Fire Department's arson squad records show the house was deliberately burned.

The house was bulldozed in December, and for months all that remained was a pile of rubble spilling across the lot. In a street on Detroit's east side where every other house still stands, Jackson's house was an eyesore, reduced to piles of charred red bricks, hunks of concrete, splintered wood, and destroyed family mementos.

The city recently cleaned the mess. But the sight still hurts.

"When I first saw it, I cried," Bunton said. "So did my sister. We just held onto each other and sobbed. How could this happen? Where's the justice?"

Bunton added that they have been depressed and disheartened that the system that was meant to protect their father from a predator, ended up being the predator.

This," she said, waving toward the rubble, "that's what the system did for us."

 

 

Copyright © 2007 by WJFA. All rights reserved. The material on this web site may not be copied, published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. See WJFA's Disclaimer and Privacy Policy. Contact the webmaster to report issues.