: Protecting The Protected: Elderly Woman Fears For Her Life, Claims Theft, Confinement, Starvation

To Americans who so value their freedoms – privacy and autonomy included – the losses of rights that can accompany old age are devastating.

For people like 81-year-old Sabina Pinkas, who spent much of her life as a freedom fighter in the Israeli underground and as part of the Israeli intelligence, the end of freedom might just as well be the end of her life.

Unfortunately for her, it almost was.

The Nightmare Begins

Pinkas said she nearly starved to death for six weeks between 1999 and 2000 because Selfhelp Community Guardian, the guardian who had been appointed to her by the courts several months earlier, denied her access to her bank account and didn’t provide her with any pocket money for groceries.

Selfhelp, one of three New York City community guardian organizations, was appointed to the wealthy Pinkas in 1999, and given control over her person and finances.

A court may appoint guardians to manage the personal and/or financial affairs of people who cannot manage for themselves because of incapacity – whether it’s global debilitation or the inability to pay bills or make healthcare decisions.

But Pinkas said she is not incapacitated in any way. She said she still doesn’t understand why one day she received a letter in her mailbox telling her to show up in court for a hearing.

A Lifetime Of Torture

The process for awarding guardianship is complicated. Typically, a petitioner (either a person or institution) files a request with the court regarding an Alleged Incapacitated Person; a court evaluator is then appointed and sent to investigate the “AIP.” If the evaluator finds evidence to warrant a hearing, he will inform the court, and a judge will determine whether the person needs a guardian. If so, the judge appoints a personal guardian (friend or family member), an independent guardian (usually a lawyer or social worker) or a City-affiliated community guardian, like Selfhelp.

Pinkas claims no court evaluator ever came to her home or even attempted to contact her. She refused to cooperate at her hearing, and still ended up with Selfhelp as her guardian.

According to Selfhelp Director Pat Kaufman, it’s very common for people to deny meeting with court evaluators or receiving notification of court proceedings or overall guardian matters. They are often disobliging, she said, as a result of feeling stripped of their dignity for no longer being self-reliant.

Pinkas said she feels that the petitioner sentenced her to a lifetime of what she calls torture: when Selfhelp was appointed to Pinkas, she was left with no money and no control over her life, she said.

According to Pinkas, Selfhelp staff terrorized her numerous times throughout the last decade with intimidation and mental anguish. They attempted to gain entry into her home, stole various expensive belongings, falsely committed her to a mental institution and denied her access to her own bank accounts, she said.

The majority of Selfhelp’s 360 clients (60 of whom live in Queens) have asserted the same baseless accusations, said Kaufman. It’s extremely difficult for them to accept that they are not self-sufficient, she said. Moreover, understanding that their guardians have complete control of their money and home maintenance is rare and frequently they cry theft.

By law, guardians have full access to and control of their wards’ homes and belongings and can make decisions for them. But to institutionalize clients, they must document and present reasons before a judge and receive court approval.

Unwelcome Assistance

Pinkas, who practices holistic health care and describes herself as a “health nut,” said Selfhelp came into her clean and well kept home, handcuffed her and placed her in an institution without court approval in the summer of 2005. The organization then proceeded to lie to the judge about her condition, she said, and asserted that her house was filthy, her food rotting, her condition appalling and her need for help urgent.

Kaufman denied this, and said a Selfhelp caseworker tried to approach Pinkas during a monthly visit and when Pinkas became extremely belligerent, the caseworker called the police, who decided to place Pinkas in an institution. No court approval was necessary.

Marlene Rodriguez, a friend of Pinkas, said Pinkas is completely lucid and competent. She even worked for the Board of Elections in 2004 and passed a psychiatric evaluation, forcing Selfhelp to remove her from the facility.

In a tape-recorded conversation with a friend of Pinkas, one Mental Hygiene Legal Service lawyer admitted that Selfhelp mistreated its client. She also assured the friend that MHLS would work toward getting Selfhelp removed as Pinkas’ guardian.

“I am fully aware that Sabina does not need a guardian,” the lawyer said. “We’re looking to get rid of the guardian for her, we’re looking to put it back to where Sabina has the control over her own life, which I know she could do.”

She added, “Part of getting rid of [Selfhelp] involves having to expose what they’ve done to Sabina.”

So far, Pinkas alleges, no one has exposed anything, including the court evaluator responsible for overseeing the case.

And her suffering continued, she added. Not only was she without money, which she claims was the result of Selfhelp’s squandering, she was without independence, both because her eyesight was slowly failing and because her guardian was allegedly abusing its power.

A Troubled System

Pinkas’ situation is not unusual and wards aren’t always paranoid. Throughout the last decade, the state of guardianship has been reviewed and its flaws exposed. Finally it was thoroughly examined and presented with some reforms in 2005.

In 2000, the media uncovered a guardianship scandal in Brooklyn where lawyers (who typically serve as guardians) provided free legal representation of judicial and other candidates for the Kings County Democratic Club in exchange for financially desirable guardianship appointments by judges.

Similarly, in 2003, 2004 and 2005 the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times, respectively, all reported how this last resort was failing the needy more than it was protecting them.

The problem, according to Mental Hygiene Legal Service Principal Attorney Felice Wechsler, is that courts do not have the continuous oversight of the guardians they’re supposed to have – and the problem lies mainly with the court evaluators.

The evaluators or court examiners are independent investigators specially trained in guardianship matters who are hired by the courts to review annual accountings by guardians of their wards’ financial and personal states. They are responsible for monitoring the actions of the guardians and welfare of the wards.

This, according to Wechsler and a variety of other people and organizations, is not happening properly.

In 2001, the Guardian and Fiduciary Services branch of the New York State Court System created the Birnbaum Commission to examine and evaluate the condition of guardianship in the State.

It found several problems with court evaluators, including high rates of court examiner turnover, cursory examinations of financial records and poor communication with guardians. Lax oversight by the evaluators facilitated guardian thefts and neglect, according to the Commission.

Additional problems include the “huge backlog” of cases, according to Wechsler, and lack of incentive for court evaluators who are overburdened and under compensated, according to Mental Hygiene Legal Service Queens Deputy Director Leslie DeLia. Also, according to New York Legal Assistance Group Queens Attorney Donna Dougherty, the whole system is just a reporting and filing process; the guardian and court examiner rarely communicate outside of paperwork.

“There’s no casework component,” said Dougherty. “[Court examiners] aren’t going out there to check things out.”

Wechsler said, “The system in theory is a good one, but the mechanics suffer under the huge case loads.”

The Commission recognized this and proposed several solutions for remedying the problems, including more thorough examinations, face-to-face interviews, hiring specialists to oversee evaluators and bringing the court evaluator function in-house.

Not An Easy Task

Guardian appointments can be extremely helpful and necessary in the lives of those who are truly incapacitated. But, Wechsler said, they are a “huge infringement on someone’s personal autonomy.”

Judges are “taking someone’s liberties and powers away,” said Dougherty, which is why the wards have due process rights. In some cases where the AIP does not have or cannot afford an attorney, Mental Hygiene Legal Services is appointed as counsel and acts on behalf of the prospective ward.

Wechsler said it is her job and the job of her staff to keep the best interests of AIP at heart. Guardians are supposed to be the last resort, she said, and even if they are appointed, they are expected only to do what the wards cannot do for themselves.

Pinkas was more than able to care for herself, she said, but Selfhelp continued to deny her autonomy. And nothing changed for Pinkas when she obtained legal aid from MHLS. According to Pinkas, who is currently estranged from her children, the MHLS lawyers accomplished nothing.

In general, however, when MHLS is appointed as counsel for wards complaining of neglect or abuse by guardians, it is the group’s responsibility to correct the situation by writing letters to court evaluators or judges or asking the courts to modify the guardians’ powers, discharge or replace them.

The End In Sight

Though it took a decade, Selfhelp stepped aside as Pinkas’s guardian and the judge appointed Rodriguez as her new permanent guardian.

The two are waiting for Selfhelp to submit its annual accounting of Pinkas’s case to the court evaluator in May so that they can better understand the whereabouts of the $72,000 Pinkas is supposed to have accumulated during the last 10 years. Currently she only has $2,000 in her bank account.

Pending the court examiner’s findings, Pinkas and Rodriguez will consider pursuing legal action against Selfhelp for possible financial misappropriation.

The two are also searching for a lawyer to help Pinkas with her case and are encouraging others in similar situations to come forward and speak out.