Help with possible elder abuse

[Snowey]

What is the name of your state? Missouri
Hi
my SIL has been taking care of my MIL(Alzheimers) ,living in MIL's house.
My husband and I had to go get MIL to live with us in Louisiana.SIL was POA and now both of them are POA.
My SIL got arrested for 3rd DWI and Burglary and property damage(EX boyfriend's house)she may go to jail on August 1st 2006.
so now we are trying to sort through all of MIL's finances.
she does have long term care insurance but we know that no home health has come in to help yet.when we discussed it with SIL about a year ago ,she said she wanted to wait but she did mention that the Home Health said they could PAY HER TO DO IT.
while we were in MO. she MENTIONED that she CASHED out $5000 of her Mom's long term care
that shocked us, so we had the bank send the last 6 months statement of MIL' s checking account with SIL's name on the account too.
we found out that there is a monthly deposit of $1500-1800 that is not MILs.and it shows that SIL would write a check for the EXACT amount 1-3 days later.
SIL does not work ,she says she cleans houses 3 days a week.
so I called insurance company because I need Home Health for MIL in Louisiana,they said they would investigate this.Family members are not supposed to be paid ,only home health workers.SIL does not know that we are finding this out, instead of her cashing in $5000 it looks more like $10,000-20,000.SIL HAS BEEN LIVING OFF OF MY MIL!
SIL told me she bathes MIL 1 day a week
we want to Petition the Court so SIL would have to give account of her POA.
Should we do this? How do we do this?
if SIL goes to jail would that revoke her POA?
Or would the Court revoke it if proven she did not act in her mother's best interest?
If the insurance company proves that the Home Health agency and SIL committed Fraud or Elder Abuse by not actually sending someone into the Home but just paid SIL instead.
Can MIL sue the Home Health agency for allowing this to go on and for not receiving the proper care the Agency promised?
any other advice would be appreciated,we are trying to sort through all of this!What is the name of your state?

 

[Snowey]

any advice out there?
we really need some advice because we think my sister in law is going to run.so we have to move quickly.Mom has been with us for a week now and my SIL will not give us any money out of Mom's account
should we contact the same lawyer that did the DPOA to Petition the court for SIL to give account? Would it be a conflict of interest to do that since SIL and husband are DPOA together?
we really do not know what to do because Mom has a house with all her stuff in it and SIL is living there and her 29 year old son has been too.How do we get them out of the house since Mom is here with us in Louisiana?
and the other bad part is that a brother is in jail(meth) in Kansas City,Mo.and he is suppose to parole at the end of August to this house
How do we stop that?
How in the world could a parole officer allow the brother to parole there, when his Mom has Alzheimers and the sister has a criminal history?
should we find out who the PO is and tell them what is really going on?
that we do not want the brother paroled to Mom's house.
this is a mess and I am just trying to find out what is the first thing we need to do Monday morning.
I am going to fax the insurance company Monday ,the bank statements of these large deposits that are not Mom's and tell them to call the District Attorney if these suspicians of insurance fraud are true.
any advice out there ?
Thanks!

 

[BlondiePB]

any advice out there?
we really need some advice because we think my sister in law is going to run.so we have to move quickly.Mom has been with us for a week now and my SIL will not give us any money out of Mom's account
should we contact the same lawyer that did the DPOA to Petition the court for SIL to give account? Would it be a conflict of interest to do that since SIL and husband are DPOA together?
we really do not know what to do because Mom has a house with all her stuff in it and SIL is living there and her 29 year old son has been too.How do we get them out of the house since Mom is here with us in Louisiana?
and the other bad part is that a brother is in jail(meth) in Kansas City,Mo.and he is suppose to parole at the end of August to this house
How do we stop that?
How in the world could a parole officer allow the brother to parole there, when his Mom has Alzheimers and the sister has a criminal history?
should we find out who the PO is and tell them what is really going on?
that we do not want the brother paroled to Mom's house.
this is a mess and I am just trying to find out what is the first thing we need to do Monday morning.
I am going to fax the insurance company Monday ,the bank statements of these large deposits that are not Mom's and tell them to call the District Attorney if these suspicians of insurance fraud are true.
any advice out there ?
Thanks!

Snowey, we are all volunteers here and only a few members (including myself) deal with Elder Law issues. Call Adult Protective Services in the county where your mom is residing.

 

[Snowey]

thanks,my Mom is with us in Louisiana right now.
I am looking on the internet for an Elder Law attorney and I think I found one to email.

 

[comet3]

I'm assuming you meant your husband took on the other POA position??? You can take her to court to prove her incompetent of being your MIL's POA. At that time the courts could suspend her of her position. You do need to have the removal of money be taken care of immediately before she takes out anymore. It is considered abuse for "misappropriation of property" which sounds to me like she's doing.

 

[BlondiePB]

I'm assuming you meant your husband took on the other POA position???

You assume WRONG!

Originally Posted by comet3
You can take her to court to prove her incompetent of being your MIL's POA. At that time the courts could suspend her of her position.

Which is EXACTLY why the poster is seeking an attorney. As a matter of fact, unless the poster's mother has established residency in Louisiana, the poster needs an attorney in MO to petition for guardianship as this is jurisdictional. If the MO court appoints the poster guardian, she must have the court's permission to have mom with her in Louisiana.

Originally Posted by comet3
You do need to have the removal of money be taken care of immediately before she takes out anymore. It is considered abuse for "misappropriation of property" which sounds to me like she's doing.

This is a LEGAL advice site, not ILLEGAL advice!


YOU HAVE JUST ADVISED THE POSTER TO COMMIT A CRIME!!


What do you think the moderator of this site will think about you advising a poster to commit a crime. Hopefully, you're membership here will be revoked.

 

[butterscotch]

snowey,
I hope you have found legal counsel. I included these other reference to obtain more information.

This is a link to finding additional sources for elderly and families of elders:
http://moaging.com/AAA/Directory.asp

another website for questions:
www.elderlawanswers.com

you might be interested in this site as well
www.naela.com

comet,
I'm sure you meant well but this is a legal site for legal advice not a forum for opinions.
This is a site you might be interested in for discussions:
[email protected]

 

[Snowey]

thanks Yall !

my husband is on together as DPOA.
so I guess we will have to Petition the Court for the Sister to give accounting.
Hopefully that will get her off as POA.
I know that according to the Law a POA cannot share the Principals checking account which the Sister is and is using it as her own.
we do not want to take any money out yet so she will not be alerted that we know what she is doing.
she is committing insurance fraud by getting her CNA friend to say to the Long term care that friend is working for Mom and then the friend is depositing those checks into Mom's and Sisters account
and then Sister writes a check from that account 1-3 days later for that EXACT amount of the deposit.
so the sister is getting paid under the table to go to the beach ,go fishing live rent free in Mom's house and do whatever she wants
when Mom COULD BE receiving great care for $1800 a month
the insurance company is doing an investigation and I hope they BUST HER BUTT BIG TIME!

 

[BlondiePB]

thanks Yall !

my husband is on together as DPOA.
so I guess we will have to Petition the Court for the Sister to give accounting.
Hopefully that will get her off as POA.
I know that according to the Law a POA cannot share the Principals checking account which the Sister is and is using it as her own.
we do not want to take any money out yet so she will not be alerted that we know what she is doing.
she is committing insurance fraud by getting her CNA friend to say to the Long term care that friend is working for Mom and then the friend is depositing those checks into Mom's and Sisters account
and then Sister writes a check from that account 1-3 days later for that EXACT amount of the deposit.
so the sister is getting paid under the table to go to the beach ,go fishing live rent free in Mom's house and do whatever she wants
when Mom COULD BE receiving great care for $1800 a month
the insurance company is doing an investigation and I hope they BUST HER BUTT BIG TIME!

Run...don't walk to an attorney's office and petition for guardianship and for all of mom's assests to be frozen!

 

[Snowey]

thanks BlondiePB !

I am really trying to do that but it is hard when we are in Louisiana and we have to do this in MO.
I called a lawyer we are familiar with in Mo. but I have not gotten a call back yet .
and I did email an Elder Law attorney that the other lawyer knows but no response yet.
so hopefully this week we can get something done!

 

[pojo2]

YOU HAVE JUST ADVISED THE POSTER TO COMMIT A CRIME!!


What do you think the moderator of this site will think about you advising a poster to commit a crime. Hopefully, you're membership here will be revoked.

With all due respect and I may have just plain missed it or the post was later changed but where in comet's post did he or she advise committing a crime?

I just read it to mean that the problem of the money being takesn should be addressed.

 

[Snowey]

hi
update
we just found out that the sister just got her 4th DWI and she has been driving without a license
and after she bailed out(with who's money ) she took a bunch of pills and ended up in the hospital
so I guess all her illegal activities are getting to her.
we have heard that she is going to run from the law and we have no money for Mom so we are getting money out (debit card ,sister has checks) before she takes it all.
and we are going to get Mom's own checking account in Louisiana.
we are still trying to talk to lawyers to know what to do.
but at this point we have no money and we have to go back to MO. next week to lock up mom's house and move some of her stuff here with us.
so I think the sister is trying to keep all Mom's stuff with her because she did not want us to lock up the house when we went the first time to Mo.

sister even put Mom's car as TOD in her name and she probably will not have a drivers license for the next ten years.
so if Mom is living here with us in Louisiana we are moving all Mom's stuff here and probably getting Guardianship here in Louisiana.
anybody have any more advice?
Thanks yall!

 

[Snowey]

and the saga continues**************..

well I talked to the insurance company today and they are acting like they believe that care was given.they have one discrepency is that July 10th it shows that care was given overnight.well we were there in Mo. overnight on July 10th and No care was there.they asked the CNA and she said she could not remember.
we know in our hearts that this was a scheme between the CNA friend and the sister!
because the sister does not work(but has plenty of money) but she said to the insurance co. she worked nights and she needed someone at nights 9 hours 6 days a week.
should we drop this?
or do you think the insurance knows it is fraud and thinks we will sue them if fraud was found out?
I did not know that insurance companies would pay a private person like this because fraud is too easy to commit this way.
the insurance said they would receive an invoice from CNA and the check would be sent to the insured and then insured(sister) would pay the CNA.
it is too easy for the sister to write a check to friend and then friend could cash it and give back to sister
is there anything that can be done or do we just say what goes around comes around

 

[comet3]

First off...thank you to pojo2 for OBVIOUSLY being able to read what WAS said and not what some WANTED it to say. It's up to you AND you husband on whether you want to continue. I would ensure through a lawyer and/or court (to spell it out for SOME people!) that she be removed from having control of her money, otherwise, in the end, your mother will be left with nothing. But if you've taken care of that. Then all you have now is a great situation that your MIL is being taken care of properly at this time.

 

[BlondiePB]

Originally posted by pojo2

YOU HAVE JUST ADVISED THE POSTER TO COMMIT A CRIME!!

What do you think the moderator of this site will think about you advising a poster to commit a crime. Hopefully, you're membership here will be revoked.

With all due respect and I may have just plain missed it or the post was later changed but where in comet's post did he or she advise committing a crime?

I just read it to mean that the problem of the money being takesn should be addressed.

Here is comet's reply:

Originally posted by comet3

I'm assuming you meant your husband took on the other POA position??? You can take her to court to prove her incompetent of being your MIL's POA. At that time the courts could suspend her of her position. You do need to have the removal of money be taken care of immediately before she takes out anymore. It is considered abuse for "misappropriation of property" which sounds to me like she's doing.

Snowey has no legal authorization to remove the money from the bank account.

Something else needs to be crystal clear here which is whether the OP's husband is co-POA having equal power or is only an Alternate Agent.

Originally Posted by Snowey
my husband is on together as DPOA.

(Note to Snowey: Is your husband co-DPOA or an Alternate Agent? Please read the document very closely. This is extremely important.)