Elderly mother victim of Alabama's broken system

My mother is 84 years old. She is still recovering from the stroke she had on Aug. 28, 2003. She has never been quite the same since that day. I was told that she has vascular dementia.

What is dementia? First, dementia is not just one disease but many. Like cancer, dementia has more than one form. Symptomatically it is a disease which is characterized by a change in how the mind of an individual normally functions. In my mother's case one day she was her normal self, reading books, working crossword puzzles, watching television, fixing her own meals, balancing her check book and walking about the house just as you or I might do. Then after her stroke everything changed.

Vascular dementia is the result from circulation problems. When the brain does not get enough oxygen parts of the brain stop working properly. This results in changes in body function and/or behavior. In my mother's case she no longer seems to be able to remember clearly. She can, however read and write. When in the hospital during August of 2003 her doctor tested her mental function. This was immediately after her stroke during recovery. At first she was quite incoherent. Her cognition was not very good. Then over the course of three weeks these tests improved and she got better, well enough to be transferred to a nursing home. At this point she was able to read and write again.

Once at the nursing home my mother's doctor started her on medication for depression. Yet she had not been diagnosed with depression prior to going in the nursing home. I had been told by my mother's doctor that she would probably need three to four weeks of therapy and rehabilitation and when admitted to the nursing home it was stated that she was being admitted as a temporary patient. I was to learn that in Alabama "temporary" means permanent. Like slavery ended with the Civil War but it still continues in Alabama in the form of separation of the races. Social segregation is alive and well in Alabama. Slavery exists, not in the owning of people as property but in the power and control white people maintain over black people. In Alabama temporary means permanent ... at least until the second coming!

My mother is not black, but she might as well be as far as her rights are concerned. The Montgomery County Probate Court took away my mother's rights. In doing so they took away her dignity, her respect and did a great dishonor to her. My mother is the wife and widow of Lt. Col. Leonard P. Lynch, a much decorated US Army officer. As a family my mother's income has always come from the federal government, not the State of Alabama. Yet an Alabama court has now dishonored my mother and court appointed guardians and conservators now have power and control of my mother's income.

It is apparent to me that what was done to my mother was done for money. The nursing home wanted to continue to receive money from my mother's benefits as she has TriCare for Life, Social Security benefits, VA benefits and an annuity from the Defense Department. This is quite a hefty sum. What better way to support an under funded nursing home than to miserly gain power and control over the income of elderly women who have outlived their spouses and can easily be parted from their money by a simple court order.

My mother's judge at her hearing in the Montgomery County Probate Court was Reese McKinney, Jr. He has a website at: Probate Judge Reese McKinney, Jr. I don't have such a good opinion of this judge after he made my mother a ward of the state. Plus in the course of my research (In fact, while searching for the link I just added) I learned that this same judge is a trustee at Jackson Hospital (See Jackson Hospital Trustees), the same hospital where my mother was admitted after her stroke. Well, it so happens that while at this hospital my mother may not have been treated properly. There are issues related to the matter of malpractice. It came out during my sanity hearing that there were flies in the emergency room when my mother was admitted to Jackson Hospital. I obeserved these flies land upon my mother. She had open wounds on her legs as a result of her circulation problem. These were bluebottle flies. I know this as I captured one and identified it later. This variety of flies lays eggs which hatch immediately. In the emergency room my mother was found to have maggots on her legs. She got these in the emergency room. This represents a very unsanitary condition. Hence as attorney in fact for my mother I may have been in a position to bring a law suit against Jackson Hospital. Certainly as a trustee for Jackson Hospital, Judge Reese Mckinney, Jr. would have recognized this fact. Hence he should have recused himself from my mother's hearing to appoint a guardian and conservator. This was not done. I did not know this association at the time of my mother's hearing or I would certainly have asked that he recuse himself.

Court orders are court orders and must be obeyed. So my mother is now essentially a prisoner of the nursing home system in Alabama by court order. Judge Reese McKinney, Jr. order that my mother be kept in the nursing home until this matter was judicated. So now she is trapped in this particular nursing home as the Court appointed a guardian and conservator for my mothers. The nursing home is getting paid very well through receipt of benefits and the court appointed guardians and conservators are getting the rest of my mother's income to fill their own pockets. As far as I'm concerned this amounts to theft by deception. It is a form of legalized theft in the same way that the white man stole the land from the American Indians. It is all perfectly legal, perhaps, but theft nonetheless.

I was inspired by these events to write a poem entitled "Candy Bar Judges." Apparently Alabama courts are full of these candy bar judges. Perhaps the most famous candy bar judge was Roy Moore. He was the supreme court judge in Alabama who placed a monument of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the state supreme court judicial building. Though his name may not be Reese, Hershey or Butterfingers, Judge Moore is a candy bar judge. He was elected to the supreme court of Alabama not because he was the most qualified for this position, but because he was the most popular, having gain fame by placing a plaque to the Ten Commandments in his courtroom.

The same is true of Judge Reese McKinney, the judge who took away all my mother's rights and made her a ward of the state of Alabama. This judge does not sit on the bench because he was the most qualified person appointed for this position. Rather, he was elected by a popular vote. That's how it works in Alabama, if you kiss enough ass and gain enough friends and pocket enough money, you can win an election and be a judge in Alabama. So should your name be Reese, Hershey or Butterfingers, and you aspire to be a judge, come to Alabama, join the Southern Baptist Church and put your name in the pot. The only dues you have to pay are to get a law degree from a diploma factory.

Fortunately in the United States of America we still have freedom of speech, press and religion. I'm publishing my opinions in this blog as an express of my US Constitutional Rights. Therefore while I must comply with the court's order respecting my mother, I denounce the manner in which she has been treated by the nursing home and the court appointed guardians and conservators. Together the system has disrespected my mother's every wish and written directive.

This is an important issue. Every adult in the state of Alabama has the potential to become a victim of the system, a ward of the state. You do not have to commit a crime for this to happen, you just have to get old.

Every citizen in the state of Alabama is at risk of being made a ward of the state. You can be young or old. All that is necessary is for someone to say you are quite nuts. Then you can be arrested in your own home, dragged out, have your person and privacy invaded and be put in an institution for the insane. In my own case I was fortunate enough to have recently retained an attorney in preparation for my mother's hearing with respect to who would be her guardian and conservator. So after my brother filed a fraudulent petition with respect to my sanity and had me arrested and incarcerated for "evaluation," I was able to get off the hook, being represented by my own attorney and one the Court appointed. Yet certainly this prejudice the Court against me for my sanity hearing was in the same probate court as my mother's hearing. My arrest and incarceration in a nut house was planned and designedto prevent my presence at my mother's hearing to establish who would be her guardian and conservator. This hearing was scheduled for 8:30 AM, November 24, 2003. I was arrested on Nov. 21 and did not get out of Meadhaven until Nov. 25, the same day as my hearing in the Montgomery County Probate Court. So the fact I had just been released from Meadhaven certainly would prejudice any judge against me.

It is very important that everyone understand how this injustice was done. It could not have been done without the participation and cooperation of well paid lawyers. What occurred was the result of a plan that had been worked out by my eldest brother with the participation and cooperation of a well paid lawyer, Ms Kathryn Dickey. Ms. Dickey is a very good lawyer. She certainly has a good understanding of Alabama law. I know this as I've argued against her in court. True, I'm not a lawyer. But I was involved in a case with Ms. Dickey after Greg did his dumpster stunt and destroyed a great deal of personal property. I sued Greg, Sharon and the dumpster company. Ms. Dickey was the lawyer who got Greg and Sharon off the hook. In that case I was not represented by an attorney which was certainly a mistake. Yet from this encounter I met Ms. Dickey and learned that she was certainly a worthy opponent and that I'd never be likely to win a legal argument when up against a someone well schooled in Alabama law.

Thus Ms. Dickey knew I was not crazy and when she went to the police station to help Greg have me arrested and thrown into a nut house, she certainly must have know this was not warranted and being done only to prejudice the court against me and enable Larry's abduction and kidnapping, that Greg and Sharon could get Larry out of the state of Alabama, which is exactly what was done.

Now as of this present writing I'm being sued my the lawyers who were appointed to be my mother's guardians and conservators. They want the court to say that the property my mother gave me remains part of her estate. Then they would be able to do with it as they will. Thus they could use the income from this property to pay their own high fees and support the nursing home where my mother is essentially incarcerated. This is how the nursing homes in Alabama and the corrupt lawyers who deal with them are funded.
It is an outrage! It is an injustice! It is a form of elder abuse! It destroys families! It destroys confidence in the judicial system! It destroys reputations! It destroys the will to live itself!

Therefore I have mustered the courage to speak out against this injustice. This corrupt system has destroyed my mother's life, robber her of her freedom, privacy and dignity, and her will to live. How can I say this? How do I know this is true? Well, my mother told me as much herself. When she learned that the court appointed lawyers were suing me, her most loved son, she later remove her own feeding tube! She wanted to die!

I visited my mother after she pulled the feeding tube out of her nose. She had had a feeding tube in place since being at Jackson Hospital. This was used to provide additional supplements as she was not eating properly. After she removed her feeding tube which ran from her nose down into her stomach, she phoned me and left a message on my answering machine. I then went down to the KING DING DONG nursing home and discovered that my mother had yanked her feeding tube out. It was very corroded with black debris on the tube. It looked disgusting and had a bad odor. Why the nurses and attendants had left it sitting there on the night stand beside my mother's bed is anyone's guess.

Of course when I confronted the nursing home attendants about this they said, oh it just fell out. They left that way despite the fact that a doctor had not ordered the tube to be removed and only weeks earlier the nursing home had wanted to put this tube into my mother's stomach. My mother's had not agreed to this nor had I because the nursing home had not properly informed me in advance of scheduling a surgery, that I might consult with the doctors to get enough information in order to make a decision in this regard. By the way, this occurred prior to my mother's hearing when the nursing home was still recognizing the Durable Power of Attorney my mother had given me.

Thus I've concluded that the nursing home system and the lawyers involved in keeping my mother in this system are corrupt. The issue is not if my mother needs to be in a nursing home. Certainly she needs professional care. The issue simply is who with provide that care and who will have the power and control over the administration of my mother's affairs. My mother designated me as the responsible party, as her attorney in fact. But in Alabama a court order takes precedent over this. So now instead of having a family member, the person my mother wanted to be her guardian and conservator, to be the one making decisions for her health, care and welfare, she has been made a ward of the state of Alabama.

I do not know how other states deal with the elderly. But I regard what has happened to my mother as an injustice. Thus I'm reporting this injustice and the associated corruption of the system which enable it that others might learn and perhaps benefit from this knowledge, information and insight. If this revelation can help one person, one man or woman, avoid a similar fate, then the time and effort spent to reveal these truths is worth the effort.