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Breaking Down the Law: Elder abuse and the case of April Parks
by Matthew Hoffman from Battle Born Injury Lawyers
Wednesday, December 18th 2019
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A whole segment could be dedicated to what April Parks did, but in essence, between 2011-2017 Ms. Parks took advantage of guardianship laws that were outdated and favored professional guardians over family.{/p}

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Guardianships over the elderly in Nevada received a great deal of publicity over the last several years, most notably with the arrest and conviction of April Parks, a private guardian convicted of elder abuse and exploitation.
A documentary was created on the subject called “The Guardians,” which received critical acclaim.
In 2017, the legislature made major changes to adult guardianship laws in response to the arrest of Ms. Parks.
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A whole segment could be dedicated to what April Parks did, but in essence, between 2011-2017 Ms. Parks took advantage of guardianship laws that were outdated and favored professional guardians over family.
The laws in Nevada allowed any professionally licensed guardian to file an Ex Parte motion for temporary guardianship, meaning they did not even have to serve their motion on the adult they wished to be guardian over, nor their family. All that was needed was verification from a physician that the proposed ward was mentally or physically incapable of handling their affairs.
What Ms. Parks had going was a Physicians Assistant who would sign off on reports saying the elderly person was incompetent and not well enough to even appear at the hearing. Then, the motion would claim the elderly person’s family was either out of state or incompetent to serve due to drug/alcohol problems.
So, she’d get appointed as a temporary guardian. Then she’d move the person to an assisted living facility, where they’d be heavily medicated.
After this, Ms. Parks would apply for full guardianship, knowing the court had a distrust of family members serving as guardians and taking their parents’ money. Then, ironically, she’d drain their bank accounts to pay her crazy invoices, often billing for 25 hours of services in 1 day. She’d sell their property and generally ruin them.
Ms. Parks was, obviously, arrested and convicted on over a hundred counts of perjury, dozens of charges for theft, elder exploitation, and 1 count of racketeering. She ultimately pleaded guilty and could serve up to 40 years in prison.
Changes have been made to keep this from happening again. The biggest change comes in the guardianship process itself -- Ms. Parks took advantage of the fact a temporary guardian could be appointed without much oversight by anyone, including the family.
Under the new laws, a petition for temporary guardianship has to be served on the proposed Ward, their spouse; their children; their siblings if no spouse or children; the parents of the proposed ward, if alive; the facility currently caring for the proposed ward; the department of health and human services, if the proposed ward is receiving Medicaid benefits; and the VA if the proposed ward is receiving VA benefits.
The most significant change, I think, is the fact that when an application for guardianship over an adult is made, the Court will appoint an attorney for the proposed ward. This is usually someone from Legal Aid of Southern Nevada. The attorney appointed by the court will represent the best interests of the proposed ward and ensure their rights are protected.
The State also funded a new Adult Protective Services. This agency will investigate any reports of possible abuse, neglect, exploitation, or abandonment of vulnerable adults.
So, what things can people do to protect themselves or their loved ones from becoming victims of exploitation like what we saw with Ms. Parks?
Even with all these changes, people should still protect themselves by having a few simple things in place.
First, have a Durable Power of Attorney established: one for financial, and one for medical. Like any power of attorney, it terminates upon your death.
Name someone you trust, but I recommend it be someone much younger than yourself, not your spouse. It may be good to have one POA for Financial and a separate one for Medical.
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