Latest / The Knife: A True Crime Podcast / Guardianship Fraud (Part 2 of 2)

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Guardianship Fraud (Part 2 of 2) · The Knife: A True Crime Podcast

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Speaker 1: This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.
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Speaker 2: The claims and opinions in this podcast are those of
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Speaker 2: the speaker and do not necessarily represent the knife or
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Speaker 2: exactly right media.
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Speaker 3: My cell phone rings, that's my mom.
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Speaker 4: Fine, honey, honey, you've got to help us, see to
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Speaker 4: get beat us here.
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Speaker 2: Welcome to the NiFe.
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Speaker 1: I'm Patia Eton, I'm Hannah Smith. This is part two
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Speaker 1: of our two part series. If you haven't heard part
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Speaker 1: one yet, we recommend you stop and go listen to
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Speaker 1: that first.
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Speaker 2: On last week's episode, Julie Belshie showed up to her parents'
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Speaker 2: house the friday before Labor Day in twenty thirteen, only
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Speaker 2: to find her parents were missing. After an agonizing weekend,
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Speaker 2: she located them in an assisted living facility about forty
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Speaker 2: five minutes away, and was shocked to find out that
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Speaker 2: a woman named April Parks had been granted legal guardianship
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Speaker 2: over them.
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Speaker 1: At first, Julie believed that there had been a misunderstanding
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Speaker 1: and that she would be able to get her parents
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Speaker 1: out of this unnecessary guardianship easily. She quickly realized that
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Speaker 1: was not the case. Let's get into it. In September,
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Speaker 1: of twenty thirteen, Julie was fighting to get her parents back.
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Speaker 1: Her parents, Rudy and Runnie, who were in their mid
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Speaker 1: seventies and of sound mind, had disappeared from their home
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Speaker 1: one day without a trace. Three days later, their daughter Julie,
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Speaker 1: discovered they'd been relocated to an assisted living facility without
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Speaker 1: their consent. A woman named April Parks claimed to have
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Speaker 1: legal guardianship over both her parents, and as ridiculous as
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Speaker 1: this all seemed to Julie, when she spoke with multiple attorneys,
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Speaker 1: they assured her that this was legal. Her parents were
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Speaker 1: in act wards of April Parks, and they no longer
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Speaker 1: had legal rights to make decisions about their own lives.
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Speaker 1: Julie began looking for ways to get her parents out
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Speaker 1: of this guardianship that she felt was completely unnecessary and
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Speaker 1: was not helping her parents at all.
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Speaker 4: So I started doing my own research actually and looking
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Speaker 4: at different foundations that had information of people who were
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Speaker 4: taken and put into these guardianships, and they're crying out,
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Speaker 4: get me out of here, get me out of here.
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Speaker 4: And I actually get very close to a couple of
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Speaker 4: different advocates in the United States. So I'm looking at
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Speaker 4: all of this, I'm trying to understand it and take
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Speaker 4: it all in, and I start reaching out to people
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Speaker 4: in different foundations and asking them questions of what I
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Speaker 4: do need to do, and telling them about my parents.
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Speaker 2: And as this is going on, we're initially your parents
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Speaker 2: are told they're just going to be there for two weeks. Correct, So,
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Speaker 2: as you're making all these phone calls to different advocacy
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Speaker 2: groups or people, attorneys, people that potentially could help you
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Speaker 2: understand how and why this happened and help you connect
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Speaker 2: to the right attorney that could bring your parents home.
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Speaker 2: How much time has passed?
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Speaker 4: Oh, so she had that emergency, the ex Partey emergency,
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Speaker 4: temporary guardianship was already granted without me being there. That
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Speaker 4: was the Exparte hearing. And so in September she was
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Speaker 4: granted hermanic guardianship. It was like September thirtieth, end of September,
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Speaker 4: so that's already like a month.
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Speaker 2: So it wasn't two weeks. She went on to apply
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Speaker 2: for permanent guardianship of your parents. Oh yeah, and she
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Speaker 2: got it. And she got it despite the fact that
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Speaker 2: you were presently visiting your parents trying to figure out
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Speaker 2: how you could either take them in yourself or get
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Speaker 2: their rights restored and bring them back to their own
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Speaker 2: home right. So they're taken on Labor Day in September
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Speaker 2: twenty thirteen. By the end of September, their two weeks
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Speaker 2: day is now indefinite. April is granted permanent guardianship, and
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Speaker 2: you're still looking for an attorney to fight all of this.
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Speaker 4: We're seeing probably I would say two or three attorneys
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Speaker 4: a week at least, but nobody wanted to touch this case.
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Speaker 4: And I was getting comments like this is a monster case,
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Speaker 4: and you know, like basically being told things like do
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Speaker 4: you have a gun? I'm like, what are you talking about?
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Speaker 4: You know, oh, just for protection, just saying and this
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Speaker 4: attorney has gone on to be a judge.
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Speaker 3: So you know, just just signs.
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Speaker 4: Because I have all of these papers from both hearings,
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Speaker 4: I am still trying to piece it together. I'm getting
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Speaker 4: information from other advocates.
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Speaker 1: This was an incredibly stressful time for Julie. She had
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Speaker 1: spoken with multiple attorneys and none of them wanted to
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Speaker 1: take the case. Julie had a hard time understanding why
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Speaker 1: it was so complicated if her parents were placed into
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Speaker 1: this guardianship because they were deemed to be mentally or
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Speaker 1: physically unfit to care for themselves. Couldn't all of this
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Speaker 1: be easily cleared up by a doctor's assessment that showed
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Speaker 1: that they were actually fully capable of living on their own.
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Speaker 1: And even if there was a reason why the court
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Speaker 1: thought that maybe Rudy and Rennie should have a guardian,
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Speaker 1: wouldn't it make more sense for their daughter, who lives
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Speaker 1: in the same town as them and is very close
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Speaker 1: with them, to step into that role, not a stranger
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Speaker 1: named April Parks. But Julie quickly realized that none of
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Speaker 1: this was going to be easy to clear up, and
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Speaker 1: that April Parks knew her way around the court system
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Speaker 1: and she had no intention of giving up this guardianship.
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Speaker 1: On the other hand, showed up to each court date
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Speaker 1: and fumbled her way through things since she could not
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Speaker 1: find an attorney to help her.
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Speaker 4: Finally, the hearing master. They had kept telling me that
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Speaker 4: you have to, you know, have an attorney. I have
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Speaker 4: to have an attorney. I am looking for, you know,
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Speaker 4: an attorney. But my parents, they need their rights restored.
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Speaker 4: I wanted them to have a doctor medically examined them, neurologist,
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Speaker 4: a psychiatrist, a forensic psychiatrist, anybody come in and help
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Speaker 4: me because my parents are not incompetent. And so the
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Speaker 4: hearing master had assigned a legal aid to us, but
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Speaker 4: prior to that, we didn't have an attorney. Prior to that,
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Speaker 4: I was going in and finding for it myself as
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Speaker 4: best as I could.
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Speaker 1: In the midst of all of this, trying to navigate
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Speaker 1: the court system, driving forty five minutes to visit her
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Speaker 1: parents as often as she could. Julie got all her parents'
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Speaker 1: home had been completely cleaned out.
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Speaker 4: I told Doug, their landlord, and he said, could you
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Speaker 4: keep an eye on it, you know, the house, and
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Speaker 4: let me know what's going on. And you know, when
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Speaker 4: you see any kind of moved people moving their frienditure
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Speaker 4: out or what have you. And so he told me, Julie,
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Speaker 4: there's like three fty trash bags on their driveway.
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Speaker 1: And had you ever asked Doug to let you into
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Speaker 1: their house before this?
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Speaker 4: I did?
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Speaker 1: And what did he say?
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Speaker 3: And then he did? And there's stuff, yeah, he did.
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Speaker 3: Their stuff was.
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Speaker 4: Already gone, really, everything was already removed. It was within
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Speaker 4: probably the first month. Their furniture everything was gone. Where
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Speaker 4: had it been taken? I mean, were you in contact
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Speaker 4: with April parks where you like, April, where are all
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Speaker 4: of their things? Like, were those conversations between you and
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Speaker 4: April happening?
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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I was in constant contact with her and
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Speaker 3: I had already met her.
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Speaker 2: What did you say when you said, where are all
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Speaker 2: of their belongings and why did you take them?
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Speaker 4: She said that they're in the storage for safe keeping,
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Speaker 4: and you know, she just keep being them, you know, safe,
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Speaker 4: you know, and it's all done in their best interest.
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Speaker 4: And if you talk to anybody that's gone through this,
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Speaker 4: that's like the one thing we hate. They're telling you
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Speaker 4: they're doing it in their best interest. Nothing is done
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Speaker 4: in these people for their best interests.
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Speaker 1: So she says, there's stuff is in a storage facility,
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Speaker 1: like it's all being kept there right. In response to
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Speaker 1: her parents' home being cleaned out, Julie made a decision
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Speaker 1: that would end up being very helpful to her later.
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Speaker 1: During one of her visits, she Rudy and Ronnie sat
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Speaker 1: down and compiled a list, to the best of their
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Speaker 1: memories of everything that had been in their house, including
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Speaker 1: a car they had recently purchased. And Julie was clear
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Speaker 1: with us during the interview that This wasn't about her parents'
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Speaker 1: stuff or about their money. It was the principle of
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Speaker 1: the matter. How could the strangers swoop into their lives,
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Speaker 1: relocate them, and then take all of their belongings, everything
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Speaker 1: they owned and had collected over the course of their lives,
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Speaker 1: and then lock it all away in a facility that
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Speaker 1: they didn't have access to. Even though Julie had been
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Speaker 1: told that all of her parents' stuff was fine, it
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Speaker 1: was all just in storage, she didn't trust that because
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Speaker 1: she did not trust April Parks. In fact, Julie recalled
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Speaker 1: the court hearing. This was before she had an attorney.
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Speaker 1: She showed up to this court date and it was
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Speaker 1: supposed to be to determine if April Parks would be
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Speaker 1: granted permanent guardianship over her parents. This is one of
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Speaker 1: the first times that Julie realized that something truly sinister
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Speaker 1: was going on. She attended that court hearing and she
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Speaker 1: tried to fight April Parks for guardianship.
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Speaker 4: The first motion I filed. I didn't really know what
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Speaker 4: I was doing at all. You know, here I am,
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Speaker 4: She's getting permanent guardianship. I go up and I'm standing
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Speaker 4: at the table opposite of where my parents are in
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Speaker 4: April Parks has her hands around my mother and like
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Speaker 4: her armor, and my dad like they're her parents.
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Speaker 3: And I had to fight for them to be there.
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Speaker 4: They weren't going to even let them be there at
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Speaker 4: their own permanent guardianship hearing. And the day before my
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Speaker 4: father said, don't be surprised if they hold me in
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Speaker 4: contempt to fart, because she's not taking us permanently.
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Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, did they let your parents speak
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Speaker 1: at that hearing?
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Speaker 3: Yes, they did, But.
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Speaker 4: When they came in, I looked at them and I'm like,
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Speaker 4: oh my god, like they got to them.
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Speaker 3: They weren't there.
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Speaker 1: What do you mean when you say they weren't there?
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Speaker 3: They were overradicated, they were subdued.
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Speaker 1: Julie had seen her parents the day before. She knew
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Speaker 1: they were unhappy and consistently distressed about their situation. They
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Speaker 1: wanted to go home, they were looking forward to the
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Speaker 1: court hearing. Actually they planned on explaining everything to the
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Speaker 1: judge and insisting that they're be restored. So Julie was
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Speaker 1: shocked that day in court her parents were so drugged
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Speaker 1: she barely recognized them. And I want to note that
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Speaker 1: a guardian is able to make personal and medical decisions
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Speaker 1: for those under their guardianship. This means that Julie's parents,
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Speaker 1: Rudy and Rennie, had no legal ability to refuse any
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Speaker 1: medication that April Parks gave them, so it would follow
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Speaker 1: that they were only given that much medication that day
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Speaker 1: for the court hearing because April Parks had approved it,
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Speaker 1: potentially even ordered it, and the result when they were
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Speaker 1: finally given their chance to speak in court it didn't
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Speaker 1: make a lot of sense and likely only confirmed April's
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Speaker 1: story that they were not of sound mind.
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Speaker 4: My father said, the most important thing to me here, Honor,
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Speaker 4: is my wife in her care. We want to make
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Speaker 4: sure she's okay, and anything that we asked April Park
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Speaker 4: for she has gotten this.
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Speaker 3: And I'm like looking at him like, oh my god,
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Speaker 3: Oh my god. I like, okay, so you have to're.
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Speaker 4: Respected to the corn realm. I'm standing there looking at
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Speaker 4: all this, like, Dad, wait a second. Yesterday and said
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Speaker 4: you're gonna go out fighting and you're going to tell
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Speaker 4: him I want to go home, And now she got
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Speaker 4: to them like it was a different scenario entirely.
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Speaker 2: It's tricky though, because you can understand how or at
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Speaker 2: least you know. Obviously there's a lot of layers to
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Speaker 2: this that we'll get into, including judges and all of that.
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Speaker 2: But you know, if you hear someone from their own
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Speaker 2: mouth say she's taking great care of us, this is
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Speaker 2: where we want to be, then that seems like, okay,
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Speaker 2: maybe I can wrap my head around why we're doing
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Speaker 2: this right, not knowing everything, but okay, so April gets
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Speaker 2: permanent guardianship at that hearing. Jumping back ahead, So you're
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Speaker 2: still fighting this because you're sensing that something is very wrong.
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Speaker 2: Their belonging to somebody taken. They're all of a sudden
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Speaker 2: on a lot of medications they weren't on before. Their
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Speaker 2: behavior has changed. They don't seem like they're being well
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Speaker 2: cared for physically. When does the real sort of fight
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Speaker 2: for their freedom happen.
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Speaker 4: It was the beginning of two thousand and fourteen, the
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Speaker 4: real shift starts happening. My mom is in and out
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Speaker 4: of the hospital with blood cloths. Her health is deteriorating rapidly.
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Speaker 4: She gained sixty pounds. She was one hundred and eighty
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Speaker 4: five pounds in there. She's just five feet one. She
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Speaker 4: would say, she's like five feet.
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Speaker 3: Tall and she's tiny. She was always tiny. She could
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Speaker 3: like barely you know, open her eyes.
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Speaker 1: What do you attribute to that weight gain?
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Speaker 3: She was over medicated.
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Speaker 4: I came to find out they had her on fetanyl,
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Speaker 4: They had my mother on pain medication, they had my
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Speaker 4: mom on anti psychotic medication, they had her on anti
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Speaker 4: anxiety medication. They had my mom on sleeping pills.
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Speaker 1: And this is a woman who was fought cancer and
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Speaker 1: has had this very tenuous health situation and they're suddenly
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Speaker 1: just putting her on all these different medications. Of course
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Speaker 1: there's going to be issues. Oh, she did not know
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Speaker 1: where she was mentally, but also just physically, like physically
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Speaker 1: putting someone like that on all those medications, is that
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Speaker 1: what was causing the blood clots?
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Speaker 3: Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure. I took her to the bathround.
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Speaker 4: I remember when time helped her when I was visiting,
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Speaker 4: you know, I'm like, oh, mo, i'll help you. And
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Speaker 4: so took her and I noticed, like her leg, her ankles,
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Speaker 4: her socks were like so tight on her.
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Speaker 3: I was like, mom, like, what are they doing?
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Speaker 4: She's like, oh, I don't know, Like she didn't want
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Speaker 4: me to worry, and she knew she goes but my
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Speaker 4: fight's really hurt, honey, you know, may really hurt, you know,
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Speaker 4: and you know you got to get us out of here.
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Speaker 4: Like she's call me crying. You know, you got to
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Speaker 4: get us out of here. After the hearing that my
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Speaker 4: dad says, you know, as long as my wife's okay, Yeah,
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Speaker 4: we've received We go to a football game, we're eating
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Speaker 4: dinner with our friends. We're at an Italian place to phone.
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Speaker 4: My cell phone rings. I jump out of the restaurant.
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Speaker 4: It's my mom crying. Honey, honey, you've got to help us,
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Speaker 4: to get me out of here.
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Speaker 1: Heartbreaking. So take us to twenty fourteen when things start
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Speaker 1: to turn around. So your mom is in and out
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Speaker 1: of the hospital.
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Speaker 3: So yeah, I just I just didn't desperately, we need
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Speaker 3: to get them out of here. This time.
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Speaker 4: I'm looking on the internet and they reached out to
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Speaker 4: a gentleman here in town, Steve Miller. He wrote about
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Speaker 4: guardianship years years and years ago, and I'm like, I
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Speaker 4: need help, Like I don't know what I'm doing.
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Speaker 3: I need help. I want to get my mom and
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Speaker 3: dad out.
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Speaker 4: They were taken by a private guardian, and so he
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Speaker 4: put me in touch with people at the Vegas Voice.
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Speaker 1: Desperate for help and worry that the courts would do
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Speaker 1: nothing to help Rudy and Rennie, Julie decided to turn
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Speaker 1: to the press. Maybe if she made enough noise, she
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Speaker 1: could change something.
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Speaker 4: Rna Good winning Dan Roberts, who owned The Vegas Voice.
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Speaker 4: It's a small senior newspaper here in Las Vegas. My
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Speaker 4: husband and I meet with them and we're like telling
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Speaker 4: them that they need to come and meet my mom
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Speaker 4: and dad. I want them to write a story, do
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Speaker 4: something because I need help. I think if maybe if
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Speaker 4: I go public, then attorney will help me. So they
16:54
Speaker 4: came out. We met them at a casino near the
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Speaker 4: Sister Living facility, and they came to meet my mom
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Speaker 4: and dad, and they fell in love with my parents
17:05
Speaker 4: and they were like, oh my god, Bronna says your father.
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Speaker 4: I speak so eloquently. What are they doing in there?
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Speaker 4: So they did a story, so that helped tremendously. And
17:18
Speaker 4: from there, Darcy Spears a Channel thirteen she had picked up,
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Speaker 4: and she asked me if we do an interview, and
17:27
Speaker 4: she did a story.
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Speaker 1: The story ran in The Vegus Voice and it outraged people.
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Speaker 1: It was a real life horror story. American citizens who'd
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Speaker 1: worked their whole lives and just wanted to enjoy their
17:40
Speaker 1: retirement had their rights stripped away and were being held
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Speaker 1: against their will, and somehow all of it was legal.
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Speaker 1: This article led to more articles and more outlets covering
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Speaker 1: the issue. There was a Channel thirteen investigation that revealed
17:56
Speaker 1: that this was not a singular, unusual mistake. What happened
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Speaker 1: to Rudy and Rennie was happening to others in the
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Speaker 1: state of Nevada as well. It was starting to look
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Speaker 1: like the work of some corrupt guardians.
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Speaker 5: We're talking about adult guardianship cases in Clark County Family Court.
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Speaker 5: When a person can no longer take care of him
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Speaker 5: or herself, and when there's no family to step into help,
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Speaker 5: the court can assign an outsider to do the job.
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Speaker 5: We found little to no oversight of those outsiders, private
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Speaker 5: professional guardians who gain absolute access and power over their clients,
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Speaker 5: with the court rubber stamping nearly everything the guardian asks for.
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Speaker 5: Families trying to speak out and trying to care for
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Speaker 5: loved ones are devastated as the court casts them aside.
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Speaker 1: Julie connected with other people whose family members had also
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Speaker 1: been stolen away from them locked away in facilities without
18:50
Speaker 1: their consent. After fighting for her parents' freedom for over
18:54
Speaker 1: a year, this exposure in the press finally gave her
18:57
Speaker 1: hope that something would be done. And it turns out
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Speaker 1: that list that Julie made, the inventory of all of
19:03
Speaker 1: her parents' possessions that had been taken from their home,
19:07
Speaker 1: ended up being very useful in her legal case.
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Speaker 4: So legal aid did pick up and help us. The
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Speaker 4: turning point in my parents' case was a combination of these.
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Speaker 4: Was the media, it was also the inventory. It was
19:26
Speaker 4: very crucial because April Parks had submitted my parents' case
19:32
Speaker 4: as a summary administration, which meant that they had ten
19:36
Speaker 4: thousand dollars or less to their name. They had two
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Speaker 4: bank accounts and all their belongings, their new car, and
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Speaker 4: I don't know the exact amount of everything, but it
19:46
Speaker 4: was not under ten thousand dollars. So, being that the
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Speaker 4: reporters were in the court room and that was exposed,
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Speaker 4: that's when the hearing master the tables were tartened on her. Basically,
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Speaker 4: it was now time for her to prove that she
20:04
Speaker 4: was fit to service or guardian. And I thought when
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Speaker 4: he started to speak in the courtroom that it was me, me,
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Speaker 4: you know, like he's gonna ask me for more information
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Speaker 4: because it's the family member, you know, isn't fit enough
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Speaker 4: and they cannot be their guardian.
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Speaker 2: Okay. And so now all eyes are on April Parks
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Speaker 2: because she has submitted financial findings for your parents that
20:28
Speaker 2: are inaccurate.
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Speaker 3: Correct, It's called a summary administration, okay.
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Speaker 2: And now the media is picking up the story locally,
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Speaker 2: and so there's even more scrutiny. So how does this
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Speaker 2: then play out once she's under the spotlight, She's clearly
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Speaker 2: not going to want just to.
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Speaker 3: Kind of summarize it, you know.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: So during all of this, with the help of the
20:49
Speaker 4: media locally but then also starting to get emails from
20:54
Speaker 4: national reporters, I'm starting to get asked if I want
20:58
Speaker 4: to do a documentary. And at the same time, I
21:01
Speaker 4: am now becoming more vocal. I'm meeting up with people
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Speaker 4: who are victims, the family members, their parents are taken
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Speaker 4: by April Parks because I had posted something on social
21:15
Speaker 4: media my mom and dad, we were taken.
21:18
Speaker 3: We were put in a car.
21:19
Speaker 4: So everything's playing out together legally. There's about three or
21:24
Speaker 4: four of the wards. I hate that term, but I'm
21:29
Speaker 4: the elderly person our parents that were now taken by
21:34
Speaker 4: April Parks, and I've already met with the district Attorney,
21:40
Speaker 4: Steve Wilson twice. He told me that you need to
21:43
Speaker 4: have enough evidence, you have to go to the LVMPG,
21:45
Speaker 4: you have to call APS and told me, you know
21:50
Speaker 4: what I needed to do, how I needed to do it.
21:53
Speaker 4: The Guardianship Compliance officer helped me. We reached out the
21:57
Speaker 4: attorney general they assigned to investigate to the case.
22:01
Speaker 3: They had four of us go in.
22:03
Speaker 4: To family members and do like a formal presentation of
22:07
Speaker 4: what we felt the violations were, how April Parks was
22:11
Speaker 4: violating her wards.
22:13
Speaker 3: So a combination of all of that came together. We
22:18
Speaker 3: didn't know.
22:18
Speaker 4: There was a criminal investigation going on. I had no
22:21
Speaker 4: idea that a grand jury had indicted her until I
22:25
Speaker 4: got a call from the foreman of the jury. He
22:28
Speaker 4: was legally allowed to say, hey, Julie, you know I
22:32
Speaker 4: can't believe this.
22:33
Speaker 3: You know what your parents had to go through.
22:36
Speaker 1: There was an ongoing criminal investigation into April Parks that
22:40
Speaker 1: Julie had been unaware of. It would still be over
22:43
Speaker 1: a year until a grand jury indictment, but It was
22:46
Speaker 1: good to know that something was being done to try
22:48
Speaker 1: to stop April. But Julie couldn't wait for the criminal
22:52
Speaker 1: proceedings to try to get her parents out. She could
22:55
Speaker 1: see their health declining the longer they stayed at Lakeview
22:58
Speaker 1: Assisted living Facility, and then finally Julie was able to
23:02
Speaker 1: get her parents released from the guardianship.
23:06
Speaker 3: How I got my dad and mom out.
23:09
Speaker 4: I ended up going to visit my dad and mom,
23:12
Speaker 4: and I took my father to his old INTERNIFS and
23:16
Speaker 4: I told her, you know, and she said, oh, where's
23:19
Speaker 4: prey Bien?
23:20
Speaker 3: Actingly she didn't know had a feeling.
23:22
Speaker 4: She did, you need to go to the inquiry, you
23:25
Speaker 4: need to have the FBI, You need to go here
23:27
Speaker 4: or there, and you play her along with these people.
23:30
Speaker 4: But all in all, when it came down to it,
23:33
Speaker 4: I told her that I need a letter that he's
23:36
Speaker 4: competent and that he can handle his life again. I'm
23:41
Speaker 4: driving up my parents' rights restored. He's been taken, and
23:44
Speaker 4: I explained this horrible guardianship.
23:47
Speaker 3: She wrote the letter. I submitted that letter.
23:50
Speaker 4: We also got a forensic psychiatrist did an evaluation on
23:55
Speaker 4: both my parents and deemed that they were competent. I
24:00
Speaker 4: think with the help of the media being there, the
24:04
Speaker 4: documentary being there, the laws being changed, people started speaking
24:09
Speaker 4: just with everything like coming together not only for my parents,
24:13
Speaker 4: but you're talking hundreds of people, if not thousands here
24:19
Speaker 4: in Nevada. Were helped by the media and having them present,
24:25
Speaker 4: and by all these different advocates coming and exposing what
24:30
Speaker 4: was going on here, and the government actually doing something.
24:34
Speaker 4: I mean, the Attorney General was cooperating with the district
24:38
Speaker 4: attorney and the Sheriff's office, and they asked how they
24:43
Speaker 4: came down with the grand Juriy indictment.
24:46
Speaker 2: When did you get your parents back? And where did
24:50
Speaker 2: they go?
24:51
Speaker 3: We got them back in two thousand and fifteen. They
24:56
Speaker 3: came to my house. We picked them up.
24:58
Speaker 4: It was very hot summer day, and I finally got
25:01
Speaker 4: the court order thing. I could bring my mom and
25:03
Speaker 4: dad home and their rights were restored. I was not
25:08
Speaker 4: their guardian, and we took them home, and I was thrilled.
25:15
Speaker 1: Were you able to get your parents' items back?
25:20
Speaker 4: We were able to get a couple of their items back,
25:23
Speaker 4: just a couple couple, but we were able to actually
25:26
Speaker 4: keep the majority of their artwork. The most important thing
25:31
Speaker 4: for me was their wedding album and a picture of
25:35
Speaker 4: my sister and brother that was done by Disney artists
25:39
Speaker 4: because they're no longer with us, so that was important
25:43
Speaker 4: to me.
25:44
Speaker 1: What ended up happening to the rest of their stuff,
25:47
Speaker 1: I'm just curious, like what April did with it.
25:50
Speaker 4: What I was told by the investigators is that a
25:54
Speaker 4: lot of times the private guardians are public guardians.
25:58
Speaker 3: They put it on for auction.
26:00
Speaker 1: So April had just taken that money.
26:03
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
26:04
Speaker 4: And my parents' case, it's interesting because they didn't really
26:09
Speaker 4: have that much money when they were taking. They have
26:12
Speaker 4: had a lot of money in their lifetime. But in
26:15
Speaker 4: these other cases, these people she was taking their homes
26:20
Speaker 4: and selling them for pennies on the dollar.
26:23
Speaker 1: And keeping that money.
26:24
Speaker 3: She was leaving their cat.
26:26
Speaker 4: In the house for three months and saying to the people,
26:30
Speaker 4: your cat's okay.
26:38
Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen, a grand jury indicted April Parks along
26:42
Speaker 1: with three others, alleging they exploited over one hundred and
26:45
Speaker 1: thirty victims, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars. They were
26:50
Speaker 1: all arrested in March of twenty seventeen. The indictment is massive,
26:54
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy pages detailing the scheme. April Parks
26:59
Speaker 1: was running a long with her office manager, Mark Simmons,
27:03
Speaker 1: her husband Gary Neil Taylor, and an attorney, Noel Palmer Simpson.
27:09
Speaker 1: They were all charged with theft and racketeering, among other charges.
27:14
Speaker 1: From what I can tell, this is how April Parks
27:17
Speaker 1: ran her operation and got away with it until, of
27:20
Speaker 1: course she didn't. She owned a company called a Private
27:24
Speaker 1: Professional Guardian LLC. She was appointed by the court to
27:29
Speaker 1: serve elderly wards. I want to note quickly that later
27:33
Speaker 1: in Nevada there was a movement to change the word
27:36
Speaker 1: from a ward of the state to a protected person
27:41
Speaker 1: of the state. But in twenty seventeen on the indictment,
27:45
Speaker 1: people under April Park's guardianship were called wards. April Parks
27:50
Speaker 1: had between three and seven employees at her guardianship company
27:55
Speaker 1: at various times. April Parks and her office manager, Mark
27:59
Speaker 1: Simmons were both accused of theft through fraudulent billing. They
28:04
Speaker 1: were in charge of managing their ward's assets, and they
28:07
Speaker 1: exploited this by overcharging and overfiling for their services. And
28:12
Speaker 1: they also charged for things that never occurred, such as
28:16
Speaker 1: shopping trips and visits to living facilities. The indictment accuses
28:21
Speaker 1: both April Parks and Mark Simmons of engaging in this
28:24
Speaker 1: fraudulent activity, as well as instructing employees to do the same.
28:29
Speaker 1: April also worked with an attorney, Noel Palmer Simpson, and
28:33
Speaker 1: on at least one occasion, April is accused of having
28:36
Speaker 1: Simpson changed the life insurance policy of one of her
28:40
Speaker 1: wards to reflect April as the beneficiary. She was also
28:44
Speaker 1: charged with a false billing scheme in which she applied
28:47
Speaker 1: to have her wards social Security benefits sent directly to her.
28:52
Speaker 1: There are so many examples in the indictment of money
28:55
Speaker 1: that April and her co defendants stole from people under
28:58
Speaker 1: her guardianship, too many to list here. Most of the
29:02
Speaker 1: amounts they're accused of stealing are between one thousand and
29:05
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars, although one person is listed as having
29:08
Speaker 1: had over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars stolen from him.
29:13
Speaker 1: But what I want to point out is that the
29:14
Speaker 1: amounts listed in the indictment are not necessarily representative of
29:18
Speaker 1: how much was actually taken. It's just what could be
29:22
Speaker 1: proven in court. For instance, Julie's parents, Rudy and Rennie.
29:26
Speaker 1: They are also mentioned in the indictment. They are listed
29:30
Speaker 1: as having lost about three thousand dollars collectively to April Parks,
29:34
Speaker 1: but we know from speaking with Julie that they lost
29:37
Speaker 1: so much more than that. They never got the majority
29:40
Speaker 1: of their belongings sent back to them, they lost access
29:44
Speaker 1: to their rental home, and they lost about two years
29:47
Speaker 1: of their lives to being trapped in an assisted living
29:50
Speaker 1: facility against their will. This doesn't even include the lasting
29:54
Speaker 1: health implications of being over medicated and poorly cared for.
29:58
Speaker 1: And this type of fraud is not isolated to Nevada.
30:03
Speaker 4: So basically April Parks, you know, she's a low bearing
30:08
Speaker 4: fruit here and she's a private guardian. So this is
30:11
Speaker 4: all over the United States. They have a playbook. So
30:14
Speaker 4: what they are doing in general, the ones that are crops,
30:19
Speaker 4: they are isolating, they're over medicating, they defame the family
30:24
Speaker 4: in court. By the time you get your loved one
30:28
Speaker 4: home their Stockholm syndrome, if they can talk, if they
30:31
Speaker 4: haven't had a stroke, or they're not a vegetable, they're
30:35
Speaker 4: very rarely returned as whole is when they went in.
30:39
Speaker 4: If they've spent years in a guardianship. The average guardianship
30:43
Speaker 4: is six years, and people do not make it out alive.
30:47
Speaker 4: So I have a satin guardianship. One on one is
30:50
Speaker 4: isolate over medicaid, fleece the day they accelerate the death
30:55
Speaker 4: and they cremate.
30:57
Speaker 3: She had twenty seven earns that were found in a store.
31:01
Speaker 4: So you asked me at one point if I had
31:04
Speaker 4: spoken with Abel Parks and my communication with her, and
31:06
Speaker 4: I did, And I was very professional with all of
31:10
Speaker 4: these people because I had two for my parents. I
31:14
Speaker 4: kept my eyes on my mom and dad. Getting them
31:17
Speaker 4: home was the most important thing. I spoke to so
31:21
Speaker 4: many people all over the United States. I just kept
31:24
Speaker 4: hearing my dad's voice, so I would go to the top,
31:26
Speaker 4: go to the top. I just was like, I've got
31:30
Speaker 4: to get them out of there, and not only just them,
31:32
Speaker 4: I was looking at her wards. You know, people have
31:36
Speaker 4: less rights than a prisoner, and this is for real,
31:40
Speaker 4: and they never signed a document. I think that's what
31:42
Speaker 4: gets me, is like it's not even like someone came
31:46
Speaker 4: into your parents' home as a guys of a caretaker
31:48
Speaker 4: and tricked them into signing over their estate. Like your
31:52
Speaker 4: parents never signed anything for this to happen to them.
31:57
Speaker 3: Never nothing. They were never known of fly you're supposed
32:01
Speaker 3: to be notified.
32:02
Speaker 4: So you know, we have passed some legislation here now
32:05
Speaker 4: that they have to notify family members.
32:08
Speaker 3: That's one lie.
32:10
Speaker 4: They have to have thirty days to respond that everybody
32:14
Speaker 4: that is going to be a potential ward for these
32:18
Speaker 4: guardians now they have to be assigned a attorney. Now
32:24
Speaker 4: they have one system that they work, not two different
32:29
Speaker 4: systems for accounting. There's one system for the courts because
32:34
Speaker 4: she was defrauding the court system by using a different
32:37
Speaker 4: system like having cooking the books, two set the books.
32:42
Speaker 2: It's very scary that this was able to happen without
32:44
Speaker 2: them having to consent to it happening for me. One
32:48
Speaker 2: of them additional like very striking things about this case
32:51
Speaker 2: and others like it is that you have a family
32:54
Speaker 2: member saying wait a minute, we can help, we can
32:58
Speaker 2: step in, they can come to us. And when we
33:02
Speaker 2: think about whether it's with the elderly or in the
33:05
Speaker 2: foster care system with children, I've heard so much about
33:09
Speaker 2: like next of ken or if there's a family member available,
33:12
Speaker 2: and so to hear that you were there like waving
33:14
Speaker 2: your arms, like I'm here, I want my parents, And
33:18
Speaker 2: they were just moving forward with granting permanent guardianship and
33:24
Speaker 2: you know, just steamrolling you.
33:27
Speaker 4: That is like a nightmare, absolutely a nightmare. So they
33:32
Speaker 4: create a false narrative and they said I.
33:35
Speaker 3: Was a drug addict.
33:37
Speaker 1: April Parks created that narrative.
33:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, she said that, you know, I had a drug
33:42
Speaker 3: dependency of my own.
33:44
Speaker 4: And meanwhile, all your constitutional rights and your civil rights
33:47
Speaker 4: that we love our country and I never knew this
33:51
Speaker 4: about it. So this really took the wind out of
33:53
Speaker 4: my sale. I have cases of disabled children. You talk
33:57
Speaker 4: about parting kids, your babies, you know, and these are
34:02
Speaker 4: good parents. So we have a systemic problem. But it's
34:08
Speaker 4: intentional because they're making money. And if they keep these
34:13
Speaker 4: cases going, they more money they're making.
34:17
Speaker 1: You kind of explained April's scheme and what she was doing.
34:20
Speaker 1: Did you learn any thing about her personally, just like
34:23
Speaker 1: what she was doing before she got involved with this,
34:25
Speaker 1: anything about her as a person?
34:28
Speaker 4: I did. I learned that she was very four or
34:31
Speaker 4: five times. She had three children, or she has three children,
34:36
Speaker 4: and her two sons were working and helping her. One
34:40
Speaker 4: of them was helping her in the business. I learned
34:44
Speaker 4: not so many good things that I liked about her.
34:47
Speaker 4: I don't understand like a human being that would resort
34:51
Speaker 4: to stealing and killing people for a living and honestly
34:55
Speaker 4: genuinely think they have done nothing wrong. Her whole team
34:59
Speaker 4: thought that Mark Simmons the same thing. At his probation hearings,
35:04
Speaker 4: we spoke up my husband and I and he said,
35:07
Speaker 4: they asked him, they said, you're here for somebody because
35:10
Speaker 4: you did commit a crime, and do you have anything
35:13
Speaker 4: to say about that? Would you have to say about that?
35:17
Speaker 4: And he said, that's a hard one.
35:21
Speaker 3: I really didn't, you know. And that was it. He
35:25
Speaker 3: didn't say, like I committed a crime.
35:28
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen April, Parks pleaded guilty to three counts
35:32
Speaker 1: of exploitation, two counts of theft, and one count of perjury.
35:36
Speaker 1: Her co defendants also entered guilty. Please District Attorney Steve
35:40
Speaker 1: Wilson later made a statement saying, quote, guardians have a
35:44
Speaker 1: duty to protect their wards, not steal from them and
35:48
Speaker 1: destroy their lives. These individuals violated their duty and they
35:52
Speaker 1: will be punished for their crimes. Julie's dad, Rudy, was
35:56
Speaker 1: also present in the court that day. After the guilty please,
36:00
Speaker 1: he yelled out their pathetic, and then he added to
36:04
Speaker 1: the court, I want you to put that in their pathetic.
36:08
Speaker 1: He finally had his chance to speak his mind about
36:11
Speaker 1: April Parks in court. In January of twenty nineteen, there
36:15
Speaker 1: was a sentencing hearing. Victims were able to provide impact
36:19
Speaker 1: statements talking about what they endured under April's care. Some
36:24
Speaker 1: called it a prison April Parks spoke that day, claiming
36:28
Speaker 1: that her heart was in the right place and she
36:30
Speaker 1: didn't mean to cause harm, but Judge Tiera Jones responded
36:35
Speaker 1: to her by saying, quote, you told us you never
36:38
Speaker 1: meant any harm. But after hearing these stories of people
36:41
Speaker 1: scotch taping their shoes, people being charged for Christmas gifts
36:46
Speaker 1: and nothing to eat, how is that not harm. April
36:50
Speaker 1: Parks was sentenced sixteen to forty years in prison. Her
36:54
Speaker 1: former office manager, Mark Simmons was sentenced seven to eighteen years,
36:59
Speaker 1: and her husband, spend Gary Neil Taylor, was sentenced two
37:02
Speaker 1: to five years. Attorney Noel Palmer Simpson was disbarred in
37:06
Speaker 1: the state of Nevada. And then your dad's doctor, that's
37:11
Speaker 1: the interness that you said you later ended up being
37:14
Speaker 1: able to bring your dad back and that doctor you
37:17
Speaker 1: sort of confronted them, and they did agree to write
37:21
Speaker 1: another document that said your dad was of sound mind.
37:24
Speaker 1: Did anything ever happen to that internesst like, did they
37:29
Speaker 1: face any consequences for writing that initial?
37:32
Speaker 3: I just put it like this for you. She's no
37:34
Speaker 3: longer practicing.
37:35
Speaker 1: Okay, you can't say anything else.
37:37
Speaker 3: Legally, she's no longer practicing. That's about it.
37:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, April Parks and Mark Simmons, her partner, and the
37:45
Speaker 4: husband went to jail, and Noel Palmer Simpson, the attorney,
37:49
Speaker 4: was disbarred and she went home to Utah to be
37:52
Speaker 4: take care of her mother. Okay, she is the one
37:54
Speaker 4: who is stealing the estates from people and you know,
37:57
Speaker 4: taking the email millions of dollars, but she gets to
38:00
Speaker 4: go home, you know.
38:02
Speaker 1: Yeah.
38:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, April certainly wasn't working alone.
38:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh no.
38:11
Speaker 2: So obviously there's so much to talk about with this story.
38:14
Speaker 1: I mean, I had just never heard anything like this before,
38:16
Speaker 1: and Julie did such a good job telling the story.
38:20
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love stories like this because even though it
38:23
Speaker 2: is this nightmare, you have this person talking about it
38:27
Speaker 2: who her story with this is so far from over
38:31
Speaker 2: because she's still fighting for change within you know, court
38:35
Speaker 2: appointed guardians, because this impacted her life in such a
38:38
Speaker 2: big way in her parents. Of course, one thing we
38:41
Speaker 2: didn't close the loop on in the interview just because
38:43
Speaker 2: of time or in the episode was Adolpho so.
38:46
Speaker 1: Right, he was the guy that they It was like
38:49
Speaker 1: a horror scene kind of where they go into this
38:51
Speaker 1: assisted living facility. She's looking for her parents and this
38:54
Speaker 1: man stops her in the hallway and says, help me,
38:57
Speaker 1: help me. April parks.
38:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, he grabbed her arm as she's walking to her
39:01
Speaker 2: parents room and is like, oh me, and she said,
39:06
Speaker 2: you know, she was so just frantic trying to find
39:09
Speaker 2: her parents in that moment that she was like, I
39:12
Speaker 2: can come back, but I have to just go find
39:14
Speaker 2: my parents. So she did go back and develop a
39:18
Speaker 2: friendship with Adolpho. But essentially, what Julie came to understand
39:23
Speaker 2: about Adolpho's situation was that it was very similar to
39:26
Speaker 2: her parents. So she got to know him. She noticed
39:29
Speaker 2: that he wasn't medicated at all, he was able to
39:32
Speaker 2: take care of himself, just like in her parents' situation.
39:36
Speaker 2: She could not make sense of why he was there Wow, Like,
39:39
Speaker 2: why did he need a court appointed guardian? Why did
39:41
Speaker 2: he need to be an assisted living Adolpho, you know,
39:44
Speaker 2: immediately warned Julie upon like I think it was on
39:48
Speaker 2: her first visit to Lakeview that he said, don't let
39:51
Speaker 2: your parents get the shot, which was like a medication
39:56
Speaker 2: that April Parks was that he said that she was
39:59
Speaker 2: giving him that. I think she also did try to
40:02
Speaker 2: give Julie's parents, But essentially it was like a sedative.
40:06
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, and.
40:09
Speaker 2: He was, you know, adamant, like just so afraid. And
40:14
Speaker 2: Radolpho was a self sufficient person until his autonomy was
40:18
Speaker 2: taken away from him. He had a long career actually
40:21
Speaker 2: at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where he was
40:23
Speaker 2: a maitre d And coincidentally he worked with Julie's grandparents,
40:28
Speaker 2: so not her parents, but her grandparents.
40:31
Speaker 1: Wow.
40:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that was just like a small world type
40:34
Speaker 2: of thing that had nothing to do with the story,
40:36
Speaker 2: but I thought it was interesting. But he then became
40:39
Speaker 2: good friends with Julie's parents while they were both in
40:42
Speaker 2: this terrible situation at Lakeview, and they had a lot
40:45
Speaker 2: of meals together, and Julie and her husband when they
40:49
Speaker 2: would visit her parents would visit Adolpho. He's from Spain,
40:52
Speaker 2: and he loved like nice coffee and cookies, and they
40:56
Speaker 2: would like bring him things that made him feel more
40:58
Speaker 2: like himself and he just really appreciated that, so they
41:02
Speaker 2: built this bond. Julie couldn't recall exactly how Adolpho came
41:06
Speaker 2: to Lakeview, but it was something similar to her parents situation,
41:10
Speaker 2: where he had a caretaker that was maybe in communication
41:13
Speaker 2: with April Parks in some way. But she did say
41:16
Speaker 2: that she believes that Adolpho was targeted for two reasons,
41:20
Speaker 2: which was one that he had a paid off house
41:24
Speaker 2: and two that he had really good insurance. So two
41:29
Speaker 2: things that if you're trying to commit fraud, you're seeing
41:32
Speaker 2: dollar signs like I can take advantage of this person's home,
41:36
Speaker 2: I can utilize all these insurance benefits they have to
41:39
Speaker 2: my advantage. And you know, April was charging many of
41:44
Speaker 2: her people that she had guardianship over for just ridiculous things,
41:48
Speaker 2: and Adolpho was no exception. He said that he would
41:51
Speaker 2: ask for money like his own money to spend, yeah,
41:54
Speaker 2: and she would then charge him like the same amount
41:57
Speaker 2: of money just to give him in feast to give
42:00
Speaker 2: him his money. She would charge him one hundred dollars
42:03
Speaker 2: a week for her sons to go take out the
42:05
Speaker 2: trash at his house that he wasn't able to live
42:07
Speaker 2: at where you know, supposedly no one's living there, right,
42:10
Speaker 2: So why is the trash need to go out every week?
42:12
Speaker 2: Like what's really going on there? Charged him for everything
42:16
Speaker 2: to open his mail, just egregious charges too. Like we're
42:20
Speaker 2: not talking like five bucks because I went through your mill.
42:22
Speaker 2: We're talking like fifty one hundred dollars for just stupid things.
42:27
Speaker 1: It's just so blatant. She's so blatant, just stealing so
42:31
Speaker 1: much money and really like keeping these people as prisoners. Yeah,
42:34
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just awful and drugging them.
42:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.
42:37
Speaker 2: And this guy had a long career that he saved
42:40
Speaker 2: his money. He was well prepared for this chapter of
42:42
Speaker 2: his life, and she took so much from him. How
42:46
Speaker 2: he ended up getting out was he did have an attorney,
42:50
Speaker 2: and once Julie figured out what was going on and
42:53
Speaker 2: got her own attorney, he was unable to reach his attorney,
42:57
Speaker 2: and so Dolpha was Yes, Adolpho was unable to each
43:00
Speaker 2: his own attorney, which I don't know we haven't spoken
43:02
Speaker 2: with the attorney, but I suspect, just from what we
43:06
Speaker 2: know about this case, that April Parks was painting a
43:09
Speaker 2: picture of Adolpho to these people that maybe could potentially
43:13
Speaker 2: stand between her and Adolpho's resources, like, he is not well.
43:18
Speaker 2: If you need anything, come to me. So once Julie
43:21
Speaker 2: gets ahold of his attorney's information, she gets ahold of
43:24
Speaker 2: his attorney and she's like, here's what's really going on.
43:27
Speaker 2: Once that attorney found out, he immediately was able to
43:31
Speaker 2: get Adolpho out of lake View back into his home.
43:34
Speaker 2: But once Adolpho went home, it was so similar. They
43:39
Speaker 2: had taken almost everything from his home. He had had
43:42
Speaker 2: a boat in the driveway. They took the motor and
43:44
Speaker 2: sold it. He had art was gone, he had furniture,
43:47
Speaker 2: it was gone.
43:48
Speaker 1: Didn't get any of that back.
43:50
Speaker 2: I don't think he got any of it back. He
43:52
Speaker 2: had some belongings left, but I mean it was it
43:54
Speaker 2: was dismal. He had lived in that house a really
43:56
Speaker 2: long time, and he's an older person who's accumulated belongings
44:00
Speaker 2: that were important to him and meaningful from different chapters
44:04
Speaker 2: of his life.
44:05
Speaker 1: So sad.
44:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was devastating and Julie was just so distraught
44:10
Speaker 2: that he had been in the same situation with no
44:12
Speaker 2: one there advocating for him.
44:14
Speaker 4: Yeah.
44:15
Speaker 1: I'm glad he was finally able to go back to
44:17
Speaker 1: his house.
44:18
Speaker 4: Yeah.
44:18
Speaker 1: And then they didn't sell his house because we did
44:20
Speaker 1: hear about that happening to some other people where their
44:23
Speaker 1: house was sold when they were under April Parks's guardianship,
44:27
Speaker 1: So then they wouldn't have a home to go back to.
44:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. And in one of the indictments, it essentially said
44:33
Speaker 2: that investigators alleged that Parks and Simmons charged Adolpho's estate
44:38
Speaker 2: for services that were exaggerated, unnecessary, or never actually performed,
44:45
Speaker 2: you know, fees for like taking him shopping to get
44:48
Speaker 2: basic needs. I assume there is some reasonable fee that
44:52
Speaker 2: can be charged in these situations, but when you're talking
44:57
Speaker 2: about a person living off of a fixed income, that
45:00
Speaker 2: should be so heavily regulated and overseen so that these
45:04
Speaker 2: things don't happen, because you could easily deplete someone of
45:07
Speaker 2: their entire savings. Yeah, and I think she would have
45:10
Speaker 2: happily done that if she had not been caught.
45:12
Speaker 4: Yeah.
45:13
Speaker 2: I mean these charges were for things like visiting him,
45:15
Speaker 2: taking him on shopping trips, handling, banking matters, gardening guy.
45:21
Speaker 3: Yeah.
45:21
Speaker 2: Prosecutors claimed that approximately fifteen hundred dollars was taken from
45:25
Speaker 2: his estate through these billing practices, so like that's not
45:29
Speaker 2: that much, but that's what they were able to find.
45:32
Speaker 2: And then there were so many things missing from his
45:34
Speaker 2: house that he was not able to of course, like prove.
45:38
Speaker 2: The grand jury indictment included charges of exploitation related to
45:42
Speaker 2: Adolpho in exploitations of his estate. Theft allegations of it
45:48
Speaker 2: also helped build this larger picture of a criminal case
45:54
Speaker 2: where multiple people were involved because it was April Parks
45:57
Speaker 2: and Mark Simmons, right, So yeah, he was ultimately a
46:01
Speaker 2: part of the bigger case brought against April Parks. And
46:05
Speaker 2: without Julie contacting his lawyer, I think he would have
46:08
Speaker 2: been there a lot longer. Yeah, for sure, because she was.
46:12
Speaker 2: She got on the phone. She was like, no, no, no,
46:13
Speaker 2: something is wrong.
46:15
Speaker 1: I have to and I don't know, but I have
46:17
Speaker 1: to question what was going on with that attorney.
46:19
Speaker 3: Yeah.
46:19
Speaker 2: I mean someone's trying to call you and you're not
46:22
Speaker 2: taking their calls.
46:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this was such a big scheme that there
46:27
Speaker 1: were all these different people involved, right, And obviously some
46:30
Speaker 1: people didn't know what was going on. April Parks was
46:32
Speaker 1: really good at navigating the court system, so maybe the judges,
46:35
Speaker 1: maybe people in the courtroom didn't really know what was happening.
46:38
Speaker 1: But I do think that there were a lot of
46:40
Speaker 1: people that knew what was going on, including some attorneys
46:44
Speaker 1: who were helping. Everyone was scratching each other's backs. Yeah,
46:47
Speaker 1: I mean, we never heard about what happened with Rooty
46:51
Speaker 1: North's doctor who signed that form and said that he
46:55
Speaker 1: was not mentally fit to take care of himself when.
46:59
Speaker 2: He clearly Isn't he the one who went to the house.
47:03
Speaker 1: The doctor, I think it was a woman.
47:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, she went to the house, but she went with
47:07
Speaker 2: her husband, I think, right, Yeah, they both went looked
47:10
Speaker 2: at all of their art, and we're sort of like creepy,
47:13
Speaker 2: you know, sing what kind of gatting they had they
47:16
Speaker 2: were shopping? Yeah, yeah, yeah, And so I don't think
47:19
Speaker 2: that doctor ever got charged with anything that we could find,
47:22
Speaker 2: but there's no way that she didn't know what was
47:24
Speaker 2: going on in some way, And so I.
47:25
Speaker 1: Think there were a lot of people in on this scheme. Yeah,
47:29
Speaker 1: And looking at that indictment, it's clear that the amount
47:32
Speaker 1: of money, as you said, listed for each of those people,
47:35
Speaker 1: there were so many victims listed is really a fraction
47:39
Speaker 1: of the amount of money that was taken from them.
47:41
Speaker 4: Yeah.
47:42
Speaker 2: Look, if you're coming in fraud, how good of records
47:44
Speaker 2: are you keeping? Right, Like, you're probably getting more money
47:47
Speaker 2: out for Adolpho and than just taking it. Yeah.
47:50
Speaker 1: So there is a documentary I have not watched it,
47:52
Speaker 1: but it stars Rudy and Runnie North and Julie bel She.
47:56
Speaker 1: It's called The Guardians It was directed by Billy Mintz
47:59
Speaker 1: and you can watch it on YouTube. And in the interview,
48:03
Speaker 1: Julie talked about taking her story to The Vegas Voice,
48:06
Speaker 1: and from what I can tell, the Vegas Voice did
48:11
Speaker 1: the story on Julie's parents and on guardianship, and they
48:14
Speaker 1: ended up continuing to do a lot more reporting on
48:17
Speaker 1: guardianship laws in Nevada and specifically how things were happening
48:23
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. Raina Goodman sort of became known as
48:26
Speaker 1: the Guardian Gladiator because she was so enraged by this
48:31
Speaker 1: and really took this upon herself and became an advocate.
48:34
Speaker 1: And The Village Voice is really credited for helping change
48:38
Speaker 1: some of the laws in Nevada. That's great. Yeah, So
48:41
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, Nevada enacted the Guardianship Bill of Rights,
48:46
Speaker 1: which explicitly recognizes that people under guardianship retain fundamental rights
48:52
Speaker 1: whenever possible. So there's just a lot that they put
48:55
Speaker 1: into place to try to protect people from being exploited.
49:00
Speaker 1: So courts are now required to consider the least restrictive
49:03
Speaker 1: options and preserve as much autonomy as possible. Prior to
49:08
Speaker 1: this happening, it was easy for someone to be put
49:12
Speaker 1: under guardianship without given the option of having an attorney
49:16
Speaker 1: or being present even in the courtroom to decide their
49:19
Speaker 1: own fate. And now you have to offer them an attorney.
49:24
Speaker 1: They need to be able to be given the chance
49:26
Speaker 1: to be in court speak for themselves or have an
49:29
Speaker 1: attorney represent them before their rights are taken away.
49:33
Speaker 2: It's like, that's great, and it's shocking that that wasn't
49:36
Speaker 2: always the case.
49:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, shocking.
49:39
Speaker 2: I mean, think about working your entire life to retire
49:43
Speaker 2: and maybe you have money to leave to your children
49:46
Speaker 2: that you've probably also you know, worked hard with that
49:48
Speaker 2: in mind. Then someone like April Parks just comes in
49:51
Speaker 2: and takes it, yeah, and is.
49:53
Speaker 1: Able to do it without you ever even knowing, without
49:57
Speaker 1: your family members ever being told. I mean that that
50:00
Speaker 1: was a huge deal too. That's now changed. The courts
50:03
Speaker 1: must look for family members, and the family members must
50:06
Speaker 1: be given an option to first step in and become
50:10
Speaker 1: guardians if someone does need a guardianship, which does happen, right.
50:14
Speaker 1: There are situations where someone needs to be under a
50:17
Speaker 1: guardianship for their own safety or care, but it's such
50:20
Speaker 1: a tricky decision to make. So it sounds like Nevada
50:24
Speaker 1: has made a lot of changes to try to make
50:26
Speaker 1: sure that someone like April Parks can't go in and
50:29
Speaker 1: just like scoop up all these people and put them
50:32
Speaker 1: basically in prison and take other reason.
50:34
Speaker 2: All their money.
50:35
Speaker 4: Yeah.
50:35
Speaker 2: I mean, even to think of like Julian the situation
50:39
Speaker 2: and the fear not knowing where her parents were, and
50:42
Speaker 2: to think of Julie in a courtroom being like, I'm
50:45
Speaker 2: right here, I can take my parents. I'm right here,
50:48
Speaker 2: I live close by them. I go over there often.
50:51
Speaker 2: In April just being like no, yeah, it's gonna be me,
50:54
Speaker 2: this complete stranger to them.
50:56
Speaker 3: Yeah.
50:56
Speaker 1: And I don't know if there still are private guardians
51:00
Speaker 1: in Nevada, but one of the things The Vegas Voice
51:03
Speaker 1: reported on was that when all of these laws started changing,
51:07
Speaker 1: all these private guardianship companies just sort of quietly closed down.
51:11
Speaker 2: Oh like maybe they weren't doing the right thing.
51:15
Speaker 1: It's just I mean, I don't know if they were
51:17
Speaker 1: created because there weren't enough public guardianship programs, but a
51:21
Speaker 1: private guardianship is just sort of like, what are you
51:24
Speaker 1: talking about? Like, what kind of oversight is happening here?
51:28
Speaker 1: It just it feels like, you know, yeah, ripe for
51:31
Speaker 1: fraud and it was so anyway, good changes have been
51:34
Speaker 1: happening in Nevada, but that's not necessarily like nationwide, So
51:38
Speaker 1: some of the laws are different state to state, So
51:41
Speaker 1: something to look into.
51:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you have elderly parents, and maybe it's worth
51:45
Speaker 2: looking into the laws where they live and informing yourself.
51:49
Speaker 2: I feel like if Julie had known, she would have
51:52
Speaker 2: had a different level of watch on her parents. I mean,
51:55
Speaker 2: and she was a very involved daughter, Yeah, and even
52:00
Speaker 2: to her Yeah, both of her parents have passed away
52:03
Speaker 2: at this point, but Julie is still really involved in
52:08
Speaker 2: the community and people that she's met who also went
52:11
Speaker 2: through similar things as she did. People reach out to
52:15
Speaker 2: her who are dealing with that currently in different places,
52:18
Speaker 2: and she's a real advocate in trying to spread the
52:20
Speaker 2: word that this is happening to try to protect people's rights. Yeah,
52:24
Speaker 2: big fans of Julie.
52:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well that was our episode for today. Those are
52:30
Speaker 1: two episodes that was our mini series. Thanks for listening.
52:32
Speaker 1: We'll be back next week. If you have a story
52:36
Speaker 1: for us, we would love to hear it.
52:38
Speaker 2: Our email is The Knife at exactlyrightmedia dot com, or
52:41
Speaker 2: you can follow us on Instagram at the Knife Podcast
52:44
Speaker 2: or Blue Sky at the Knife Podcast.
52:46
Speaker 1: This has been an Exactly Right production hosted and produced
52:49
Speaker 1: by me Hannah Smith and me Patia Eaton.
52:52
Speaker 2: Our producers are Tom Bryfogel and Alexis Samarosi.
52:55
Speaker 1: This episode was mixed by Tom Bryfogel.
52:57
Speaker 2: Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.
53:00
Speaker 1: Our theme music is by Birds in the Airport.
53:02
Speaker 2: Artwork by Vanessa Lilac.
53:04
Speaker 1: Executive produced by Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer.