Don Bowman

_______________________________________________________________________________

‘EASY (BLACK) MONEY’

You may think a probate court like the one in our nation’s capitol functions to preserve and protect the financial assets of dependent and defenseless senior citizens.  Think again!

What it mostly does is steal their money and discard the disposable human remains behind the imprimatur of government sanction, leaving only poverty, betrayal and emotional devastation in its wake.

THE UGLY REALITY IS THIS:

The DC probate system targets African-Americans and their families who have the misfortune of (a) living in its jurisdiction, and (b) lacking the political and educational wherewithal to fight back against a corrupt system of opportunistic racism that leaves victims intimidated, isolated, and outgunned in their futile resistance against a cold and cruel government take-over of their lives.  In this way, elderly African-Americans are easy pickins – a steady stream of cash-for-the-taking by greedy court minions who wouldn’t dare try this scam on more affluent and connected white families.

Just ask Jenny Horace, a 91 year old Black woman living in the North West section of Washington, DC.  Mrs. Horace is in good health and has an attentive daughter who helped her with her daily routines.  The mother enjoyed regular outings with her daughter. She attended church on Sundays and often afterwards visits with friends and neighbors.  Mrs. Horace lived independently in her home for more than 50 years.

The “problem” is that she owns her home.  This means she has money.  And the people at DC Probate want it.

Mrs. Horace’s money is tied up in her Nicholson Street home, a non-liquid asset.  And in order to get it, the court needed to get the daughter out of Mrs. Horace’s life.  Mrs. Horace needed to be isolated, separated from her loving devoted daughter!

How do they do this?  Under the guise of protecting defenseless Black seniors from their own families!

If Mrs. Horace did not have a dime to her name, DC Probate wouldn’t give a damn about her.  But it cares a lot about Mrs. Horace because on the open market, her home is worth around $500,000.  Why does an old lady need that kind of money?!  So the helpful public servants at probate court scheme to help themselves to it through and insidious public policy strategy – a guardian/conservatorship process under which they legally assume control over all decisions over the person’s life.  They force the elderly victims (with actual physical force if necessary) into nursing care facilities; then seize and sell their homes, as is currently happening to Candice Grimes, a 90 year old Black woman residing in DC, and use the proceeds to (a) pay the government’s outrageous Medicare bill for the victim’s involuntary incarceration, and (b) line their own pockets by charging the victim’s meager estate exhorbitant hourly fees for their so-called “services.”

How is this done?  With surprising ease!

Court-appointed conservators (with tacit approval of judges who answer to no one and perhaps even have their hands in the till) are given full control of their victims’ bank accounts and government benefit checks to spend any way they like – even on themselves – with no strict, de facto oversight.  The money is supposed to be used to cover the valid living expenses of the unwilling wards of the court.  But it is not.  It is squandered on the bogus non-services of these “professional” conservators who, despite their pretense of humanitarianism, bully and deceive the very people they are suppose to serve, unconscionably charging hundreds of dollars per hour for doing (if they do anything) what the victims’ family would do willingly and lovingly for free.  And so instead of conserving the ward’s estate, the conservator, in reality, consumes it! 

In this way the funds of the elderly wards of the court are quickly, quietly, and legally siphoned-off, leaving them destitute and a burden on taxpayers.  These bureaucrtic vultures pick their pockets empty and pick their bones clean with astronomical professional fees ($250+ per hour) that leave their elderly charges penniless…all while claiming it is for their own protection by keeping that money out of the hands of their “greedy” relatives.

And who is the wiser?  Who will challenge the power of the court?  Who is able to follow the money trail and prove corruption?  Who will take on a system which shields these charlatans from scrutiny and conceals their connivance from accountability?

Desperate families beg their local politicians for help only to be dismissed and told it’s a private matter.  But this is not private.  It is a very blatant corruption of public policy!