How an Unwanted Guardianship Cost a Firefighter His Freedom and His Fortune

How an Unwanted Guardianship Cost a Firefighter His Freedom and His Fortune

By Harvey Wasserman

Created Mar 24 2008 - 8:10am

By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Norman Baker is an American hero who has been detained against his will for

more than three years.

His "crime": owning too much property.

His sentence: a court-appointed guardianship on the brink of costing him

everything he spent his life building.

His rights in this case: virtually none, significantly less in many ways

than an actual law-breaking criminal.

His future if this continues: long-term de facto imprisonment, followed by

abject poverty, if he has anything left at all.

A retired firefighter who once helped save a child's life, Norman Baker is

not suspected of terrorism. He has never been charged with any statutory

infraction, and has never been in any kind of trouble with the law. But he

has been stripped of his right to vote and access to his own assets, which

appear to have been well in excess of $1 million as little as three years

ago.

Until he was placed in a nursing home against his will by the

court-appointed attorney he is trying to reject, Norman Baker owned and

managed two dozen rental properties, many of which he designed and built

himself. He also owned a 33-acre farm, with four horses, an array of

tractors and other heavy farm implements, a carefully preserved century-old

barn, a restored farmhouse from which he drew steady rental income, and a

3,000-square-foot brick home, which he also designed and built.

All Norman Baker's properties were free of any liens or mortgages. Before he

was confined against his will to a nursing home, Norman Baker also had some

$250,000 in cash and liquid investments above and beyond his real estate

holdings. He rented his properties and lived a quiet, private life.

Today, without writing a check or using a credit card or making a single bad

investment, Norman Baker has less than $20,000 in cash. Most of his rental

properties are vacant. Some have been flooded. In one, a broken pipe has

resulted in a water bill in excess of $19,000. Nearly all his properties,

which were once entirely rented, are now vacant. Some have been seriously

vandalized. A rental property business, which yielded a steady cash flow, is

now bleeding cash every month.

Baker's farm implements--including a tractor owned by his brother-were sold

by his unwanted guardian without his permission. The guardian also sold the

slate off the roof of Norman's carefully preserved antique hay barn, which

may now be ruined by rainwater. The roof of his farm house has also been

damaged and left unmended.

The comfortable brick ranch home Norman built by hand is boarded up and

rotting. Its plush carpeting has apparently been stripped out. Its interior

fixtures are gone or rotting. The concrete backyard swimming pool whose

construction Baker oversaw is cracked and in ruins. When we visited the

property, Baker could only peer into the windows of his wrecked home. It is

posted against "trespassers."

At one point in his involuntary guardianship, a medical examiner hired at

Norman's expense found him competent and recommended that he no longer need

a guardian. But the attorney running Baker's guardianship refused to

surrender control of Norman's assets. He then brought back the same medical

examiner for yet another examination. This doctor then proclaimed he

"changed his mind" and that Norman needed a guardian after all. Norman was

then billed some $2,000 for both examinations.

Since then, a Harvard-trained medical examiner has repeatedly tested Baker,

who just turned 80. This doctor, whose most recent examination has been

videotaped, has consistently found Baker competent to manage his own affairs

and to hire his own professional help.

More than a year ago, a physician for the nursing home where Norman has been

confined recommended that he be given an immediate discharge to the

community. Baker walks three miles a day inside the home, and does his own

laundry. He is dependent on no medications.

Norman Baker's case is not an isolated one. Usually guardianships are

necessary where someone has no assets or no family and there has been no

estate plan appointing a fiduciary. However, throughout the United States,

tens of thousands of elderly citizens with significant assets have been

placed under court-appointed guardians.

Though regulations vary from state to state, the attorney-guardians are

required to report periodically to the county probate court on the

disposition of the assets. Commonly, the attorneys charge fees for

"managing" the property of their wards.

The law requires a guardian to act in the ward's best interests. But often

that is a major issue between the guardian and his ward that must be

balanced by the Probate Judge, who is expected to act as the "superior

guardian".

By and large, legal guardians are expected to pay regular visits to their

wards. According to Baker, his court-appointed attorney has visited him just

twice in more than two years.

Norman Baker has continuously requested that he have input in to the

property management of his estate. But he has been ignored. Decisions have

been made about Norman's bank account and his properties without his

knowledge or input, and over his continued objections and complaints.

Baker's court-appointed guardian was recently more than six months late in

providing the court with a report on the status of Norman's assets. Such

reports are required by the Fairfield County court every two years, although

the better practice is an annual account. Baker's cash assets have been

drained, and many of his properties have been brought to the brink of ruin.

But it is unclear whether or not all his bills have been properly paid.

Acting on his own, Baker has managed to contract with independent counsel.

Susan Wasserman and Lewis E. Williams of Columbus have asked, on his behalf,

that Fairfield County Probate Court Judge Stephen Williams set Baker free of

his guardianship. But Judge Williams has refused and Norman Baker remains

confined to a nursing home against his will.

Baker's troubles began in January, 2005, when he suffered a urinary tract

infection. Reports for elder abuse are confidential and it is unclear who

made the recommendation that his affairs be turned over to a guardian.

Whatever the situation at that time, Baker has long since recovered. But he

still remains under a guardianship established at a hearing in front of

Judge Williams where Norman was not represented by legal counsel, and was

not in the presence of a blood relative.

This fall, after numerous attempts to terminate the guardianship, Attorneys

Wasserman and Williams moved in the Fairfield County court that Baker's

guardianship be vacated.

Ohio law stipulates that someone being subjected to a guardianship has the

right to have his closest relative from within the state be present at the

determination hearing. Norman Baker's daughter was not notified because she

was out of state, and notification to her was therefore not required by law.

But it was mandatory under the law that Norman Baker's brother Robert be

noticed, as he lives in-state and is "next of kin."

Because guardianships are invasive proceedings, strict requirements are

meant to safeguard situations in which a probate court has such unfettered

power over a human being. Norman's brother, Robert Baker, of Celina, Ohio,

has since stated under oath that he would have attended the hearing had he

known about it, and that he would have argued then-as he does now-that his

brother did not want or need a legal guardian then, and does not want or

need one now.

Robert Baker also charges that the attorney appointed by the court to be his

brother's guardian sold his own personal antique tractor-inherited from his

father-from his brother Norman's farm, and has never accounted for the

proceeds.

Norman Baker's farm has also been stripped of many of its accouterments

without a full accounting. Its buildings have been left to rot. The land

itself may be worth a million dollars or more. Baker's guardian has stated

that he has gotten numerous calls from developers wanting to buy it.

Judge Williams has repeatedly refused to vacate the guardianship. Nor has he

set for hearing the objections filed by Baker to the late and incomplete

accounting as to what precisely the Guardian has accomplished on his behalf.

By Ohio law, such an accounting was many months overdue until Norman Baker

demanded that the account be filed. In December, 2007, at Norman Baker's

behest, Attorneys Wasserman and Williams filed a motion with the Chief

Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Thomas Moyer, asking that Judge Williams

be removed from the case. Baker's chosen attorneys argued that Judge

Williams's handling of the case "gives the appearance" that there is little

hope of Norman Baker escaping his unwanted guardianship, and regaining his

freedom with due process of law as guaranteed under the Ohio and U.S.

constitutions.

Chief Justice Moyer has recently established a high-level commission charged

with looking into the guardianship system in Ohio. Nationwide, hundreds of

cases similar to Norman Baker's have been reported at places such as the

http://www.stopguardianabuse.org [1] web site. The Los Angeles Times ran a major

expose several years ago which has resulted in reform in many states.

Extreme as Baker's case may seem, numerous state and local court records are

filled with cases of guardianship discord.

Moyers turned down the request that Judge Williams be removed from the case.

An appeal on Judge Williams's denial of the motion to vacate the

guardianship has been filed in the Ohio Court of Appeals, Fifth Appellate

District.

Thus far, Norman Baker has been in constant litigation for three years

against the guardian appointed over him by the court. Norman's guardianship

was imposed in a hearing at which he was unpresented by counsel, and had no

relative at his side, even though his brother lives in the state. He is no

longer allowed to drive a car or vote. He has been deprived of the

management of his properties and of his cash accounts, which by all

indications have been seriously mismanaged. The home Norman built with his

own hands has been largely ruined through neglect. He has been unable to

obtain a full accounting of what has been done with his assets.

In essence, someone who has committed a murder or robbed a bank has more

rights than have been granted Norman Baker.

Though the furthest thing imaginable from a terrorist, Norman Baker has no

access to habeas corpus, or to a speedy trial.

Every night, Norman Baker goes to bed in his unwanted nursing home, praying

for his freedom. If anything, his case stands as a bizarre warning against

getting inconveniently ill, even briefly, while being in possession of

enough assets to attract a legal guardian to "protect" you in your later

years.

As a Franklin County firefighter, Norman Baker worked to save lives. Now he

must fight to save his own. "I never dreamed such a thing could happen in

this country," he told the Free Press. "I just want to go home."

Letters of support for Norman Baker can be sent to Box 09683, Bexley, OH.,

43209 or to Harvey@Freepress.org [2].

Robert Fitrakis is an attorney, and publisher of the Columbus Free Press.

Harvey Wasserman is author or co-author of a dozen books, and senior editor

of the Free Press. He is the spouse of attorney Susan Wasserman.

--

NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not

always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material

available to advance understanding of

political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I

believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as

provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright

Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107

"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their

spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their

government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are

suffering deeply in spirit,

and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public

debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have

patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning

back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at

stake."

-Thomas Jefferson