Family Injustice: Killing Mom
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The son of an 83-year-old woman, whose life is being controlled by the California courts, wants the Los Angeles County District Attorney to open a criminal investigation into alleged elder abuse. It’s the latest saga in the growing nationwide outrage over the way court appointed guardians and lawyers are treating our most vulnerable. We call it FAMILY INJUSTICE, and there are charges that the treatment will kill Sara Hart.
Sara Hart looked so happy then and this was just two years ago, look at her now; she’s in a virtual stupor.
What’s happening to this 83-year-old woman should be a crime, an injustice being ignored by the Los Angeles County probate courts.
“And we saw pictures of her that were devastating. She is bedridden, she is wearing a diaper, she needs oxygen,” said Hava Simchon
“I feel like we’re not getting justice or mercy,” continues Simchon.
Just look at her, Sara is bedridden, rarely opens her eyes, yet many of her closest relatives aren’t allowed to see her or even talk to her.
Including Havas 92-year-old father, Levy. Twenty-two months he has been denied the right to comfort his own sister, he cries from grief.
“To see him like that, it was really shattering – shattering of the spirit, shattering of the soul and I felt completely paralyzed,” expressed Simchon.
Levy’s wife, Rebecca, has been best friends with Sara since they were just fourteen years old.
She’s denied any visits too, even phone calls, for almost two years.
“You must be furious,” asks Wayne Dolcefino. Simchon replies, “I am, I’m really enraged to be very blunt about it.”
And the guy in the video with Sara, he was denied any visits for a year and a half. Even during Jewish holidays, Mother’s Day, her birthday.
He recently got permission to see her for just one hour a week and that took an expensive court battle, that’s Guy Hart, Sara’s youngest son.
“It’s very hard to put into words. I’ve been affected, I can’t sleep at night, I wake up worrying about my mom,” expressed Guy Hart.
“You think she’s a prisoner,” asked Dolcefino. “I know she’s a prisoner,” states Hart.
And sadly, it’s Sara’s own daughter, Leemor Hart Lavy and another son Don, also known as Doren, who are accused of isolating this elderly woman from so many of the people she clearly loves.
Keeping her bedridden behind a neighborhood security gates and sedated.
“I have to tell you; I think it’s cruel and it’s difficult for me, but I can only imagine for my mom,” expressed Hart.
“This isolation is the cruelest thing I have ever seen,” continues Hart.
In late December Judge William Weinberger issued a temporary restraining order to try and stop the isolation of Sara Hart by two of her children after Sara had been hospitalized. She was badly dehydrated; the judge saw pictures of horrible bed sores.
But that protection has been largely ignored ever since.
Five times Guy Hart turned to the LAPD to try to gain access to his own mom.
Then the family learned Leemor Harts lawyer, Debbie Doitch, went to a different court, a probate court to get Sara declared incompetent. Unable to make her own decisions.
Her daughter Leemor was named her conservator for now. The TRO was then ignored by probate judge Lynn Scaduto.
Scaduto was also the judge in the fight over Lisa Marie Presley estate.
“It is despicable that you have put someone in charge who has demonstrated that she’s willing to isolate her mom,” stated Lisa McCarley.
Family members want the Los Angeles County district attorney to open a criminal investigation to see if what is happening to Sara Hart violates California criminal law.
The legislature there just passed a law on isolation of the elderly. Maybe Leemor, the judge and the DA should all read it.
“one-way perpetrators of domestic violence and elder abuse…are able to continue their abuse is by keeping trusted friends and family members from seeing or contacting a vulnerable adult” reads the legislature. Sounds familiar in this case.
And the family anger is intense.
“Leemor Hart Lavy has no heart,” expressed Simchon.
The injustice deepens. The judge appointed a money manager to manage Sara’s finances and a court appointed lawyer to control her visitors, a total stranger blocking family.
Gavin Wasserman was in the case less than 24 hours before submitting his first legal report defending the conservatorship of Sara Hart.
He had not even spoke to the family members trying to free Sara Hart from what they call imprisonment, from her own son, Guy.
The family says he had not even spoken to her, and he won’t talk to us.
“How on earth can anybody submit a reporter within less than 24 hours without discussing with anybody and literally taking someone’s body freedom away overnight,” expressed Hart.
There is a wave of complaints that lawyers are taking advantage of family fights in probate court.
“You have no liability, you have no responsibility, you have no ethics, you have nothing. You just do what the fuck you want to do,” expressed Lisa McCarley
“You can’t throw a tennis ball in any direction in southern California and not hit an estate planning attorney. You know what I mean it’s like they are everywhere,” continues McCarley.
The Los Angeles courts ignored our request to see payments to Mr. Wasserman, but one of the big complaints in these cases is the way some conservatorships seem to be more about money, not really compassion.
The lawyer’s cashing in. Sara Hart, she’s worth millions.
“Believe it or not, there are people left being literally tortured because of the incompetence of these court appointed attorneys,” states McCarley.
Last month, in nearby Orange County the apparent abuse in California’s probate system was on full display. Outside the courthouse in Santa Anna, a parade of horror stories.
“The trauma and the pain we’re all feeling is real we have to stop this is not justice this is injustice,” expressed Suhail Khaleel
“We have got to put a stop to this probate corruption, it’s like a mafia” states Sandy Cobianchi.
“God willing they’re going to get exposed and they’re going to be stopped and they’re going to pay for what they have done to our families,” expressed Jodee Sussman.
Now this Los Angeles judge is being accused of leaving Sara Hart in the hands of her alleged abusers, some of her own children.
“So, what you saw was a judge keeping, maintaining a conservatee—a person who could not speak for herself-—for whatever reason in the care and custody of an abuser. And that’s kind of normal in Los Angeles now,” states McCarley.
To take control of Sara Hart’s life, the courts rely on a doctor to declare Sara Hart incapacitated.
When asked how long the examination lasted, Dr. Dohwa responds “I don’t remember.”
Enter Dr. Dohwa Kim of Kaiser Permanente.
Leemor’s lawyer didn’t want me to hear what she was going to say under oath.
For the record I would like to add that if Mr. Dolcefino were to return into this proceeding, that we be made aware as I would ask that he not attend. And if that becomes an issue then we may need to get a protective order,” stated Debbie Doitch.
I bet she won’t like that I have the recorded deposition to show you.
Hard to believe that Dr. Kim was able to make her life-changing diagnosis over a brief examination over a phone video. Ignoring that Sara’s stupor could be the result of 19 different medicines she’s been prescribed, administered by Leemor. Family members claim Sara has been overmedicated on purpose.
Dolcefino asked, “you think your own sister is drugging her.” Guy Hart responded, “Absolutely yes.
Guy continues, “yes they both know what they are doing they are silencing her.”
When asked if there was ever a time when Sara spoke Dr. Dowha responded, “I don’t believe so, I don’t think so.”
This Kaiser geriatrician had only seen Sara in person once before, 3 years earlier.
She had to know Sara’s first language was Hebrew, yet there was no interpreter for the brief examination.
When asked if she had any training in neurology or if she considered referring Sara Hart to a neurology specialist, Dr. Dohwa answered no to both.
We now know this life-changing diagnosis was made during a thirty-minute appointment. Medical records show the examination of Sara lasted only about fifteen minutes. Not even a physical exam.
“It’s completely substandard because it doesn’t do justice to the appropriate process you can’t gather much in ten or fifteen minutes,” states Dr. Dee Gaines.
Doctor Dee Gaines is a well-known neuropsychologist practicing in Beverly Hills and testifying in courts across the county. She’s also routinely hired by Keiser Permanente.
“Let’s say the brain is starting to decline does that mean they automatically are so impaired that you have them being under conservatorship, no,” states Dr. Gaines.
Watch Los Angeles police escort Guy Hart to see his mom last January. Passing his brother Don, everyone is armed with video cameras. That’s how ugly this fight is. The video was just entered in the court record.
Sara is awake. And she greets her son in Hebrew, then she talks in English about his cold hands.
“Did you come just now from Siberia,” she jokes. Is that a woman whose really mentally incompetent?
And it wasn’t the only time she was awake and talking.
Look what the court appointed lawyer said happened in May when guy visited again.
“Mrs. Hart was awake, alert, and able to speak in Hebrew and English to both Mr. Guy Hart and myself. (she was kind enough to invite me to sit with her)” reads the report.
Wayne asks, “You think this is all about money?” Hava Simchon replies, “absolutely, It’s absolutely about money.”
“You think they’re keeping her away from you because they want to control the money,” asked Dolcefino. Guy Hart replied, “Yes of course, I’m the only one that stands in the way.”
Long before anyone questioned Sara Harts ability to make her own decisions, she apparently believed some of her children were out to get her money, and her money.
Check out this lawsuit in 2015 saying Don moved into her house, threatened to throw her out, sometimes entering a state of craze, wanting to put her in a mental hospital.
He “always wanted money, money, money” reads the lawsuit.
“You are accusing your own brother of trying to scam your mom,” states Wayne Dolcefino. “Well, he did it. He scammed my own mom and me at the same time. That’s exactly what happened,” said Guy Hart.
Sara maintained in that testimony her son was involved in taking illegal control of 17 million dollars’ worth of properties, scamming Sara and younger brother Guy out of millions.
Testimony in that trial detailed Don Hart’s involvement with a guy named Mickey Henschel, he was convicted in 2019 of mail fraud in a plot to swindle elderly folks out of their property.
The lawsuits have been flying in state and federal court, including a RICO suit alleging conspiracy over the way the property fight was arbitrated.
Among the defendants, Michael T Stoller, a lawyer in Calabasas California whose been in trouble with the state bar up to three times.
And Sam Pinchassi, the arbitrator, he’s accused in the lawsuit of creating a phony arbitration decision to benefit alleged coconspirators.
But the fight over saving his mom takes center stage now and who could blame him?
Sara Hart deserves a comprehensive medical examination. Why would any of her own children want to fight that, especially when the judge sees this.
“First of all, free my mom from this abuse and imprisonment. That we get her the right health care,” said Guy Hart.
“You don’t think she should be in a conservatorship,” asked Wayne Dolcefino. Hava Simchon replied,” absolutely not. Absolutely not.”
Judge Scaduto hasn’t scheduled another court hearing on Sara Harts case until November, that’s five months from now.
Dr. Gaines worries keeping Sara from her close relatives and friends could hasten her death, could kill her.
“What you’re doing, you’re accelerating their decline because you are isolating them. You’re accelerating their decline because they don’t see their loved ones. It’s just a sad loss for everyone,” states Dr. Gaines.
“The clock is ticking,” concludes Dr. Gaines.
The clock is ticking, and the legal bills are growing.
“The whole thing is predatory. It’s out of control because now lawyers have figured it out you can make a lot of money fighting not over with what happens with people’s crap when they die, but fighting over disabled people while they are alive,” states Lisa McCarley.
Wayne asked, “when you saw your mom in that condition you said to yourself.” Guy Hart said, “I have to keep fighting. I have to get her out.”
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