Elder Abuse Victim Stories on Betrayal by California Probate Court Judges

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard A. Adler fails to hold perpetrator in contempt in elder abuse case

In a major financial elder abuse case involving an elderly couple repeatedly victimized by some caregivers and family members, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard A. Adler (Van Nuys Courthouse East, Department Y) acknowledged that a former agent under a durable power of attorney for the finances of the victims was in contempt of court for failing several times to submit a detailed accounting, failing to appear at a show-cause contempt hearing, and violating Judge Adler’s court order. However, at the defiant perpetrator’s contempt hearing, Judge Adler did what many biased and apathetic probate court judges in California have done in other elder abuse cases: Judge Adler refused to punish the perpetrator and hold him in contempt of court.

Are you an elder abuse victim who has been further victimized by a California probate court judge?

Are you an elder abuse victim who has been victimized a second time by an apathetic probate court judge who turned his or her back on your desperate plea for relief from elder abuse?

Did an apathetic and biased probate court judge handling your elder abuse case or conservatorship abandon his or her sacred duty to protect you and thereby directly and indirectly facilitate further physical, psychological, or financial elder abuse against you?

Did a bad probate court judge handling your elder abuse case or conservatorship abuse his or her discretion, issue blatantly improper rulings, or ignore the law?

You are just one of many victims of California probate court judges who abandon their sacred duty to protect vulnerable elder abuse victims

You are one of a growing network of informed citizens, elder advocates, elder law and appellate attorneys, court-appointed conservators, and forensic medical experts throughout the United States who are committed to reforming the probate court by publicly exposing judges’ abuses of judicial authority toward parties and attorneys and biased decisions that contravene the law.

You may be just one of many victims of probate court judges whose misconduct had to be corrected by the California Courts of Appeal or the Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP), which “is the independent state agency responsible for investigating complaints of judicial misconduct and judicial incapacity and for disciplining judges.”

For example, in the published case In re the Conservatorship of Kayle (2005) 134 Cal.App.4th 1, the California Second District Court of Appeal fully reversed and remanded Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard A. Adler’s “abuse of discretion” and “improper” and “erroneous” order of dismissal of an elder abuse complaint brought under the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, also known as the Elder Abuse Act (Welfare & Institutions Code § 15600 et seq.).

On May 20, 2004, the California Commission on Judicial Performance issued a public admonishment against Robert M. Letteau, a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who supervised the county’s probate courts, because of “a troubling pattern of repeated violation of ethical duties that are fundamental to the fairness . . . of the judicial process” and a “pervasive pattern of bias, prejudgment, ex parte communication, and abuse of judicial authority toward parties and attorneys” in the Conservatorship of Feist and four other cases.

Elder Abuse Exposed.com compiles and publicly exposes your stories and evidence of misconduct by California probate court judges

Elder Abuse Exposed.com compiles and publicly exposes your elder abuse complaints, petitions for protective orders, conservatorship petitions, and other pleadings you have filed with the probate court seeking relief from and civil remedies for elder abuse.

Elder Abuse Exposed.com and our growing network of like-minded victims of probate court misconduct also publicly expose how probate court judges have turned their backs on your desperate plea for relief from elder abuse.

Elder Abuse Exposed.com publishes below your personal stories and primary source documents (e.g., elder abuse complaints, unpublished court filings, court transcripts, unpublished and published appellate court decisions, judges’ statements of decision explaining the factual and legal bases for their decisions, and Commission on Judicial Performance disciplinary decisions). We do this so that we all can expose to the light of day the judicial misconduct that conscientious citizens must confront and stop.

What you can do

If you are an elder abuse victim, a family or friend of a victim, an attorney, or a patients’ rights advocate with a personal story and primary source documents to share with the world regarding misconduct by a probate court judge, please tell your story so that we can add it to our compilation of victim stories below.
If you are a judge, commissioner, judge’s secretary, court reporter, court clerk, bailiff, court investigator, or some other conscience-stricken probate court employee with inside information or hot tips regarding elder abuse cases and misconduct by California probate court judges, please send us (even anonymously if you want) your information and documents that you want to include in our compilation of personal stories below.
If you are a state or federal politician, legislator, prosecutor, an official from a watchdog or oversight agency, a patients’ rights advocacy organization, or a news reporter who is troubled by the dysfunction and misconduct in many California probate courts, then Elder Abuse Exposed.com urges you to read the compilation of victim stories and primary source documents below.

Victim stories and evidence of California probate court judges who fail to protect elder abuse victims

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