By: Teresa N. Phillips, Esq., ForsterBoughman
It is no secret that in 2019, with the exposure of Rebecca Fierle, the professional guardian facing numerous criminal charges of neglect and abuse which allegedly led to the death of at least one ward, the Florida Judiciary is on notice that guardianships need more oversight. Guardians, who serve with court authority, need to be more carefully watched and their actions (or inactions) scrutinized to avoid similar tragedies being a regular occurrence.
Rebecca Fierle is the now-disgraced professional guardian who was removed from hundreds of cases in 2019 just before her arrest in 2020. Orange County Circuit Judge Janet Thorpe found that Fierle had issued do no resuscitate (DNR) orders on behalf of her wards without Court approval. In one instance, a ward in Tampa died when the medical facility refused to perform life-saving measures as instructed by the DNR order filed by Fierle. It later came out that Ms. Fierle never properly obtained required court authorization to sign the DNR. Further investigation revealed multiple allegations of fraudulent billing, neglect and abuse.
Thanks to Judge Thorpe’s action, many local courts reviewed their cases, removed Fierle as an appointed guardian, and some even instituted new procedures to ensure closer scrutinization of the guardianship cases. Orange County courts further responded by appointing a single Judge to oversee Guardianship cases and provided additional resources such as case managers in monitoring guardians and investigating and overseeing guardianship cases.
As 2020 ended, we have seen more examples of Florida’s guardianship system treating elderly as prisoners in the name of “protection.” Take the example of Doug Keegan, as case that started in 2014. According to several news outlets, Mr. Keegan’s family objected to his proposed marriage to a young woman from Nigeria. The family went to the court and Mr. Keegan was declared incapacitated and a professional guardian was appointed over his person and property. For the past two years, Mr. Keegan has lived alone in an extended hotel, cooks for himself, gets around via bicycle and bus, and has enlisted the help of professionals in an attempt to regain his capacity. Any reasonable person must ask how it can be that a man capable of taking such lucid and reasonable actions on his own, can be, at the same time, declared to have no legal capacity under the law?!
I have practiced law in Florida for twenty years and most of that time has been spent representing clients in the Central Florida area in fiduciary litigation and administration cases, including probate and guardianship. I and my colleagues in my firm have noticed disturbing trends in Florida guardianship matters. The trend is what I have come to coin “the weaponization of Florida Guardianships.” Unfortunately, laws that were passed with the intent of protecting some of the most vulnerable members of our society—the elderly—are being misused by some to intimidate, control, and victimize those whom the statute was intended to protect.
I have started this blog in an effort to inform the community about the disturbing trends that are being reported and those my colleagues and I personally observe. We want to be a source of information and resources as it relates to Florida guardianships. We further intend to use this as a platform to advocate for policy changes that will protect the elderly and avoid the tragic results that can happen when unscrupulous people are involved.
Welcome to the first post on this site, which is dedicated to guardianship abuses and failures. We invite you to join in the discussion and share this with anyone who may be interested in this topic. Our next installment will delve deeper into Mr. Keegan’s case and find out how his decision to marry a younger woman (and his family’s objection) may have led to him losing all of his legal rights to control his own life, affairs, and finances.