It`s a fact as sad as aging: The elderly get bilked, and very few people seem to give a damn.
Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy is one of the few, which explains a letter he`s sent to Gov. James Thompson. It requests stiffer penalties for ripping off some of society`s most defenseless.
The problem is basic and one that anyone with an aging parent or other relative can appreciate. A once-alert mind suffers the abuses of time. Attention spans become short, logic confused. Eyes gaze aimlessly. Names, dates and places meld in a state of incomprehension.
Murphy`s melancholy mandate is to protect the defenseless. He`s tough, acerbic, at times undiplomatic and not averse to using the media to make larger points. Any reporter who`s dealt with him over the years knows some, if not all the cases he`s outlined to Thompson. Consider a loved one now groping and one may understand Murphy`s suggested legislative change. A few tales:
— An 85-year-old former Chicago policeman, confined to a nursing home, is approached by real estate agents who suggest that he sell his Northwest Side home. They persuaded him and sell it for about $20,000, of which the policeman`s disabled son gets $9,000 and the father nothing (the remainder is thought to have gone for legal and Realtor fees). In fact, says Murphy, a lawyer made out real estate tax forms to make it seem as if the property was sold for $50,000. The house, actually bought by the Realtors themselves through a land trust, was resold a year later for $85,000.
— A Realtor gets rights to sell the Northwest Side home of an 88-year-old woman. The day after, a lawyer informs the Realtor that the woman was incompetent and guardianship proceedings are to commence. That same day, the Realtor sold the home for $43,000 less than it was advertised. Five days later, the woman was placed by a judge under temporary guardianship.
— An 85-year-old man living in a Near North Side boarding house is bilked of $90,000 in life savings by two operators of the boarding home. When finally caught, they claimed to have spent the money. They plead guilty and are placed on 30 months` probation. They forfeit their bond of $20,000 and pay $500 a month for 30 months. But not a day in jail.
— An 80-year-old woman tells a tenant in her house that a strange man is sleeping in her bed. The man is her husband, dead for three days. The woman, senile for several years, had been swindled of $100,000 by a couple who had her draw up a will and leave the house and everything else to them. The couple plead guilty and are placed on work release.
The last two examples did, indeed, result in prosecutions. But a strong case can be made that the state`s attorney acted only after substantial publicity drummed up by Murphy, who contends the state was goaded after being ”embarrassed by news accounts.” Murphy is forced to use the press because of some other difficulties.
”Prosecutors don`t consider these cases sexy,” he says. ”Then, they say that the cases are tough to prosecute because a key witness may be senile.” Anyone, he says, can prosecute a John Gacy but few are lured by the complexity of proving a case though a witness is incompetent. ”My office has never lost a civil case when we`ve gone after people for ripoffs. There are ways to win, especially through expert witnesses.”
What Murphy urged Thompson and the legislature to do is this: Add a provision to the state`s theft statute to make it a Class 1 felony, punishable by not less than 4 years, but no more than 15, in prison, for ”taking advantage of a person`s mental disability to deprive that person permanently of the use or benefit of his property.”
Murphy defines mental disability as including those who suffer from medical disorders associated with old age and lacking sufficient understanding to make responsible decisions. As he wrote Thompson, ”With increasing frequency our office is encountering situations where the elderly who are suffering from senile dementia and Alzheimer`s disease are taken advantage of by unscrupulous landlords, Realtors, lawyers, friends, neighbors and strangers.”
Most of the problems Murphy sees fit the legal definition of Class 3 felonies, punishable by no less than 2 years, no more than 5, in prison. Make the penalties tougher and one ”might make it more interesting for a prosecutor.”
”Is there is a man alive who believes that an 85-year-old man knew what he was doing when he sold a valuable piece of property for $20,000? That`s TV stuff.”
`FRIVOLOUS` ARGUMENTS FIZZLE
U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle has zapped Peterson, Ross, Schloerb & Seidel lawyers J. Robert Geiman and David J. Novotny for advancing ”clearly frivolous” arguments in defense of a loan-collection lawsuit.
Norgle ordered payment of $2,418 in fees and expenses of Hopkins & Sutter`s Paul Vickrey, who represented the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Vickrey also persuaded Norgle to order repayment of $1.6 million in loans made by Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust Co. to Tekfen Construction and Installation Co. Inc., a firm located in Turkey, and two other contruction companies. The money was used to build a reservoir in Kuwait.
Geiman and Novotny argued that Tekfen was not bound under a letter of credit agreement, despite a partnership agreement that Norgle said ”clearly authorized” the partnership to apply for the letter of credit. Geiman and Novotny persisted in their argument and are now poorer for it.
APPEALS COURT ASKS DELAY IN NEW SENTENCING RULES
The federal appeals court here has joined a growing chorus that seeks at least an 18-month delay in implementation of new sentencing guidelines scheduled for November. Chief Judge William Bauer makes the request in a letter to fellow Republican Henry Hyde, the Illinois congressman who is gaining renown these days for his slavish defense of President Reagan during the Irangatehearings.
Calling the guidelines a ”radical departure from past sentencing practices,” Bauer said he and colleagues fear the rules will ”not cure the disparity in sentencing,” be applied arbitrarily and reduce sentencing to a
”complex game” which only increases the numbers of appeals. It`s been estimated that they`ll result in a 10 percent increase in the prison population, with District Judge Michael Mihm of Peoria suggesting that figure is ”grossly conservative.”
For example, Mihm said, 69 percent of embezzlers get probation, but under the new rules, only 19.7 percent would get it. Income tax cheats get probation 48.8 percent of the time, but under the new guidelines 96.9 percent will get jail, Mihm said. If Congress doesn`t revise the rules, ”we will all live to regret it.”
AFTER 17 YEARS, CORBOY`S TRIAL RECORD INTACT
Yogi Berra`s advice about it ain`t over until it`s over is learned anew by Chicago defense lawyer Bill Johnson and Wheaton`s Roger O`Reilly. Last year, they teamed to give hotshot trial attorney Phil Corboy his first trial loss in 17 years. Corboy had asked a Du Page County jury to award between $4.5 million and $8.5 million to a Glen Ellyn woman who suffered brain damage after undergoing treatment for a ruptured appendix. But the jurors found no negligence by the doctors. Now, the Illinois Appellate Court has reversed the decision and remanded the case for a new trial, saying the trial judge made errors in ruling on evidence questions and thus denied the woman a fair trial. BRIEFS: Jerry Galler, 53, a well-liked founding partner at Katten Muchin & Zavis, died Sunday after a long hospitalization. . . . This year`s version of a curious male-bonding rite for lawyers concludes with Monday`s return from a no-phones, no-showers fishing trek to Canada`s Northwest Territory, above the Arctic Circle, by U.S. Atty. Anton Valukas, former U.S. Atty. Thomas Sullivan, former Illinois Atty. Gen. Tyrone Fahner, criminal defense lawyer Matthias Lydon and the U.S. attorney for northern Indiana, James Richmond. They allege that the fishing was spotty. . . . Rooks Pitts merges with Joliet`s 11-lawyer Thomas Wallace Feehan Baron & Kaplan.
