Father of NASGA Member Angelina Corona

My Dad’s story:

The scales have fallen from my eyes. Me thinks the guardianship world is a madhouse and the legal system a house of mirrors. Perhaps a version of Alice in Wonderland in the Queen of Hearts Court. When two small town judges refuse due process and civil rights, an unethical court visitor pens a farcical report and entices a hospital to potentially commit a crime, an attorney confesses her actions were not legitimate, a guardian attorney breaches legal process; I believe this means it’s a club and a racket.

I state the facts, you be the judge. For those of you with a legal eye, please contact me for the case numbers. Both cases have now been sent to the Appeals Courts due to several attorney opinions.

So it began. Due to my father’s hospital admission caused by Dementia the hospital asked me to obtain a guardianship. My father has nine biological children, I’m number eight. He chose me to be his guardian and I asked child number four to be co-guardian with me because he did the most for our father. My step-mother did not want to be his guardian – her health was no better off.

All was well in the initial process – until the guns. Dad gave guns away decades ago, and six months before he was deemed incapacitated. When the guardianship was almost finalized by the court, sibling number six demanded the guns be retrieved from one sibling and given to another. Dad made that decision decades ago and we were only the guardians at that time. But they didn’t care about my father’s legal rights or the law. So they conspired.

Sibling number six texted me a threat – they would work to destroy the guardianship over not getting the guns.  But after two failed attempts in court, the judge saw through their lies.

One sibling in particular, child number seven, is former military intelligence, knows how to befriend the enemy, plays the victim and only wants control regardless of the dehumanizing outcome for our father; hospital abuse and an unprofessional professional guardian.

Once the guardianship was in place, child number seven informed me I was to contact only her as “point person” and not children five, six, and nine. She would distribute update information to them. This plays into her M.I. background – whoever controls the information controls the narrative. It worked well for her because the other three children refused to communicate with me – because of two guns. Remember the phrase “point person,” this is the title sibling number seven gave herself.

Dad is not a cake walk, first gen Italian born and raised in a tough New Jersey neighborhood. He is strong as a bull and bull headed, but has a big heart. It has not been easy for him in facilities in the Pacific Northwest. They’re not used to his personality – they immediately want to drug him down.

I quickly learned facilities and hospitals are not here for the people, they’re here to practice ON people and get paid for it. Never mind the people in the bodies, they don’t want them, they want paying cadavers. And they don’t like it if you don’t keep your mouth shut. Thus, I learned : If you advocate – they retaliate.

The hospitals, as you probably know, will do what they want to vulnerable people if you’re not there to protect them. It is insidious. When I protected my father from an ER doctor over drugging him and using inappropriate drugs, the hospital reported me to APS, and so did the children. It’s amazing, you upset the doctor’s god complex and they retaliate. I reported the doctors and hospitals to the DOH, but nothing happened – meanwhile I am investigated by APS.

Dad’s guardianship situs is Oregon. We moved Dad to Washington to be closer to family believing the care was par with Idaho where Dad lived. We registered the guardianship in Washington. Registration gave us the legal right to make medical decisions for him in Washington. This worked fine until he went to the hospital.

The facility placed Dad in the hospital and here is where we learned the hospital claims sovereignty. They did not acknowledge the legally registered guardianship. They refused to take instruction from us, breaching our legal rights and my father’s. Instead they appointed their own medical decision maker, my frail step-mother. Sibling number seven instructed my frail step-mother to let her take over (per texts between her and my step-mother). And so, the hospital skipped their own legal processes and took instruction from sibling number seven. She provided a defunct directive adjudicated by the state of Oregon to have no legal bearing. She didn’t tell this to the Washington hospital. (She did the same thing at a hospital in Idaho but they quickly batted it down). Per the hospital chart notes she provided it and they appointed her, “point person.”

 APS was contacted again – per the chart notes.

When the hospital realized their error, they contacted me to negotiate Dad’s release. It was horrific. As we worked out his release, sibling number seven regularly asked me for updates as if she didn’t know what was happening. According to hospital records she received daily phone calls from the hospital with updates regarding my father and me. This is important because the Oregon guardianship required us to provide updates on Dad’s health. (Her goal was to dissolve Dad’s guardianship and obtain a new one with her and child number nine as co-guardians. Child number nine has a felony, drug, and domestic violence record). She frequently called the Oregon guardianship attorney to falsely report I did not communicate according to the order, while she knowingly had direct contact with the hospital.

Once Dad was released from the hospital we thought we could start over. But I didn’t know about the APS reports, the evil agenda, or the court jesters. We were told by the state DOH, and the hospital, we had to transfer the guardianship. Since two hospitals refused to recognize the legally registered guardianship, we decided to transfer it. It felt forced.

While speaking with a Superior Court Judge’s Administrator, a judge stepped in to instruct me which forms I needed to file to transfer the Oregon guardianship to Washington. At the hearing to approve of the transfer I learned the four children filed for an emergency guardianship with false claims. Child number seven asked the judge if she would review the “open APS cases”. Usually only the reporter knows if there is an open APS case.

This is where it goes off the legal rails.

We had a legally registered guardianship in Washington which meant the judge should have followed guardianships laws accordingly. Instead, she appointed a court visitor as if this was an emergency guardianship. At this point I did not have legal counsel because we thought it would be a simple matter; the judge would follow the process and honor my Dad’s wishes and the state law. But no, she moved forward with appointing a CV to investigate and proceeded as if there was no guardianship in place.

Sibling number seven filed the emergency guardianship on behalf of herself and the three children. The sibling who did not get the guns – child number nine – then filed a frivolous VAPO on me. (As mentioned, he has a long criminal history of jail time, felony charge, prison sentence, drug abuse, theft, and domestic violence). The judge did not enforce it but wanted a hearing. The night before the hearing this sibling emailed my attorney stating he would not be following through with the VAPO. This VAPO was used against me by the court visitor.

I know you can’t pick your family, but I thought you could trust the court system. Not so.

I hired legal counsel and went back to court. Of course the court visitor wrote a scathing report, not only reported hearsay, she amplified it with her own lies. She said in her report she understood this was all “hearsay” but recommended a professional guardian of her choice. And she too noted sibling number seven was made “point person” by the other three children. She seemed to have a close relationship with sibling number seven.

In the hearing it was pointed out Washington State did not have any jurisdiction over an Oregon State guardianship. The judge relented and ruled, “No jurisdiction.”  But the court visitor, visibly irritated, piped up with a question, asking if there was a way they could “force them” to move the guardianship to Washington. The judge told her no, no jurisdiction. It was unnerving to hear a court visitor with a legal background use the term “force” as if we live in a Communist country. And that the court contemplates a work around is more scary. Severe overreach.

Case closed. The court visitor was discharged and I thought we were done.

But not so. The court visitor instructed the facility put her name on my father’s contact list for updates. This was outside her scope. Once the case was over she was discharged, she had no right to continue engaging with my father’s case or us. I consider what she next did a form of surveillance.

We were ready to move Dad from another abusive facility and go back to Oregon. In my declaration to the court I asked for relief to give us time to find a proper place for Dad in Oregon, as we had no intention of staying in Washington. The siblings and the court visitor knew our plans to move Dad back to Oregon.

One evening while visiting Dad we noticed he was in pain, and having an outburst. It was extreme. I called transport to take him to the hospital. The facility nurse refused to release him, and refused to give the medics his med list. This is a breach of HIPAA, and forced detention. We had the legal right to move our father and take him to the hospital.

I watched one nurse make a phone call. She then told the medic that I could take Dad because the person on the phone told her, “They won the first round.” This was a very odd statement, and inappropriate. Why was legal information or reference to it given to a facility nurse? Later I learned from the facility administrator the court visitor told them Dad’s Oregon guardianship wasn’t a legal guardianship. They didn’t know what to do. This seemed like severe interference by a representative of the court – she used her title to influence control over my father, breaching our rights. In my opinion it is deprivation of rights under color of law.

Dad went to the hospital around 9:30 pm. I followed the transport van. After the nurse’s comment I decided to make Dad’s visit off record to protect him. It wasn’t an emergency, and we were moving him the next day to a senior psychiatric facility in Oregon. We instructed the ER doctor of the plan.

At this time the temporary Washington guardianship expired, we were back to the registered Oregon guardianship, and Dad’s court case was closed. The VAPO against me was dropped and the court visitor was discharged ten days earlier. Everything was settled and we were leaving Washington for good.

The next morning I went to the ER to help my father leave the hospital. But the ER front desk would not let me see him. I was told to wait to speak with the social services manager. I waited a half hour. I returned to the desk, the agent said the manager was on a phone call and would be down shortly. Moments later my phone rang, a call from an unfamiliar number. I answered and heard the court visitor in an upbeat tone say hello to sibling number seven. I was stunned. She said hello again. I told her it was me and asked her why she was calling, what right she had when she was discharged, the case was over – she shouldn’t be calling. She said it was a wrong number and hung up. Moments later the social services manager appeared to greet me. Coincidental.

The manager sat down with me. She said she received a lot of paperwork (this was odd because my father was there not more than 12 hours, and on DNA – Do Not Announce), and needed to talk to legal counsel before releasing him to me.  And she refused to let me see him until then. My father was on a Do Not Announce status – no one knew he was there, except the facility and the court visitor. The hospital should not have conversed with anyone about his presence there. A breach of HIPAA in my opinion. She then asked about my court hearing. I was surprised again. The hearings were over, but the informant told her they were not. More manipulated information to cause interference with me caring for my father via my legal rights.

I asked her who provided the paperwork, she said a guardian ad litem. There was no GAL assigned to my father, no open cases. In this town it seems ‘court visitor’ is synonymous with ‘guardian ad litem.’ This meant the court visitor was still tracking my father, and my actions, and must have sent selective information to the hospital. Why else would I receive an accidental call from her moments earlier? I believe this was a breach of HIPAA by both the hospital and the CV, she contacted the hospital and this was outside her scope. She was only to report to the court, not engage a whole team to fight a legitimate guardianship. She was working inappropriately behind the scenes on behalf of sibling number seven, like legal counsel. I saw the texts between her and the CV because child number seven forwarded texts she received from the court visitor to my step-mother, this only validated the biased and inappropriate alliance she had with sibling number seven.

Because of this, the hospital refused to take instruction, refused to let me talk to the doctor, or see my father – breaching the guardianship, and wrongfully detaining my father. I called later that day only to be denied information or contact. My father had no medical need to be in the hospital, and was held against our will. The hospital forced him to see a psychiatrist without the guardian’s knowledge or consent and medicated him with psychotropics without guardian knowledge or consent. And we could do nothing. This is illegal in the State of Washington.

The hospital attorney and court visitor hid this information from the judge. In the hearing they claimed he didn’t need any and was not receiving any.

The next week I received notice from my attorney the hospital filed a VAPO against me. They claimed I left my father in the hospital without a decision maker, that I abandoned him. Very untrue because they wouldn’t let him leave. They created the scenario and used it against me. The hospital attorney called my attorney for a hostage negotiation. That is what I consider it when an attorney is willing to drop a VAPO if I do what she wants. She said the hospital would drop the VAPO if I agreed to transfer the guardianship to Washington. Exactly what the court visitor wanted to force us to do. I have since learned these court visitors and hospitals are good friends.

When I refused to be strong-armed and forced via intimidation, harassment tactics, and a hostage negotiation, they moved along with a frivolous VAPO. It was shameful, the hospital attorney admitted to my attorney of her wrong-doing. She knew it was a legitimate guardianship, therefore her client was inappropriately detaining our father, and her VAPO had no basis. But she did it anyway, breaching a few state laws. Ignoring her legal duty, ignoring the legally registered guardianship, and purposefully not disclosing this information to the court –  to protect her case. This is not the only egregious action by this attorney and why I’m filing a very long bar complaint.

Upon the VAPO filing, the hospital attorney assigned the same undermining court visitor to the VAPO case. It seems like a very personal vendetta of this court visitor who couldn’t get what she wanted in the first “round.” And the appointment of a court visitor is not allowed in the state law – a court visitor cannot be assigned to a VAPO. But this questionable attorney argued for it anyway. Additionally, for VAPO relief, the hospital requested the guardianships be transferred to Washington. There is no such allowance in the law. But the kangaroo court continued. We prepared for the next hearing.

Imagine having your day in court when everyone gets to testify, but not you, and only against you. You’re refused a cross examination of those who testify, the judge refuses to hear your testimony, doesn’t read your declaration but solely depends on hearsay. Not stopping there, she extrapolates a new rendition of the hearsay and gives her own testimony about you to the court. The quadruple recycled hearsay becomes their facts.

The judge granted the request for relief; a forced transfer from Oregon to Washington. This was baffling. My attorney argued due process was not followed, nor guardianship law, nor the Veteran’s Guardianship laws (my father is a Korean War Veteran). The judge gave no legal standing for her decision, but insisted her ruling was because of a new reason – because I thought I could take better care of my father than anyone else, and I don’t agree with “any” professionals about his care. Certainly not true, but there had to be some justifiable reason to remove us as guardians – she felt this was. The target kept moving. With each hearing a different reason to remove me, and ignoring the last.  What to accuse me of kept moving with each failure of the CV or anyone to produce any evidence for their claims. So the judge settled her decision on the fact that I cared too much for my father.

We did not file with Oregon to transfer the guardianship. To make this transfer happen against our wishes, the judge went out of her way to make an off-the-record call to the Oregon judge and had him transfer the guardianship. Dad was not in Washington long enough to be established as “living in” or a resident of Washington. This is also why I believe they detained him in the hospital for three months, to get him past the six-month mark. The judge could claim he is living here, and thus is the deciding factor for transferring the case.

Even more baffling, the Oregon judge bypassed Oregon state guardianship law and sent over a transfer of guardianship order. He too skipped due process.

Once supposedly “transferred,” the hospital dropped the VAPO and petitioned to name us as co-guardians in Washington. This also was baffling and only validated to us it was a frivolous VAPO. They petitioned the court to assign us so they could then remove us. Again baffling. Why re-assign us? All the while ignoring the legal guardianship (it was not closed in Oregon) and running a parallel case for a new guardianship in Washington. They created their own reality to suit their agenda. I did not know the law provided for this. Different classes have different laws. Classism I think.

At this point they reassigned the court visitor to the new guardianship case, to formally petition to remove us as guardians. We presented evidence of bias to remove her, but the judge refused. And the vitriol increased – again.

For this next hearing we obtained a written statement from APS to verify the date the investigator spoke with the court visitor, proving the C.V.’s APS quotes were false. The judge did not care and the court visitor made sure not to include anything about APS in her next report. We also subpoenaed the court visitor’s and hospital’s phone records to verify breach of HIPAA by both, to verify if this was orchestrated by a representative of the court, outside her legal rights, and revealing her bias. But the judge denied me any right to subpoena any records from the hospital or court visitor, or my Dad’s medical records  – and is permanent in an order. The hospital also strategically blocked my ability to obtain my father’s medical records which would prove my case. There is no legal foundation to do such things but the judge did not care.

By the next Washington hearing – to remove us as guardians (I write it this way because it was clear they all had the agenda to remove us regardless of a fair hearing), we were required to file our year-end guardianship report in Oregon. Dad’s guardianship in Oregon was not closed. According to legal instructions, we filed our report. The court accepted it, which verified the guardianship was still open. In the next hearing the hospital attorney reported to the judge we filed for an appeal and our year-end guardianship report with the Oregon court. She said she knew about the appeal – didn’t seem to care. But when she heard about our filing in Oregon, she was quite verbal about her frustration with the Oregon judge, and me. Her opinion was I should not have filed – she claimed the guardianship and conservatorship were transferred, they were one in the same. And the Oregon judge did not know what he was doing.

In the annual Oregon guardianship report we asked to keep the guardianship open due to the circumstance of a forced transfer. We wanted the Oregon judge to know we had no intention of moving the guardianship. And to notify him we filed an appeal in Washington. We were concerned because we did not know what the Washington judge said to him (in a private, undocumented phone call) to get him to transfer so quickly without due process or following the guardianship law.

The next problem: The conservatorship. The timing was impeccable. We were required to file our year-end conservator’s report in Oregon before the next Washington hearing. We did so. At this time our Oregon attorney petitioned for his fees to be paid by the conservatorship. And as expected, the hospital attorney told the judge we filed our conservator’s report in Oregon and the Oregon attorney petitioned for attorney fees for his work. This again upset the judge, she was demonstrative. She said the Oregon judge meant conservatorship along with the guardianship in his order. We disagreed. She referred to her phone call with him and said she wrote the Oregon judge a letter, (she did not provide this to us) stating what he meant, and if he disagreed he needed to respond, and if he didn’t, it meant he agreed with her. He did not respond. She said he agreed with her by not responding. There was no verification he received her letter. There was no filing of this letter in the Oregon court. And I don’t understand how a court can make this a legal procedure, if you don’t respond then you agree with me. It doesn’t seem reasonable.

In the next Washington hearing, lickety-split, without due process or following state law, we were promptly removed from our positions as co-guardians. Another hearing filled with vitriol while muzzled – not allowed to testify or question any of the circus proceedings.

The new Washington guardian objected to the attorney’s fees in Oregon so the judge set a hearing the following month. (The newly assigned guardian wanted to obtain my father’s funds sitting in the attorney’s trust account. I am very thankful I placed Dad’s funds with him). In the hearing the judge granted attorneys fees because he ruled Oregon still had jurisdiction regardless of the new guardian’s attorney arguing otherwise. And he ruled both conservatorship and guardianship were still open in Oregon; the conservatorship was not transferred and the guardianship not fully transferred. The guardian attorney then tried the same tactic to upset this judge – she told him we filed an appeal in Washington. Waiting for a reaction like the Washington judge, we were reassured of reason when he responded he knew this and said it was appealable, and if he didn’t do this correctly it would be appealable in Oregon too. He said he, “didn’t follow the law,” and didn’t grant due process, we had legal right for due process and he would provide this. He made it clear the guardianship was not closed, and the conservatorship was still in place. He said it was all “still on the table” and after a hearing he would decide if the transfer would be complete. He told the attorneys to get their schedules prepared for a day-long trial and he would call the Washington judge to explain she misunderstood. We were finally on our way to justice.

But then.

At the end of the day the Oregon judge called a hearing for the next morning. He informed my attorney he spoke with the judge in Washington and completed the transfer, terminating the Oregon guardianship, and the conservatorship. Skipping due process. No record of the conversation.

I don’t understand how the Washington judge’s order the month prior to remove us as guardians and conservators, and place new guardians and conservators, is legit if it was based upon the presumption the guardianship and conservatorships were transferred or closed when a month later the Oregon judge said it was not true? Then a day later transferred the guardianship and conservatorship. How is it valid if the Oregon court skips due process – and we never filed to transfer the conservatorship?

At this point my Washington appeals attorney hired an appeals attorney in Oregon.

In the next Washington hearing, my attorney pointed out a few issues with the guardian’s guardian and conservator’s plan, but their attorney refused to answer other than what they wanted. They also changed my Dad’s full code to a DNR against his wishes, and refused to answer if they will treat his A-fibrillation if he has an episode. It is distressing to try to protect my father but they say nothing,  the judge says nothing, and refuses my attorney any rebuttal. This has been the pattern.

The frivolous APS cases are down to one I believe, no proof of abuse, because there was none by me. The only abuse inflicted upon my father has been done so by the court, the hospital, the four children and their associations, the court visitor and now the new guardians who have chemically restrained him. My father has significantly deteriorated without our governance.

And not just removing me as guardian, the hospital and CV filed an order that I cannot see my father without paid monitored visits even when the court found no crime. Regardless, I am treated like a criminal. My attorney brought this up to the judge for a change, but she refused – due to the hearsay that I didn’t get along with medical professionals about my father’s care, so she agreed to keep the monitored visits. I supposed the monitored visits are not to protect my father, but the caregivers who abuse him. How is this reasonable?

This is where the story continues to evolve. We’re drafting the appeals. If you know of a good civil rights attorney, recommendations are welcome. Or any organizations/attorneys who write amicus briefs, that would be superb. I’m fighting this not just for my father but for those who get trampled on by the system and have no ability to fight. And to encourage others to speak out and file complaints.