State of Texas Forces Couple Into Nursing Home, Takes Over Their Finances

Awful story from Texas, where elderly couple Michael and Jean Kidd were made wards of the state of Texas, then held against their will while the state took over their finances.

In November Michael fell and broke his hip. He was taken to a Plano hospital and into surgery. After a few days, the hospital called the state Adult Protective Services to report Jean had been in the waiting room for days and wasn't eating…

A judge determined the Kidds were incapacitated and unable to care for themselves. The state took over the Kidds lives, sent them to the Countryside Nursing Home in Pilot Point, and is now burning through their money to pay for their care.

The state refuses to give the Kidds an accounting of how it is spending their money, the reason apparently being that because they were deemed mentally deficient, they lack standing to even ask for financial records. The couple was given a court-appointed attorney (paid for from the Kidds' savings), but he looks to have worked all of 10 hours on their case. According to neighbors, the state has since allowed the Kidds' home deteriorate, and didn't even bother to lock the doors after taking the couple into custody. The local Fox affiliate reported at the end of last month that state officials were also planning to sell the couple's home at auction. Media coverage seems to have pressured a local judge to put off the sale, at least for now. 

The same station reports that the judge has clarified an earlier order barring the Kidds from talking to anyone about their case, and allowing them access to their own medical records. But they're still being kept in the nursing home, and still can't access any record of how the state is spending their money.

Comments

[John-David]

Goddammit Radley, that's a hell of a thing to drop on a Friday afternoon. I just want to punch someone now.

[sage]

But it's not a death panel, OKAY? You don't need money to live.

[Gabe]

I can't believe we are letting the free-market run rampant like this?!

[Krusty]

This is the kind of thing that makes Santa Claus himself vomit with rage.

[Gabe]

Once the money is spent they will start the dehydrating and then nothing left to do but hospice and some morphine.

seen it happen.

[gabe]

We previously reported on Ezekiel Emanuel's views on health care rationing. Now comes this from the Washington Times:

Emanuel said, "When I began working in the health policy area about 20 years ago? I thought we would definitely have to ration care, that there was a need to make a decision and deny people care? I've come to the conclusion that in our system we are spending way more money than we need to, a lot of it on unnecessary care. If we got rid of that care we would have absolutely no reason to even consider rationing except in a few cases."

[nobody special]

This is the goal for all state run healthcare. Anyone have a parent who went over 90 days in SNF care, but who was not quite dying? The spend down of a decent person's lifetime savings to fit into a box on a state form is disgusting.

[Russ 2000]

More good intentions lapsing into bureaucracy.

The sad part here is the lawyer spending only 10 hours. My late brother in law did a few of these in his law practice and his personal time spent on each went into the hundreds of hours, 90% of which were unpaid. I'm talking about him going to the house to secure it, clean up, mow the lawn, visit the person at the nursing home twice a month, etc. I know the time he spent was probably an exception (especially since he was diagnosed with cancer he wanted stuff to take his own problems off his mind and go out with a few good deeds on his conscience), but it's not hard to find lawyers and paralegals who would volunteer a little bit of time for stuff like this. The 10 hours is pretty much all in service of the state rather than in service of the people who need the protective service.

[Andrew G.]

A good example of why the elderly should give someone they trust power of attorney.

[Michael Ejercito]

This is no more wrong than the internment of Japanese-Americans.

[Medic001]

Fucking sick. God damn it Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! Are you serious! Fuck TEXAS!.
argggggg.

Every single person involved in this couples care needs to be charged for elder abuse.

Will no none in TX come to help them?

Barred from talking?

What? Oh you mean the public might find out they aren't mentally incompetent?

What will the Counsel do if they do talk?

Sue them take away their lives and put them in a nursing home...oh wait they already did that!

fuck fuck fuck!!!

argg...where's my bong. I can't take this shit!

-Medic

[T]

This is no more wrong than the internment of Japanese-Americans.

Non-sequitur much?

[$]

More good intentions

Cite.

[JW]

This wouldn't have happened if a Democrat was in the White House.

[Xeones]

Well happy fucking weekend to you too, Radley.

[damnitall]

1700 N Washington St
Pilot Point, TX 76258-3716
[phone]

This is the nursing home.
Call and give them support.

[Andrew S.]

4 PM. I was kinda hopeful Radley would go a day without making me want to throw my laptop at the wall.

Seriously, I don't even know what to say about this. I can't comprehend that the government does such a thing. Even knowing what I know about the government.

[Craig]

After a few days, the hospital called the state Adult Protective Services...

Wait, now they have Adult Kidnapping Services, too?

[Nick]

Late Tuesday, Fox 4 obtained an order signed by Judge Copeland clarifying his original order about the guardianship and some of the Kidd's rights. It states the Kidds can now talk to anyone they want, look for a new guardian and can get their own medical records. No mention, however, about their finances and how their money is being spent.

Hopefully, this will get resolved and they can go home. Then they can hire any good lawyer and sue the pants off the State of Texas. Then, with their winnings they can buy a couple guns and start shooting these ruthless mother fuckers who tried to steal their lives from them. Hell, if they're gonna get incarcerated, they might as well make it worth a damn.

[Rich]

The state refuses to give the Kidds an accounting of how it is spending their money, the reason apparently being that because they were deemed mentally deficient, they lack standing to even ask for financial records.

FTA, it seems Mr. Kidd has the brains (and stones) to *ask* for the records. What is the state really afraid of? Maybe that the mentally deficient old guy might, um, tell someone about the accounting? I eagerly await the rest of this story.

[creech]

Just another example of why, if they really want to be helpful, the various state LPs need to have a stable of pro-bono or low price lawyers on hand to file a ton of motions to end such practices and sue the living shit out of the callous LEOs, pols, and bureaucrats who perpetrate these denials of individual liberty.

[Uno Hu]

Keep your weapons clean and your powder dry, and when they come for you "for your own good" you can at least make a decent stand.

[FrBunny]

Southern IN man found innocent after 2 years in jail, sues for $5M.

[Russ 2000]

Cite.

I gave a typical example of how it used to be - basically volunteer work in the person's interest. Perhaps I write poorly, perhaps you read poorly, but there is no way you can consider the Kidd's case to be anything close to charitable. States used to look for people who would volunteer to work in the persons' best interest, now they appear to look for people to work in the states' interest.

[Shannon Love]

I'm probably focusing on the wrong part of the story for Reason but my small town upbringing caused this to jump out at me:

Judge Weldon Copeland ruled against the state. He said he would welcome a neighbor or family member to serve as a guardian but no one has come forward. The state is the last resort.

Why has none of the oh-so concerned neighbors, friends and former employers stepped up to accept guardianship? Everyone bitches about what the state did but know one seems willing to step up and provide private help.

Freedom is a combination of liberty and responsibility. If you want freedom you not only have to prevent other people from interfering with your choices, you also have to accept responsibility for those choices and plan for the consequences. If you don't want the state stepping in to fix a problem like this you have to be willing to accept responsibility yourself. In a case like this, that might mean spending time and money for the benefit of someone you have no legal obligation towards.

I'm really appalled that the TV station seems perfectly content to report on the story without taking the least effort to assume responsibility for someone they know personally.

This looks like not only a failure of government but a failure of informal community and basic humanity.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

A couple of decades ago I talked to a lawyer in Texas who (since she was not then working) had let her Bar membership lapse. Her reason was simple: the county didn't have a public defenders office, instead local members of the bar were simply assigned cases on a rota. The first N hours of such work were required to be pro bono, then they would be compensated at a ridiculously low rate.

She was afraid of getting assigned to a major criminal defense case because she felt she couldn't do good job. She said she wasn't much of a courtroom lawyer under any circumstances, and had never done criminal law.

If a similar arrangement applies here, the Kidd's advocate could be any or all of uninterested in helping them, a highly focused specialist in some other area of the law, or even outright incompetent.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Shannon Love,

Hear! Hear!

[Kool]

Medic!
Are you coming over tonight? I'm out right now!

Fucking ridiculous crap.

Shannon, this is an example of why I'm wrong about people being good.

I'm sure everyone thinks "someone else" will help.

[Bored Bureacrat in Charge of Y]

See if we had some nice Soylent Green-style euthanasia centers, we would avoid all this fucking drama.

[Russ 2000]

Just another example of why, if they really want to be helpful, the various state LPs need to have a stable of pro-bono or low price lawyers on hand to file a ton of motions to end such practices and sue the living shit out of the callous LEOs, pols, and bureaucrats who perpetrate these denials of individual liberty.

From the few lawyers I know of who do this stuff (estate, probate, wills, trusts, etc.), they generally make their willingness to volunteer known to local charities and chambers of commerce; but I'm sure this varies by locale. In this case the state sure seemed to be jumping the gun on the "incapacitated" diagnosis and they found a lawyer to work in the state's interest rather than the interest of the "diagnosed". The people I've met in "incapacitated" condition were incapable of understanding simple things like putting food in the refrigerator. While I was reading the articles nothing seemed out of the ordinary in how this stuff typically gets handled; it is hard to judge a person's ability to carry on a conversation with the sound-bite approach most journalists take. But when it described the Kidd's buying a small refrigerator to put food in, that was a kind of cognizance I had never seen in my limited experience. These people may be CLOSE to the incapacitated condition (again, we are getting a journalist's account, not a direct one) but they are not there yet. They NEED end-of-life legal counseling, they don't appear to need most of the end-of-life services yet.

By the way, this seems like the only part of Obamacare that Obama actually understands. The problem with power of attorney is that it gets to be a very touchy subject, especially in traumatic situations like hospital stays. (Part of that is the legal profession's own terrible reputation. The good lawyers willing to volunteer their time on stuff like this are overshadowed by the sleaze.) It's really the kind of subject that should be required discussion in high school, but the state thinks minors are too stupid to understand.

[Russ 2000]

Why has none of the oh-so concerned neighbors, friends and former employers stepped up to accept guardianship? Everyone bitches about what the state did but know one seems willing to step up and provide private help.

I understand your emotion, but from being in the position I have to tell you that it is a LOT of work. I blame most of that on the ever-expanding set of laws we have. It's not easy if you aren't a blood relative, and you spend a lot more time with lawyers than you want. My late brother in law essentially said that he couldn't fathom a non-lawyer doing guardian work anymore, governments have complicated the process and made it a major hassle.

[mick]

What is this the abducted child segment on the 7 oclock telescreen? I thought we could leave the MSM to do that kind of sadistic reporting.

[Some Guy]

This is one of those cases like the asprin strip-search where everyone involved needs to have their head caved in for the good of the gene pool.

I don't think helpless senile people usually ask for lawyers and financial records.

[Mike Laursen]

Woe to the person whose spouse goes on California Medicaid. There's a whole living trust industry set up to advise married couples on how to protect what they've got.

The confiscatory practices of existing aid programs toward married couples' common assets needs to come up more in the public debate over the wonders of government-provided health care.

[Mike Laursen]

This wouldn't have happened if a Democrat was in the White House.

I so have to start using that line on all the true-believing Democrats I know.

[jasa]

This looks like not only a failure of government but a failure of informal community and basic humanity.

Amen.

This is one of those aging problems that has no easy answer. As a guardian myself (for my father), it really hits home. When someone develops dementia, they better have a close friend or relative they can trust nearby. Otherwise, they get the luck of the draw.

I don't see a solution in the government or in the marketplace for a surrogate "best friend or relative". Sure, you can buy long term care insurance, or let medicare handle it, but the kind of love you need when you have dementia can't be bought.

We don't know if the Kidds have dementia, or how severe it is, but if they do, it is completely normal to be concerned about finances, want to see a bank statement, and then be unable to interpret the statement. Or not remember why they asked for it in the first place.

The people I've met in "incapacitated" condition were incapable of understanding simple things like putting food in the refrigerator.

Dementia is like a box of chocolates. It can be progressive, but not always, it can affect narrow or wide slices of capability. Each person suspected needs careful medical evaluation, typically by a neurologist or psychiatrist. I believe Texas requires two doctors to testify for involuntary commitment.

Of course, there are many thousands of cases in each state. Somebody, probably many somebodies, will be on the borderline. Sadly, that's the human condition.

[Paul]

Next thing you know, Texas will legalize physician assisted suicide, and we know what "choice" the Kidds will make shortly thereafter.

[jasa]

Next thing you know, Texas will legalize physician assisted suicide, and we know what "choice" the Kidds will make shortly thereafter.
If the Texas law is modeled after Oregon's, they won't have the option. Being incompetent is automatically disqualifying.

[Medic001]

jasa is 100% correct.

Instead they'll push them off a cliff when no one is looking.

[Andrew T]

If this couple has been declared mentally incompetent, then they can't be blamed if they decide to disobey judge's orders and talk publicly about their case, can they?

[Tom]

The government is slowly, but surely, turning us ALL into wards of the State to fatten their lazy ________! Time for barricades and guillotines?

[alice bowie]

This is a flagerant (i don't think i spelled it right) violation of the American Social Contract.

Almost all cultures (accept us) respect the elders. Respect what they have done. We just wanna piss on them...and hope they die soon.

that's awful.

[alice bowie]

Tom,

The Bastille day is coming soon...but, i don't think that they r on ur side....or, atlease I hope not.

[edna]

mr. balko: some good news. it looks like cops are moving on from just killing dogs.

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1437680.html

[Anon]

Absolutely, man the barricades, because this is exactly what would happen in government run healthcare that's doesn't rely on the individual taxpayer to provide for their own care, but rather distributes cost across the population of the entire country. This is exactly what would happen in a government-run system, where the ethical foundation was being written by Ike "Death Doctor" Emmanual, a man so radical that he went against all conventional wisdom when he published multiple papers in opposition to physician-assisted suicide.

I mean, with our current healthcare system, which is run by large, bureaucratic, uncaring, monopolistic and profit-driven organizations, which are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the government, this would never happen. I mean, for one, these companies are owned and staffed by people who would never accept a government wage, even though their field of work requires even less inventiveness then the post office. That alone makes it impossible to compare to evil, uncaring government-run healthcare like Medicare, which has consistently scored higher satisfaction ratings then employer-provided private health insurance. The benefits of the free market can clearly be seen in the wonderful stories of the huge number of Americans who come down with profit-damaging chronic disorders, thus leading to rescission of coverage. They have so much freedom that they're livers just up and failed.

Thank God this happened in Texas, land of good, god-fear supporters of small government; where the prevailing belief is that government = bad, and thus home of citizens who primarily vote for politicians who aren't motivated towards fixing government and making it *actually work*, but rather work towards dismantling it to the point where it is incapable of doing it's job, thus reaffirming conservative dogma.

So keep your powder dry and your guns ready, because Sovereign Citizen courts are so much more then mere lynch mobs, they're *heavily armed* lynch mobs. Keep your mind sharp and your militia trained, because when everyone enforces a different version of the law, there is no actual law. Keep your aim steady, and your heart cold, because conspiracies are true because any evidence against them is fabricated by the government. Just wait until the blessed day when we are no longer dominated by a stable, national government uninterested in local disputes, but rather by local, heavily-armed, pro-states-rights militias. Then we can be free, just like Somolia, Afganistan and all those other third-world gems we love so much that we keep sending troops over there for vacation!

God Bless the State of Texas: Land of small government that doesn't function, family values that lead to high teenage birth rates, oil-subsidized tax law, and people who love America so much that they want to succeed.

[nuna yerbiz]

I bet that Michael and Jean voted republican all their lives. If so, they got what they voted for.

[CaptainSmartass]

Something isn't right here. I just checked on the Collin County Central Appraisal District's website, and there are no property records for a Michael or Jean Kidd in Richardson. In fact, there are no property records for any Kidds in Richardson, just one in McKinney (the county seat, about 20 miles north of Richardson).

Since Richardson occupies space in both Collin and Dallas Counties (Collin County could've gotten involved because the hospital was in Plano), I checked Dallas's AD, too. No Michael or Jean Kidds (there was a "J O Kidd", but their house is in Desoto, about 40 miles south of Plano, doesn't seem likely to be the same people).

It could be their house has already been sold at auction. That strikes me as more likely than the alternative, that this whole story is fabricated.

I found the actual case file online (http://cijspub.co.collin.tx.us/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=470933). The last action was September 4, 2009, and it was just a notice to the court of a change of the guardianship worker to Terri Wilson.

Interestingly enough, there's a Terri Wilson in the phonebook in the same area code as the hospice number given above.

Terri Wilson [phone] 1904 Blackjack Rd W, Aubrey, TX 76227

According to Google, that address is only 15 minutes away from the hospice. So it's got to be the same woman.

I'm not saying anyone should call her and point out she's just as complicit as the guards at Auschwitz were. Maybe she could learn what happens when you piss off the Internet by picking on old people.

[CaptainSmartass]

Interesting, Ms. Wilson also has a website (http://www.terriwilsonrealtor.com/). Seems she's busy selling real estate when she isn't helping the state take over citizens' property.

Gee, I wonder why a real estate agent would be interested in being a conservator for two old folks forcibly detained in a hospice? Maybe to get first dibs on their house when it goes up for auction?

[Debra Wilson]

The Terri Wilsons you mention, Captain Smartass, are two different people.

One lives in Aubrey & the other in Denton - both are close members of my family. You have recklessly slandered each of them with your careless research and slanderous remarks.

Neither would act as reckless as you have with your remarks on this forum, & they certainly wouldn't take advantage of another's tragedy.

[SugarFree]

Just another example of why, if they really want to be helpful, the various state LPs need to have a stable of pro-bono or low price lawyers on hand to file a ton of motions to end such practices and sue the living shit out of the callous LEOs, pols, and bureaucrats who perpetrate these denials of individual liberty.

For a minute there I was worried no one was going to figure out this was all our fault. There is no excess of governmental over-reach that someone can't blame on libertarians.

[Oregon Scott]

> JW | September 11, 2009, 4:09pm | #
> This wouldn't have happened if a Democrat
> was in the White House.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is a Republican.
Maybe we can replace President Obama with
Perry to keep anything like this from
happening again.

Fighting sarcasm with sarcasm.

Scott, visiting his sick parents in Texas

[Jennifer]

I have already decided that if I ever have to go to a nursing home, I'd just as soon find a quick and painless way to kill myself. I've been to a couple of local ones, visiting some old person or other, and my former kindergarten teacher gave my five-year-old self roughly the same level of autonomy as the nursing home staff gives its adult residents. Actually, my kindergarten teacher gave me more: when I had an in-class birthday party, I was allowed to have cake BEFORE I ate my nutritionally balanced lunch. When I recently had to go to a nursing home for a centenarian's birthday party, the staff made sure she ate her bland dinner BEFORE she could have a slice of her birthday cake.

And I've chosen my own bedtime since I was 16; damned if I'll regress to having some high-school dropout tell me what time I have to turn off the lights and go to bed.

I hope every person responsible for this travesty in Texas is charged with false imprisonment, or worse.

[Debra Wilson]

The Terri Wilsons you mention, Captain Smartass, are two different people.

One lives in Aubrey & the other in Denton - both are close members of my family. You have recklessly slandered each of them with your careless research and slanderous remarks.

Neither would act as reckless as you have with your remarks on this forum, & they certainly wouldn't take advantage of another's tragedy.