Report to Special Agent Richard Mansfield, Public Corruption Unit





THE GUARDIANSHIP FIASCO:

ABUSE, PERSONIFIED





Lakewood, Ohio lawyer Ronald L. McLaughlin was appointed guardian of Genevieve Rowan late in the year 2000.

He proceeded to turn the last six years of her life into an ordeal of abuse in a nursing home far distant from her children. He repeatedly manufactured pretexts to isolate her from her youngest son, the only relative who cared enough to speak up for her. He, & the judge who appointed him, may have been the worst things that ever happened to her: they knew full well nursing home residents rarely visited by family are the most neglected, the most vulnerable to abuse - & the most profitable for nursing home owners. ...



... Her son served Mr. McLaughlin & the probate judge a 25 page brief, (“Answer of Successor Applicant,” page 1 attached as Exh. 3), describing the unenviable medical treatment his mother endured while institutionalized off & on since she was probated, & serious nursing home abuse earlier that year. He showed cause why she should be allowed to enjoy her liberty out in the community – Cleveland, the city of her birth. He asked she be spared confinement in a nursing home 50 miles away – a no-man’s land for her, the middle of nowhere. She agreed wholeheartedly. She described her existence at the nursing home as “inhumane, & “torturous.” It was, & plainly so. Her statements were tape recorded, & are archived in safe deposit.

Her son concluded the brief with the request he & Mr. McLaughlin be appointed co-guardians, to ensure Mrs. Rowan’s best interests.

Mr. McLaughlin & the judge had other plans.

The former buttonholed Mr. Rowan outside the judge’s chambers after a hearing, November 6, 2000. “Things will go better,” he said carefully, “if you forget about your mother’s medical records” [of the neglect & abuse detailed in the brief.)

Mr. Rowan replied by letter asking if indeed - & in what ways - things would get better. He received no reply. The judge refused to compel an answer, (Exh 4).

The brief, at page 19, (Exh 5), related some of the abuse Mrs. Rowan endured that year while residing at Franklin Plaza, a Cleveland nursing home. Mr. McLaughlin turned a blind eye to it, made no report to the county department of job & family services, which is required by Ohio law, when an adult is mistreated.

On the eve of a hearing a month later for the selection of Mrs. Rowan’s new guardian, to which Mr. Rowan had summoned nursing home employees who witnessed the abuse, Mr. McLaughlin phoned Mr. Rowan: “Let me tell you something,” he threatened. “Things will get worse, for you, and for your mother, (his emphases,) if you don’t withdraw your application to be guardian.”

...

When Mr. Rowan next saw his mother, in November ’03, he found her in a darkened room, her wall clock missing, her stereo broken, her one window blocked off by closed blinds someone had sealed shut behind a barrier of plastic & duct tape. The diversion of meals was gone, replaced by an infection-prone feeding tube. It was a death room, a scene of abandonment & sorrow, bearing Mr. McLaughlin’s signature.



For full text, email gallagher288@yahoo.com