How the OC probate system pilfered the Flint family trust
It's another example of a system which claims to help doing nothing but legally stealing.
It’s a case with tentacles in two different continents, including some big names in finance, healthcare, and education.
At its core, this is a story of the probate system in Orange County, California swallowing up another family.
On March 20, 2018, Joyce Flint created the Flint Family Trust. That trust left millions in real estate to her two sons- Mike and Guy Flint.
Neither of her sons had any children so the trust then set as beneficiaries upon Guy and Mike’s deaths to include UCLA, Cedar Sinai, and the State of Israel.
Joyce’s deceased husband, Mitchell, was “the father of the Israel Air Force” while Joyce had attended UCLA. She was treated at Cedar Sinai most of her life.
{Mitchell Flint is the subject of the documentary Angels in the Sky}
The trust was intended to be Joyce’s “legacy”, according to one legal filing.
Though the value of the trust is significant, it should have been simple enough.
Through a recommendation from a friend, Joyce selected California attorney Sandra DeMeo to be the trustee.
It’s a mistake she continues to pay for many years later, even in death. Joyce died on March 20, 2019.
DeMeo ignored the wishes of Joyce and her sons, and she pushed for a Settlement Agreement which granted Guy and Mike half the estate each, while DeMeo got a nice fee to manage the trust.
Though it sounds like this was agreed upon- after all what does a settlement agreement mean- it was not. Ms. DeMeo- who did not respond to an email for comment- filed this so-called agreement ex-parte, or without notifying contingent beneficiaries- Cedar Sinai, UCLA, etc.
Sandra DeMeo did one other critical thing. She structured the settlement so that the trust could be broken up.
Months later, a motion to rescind this settlement agreement was filed, and Sandra even appeared on board to rescind it. She’s the one who filed the motion.
The Orange County probate court- where this was all filed- went to work. The court denied the motion using legal logic. You can’t rescind the agreement; you must file a motion to vacate.
Filing a motion to vacate seems simple enough as well, except four years later, that motion to vacate has yet to be heard.
It’s not clear why, besides the utter incompetence of everyone involved.
I have witnessed prior court hearings, including one which Judge “Waste of Space” Belz- since retired- presided regarding this motion to vacate.
That hearing occurred in January; that motion was supposed to be heard that day. It wasn’t. It still hasn’t been heard. Four years later, the settlement agreement is still in limbo.
In fact, the motion to vacate was not filed until December 2023, and the reason for that is unclear.
As the trustee, Sandra DeMeo should have filed it like she filed the motion to rescind, but she never did.
Her successor trustee- Cheri O’Laverty- finally filed it in December 2023. O’Laverty took over in March 2023.
Now, enter Pamela Koslyn.
Koslyn and Flint had a dispute about rent and services. It went to arbitration, and Koslyn was awarded approximately $80,000.
Rather than collecting from Mike Flint, she tried to collect from the trust. Koslyn wants the estate broken up and the proceeds which would go to Mike to go to her.
If she gets her way, after all lawyers are paid, almost nothing will be left, and that’s because her debt has somehow grown to approximately $500,000. Here is part of a hearing from December 2023 with arguments for and against breaking up the estate.
Koslyn can thank DeMeo who structured the settlement agreement in such a way as to leave it vulnerable to Koslyn’s vulture tactics.
I reached out to Koslyn and her listed attorney, Matthew Mickelson, but neither responded to an email for comment.
Furthermore, the debt has only grown so much in part because the trust has been tied up in litigation for so long.
It’s almost as though Koslyn and DeMeo are secretly scheming to make this happen. Meanwhile, the trust isn’t earning any money. Neither Flint brother has received a dime; nothing can move forward until it’s decided if Koslyn can go to the trust to get her money and if the 2020 settlement agreement will remain in place.
There may be a hero in this story, but this is an unlikely hero. His name is Rod Stern.
I have featured Stern in previous stories on the OC probate mafia.
He’s one of the vultures trying to pilfer Gustave Verdault’s multi-million-dollar home.
The people in the photo aren’t even all the people involved. There is guardian ad litem (GAL), Rod Stern. Gustave’s court appointed attorney was not there either.
That’s right. He has a GAL and a court appointed attorney.
That is interesting. I spoke with Gustave’s daughter: Rita King.
She said after nearly four grueling years this case was near a settlement except Stern and the court appointed attorney for her dad are now holding up an agreement.
Stern’s attorney, Anthony Mendez, did not return an email for comment. It’s too bad because he would have had a great story to tell.
Stern and Mendez were brought on last year. They immediately saw that the settlement agreement was defective. By issuing it ex-parte, none of the contigent beneficiaries were served ahead of time.
This may seem like boring legalese, but it’s not. Sandra DeMeo knew she drew up a settlement agreement that was beneficial to her rather than the contingent beneficiaries. That’s why she didn’t serve t the contingent beneficiaries, except she was required by law to serve everyone.
Once everyone was finally served, everyone objected, and it even brought on the California Attorney General’s Office, which is also required to be served.
If everyone was served properly and aware of the one-sided settlement agreement, everyone would have objected immediately, and we wouldn’t be here four years later.
Pamela Koslyn would be asking for a lot less and so would Sandra DeMeo.
Upon finally being served, everyone objected, including the AG’s office.
I reached out to Caroline Hughes, a prosecutor in the California AG’s Office who has been sitting in on some of the hearings, but she did not respond to my email for comment.
I reached out to lawyers for Israel, UCLA, and Guy Flint, but none responded to emails for comment.
Finally, the long nightmare for the Flint family was finally about to end. The settlement agreement was defective; the law was clear.
Everyone had objected and on May 2, 2024, that objection was to be heard in front of Orange County Superior Court Judge Brad Erdosi.
Once again, the court kicked the can down the road.
O’Lavery, the current trustee, could not vacate the settlement agreement and the court decided that the other beneficiaries had filed their objection in the wrong way.
They filed joinders and they needed to file a motion to vacate. Now, we are talking about mind numbing legalese that is a distinction without a difference.
Those beneficiaries quickly filed the motions the right way.
A new hearing has been set to hear the newly filed motions to vacate on July 24, 2024, at 1:30PM PT.
Will the Flint family’s long legal nightmare finally end on that date? Don’t count on it. The probate system- particularly in Orange County- has a way of grabbing on and never letting go.
Rita King’s father, Gustave Verdault- was supposed to be in temporary conservatorship five years ago and he remains stuck.
Jodee Sussman was still fighting her mom’s tormentors a year after her mom died.
I’ll continue to follow this case.
Postscript:
Check out the previous articles on the series on Orange County. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8. Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25. Part 26, Part 27, Part 28, Part 29, Part 30, Part 31, Part 33, Part 34, Part 35, Part 36, Part 37, Part 38, Part 39, Part 40, Part 41, Part 42, Part 43, Part 44, Part 45, Part 46, and Part 47.
Please consider contributing to the Orange County fundraiser so I can continue this investigation.
Update:
The original article incorrectly stated that the settlement agreement gave out $2,500 to each son. That was in a prior draft. The settlement agreement gave each son half the trust. Also, a prior version stated that all beneficiaries were NOT served with the Settlement agreement that Sandra DeMeo drafted. Only the contingent beneficiaries were not served, however, by law they needed to be served. if they had been, they would object immediately, Those errors have been corrected and updated.
There is a group of rising activists out of Los Angeles County Stanley Mosk Courthouse including the Justice Channel LA also exposing similar horrific stories of estate embezzlement by another well seasoned criminal enterprise. But I tell people to now start looking at how their loved ones died after hiring specific people to get involved with the family. We have at least five very disturbing deaths with a detective's report showing possible murder of one, a suffocation of another, another decedent who died at 42 and his body was on a 10-day hold for an autopsy by the wife when he was conveniently cremated and recently discovered falsified and altered hospital and coroner records on another decedent that concealed his blunt force head trauma death with suspect deep tissue injuries. All estates were embezzeled by the same players. Just these deaths involve over 50 million being taken from rightful heirs and is spearheaded by one particular probate attorney, Kira Masteller of the Encino Lewitt Hackman firm. The victims of the decedents had almost identical stories of other attorneys we all hired conveniently mishandling (or conspiring to defraud the families) to drag out litigation while paying themselves millions of dollars using the family's money. The game is that they take who they can most easily manipulate and will put them in charge of the estate (in our cases drug addicts, someone with a restraining order on him or the most unstable person who no one in the family ever delegated their Estates to prior to the involvement of the players of this Criminal Enterprise), to be in charge of everything, done in isolation and secrecy. I don't know how these seasoned white collared criminals have learned to all do this so well. But just reference Tom Girardi and you know how long his organized crime thrived while stealing tens of millions of dollars from families of victims who died in plane crashes. Although the State Bar alleges it has been revamped after their bribery and Corruption was exposed, clearly that is not true. But for anyone who believes in God, he does not like corruption and Injustice and I believe this will soon be put to an end particularly with the help of people like Michael Volpe who have the courage to take them on. He is the only one I have found so far.
Thank you for investigating and posting this. I became one of the victims who got cut in the Orange County probate system when my brother, Faramarz Rahimi ( removed trustee) embezzled a significant amount of money while my dad was mentally disabled and on his deathbed. Finally after 3 1/2 years, Faramarz Rahimi was removed by the Court due to cause and then we fell into a deeper hole with Richard Huntington, the same fiduciary who he and his circle stole millions of dollars from Marty Adair( Jodee Sussman) trust. Another Richard Huntington's circle has done the same despicable act to Rita King. We, victims, are hoping now that with the new changes recently that have taken place in Orange County probate court, the judges would protect the pro- per beneficiaries due process rights who ran out of money and were forced to fight this injustice unrepresented.