Is this the end of a near decade nightmare for Marty Adair's family?
Inside the courtroom of Orange County Judge Ebrahim Baytieh, the final hearing-hopefully- in this injustice occurred.
Marty Adair died in June 2022, a victim of a corrupt conservatorship which took her money, her dignity, and her freedom.
Nearly a year after her death, the perpetrators of this evil sat shamelessly in an Orange County, California courtroom demanding their continued piece of what was left of Marty’s estate.
Marty's daughter, Jodee Sussman has ben a witness to this saga which is nearly a decade in the making, started by a nefarious sibling.
It started in 2015 when a sibling who had a falling out with her parents attempted to place both her mother and father into conservatorship.
“In 2015, my brother filed the same lies about you know, like, mismanagement of my parents’ funds, that my dad wasn’t properly cared for, that you know mom was gonna lose her property, that they didn’t pay for meals.” She told me in the podcast.
Her parents were able to hire attorneys and convince a judge that the allegations weren’t accurate, and they fought off the initial attempt to have them put into conservatorship.
Then, in 2019, the same brother was back with the exact same allegations, only this time he filed it ex-parte, she told me, and her mom was placed into conservatorship immediately.
Jodee’s father died in 2016.
{In California, what everyone else refers to as guardianship is called conservatorship}
Jodee’s mom, the probate system in California found, had dementia. With that dubious diagnosis, the system took over and plundered an estate worth well in excess of $10 million, all while isolating Marty from the people she knew.
Instead, bureaucrats took over her life. Those bureaucrats are not nameless.
These bureaucrats- who are allowed to take over Marty’s life- did such a good job that Marty needed to file for bankruptcy.
Marty was finally allowed to leave California for Texas but only after Jodee and her sisters agreed to protect the players from a lawsuit. In Texas, another probate judge ruled that Marty did not have dementia and should never have been in conservatorship to begin with.
In Texas, a judge determined that Jodee’s mom should never have been put into conservatorship in the first place, “Jodee told me something remarkable; before she died, a probate judge in Texas examined her mother and determined she should not be in guardianship {the equivalent of conservatorship in Texas} and did not have dementia: meaning this plundering was done for no good reason.”
Marty died in June 2022, with her family.
On May 18, 2023, in the courtroom of Orange County Judge Ebrahim Baytieh this painful process may have finally come to an end.
The same vultures who plundered Marty’s estate were in his courtroom asking to be paid for their time.
This was supposed to have happened before. I witnessed a hearing in November 2022, where this issue was continued. Judge David Belz, a prime player in the Orange County probate racket, presided over that hearing, but he removed himself shortly thereafter.
Judge Baytieh then took over. He held a hearing in February 2023, but still the issues weren’t settled. He held another one on March 27, 2023.
The hearing in February he allowed observers to watch virtually, but he changed his mind in March.
His courtroom was open, if you came in.
So, on May 18, 2023, people from all over the country drove- or in my case- flew in to watch the final salvo of this injustice.
While allowing observers in court, Judge Baytieh continued his nod to non-transparency by strictly forbidding all use of cell phones or other electronic equipment.
One of the lawyers- David Shaver- was caught using a cell phone, but Judge Baytieh let him off with a warning; I doubt I would have been so lucky.
If I was allowed a phone, I would have taken a photo that summed up the entire thing.
Jodee sat in the middle of four lawyers, representing herself.
The four lawyers were there to get their piece of what’s left of the estate, while Jodee is representing herself, despite the estate once being worth over $10 million.
The lawyers argued they did many things; the aforementioned David Shaver visited Marty’s property, visited the city’s zoning people, he spoke with lawyers, realtors, and contractors.
Shaver is the guardian ad litem on this case; this means he’s supposed to act in Marty’s best interest.
In three years, he got around to meeting Marty twice: in February 2020 and February 2021. For all this work, Shaver wants nearly $50,000. Here is part of a motion he provided me where he lists his fees.
I have expended 111 hours of time with regard to this matter and preforming the
duties identified above. At my normal rate of$400.00 per hour, I request a total fee in the sum of $44,360.00 or such other amount deemed proper by the court.
Jodee was allowed to speak. In fact, she told me after that Judge Baytieh was the first judge to allow the family- all of which minus one sibling was against this conservatorship- to get equal time.
This was true. Judge Baytieh gave everyone a fair amount of time to speak, but this is a low bar for judicial fairness and objectivity.
Shaver sat to Jodee’s immediate left.
To her right, were the scummy duo of Samantha Morris-Jones and Eric Becker.
Those two, like Shaver, find themselves onto corrupt Orange County probate cases ALL THE TIME.
They represent Richard Huntington, who was the conservator, until the family finally forced him out. Becker was asking for nearly $400,000, according to a declaration he filed.
Pat McNally sat to Shavers left. He represents Mark McKibben, who took over for Huntington. McKibben is a professional fiduciary.
All these folks argued that they worked, and they should be paid.
Jodee spoke multiple times; in her first address to the court, she gave an impassioned address to the court which can be summed up.
Everyone in the courtroom on May 18, 2023, who was asking to get paid put her mother into an unnecessary conservatorship. After that, these same folks plundered her estate, while doing everything they could to drive up their own fees.
At the end of her speech, the gallery cheered, which Judge Baytieh admonished.
Jodee’s argument makes sense on a logical level; it makes sense on a layman’s level. No one should be paid after they’ve plundered an estate, already drove up their fees, and unnecessarily put someone in conservatorship.
Will it make sense legally? We’ll await Judge Baytieh’s ruling. Check out Wayne Dolcefino’s video on 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, and Part 35.
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You know, some of the most successful countries on both the happiness scale and financial stability for citizens are that way because they jailed the bankers and attorneys associated with corruption. Paying people to act corrupt is just the California Court way.
In the meantime, California, the state with the biggest economy has the highest poverty level, highest budget for oversight of the judicial and still has one of the most corrupt groups of judges in the USA working in probate and family courts.
Over 30% of employment goes to government here in California. Then of course, legislators have pet projects. All of these things have to be paid for, including sizeable pensions for people who may have spent their entire career facilitating the destruction of people's lives. The clerks, judges, mediators, GALs, lawyers (lawless), visitation supervisors charging 60 to 120 an hour, Family Court Services, all of them are corrupt.
They are corrupt, because the people who choose who works there are corrupt, and require employees that are malleable and easy to coerce. Most of the employees at William Ridgeway, for instance, are females age 35 to 70. Many of them look like they have no home life, and all of them pretend to be ignorant when a judge violates your rights. They are there to collect a paycheck, no matter who it hurts. Whistleblowers lose their jobs and their livelihoods and never get hired again. Those who refuse to commit crimes as favors are also let go. So what you end up with is the literal dregs of society. They look at you with contempt and treat you with the same, because the judges also protect them and retaliate if you complain.