Jodee Sussman is my latest guest on the podcast.
She has seen her parents victimized by the Orange County, California court system, but not in child custody.
Instead, Jodee tells me that her parents were victims of conservatorship (sometimes called guardianship in other states) and the court players who preyed on them operate with impunity in the probate court in Orange County.
In conservatorship or guardianship, a court- normally a probate court- determines if an individual, called a ward, is incapacitated.
If someone is deemed incapacitated, most of their rights are eliminated.
Jodee has told her story twice and in-depth.
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 2017.
This is similar, I noted, to how Marla Grayson, the character in I Care a Lot, operated.
She too would normally file an ex-parte motion so that she could have the potential ward put into guardianship before they’ve had a chance to get a lawyer and fight back.
Indeed, the second time around, Jodee told me, her mom- her father had died- was not allowed to hire an attorney but rather given a public defender.
Jodee said the public defender did do a good job on her mom’s behalf.
This time the same allegations were made and her move was accused of dementia.
A “mall” psychiatrist was ordered by Jodee’s brother, and Jodee believes her mom was drugged during their session when this psychiatrist determined her mom to have dementia.
This testimony carried a lot of weight while future psychiatrists who challenged this initial assessment were ignored.
Her mom was finally allowed to leave the state, but only after her sisters agreed to let the conservator out and to protect the players from a lawsuit. Jodee explains it below.
Jodee said she refused to sign the agreement which was drawn up, so her siblings simply made a deal with the conservator and others without her; her mom has since left California for Texas.
Jodee told me that there is a ring in Orange County preying on people like her mom, and the head of the ring is Fiduciary Real Estate Services, a company which helps to liquidate property. Jodee described the ring further.
The alleged “head of the snake” is Ruben Martinez and attorney/wife Teresa Gorman. Their company, Fiduciary Real Estate Service, allegedly sells the properties of the victims after “managing” and devaluing them. They allegedly sell to their “cronies” who flip shortly after at great profit.
Gorman has been the attorney for many unscrupulous fiduciary including Huntington. If not in fact a conflict of interest, definitely quid pro quo.
The alleged attorneys involved in many of these conspiracies are Eric Francis Becker, Samantha Jean Morris, David Neal Shaver, Neil Knuppel, and Ernest Hayward.
The alleged conservators involved are Richard Huntington, Sally Cicerone, Judith A Okonski, Lee Ann and Bruce Hitchman.
There are over 25 families that can attest to this pattern of conduct. Their are other attorneys and fiduciaries also involved in over a decade of wrong doings all over SoCal. The common denominator is FRES!
Post Script:
Find the previous articles in the Orange County series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8. Part 9, Part 10, and Part 11.
Find the fundraiser for Orange County here.
Michael Volpe Investigates Podcast The Impromptu: Episode 40 An Interview with Jodee Sussman