About a year ago, Jeff Payton escaped from Maricopa County, Arizona to Texas, after a startling conversation with a lawyer appointed to represent his wife Charlotte in a probate matter.
Rick Kilfoy was the court appointed attorney for Jeff’s wife, but one day in January 2024 he wasn’t acted like her advocate.
Kilfoy did not respond to an email for comment.
“This attorney Rick Kilfoy comes in, barges into my studio and says, ‘get off the phone.’” Jeff told me on the broadcast.
Jeff had been in radio broadcasting for about twenty-five years, he told me.
Kilfoy demanded that Jeff wake up his wife and to remove the dog.
Kilfoy, Jeff told me, interrogated him about everything which was in the home. Kilfoy also indicated he could come back unannounced anytime.
“At that point, I knew I couldn’t stay there.” Jeff told me.
Jeff moved to Texas soon after this confrontation.
The story doesn’t start there. It starts about a year prior.
Jeff’s wife had strokes, and Jeff and Charlotte decided- while she was still of sound mind- to do a trust to “avoid probate,” Jeff told me.
The trust was created, but probate was not avoided.
In the beginning of 2024, Jeff could see that Charlotte could no longer take care of herself and would need full time help.
On January 5, 2023, Jeff fell. He was taken to a rehab facility that sounded a lot like One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest.
“I went into a rehab facility that was absolutely horrid,” Jeff said.
“These two people helped me get out AMA, against medical advice,” Jeff told me.
Jeff said the attorney who put together the trust handed him documents which he may have signed under heavy drugs.
The documents upended his trust, but this was only the beginning of the shenanigans.
Charlotte was moved into another facility while Jeff was in his rehab facility. Upon returning home, Jeff recruited a friend, armed with a power of attorney, to get her out.
Jeff said he got Charlotte out, but a day later, he was visited by one of his stepchildren and an attorney.
Jeff said his house was a mess, given what he and his wife had gone through, and the meeting led to calls to Adult Protective Services (APS).
“We had seven- seven- investigations. All of them we were cleared on,” Jeff told me. “But they kept going to court.”
Jeff said the next major even was on August 31, 2023.
By this point, though no one had been ruled in need of guardianship, Brian Theut was appointed a guardian ad litem (GAL). Theut did not respond to an email for comment.
Theut is an attorney, but that did not stop him from deeming Jeff incompetent at this hearing.
Jeff told me that Theut believed that Jeff was incompetent based on the things which happened in the rehab facility in January 2023.
Theut asked for an Independent Medical Examination (IME). Jeff told me that the doctor recommended for this IME was a ringer. Jeff refused.
Jeff’s case is not the only where Theut is accused of abuse. Bill Chalmers retired at fifty-two as a senior director at Intel, but during his divorce shortly thereafter, his ex-wife and her attorney suggested he was incompetent and in need of conservatorship. Bill’s case has been covered in the press.
Bill said he eventually fought out of conservatorship, but he said Theut- who was his GAL- agreed not to recommend permanent conservatorship in his case, before reneging on the agreement.
For Jeff, even though he and Charlotte moved to Texas, Arizona continued to exert jurisdiction.
Jeff put Charlotte in a retirement home, “which is nice, everyone admits it’s nice,” Jeff said of the retirement home.
The cost is $2,700 per month, Jeff told me.
Maricopa continued scheduling hearings.
In December 2024, Jeff finally found a doctor for $10,000 to do the IME, which he passed with flying colors.
The courts could no longer try and put him into guardianship; instead, the judge, Vaness Smith, appointed a conservator. The conservator’s sole job is to pay the monthly bill for the retirement home, but the conservator charges $30,000 per year.
All of this is done so that court vultures can continue to bill Jeff’s estate.
Susan Wulff runs the Payable Management Group and she and the group have been following probate in Maricopa. She believes there is a systemic problem. Here is part of the group’s statement.
The husband has been caring for the wife since her dementia diagnosis. The fees for 6 months are over $130,000. The only ting to pay is one nursing home bill of $2700. They are not providing care for Charlotte. Most fees are all going to pay professionals. The budget was approved by the judicial officer without having a hearing on the matter or to really look at the lifetime sustainability of the Ward and lifetime sustainability of Mr. Payton her husband. It seems these judicial officers are not really looking at the details and they are rubbing stamping and just approving budgets. Keeping in mind there was an objection to the budget, she just approves the budget without hearing to discuss the reasonableness of the budget.
Fees of $130,000 to pay one nursing home bill. If Jeff has been competent why is a conservator needed in this matter.
Ms. Wulff is alarmed that these are supposed to be public hearings. They should have some level of privacy for medical and financial issues. They can put members of the public in waiting room to discuss pertinent financial and medical records then bring the members of public back into the hearing. Where is the complete transparency the public should expect of our judicial system? Public members should be allowed to attend hearings for the purposes of public and trust and confidence in the judicial system. Why is Vanessa Smith closing the entire hearing from the public? What is she attempting to hide from the public?
After the interview, Jeff sent me an email with some further thoughts.
I only wish I had stressed losing my position after building a 25 year reputation in talk radio. Losing our home in Phoenix. Losing the final years with my wife of 34 years. Losing my reputation. Losing millions of dollars needlessly by this court's actions.
If you google Rick Kilfoy or Brian Theut, you'll find numerous examples of their taking advantage of people at vulnerable times in their lives. This can happen to anyone.
This judge, Vanessa Smith, keeps appointing Theut & Kilfoy to the detriment of those caught up in this system.
Bill Chalmers told me in his research of the probate system in Maricopa he found a small cadre of law firms who go in front of the same judges in a fiefdom like environment.
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