The never-ending saga continues in OC probate
Even in death, the probate vultures aren't done.
A new judge has taken over a conservatorship case I have been following in Orange County.
Judge Ebrahim Baytieh has taken over the Adair conservatorship.
This conservatorship case should have been closed since the person in conservatorship- called a ward- is dead and has been since June 2022.
That ward is Marty Adair, and I have previously interviewed her daughter, Jodee Sussman.
The conservatorship has already legal stolen millions in assets her parents have had.
The stealing is not done- though her mom and dad are now both deceased- as the conservatorship vultures attempt to raid as much of what is left of the seven figure estate.
The last time I covered this case was in November 2022, when Judge David Belz was presiding.
It turns out that Judge Belz should not have presided over the November case.
There was a motion to dismiss him for bias which could not be found in the voluminous file.
After the hearing, that motion was found, and Judge Belz was replaced by Judge Baytieh.
The results remain the same.
In the November hearing, Jodee complained that the delays were designed merely to allow some of the lawyers still on the case to continue to charge billable hours to the estate.
She asked that all remaining issues be heard that day.
She was denied. She asked at this last hearing- on February 2, 2023- for the same, and Judge Baytieh denied her again.
In fact, there seems to be no end in sight in this case.
Judge Baytieh scheduled the next hearing for the end of March 2023, but he gave no assurances that this would be the last hearing.
Meanwhile, Judge Baytieh appeared to stand up for open courtrooms.
There were over twnety people observing the hearing virtually.
In his first order of business, he asked if anyone objected to the observers watching the hearing.
The only objector was Samantha Jones, who objected to my presence personally.
“We would definitely object to the participation of the observers and especially of the media represented here today.” Ms. Jones told Judge Baytieh. “At least one of the gentlemen who has checked in has a website where an article has been ordered to be removed by a Texas court order. It was actually part of a settlement agreement between the parties in a related Texas matter.”
That related Texas “matter” was when Jodee was able to get her mom out of California and to Texas before she died.
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.”
No such order-as Ms. Jones suggests- exists, as such an order would violate the first amendment.
I reached out to Ms. Jones about her thoughts on the first amendment by email, “I was just listening in to the hearing where you claimed I should not be allowed to observe. We have open courtrooms in the US. Also, you claimed I was ordered to remove an article. Please provide this order, as such an order would blatantly violate the first amendment.”
Ms. Jones is shy and did not respond. She represents Richard Huntington, the former court appointed conservator of the estate.
This is not the first time that an unethical attorney misrepresented a court order and claimed I was required to remove an article from a case I was following.
A lawyer named Joel Hirschhorn reached out to me in 2021, claiming I needed to remove an article I wrote about Eric Satin in Miami.
Please see the attached. Eric Satin is currently incarcerated arising out of three contempt of Court citations. Mrs Satin has been ordered to inform you that all references to his two minor children must be removed from your social media.please see paragraph five of the Injunction for more details. Your cooperation is appreciated.
You are on notice. If you have any attoeney please ask him or her to contact me.
That court order did not require me to do anything, but rather for Eric to ask me to remove an interview, which I declined.
The Former Husband and his counsel, Leslie Ferderigos, esquire, upon entry of this Order, shall immediately serve a written request, copying the Wife’s counsel, to Michael Volpe and Kenneth Rosa and any other media outlet or third party, to remove any information related to this case, including, but not limited to, any information broadcasting the minor children’s names, their likeness or otherwise discusses or involves information related to the children or this case. This written request shall be issued immediately.
Judge Baytieh denied Ms. Jones request, but not before stating numerous times that this was an open hearing.
This seemed largely to be performance art; if these hearings are open, why bother to even ask to close them?
There are still five matters outstanding, according to Judge Baytieh.
Primarily, all that is left is just how much the vultures- I’m sorry attorneys- are still to be paid.
For instance, David Shaver, the guardian ad litem, has a fee petition which still needs to be heard.
Shaver has been on the case for over three years, and he did not bother to submit any fee petitions until his ward had died.
I went back and forth with Shaver: more here.
All these matters were set to be heard on November 2, 2022; that was pushed to February 2, 2023, and now the end of March.
Jodee believes this is nothing more than a delay for some lawyers to raid the estate.
“We would like to proceed as quick as possible.” She told Judge Baytieh. “We were ready to go forward months ago when all these fee requests got put from one date to November 2nd. It’s been going on for seven months now.”
She said the delays did nothing but allow lawyers to “churn” more fees.
Judge Baytieh was sympathetic but decided to hold at least one more hearing in March.
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, and Part 31.
To support more stories like this please consider contributing to the Orange County fundraiser.
