Winstanley Family Continues to Be Abused

The abuse continues without end  for Elizabeth “Betty” Winstanley and her children fighting for her at the Lancaster, County Court of Common Pleas.

Winstanley has been in guardianship since 2014, with most of her rights removed, forced to live in a home in Pennsylvania, rather than in Maryland near her children.

She was not given a hearing aid and so couldn’t hear at all at the hearing which determined if she was “incapacitated”, the term used by the court to determine if someone needs to be placed into guardianship.

She has been isolated, abused, and had her money misspent by the courts and court actors appointed by the courts; many of these same court actors charge her up to $400 per hour for their services.

This is not the first-time media has looked at the tragic guardianship case of Elizabeth Winstanley.

Diane Dimond’s Take

In 2016, Diane Dimond wrote about this case as part of a series which would later win her an award.

“Would you hire someone to manage your personal affairs and finances who charged $50,599.18 in just three months?

“What if they charged $1560.00 to make two phone calls to your son to discuss, ‘Dates for (a) Christmas’ visit with you. Or if you got a bill for more than $1,000 from this person explaining, it was because their, ‘Computer emails appear(ed) to be breached …(and) extensive work (was) done on my phone and computer as a result.’ They charged you for calls to their IT department and to an attorney they consulted.

“And what if this same person refused to communicate with two of your three children even when you were rushed to the hospital? And when they placed a couple of phone calls 3 days later to see how you were doing you were charged another $990.00?”

Dimond continued later: “Widow Betty Winstanley, 94, who is under a disputed court-ordered guardianship and lives in the Masonic Village Retirement Home in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania . She is forced to pay her court-appointed guardian for the expenses I just described (and many more) because Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court Judge Jay J. Hoberg says she must.”

Sharyl Attkisson’s Take

In 2017, Sharyl Attkisson featured Winstanley’s story on her program, Full Measure.

Attkisson found that 1.5 million people in the US were under guardianship, which controlled $273 billion.

“Betty’s court appointed guardian from a for profit company controlled nearly every aspect of Betty’s life at Betty’s own expense.” Attkisson said.

Attkisson, like Dimond, found the guardians charged in an exorbitant manner.

They charged $180 for an email regarding Mother’s Day, $426 for a conversation about the ownership of a French horn, and $2,070 to discuss Christmas visits.

Attkisson found that guardian bills came to $93,908 in one five-month period.

The guardian would not let Betty speak to Attkisson, but she did broadcast a video tape made previously of Betty.

“Why are you trying to damage all my life by taking me away from all family and my friends?” Betty said in the video.

Back to the Present

Despite the media attention, the abuse by the court and others of Betty Winstanley continues.

Her family provided photos of Betty with a bruise on her hand; the photo was taken at her assisted living facility, Masonic Village.

In a letter to the Pennsylvania authorities, they listed other immediate concerns.

• 1)      How pale, gaunt and the lack of moons on her fingers a sign of being anemic
• 2)      The extended stomach - if it is diet
• 3)      Her heart monitor and a follow up as she stated her chest felt tight
• 4)      The infection in / on her leg since around November of 2018
• 5)      THE LACK OF HEARING AIDS and the pattern of taking them from her since 2014
• 6)      The emotional abuse by Candice Beckett in trying to silence her of what has happened to her and is happening to her.
• 7)      The emotional abuse by Masonic Village by all appearance “ORDERS” from above to the local staff as to what Mrs. Winstanley is able to do.
• 8)      The Lack of activities for Mrs. Winstanley to participate in such as exercise classes et al

  

I sent an email to Masonic Village, but they did not respond.

I also received a voicemail from Betty, in which she sounds disoriented, “Hi Betsy it's mom. I'm locked up here I don't know what they're doing to me and I wanted to talk to somebody and it's snowing so bad I don't want you to come tonight. Didn't want you to come. So I don't know I I'd like to talk to you before you go to bed.” Betty said. “Please give me a call. I asked them they said it would be alright for you to call me or I don't know about your calling me for them to call you and see what's going on with neither of lost my mind or something's happened to me I don't know. Please give me a call. Bye bye.”

The Convoluted Court Process

Betty’s son David has been attempting to keep the pressure on and this includes a March 7, 2019, hearing.

Namely, on June 12, 2015, Judge Jay Hoberg o the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania issued an order.

Hoberg is the long-time judge on this case. 

In that order, he purportedly honored Betty’s wish to move to Maryland, where David lives.

This was even supported by the current guardian Candace Beckett, who on February 3, 2017 filed a petition for the court to move Winstanley to Maryland, “It is the intention of this Plenary Guardian of the Person that, following to Mrs. Winstanley’s stated preferences that she permanently be relocated from Lancaster, County, Pennsylvania where she has no relatives to Anne Arundul County, Maryland where two of her children reside.” Beckett said.

She continued in the same affidavit, “The transfer to Maryland would be in the best interest of Mrs. Winstanley.”

When reached by phone, Beckett, who remains the guardian, said, “the problem is there’s no money left.”

Beckett insisted she has not even been paid since coming on board herself in 2017 but that Winstanley’s estate was estimated at between $1.4-$1.8 million when things began in 2014.

She estimates that it is down to $250,000-$500,000, most of which is not liquid now.

She said some of the money went to caring for Mrs. Winstanley at Masonic Village, but the rest went to the other guardians like Stump.

Betty Winstanley remains in Pennsylvania more than two years after Beckett’s petition was filed.

Furthermore, David told me, the judge has been resistant to ordering a forensic audit of the expenses made by the guardians.

Judge Hoberg, David told me, has previously claimed that the audit was too expensive, but as much as $2 million has been squandered from Betty Winstanley’s estate without proper records being kept, David told me.

I left an email for Stacey Witalec, the press and communications manager for the Pennsylvania Judicial System, but it was not returned. 

Also still unsettled is the issue of alleged malfeasance by the former guardian, Robert Stump.

“Guardian Stump had a CONVICTED FELON WORKING WITH HIM WHEN HE WAS GUARDIAN OF MY MOTHER.GLORIA BYARS , THE CONVICTED FELON AT RES, ODDLY LEFT RES AT THE END OF 2015 ...STUMPS LAST DAY AS GUARDIAN WAS DEC.10,2015.....SINCE STUMP WAS REMOVE AND HER SUDDEN DEPARTURE ; DOES THIS MEAN THE EASY STEALING IN HIS BUSINESS WAS OVER?” Winstanley said in an email to his lawyer.

His attorney, Douglas Earl, did not respond to an email from me. 

Stump had hired Gloria Byars to work as a guardian for his company, RES Consulting, and she worked on Betty’s case as well.

She was hired despite multiple convictions for financial crimes. Here’s part of a 2018 story.

“Byars had been convicted multiple times of financial theft.

“Her most recent arrest came in 2005. She pleaded guilty to felony fraud and was sentenced to 37 months in a federal prison after cashing $20,000 in blank checks found rummaging through trash cans at a Virginia post office.

“Federal dockets show Byars was paroled on supervised release in 2008, the same year - according to her LinkedIn account - she began working in Philadelphia with RES Consulting, which provides guardian services.”

I sent an email to RES Consulting but that was also not returned.

The guardian who took over stated previously that the judge, Hoberg, approved payments of $18,500 per month to Stump, but now refuses to revisit those payments.

David Winstanley asked his attorney to demand for several things at the March 7, 2019, hearing. Those include.

We demand a forensic investigation

Because with both guardians STUMP & MAISANO WE FIND FRAUDLENT BILLING ,FOR PAY COMPENSATION, (WE DONT TO THIS DAY KNOW WHAT MAISANO OR GONICK ( TRUSTEE) ARE CHARGING.

STUMP WAS SUPPOSEDLY RECEIVING $130/HR. YET IN TESTIMONY UNDER OATH PATRICIA MAISANO HAD NO IDEA WHAT HER IKOR GUARDIAN BUSINESS WAS BILLING MY MOTHERS ESTATE YET SHE KNEW THAT JUDGE HOBERG PAID STUMP ,RES , $18,500/MO.

      3) HOBERG SAID IN COURT HE "WAS NOT GOING BACK TO REVISIT THAT!

      4) OVER CHARGING FOR UNNESSARY VISITS ( MY MOTHER IS IN PERSONAL CARE) ATTYS FOR STUMP SPENDING TIME FIGURING OUT HOW TO BREAK THE FAMILY TRUST WHEN MONEY AT THE TIME WAS NOT LACKING (AND THE INTENTION TO BREAK AND RAID THE TRUST OF ALL ITS ASSETS WAS ALWAYS THE INTENTION OF JUDGE HOBERG FROM 2015 ON....HE SPOKE ABOUT IT OFTEN OPENLY IN COURT)

PADDING TIME SHEETS IS FRAUD.

Winstanley told me this is not the first time these things have been demanded and he does not expect this time to be any different, but that he hopes renewed pressure from the media will finally end the never-ending nightmare.

Winstanley is 97 years old.