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We have news items here related to the lawyers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
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Tuscaloosa threatens lawsuit over insurance offer
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The city of Tuscaloosa is threatening legal action against its insurance provider for what the mayor considers a low offer to replace a building used for emergency planning and environmental services destroyed in the April 27 tornado.
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February 29th, 2012
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Lawsuit alleges sexual assault
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Two former Tuscaloosa County Community Corrections employees have filed a federal lawsuit against Tuscaloosa County and the former supervisor whom they say sexually assaulted and harassed them for years.
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February 29th, 2012
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City BOE approves magnet changes
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TUSCALOOSA | In a nearly four-hour meeting, the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education approved two major changes to school system Tuesday night — the Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools’ entry requirements and Superintendent Paul McKendrick’s school reform plan.
Entry into Tuscaloosa Magnet elementary and middle schools will now be offered to 7 percent of students from each school in the system, with no exceptions.
Previously, 14 percent of students in the historic district — University Place elementary and middle schools — had slots reserved for them at the magnet schools.
Another entry requirement that has been changed is the magnet schools’ allocated slots for students who are outside the school system — students in private school, home-schooled students or students whose families just moved into the city.
Just as before, students from outside the system — students in the Tuscaloosa County School System can’t apply to the magnet schools unless they leave the county system and move into a city schools zone — who want to attend the magnet schools have to compete for the leftover slots that schools in the system haven’t filled.
But what’s new is that students from outside the system cannot fill more unused slots than the highest number of slots available to the largest school in the system, even if there are more unused slots at the magnet schools than the number allotted to the largest school in the system.
“If there’s a school that can send seven students to the magnet school, but only has five students who want to go to the magnet school, there’s two extra slots open for school,” school board member Marvin Lucas said Monday regarding the outside student magnet school cap. “What we were doing is those two slots would go into a pool, and people who were in private school or transferring to our system from another system would have first choice for those extra seats.
“But what would happen if every school had at least one seat open?” he said. “You’d have more private sector kids getting into the magnet school than students in the system.”
Elizabeth Davis, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said Tuesday that all unused magnet school slots that remain unused beyond the cap put on outside students, will become available again to the schools that didn’t fill their 7 percent magnet schools allowance.
School reform
In December 2011, McKendrick proposed making drastic changes to help the system’s central zone — the lowest performing zone of the system’s three school zones. His plan included implementing year-round school.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, the board approved McKendrick’s school reform plan — called the Children First Initiative — however, the plan no longer calls for year-round school.
“I looked at the cost of doing an extended year with Mr. (Ed) LaVigne, and if we just did the extended year, we could afford it,” McKendrick told the board. “But we need to do a lot more than the extended year.”
McKendrick said it would cost the school system an additional $550,000 a year to implement year-round school.
He said year-round school could be paid for with money from the general fund, Title I money — additional money that schools with at least a 35 percent poverty receive — and money gained from cutting school services.
But his other school reform proposals need to be implemented at the same time as year-round school, and they cost almost as much, McKendrick said. He said he couldn’t recall exactly how much his other reform initiatives cost at after the meeting.
Board Vice Chairwoman Earnestine Tucker asked Mc-Kendrick if he sought money to fund year-round school from outside sources, such as grants. She encouraged him to do so after he said no.
“Without extended year, the changes aren’t so drastic, but they are different,” McKendrick said.
The Children First Initiative without year-round school will be implemented at more schools than just those in the central zone.
The changes will be applied to Central Elementary, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, Oakdale Elementary, Northington Elementary, Skyland Elementary Southview Elementary, Oak Hill and all system middle and high schools.
The plan includes:
n Reorganizing Oak Hill
alternative school.
n Continuing support of the changes called for by Westlawn Middle’s School Improvement Grant.
n Developing an individual culture and theme at each school.
n Remediation, enrichment and after-school programs.
n Additional planning time for teachers.
n Individualized student plans.
n Programs for students who are older than they should be for their grade.
n Accelerated classes for advanced students.
n Increased enrollment in advanced placement and international baccalaureate classes
n Offering credit recovery at all high schools
n Offering extra support and remediation for Algebra students.
n Reorganizing summer school to make it more appealing to students who aren’t performing well during the school year.
McKendrick said the school reform changes will go into effect this summer.
Reach Jamon Smith at jamon.smith@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0204.
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February 29th, 2012
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Former Auburn coach Tuberville accused of investment fraud
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A federal lawsuit filed Friday in Montgomery names Tuberville, John David Stroud and eight investment entities as defendants, claiming the two men "employed devices, schemes, and artifices to defraud" seven plaintiffs from Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee.
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February 28th, 2012
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UA costumers rushing to get ready for
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Even with nine costume shop graduate students, more undergraduates and a handful of professional staff on hand, the University of Alabama costume shop has been sewing, cutting and fitting from late fall to the last minute for the French musical farce “An Italian Straw Hat,” which opens tonight in the Marian Gallaway Theatre.
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February 27th, 2012
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Questions surround ex-conservator's cases
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K.E. lived in a middle-class home in east Tuscaloosa for much of her life. She and her husband had no children, and they built up a sizable nest egg for their twilight years.
As she neared 70, age began to take a toll on K.E.'s mind and body. Her sight began to fade, she got lost while driving and would sometimes put on a shirt inside out. It became clear to her doctors and close friends that someone else needed to be in charge of her finances, since she was going through a divorce from her husband of more than 30 years.
J.B. was 67 and bedridden after a stroke in 2009, unable to eat, bathe or care for himself. He lived in a modest home in west Tuscaloosa and owned real estate, savings and Greenetrack shares that together totaled nearly half a million dollars.
In both cases, family and close friends realized that their loved ones could no longer pay their own bills, manage their money or live unassisted. But there were disputes among those families and friends over how to do that. The two cases ended up in Tuscaloosa County Probate Court. They were assigned to a conservator — a third party responsible for managing finances and care for those who no longer could do so.
The conservator who was assigned their cases and hundreds of similar cases in Tuscaloosa County since 2005 was attorney Zondra Hutto. She retired from the practice of law last year when allegations arose that a staff member used more than $20,000 of an elderly woman's money to buy gas, clothing, a designer purse and a trip to Mexico for himself and Hutto. She is now serving a three-month federal prison term for knowing about but not reporting the felony.
Since then, auditors have found that Hutto mismanaged and misspent funds in other cases. They found that she didn't always pay bills on time, paid a family friend hundreds of dollars to care for the lawns of small properties and sometimes used one person's money to pay nursing home bills for another.
She has been ordered to repay about $114,000 to clients whose cases have been examined in Circuit Court. But there still are an unknown number of cases in Tuscaloosa Probate Court that haven't yet been examined.
Lack of accounting
A review of more than two dozen case files examined by The Tuscaloosa News indicated that Hutto didn't consistently file financial accountings in probate court every three years, as required by state law. Documents required when a conservator resigns were missing from each file.
Several attorneys and other professionals who have examined some of Hutto's cases said that a lack of oversight by the probate court for years has led to the mess they have been cleaning up for the past several months.
Only one, however, would say so publicly — an attorney in Baldwin County. In private, nine local attorneys and other professionals involved said some of the most vulnerable people in Tuscaloosa are being victimized twice: once by the conservator who may have been irresponsible with their life savings, and again by the court officials who haven't set things right.
One prominent Tuscaloosa attorney said that the situation was one of the worst miscarriages of law he had observed in a career of many decades.
Some conservatorship cases originate in circuit court, but most fall in probate court. Cases reviewed in circuit court document where Hutto has been ordered to return money to the wards or their estates. Forensic accountings have been ordered and bank records subpoenaed in some of the cases that involved larger amounts of money. Those cases are still pending.
But it appears that dozens of cases in probate court have not been properly addressed nearly a year after Hutto resigned from her position as conservator. Probate Judge Hardy McCollum was not able to provide a full list of Hutto's open cases.
In probate court, unlike circuit court, the judge is not required to be a lawyer. McCollum, like most probate judges in Alabama, does not have a law degree.
According to state law, when a conservator resigns, they are required to give notice and provide a final accounting, justified with receipts and bills. The judge in the case is then required to appoint an attorney as a guardian ad litem to act as an advocate for the ward during proceedings. The guardian ad litem reviews the accounts and a hearing is held during which the judge determines whether the money was handled properly. That's when the appointed guardian ad litem has a chance to dispute any of the accounting.
The judge then rules whether the former conservator is owed any attorney fees or whether the conservator should repay any money to the account. The conservatorship is then closed and, if necessary, a new conservator is appointed by the judge. The new conservator is then required to file an inventory of the ward's assets within 90 days.
In 40 cases reviewed by The Tuscaloosa News that originated in or were transferred to circuit court, a guardian ad litem was appointed to examine Hutto's accounting. The guardian ad litem found unwarranted charges to the accounts that weren't justified with receipts or bills. In all of the cases, the guardian ad litem determined that Hutto charged individuals hundreds or thousands of dollars in unnecessary postage, storage rental, lawn care or other fees.
Circuit Judge Brad Almond has ordered Hutto to reimburse more than $114,000 to the accounts of the wards and their families.
But probate court records don't indicate a similar process. Hutto has said in circuit court hearings that she had about 100 cases in probate court. Probate court officials were not able to give an exact number. The Tuscaloosa News examined close to 30 found in online probate records.
People who have conservators appointed to handle their finances often have no family. For those who do, circumstances such as strained relationships make it in the person's best interest for an impartial person to take over. That's the situation in many of the cases that have been moved from probate to circuit court by attorneys hired by those family members.
Fairhope attorney Jim Smith handles conservatorships in Baldwin County. He expects to become the conservator for a man in one of Hutto's cases that a local attorney had moved from probate court to circuit court. The ward now lives in south Alabama.
Smith has been receiving the man's Social Security checks since June 2011 after being contacted by the man, who felt his money wasn't being properly administered by probate court in Tuscaloosa. He supported moving the case after learning that Hutto had never filed an accounting in the case.
“There hadn't been an accounting filed in a long time. By the time I was involved, she had filed something and there were questions about who his checks were going to,” Smith said. “It didn't look like the probate office was doing the job right. Frankly, the impression was that nothing was going to be done.”
As a conservator in Baldwin County, Smith files regular accounting each year. If he forgets, the probate office there sends him a reminder.
“The procedures up there had been allowed to descend into a shambles, apparently,” Smith said of the Tuscaloosa probate office.
Attorney John McCulley, who represents the present guardian and conservator for K.E., said that proper procedures had not been followed in her case, which is why it was moved to circuit court. For example, he said, Hutto had never acquired a bond, which is required to protect the ward in case of mismanagement.
“The court ordered the appointed conservator to file a bond. The conservator did not file a bond, and despite that order, the court issued letters to the conservator,” he said. “Letters are the conservator's written evidence of authority to act on behalf of the ward. Once we found out that there had been no bond issued, we immediately sought an accounting.
Additionally, the probate court entered judgment in the case against a third party in favor of Zondra Hutto and at her request without giving the third party either notice or an opportunity to defend.”
The case was moved to circuit court. Hearings have been held and the case is pending a detailed analysis of the accounting. McCulley said that he was also concerned about money that the probate court had ordered a third party to pay K.E.'s estate. A judgment had been filed in the case against that person, who had been given no notice of a hearing.
Attorney Bryan Winter represents a family member of a woman whose case was moved from probate to circuit court. He said that the case is pending while Hutto's accounting receives an in-depth review.
“The parties are working in the current litigation to appropriately address the significant issues that have been raised with the accounting of the estate,” he said.
McCollum, the probate judge, said that he wasn't sure how many cases remain open in his court.
After asking to review Hutto's cases, a Tuscaloosa News reporter was provided 66 court files. In most of those cases, Hutto had been appointed to serve as a guardian only, meaning that she was not required to handle any money or assets. Guardians are tasked with ensuring that wards' basic needs are met, such as housing, clothing and health care.
Most of the files provided in which she was a conservator involved very little money. No final accounting had been filed in any of those cases, which was required when Hutto resigned.
The News later learned that there were many more cases that weren't made available. Many files in those cases, when viewed on the Tuscaloosa County website, did not include final accountings. Others did include an accounting similar to what Hutto submitted in the circuit court cases, but without receipts or further explanation of charges.
The News found charges in those accounts similar to the ones that were disputed in the circuit court cases, including a $5 monthly charge for postage and copies to each account, lawn care fees paid to a family friend and hundreds of dollars in storage fees. Hundreds of dollars were paid to an accountant for tax preparation.
Almond, the circuit judge, ordered Hutto to reimburse accounts for those type of charges, which also included late fees for bills or money spent on another ward.
J.B.'s account showed that Hutto charged him nearly $300 each month for storage fees. Another $178 from his account was used to pay for medicine for another of Hutto's clients who has no connection to J.B. Like the other court files reviewed, J.B.'s file indicates that there has been no guardian ad litem to represent him by reviewing his account and that no final hearing has been set to approve Hutto's accounting.
McCollum says that the cases in his court have been reviewed by an accountant and that he plans to review more detailed examinations of Hutto's accounts and issue a final order in each one.
In the resignation filings in which she submitted accounting, Hutto requested that the judge hold a hearing and issue a final order in each case.
There were no hearings scheduled as of last week. McCollum said that final orders have been issued in some of the cases; however none of the files provided by his office or viewed online indicated that.
“We've looked at all of her files. We scrutinize these closely, we've gone through these with a fine-tooth comb,” McCollum said. “We haven't found anything that's missing in the way of the accounting, and no funds have been disbursed in any case. In fact, she's owed money for legal fees in some cases.”
In several of the probate cases reviewed, orders accepting her resignation and appointing a new conservator were included in files, but they were undated and unsigned by the judge.
None of the court files reviewed for this story indicate that a guardian ad litem had been appointed to review accounts, or that a hearing had been scheduled and advertised in a newspaper or posted in a public building for the three weeks required by statute.
McCollum appointed Carol Geer to serve as the successor guardian and conservator in Hutto's old cases. He said that there was no need to appoint someone else as a guardian ad litem to review Hutto's submitted finances because Geer would do that. The law, however, states that the guardian ad litem must be an attorney. Geer, who is president of Complete Nursing Service, which provides nursing care and sitting services for patients, is not an attorney. In the cases reviewed by The News, no inventories had been filed listing the wards' money and personal property, another requirement of the conservator law.
When she took over many of the cases, Geer took a check to the circuit clerk's office with money Hutto had pooled from several wards' accounts.
As of last week, Almond has ordered that $61,397.73 be returned to wards after hearings in his court regarding Hutto's accounting. There is still $46,369.10 being held by the circuit clerk that has not been ordered paid to anyone. It is unknown who the money belongs to.
Court records also indicate that Hutto wasn't keeping up with the required accounting in her cases. Law requires conservators to file accounting at least every three years. In all of the resignation documents filed by Hutto, she states that no previous accounting had been filed, even though many of those cases were at least three years old.
It was customary for Hutto to give herself a commission of
5 percent in each case.
In at least one case involving a large amount of money, an attorney has questioned that
5 percent. In one circuit court case, Hutto took $95,366 in commission from the woman's accounts and requested around $20,000 in attorney fees. Attorney Paige Oldshue wrote in a motion disputing Hutto's accounting that “in this case, Hutto routinely paid herself a
5 percent commission on monies she paid on behalf of (the ward) and items she sold on behalf of (the ward) without any approval from the court and without any proof of reasonableness. Any compensation to Ms. Hutto for her service as the conservator should have been reviewed and approved by the court with a finding of reasonableness as to the fee.”
Those fees and others are among the ones disputed in the circuit court cases. One of those still pending is the case that originated in circuit court that involves the federal charges against Hutto and her former employee.
Hutto, 62, will be released from the medium-security Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in central Florida on March 4. Her former employee, Brian Lunceford, 30, has agreed to plead guilty to spending $20,291 that belonged to a woman who was in a nursing home, suffering from dementia, a delusion disorder and paranoia. According to the federal plea agreement, he said that the woman had more than $2 million in her accounts and said, “I don't disagree what I did was wrong or against the law.”
The court records do not indicate a sentencing date.
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February 27th, 2012
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Racy texts to student detailed in lawsuit
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An amendment to a civil lawsuit on Wednesday revealed explicit details about a former Tuscaloosa County High School student’s allegations of sexual harassment by a former assistant principal at the school.
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February 24th, 2012
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Commission approves demolition of storm damaged houses
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The Tuscaloosa County Commission authorized demolition of five storm-damaged houses Wednesday and its attorney is looking into getting the state Legislature to enact a local law that would give the county greater powers to condemn dilapidated houses.
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February 23rd, 2012
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Murray says give animal officers arrest power
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County Commissioner Reginald Murray said Wednesday that the commission should give animal control officers the powers they need to enforce laws dealing with animal abuse and vicious animals.
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February 23rd, 2012
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Local lawmaker blasts mental health prison plan
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MONTGOMERY | State Rep. Chris England on Wednesday told Mental Health Commissioner Zelia Baugh that he rejects her plan to turn the replacement Bryce Hospital being built in Tuscaloosa into a prison for the criminally insane.
England, D-Tuscaloosa, said that when first announced in 2010, there was no mention that the new hospital would become a mental health prison to replace the Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility, which is also in Tuscaloosa.
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February 23rd, 2012
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Chief justice wants more for courts
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TUSCALOOSA | Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Chuck Malone told members of the Alabama Press Association that he wants an additional $17 million in appropriations for the state court system. “This is the third branch of government. It’s a priority issue,” Malone said during a visit to Tuscaloosa on Saturday. “Judges are the gatekeepers of the constitution. We are the one country that has a constitution for everyone. The day we lose that (interpretation of the law) is the day we begin going in the wrong direction.”
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February 19th, 2012
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Strange asks lawmakers to make looting a crime
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State officials and Alabama residents learned a lesson last spring — just because your state has been hit by a series of devastating tornadoes killing about 250 people doesn't mean everybody will feel sorry for you. In fact, some looters were willing to come from out-of-state to loot homes and steal what valuables Mother Nature did not take in the storm.
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February 17th, 2012
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Animal calls may be sent to one office
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Probate Judge Hardy McCollum and County Commissioners say their animal control officers aren’t sworn law enforcement officers. Sheriff Ted Sexton says they are sworn officers.
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February 14th, 2012
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Hackers claim attack on Alabama government websites
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The loose-knit computer hacker group known as Anonymous claims it has broken into several Alabama law enforcement and government websites. In an online news release Friday, the group says it stole the personal information of more than 46,000 Alabama citizens. The information includes Social Security numbers, license plate numbers, criminal records and phone numbers.
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February 10th, 2012
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Miss. lawmaker says 'Gulf of America' bill was a joke
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All the people outraged about the Mississippi bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America have missed its satirical intent, the sponsor said Thursday.
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February 10th, 2012
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Jury for gambling trial finalized
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After questioning 84 potential jurors over three days, attorneys in the Alabama gambling corruption retrial selected a jury and four alternates Wednesday evening.
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February 9th, 2012
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Cuts may include lawmakers pay
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Gov. Robert Bentley’s proposed General Fund budget for next fiscal year cuts the Legislature’s appropriation by more than 35 percent, nearly twice the percentage cut he proposes for the executive branch.
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February 9th, 2012
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AEA vows to oppose charter schools
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MONTGOMERY | The state teachers association said Monday it will oppose proposed charter school legislation and will seek suspension of a new education budget law because it will cut education appropriations by at least $108 million next year.
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February 7th, 2012
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States spread the word that its the law to give emergency vehicles room
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More than 170 law enforcement officers in the United States have died after being struck by motor vehicles since 1999, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial Fund.
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February 4th, 2012
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Creating jobs tops Legislative sessions agenda
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In the 2012 legislative session that begins at noon Tuesday, Republican lawmakers will continue the agenda they started when the GOP became the majority party in the Alabama Legislature two years ago.
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February 4th, 2012
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Senator proposes changes to lighten immigration law
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February 4th, 2012
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