LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — Adult children separated from their ailing parents. Vulnerable adults being put into unlicensed group homes. Those are just a few of the guardianship problems 7 Investigator Heather Catallo has been exposing since 2017.
Now, the Michigan attorney general and several state Supreme Court justices have formed a new Elder Abuse Task Force.
For years, families in metro Detroit have been telling the 7 Investigators that guardians and conservators appointed by judges have devastated their families.
“I had watched those stories and I really struggled to understand how this could happen in our modern society,” Attorney General Dana Nessel told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo in an exclusive interview. “Your series of stories really helped to enlighten people… The problem is even greater than I thought.”
Now, Nessel is teaming up with Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget McCormack, Justices Richard Bernstein and Megan Cavanaugh, and four state lawmakers to form the Elder Abuse Task Force. Stopping over-use of court appointed guardians is a top priority.
“As an attorney I’m just horrified," Nessel said. "I see cases, frankly, where there are civil infractions for traffic tickets where there is more time and energy and effort put in by the attorneys and by the judge and by the witnesses than there is when you have a person made a full guardian of another human being. And that’s atrocious."
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