Attorney Defies Subpoena in Alleged “Murder-For-Money” Scheme

Elder Abuse

A San Bernardino County attorney has defied a court issued subpoena mandating that he turn over bank records which would allegedly implicate him in a “murder-for-money scheme.” The account in question belonged to a conservatee and was subsequently taken over by the attorney’s client, conservator Melodie Scott.

Attorney J. David Horspool has consistently denied knowledge of any Bank of America account pertinent to Amalie M. Phelan. However, records already obtained show that Horspool and Scott drilled the safety deposit box held in Amalie Phelan’s name at the very Bank of America branch location where the account was situated, calling into question his profession of ignorance.

According to Janet Phelan, Horspool and Scott withheld from the court all records pertaining to this account and also withheld information about two Bank of America VISA cards and used these to pay off Judith Phelan, Amalie’s eldest daughter, who then allegedly withheld Amalie’s necessary cardiac medicine in an effort to kill her in 2002. 

California Attorney Confesses Crime in Open Court--Judge Fails to Take Notice

The Probate Code strictly forbids specific commingling of funds.  

Dees Illustration

Tim King and Michael Hjelmstad 

Salem-News 

(RIVERSIDE, Calif.) - In a hearing this week in Riverside Superior Court, a local attorney, Toni Eggebraaten, cited a criminal act committed by her in conjunction with her client, The Riverside Public Guardian's office, as a reason for not having to abide by the law mandating she reveal accountings to a beneficiary of a Trust.

In a statement worthy of Franz Kafka's absurdist classic novel, The Trial,  Eggebraaten baldly stated that she pooled the funds in the Phelan Family Trust with "other estates" managed by the Public Guardian's office as a reason for not supplying the bank statements to a beneficiary. The Probate Code strictly forbids such commingling of funds.

The request for discovery was made by Janet Phelan, after she noted that Eggebraaten's accountings were not consonant with the minimal discovery that the attorney provided. Eggebraaten had supplied cancelled checks with payee, endorsement and bank cancellation information redacted (blacked out) but refused to submit the bank statements, which are necessary to reconcile the account. Phelan has stated that there appears to be fraud and possible embezzlement of funds. 


Eggebraaten has replied that since she pooled the Phelan Trust monies with other accounts, it would violate the privacy of those other estate beneficiaries receiving funds from the pooled account if she were to abide by discovery laws and turn these over to Janet Phelan. Phelan promptly informed the Judge, Thomas Cahraman, of the violation of law by Eggebraaten but Cahraman did not respond.


Phelan had already issued subpoenas for the bank records, which were served on the financial institutions last week and states that a continuance is necessary due to the fact that there are active subpoenas. In 2009, Phelan, who is an investigative reporter, broke a story in the San Bernardino County Sentinel which stated that a number of Inland Empire judges had questionable financial transactions keyed to their home loans, and were possibly laundering bribes and pay-offs through these loans. At that time, Judge Cahraman was the Presiding Judge of Riverside County. Cahraman subsequently pulled three judges whose loan history was questioned off the Phelan Trust case, although he issued an angry and accusatory letter to Phelan, refusing to investigate the loans and citing Phelan as making things difficult in the court system.

When first contacted by Salem-News.com, attorney Tony Eggebratten said, "I don't feel comfortable discussing the details of this trust with you..."

She went on to say, "The trust pays for the benefit of each a monthly stipend of $2500; if Janet told us to make a direct deposit into her account, we would. If you start with the beginning balance, we show every expense that we pay."

Eggebratten contends that her actions were reasonable and credible according to the law.

"Just do the math. Take the starting balance, documented income, subtract the expenses, it all comes out to the balance we have on hand."

Phelan responded, "Toni Eggebraaten's response failed to address the issues of illegally pooled accounts. Nor does it answer the questions raised by her attorney's time records, which indicate that she most likely has falsified the accountings."

Cahraman has taken the issue of the continuance under consideration and will be issuing a decision shortly. No action appears to have been taken on the violation of law by Toni Eggebraaten and the Public Guardian's office. To the knowledge of this reporter, this is the first time that an attorney has claimed that she is not bound by the law due to her committing a prior illegal act.

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience in broadcast and Internet news. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with the U.S. Army and Marines.

Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Tim is a member of the Orange County Press Club in Southern California, you can send Tim an email at this address:newsroom@salem-news.com

_________________________________________________________

Michael Hjelmstad and Salem-News.com founder Tim King met in the Anbar province, at al Asad Marine Corps Air Station in Iraq, when Tim was covering Marine operations there during the summer of 2008. In addition to his work in Marine Corps Public Affairs, Michael has a highly diversified background in media. Mike works as the U.S. Motion Picture and Television Liaison for the Marine Corps, ensuring that movies portraying Marines do so with accuracy.

Mike is another Los Angeles native who shares a common past both as a U.S. Marine and as a journalist. We at Salem-News.com sincerely appreciate Michael's valuable contributions and his highly developed skills in both writing, and press and sports photography. Email sent to our newsroom at newsroom@salem-news.com, will be forwarded to Michael Hjelmstad.

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Things that go bump in the night: Keeping Skippy safe from the Terr'ists

Janet Phelan

According to Randall Larsen, Executive Director of the WMD Center in Washington, DC, the terrorists’ next target may be your peanuts.

Yep, Larsen is staying up at night with the worry beads due to the fact that all the nation's peanuts are processed at one plant, in North or South Carolina . . . he can't remember which. According to Larsen, the centralization of this facility provides an easy target for terrorists wielding chemical or biological weapons.

Larsen is a former Colonel in the United States Air Force and is a decorated Vietnam vet.  He is a founding member of the WMD center, a not-for- profit research organization, along with former Senators Bob Graham (D-FL) and Jim Talent (R-MO). Larsen is also the national security advisor at the Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and is a senior fellow at the Homeland Security Policy institute at George Washington University.

In a recent telephone interview, Larsen opined that food terrorism is one the most significant threats faced by the nation.

California’s Public Guardians: Eager to Lock You Up and Steal Your Money

Ruth Hull

You've spent your life building up some assets and you think they are secure. Or you got an inheritance and you think it’s yours. Where there is money, there are vultures ready to steal it. Among the most dangerous vultures are Public Guardians and conservators, who are willing to lock you away to steal your money. Judges simply look the other way and give them carte blanche to do as they please with your life, your property and your future. With a stroke of the pen and the elimination of one dangerous government office, Jerry Brown could save the people of California, hundreds of millions of dollars and protect the state’s seniors, their heirs and their assets. 

In Orange County, California, we have had a changing of the guard. That’s because John Williams, the last Public Guardian and Peggy Buff, his second in command, lost their positions after they got caught ripping off Orange County residents. Since Peggy Buff was the District Attorney’s fiancée, seniors were powerless to protect themselves. Williams apparently thought his sole responsibility was to grab the assets of senior citizens to help with his department’s budget shortfall. When this was exposed, the public thought they could do better.

ITHACA Report to the UN on US Human Rights

Anthony Freda Art

ITHACA submitted a report in 2010 to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) concerning the human rights record of the United States and focused on two issues. The first issue concerned the revocation of rights taking place in state superior courts under the mantle of adult guardianships, impacting the elderly and disabled.

The second issue we covered concerned attacks by the US government on human rights defenders.

This report for the 2015 UPR of the human rights record of the United States will focus on the progress of these two issues.

Streamlining the Process to Split Your Mind

image source

Janet Phelan

The recent Colorado shootings have raised concerns as to the possibility that James Holmes may be the latest in a series of Manchurian candidate-type experiments. The techniques to create a person acting unconsciously under the orders of others have been greatly streamlined in recent years.

The MK ULTRA programs intended to create the “perfect spy,” according to many pundits. MK ULTRA was purportedly abandoned in the late 1970s after the Church hearings, when the widespread nature of these human experimentation programs was brought to Congressional attention. Many of the programs, as revealed during these hearings, utilized drugs and other chemical agents.

The 1996 publication of the book, The Illuminati Formula to Create an Undetectable Mind Controlled Slave, by Fritz Springmeier and Cisco Wheeler, reawakened widespread concerns that the MK ULTRA programs had not been terminated. The book detailed a system of trauma-based mind control, harkening back to the human experiments done in Nazi Germany as the genesis for the recent efforts to create a crop of “mind controlled slaves.” The book became a cult sensation and in his introduction to the book, Springmeier alleged there were over 40,000 such “mind-controlled” individuals within the borders of the United States.

Obama orders targeted assassination of another U.S. citizen?

FreakingNews.com

Janet Phelan, Contributing Writer

Activist Post

Judicial Reform activist, Bill Windsor, has just added his name to the list of political activists reportedly targeted for assassination by the U.S. Government.

William M. Windsor was informed yesterday by a reliable source that he may be targeted for assassination by the U.S. Government.  Windsor is an activist seeking to stop government corruption and judicial corruption.

Windsor was a guest on a radio talk show on Republic Broadcasting on Thursday, May 12.  Following the radio show, Windsor was contacted by a known, reliable source who informed him that the U.S. government may be targeting him for assassination.

LAPD Moves to Further Restrict Public Oversight

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Janet Phelan 

Salem-News

In a startling reversal of an established transparency policy, the Los Angeles Police Department has refused a recent routine records request, citing a 1993 court case, County of Los Angeles v. Superior Court (Kusar).

The Kusar case affirmed the public's right to view contemporaneous records and the LAPD has cited this case in its refusal to release a record which is only nine months old. Coupled with the restrictions contained in Government Code 6254, which inhibits the disclosure of issues under investigation, the PD has effectively locked down information about any and all police records.

The specific issue surrounds a request made by this reporter on March 9, 2011 for the report pertinent to the detention of a Los Angeles resident. Jeannie Tanaka was taken into custody on June 10, 2010 upon an allegation that she had violated a Restraining Order. Tanaka was apparently released prior to being booked, after the Beverly Hills PD discovered that there was no Restraining Order in effect.

"See Something, Say Something?" Please Do!! Requesting your input to save lives

Janet Phelan

This reporter is actively soliciting the input of veterans -- or civilians who have had access to military bases -- to determine the accuracy of allegations that biological and/or chemical weapons are being warehoused on US military bases. If you have been on military bases and have seen large vats of liquid being stored please contact me to tell me what you have witnessed.

The United States government maintains that it has destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles and that, in accordance with the Biological Weapons Convention, is not stockpiling biological weapons. Recent investigations have indicated that this is a false assertion. (Source) 

A civilian contractor with a security clearance has come forward to allege that Sierra Army Depot has been storing large vats of liquid. The spokesperson for Sierra has denied this. When questioned as to what sorts of liquids were being stockpiled at Sierra Army Depot, a spokesperson for The Department of Homeland Security, Dr. Daniel Gerstein, denied the very existence of Sierra Army Depot, which is located in Herlong, California. (Source)

Investigations have indicated that the United States of America is stockpiling these weapons with the intent to deploy them domestically. (Source)

I am requesting that anyone who has witnessed what may be biological and/or chemical stockpiles on military bases to come forward right away. There are indicators that there may be deployment before the end of 2013.

If you have information pertinent to this request, please contact Janet Phelan at janetcphelan@yahoo.com. Every email concerning this issue will be responded to. If you do not receive a reply from me, please assume that it was not delivered and resend it.

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Reuters Spins Flu Story

Janet C. Phelan

In an article entitled, "Flu reaches epidemic level in U.S., says CDC", reporter Sharon Begley pumps up alarm concerning the virulent and epidemic nature of the current flu sweeping the country. However, the report admits it lacks documentation of the very numbers it purports to use to buttress its claims.

While the Reuters article, published on January 11, solemnly announces that a pandemic is officially at play when the flu achieves a rate of 7.2 % of deaths during a time period, it also earnestly states that there is no definitive count of the total deaths caused by the flu.

Wait a minute here. The lead paragraph of this story stated: “Influenza has officially reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with 7.3 percent of deaths last week caused by pneumonia and the flu, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.”

So the exact percentage of deaths caused by flu is known but the number of flu deaths is not?

Inspector General Refuses to Investigate Bioweapons Cover-up

Janet C. Phelan, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The Inspector General for the United States Department of Justice has declined to investigate false and misleading statements made by a DOJ employee concerning domestic legislation which appears to violate an international bioweapons treaty.

In a recent unsigned letter, issued on DOJ stationary, the IG's office refused to look into written statements made by Dean Boyd, Press officer for the DOJ, wherein he made an incorrect legal citation when asked to comment on the perception that Section 817 (The Expansion of the  Biological Weapons Statute) of the U.S. Patriot Act violates the International Bioweapons Convention (BWC). The BWC was signed by the U.S. in 1972 . Boyd was specifically asked to comment on 817, but denied the violation, instead referring this reporter to the law which 817 amended, which is 18 USC Section 175. When his error was pointed out, he shut down all communications with this reporter, writing: “We have nothing further for you.”

Action Alert: Protest in front of San Bernardino Court, August 9

Janet Phelan
Activist Post

The petition to determine title in the conservatorship of Lois Risse will be heard at 10:30 am in Department S16P (Hangin Judge Welch's court) this coming Thursday, August 9. We will be out again with many more numbers than the last time we protested in front of this court in June.

The issue at hand here is that Risse's conservator, Melodie Scott, is seeking to overturn a deed of sale which was duly notarized nearly thirty years ago, when Risse was a spring chicken in her early seventies. She sold her home in Yucaipa to a friend, Glenn Neff, with the understanding she could live in the house for the rest of her life. Neff has been maintaining the house and also paying the insurance.

Fast forward to 2012 and Risse is now conserved. Conservator Scott wants that house returned into the conservatorship so that she can bleed the money out of the house in a reverse mortgage, to pay for her services. 

We all need to pay attention to this case. It is truly precedent setting.

Are we gonna get our rights back?

Dees Illustration

Janet C. Phelan, Contributing Writer

Activist Post 

With this assassination of Osama bin Laden under his belt, President Obama has fulfilled yet another of his campaign promises. It was during the Presidential debates when then Presidential-hopeful Obama solemnly declared: "We will track down Osama bin Laden and kill him."

And it was at that precise moment that my decision was made--I would not be casting my vote for Barrack Obama.

The issue of who initiated the attacks of 9/11 has deeply polarized the U.S. and it is not the intent of this reporter to dive into that briarpatch at this point in time. Rather, it is the implications of his statement that merit revisiting-- that a man who would be President expressed such disdain for our legal system, a system which vehemently protects the accused until he is proven guilty in a court of law.  And to add to my growing unease, this Presidential hopeful proudly declared himself to be a Constitutional scholar.

By making that declaration during his bid for the Presidency, Obama was clearly pandering to the deep psychic wound inflicted on the United States by the events of September 11.  Obama played a psychological card with his kill-call, a card which revealed an opportunistic mindset which considers Constitutional protections to be irrelevant

And I remember wondering, who will he go after next?

Man held in mental health detention to finally get a trial — or will he?

image source

Janet Phelan

Charlie Castle, who has been battling to get his day in court since he was grabbed off the street by two workers from the San Bernardino mental health court over a year ago, may finally get to see a judge today.  

Charlie’s plight has raised disturbing questions as to the reasons for the zealousness with which he was systematically robbed of all of his rights, including his right to have a jury trial on his alleged mental health issues.  Speculations have run the gamut—from rumors of enormous wealth inherited by Castle, who has been homeless for over a decade, to speculations that his detention augurs further sweeps to detain the homeless.

Whatever the rationale behind Charlie Castle’s detention, one thing is certain. Government agencies are bending over backwards to ignore their mandates to investigate his allegations of deprivation of rights. San Bernardino Adult Protective Services and the California Long Term Care Ombudsman's offices were recently added to the list of those who are pledged to protect the vulnerable elderly and have, in fact, refused to do their job -- as far as Charlie Castle goes.

South Africa’s ''Dr. Death'' Again Evades Sentencing

Janet Phelan

In a last minute strategic move by counsel, Dr. Wouter Basson’s sentencing by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has again been delayed. 

Basson, who was found guilty by the HPCSA in 2013 of acting unprofessionally as the director of the apartheid government’s biological and chemical warfare unit, Project Coast, may have had one of the longest running trials in history. The initial complaints against him were filed with the medical board in 2000, only to be delayed until the conclusion of his criminal trial in Pretoria High Court. 

As director of Project Coast in the eighties and early nineties, Basson allegedly provided assassination chemicals to members of the South African Defence Force, and, according to testimony heard in the criminal case, was involved in 229 murders. In addition, he was charged with embezzlement, drug trafficking and possession of illegal drugs. When he was arrested in 1997, he had more than 1000 Ecstasy tablets in his possession. 

Trapped in a Killing Field: MIT study suggests travel restrictions in the event of an epidemic

Janet Phelan

A study published in The Royal Society Interface by researchers at MIT may influence policy as to potential travel restrictions in an epidemic.

The study suggests that such restrictions will slow the progress of a pandemic. What is implicit in the paper's recommendations is that people may be confined—quarantined in fact—to a heavily affected area, thus reducing their individual chances to survive but also mitigating the spread of the contagion.

As reported in Bioprepwatch, the study “compared contagion rates in two scenarios, one with travel restrictions and one without the restrictions. Previous research showed that individuals who become aware of an epidemic travel by taking the shortest route to avoid infected areas, even if they are already infected. The behavior, known as selfish behavior in game theory, exposes people in uninfected areas to disease.” Using computer modeling, the study tracked a hypothetical infectious disease as it advanced through commuting networks in the contiguous U.S.A.

The study failed, however, to account for or mention the fact that the U.S. has been mined—booby trapped—with bio/chem warfare delivery systems.

NSA: There’s a Spy in my Soup!

Janet Phelan

Okay, we now know that our phone calls are being monitored. Snowden has made it clear that none of our electronically conveyed communications are secure from NSA snooping. But to find that they are now listening to our potato chips? 

As revealed recently in an article in MIT News, technology has been developed which would allow our relentlessly nosy government to pick up voice prints from a bag of potato chips, a glass of water, a window or potted plant. 

This is how it works: 

South Africa’s “Dr. Death” Again Evades Sentencing

Janet Phelan

Dr. Wouter Basson, whose work as head of the South African apartheid government’s biological and chemical warfare unit earned him the nickname “Dr. Death,” has again evaded sentencing. 

Basson was first arrested in 1997, following the dissolution of the apartheid government. His much publicized trial in Pretoria High Court in the years 1999-2002 produced outcries of judicial bias by his prosecutors. With 200 witnesses against him, who testified to his involvement in multiple assassinations as well as fraud and embezzlement during his tenure as head of Project Coast, Dr. Basson was the sole witness in his defense. He was acquitted of all sixty seven charges against him. The legal contortions executed by the Judge Hartzenberg—all resulting in Basson’s acquittal—eventuated in the State moving to have the judge recused. Hartzenberg, however, refused to step down from the case. 

The Law. Vs. The Law: Is Another Murder Taking Place Now in San Bernardino County?

Dees Illustration

Janet Phelan

Actually, in the doublespeak of conservatorship lingo, the conservator doesn’t actually “kill” or “murder” the conservatee. What she does is make an “end of life decision” for her ward.

Such a decision may involve the disallowal of medicine for a ward who is ill with a treatable disease. When Elizabeth Fairbanks fell ill with pneumonia,conservator Melodie Scott made an “end of life decision” and ordered the withholding of antibiotics and, just to give that little extra push into the grave, okayed that the elderly woman be dosed with morphine. Morphine retards respiration and may, in fact, stop a person's breathing.

Helpless and without legal standing to intervene, Fairbanks’ children watched in horror as their mother struggled to breathe, then stopped breathing forever.

The Politics of the Human Heart

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Janet C. Phelan

When I was in grade school, the alarms would begin and, whether we were in instruction or at lunch or recess, we knew what those sirens meant. We would put down whatever was in our hands -- pencils, forks, a softball -- and file into the auditorium. There we would put our heads between our knees, cover our little necks with our forearms and wait for either doomsday or the all clear.

Some little girls would always begin to sob. We never knew whether it was a drill or not until the all clear sounded.

Unlike so many of my classmates, I was never worried. A small voice inside me told me there was no real danger from Soviet missiles and, bolstered by this, I remained aloof, calm.

But the small still voice told me something else. Later, it told me. The danger will come later.

We are no longer children, those of us who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Red Threat. We have accumulated layers of knowledge, wisdom and, unlike seven year olds unable to quite stifle their terror, we have learned methods to deal with a sense of imminent threat.

Or have we?