you just can’t beat mother nature for all things beautiful

http://www.ustream.tv/exploredecoraheaglesnorthnest

On Thu, Apr 13, 2017 at 5:03 AM, chicago summer <summer.chicago@yahoo.com> wrote:

I hope you all seen how City of Chicago officers who serve O’Hara airport, helped United Airline to abuse a paying customer whom they violently dragged from the plane to accommodate “more important” passengers.

The accident clearly illustrates how lawless is our City and how helpless are people who are facing oppression and abuses from a more powerful party, usually a corporation.

This precedent very much reminded me our Courts where more powerful and better funded parties get full support, regardless how malicious and unlawful are their actions. Basically, the ARDC and Jerome Larkin were those “officers” who  “dragged” Lanre Amu, Ken Ditkowsky and you from the legal profession in the same manner as the passenger from United, regardless of all rights.

According to the eyewitness, city officers were even laughing at the victim of their abuses! I am sure that judges are also laughing at us, too, when they attack us with their threats from the bench, and disbar lawyers, totally confident in their impunity.

 I don’t know how many millions will Dr. Dao demand from the City of Chicago but I am absolutely confident  that these money (as well as defense costs) will be paid by us while all responsible parties will retain their seats in the public offices.

“The passenger dragged from his seat aboard a Sunday night flight at O’Hare International Airport took the first step toward potential legal action against United Airlines or the city on Wednesday. David Dao, who has retained a high-powered personal injury lawyer, asked the Cook County Circuit Court for an order requiring United and the city of Chicago to keep all video, cockpit recordings and other reports from the flight, along with the personnel files of the Aviation Department officers who pulled Dao from the plane. The request was filed a few hours before the Chicago Department of Aviation said it had placed two more officers on administrative leave until further notice as a result of the incident.”

“The disgusting mishandling of the situation included everyone from the rude ticket agent who demanded that this man give up his seat on the flight United overbooked, to one of the officers laughing in the midst of the incident, to the violent, abusive way the passenger was dragged off the plane by the officer. It was the worst possible model for my students, and frankly, was traumatizing to many of us who watched this from such close proximity.

What are we modeling for our children? Are we teaching our children to scream at other people, to jump quickly to force if we can’t get the results we want, to use violence to solve problems, to have total disrespect for other people?

I was appalled at how United Airlines and the officers handled the situation, but I was also encouraged by my fellow passengers’ attempts to interfere — despite how helpless we all felt. Some passengers audibly protested to the officers, some stood and removed themselves from the plane rather than continue to witness the abuse, and one father, while trying to console his 8-year-old daughter, confronted the officer saying, among other things, “you ought to be ashamed of yourself!” These are the models of which I hope our children will see more.

I was on United flight 3411. Here’s what I saw.

While the old phone numbers from Comcast are waiting to be ported, I have some new ones that if I am not there, they go to voice mail and the voice mail is emailed to me.

See my new contact us page:

Contact Us:

Ms. Joanne Denison, Patent Attorney, suspended for 3 years for blogging honestly about corruption in Cook County, Illinois
Cell: (773) 255 7608
email:Joanne@DenisonLaw.com

or Joanne@Justice4Every1.com

Webmaster
email:webmaster@denisonlaw.com

NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS!:
5330 W. Devon Ave, Suite 6
Chicago, IL 60646
Phone:(312) 946-2005 and (312) 946-2004

Fax:(888) 350-0192

Our phone now has voice to email so I will get your voice mails right away!

Yeah for Matt my son that set this up.

Volunteers:

Tony Phillips and Linda Scully

NOTE: If you do not see a name listed under “contact us”, it is because that person is not associated with our firm. All our employees are promptly listed on this page, and removed when they leave our firm.

And why wasn’t she disbarred.  For sure this is how the Nazi’s started.

yep he sure did and you can watch bev cooper talk about it on her shows.  Go to you tube and search for our names, “joanne denison” and “bev cooper” and “north shore live” and “ken Ditkowsky”.  JL is an evil, evil man.  File a complaint against Miriam Solo aka Solotevich and see how it gets dismissed.

Address is 122 N Mullingar Court in Schaumberg.  Call or text her directly Daiva 707 701 4444.

Thanks. The sheriffs just came out and she is in desperate need for assistance.

We all know that corrupt cases are sealed left and right up and down.  We also know in Chicago, in years past, the Office of Public Guardian had mysterious fires and also City Hall had mysterious fires where only half a floor of records would always burn — only the City half and not the County Half.

I also still have litigants unable to get unconstitutionally sealed cases and transcripts unsealed after many long months.  In Cook County, apparently after you get the order unsealing an unconstitutionally sealed court case file, then the paper file mysteriously disappears and even more mysterious, the computer file suddenly becomes unable to print.

You would not believe the files I have heard that are secreted away, found elsewhere and will not print.

In Cook County, apparently our case files have wings to fly away, legs to walk away and magnets to make them unable to print.

I am sure other jurisdictions have these problems were files or portions of files disappear, files or portions of files are suddenly unprintable, but my favorite is the lawyer that is somehow running around with a missing file (true story) and the judge gets livid, but really does nothing in the end.  Go figure.

So for all of you out there with the complaints of files with wings and legs and only certain attorneys are allowed a take home assignment with a court file, this one is for you.

MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF PROPOSED INTERVENOR PUBLIC
CITIZEN’S MOTION TO UNSEAL
In a case that has been the subject of national media attention, this court ordered
on June 7, 2007, that “the balance of all proceedings . . . shall be filed under
seal.” Consent Order, June 7, 2007. The court’s order states that the subject of the
order was heard during a case management conference on June 1, 2007, that it was
supported by “good cause,” and that all counsel consented to its entry. Id. Other
than these perfunctory statements, there is no indication in the public record of
why the court ordered the case sealed. Nor is there any indication of whether the
court found that the parties’ interest in the secrecy of any particular filings outweighed
the public’s presumptive right of access.
The court’s umbrella sealing order violates the well-established rule in New
Jersey that courts “must examine each document individually and make factual
findings with regard to why the presumption of public access has been overcome.”
Hammock v. Hoffmann-LaRoche, Inc., 142 N.J. 356, 382, 662 A.2d 546, 559 (N.J.
1995). Accordingly, proposed intervenor Public Citizen respectfully requests that
the court unseal all filings or portions of filings for which the court has not made
findings that concrete interests in secrecy outweigh the public’s right to know. In
particular, the court should unseal any orders and opinions explaining the justification
for its decision to seal the case so that Public Citizen can, if necessary, effectively
challenge the adequacy of that justification.
2
BACKGROUND
This case involves a suit by Antonia Verni, who was injured by a drunk
driver when she was two years old, against the driver, Daniel Lanzaro, and various
businesses that served Lanzaro alcohol prior to the accident. The background of the
case is set out in the accompanying memorandum in support of Public Citizen’s
motion to intervene.
ARGUMENT
The public has a presumptive right of access to judicial records that can be
overcome only by a strong showing of an important countervailing interest. The
heavy burden of this showing is on the party opposing disclosure and must be
made with specificity on a document-by-document basis. In this case, there are no
motions by the parties or decisions by the court in the public record supporting the
decision to seal the case. Because important public interests mandate disclosure of
the filings and no countervailing interests justify keeping them secret, the court
should unseal all pleadings, transcripts, exhibits, and other documents filed in the
case. Even if the parties can meet their burden as to specific materials, however,
the court should unseal any documents—in redacted form if necessary—for which
the parties’ burden has not been met. At the least, the court should unseal its own
decisions in the case, including any orders granting the parties’ motion to seal.
3
I. The Common Law, Rules of Court, and the First Amendment Create a
Presumptive Right of Public Access to Court Filings.
There is a strong “presumption of public access to documents and materials
filed with a court in connection with civil litigation.” Hammock, 142 N.J. at 375,
662 A.2d at 556; see also In re Cendant Corp., 260 F.3d 183, 192 (3d Cir. 2001).
This presumption arises both from the common-law right of access and from New
Jersey court rules requiring decisions to seal the record or to enter protective orders
to be supported by “good cause.” R. 1:2-1, 4:10-3; Hammock, 142 N.J. at 367-68,
662 A.2d at 551-52.
Court filings are part of the public record when they have “been filed with
the court, or otherwise somehow incorporated or integrated into a . . . court’s adjudicatory
proceedings.” Cendant, 260 F.3d at 192; Hammock, 142 N.J. at 381, 662
A.2d at 559. Thus, the public record includes all “documents, transcripts, and legal
memoranda with attachments filed with the court.” Hammock, 142 N.J. at 361, 662
A.2d at 548. It also includes settlement agreements, at least as long as the settlement
has been filed. See Bank of Am. Nat’l Trust & Sav. Ass’n v. Hotel Rittenhouse
Assocs., 800 F.2d 339, 343-45 (3d Cir. 1986) (holding that a settlement filed with
the court was a public record); Jackson v. Del. River & Bay Auth., 224 F. Supp. 2d
834, 838-40 (D.N.J. 2002) (holding that a draft settlement agreement and transcript
of proceedings where the draft was discussed were public documents).
4
The presumption of public access “disallows the routine and perfunctory
closing of judicial records.” Cendant, 260 F.3d at 193-94. Before records can be
sealed, the party advocating secrecy must meet its “burden of showing that the material
is the kind of information that courts will protect” and that “disclosure will
work a clearly defined and serious injury.” Id. at 194 (internal quotations omitted).
Only specific and identifiable privacy interests, such as genuine trade secrets,
privilege, or interests created by statute or court rule justify sealing the record in
civil cases. Baxter Int’l, Inc. v. Abbott Labs., 297 F.3d 544, 546 (7th Cir. 2002);
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. v. FTC, 710 F.2d 1165, 1178 (6th Cir. 1983).
“Broad allegations of harm, unsubstantiated by specific examples or articulated
reasoning, are insufficient.” Hammock, 142 N.J. at 381-82, 662 A.2d at 559; Cendant,
260 F.3d at 194.
Even assuming that the parties satisfy their burden of identifying a compelling
privacy interest, they must still show that the interests in secrecy substantially
outweigh the strong public presumption of access. Hammock, 142 N.J. at 381, 662
A.2d at 559; Cendant, 260 F.3d at 194. This balancing process must be conducted
separately for each document to be sealed. Hammock, 142 N.J. at 381-82, 662 A.2d
at 559. Moreover, “to have the least intrusive effect on the public’s right-ofaccess,”
an entire document should not be sealed when it is possible to redact just
the private information. Hammock, 142 N.J. at 382, 662 A.2d at 559.
5
In addition to the common-law right of access, the First Amendment provides
a right of access to judicial decisions and other sorts of filings in civil cases.
N.J. Div. of Youth & Family Servs. v. J.B., 120 N.J. 112, 119-123, 576 A.2d 261,
264-66 (N.J. 1990); Publicker Indus., Inc. v. Cohen, 733 F.2d 1059, 1067-71 (3d
Cir. 1984). The presumption of openness under the First Amendment is even
stronger than the common-law presumption and can be overcome only by showing
“an overriding interest based on findings that closure is essential to preserve higher
values and is narrowly tailored to serve that interest.” Publicker, 733 F.2d at 1073
(internal quotation omitted); In re Providence Journal Co., 293 F.3d 1, 11 (1st Cir.
2002).1
II. The Interests of the Public in Access to Court Filings Mandate Disclosure
in This Case.
Because of the strong public presumption of openness, Public Citizen need
not offer any particular justification for the public’s right of access to all the filings
in this case. Regardless of the particularities of the case, public access to the
1 All the federal courts of appeals to have decided the question have held
that the First Amendment protects access to civil filings. See Grove Fresh Distribs.
v. Everfresh Juice Co., 24 F.3d 893, 897 (7th Cir. 1994); Rushford v. New Yorker
Magazine, Inc., 846 F.2d 249, 253 (4th Cir. 1988); Westmoreland v. CBS, Inc., 752
F.2d 16, 23 (2d Cir. 1984); Publicker, 733 F.2d at 1067-71; Brown & Williamson
Tobacco Corp., 710 F.2d at 1177; Newman v. Graddick, 696 F.2d 796, 801-02
(11th Cir. 1983).
6
court’s files serves important societal values. Court openness “promotes public
confidence in the judicial system by enhancing testimonial trustworthiness and the
quality of justice dispensed by the court” and by “assur[ing] that judges perform
their duties in an honest and informed manner.” Cendant Corp., 260 F.3d at 192
(internal quotations omitted). It also “provides the public with a more complete
understanding of the judicial system and a better perception of its fairness.” Id. Indeed,
the public’s ability to access civil trials is “inherent in the nature of our democratic
form of government.” Publicker, 733 F.2d at 1069.
Although establishing the right of public access does not require any showing
as to the particular public-interest value of the case, the circumstances of this
case make public access especially important. In its first round through the courts,
the case led to the largest alcohol-liability award in the United States in at least
twenty-five years. Verdict Against Stadium Beer Vendor Overturned, Chi. Trib.,
Aug. 4, 2006, at 16. This large verdict led to extensive national discussion and debate.
Hundreds of articles and editorials were written about the case, including articles
in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune,
Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, and USA Today.
When, as here, the subject matter of the litigation is of interest to the public,
the public’s presumptive right of access is strengthened. See Pansy v. Borough of
Stroudsburg, 23 F.3d 772, 788 (3d Cir. 1994) (“If a settlement agreement involves
7
issues or parties of a public nature, and involves matters of legitimate public concern,
that should be a factor weighing against entering or maintaining an order of
confidentiality.”).
The importance of openness in this case is further amplified by the issues of
public health and safety involved. See Hammock, 142 N.J. at 379, 662 A.2d at 558
(“[T]here is a profound public interest when matters of health, safety, and consumer
fraud are involved.”); Pansy, 23 F.3d at 787. The case sparked a national
debate about the “culture of intoxication” at ballparks, and much of the media coverage
speculated that the case would be a “wake up call” to teams and stadiums
that would lead to reforms. See, e.g., Tom Fitzgerald, A Sobering Reality for NFL
Concessionaires, S.F. Chron., Sept. 25, 2005, at D3; Robert Dvorchak, ‘Culture’ of
Drinking, Sports Is Given a Sobering Revision, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Apr. 3,
2005, at D1; Mark Maske, Ruling May Affect Team Policies, Wash. Post, Jan. 22,
2005, at D3. The Vernis’ attorney, David Mazie, said the verdict “sends an appropriate
message, and hopefully will make a difference at arenas across the country.”
David Porter, Jury Awards $75M in Damages from Crash, USA Today, Jan. 19,
2005. That message, however, and any deterrent value the settlement might have
had, is lost as long as the settlement is kept secret.
Finally, the fact that the case involved approval of a settlement involving a
minor increases the importance of public access. This is not a typical settlement
8
agreement, which is never filed in court and is essentially just a private contract between
the parties. See Pansy, 23 F.3d at 776. Rather, because this case involves a
minor, Rule 4:44-3 requires the court to “determine whether the settlement is fair
and reasonable as to its amount and terms.” R. 4:44-3. This requirement of judicial
approval increases the importance of public oversight to ensure fairness of the
process. See Jessup v. Luther, 277 F.3d 926, 929 (7th Cir. 2002) (“The public has
an interest in knowing what terms of settlement a . . . judge would approve and
perhaps therefore nudge the parties to agree to.”); Bank of Am., 800 F.2d at 345;
Stephens v. County of Albemarle, 422 F. Supp. 2d 640, 644 (W.D. Va. 2006).
Thus, whereas “a competent adult, whose settlement need not be judicially approved,
is free to negotiate a ‘private’ settlement[,] in the case of a minor or incompetent,
the requirement of judicial approval of the settlement forecloses, in the
ordinary case, the plaintiff’s privacy option.” Hammock, 142 N.J. at 368, 662 A.2d
at 552 (internal quotation omitted); see, e.g., Zukerman v. Piper Pools, Inc., 256
N.J. Super 622, 607 A.2d 1027 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 1992) (unsealing a minor’s
settlement where the presumption of access was not overcome). Courts
should not make decisions about the fairness of settlements without public oversight,
and the public cannot judge the fairness of a settlement—or of the court’s
decision approving the settlement—if they cannot see it.
9
III. No Countervailing Interests Support Keeping the Motions Under Seal.
Nothing in the public record explains the perceived need for secrecy in this
case or how this need outweighs the public’s strong interest in access to public
documents. Public Citizen therefore only can speculate as to the reasons that led
the court to seal the case file. Nevertheless, there are two reasons to believe that the
parties cannot show a compelling interest in secrecy here.
First, the court’s order requires prospective sealing of all future documents
in the case. It thus covers documents that had not even been filed at the time of the
order, for which the court could not possibly have made a determination that privacy
interests outweighed the presumption of public access. Courts strongly disfavor
umbrella sealing orders that fail to account for the circumstances of individual
documents. See Pansy, 23 F.3d at 786-87 (“The burden of justifying the confidentiality
of each and every document sought to be covered by a protective order remains
on the party seeking the order.”); Hammock, 142 N.J. at 381-82, 662 A.2d at
559 (“The need for secrecy must be demonstrated with specificity as to each document.”);
see, e.g., Public Citizen v. Liggett Group, Inc., 858 F.2d 775, 790 (1st Cir.
1988) (rejecting a blanket protective order that “extend[ed] broad protection to all
documents . . . without a showing of good cause for confidentiality as to any individual
documents”). The court’s sealing order in this case disregards this requirement
of an individualized determination.
10
Second, the case has already been through a four-week public trial that was
the subject of national press coverage. Any previously private or confidential facts
are thus probably already in the public record. The only facts that are likely not to
have already been made public are the terms of the settlement agreement itself, but
courts have repeatedly stressed that an agreement to secrecy as a term of a settlement
cannot trump the public’s right to know. See Lederman v. Prudential Life Ins.
Co., Inc., 385 N.J. Super. 307, 311, 897 A.2d 362, 365 (N.J. Super. App. Div.
2006) (“[P]arties’ contractual agreements do not outweigh the presumption of
openness that applies to court proceedings and filed documents.”); see also, e.g.,
Union Oil Co. v. Leavell, 220 F.3d 562, 567 (7th Cir. 2000) (“Calling a settlement
confidential does not make it a trade secret . . . .”); Bank of Am., 800 F.2d at 345-
46 (holding that the parties’ private confidentiality agreement could not bar access
to a settlement in the public record). The parties may argue that secrecy was an essential
element of their agreement, but the public’s right of access to documents
that have been filed with the court cannot be bargained away by the parties. See
Bank of Am., 800 F.2d at 345; see also Nault’s Auto Sales, Inc. v. Am. Honda Motor
Co., 148 F.R.D. 25, 44 (D.N.H. 1993) (“The decision to seal pleadings and
documents filed with the Court is not one properly left to the litigants themselves.”).
Thus, “[i]t is immaterial whether the sealing of the record is an integral
part of a negotiated settlement between the parties, even if the settlement comes
11
with the court’s active encouragement.” Brown v. Advantage Eng’g, Inc., 960 F.2d
1013, 1016 (11th Cir. 1992).
IV. At the Very Least, the Court Should Unseal Its Orders and Opinions in
the Case, Including Any Order Authorizing Sealing the Record.
Even if the court does not unseal all documents in the file, it should, at a
minimum, unseal all of its orders and opinions in the case. In particular, the court
should publicly release any documents that explain its rationale for sealing the case
file.
The public’s right of access to judicial decisions is especially strong. Hicklin
Eng’g, L.C. v. Bartell, 439 F.3d 346, 348 (7th Cir. 2006) (“[R]edacting portions of
opinions is one thing, secret disposition is quite another.”); BBA Nonwovens Simpsonville,
Inc. v. Superior Nonwovens, LLC, 303 F.3d 1332, 1335 n.1 (Fed. Cir.
2002) (citing the importance of public scrutiny on the administration of justice in
denying a motion to issue an opinion under seal); Joy v. North, 692 F.2d 880, 893
(2d Cir. 1982) (“An adjudication is a formal act of government, the basis of which
should, absent exceptional circumstances, be subject to public scrutiny.”). Because
of the importance of public access to judicial decisions, courts have upheld the
right of access even when national security interests were at stake. See, e.g., United
States v. Ressam, 221 F. Supp. 2d 1252, 1263-64 (W.D. Wash. 2002). As the court
wrote in Ressam:
12
[T]here is a venerable tradition of public access to court orders, not
only because of the inherent value in publicly announcing a particular
result, but because dissemination of the court’s reasoning behind that
result is a necessary limitation imposed on those entrusted with judicial
power. A court’s order therefore serves a function that extends far
beyond a specific case. More than merely informing the parties of the
outcome of a motion, an order also enlightens the public about the
functioning of the judicial system.
Id. at 1262. The court should therefore, at a minimum, allow access to its decisions
in the case, including its order approving the settlement.
Most importantly, the court should release any orders or opinions that justify
its decision to seal the balance of proceedings in this case. The New Jersey Supreme
Court has explained that, when a court seals a document that is part of the
public record, it “must . . . state with particularity the facts, without disclosing the
secrets sought to be protected, that currently persuade the court to seal the document
or continue it under seal.” Hammock, 142 N.J. at 382, 662 A.2d at 559; see
also Ressam, 221 F. Supp. 2d at 1263-64 (holding that protective orders sealing the
record must be released with redactions). Moreover, Rule 1:2-1 requires that the
“good cause” supporting the decision to seal a filing “shall be set forth on the record.”
R. 1:2-1. Other than the perfunctory statement that the sealing order was
supported by good cause, however, there is no indication in the public record of
this case of why the court entered its sealing order. Only by examining the court’s
rationale for sealing the file can Public Citizen effectively challenge that rationale,
both in this court and on appeal.

The establishment has a new tool in which to distort the facts – it is called the fact check.    In the elder cleansing arena the fact check is created by “panels” of lawyers who are “wired” and predetermined to find that any deviation from the accepted ‘tale’ is a lie.   Thus, when confronted by the fact that Mary Sykes was openly and notoriously deprived of her civil and human rights by a corrupt judge (who on page 91 of her evidence deposition admitted her corrupt conduct) and a group of pernicious lawyers who were engaged in the nitty gritty of elder cleansing – the call for an HONEST INVESTIGATION had to be confronted.   It was by calling a fact that every one knew not to be fact as the gospel!    This gospel by Jerome Larkin was then given a complete white wash.   Unfortunately, this white wash continues with the criminal enterprise scrambling to obfuscate the facts.

Today’s Washington Post reveals there was a cover-up (i.e. the Chemical weapons brag that was fact checked and found true and now being pointed out as not very true) as an embarrassment that is not going away quietly even with the full court press writing articles on the use of chemical weapons. (From Joanne, I don’t even understand why these manufacturers of chemical weapons are not hunted down and imprisoned, but that’s another article.  You can never, every harm another human being intentionally, or you will be responsible for them and making up the harm and the long you wait, the more debt is due, tyvm Ms. Karma).

Obfuscation and double talk are the meat and potatoes of the ESTABLISHMENT.

It is time for an Honest Investigation of the ELDER CLEANSING scandal and especially the cover-up in violation of 18 USCA 371 engaged in by the lawyer disciplinary commission (such as the Illinois attorney Registration and Disciplinary commission) and the Stat Supreme Court.

We cannot and will not do anything about the lies that our National Government told us but we are the target of the criminals in black robes and the predators who have the elderly (potentially you and me) in their sights.    These people have no conscience and qualms or fear.     Need an example!   Illinois is no the verge of BANKRUPTCY and looking desperately for funds.   The Illinois Department of Revenue appears to have no interest in collecting the taxes that Jerome Larkin owes jointly and severally because of the overt actions that he took and is still taking in pursuance of the thefts from the Estate of Gore, Tyler, Sykes, Wyman ****

The State of Illinois could be collecting taxes on the criminal income of $3 million Sykes, $9 million Lydia Tyler, $1.5 million Alice Gore, the value of a small home in Rockford for Carol Wyman,  but for someone reason it refuses so we have $110 billion in unfunded state pensions and $8 billion in current debts we cannot pay.  The Illinois Health Fund is meager and cannot provide free health care for all Illinois citizens because it is repeatedly raped by the fraudsters in health care (Seth Gillman $100 million over 5 years with fake hospice claims).

SR is an angel and a candidate for sainthood compared with the violators of the public trust in our judicial establishment in Illinois and in many of the other States of the United States of America!    IT IS TIME TO FISH OR GET OFF THE POT!

Ken Ditkowsky

www.ditkowskylawoffice.com

---

From: kenneth ditkowsky <kenditkowsky@yahoo.com>

Sent: Monday, April 10, 2017 10:02 AM
Subject: Re: LOOK NOW April 9 2017 Today on Full Measure TV on Guardian Abuse Pass it to more people hurry

It is time to take a look at:

Www.aaapg.net

Dr. Sugar has laid out the problem, and the cause for all to see.    The time to act is now!    The moron in North Korea and the idiots in Syria are threats to others, however, the miscreants portrayed at , AAAPG – Educate – Advocate – Legislate

Probate Sharks, MaryGSykes, NASGA et al are more than potentially targeting you and me – everywhere you turn they are having a profound effect on our daily lives. The high cost of health care and its 700% surcharge should not be lost in the shuffle.    The corruption in our courts is aided and abetted by the profitability of this corruption and the fact that the booty is given immunity from taxation.

Three million dollars stolen from an estate escaped all taxation in the Mary Sykes case.   One million five hundred thousand dollars escaped taxation in the Alice Gore case ******.  Eight million escaped taxation in the Tyler case and the list continues.    In fact the criminal enterprise is so profitable that Lawyer Disciplinary Commissions such as the Illinois attorney registration and disciplinary commission are devoting hundreds of hours protecting dishonest lawyers and judges from the victim public!

All that we have ever asked the Establishment for was an HONEST INVESTIGATION!   We have a better chance of having the butcher of Syria or the monster of North Korea give a positive response than we have in getting an honest shake from the 18 USCA 371 breachers of the public trust!

Ken Ditkowsky

www.ditkowskylawoffice.com

---

From: kenneth ditkowsky <kenditkowsky@yahoo.com>
To: kev pizza <kev_pizz@hotmail.com>
Cc: Probate Sharks <verenusl@gmail.com>; 
Sent: Sunday, April 9, 2017 4:39 PM
Subject: Re: LOOK NOW April 9 2017 Today on Full Measure TV on Guardian Abuse Pass it to more people hurry

let us define terms.

 

A judge determines if a litigant has met the standard of proof.   It is up to the petitioner to present evidence that proves by a preponderance of the evidence that a particular individual is incompetent and the extent and nature thereof.    If the petitioner has not met the standard of proof (clear and convincing in the case of an alleged disabled person) the judge has only one responsibility – DISMISS THE PETITION.

 

A wired or fixed  judge is one who is induced by some non-relevant incentive= such as money, friendship, promises et al to render a decision that the petitioner has met a standard of proof which the aforesaid petition has not done so.   

 

An Incompetent judge  is a judge who is biased or does not have the capacity to make an HONEST determination if the standard of proof has been presented.   An incompetent judge is not venal – however, the questioning of just how such a judge reached the bench.

 

The distinctions are important.    The guardianship appointment is necessary in many cases – not the hundreds of thousands in which it is being used for elder cleansing and unjust enrichment of certain criminal health care providers/   An easy test of competency is to ask three questions:

 

1) Do you know the objects of your bounty?

2) Do you know the extent and nature of your property?

3) can you plan and execute a simple business transaction. 

 

Thus, if Mary Sykes knew that her husband had died and she had two daughters surviving – she met the test criteria 1.   (Mary met this test when she filled out a Petition for a Protective order against her older daughter (who also was appointed her plenary guardian as the Petition for a Protective order was hidden).     Mary met test 2 with color’s flying when she on her own ascertained correctly that her older daughter had stolen several thousand dollars from her.    She met test 3 when she figured out how to obtain a Petition for an order of Protection and also when she personally did her own banking.

 

As the standard is so high – due to the Constitutional protections of both the State and Federal Jurisdiction – Judge Maureen Connor’s culpability is also noted from the Common Law Record (court file) as not only did she shirk her basic responsibility by ignoring these facts and by allowing one of the guardian ad litem to recommend a doctor who had no qualms about perjury and open and notorious violation of Civil Rights.    This subordination of perjury should be noted in the August 2009 Transcript of Proceedings in case 09 P 4585.    (Obviously – Jerome Larkin knew or should have known of this intentional violation of Mary Sykes’ Constitutional Rights – and his overt act of trying to intimidate both JoAnne Denison and I not to call this perfidy, fraud and clearly wrongful behavior  to the attention of Law Enforcement)

If Mary knew that she had a Bank account, a Safety deposit Box, owned her own home, etc – she met the test criteria 2.

Ken Ditkowsky

www.ditkowskylawoffice.com

---

From: kev pizza <kev_pizz@hotmail.com>
To: kenneth ditkowsky <kenditkowsky@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 9, 2017 1:52 PM
Subject: Re: LOOK NOW April 9 2017 Today on Full Measure TV on Guardian Abuse Pass it to more people hurry

Ken – a judge is not qualified to diagnose ‘capacity’, nor is he/she have the authority to do so.

Add another ‘wired’ Judge to the list.

K

---

From: kenneth ditkowsky <kenditkowsky@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 9, 2017 5:05 PM
To: ginny johnson
Cc:
Subject: Re: LOOK NOW April 9 2017 Today on Full Measure TV on Guardian Abuse Pass it to more people hurry

This is the possible future for every senior!

Under ADA, the judge is required to inquire as to whether or not the Petitioner could hear what was going on in the proceedings.   In addition, a Medical professional should be called upon to address the situation of the extent of any disability.    Judicial proceedings that are honest (intellectually honest) attempt to ascertain the truth.   People have a right to have different opinion, but THIS IS A SEARCH FOR HONEST OBJECTIVITY!    

The proof of incompetency must be   Clear and Convincing

Now let us apply these facts.    If the proof presented is clear and convincing that the subject is incompetent to such and such degree and we have an honest and competent jurist the objectors by definition are unreasonable and their objection is lacking in merit.

However, if we have ‘wired judges’ or incompetent judges there is a very serious CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATION that has to be remediated and arrested.

This is not fun and games – this is real life drama

Ken Ditkowsky

www.ditkowskylawoffice.com

---

From: ginny johnson <ginny.johnsoncheeserings@gmail.com>
To:

Sent: Sunday, April 9, 2017 9:44 AM
Subject: LOOK NOW April 9 2017 Today on Full Measure TV on Guardian Abuse Pass it to more people hurry

Send this to everyone hurry its to air in 30 mins. today on TV look up “Full Measure” and find your City and the Station it will be air LOOK at the Coverage – on Guardian Abuse – and how they SCAM

04/09/2017 — Sharyl: Court-appointed guardianships for incapacitated adults can do a tremendous service protecting their assets, fielding family feuds, and making difficult decisions. But some elderly feel victimized by the very system tasked with protecting them. One estimate in 2013 found 1.5 million adults were under court-ordered guardianships controlling $273 billion in personal assets. Complaints appear to be growing but it’s impossible to know for sure because there are no reliable statistics. Our cover story looks at a family claiming the guardianship system did more to hurt than help

Sharyl: This is video of Betty Winstanley, taken last year. She’s a 95 year-old living in a Pennsylvania retirement community. When her husband died in 2014, she was left with a comfortable savings. But when her three children disagreed on whether she should manage her own affairs, Betty ended up in front of a judge. Liz and David Winstanley are two of her children and told us some of the claims they’ve outlined in court documents.

David Winstanley: She was taken to court without hearing aids…she didn’t understand or hear what was going on. After the testimony, the judge ruled her incapacitated. And ordered a third party guardianship to watch over my mother.

Sharyl: And you firmly believe your mother’s mental health is perfectly fine?

David Winstanley: Absolutely.

Sharyl: Their brother, who declined to speak with us, disagrees. And so did the court, which ordered a guardianship, meant for Betty’s own good. But the arrangement is quickly depleting her life’s savings and keeping her from moving to Maryland, closer to Liz and David. Betty’s court-appointed guardian from a for-profit company controlled virtually every aspect of Betty’s life…at Betty’s own expense.

Sharyl: What are some of the expenses that you’ve seen or that you think are exorbitant?

David Winstanley: My brother called the guardian, talked to her for some amount of time. And there’s a bill showing $900 for that phone call.

Sharyl: Your mother had to pay for that? David: Yes. Sharyl: What kind of rate does she get paid?

Liz Winstanley: She initially invoiced at $300. $300 an hour for her services. And then she had a nurse. She was charging $150 for, I believe?

Sharyl: To be clear, this is on top of the care your mom already gets?

Liz Winstanley: Exactly.

Sharyl: In assisted living, that she’s paying for?

Liz Winstanley: Yes.

Sharyl: Invoices show the guardian charged Betty. $180 for an email sent to the family on Mother’s Day. More than $400 for conversations about “ownership of a French horn.” And more than two thousand dollars to discuss Christmas visits. In one five-month period, guardian bills came to more than $93-thousand dollars. After the family complained about the $300 an hour rate, the guardian refunded about half of her fees and reduced her rate to $150 an hour. When Betty’s children challenged the guardianship, the guardians’ fees were paid from Betty’s account. Court records show in one seven-month period those legal fees added up to more than $57 thousand. We weren’t able to talk to Betty ourselves. The guardian won’t allow her to speak to the media.

Betty Winstanley: You have me here and I don’t know what you’re trying to do to me.

Sharyl: David took this video of his mom shortly after the guardianship, talking to her previous guardian’s helper.

Betty Winstanley: Why are you trying to damage my life by taking me away from all of my family and my friends?

Sharyl: Betty’s current estate guardian wouldn’t agree to an interview but issued a statement saying the company is “committed to serving the best interest of its clients” and has “a high-quality standard of practice and operates under nationally accepted guardianship regulations.” In court filings and a letter, the guardian has blamed David and Liz for running up costs by challenging their mother’s guardianship. The courts have repeatedly supported the actions of Betty’s guardians. Today, Betty lives under strict, guardian-imposed restrictions intended for her own good.

Sharyl: Can your mom leave anytime she wants?

David Winstanley: No.

Sharyl: Can your mom live where ever she wants?

David Winstanley: No.

Sharyl: Can your mom go to a doctor whenever she thinks she needs to see a doctor?

David Winstanley: No. She has to go through the guardian to get permission to do that.

Sharyl: And every time she goes to the guardian, it costs more money?

David Winstanley: Yes.

Sally Humre: Very frequently there are other sides to the story.

Sharyl: Sally Hurme is with the National Guardianship Association.

Sally: That’s why it’s important for the courts to be there to exercise their supervision and their monitoring, give both sides the opportunity to air their concerns in a court of law rather than in the media.

Sharyl: She says most guardians do a competent, caring job…some as volunteers with no pay at all.

Sally Hurme: Also, very frequently, there are branches in the family. The family dynamics can be very much a part of the dissatisfaction that we hear about sometimes in the press.

Sharyl: David and Liz estimate the guardian process cost $1.9 million from Betty’s estate in less than three years, and that she has less than $40,000 left in cash. After complaints from the family, the court recently appointed Betty’s attorney to share in guardianship decisions.

Betty Winstanley: I don’t know who to go to. I’m desperate. Do you understand how I feel?

Sharyl: Can we assume most guardianships don’t go wrong? That people are pretty happy with the outcome?

Sally Hurme: Absolutely. I think the best we know is that the great majority of guardianships are helping the individual.

Sharyl: David and Liz continue to appeal to the judge in their mother’s case. And each time they do, it costs Betty since she’s forced to pay her guardian’s legal fees.

David Winstanley: It can happen to anybody. A neighbor can report you as incapacitated and take you into a guardianship. Friends, family members– attorneys, accountants, it can happen very easily. And it happens quickly. And it’s nearly impossible to break a guardianship once it’s established, especially through a state.

Liz Winstanley: It’s one thing for us, as the children, to watch mum going through this. And it’s another for her. She is absolutely devastated that she is an “incapacitated” person.

Betty Winstanley: It’s just something that’s just unreal.

Sharyl: Just a few days ago, the court replaced Betty’s personal guardian. But there’s no word on whether the new guardian will allow her to move to Maryland now that her savings are nearly gone.

My new place is a whole lot smaller, so that benefits you   I have extra book cases (Ikea and metal) file cabinets, a solid cherry futon, a large desk and conference table–and all you have to do is help me move and choose a piece from my collection that won’t fit in my new office.

Call me if you can help 773 255 7608

Lots of stuff must go, all in exchange for a small donation or moving assistance!

I hope to be up and running on Monday, blogging and writing books about corruption in the courts to make sure THERE IS JUSTICE FOR EVERYONE in our nation’s court system, and in particular, the heavily troubled Daley Center.

Right now, the Daley Center needs:  1)  brochures and flyers at the Elder Law division because they don’t really help people, I help people.

2) get ALL the pleadings of EVERY active case up and running online and let people download the files for 8 cents a page like Pacer, and if the litigant has a 298 certificate from an attorney, then copies should be for free.

3) make the random case assignment process really random and let litigants WATCH the computer when cases are assigned or reassigned.  No more “back room” with empty promises stuff (Vara v. Integra Realty–that case was wired, tyvm).

4) reinstate Ken Ditkowsky, myself and Lanre Amu because we really do help people and the “false statements” kangaroo court the ARDC is running is fooling no one.  Lanre Amu spoke out against a corrupt judge, Crain’s Chicago business verified and the ARDC took out a wonderful, kind, compassionate attorney anyway.  Every attorney at the ARDC that took part in these kangaroo trials of  “false statements” should be tested for psychopathy with a PET brain scan and removed from their positions at the ARDC. It’s time to clean up that office.  No more kangaroo trials and courts.  The ARDC has to have separate hearing officers NOT chosen by them or the Illinois Supreme Court, but they must be truly independent.  Anna Loftus was given a judgeship for taking out Ken Ditkowsky (what a croc), my fixed panel was done thru the chair being partners with a relative of the Madigans and all the court corruption blogs and even the Trib, Suntimes, Crain’s have decried the fact she covers up corruption.

It’s time to stop the nonsense and start cleaning up the courts and make Chicago honest, fair and just again.

CAll me if you can help me move or if you have free or cheap storage for the furniture that won’t fit in my new place.  We will also be giving away our extra furniture just for a donation, so if you need bookcases, desks, tables, etc., call me 773 255 7608.

thanks

Joanne

It is not safe to grow old in Illinois!  Watch Ken Ditkowsky detail the methods the guardianship courts use to wrongfully guardianize seniors with assets. They put them in locked down nursing homes against their will and drug them into a stupor to keep them from protesting and enforcing their human and civil rights.  Then miscreant attorneys drain their estates–sell everything at a discount to friends and cronies, steal most other things, often unconstitutionally seal proceedings, and then narcotize the senior or disabled to death when the money runs out.

If you were disgusted by the Kids for Cash case in Pennsylvania, this will send chills up your spine.

This video is a must see.  It tells the truth about a number of murders in the Cook County Illinois Probate System.

January 22nd 2016
Honorable Timothy C. Evans, Circuit Judge Chief Judge
Daley Center, 50 W. Washington St., Rm. 2600, Chicago, Illinois 60602
RE Notice of Judicial impropriety case 13 CH 17457, (Abramson v Abramson)
Your Honor
I am writing you at the advice of retired attorney Bernard Hammer
My name is Paul Abramson and I am the Defendant being sued in Chancery court (judicial notice case 13 CH 17457) by my father and well known Chicago attorney Floyd Abramson for alleged breach of contract arising out of the settlement of my late mother’s estate (judicial notice case 08P000335). The reason for my communication is because I believe the Judge assigned to the Chancery case, Judge Kathleen Pantle has been intentionally engaging in a course of conduct through out this case that favors the Plaintiff and is prejudicial to my case and a violation of my civil rights as follows:
1 Judge Pantle allowed without good cause for process service of the Plaintiff’s summons and complaint by electronic mail to Defendant
2.Judge Pantle denied Defendent’s motion to have the case removed to Probate court even though the probate settlement order stated it retained jurisdiction
3 Judge Pantle has granted every request the Plaintiff has made and denied all of Defendant’s other than a motion to strike which was re plead by Plaintiff.
4 Judge Pantle has made biased comments in open court including stating that the Plaintiff has breach of contract monetary damages even though none have ever been plead to date
5 Judge Pantle has given legal advice to help the Plaintiff stating they should file a Motion to Quash a scheduled deposition of one of Defendant’s s key witnesses which was thereafter filed by the Plaintiff and the motion to quash was granted by Judge Pantle.
6 During the course of this case Judge Pantle testified as a character witness in a non judicial personal matter in front of the ARDC on behalf of Plaintiff’s counsel P Andrew Fleming without ever disclosing this material fact to the Defendant or Defendant’s counsel or voluntarily recusing herself from the case. (ARDC document – relevant page attached)
7. Defendant timely filed a petition for Substitution of Judge for cause when discovering Judge Pantle had acted on behalf of Plaintiff’s counsel in a personal matter. On 1/22/16 Judge Pantle refused to allowed the petition for Substitution of Judge to be transferred to another judge for determination and instead ruled to deny it.
Therefore for and including the above reasons I respectfully request an investigation into my complaint against Judge Pantle as well as my previously filed petition for Substitution of Judge be timely transferred and determined by a third party judge, Please be advised failure to take immediate action could forever prejudice my rights. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Respectfully Submitted
Paul Abramson
Defendant
Glendale CA 91210, telephone 818-******
cc Judge Moshe Jacobius

June 24th 2016 FAX 312-814-5719
ATTENTION Kathy D Twine Executor Director and General Counsel
JUDICIAL INQUIRY BOARD
RE Judge Kathleen Pantle
Ms Twine Esq
I am in receipt of your letter of 6/13/16. When I contacted your office
regarding the closing letter I was told to “read between the lines”. Indeed
since the Judge is still on the bench I can only assume no action of reform
was ever taken.
I was very surprised under the circumstances due to the very serious
allegations raised regarding Judge Kathleen Pantle that the investigation
was closed only after being opened about a month prior. Indeed the
investigator in my opinion (Wade Crossin) did not take the matter very
seriously if at all. I had one conversation with him then he never took or
returned a phone call. I did reach him one other time but he said he was
leaving and when I asked him to attend a hearing in my case to observe the
Judge he stated he was too busy to attend. Further in his conversation with
my Counsel Ms Margaret Lundahl he made light of and was dismissive of
the numerous biased complaints lodged against this Judge (mostly from
Attorneys). The bottom line is I do not think any due diligence was used in
investigating the Judge and the fact she was removed from the Criminal
bench as well as apparently the post Judge for appeals alone should raise
red flags for investigation and action being taken. As I understand It is rare
that the JIB even investigates a Judge but to “white wash” an investigation
is not only unjust but against the public interest
Truly Yours
PAUL ABRAMSON

http://www.aarp.org/health/drugs-supplements/info-2014/antipsychotics-overprescribed.html

While this article was first published in 2014, I do not see the use of the dangerous drugs ending.  Alan Frake was such a victim and you can contact his son Gary and other family members for confirmation.  Alan Frake, prior to guardianship, was strong healthy and could carry on a conversation.  After he was guardianized and placed against his will into a locked down facility, he became a withering drooling mess.  The judge did not care (Quinn) and neither did the other attorneys (Peck and Rhodes).

Read on for more information and speak out against this horrific abuse against the elderly and their families.

DUNG HOANG

Antipsychotics may trigger serious side effects in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

En español l When Patricia Thomas, 79, went into a Ventura, Calif., nursing home with a broken pelvis, the only prescriptions she used were for blood pressure and cholesterol, and an inhaler for her pulmonary disease. By the time she was discharged 18 days later, she “wasn’t my mother anymore,” says Kathi Levine, 57, of Carpinteria, Calif. “She was withdrawn, slumped in a wheelchair with her head down, chewing on her hand, her speech garbled.” Within weeks, she was dead.

Thomas, a former executive assistant, had been given so many heavy-duty medications, including illegally administered antipsychotics, by the Ventura Convalescent Hospital in November of 2010 that she could no longer function. If one drug caused sleeplessness and anxiety, she was given a different medication to counteract those side effects. If yet another drug induced agitation or the urge to constantly move, she was medicated again for that.

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Related

• What caregivers need to know about monitoring medications for nursing home residents (PDF)
• What caregivers need to know about the use of antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes (PDF)

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“Yes, my mom had Alzheimer’s, but she wasn’t out of it when she went into the nursing home. She could dress and feed herself, walk on her own. You could have a conversation with her,” says Levine. “My mother went into Ventura for physical therapy. Instead, she was drugged up to make her submissive. I believe that my mother died because profit and greed were more important than people.”

A Ventura County Superior Court judge agreed that Levine had a legitimate complaint against the nursing home. In May, attorneys from the law firm Johnson Moore in Thousand Oaks, Calif., joined by lawyers from AARP Foundation, agreed to a settlement in an unprecedented class-action suit against the facility for using powerful and dangerous drugs without the informed consent of residents or family members. “It is the first case of its kind in the country, and hopefully we can replicate this nationwide,” says attorney Kelly Bagby, senior counsel for AARP Foundation Litigation.

A national problem

Tragically, what happened to Patricia Thomas is not an isolated incident. According to Charlene Harrington, professor of nursing and sociology at the University of California, San Francisco, as many as 1 in 5 patients in the nation’s 15,500 nursing homes are given antipsychotic drugs that are not only unnecessary, but also extremely dangerous for older patients. The problem, experts say, stems from inadequate training and chronic understaffing, as well as an aggressive push by pharmaceutical companies to market their products.

“The misuse of antipsychotic drugs as chemical restraints is one of the most common and long-standing, but preventable, practices causing serious harm to nursing home residents today,” says Toby Edelman, an attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, D.C. “When nursing facilities divert funds from the care of residents to corporate overhead and profits, the human toll is enormous.”

Kickbacks to doctors

Last November, in what the U.S. Department of Justice called “one of the largest health care fraud settlements in U.S. history,” Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries were fined more than $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil charges because of their aggressive marketing of drugs, including antipsychotics, to nursing homes, when they knew the drugs had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as safe and effective for a general elderly population. The corporation also allegedly paid kickbacks to physicians, as well as to Omnicare, the nation’s largest long-term-care pharmacy provider. Omnicare pharmacists were recommending Johnson & Johnson’s drugs, including the antipsychotic Risperdal, for use by nursing home residents.

Health Tools

• Drug Interaction Checker
• Drugs A-Z
• Drug Compare
• Drug Savings
• Pill Identifier

Back in 2009, Eli Lilly did the same thing with its antipsychotic Zyprexa, marketing to older people in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, federal prosecutors charged. In a settlement, the company agreed to pay $1.4 billion. “This case should serve as still another warning to all those who break the law in order to improve their profits,” Patrick Doyle, special agent in charge of the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Philadelphia, said at the time.

A report released in March by the inspector general of Health and Human Services charged that one-third of Medicare patients in nursing homes suffered harm, much of which was preventable. “Too many nursing homes fail to comply with federal regulations designed to prevent overmedication, giving patients antipsychotic drugs in ways that violate federal standards for unnecessary drug use,” Inspector General Daniel Levinson said. “Government, taxpayers, nursing home residents, as well as their families and caregivers, should be outraged — and seek solutions.”

Antipsychotic drugs are intended for people with severe mental illness, such as patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. As such, they carry the FDA’s black-box warning that they are not intended for frail older people or patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia. In those populations, these drugs can trigger agitation, anxiety, confusion, disorientation and even death. “They can dull a patient’s memory, sap their personalities and crush their spirits,” according to a report from the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

Kept in the dark

What’s more, the law requires “informed consent” by a patient or, if that is no longer possible, by his or her family before such drugs are administered. Yet advocates say that, all too frequently, this doesn’t happen. Levine, for example, says she didn’t know about all her mother’s medications until she transferred her mom to another facility. “When I saw the list of what she’d been given, I freaked out. I was upset and angry, in tears,” she recalls.

How can such things happen? One explanation is that many facilities don’t have enough properly trained staff: Most of the patient care in nursing homes falls to certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who need as little as 75 hours of on-the-job training to get certified. “Yet if you want a license to be a hairdresser, you need 1,500 hours of training,” Harrington points out.

What’s more, CNAs are paid low wages so many of them work long hours. “They are totally exhausted, with extremely heavy workloads,” she says. That leads to high employee turnover and caregivers who don’t know their patients well enough to recognize their needs.

Compounding the problem, many nursing home patients require a high level of care. Some are incontinent, and an estimated 60 to 70 percent have some form of dementia. There should be one CNA for every seven patients, but in some cases, the ratio is 1 to 15 — or even more, Harrington says. There also tend to be too few physicians actually present in nursing homes. “These facilities are highly medicalized, but doctors are rarely there,” says Tony Chicotel, staff attorney for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. He says that because of their low rate of reimbursement from Medicare, nursing homes are too often seen as a place where few top doctors practice.

The result of all this can be so-called behavior problems among patients — which is the explanation nursing homes cite for giving patients unnecessary antipsychotic drugs, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). And pharmaceutical companies have been aggressively marketing their products as an easy and effective way to control these issues.

“There was a push by drug manufacturers, claiming these medications work for seniors when they knew, in fact, that it doubled their risk of death,” Chicotel says.

CMS, which oversees the nursing homes that receive funding from federal programs, says it has been working to correct deficiencies in nursing facilities, including the inappropriate use of medications. The agency achieved the goal of reducing the inappropriate use of antipsychotic drugs by 15 percent over a recent two-year period, and hopes to get to a 30 percent reduction in the next few years, according to spokesman Thomas Hamilton. But Edelman points out that initial goal was reached more than a year late, and some 300,000 patients are still receiving the drugs inappropriately. Hamilton acknowledges that more needs to be done, but lack of funding from Congress is making even the most preliminary work difficult.

More on Caregiving

• Caregiving Resource Center
• Can you get paid as a caregiver?
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• Find the right care for your loved one

A better way

Fortunately, a growing number of nursing homes have begun to look for more effective — and more humane — ways to care for patients. Better training for caregivers is key: According to Cheryl Phillips, M.D., a geriatrician at LeadingAge, an organization representing nonprofit services for older people, nursing home staff can be trained to deal with behavior issues thoughtfully and creatively, without resorting to drugs.

She cites an example of a male patient who was spending his days in a noisy nursing home activity room. One day, he grew more and more agitated and tripped an aide with his cane. To calm him down, the staff took him to his private quarters. Over the following days, his behavior in the activity room became increasingly aggressive; he began randomly hitting caregivers and fellow patients. Each time, he was taken away to spend time in his room.

“The staff initially thought he had become violent and needed an antipsychotic,” Phillips recalls. “But they ultimately realized that the cacophony in the activity room was stressing him out. Caregivers inadvertently rewarded him by giving him quiet time in his room, which is what he wanted. When they did it repetitively, they reinforced his aggressive behavior.” Once the staff discussed the problem and began finding peaceful activities for the patient, the problem was solved — no drugs needed.

Putting patients first

Another success story is the Beatitudes facility in Phoenix, which dramatically changed its way of handling patients with dementia based on Tom Kitwood’s book Dementia Care Reconsidered: The Person Comes First. “What happens here is not for our systems, our convenience, but for the people we care for,” says Tena Alonzo, the director of education and research at Beatitudes. “People with dementia have disturbances in their sleep/wake cycle, so we let them be comfortable and decide when they want to sleep or eat, or not. Or how they want to spend their time,” she says. As a result, patients stop resisting care, and the facility runs more smoothly.

The Beatitudes’ philosophy is now being taught to a growing number of nursing homes around the country. “We’ve created a softer, gentler approach, acknowledging that we are not in charge of a person’s life — they are. In allowing them to retain their dignity, and adopt a comfort level of care, we’ve had better outcomes,” says Alonzo. That paradigm shift has not increased operating expenses, or required a higher staff-to-resident ratio. “We discovered that better care was better business,” Alonzo says.

For Kathi Levine and her mother, these encouraging developments are coming too late. “I want our lawsuits to impact nursing homes all over the country,” Levine says. “We need to protect our family members. They don’t have a voice, they can’t speak for themselves. So we need to speak out for them and help other people know what to look for. I want to make sure that what happened to my family doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

Jan Goodwin is an award-winning author and investigative journalist for national publications.

This interesting story may be found at this link:

http://www.pressreader.com/usa/usa-today-us-edition/20170331/281668254816985

The article documents how trauma can be passed from one generation to the next and how this renders a new generation of individuals who are unemployed and unemployable.  Family incest, violence, neglect, emotional detachment can seriously impair a new generation of children who simply struggle to live from day to day and who often are mired in alcoholism and addictions due to the family trauma experienced while young.

This article explores ways in which the trauma can be reduced or eliminated and the passing of trauma from one generation to another can be reversed.

I would like to thank Dr. Klimek for suggesting the article.  Foster families are not always invested for psychopathy and psychopathy like conditions when children are placed there.  Further, there is a problem with the court system that terminates parental rights often on lies, deception and inaccurate information.

We still have a long way to go in protecting children from generation to generation and this should be made a top priority.

We are moving, and any assistance packing and moving tomorrow will be greatly appreciated.  Plus we still need to raise funds for more office space and all donations are appreciated.

For those of you that can make it because you live in Chicago, we will be holding a fund raiser and you can help pack and move stuff, if you are so inclined.  If you don’t live here, you can text a check to 773 255 7608, or paypal or chase quick pay me.  The money is not for me, it’s for all the victims of court sanctioned murder and those still at risk.

I’m not exactly sure where I’m moving, but I have to get out.  Lost our lease.

Every day running a Not for Profit is always an adventure, you never know what will happen.

But this fundraiser will be in the loving memory of Jay Brouckmersch who was a lovely 94 year old woman, beloved by her daughter Joyce who doted upon her during her final days on earth.

Come and hear the story of the judge who murdered her from her courtroom on the 18th floor.  Protective daughter Joyce did everything she could during the last two weeks of her mother’s life to save her.  She was in court nearly every day begging and pleading with Judge X to help her mother and save her from certain death.  All daughter Joyce asked the court for was a blood transfusion (because a local hospital previously overdosed mom on heparin without the daughter’s consent or knowledge), plus some iV fluids to hydrate her mom. It is believed that a wrongful guardianship petition was filed by the hospital in order to prevent a malpractice suit, so the hospital filed an emergency petition for guardianship (but of course “forgot” to make sure the daughter was served or notified), then the hospital put a DNR/hospice on Mother Jay, despite the fact Mother Jay  was Roman Catholic, did not believe in any of that and the court, with a rubber stamp, suspended Joyce’s Power of Attorney and health care surrogate form.  No due process, no hearing, nothing, nada.

Next thing you know, after days of trying to get her mom to the ER, the nursing home finally gave in, mom went to the ER, but wait till you hear this one.

Mom was severely dehydrated, in acute kidney failure, was in cardiac arrhythmia from the dehydration, her whole body was shutting down from severe dehydration, so what does the OSG do? (Office of State Guardian)*  They call the ER doctor and instruct him not to treat and then to return mom to the nursing home where she dies 2 days later.

Unfreaking believable.

I am going to try to get the daughter to come, but she is beside herself with grief.  She blames herself and she believes she should have tried to kidnap her mother from the OSG to save her life.

What do YOU think? Should she have kidnapped her mother?  What about the evil psychopathic wench from the OSG that signed the murder warrant on a 94 year old desperately sick woman?

If you are a lawyer, how many crimes were committed?  Why doesn’t the FBI do anything and why do they refuse to listen to these murder cases?

When is Tim Evans going to do anything about these psychopathic judges? Why doesn’t the OSG test all their lawyers for psychopathy with a PET brain scan and boot them out if they have it?  Why doesn’t the state legislature do anything?

How many more murders will happen with the stroke of a judge’s pen and a rubber court stamp.

In any case, come hear the names of all the evil scalawags involved.

You won’t want to miss this story.

I will be glad to share with you all the gritty details.  Today, Sunday, 2 to 4 p.m.  This just goes to prove the 18th floor of the Daley center is still nothing more than a death trap for the unwary.

Joanne

• a/k/a “Office of State Ghouls”

The Door to a Revolution in Psychiatry Cracks Open

Åsgård psychiatric hospital in Tromsø, Norway is a rather tired-looking facility, its squat buildings mindful of institutional architecture from the Cold War era, and in terms of its geographic location, it could hardly be located further from the centers of western psychiatry. Tromsø lies 215 miles north of the Arctic Circle, with tourists coming during the winter months to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Yet it is in this remote outpost, on a hospital floor that had been closed but was recently refurbished, that one can find a startling sign on the door to the ward: medikamentfritt behandlingstilbud.

The translation to English: medication free treatment. And this is an initiative that the Norwegian Ministry of Health ordered its four regional health authorities to create.

The title—medication free treatment—does not precisely capture the nature of the care provided here. This is a ward for psychiatric patients who do not want to take psychiatric medications, or who want help tapering from such drugs. The governing principle on this ward, which has six beds, is that patients should have the right to choose their treatment, and that care should be organized around that choice.

“It is a new way of thinking,” said Merete Astrup, director of the medication-free unit. “Before, when people wanted help, it was always on the basis of what the hospitals wanted, and not on what the patients wanted. We were used to saying to patients, ‘this is what is best for you.’ But we are now saying to them, ‘what do you really want?’ And they can say, ‘I am free; I can decide.’”

This ward, while located far from the centers of power in western psychiatry, can be seen as a “beachhead” for dramatic change, said Magnus Hald, chief of psychiatric services at the University Hospital of North Norway. “We have to consider the patient’s perspective as equally valuable as the doctor’s perspective. If patients say this is what they want, that is good enough for me. It’s about helping people move forward in their lives in the best possible way, and we should help people move forward with the use of drugs if that is what they want, and if they want to sing a drug-free song, we should be backing them. We should be making that happen.”

As might be expected, this initiative, which has been long in the making, is roiling Norwegian psychiatry. It is a story of many dimensions: successful political organizing by user groups; pushback from academic psychiatrists; debates about the merits of psychiatric drugs; and an effort—most notably in Tromsø, but in other regions of the country too—to rethink psychiatric care.

“The debate is a lot like what you see when there is a paradigm shift threatening to happen,” Hald said.

The User Voice Is Heard

The Ministry of Health’s mandate for medicine-free treatment resulted from years of lobbying by five user organizations, which came together in 2011 to form Fellesaksjonen for Medisinfrie Behandlingsforlop (Joint Action for Drug-Free Treatment in psychiatry). What is particularly remarkable about this mandate is that it required the health ministry to override the objections of a medical profession and listen instead to a group of people that usually have little political standing in society.

When I asked the leaders of the user groups about this, they spoke—with some pride—of a political culture in Norway that strives to be inclusive of all groups. This practice has been evolving for decades, and several referred to a change in abortion law as a bellwether moment in this transformation of their society.

Prior to 1978, a woman seeking an abortion had to apply to a commission of two physicians for permission to end her pregnancy, with the application made by her physician. If married, the woman’s husband had to consent. However, with a strong feminist movement pushing for change, that year Norway passed an Abortion on Demand law, which gave the woman the right to make this choice.

That same year, Norway passed a Gender Equality Act, which stated that women and men should be given equal opportunities in education, employment, and cultural and professional advancement. Today, gender equality laws require that each gender represent at least 40% of the members of official committees, the boards of public companies, and local governmental bodies. In a similar vein, labor unions remained strong in Norway, and today businesses are expected to hold yearly meetings with their employees to discuss their operations and how they might be improved.

All of this tells of a country that was intent on creating a society where the voices of all its citizens could be heard, and this ethic spilled over into health care. It became customary for hospitals and other health care providers to set up “user councils,” with the understanding that “users should have a voice and should be listened to,” said Håkon Rian Ueland, leader of We Shall Overcome, a psychiatric survivor group. “And this isn’t only in psychiatric care. Users and the relatives of users in all areas of medicine should be listened to.”

While this provided fertile soil for the rise of user groups in psychiatry that would have access to politicians and the health ministry, their potential political power was mitigated by the fact that the various groups had different philosophies about psychiatry and the merits of its treatments. On the one hand, there was We Shall Overcome. Founded in 1968, it is best described as a psychiatric survivor group, intent on fighting—as its name indicates—for the civil rights of “ex-patients.” On the other hand, there are more moderate groups like Mental Helse, which, with its 7,500 members, is the largest mental health organization in Norway. For the longest time, these differences made it difficult for the user groups to successfully lobby the government for change.

“We don’t agree on anything,” said Anne Grethe Terjesen, leader of LPP, a national association for families and “carers” in mental health. “So the government says, ‘you want this, but there are others that want that.’ This allowed them to ignore us.”

However, during the past 15 years, all of the user groups watched with dismay as one particular aspect of modern psychiatry—an increase in forced treatment—took hold in Norway. At least one study found that Norway has the highest rate of forced treatment of any country in Europe, and such compulsory orders regularly follow discharged patients into the community, which user groups see as both shameful and horribly oppressive. Today, outpatient teams come to a person’s home to ensure compliance with an order to take medication, which can be for “life,” the leaders of the user groups said.

“That’s the problem,” Terjesen said. “Once they have documented that you have to use the medication, it is very, very difficult to come off that order. If you say you don’t want it, you can complain to a commission, but most lose there.”

Added Per Overrein, a leader with a user group called Aurora: “I have never heard of a patient winning” at a hearing.

In 2009, Grete Johnsen, a long-time mental health activist, joined with other activists to write a manifesto for change titled Cooperation for Freedom, Safety and Hope. “We wanted to create an alternative to psychiatry,” she said. “We wanted to create something of our own. Our goal was to create a place, or a center, with freedom and without forced treatment, and without medication being the center of care.”

In fairly short order, five diverse organizations joined together to lobby for such change. Much like Mental Helse, LPP is a more moderate organization. Aurora, We Shall Overcome, and White Eagle all come more from the psychiatric-survivor end of the spectrum.

“The groups are very different, and so it took quite a bit of discussion about how to say things, and how to come across to different levels of government, and how to pick the best person to come across with a united, unified message,” Ueland said.

Although the groups were focused on ending forced drug treatment, they didn’t think that they could achieve that goal, and so they focused on getting the government to support “medication free” treatment for those who didn’t want to take the drugs. This was not such a radical request, as it fit with the principle that hospitals and other health care providers should listen to “user” groups and develop care responsive to their wishes. Starting in 2011, the health minister began publishing a “letter” each year telling the country’s four regional health authorities to set up at least a few beds that could provide such care. Yet, year after year, the minister’s letters were regularly ignored by the four authorities, Terjesen said.

“They wouldn’t listen. The hospitals weren’t doing anything. Nothing happened. We were very frustrated. No one in Norway cared.”

And then, she said, “something happened.”

The “something” was a cascade of negative news about the state of psychiatry in Norway. There were stories about “illegal things happening in psychiatric wards,” and how “belts were being used so much more often,” Ueland said. A study reported that forced treatment was 20 times more common in Norway than in Germany. And outcomes for psychiatric patients weren’t particularly good, either.

“We were lucky,” Terjesen said. “Treatment was not good. If treatment had been very good, it would have been more difficult. But everything coming from the government now was that we do not have good results, people are dying early, we are using much money, the users are not satisfied, the whole package is not good. The minister says we cannot have this.”

On November 25, 2015, the Norwegian Health Minister, Bent Høie, issued a directive, which effectively transformed the “recommendation” contained in previous letters into an “order.” The country’s four regional health authorities, in “dialogue with user organizations,” needed to create a plan for “treatment measures without drugs.”

“Many patients in mental health care do not want treatment with medications,” he wrote. “We must listen to them and take this seriously. No one will be forced to take medication as long as there are other ways to provide the necessary care and treatment. I think the creation of drug-free treatment is too slow, and have therefore asked all the regional health authorities to have established this offer (of drug-free treatment) by 1 June 2016.” In addition, he said, the authorities should offer “a planned reduction of drug therapy for those patients who want it.”

The health ministry had put its stake in the ground. This initiative fit in with a larger goal that Høie had set in one of his earlier letters. “We will design a health care system that puts the patient at the center . . . it involves giving them rights . . . Patients’ rights are to be strengthened.”

The Resistance from Psychiatry

The leaders of Fellesaksjonen speak today about how this was a “brave” thing for Høie to do, and how it showed that he was “a listening person.” But they also knew that this mandate, which raised questions about the merits of antipsychotics and other classes of psychiatric drugs, would stir opposition from many corners of psychiatry, which proved to be the case. No regional authority met the June 1, 2016 deadline, and in many corners of Norwegian psychiatry, psychiatrists spoke out in fierce opposition to it. Tor Larsen, a professor of psychiatry at Stavanger University, publicly derided it as a “giant mistake.”

“Drug free treatment is not only a bad idea, but simply may end up being an introduction of systematic malpractice in Norwegian psychiatry. At worse, lives lost,” he wrote. “The most seriously ill often lack understanding of their disease . . . (they) do not see themselves as sick.

Comment:  if the patient does not see themselves as “sick”, and they like themselves the way they are, isn’t this a human and civil right?  If the patient has been on the drugs and finds they don’t like the way they are on the drugs, isn’t it the patient’s right to be the way that works best for them, as long as they are not a harm to others, and they aren’t harming themselves physically?

The freedom of choice the health minister now wants to impose will thus lead to a lot of very seriously ill people being deprived of the right to the best possible treatment.”

This was the core argument repeatedly made by psychiatrists against the initiative: the drugs were effective; there were no non-drug treatments that had been shown to be effective for psychosis; and patients who didn’t want the medications didn’t understand that they were ill and needed the medications.

This initiative will “create an attitude that largely supports a pronounced skepticism about drug therapy,” wrote Jan Ivar Røssberg, a professor of psychiatry at Oslo University, in Aftenposten, Norway’s largest newspaper. “My fear is that the measure will mean that people with psychotic disorders come later to optimal treatment that you know works . . . I cannot be responsible for the teaching of psychiatry at the University of Oslo that would support this development” of medication-free treatment.

The debate has continued since then, and even after Tromsø opened its medication-free ward in early January, there remained considerable question of whether other regional authorities would comply with the spirit of the health ministry’s directive. The Norwegian Psychiatric Association, for its part, officially decided to “keep an open mind,” and address the topic at its annual meeting. “Do antipsychotics work?” wrote Anne Kristine Bergem, president of the association. “Or do they not have the effect we have been led to believe?”

The Donald Trump of Antipsychiatry

The association had identified the scientific question at the heart of this initiative. Forced treatment meant forced use of antipsychotics, and with the controversy ongoing, a non-profit organization, Stiftelsen Humania, joined with Fellesaksjonen to organize a public debate on this initiative, which was held on February 8 in Oslo. They titled it: “What is the knowledge base for treatment with or without the use of psychotropic drugs?”

“I would like to see this argued,” Ueland said, in the afternoon before the debate. “They say they want proof that alternatives work. I say, ‘why don’t you provide proof that your treatment works? I have read a lot of articles and a lot of books, and I still have not seen proof that your drugs work. I have seen proof that they make people feel ill, that they take away their emotions, that they treat symptoms, but give me proof that they work on psychosis, that they work on what they call schizophrenia.’ I want to see that before they sit there and tell us that we can’t have drug-free treatment.”

Comment: This is very true.  No one has ever truly been cured from psychiatric illnesses by the use of opiods or other prescription drugs. They are not cures. They are masks, which work primarily by making the patient sleep most of the time.

The leader of Stiftelsen Humania is Einar Plyhn, a businessman whose company, Abstrakt Forlag, publishes academic texts. He came to this battle after suffering the loss of both his wife and son to suicide, neither of whom had found relief from psychiatry. “My experiences as bereaved by suicide two times brought me into a psychiatric ward myself, where the only treatment I got was medication and ECT,” he said. “After finally getting off all the meds, I started to publish books critical of psychiatry, and arranging conferences.”

One of the books he published was a Norwegian translation of Anatomy of an Epidemic. In that book, I had written about the long-term effects of antipsychotics (concluding that the research showed that, on the whole, they worsen long-term outcomes), and so Plyhn had asked that I speak at this debate. The other speakers were Ueland, Røssberg, and Jaakko Seikkula, who presented on Open Dialogue Therapy in northern Finland (where psychotic patients are not regularly placed on antipsychotics). Magnus Hald was part of the panel.

The debate took place at the Litteraturhuset in Oslo, and a half hour before the auditorium doors opened, there was a large crowd of people waiting to get in, evidence of how the medication-free initiative had stirred up considerable public interest. The auditorium quickly filled, with the overflow crowded into an adjacent room, where they could watch the debate on video, which was being streamed on the Internet. The audience included mental health professionals, members of user organizations, and one or more representatives from the pharmaceutical industry.

Ueland spoke first, reading a powerful blog from a 25-year-old woman in a locked ward who described the trauma of being forcefully treated. Then it was Røssberg’s turn, and, it’s fair to say, he came ready to do battle.

Røssberg said that three of the user groups were “antipsychiatry” organizations; argued that there were no non-drug therapies that had been proven to be effective as short-term treatments for psychosis; and criticized Seikkula’s published articles on Open Dialogue as scientifically worthless. He described me as the “Donald Trump of Antipsychiatry,” and while I wasn’t quite sure of the analogy being made, everyone understood it wasn’t a compliment. He then pointed to Norway’s TIPS study as proof that antipsychotics provided a long-term benefit.

This study was designed to test the benefit of early detection of a “first-episode of nonaffective psychosis.” One cohort had a “duration of untreated psychosis” of 5 weeks before entering treatment, versus 16 weeks for the comparison group. Both cohorts were treated conventionally with antipsychotics, and then followed for 10 years. At the end of that time, among the patients who were still alive and in the study, 31% in the early-treatment group were in recovery, versus 15% in the 16-week cohort. If antipsychotics worsened long-term outcomes, Røssberg argued, then the early treatment group—because they had 11 weeks of additional exposure to antipsychotics—should have fared worse.

“If you take a pill that shows you get a poor prognosis, then if you have an earlier start with a pill, you should have a worse outcome. Is that clear?” he said.

I presented next, recounting the history of science I had published in Anatomy of an Epidemic(and since updated), and then Seikkula reviewed the Open Dialogue program, with its good long-term outcomes. The panel debate was mostly more of the same, with Hald adding his thoughts to the mix. He raised a question that would seemingly resound with every psychiatrist.

“There are many patients that psychiatry doesn’t think need the medications,” he said. “But we don’t know who they are. And since we don’t know who they are, we could choose not to give anyone medication, or we could choose to give everyone medication. Psychiatry chooses to give everyone medication. We give neuroleptics to people that we see do not get better with their psychotic symptoms. But they still keep getting neuroleptics. So how come they keep getting neuroleptics if they don’t get better?”

Afterwards, I asked Plyhn his thoughts about the debate. I was a little dispirited, in large part because I thought it had shown once again how difficult it is to have a public discussion about the merits of psychiatric drugs, but Plyhn took a longer view. Shifts in societal thinking—which is necessary for this medication-free initiative to gain public support—come slowly.

“My impression is that there is a growing concern among some psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses regarding how evidence-based the expanding use of psychotropic drugs actually is,” he said. “The conferences we have had will hopefully contribute to some rethinking” of their use.

The TIPS Study in Review

After the debate, I did regret that I hadn’t found the time to discuss the TIPS study in detail, given that Røssberg had presented it as evidence of the long-term effectiveness of antipsychotics. The study had been designed to assess the effectiveness of early treatment, rather than the long-term effects of such drugs, and although there were patients in both cohorts who stopped taking antipsychotics, there had been no reporting of 10-year outcomes grouped by medication use. There also was reason to question whether the early-treatment group had better outcomes. The comparative group was older and more severely ill at baseline, yet their symptomatology was similar to the early-treatment group at 10 years and a higher percentage in this group were “living  independently” at the end of the study. But more to the point, the outcomes in the early-treatment group, which emphasized immediate and long-term use of antipsychotics, didn’t tell of an effective form of care.

This was a study of younger patients experiencing a first episode of psychosis, and often such episodes may clear up on their own with time. There were 141 patients in the early-treatment group, and at the end of 10 years, here were their collective outcomes:

• 12 had died (9%)
• 28 had dropped out and were lost to treatment (20%)
• 70 were still in the study and had not recovered (50%)
• 31 were still in the study and had recovered (22%)

In other words, once the outcomes for the patients who died or were lost to treatment were added to the findings, nearly 80% hadn’t fared well (if being lost to treatment is seen as a poor outcome.) This outcome stands in sharp contrast to longer-term outcomes with Open Dialogue therapy in northern Finland, where at the end of five years 80% are working or back in school, asymptomatic, and off antipsychotics. I wished that I had prepared a slide comparing the two, and asked the Norwegian audience which of the two programs they preferred to embrace.

That data alone would have made for a more interesting public discussion, but then, a few weeks later, a study was published that added new information about the TIPS study. In order to gain insight into the recovery process, TIPS researchers—a team that included Tor Larsen from Stavanger University—interviewed a sample of 20 “fully recovered” patients from their program. While many of the 20 said they thought antipsychotics were helpful during the acute phase of treatment, long-term use was “considered to compromise the contribution of individual effort in recovery,” and was “perceived to reduce likelihood of functional recovery,” the researchers reported.

Seven of the 20 fully recovered patients had refused to take antipsychotics from the beginning, and thus had “never used” the drugs. Another seven had stopped taking them, meaning that 14 of the 20 fully recovered patients interviewed for the study were off antipsychotics. Røssberg had cited the TIPS study as evidence that argued against the medicine-free initiative, but this outcome data told of “full recovery” in patients treated initially without antipsychotics and in patients who tapered from the medications, the twin forms of care that the initiative is meant to provide.

Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs

As the debate revealed, the implementation of the Health Ministry’s medication-free directive is in flux. In Tromsø, where Magnus Hald is the director of psychiatric services, the regional health authority has opened a ward dedicated to such care. In the rest of the country, the regional health authorities are setting aside individual beds for medicine-free care, and mostly reserving the six beds for non-psychotic patients, which means that the initiative isn’t serving as an alternative to forced treatment with antipsychotics.

Even so, the directive is a mandate for change, and the day after the debate, I drove with Einar Plyhn and Inge Brorson, one of the board members of Humania Stiftelsen, to Lier Hospital, 25 miles southwest of Oslo, to meet with the group at Vestre Viken Trust developing medicine-free treatment for the Southern and Eastern Regional Health Authority. Brorson used to work at the trust, which operates several psychiatric hospitals and provides services to a region with about 500,000 residents (about 1/10th of the Norwegian population), and he had helped stir up interest in the initiative by encouraging the psychiatrists and clinical staff there to investigate the medical literature regarding the long-term effects of psychiatric drugs.

Psychologist Geir Nyvoll, who led the meeting, began by referring to this body of scientific research. He had taken a four-month leave from work to closely study the research literature for neuroleptics, and then he and psychiatrist Odd Skinnemoen had presented their findings to the clinic. “Knowledge and awareness is the foundation of change,” he said. “This is where we are.”

As a first step toward creating such change, the trust is developing a “continual improvement program,” which it has titled “Right and Reduced Use of Medications.” Under the program, staff will prescribe psychiatric drugs in lower doses; carefully monitor drug side effects; avoid the use of medication when “treating normal problems in life, such as for negative life events;” and discontinue medications when they aren’t producing a good effect.

In response to the health minister’s directive, the trust has set up one medication-free bed at Lier Hospital for psychotic patients, and five such beds at two other hospitals for patients with less severe disorders. The trust is embracing the principle that “patients should have the right to choose treatment without medication,” said psychiatrist Torgeir Vethe.

“Every patient should have that possibility. And if a patient does not want to use medication, we should give the best help we can, even though we as professionals might say the best treatment is if you use medication.”

With these two “parallel” efforts now underway, the trust is organizing a research program to assess their effectiveness. The hope is that this will provide a better “evidence base” for the medicine-free initiative, and for “shared decision-making” with patients. “So we are wondering, are we on the threshold of something new?” asked psychologist Bror Just Andersen.

The trust has already developed a research record for what it calls basal exposure therapy, which it introduced in 2007 with the goal of reducing polypharmacy in “treatment resistant” patients. The belief behind this therapy is that hospitals “over-regulate” psychiatric patients, which means that staff are constantly controlling their behavior and helping them to avoid situations that provoke an “existential catastrophic anxiety,” said psychologist Didrik Heggdal. With basal exposure therapy, the goal is the opposite. They “under-regulate” the patients, forcing them to seek out staff when they want help and encouraging them to confront their existential anxiety.

“We give the patient freedom,” Heggdal said. “The level of control is extremely low at the ward. We treat the patient as an adult, as an equal and with the respect for a person who is there to work with himself or herself. We are there to assist them in this work with themselves. And when we do this, they mobilize their resources. We shouldn’t be surprised.”

In a study of 38 patients treated with basal exposure therapy (14 of whom had a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis), their use of antipsychotics and other psychiatric drugs notably declined over the course of 13 months. Nine of the 26 who came into the study on antipsychotics were off such drugs by the end; 7 of 10 on mood stabilizers (antiepileptics) successfully discontinued those medications.

Vethe, Andersen, Heggdal and others spoke of how they thought they were entering a new era of care, which presented both opportunities and challenges. The challenges were familiar ones: colleagues who were skeptical of what they were doing; societal expectations that they use antipsychotics to handle “violent” patients; and worries that if they didn’t follow accepted standards of care and something went wrong, they could end up in trouble with regulators. Their concerns were many, but the bottom line, several said, was that they felt they were approaching “new and better times.”

“I have been in this business for 35 years as a clinical psychiatrist and director, and I am very grateful that I can take part in the change that is slowly coming to psychiatry now, because it was really, really needed,” said psychiatrist Carsten Bjerke, chief medical officer of Blakstad Psychiatric Hospital.

A Paradigm Shift in Full Swing

During the last few years, the Open Dialogue program in Tornio, Finland has come to be seen in the U.S. and other countries as a therapy that offers the promise of treating psychotic patients in a new way, which can lead to much improved long-term outcomes and involves prescribing antipsychotics in a cautious, selective manner. Perhaps not surprisingly, Magnus Hald’s thinking and beliefs—and thus the ideology present on the Tromsø ward for medication-free treatment—are closely aligned with the Open Dialogue approach.

Hald was close friends with Tom Andersen, a professor of social psychiatry at the University of Tromsø who is often remembered today as a founder of “dialogical” and “reflective” processes. They began working together in the late 1970s, and as they developed “reflective teams,” they incorporated the Milan approach to family therapy—which involved “systemic thinking and practices”—into their work. A key principle of this approach, Hald has written, is that “people change according to circumstances around them, and important parts of these circumstances consist of their family life in the local community.” The two traveled widely, teaching their new ways, and during the 1980s, they developed a relationship with Jaakko Seikkula and the Open Dialogue team in Tornio, Finland.

In subsequent years, the Finnish group was better able to document their outcomes with dialogical practices because they believed in psychiatric diagnosis, or at least believed in the use of DSM III diagnoses for reporting outcomes, whereas the Tromsø group did not, Hald said. In Tromsø, they also didn’t focus as much on limiting the use of antipsychotics, even though Andersen became “more and more opposed” to their use. “In terms of not using drugs, it was difficult to practice, and we didn’t have a real commitment to that part,” he said.

Even so, Hald had seen people with different types of psychiatric symptoms do well without drugs, and it was this past philosophy and experience that made him eager to embrace the health minister’s directive. “For me, it’s a possibility to organize something that is very clear cut. We should give people the possibility to choose not to be treated with neuroleptics when they are experiencing a serious mental problem. I always thought this was a good idea.”

With Hald enthusiastic about the mandate, the Northern Regional Health Authority has given the University Hospital of North Norway an annual budget of 20 million Norwegian kroner ($2.4 million U.S.) to run the six-bed, medicine-free ward at its Åsgård facility. This support allowed Hald and his hospital to start from scratch in hiring staff, with Merete Astrup, a psychiatric nurse, starting work as director of the ward last August. She had always wanted to work in a setting that provided patients with the right to “choose” whether they wanted to take medications, and that attitude is now present with all of the staff, which will number 21 when hiring is complete.

“I am so happy to be here, and know I am working the way my heart wants to work,” said art therapist and nurse Eivor Meisler. “I have been dreaming about working without medications.”

Tore Ødegård, a psychiatric nurse, said that he had grown resistant to working on wards where people were regularly coerced, which is why he jumped at the chance to work here. “I would argue with people to get them to take their drugs. I was a part of that system, and now I am part of a system that does not have as its main purpose to give drugs, but to help people cope with problems, and do so without medication. I find that very fascinating, and it is a privilege to be part of this.”

And then Ødegård shrugged his shoulders: “But we really don’t know how to do this yet. People want to come here to get off drugs, and that can be a struggle, with different problems. The psychiatrist will say, ‘We have not been educated to get people off drugs, just to add drugs.’ We have to experience this, and learn how to get people off drugs.”

One of the staff who has such experience is Stian Omar Kistrand. He struggled with drug addiction from 2001 to 2002, which turned into bouts of mania, depression, suicidal thoughts, and hearing voices. His own path to recovery, he said, came “from searching into my history. I realize that I have to accept everything, and then I wake up one morning, and the world is totally different. I have seen the light about having to accept everything in my past and my life.”

He sees the people coming to this ward through that perspective. “The people who come here don’t want medication. This is their deepest wish. We say, ‘you can come to us, we want you as you are, come to us with your delusions, your illness, your thoughts and feelings and history—everything is good.’ We can meet them as they are. When people experience that, something essential happens. It takes away the mistrust and the fear, and says to the person, this is okay. And then the person can start growing. That is the most important thing.”

The ward is not yet serving as an alternative to forced drug treatment. The patients come here as referrals from other hospitals and psychiatric settings, and they can get transferred here only if they ask for this care and their supervising psychiatrist agrees to it. But once they are here, they are now in a patient-centered environment, which provides them with autonomy. There are no closed doors, and they are free to check themselves out and go home, if that is what they want. And while they are staying here, they can organize their time as they wish. One of the days I was there, the patients took off midday to go shopping in town.

The rooms on the six-bed ward are fairly spartan, each with a single bed and a writing desk, mindful of a dorm room at college. Meals are prepared in a kitchen on the ward and served in a large common room, where people often pass the time talking, the windows framing a soothing landscape of sea and snow-capped mountains to the west. The sun had made its first winter appearance only a week or so before I arrived, and yet the afternoon light now lingered for hours, bathing the mountains in a soft pink glow.

The therapeutic programs make for a day that unfolds in a fairly lazy, gentle way. Reflective therapy sessions, daily walks in the chilled air, and exercise in a gymnasium downstairs are all part of a weekly schedule. As this “therapy” occurs, the patients write up their own accounts of how it has gone, which become part of their health records.

“This gives us much better insight into the perspective of the patient,” said Dora Schmidt Stendal, a psychiatrist nurse and art therapist. “Normally (in past settings), I would write a report of a conversation, and I had thought that I was carrying the voice of my patients, but the voice of patients on their own terms is so different. We have to pay respect to their world when they get a chance to express themselves freely. This documentation makes us more aware of their perspectives.”

The patients also get to see what the therapists write. “You have to think very carefully about what you write,” Stendal said. “Patients may not agree, and then you can have a conversation about it. Their opinion matters. They are being taken seriously.”

Although the staff don’t use DSM diagnoses to describe their patients, the patients do arrive on the ward with such categorizations, and the four that were here when I visited could be described—in DSM terms—of struggling with depression, mania, and bipolar disorder, with one or two having “psychotic” symptoms. One spoke of being a lightning rod for evil in the world, while another told of terrors that come visiting in the night. Three of the four were willing to sit with me and tell their stories.

*****

Merete Hammari Haddad, who is part Sami (the indigenous people of northern Norway), has lived with a diagnosis of “bipolar” for nearly a decade.

For the first part of her adult life, all had gone fairly well. She worked as a teacher and for a time as a school principal, and had earned a master’s degree, her research focusing on how people achieved their highest potential. She got involved in coaching others, residing for a time in Dublin and then Oslo. “I was succeeding,” she said.

Her husband is also part Sami, and some time ago, they moved back to Alta, a Sami community on Norway’s northern coast. Like many indigenous people, the Sami community has struggled to maintain its culture and self-governance, and when Merete moved back to Alta, she was intent on helping the community become more optimistic and happy. “I came in so cheerful, and I wanted to bring that to my community. But I was naïve. People didn’t want that, and I got attacked. I was so stupid. I turned negative about myself. My husband saw changes in me, only he doesn’t like to talk. I felt alone.”

Eventually, her husband had her hospitalized. She was told she was bipolar and that she would have to take lithium for the rest of her life. “I felt terrible on the drug,” she said. “I had no feelings. It was just like not living.”

Two years ago, she decided that she couldn’t go on like this anymore. “I needed to feel happy again. I wanted to feel glad again. And I accepted my feelings. I knew my sorrows, my fears. When I stopped, I could feel. I could let my tears flow, and I could fill the room with my sorrows. But nobody accepted it. Not my family, not my husband. I just had to trust in myself.”

The time that followed continued to be tumultuous. Her familial relationships, and her relationship to her community, remained strained. Even so, she continued thinking about how she could help “people realize their human potential,” and this past December, she started a company to pursue that end, obtaining a government grant of 100,000 kroner to do research on the topic. But as she pursued this business, her isolation from her husband grew. In late January, her husband concluded that she “was too enthusiastic,” and had her hospitalized.

“I was taken away with force in handcuffs,” she said. “And all I got was medicine, medicine, and they forced me.”

However, after a little more than a week in that first hospital, she successfully lobbied to be transferred to the medicine-free ward in Tromsø. After five days here, during which time she and her husband had confronted their problems, she was going home.

“My husband and I are so aware now of what was wrong. We found a new direction together. We were here to have a new dialogue, and now we have a new direction on how we want to be in the future.”

In dialogical terms, her distress had been caused by the “spaces in-between” her and her husband, and thus relief from that stress required mending that space, as opposed to fixing her brain chemistry. “I just needed a bed, food, and care,” she said. “Here I’ve been seen, I’ve been heard, and I can talk about everything. They never said I was sick. Now I don’t feel like there is something wrong about being human.”

*****

When I was first introduced to Mette Hansen, during a group discussion in the common room, she had, with an impish grin, asked me a question that has stayed with me ever since. “When you look into the mirror,” she said, “what do you see?”

That’s a fascinating question for anyone to ask, and I thought it told of a sense of freedom that she had found from being on the ward. She could speak her mind here.

She had been first diagnosed with bipolar in 2005, when she was 40 years old and overwhelmed with work and—as a mother of three—family obligations. “I had no time for myself,” she explained. “I couldn’t do what people wanted me to do.”

She found lithium helpful, as it calmed her down. After a time on sick leave, she went back to work in a grocery store, and her life remained fairly stable for years. But then, in 2015, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and after she had surgery, she spent several months struggling to sleep. In December of that year, she “got crazy again,” which led to another stint in a hospital. Then last September, with the side effects from the lithium piling up—weight gain, swollen hands, shaking, and thyroid problems—she decided she would like to taper off the medication.

This was a dramatic step for her to take. Her husband and her family didn’t want her to attempt this, because the drug was “working,” but she needed to take control of her life. “I said, after 12 years on lithium, I have to try this. I am my own boss, and if my husband can’t accept this, it’s his problem.”

The ward, she said, was giving her “quiet” and helping her stay safe as she tapered from the lithium. “I don’t have to care about my neighbors or my family back home. I can talk about different things, the illness and how to behave. Merete (Astrup) is the first who met me with politeness. It’s something different, and that is really nice. I love it here.”

Now that she was down to ¼ the dose of lithium that she had been on in September, she was also beginning to question whether such a powerful drug had been so necessary. “I am a little bit higher. I call it magic. Lithium is like wearing a life jacket when you are on a mountain trip and you are not going fishing. Why should you have a life jacket? Maybe you need a sleeping bag, or some wood.”

As she looks to the future, she now sees this ward as a refuge, one that she could return to if, after going back home, she struggled again. “It’s important knowing that I could come back here and decide for myself what to do,” she said.

*****

Much of my time with Hanna Steinsholm was spent discussing her love for music, and our shared memory of reading Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, and thoughts about Sal Paradise and his manic friend, Dean Moriarty. “I love the illustration of mania,” she said at one point. “There is a lot of pain and tears to go for what you aim for. There is always dark in the light.”

Her entry into the psychiatric system had come as a child, when she was diagnosed with ADHD, and also had conflicts with other youth in her small town. “I was made fun of when I was a kid. I felt something was lacking in me when I was a teenager.” She subsequently was given other diagnoses, and she struggled in multiple ways: self-harming, fighting with thoughts of evil and with feelings of anxiety about making it in the world as a folk singer. “I always thought people expected me to write a song that would blow them away.”

She felt it was important that she could be here without having to take Abilify, the antipsychotic drug she had been on. She needed some structure, and help with her self-injurious behaviors.

“Being on Abilify was boring and gave me a feeling of hopelessness, and I didn’t want to do that. I couldn’t think on the drug. And if I am going to be in the world, I have to be smart and be a version of me that people like. People know that I am sick. I have to prove that I can make something out of the destruction, and make something big out of it.”

She had been on the medicine-free ward for several weeks, and there was no real timetable for her to leave. “I have found it better than I thought I would. It is easy to go with the flow, and not have them question you all the time, like they do in other hospitals, and with their suspicions of you, thinking you will become a killer. This is taking some time to accept, that I won’t be questioned all the time.”

And then we returned to speaking about the escapades of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, characters in a novel published 60 years ago and yet one that somehow remained so vivid in both of our memories.

The Challenges to Come

Such are accounts from the first few patients to be treated on this “medication-free” ward. But if this effort in Tromsø is going to have an impact in the larger world of psychiatry, their patient outcomes will need to be tracked and reported on in medical journals. A plan for doing such research is still being drawn up.

It won’t be possible to do a randomized trial, noted psychologist Elisabeth Klaebo Reitan. As such, they will mostly need to rely on periodic interviews, which “describe who are the people who are getting treatment” and provide follow-up snapshots of “symptoms, functioning, and social activity, and other recovery measures” over periods of five and ten years. In a sense, the bottom-line outcome will be whether they can “make changes” in their lives, she said.

Skeptics of Norway’s medicine-free initiative are already raising questions about the types of patients who will be treated in the Tromsø ward (and in the other medicine-free beds being set up in the country). The thought is that they will be patients who are “less ill” and without the behavioral problems—violent behaviors, and so forth—that “require” the use of antipsychotics. A medication-free ward can’t present itself as a true alternative to forced treatment unless it can take on more difficult patients too.

“That will be a challenge we would like to try to understand,” Astrup said.

The expectation is that they will work with agitated patients in the same manner that they work with all patients, engaging in a respectful dialogue with them, and that the ward atmosphere will provide its own calming effects. If a patient becomes agitated, they will want to know: “Why are you so agitated? Have we done anything toward you that would make you so agitated? What can we do to make it better for you?”

It will be important, she added, that “we not make rules that say, ‘you should not break a glass.’ We need to create an atmosphere where this is a place where such things don’t happen. And if someone did throw a glass, we will look at it as the community that broke down. We didn’t want (the person) to have to throw a glass to get our attention.”

Again and again, Astrup and her staff spoke about how all this is so new, and how they have so much to learn. At the same time, they spoke with confidence of being able to respond well to the challenges that will come, and with confidence too that their ward, since it was established in response to a directive from the Health Ministry, will be given a real chance to succeed.

Hald, for his part, sees this ward as a step toward wholesale change in Norwegian psychiatry. “Is this going to work? I think so, but I am not sure how we will do it. It is going to be a challenge. But if this works well, the whole mental health system has to change. This would transform the system.”

MARY ROWAN KIDNAPS AGAIN! SUPPORT SINGER SHARMIAN, CHARGED FOR PROTECTING MOM

You would think that they took out April Parks 3 weeks ago for having hundreds of wards she kidnapped, forced them into dangerous group homes and nursing homes against their will, drained estates by churning bills and strife in families, Mary Rowan would be next.

Think again.  She’s still hot on the trail of being an infamous serial murderer of the disabled and elderly victims she guardianizes and then drains estates and kills them off.

MARY ROWAN KIDNAPS AGAIN! SUPPORT SINGER SHARMIAN, CHARGED FOR PROTECTING MOM

This is from a psychologist who is helping him who wrote this for publication on my blog:

Lost my lease and now I have to move.  I need a kind, caring and understanding landlord that wants to clean up the court system.  NW side of Chicago w/parking for clients needed.  $800 per month or less.  Need one office and access to conference room space. I also write books about corruption in the courts.

I am a not for profit so I can rent from other not for profits such as churches, synagogues, etc.

Call me if you know of  anything or have anything.  773-255-7608.

Thanks

Joanne

Here is the link to the show:

And we are still looking for 3 little girls (now in their teens) who were human trafficked and raped by a Monster as young as age two.  Their names are Layla, Emily and Annie Thomas. Two are twins. They are reported to be in Texas but could be anywhere.  If you know of where they are, please contact me immediately. There is a grandma looking for them, the biological mother has taken drugs and let the girls be sold to men for sex. The grand mother wants the girls back, safe and sound.

The books:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/teresa-lyles/65-minutes/paperback/product-22946815.html

Each of these books was discussed on the show and how a corrupt court system allowed extremely vulnerable citizens–three young girls and two elderly women, so suffer through horrors propagated by the US court system.

We will be doing a follow up show next week and hope to have some of the authors on the show.

These are important topics today that can affect everyone in the US–allowing children to be raped in Kankakee and the police and court are in on it (the girls see police officer cars in front of their home when men come to have sex with them for cash), and guardianship court where seniors are forced into locked down nursing homes where they are abused and their estates drained.

JoAnne

As you all are well aware, Mr. Amu had a trial by the ARDC that was totally devoid of due process.  No judges showed up that he could cross examine on all their perfidy and corruption, yet Mr. Amu was accused of making “false statements” against judges.

Here is the link to the original document:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6FbJzwtHocwUlowUEI1aG9vakE

The most inane part of all of this is that if you Google Lanre Amu, you will see his decision in which the ARDC finds him guilty (as they did Ken and myself) of making “false statements” regarding judges, and then right below it is an article on Judge Lynn Egan in which Crain’s Chicago business did an investigative report on exactly what Mr. Amu claimed as corruption–and more. (Amu was appearing before Judge Lynn Egan not knowing that her brother’s law firm was his opponents, appearing on cases–and winning, not surprisingly. When he found out he was furious and accused her of engaging in corruption. Jerome Larkin and the ARDC said Amu was lying, Crain’s Chicago Business said that Egan was corrupt, making Larkin a liar.  There has been no retraction of that article, but more–Judge Egan sits on the board of corporations which appeared before her.  Those corporations subsequently removed her for her corruption and apologized to the public.  No apology ever emanates from the judges accused of corruption and/or the ARDC, their protectorate.)

With that in mind, read on.

1
’LANRE O. AMU
B.C.E., M.S.C.E., P.E., M.B.A., J.D.
Engineering, Business, Law & Media
B.C.E. (UMN,’84), M.S.C.E. (UMN, ’86), M.B.A. (UIC,’89), J.D.(’95)
Address: Plot No. 30, Kugbo, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nigeria
Telephone: 0909 301 3007; 0815 781 6971 Email: lanreamu@gmail.com
March 21, 2017
Attention: Mr. Jerome Larkin, Administrator
Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission
130 East Randolph Drive, Suite 1500
Chicago, Illinois 60606-6219
+1-312-565-2600
Clerk Email: kgjablonski@iardc.org
Chief Counsel Email: jjgrogan@iardc.org
In re: Petition to Reinstate Law License and Notice of Claim of ’Lanre O. Amu
against the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission,
(IARDC), an Agency of the Illinois State Government.
Dear Mr. Jerome Larkin:
1. Attached is my Notice of Claim against the Illinois Attorney Registration and
Disciplinary Commission (IARDC), an Agency of the Illinois State
Government. (See In re: Lanre O. Amu, 2011 PR00106)
2. I hereby demand (i) $35 Million Dollars ($35,000,000.00) in damages for the
crimes perpetrated against me by Messrs. Roberto Verrando and Steven Splitt,
(ii) I also demand the immediate and the unconditional reinstatement of my law
license which was wrongfully suspended, and (iii) I also demand a letter of
2
apology for the wrongs and damages visited upon me for no just cause.
3. Motivated primarily by xenophobia, IARDC, an institution of government, was
used in a highly sophisticated way to undermine the effective Administration of
Justice in the Courts in my matters and as a result I sustained serious damages.
My reputation, and properties, including a 16 year legal practice Firm were
destroyed. I was dispossessed in America because of my Race (Black) and my
National Origin (Nigeria). I DEMAND AN HONEST INVESTIGATION!
When the Truth which has so far been covered up is finally unearthed, I will be
vindicated. I estimate that a thorough investigation of this matter will take the
US government, including the FBI and the US Department of Justice,
approximately 48 official hours.
4. The sophisticated xenophobic crimes perpetrated against me in Illinois
involved the use of an institution of State government, i.e., the IARDC, under
the pretext of a disciplinary proceedings against me. The entire “faceless”
proceeding initiated against me through the IARDC was a sham ab initio and
the undisclosed perpetrators knew it. The charges brought against me were
non-existent and false; and the prosecutions of those charges through the
institutions for Administration of Justice and the Courts were perverted. The
objective was to dispossess and liquidate me because I am a foreigner who
posed a threat to their ability to continue the status quo wrongdoing to many
African-immigrants whom I represented in the Courts of Illinois. I was tagged
a foreigner in America, the land of immigrants, even though I had lived my
entire adult life between the ages of 21 and 54 in the United States of America
without a single blemish on my record or reputation prior to this experience.
5. The spirit and the letter of American law, including the Bill of Rights,
specifically the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause and the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteen Amendment, to the US Constitution protect
me from these violations. So far, the whole matter has been swept under the
carpet by those who do not respect the spirit of the American law when it
comes to applying existing laws to immigrants like me. With this Notice of
Claim, at issue is whether the US government itself will now own up to its
responsibility to uphold my rights under American laws. It is my hope and
prayer that your office will appreciate the magnitude of what happened here,
recognize its responsibility to take up my cause to the highest level of the US
Government, and uphold my rights under the letter and the spirit of American
3
law.
6. The fortunate aspect of all of these is that the evidence of the crime
perpetrated against me is not destructible. Truth crushed to earth shall rise
again. The evidence of the crimes perpetrated against me in Illinois is there
even tomorrow. The evidence is simply waiting to be unearthed by a Honest
and Transparent investigation.
7. It is rather ironic that the US which prides itself in sending delegates and
emissaries to countries in Africa to lecture, teach, and preach about global
peace, justice, anti-terrorism, mutual cooperation, security, capacity building,
technical assistance, development, anti-corruption, transparency, good
governance, etc., will harbor these vices against some African-immigrants
within its own borders, and that the mainstream US Media will simply not
report these violations. We are hopeful that when the US is confronted with
the evidence of the institutional wrongdoing and corruption within its own
borders in this case, the US will make amends and act consistent with what it
lectures, teaches and preaches in Africa.
8. The system for Administration of Justice, i.e., the Court is the last hope of the
common man. When that governmental institution is hijacked and perverted in
the US against some vulnerable African-immigrants because of xenophobia as
in this case, lives can be destroyed and properties taken away without due
compensation. Worst still, none of these will be reported in the mainstream
Media in the United States in a conspiracy and/or culture of silence in face of
atrocities against a vulnerable group of immigrants.
9. I write this conscious of the fact that the primary duty of Government, any
government, is to protect lives and properties.
10. The issues in my case include:
10.1 How can a lawyer’s professional license (mine) and means of
livelihood be suspended for three (3) years without any person
testifying to any wrongdoing by that lawyer (me) as was done to me
in Illinois on August 6, 2013?
10.2 How can a tribunal make a finding that I a lawyer made a false
statement of material fact concerning the integrity of Judge Lynn
Egan in relation to her brother’s law firm Pretzel & Stouffer’s1
1 One of the owners of the Pretzel & Stouffer Firm is Matthew Egan, the brother of
Judge Lynn Egan. Pretzel & Stouffer secured a verdict in excess of $ 385 Million
4
conflicted representation when there is no evidence of a false
statement in the record of proceedings, and when in fact the objective
evidence in the record of proceedings supports a finding that Judge
Lynn Egan and the law firm of Pretzel & Stouffer engaged in ethical
lapses in violation of the Cannon of Judicial Ethics Judge Egan swore
to abide by when she was made a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook
County?
10.3 In light of the Crain Chicago Business’ investigation published in
their newspapers on March 1, 2014 and April 4, 2014, almost a year
after my suspension, exposing ethical lapses by Judge Lynn Egan and
her brother’s law firm, Pretzel & Stouffer, an independent
investigation that mirrors “on all fours” my written complaint
between 2009 and 2011 against Judge Lynn Egan and her brother’s
law firm, Pretzel & Stouffer, how can my suspension for making a
false statement of material fact in my written complaint against Judge
Egan stand?
10.4 Why was I subjected to a different trial than similarly situated
Caucasian lawyers charged with similar offenses I was charged with?
10.5 Why was I subjected to a harsher sentence (given 3 years actual
suspension) while similarly situated Caucasian lawyers actually found
guilty of similar charges were given just 60 days suspended sentence
with minimal or no interruption in their legal practice, when in fact I
am not even guilty of the false charges leveled against me? (Please
see IARDC Cases: In re Brian Keith Sides, 11 PR 0144 and In Re John
N. Dore, 07 CH 0122)
10.6 Why is it that similarly placed Caucasian lawyers charged with
similar offences were allowed to defend themselves by having the
judges and/or lawyers involved testify under Oath concerning the
Dollars for its client Citgo in the Circuit Court of Cook County in 2006. Citgo is an
interested or material party in the case that I brought in which Matthew Egan’s law
firm of Pretzel & Stouffer defended and Judge Lynn Egan who is Matthew Egan’s
brother presided prior to the undisclosed relationship between the presiding judge
Lynn Egan and the defense law firm Pretzel & Stouffer come to light causing me to
file a formal written complaint against Judge Lynn Egan. This complaint resulted in
my three (3) year suspension from the practice of law in Illinois which is the subject
of the Claim I am now making here.
5
charges, and I was denied that right of self defense and simply found
guilty without any evidence. (Please see IARDC Cases: In re Brian
Keith Sides, 11 PR 0144 and In Re John N. Dore, 07 CH 0122)
11. Honest answers to issues 10.1 to 10.6 above is at the heart of a fair resolution
of this claim.
12. After 34 years of exemplary life in the United States, it is a gross violation of
my Civil Rights and my Human rights to be subjected to this humiliating
treatment in America, some 50 years after the Civil Rights Act that affirmatively
prohibits such behavior by government and its institutions in the United States.
13. I pray that you give this matter the level of seriousness that it deserves, and I
look forward to hearing from you on the way forward in this matter.
14. Thank you very much for your cooperation and God Bless.
Very truly yours,
’Lanre O. Amu
+1 234 (0) 909 301 3007
lanreamu@gmail.com
‘Lanre O. Amu
1
’LANRE O. AMU
B.C.E., M.S.C.E., P.E., M.B.A., J.D.
Engineering, Business, Law & Media
B.C.E. (UMN,’84), M.S.C.E. (UMN, ’86), M.B.A. (UIC,’89), J.D.(’95)
March 20, 2017
Notice of Claim for Damages and Injury Sustained as a Result of Xenophobia,
Race and National Origin Discrimination in Illinois, the United States
1. The U.S. or Illinois Agency to Which this Claim is Directed:
Mr. Jerome Larkin,
The Administrator
The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (IARDC)
130 East Randolph Drive, Suite 1500
Chicago, Illinois 60606-6219
Telephone Number: +1-312-565-2600
Clerk Email: kgjablonski@iardc.org
Chief Counsel Email: jjgrogan@iardc.org
2. The Full Name of the Claimant:
’Lanre O. Amu, B.C.E. (U of Mn, ’84), M.S.C.E. (U of Mn, ’86), P.E. (Illinois
’89), M.B.A. (UIC, ’89), J.D. (John Marshall Law School, 1995)
3. The Current Address of the Claimant
Plot No. 30, Kugbo, Abuja, FCT
4. Current Phone Number of the Claimant:
+234 (0) 909-301-3007
5. Email Address of the Claimant
lanreamu@gmail.com
6. Date of Birth of the Claimant:
2
August 1, 1961
7. Date of the Incident or Period of the Incident:
From August 6, 2013 to the Present time.
8. Basis of Claim, Alleged Wrongdoing, and/or Explanation of What
Happened:
8.1 Official Corruption of the Administration of Justice against the Claimant
because of Xenophobia, Race (Black) and National Origin (Nigeria)
Discrimination. Specifically, Messrs. Robert Verrando and Steven Splitt,
officials of the IARDC knowingly brought and prosecuted false charges against
me in my capacity as a professional lawyer in Illinois after I made written
complaints which exposed judicial corruption in the Illinois Court proceedings
I handled on behalf of four African-Immigrant Clients. These officials of the
IARDC manipulated the Administration of Justice to work a conviction against
me without any evidence whatsoever to support the charges they made against
me. They accomplished these by simply disregarding my Constitutional Rights
to be given a fair and impartial trial according to the Due Proceedings laid
down for the Administration of Justice and because I am seen as a foreigner
nobody in the system for Administration of Justice raised an eye brow or took
steps to prevent or correct the Human Rights Violations against me.
8.2 What I have described here is sophisticated white collar crime by
officials who knew the workings of system for Administration of Justice in
Illinois and the United States of America inside out.
8.3 Through the manipulation of the system for Administration of Justice,
they secured a conviction that I made false statement concerning the integrity
of a judge and that I made false statement to a tribunal. But till today, there is
no evidence of any false statement by me in the record to back up the
conviction they secured illegally.
8.4 As fortune will have it, about a year after I was suspended for three (3)
years from the practice of law for allegedly making a false statement concerning
the integrity of Judge Lynn Egan, a major independent newspaper in Illinois,
the Crain Chicago Newspaper corroborated “on all fours” the very complaint I
had made which the IARDC officials Messrs. Robert Verrando and Steven
Splitt had knowingly rubbished as a lie. And to make matters worse, the
Justices of the matter bought the false, corrupt, and perverted arguments of
3
Messrs. Verrando and Steven that I made false statement hook, line, and sinker
in a conspiracy to violate my Human Rights, silent me, and get rid of me. The
Crain Chicago Business Newspaper expose is clear irrefutable independent
evidence that I did not make any false statement and that the government
officials prosecuting and persecuting me are the ones making false statements
against me, and perverting the very justice they were Sworn under Oath before
God and Man to uphold in their drive to eliminate me.
Briefly Describe the Nature and Extent of the Damage:
My 16 year legal practice was abruptly brought to a halt, and my legal aid and
assistant thrown out of work causing catastrophic financial losses. I was
humiliated and dehumanized. Severe harm was done to my reputation as a
person of honesty and good character. I felt unfairly labelled as a liar in my
profession, and stigmatized. I began to fear for my safety. This is shocking and
a bitter experience in a country I have lived for 34 years out of 54 years of life.
9. Amount of Claim/Damages:
I am now asking to be made whole from the damages and injuries I have
sustained as a result of this incident. I claim damages against the Illinois
Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (IARDC) in the sum of
$35 Million Dollars. [Thirty Five Million Dollars], and the unconditional
reinstatement of my law license which was corruptly and unlawfully suspended
on August 6, 2013 because of Xenophobia, Race (Black) and National Origin
(Nigeria) Discrimination.
10. Names, Address and Telephone Number of all Officials having
knowledge of this Incident:
Robert Verrando, Steven Splitt, James J. Grogan, and Kenneth Jablonski. They
are all officials of the IARDC. Address is listed in 1.0 above.
11. Please attach documents that support the allegations of the Claim
The enclosed investigative newspaper articles by Crain Chicago Business
independently corroborates my complaints “on all fours” against judicial
corruption which Messrs. Verrando and Splitt hid in my case as they
prosecuted and persecuted me for making false statements. The Article is 100%
proof that I did not make any false statement concerning the integrity of Judge
Lynn Egan, her brother Matthew Egan or his law Firm Pretzel and Stouffer. In
4
addition, there is no evidence whatsoever to back up the conviction they
secured against me.
12. Additional Comments:
I was a First Class [equivalent] Civil Engineering Graduate of the Institute of
Technology at the University of Minnesota in 1984. I am an asset to Nigeria,
the United States and Humanity at large. Because of my phenomenal rise in my
profession as a lawyer, I was seen by my prosecutors as a threat who needed to
be eliminated and that as a foreigner who took American jobs. So they plotted
against me by bringing false charges so as to destroy my thriving legal practice
and means of livelihood. By corrupting the system for Administration of
Justice against me, they frustrated my ability to seek relief through the normal
workings of the Courts in America. They use the Administration of Justice
apparatus to frustrate my right to a fair hearing in the Courts because I am a
foreigner. Access to be able to secure any form of justice through the normal
workings of the Administration of Justice system in American Courts was
closed to me because of Xenophobia, Race (Black) and National Origin
(Nigeria) Discrimination. This even though I have lived continuously in
America without any blemish on my record for 34 years. An honest,
transparent, and impartial investigation of this Claim will substantiate
everything I have stated here.
CERTIFICATION, AFFIDAVIT, AND/OR AFFIRMATION
USA: Under penalties as provided by law pursuant to the Illinois Code of Civil
Procedure, 735 ILCS 5/109, the undersigned certifies that the statements set forth in
this Notice of Claim are True and Correct, except as to matters therein stated to be
on information and belief, and as to such matters therein stated the undersigned
certifies as aforesaid that s/he verily believes the same to be true.
Nigeria: I, ’Lanre O. Amu, do hereby Solemnly Affirm by Almighty God that this is
my name and that the facts Deposed to by me in this Notice of Claim are the Truth,
the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth.
Signature of Claimant Date
‘Lanre O. Amu March 20, 2017
March 01, 2014
Judge sits on hospital board while her
brother represents it in court
By Kristen Schorsch and Andrew L. Wang
For at least 15 years, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Egan has sat on the boards
governing a south suburban hospital while it regularly has hired her brother’s law firm.
Chicago-based Pretzel & Stouffer has represented Palos Community Hospital in almost half of the 170 cases involving the hospital filed over that period in the law division of the circuit court, according to a Crain’s review of court records. From 2011 to 2013, Matthew Egan, a partner in the firm, represented Palos in at least 15 cases before his sister’s judicial colleagues, most of them involving medical malpractice or personal injury.
The nonprofit hospital did not disclose the financial relationship with Mr. Egan in forms filed with the IRS between 1999 and 2011, the latest year for which records are publicly available. It did disclose a separate sibling relationship: payments totaling nearly $56,000 to the sister of its former CEO in 2011. In a response to questions from Crain’s, the hospital says it plans to review its procedures. “As it pertains to contracted legal services, we believe all of the required board disclosures have been made,” Palos board Chairman Edward Mulcahy says in a statement. “However, as a precaution, we will again review our internal processes.” Mr. Mulcahy says the administration, not board members, hire vendors.
SHAKEUP
The independent, 362-bed community hospital in Palos Heights is in the midst of a leadership shakeup. After roughly 30 years under CEO Sister Margaret Wright, who retired in 2013, the board hired Edgardo Tenreiro, chief operating officer at a Baton Rouge, La., hospital system. But with no public explanation, he departed three weeks ago after less than three months on the job.
Greg Paetow, a board member for three years, says he quit for “personal reasons” on Feb. 12, the same day Mr. Tenreiro left. A second person on the 12-member hospital board also resigned in February, as did Thomas Barcelona, chairman of the board of parent company St. George Corp., which solicits donations for the hospital.
Ms. Egan (at right), who also serves on St. George’s board and is on the Palos hospital board’s executive committee, says she disclosed Mr. Egan’s representation of Palos on an annual conflict statement available to the hospital’s auditors and tax preparers.
“I believe that I have performed my service as a jurist and volunteer PCH board member in a responsible and ethical manner,” she says in a statement. “Any suggestion to the contrary is false.”
Ms. Egan did not respond to a request to provide the document. Disclosure statements she filed with the Illinois Supreme Court from 2011 to 2013 do not mention her brother or his law firm.
Mr. Egan says in an email that “no attorney in our firm has ever appeared before Judge Egan in any matter on behalf of Palos Community Hospital.” Notions of a potential conflict of interest are “false, indeed reckless,” he adds.
Even if Pretzel & Stouffer were the best firm for the job, experts say the lack of transparency raises questions.
“I would think in this case you would want to bend over backwards to disclose the conflict to make sure no one makes assumptions,” says David Becher, an associate professor of finance at Drexel University in Philadelphia. quote|David Becher, professor, Drexel University I would think in this case you would want to bend over backwards to disclose the conflict to make sure no one makes assumptions.
During Ms. Egan’s tenure on the board, Pretzel & Stouffer has been named only once in the
hospital’s available tax returns, as one of the five highest-paid vendors in 2002, making about $163,000. Nonprofits generally must disclose employees who are board members’ relatives if they make more than $10,000 a year, says David Lowenthal, a Chicago-based senior manager at accounting firm Plante & Moran PLLC.
The hospital has disclosed the compensation of board members Thomas Courtney, a lawyer who processes third-party liens for patient bills; Dr. Mark Sinibaldi, the medical director of the psychiatric unit; and Ms. Wright’s sister, who also worked at the hospital.
CODE OF CONDUCT
Having Ms. Egan and fellow law division Judge Deborah Dooling on the hospital board raises other questions. The Illinois Supreme Court’s Code of Judicial Conduct allows judges to serve on charitable boards so long as the service doesn’t interfere with their duties.
The code, however, warns that a judge should not serve if the organization is “regularly engaged in adversary proceedings in any court” and singles out hospitals as a potential trouble spot.
Ms. Egan says she “carefully considered whether my service on the board was permissible” and, after consulting the Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee, concluded there was no issue. Ms. Dooling did not return messages.
One past chair of the ethics committee says he would caution judges against serving on a hospital board because hospitals are frequently named in malpractice litigation.
“The fact that Dooling and Egan sit in the law division makes it more obvious that they should not be on the board,” says Warren Lupel, special counsel at Chicago firm Much Shelist PC. “If (cases are) frequent, it’s ‘regularly engaged,’ and certainly for a hospital, it is frequent.” http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140301/ISSUE01/303019979/judge-sits-on-hospitalboard-
while-her-brother-represents-it-in-court

Andis Robeznieks Reporter about a year ago
RT @kschorsch: .@CookCntyCourt judge sits on @Palos_Hospital board while
brother defends hospital in court. tinyurl.com/nywkyye
Kristen Schorsch Reporter about a year ago
.@CookCntyCourt judge sits on @Palos_Hospital board while brother defends
hospital in court. tinyurl.com/nywkyye
Paul Merrion Journalist about a year ago
Judge sits on hospital board while her brother represents it in court
@CrainsChicago #chicago #twill chicagobusiness.com/article/201403…
Kristen Schorsch Reporter about a year ago
.@Palos_Hospital to review protocol for hiring legal services after @andrewwang13
and I question family affair. tinyurl.com/npgu9ps
Kristen Schorsch Reporter about a year ago
Family affair @Palos_Hospital. @CookCntyCourt judge on board while brother
defends Palos in court. tinyurl.com/npgu9ps @andrewwang13
Peter Frost Food, Beverage and Dining Reporter about a year ago
RT @andrewwang13: At @Palos_Hospital, it’s a family affair. Via me and
@kschorsch. chicagobusiness.com/article/201403… @CrainsChicago
Andrew Wang Journalist about a year ago
At @Palos_Hospital, it’s a family affair. Via me and @kschorsch.
chicagobusiness.com/article/201403… @CrainsChicago
Judge Lynn Egan sits on Palos hospital board while brother represents it in Circuit
Court

I2F SUBMITTED – 1799912054 – LANREOAMU – 05/26/2015 11:33:16 PM DOCUMENT ACCEPTED ON: 05/27/2015 09:39:57 AM
M.R.26545
Cook County Judge Resigns from Palos
Community Hospital Boards
A Cook County Circuit judge has relinquished her role on
two leadership roles for Palos Community Hospital.
By Lauren Traut (Patch Staff) – April 7, 2014 2:01 am ET
A Cook County Circuit Judge who also sat on boards that oversee Palos Community Hospital has resigned, after revelations that the hospital regularly used her brother’s law firm. Officials confirmed Friday that Judge Lynn Egan had stepped down from her roles on two boards, Crain’s Chicago reports.
Egan’s involvement with the hospital’s leadership spans 15 years, Crain’s reports. Her brother, Matthew Egan, is a partner in the Chicago-based law firm Pretzel & Stouffer. According to Crain’s, Matthew Egan “represented Palos in at least 15 cases before his sister’s judicial colleagues, most of them involving medical malpractice or personal injury.” Egan maintains that she disclosed her brother’s representation of Palos in an annual conflict statement available to hospital auditors and tax preparers. Crain’s reports that the hospital did not disclose the financial relationship with Matthew Egan in the hospital’s tax filings between 1999 and 2011.
Her resignation is the sixth since the abrupt departure of CEO Edgardo Tenreiro in February. Other recent resignations include board members Carole Ruzich and Thomas Courtney. Ruzich sat on the board of the hospital’s parent company St. George Corp., and Courtney was one of 12 on the hospital’s board, Crain’s Chicago Business reports. Ruzich also serves as a trustee for the Village of Orland Park.
Palos hospital Fitch ratings outlook slips from ‘stable’ condition after resignations
 10 Apr 2014 02:41
 Written by Tim Hadac
The ongoing exodus of members of the governing board of Palos Community Hospital and its parent, the St. George Corp., has apparently prompted the Fitch credit ratings agency to frown upon the Palos Heights medical institution.
Crain’s Chicago Business reported last Tuesday that Fitch has changed its ratings outlook for the hospital from “stable” to “negative” and “warned of a potential downgrade” due to in part due to “instability at the governance and management level.”
“The recent resignation of five parent board and hospital board members coupled with the Feb. 12 resignation of the former CEO, Edgardo Tenreiro, raises concern about the stability and direction of the organization as it attempts to improve operating performance and complete its campus project,” the Fitch report said.
On the other hand, the Fitch assessment, issued April 1, noted that the hospital has “significant balance-sheet strength” and “robust liquidity” that serves as a buffer against its weaker than anticipated financial performance. Fitch Ratings is one of the “Big Three” credit rating agencies.
The exodus continued late last week, with the resignation of Lynn Egan, a Cook County Circuit Court judge.
Egan had served on both the hospital board and its St. George Corp. counterpart.
She departed in the wake of disclosures by Crain’s Chicago Business that the hospital had hired her brother’s law firm and that the hospital “did not disclose the financial relationship with Ms. Egan’s brother, Matthew Egan, in forms filed with the IRS between 1999 and 2011, the latest year for which records are publicly available. At the same time, Palos did disclose that other board members and the sister of retired Palos CEO Sister Margaret Wright received payments as vendors or employees of the hospital, records show.”
Egan has not made any public comment about her resignation.
In response to Egan’s departure, hospital officials released a statement to The Regional News earlier this week:
“Over the last 15 years, Lynn Egan volunteered countless hours supporting the mission of PCH. We are immensely grateful for her dedication, hard work and service on behalf of our patients, staff, physicians and community and are saddened to lose a volunteer with her high standards and ethical commitment to the hospital. Among her many contributions, Ms. Egan initiated and championed the hospital’s successful efforts in bringing gender, ethnic and religious diversity to the board of directors.
“Palos Community Hospital has reviewed its conflict of interest policy and determined it is
consistent with standard industry practices. The board member’s annual disclosure statements were also reviewed and it was determined that Ms. Egan and the other board members filed accurate and complete forms, as required, with any potential conflicts fully disclosed.
“Board members did not have a role in selecting the Pretzel & Stouffer law firm as a vendor to the hospital for legal services. In fact, the firm was retained by the then CEO, Sister Margaret Wright. The required disclosures regarding the relationship between PCH and the law firm Pretzel & Stouffer were made in a timely and transparent way with the assistance of outside experts and all vendor relationships were appropriately described, as required, to the IRS.
“PCH is confident in both the legal work provided by that law firm and the disclosures made by its board members.”
Egan was the sixth board member to call it quits after the abrupt resignation of Tenreiro, who had been hired with great fanfare but left just 90 days into in his tenure.
In January, Tenreiro said in a Crain’s Chicago Business interview that the hospital has “been losing about $1 million to a couple million dollars a month. It is a challenge, no question about it. It’s a combination of our costs being too high and our revenue not being high enough. On the revenue side, we’re going to have to work much closer with our physicians to identify ideas for growth. Our labor productivity is not where we want it to be. You want to match your demand for the service with the labor that you have. In order to make that happen, you have to really focus on being lean and Six Sigma (a data-driven approach to measure quality), which are the tools that we’re going to be providing. You have to cut costs at the same time.”
Others who have recently departed from the boards of the hospital and its parent corporation include Greg Paetow, Jim Reilly, Tom Barcelona, Carole Ruzich, and Thomas Courtney.
Not all the departures are necessarily connected or related to the turmoil at the hospital.
Ruzich, in a recent statement to The Regional News, said:
“After serving for the maximum 12 years on the Palos Community Hospital Board of Directors, my term on that board expired in November 2013. I was thereafter asked to serve on the St. George Corporation Board of Directors. I did resign recently from that board, as it became clear to me that the time demands of serving was making it difficult to keep up with the responsibilities of my law practice, my service as a trustee with the Village of Orland Park, and my family.
“My work at my law firm is very deadline driven, while my village service is very time consuming as we are seeking to attract new developments to Orland Park. The role of the St. George Board of Directors is very important to Palos Community Hospital, and one to which I did not feel I could devote the appropriate amount of time. Out of fairness to my family and my constituents, I simply decided I needed to give something up.”
The ongoing saga appears to have caused considerable concern among the 2,820 employees at the 362-bed hospital, the largest employer in Palos Heights.
“There’s a lot of worry among people at all levels, as you might imagine,” a nurse said this week, who spoke on condition of confidentiality. “We hear what the hospital has said, but of course there are all kinds of rumors flying up and down the hallways and bouncing off the walls. Most of them probably aren’t true, but who knows where the truth lies or what the future holds? This is a stressful time to work here, that much I can say.”
1
’LANRE O. AMU
B.C.E., M.S.C.E., P.E., M.B.A., J.D.
Engineering, Business, Law & Media
B.C.E. (UMN,’84), M.S.C.E. (UMN, ’86), M.B.A. (UIC,’89), J.D.(’95)
Address: Plot No. 30, Kugbo, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nigeria
Telephone: 0909 301 3007; 0815 781 6971 Email: lanreamu@gmail.com
March 1, 2017
OBJECTIVE:
I am Highly Qualified, Interested, and Readily Available for Faithful, Loyal, and Honest
Service. I have worked as an Engineer; I have worked in the Power Industry; I have
worked in the Business and Corporate World; I have lectured in College; and I have
Practiced Law.
Background:
Full Names: Mr. Olanrewaju Olakunle Temitayo Amu
Date and Place of Birth: August 1, 1961, in Lagos, Nigeria
Nationality, State of Origin and LGA: Nigeria by Birth, Ogun State, Ijebu-Ode LGA
Primary School: Ereko Methodist School, Berkley Street, Lagos, Nigeria, 1967-1973
Secondary School: Igbobi College, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, 1973-1978
H.S.C.: Federal Government College, Ijanikin, Lagos, Nigeria, 1978-1980
Higher School: Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Nigeria, 1980-1982
Undergraduate: University of Minnesota, Bachelor of Civil Engineering, 1984
Graduate: University of Minnesota, Master of Science in Civil Engineering, 1986
Graduate: University of Illinois at Chicago, Master of Business Administration, 1989
Graduate: The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois, Juris Doctorate, 1995
Professional License: Licensed Professional Engineer, P.E., Illinois 1989
Practice of Law: Before various State and Federal Courts, Including the Illinois Supreme
Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, between 1996 and 2013.
2
Brief on Qualifications: Education, Work Experience, and Community Involvement
Mr. Amu is educated in Engineering, Business, and Law. Mr. Amu attended the Institute
of Technology at the University of Minnesota and received a Bachelor of Civil
Engineering degree, with High Distinction, (The equivalent of a First Class) in 1984.
Thereafter, Mr. Amu received a Master of Science in Civil Engineering degree from the
Graduate School of the University of Minnesota in 1986. Mr. Amu worked as an Engineer
for Sargent & Lundy, a Power Company, in Chicago, in 1986. Between 1986 and 1990,
Mr. Amu worked as an Engineer for Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineers, Inc.
(CTE), in Chicago. Mr. Amu received a Master in Business Administration (M.B.A.)
degree with concentration in Strategic Management and Marketing from the University of
Illinois in Chicago in 1989. Mr. Amu later worked as an Engineer for Commonwealth
Edison Company (ComEd) now Exelon Corporation, in Chicago, from 1990 to 1992.
Between 1992 and 1995, Mr. Amu attended The John Marshall Law School in Chicago,
and received the degree of Juris Doctor in 1995.
After graduating from Law School, between 1995 and 1996, Mr. Amu became associated
with the Law Firm of James D. Montgomery & Associates in Chicago. Between 1996 and
2000, Mr. Amu was also associated with the Law Firm of Standish E. Willis, Limited in
Chicago. Between 1996 and August 6, 2013, Mr. Amu was admitted to practice law before
the Illinois Supreme Court, the United States District Courts (Federal Courts), the United
States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United
States.
On August 6, 2013, Mr. Amu was wrongfully suspended from the practice of law for three
(3) years by the Illinois Supreme Court after Mr. Amu filed a written complaint that
Exposed Judicial Corruption that is antithetical to the advancement of many African-
Immigrants in the United States. For more details, please watch YouTube: Attorney Amu
Honours include: Bachelor of Civil Engineering with High Distinction (>Top 10%);
Raymond C. Reese Research Prize by the American Society of Civil Engineers (A.S.C.E.);
Licensed Professional Engineer; Advocate for Judicial Reform and Court Reform.
Community Involvement: Mr. Amu maintains membership in Community Associations
and participates in Community Activities.
3
Professional Experiences:
Sargent & Lundy, Chicago-Engineer, 1986
Sargent & Lundy is a multinational Company that provides energy business, consulting
and project management services for new, and operating Power Plants, and renewable
energy projects worldwide. Activities include complete project management; engineering
design; construction management; project feasibility evaluation; strategic project siting;
and due diligence reviews. Energy projects include: Nuclear Power Plants, Fossil Power
Plants, Solar Power Plants, and Wind Power Plants. Sargent & Lundy Company in
Chicago has designed over 950 Power Plants with total capacity exceeding 140,000MW.
Amu worked as an engineer in Sargent & Lundy in 1986.
Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineers (CTE), Chicago-Engineer, 1987
Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineers, Inc. (CTE), is an Architect-Engineer firm
involved in the planning, designing, improving and maintenance of infrastructures
throughout the United States. It employs professionals specializing in Civil, Structural,
Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering; Architecture; Land Planning; Environmental
Science; and Computer Aided Drafting and Design. It provides consulting services to
communities, agencies, and businesses in areas of Environmental Engineering: water
resources, wastewater, storm water management, solid waste management, flood control,
land planning and development; Surface Transportation: roads, highways, bridges,
commuter rail transits, and railroads; Aviation: airport planning, airfields, and military
bases. Amu worked as an Engineer at Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineers, Inc.
(CTE) from 1987 to 1990.
Exelon Corporation, Chicago-Engineer, 1990
Exelon Corporation is a Power generation, transmission and distribution company in
Chicago, with more than 32,000 MW of owned capacity from Nuclear Power Plants,
Fossil Power Plants, Solar, Wind and Hydro Power generating sources. It generates,
transmits, and distributes energy to over 7 million customers in Illinois. Mr. Amu worked
as an Engineer for the company from 1990 to 1992.
4
Legal Practice, Chicago, 1995
Mr. Amu practiced law from 1996 to 2013. Mr. Amu practiced law before various courts
in the United States, including the Illinois Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court of the
United States. A leading case that set a standard on the law of Spoliation of Evidence in
Illinois is Esther Brobbey et al. v. Enterprise Leasing Company of Chicago, General
Motors, and its Chevrolet Division, City Chevrolet, Buick and Geo, Inc., 404 Ill.App.3d
420 (1st Dist. 2010), petition for leave to appeal denied, #111108, January 26, 2011
(Illinois Supreme Court).[Google search] Amu represented the Plaintiffs Esther Brobbey et
al. against General Motors, and Enterprise Leasing Company in the case.
Special Counsel (Bar Attorney), Cook County Juvenile Court, 1997
Mr. Amu served as a Special Counsel (Bar Attorney) for over five (5) years in the Juvenile
Court of Cook County in cases where the State’s Attorney, the Guardian Ad Litem, and/or
the Public Defender has a conflict, and the services of independent special counsel is
needed to handle pending litigation.
Adjunct Lecturer: Harold Washington College, Chicago 1999
Mr. Amu was an adjunct lecturer teaching Business Law and Family Law in the paralegals
Studies Department at the Harold Washington College in Chicago, one of the City
Colleges of Chicago, between 1999 and 2000.
Arbitrator, Mandatory Arbitration of the Circuit Court of Cook County, 2000
Mr. Amu served as an Arbitrator at the Mandatory Arbitration Section of the Circuit Court
of Cook County Illinois between 1997 and 2002. Amu arbitrated cases involving all kinds
of disputes.
Media Course at Push Africa, Abuja, 2016
Mr. Amu completed a Print, Television and Radio Media Course at Push Africa in Abuja,
Nigeria, in 2016, and as part of that Course, I did my mandatory internship at the Armed
Forces Radio, 107.7 FM, in Asokoro, Abuja.
Further Details and References Available Upon Request