A new task force will look into Clay County\u2019s guardianship program to prosecute those who mismanage or steal from the children and older adults they\u2019re supposed to care for.<\/p>\n
The guardianship task force will investigate possible abuse by professional or private caregivers, what Sheriff Michelle Cook<\/a> called a \u201cfew bad actors\u201d who were put in a position of trust, then failed.<\/p>\n Guardianship programs help orphans or children in need after parents have been arrested or died. They also help indigent adults who have no family or friends to care for them.<\/p>\n Guardians can be family members, court-appointed professionals or state-approved members of the public.<\/p>\n Clerk of Court Tara Green said all guardians file annual reports that her staff audits. Guardianship audits focus on the child or adult\u2019s physical well-being, financial accounts and status of their assets.<\/p>\n Now there is a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force to look deeper into issues uncovered in the audits, Green said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur auditors have seen it all, sadly \u2014 elderly men and women abandoned at care centers and hospitals, their bank accounts drained and their homes and personal property sold or foreclosed without the state\u2019s or court\u2019s knowledge,\u201d Green said. \u201cJuveniles never see their inheritance in the form of funds or property, making the death of their parents even more of a tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n Cook said any prospective guardians \u2014 or family members seeking guardians \u2014 must first learn the responsibilities and expectations of the role.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want our citizens to report any suspicious activity, especially if you believe a guardian is acting inappropriately or exploiting someone in their care,\u201d Cook said. \u201cAnd finally, prevent \u2014 we need to prevent abuse, prevent neglect and prevent exploitation by staying informed and speaking up. While these are complex cases, we want everyone to know that we will be watching.\u201d<\/p>\n Cook said the new task force was created after hearing from clerk of courts and Sheriff\u2019s Office staff that there is a need for what she called a \u201cholistic approach\u201d to fighting this crime. The vast majority of guardianship volunteers are doing it the right way, but Green talked about recent examples of abuse in Clay County\u2019s guardian program.<\/p>\n In one case, the Sheriff\u2019s Office recently uncovered a family member who exploited an elderly woman, abandoned her without any personal effects and emptied her bank account. Her monthly pension had been taken and her property sold, leaving her destitute with unpaid medical bills, Green said. <\/p>\n In a case involving a child last year, Green said a guardian quickly depleted money the child had inherited. \u201cHundreds of thousands of dollars gone,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n County officials did not indicate how many guardianship audits have turned up abuse. Cook said investigation has shown that \u201cpeople can be greedy\u201d if they see a vulnerable person with lots of money.<\/p>\n The sheriff urged people to report any possible abuse they see from guardianship volunteers at clayclerk.com<\/a>, or to claysheriff.com<\/a>, and search for \u201cguardianship.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new task force will look into Clay County\u2019s guardianship program to prosecute those who mismanage or steal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3487,502,6121,43323,3493,7931,116,118,117,52066,115],"class_list":["post-393929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-clay-county","tag-community","tag-criminal-justice","tag-distribute","tag-green-cove-springs","tag-healthcare","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jaxtdy3","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}