This article is protected under copyright law, and no part of it may be copied, excerpted, or written without it being used in its entirety.  No part of it may be left out.  Further, the user must send notice to the writer informing her that the article is being used.  Physician in New York Duped! By Janice Lauderdale @2008.  All rights reserved under the Urban Classic Books copyright and New Image Writers copyright seal.

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Word count: 500

Elderly New York Physician Duped Out of Home

          Ms. Smith was a prominent physician who worked at Cornell University.  She loved New York and her job.  The day she purchased her own brownstone in Manhattan fulfilled a life-long dream.  She had made it.  It was 1980 and she only paid $250,000.00 for the to-die-for property in a desirable neighborhood.

          She had never married, nor had children.  Her only sister, Paula, lived in Colorado.  One day Paula called to check on her and noticed changes in her sister's mood and voice.  Paula asked if she was okay.  Ms. Smith told her about the bouts of forgetfulness

 In the early 1990s, Paula became quite concerned about Mrs. Smith, as her forgetfulness had spiraled downward, almost to senility.  Something was wrong.  She placed a call to her daughter at NYU and asked her to check on her aunt. Her daughter reported that it seemed her aunt seemed mentally diminished beyond taking care of herself.  Paula monitored the situation, calling frequently to check on her.

          Meanwhile, Ms. Smith's to-die-for brownstone became the object of a local real estate company.  They knew everything about her brownstone, and, they knew everything about her.  They knew she had begun to slip mentally.  They convinced Ms. Smith to sell them her brownstone to them, offering her less than she had paid for it- $200,000, knowing her brownstone was worth over $2,000,000.00.  Someone in her building had just sold theirs for that amount. 

          When Paula called Ms. Smith, she told her she had sold her brownstone for $200,000.  was livid.  She immediately contacted an attorney to try to void the sale.  In the meantime, Ms. Smith had slipped further into Alzheimer's and was in no position to make sound decisions. Her sister and her daughter began the ominous task of trying to retrieve her property and to relocate Ms. Smith to Colorado with them.  After a two-year court battle, the property was finally returned to Ms. Smith.

In my book Wealth of the Wicked: an American Tragedy of Elderly Abuse my 87-year-old aunt Lucille Stanton encountered a similar situation when she allowed her nephew Drake Black to move in with her.  He convinced her to sign a bogus living trust naming him as sole beneficiary of all her worldly goods, including her house.  Her niece, Danielle Carrington had to take her brother to court to make null and void the bogus trust, which included her paid-for home.  Unfortunately, Lucille Stanton didn't live to see his wrong reversed.  

More about Janice M. Lauderdale-she has a degree in sociology and is a Minister in the counseling division of Faithful Central Bible Church in Los Angeles. Her book, Wealth of the Wicked: an American Tragedy of Elderly Abuse is a major breakthrough for the legal and physical protection of the elderly.  It puts a face on 1.2 million seniors who are abused annually. Contact her at: http://www.writethewrong1.com/,

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