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Guardians
of Retired Judge Accused By Trymaine Lee Those close to retired Judge John L. Phillips Jr., including his court-appointed property guardian, blame his previous guardians for much of the financial mess that may force the sale of the Slave Theater to pay the judge’s debts. The guardian, James Cahill Jr., says in court filings that those who used to be responsible for Mr. Phillips’s financial affairs not only mismanaged them but never paid taxes or filed timely accountings. Both are violations of the statute that governs Brooklyn’s guardianship program. At least one of the former guardians, Emani P. Taylor, was not bonded, another violation, according to Ezra Glazer, a lawyer for Symphony Moss of Ohio, Mr. Phillips’s niece and current personal guardian. The former guardians accused in court papers are Harvey L. Greenberg, Frank J. Livoti, Ray Jones and Ms. Taylor, all lawyers. According to reports filed in court by Mr. Cahill, Ms. Taylor wrote herself hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of checks from Mr. Phillips’s accounts. He alleged in the filings that she also paid about $100,000 to relatives and friends. Ms. Taylor was named interim guardian after Mr. Livoti and Mr. Jones were taken off the case. In an interview, she said that she was initially brought into the fold as Mr. Phillips’s lawyer, through a mutual acquaintance, after friends of the retired judge said that Mr. Livoti and Mr. Jones were not properly caring for his estate. Ms. Taylor said friends of Mr. Phillips told her that he was at times without heat or hot water. Mr. Livoti and Mr. Jones declined to comment for this article. Mr. Greenberg, the first court-appointed guardian, said that he served only a few months before stepping down after he realized how complicated the guardianship case was, especially because of the many characters who he said claimed to be Mr. Phillips’s "friends" but instead were ripping him off. "It became messy because he was incompetent before the world recognized that he was incompetent," Mr. Greenberg said. "It’s a very sad case. I have been guardian for 30 years in this business, and I saw what was going on and I didn’t want to be a part of it." Mr. Greenberg said he accepted no fees. He said that he had followed the case and that he "can’t understand why the guardian charged up a couple hundred thousand dollars." Ms. Taylor, who was Mr. Phillips’s guardian for three years beginning in September 2003, said she inherited a hopelessly disorganized guardianship account with few, if any, records or documents showing which properties of Mr. Phillips’s had been sold, which he still owned or how much money he had. She said she could not even collect Mr. Phillips’s pension checks because she had no idea where they were being mailed. Ms. Taylor acknowledged that she paid herself roughly $300,000 from the judge’s estate but said she had been paying for clothing and food for him out of her own pocket. "I still don’t believe I did anything wrong," Ms. Taylor said. "I received a guardianship account that was bankrupt. I wrote an order to the best of my ability, and that order was in consideration of the numerous people that needed to be paid in the future. At the point I was finally able to have the funds to pay persons, I rightfully believe that I was one of those persons." Ms. Taylor said she hired relatives and trusted friends, saying that otherwise payment would have been required upfront. Reports filed in court by Mr. Cahill show checks totaling nearly $50,000 that were paid to Ms. Taylor’s mother, a registered nurse who for a time housed and cared for Mr. Phillips; roughly $40,500 that was paid to her son and daughter; and more than a dozen checks totaling about $15,000 that were written to another person believed to be a relative. Ms. Taylor defended her hiring of family members, saying that she paid her daughter and son-in-law, a licensed contractor, about $35,000 for contracting work on some of Mr. Phillips’s property, roughly half of what she says she owed them. Ms. Taylor said she paid her son a few thousand dollars over the years for work including cutting Mr. Phillips’s hair, providing security for her when she checked the judge’s property and acting as a property manager at some of the more "troubled" spots he owned. Mr. Glazer, the lawyer for Mr. Phillips’s niece, said Ms. Taylor’s methods were improper. "There was never a court order allowing her to pay herself," he said. "Anybody that has ever been appointed guardian knows full well that they have to submit an affirmation of legal services, and it is up to the court to determine if that affirmation is correct." Hearings will soon be under way to determine if Ms. Taylor broke any laws by paying herself. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office declined to press charges against Ms. Taylor and referred the matter to a lawyer’s disciplinary committee. The judge overseeing the guardianship case, Justice Michael L. Pesce of Brooklyn Supreme Court, recently recused himself. Dee Woodburne, a former paralegal who has been trying to get some of Mr. Phillips’s assets returned to him, filed a complaint last year with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct regarding Justice Pesce’s handling of the case. He did not respond to a request for comment last week. A judicial committee
spokesman said that he could not confirm or discuss any matter in
which the committee had not reached a conclusion. Ripped-off Judge Gets New Home By Alex Ginsberg A retired judge who languished in a Bronx nursing home while his vast fortune dwindled under the care of court-appointed guardians finally left the facility yesterday, 21/2 years after being virtually locked up there and forbidden to receive visitors. John Phillips, 83, who was known in his days on the Brooklyn bench as the "Kung Fu Judge" thanks to his interest in martial arts, walked out of the East Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Eastchester Road and into a waiting van. "He walks in, he said, 'Oh, boy,' when he walked into the room," said lawyer Ezra Glaser, who represents the judge's niece. "He looked very happy." Phillips' new digs, Castle Senior Living in Brooklyn, is an improvement because it's an assisted-living facility, rather than a full-service nursing home. Phillips' niece had initially sought to have him released to her care, but the plan proved too costly. 'Grand' $Lam on Estate Lawyer By Alex Ginsberg The lawyer accused of mismanaging the affairs of an elderly ex-judge while improperly paying herself $300,000 will have to pony up a grand each day she fails to turn over documents relating to the botched case, a judge ordered yesterday. "Starting tomorrow, $1,000 a day," Justice Michael Pesce told the lawyer, Emani Taylor, after finding she'd failed to hand over a single tax document in connection with her three years' work as guardian. The delay is preventing Taylor's successor guardian from filing tax returns on the estate of the Alzheimer-stricken ex-Judge John Phillips. "How can I prepare returns?" asked the successor, James Cahill. "Should I write hypothetical numbers?" Taylor's lawyer, William Martin, told Pesce his client was complying with the judge's demands as quickly as she could. "We're not far from the mark, judge," said Martin. But an irked Pesce shot back, "We're not even on the same planet, Mr. Martin." 'Scam' Family Plan By Alex Ginsberg
Emani Taylor, a former
court-appointed guardian for John Phillips, 83, spread around more
than $100,000 to relatives, according to the papers. Notes in the "memo" section of the checks suggest that Taylor may have "employed" the relatives to perform jobs related to Phillips' care. Within weeks of taking over the Phillips guardianship, Cahill accused Taylor of improperly paying herself $187,000. The most recent set of papers allege that the sum is closer to $300,000 - not counting the money that he believes went to relatives. "It is submitted that the court should modify and expand its prior order directing Emani Taylor to repay funds and hold Emani Taylor in contempt for her failure to obey the orders of this court," Cahill wrote. Taylor's lawyer did not return a telephone message seeking comment, and efforts to reach Taylor's relatives were unsuccessful. Last month, Taylor dodged trouble when Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes announced he would not seek charges against her. Hynes' office, instead, referred the case to a lawyers' disciplinary committee for possible disbarment. Hynes' spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer, said it was likely that the evidence made public in Cahill's filings was already examined as part of the earlier investigation by the DA's office. Nevertheless, he said the office would review the evidence to be sure. The records filed by Cahill show 21 checks totaling $49,423 were made out to Taylor's mother; two totaling $35,000 to her daughter and three totaling $5,515 payable to her son. There are also 13 checks worth a combined $14,760 made out to a fourth person believed to be a relative. The single largest check, made out to the mother for $36,500, includes a note in the memo section, "John L Phillips/Nurse." NY Lawyer
Faces Ethics Probe By Tom Perrotta The lawyer, Emani Taylor, was appointed as a law guardian to retired Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John L. Phillips in 2003. She was removed from the case at her request this year, and the new guardian discovered that Ms. Taylor had written $200,000 in checks to herself from the judge's accounts. After an investigation, the Brooklyn district attorney concluded that Ms. Taylor was owed that money for her work, but had failed to collect the necessary paperwork for the checks from the judge presiding over the case, Justice Michael Pesce, according to Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the district attorney. Ms. Taylor, who could not be reached for comment, has defended her actions in the past and told the New York Post she is owed over $500,000. Judge-case Judge Probe By Alex Ginsberg -- A state panel is investigating whether a Brooklyn judge allowed a court-appointed guardian to loot hundreds of thousands of dollars from the estate of an elderly retired jurist. The inquiry by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct centers on Justice Michael Pesce's handling of the disaster-plagued guardianship of Alzheimer's-stricken John Phillips, a source told The Post. Papers filed in that case charge a court-appointed lawyer, Emani Taylor, swiped nearly $200,000 from the ex-judge's holdings. Phillips' supporters say they believe that figure represents only the tip of the iceberg. Meanwhile, Pesce, who appointed Taylor and kept her on for some three years, came down hard on her yesterday, demanding that she explain where the money is and revealing he had referred the matter to the DA's office. "Give me an answer as to why those monies were withdrawn without my knowledge or permission," he said. But he, too, may have some explaining to do. The complaint before the commission alleges that Pesce failed to order an accounting for the three years Taylor served as guardian - a process meant to take place every six months. The commission is also believed to be probing the unusual sealing of the case file and Pesce's recusing himself from overseeing the sale of three of Phillips' buildings. Pesce was booted from a post supervising Brooklyn Supreme Court in 2002 after a series of complaints. Lawyer Denies $Cam By Patrick Gallahue A Manhattan lawyer under investigation for allegedly writing herself checks for $187,000 from an Alzheimer's-stricken judge's estate fought back in court yesterday - after new questions were raised about another $18,000 gone missing. "I have not stolen anything from the estate of John Phillips," said Emani Taylor, court-appointed guardian of Judge Phillips' multimillion-dollar estate. As The Post reported this month, the Brooklyn DA is looking into checks allegedly written by Taylor from Phillips' account to the tune of $187,000, and into another $81,000, from the sale of one of Phillips' properties that vanished from an escrow account. And Phillips' new guardian, James Cahill Jr., raised questions yesterday about an $18,000 check itten from Phillips' account. Taylor wouldn't discuss specifics, saying an accounting of her work was under way, but said it was she who was owed money. "For four years, I gave my blood, sweat and tears - turning around many hats as attorney, guardian of person and guardian of property of John Phillips - for work that has already been estimated by my accountant at over $537,492," she said. "And I will fight the state of New York to collect every dime." Da Eyes 'Rip-off' of Judge By Alex Ginsberg The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said yesterday it will investigate the alleged theft of $187,000 from the account of an elderly ex-judge by his court-appointed guardian. The announcement was greeted warmly by supporters of the former judge, John Phillips, 82, who lives in a nursing home. "There's got to be a special place in hell for people who rip off old folks they're supposed to be helping," said Ezra Glaser, a lawyer representing the judge's niece, who is seeking custody. Last week, The Post reported that former guardian Emani Taylor, a Manhattan lawyer who has managed the assets of the Alzheimer's-stricken judge for the past three years, had written herself 16 checks from Phillips' account. The alleged wrongdoing came to light after Taylor resigned from the guardianship in September and the new guardian, James Cahill Jr., examined the financial records. Out of Order - Ailing Judge's Guardian 'Stole 187g' By Alex Ginsberg
Emani Taylor, who resigned
as the guardian of former Judge John Phillips last month, cut 16
checks between December 2005 and August 2006, ranging from $2,000 to
$52,000, from the judge's account - all payable to herself, the The 82-year-old judge's supporters have long accused Taylor of mismanaging the money. Phillips, stricken with Alzheimer's but relatively lucid, remains by order of the court confined to a Bronx nursing home. Last week's filings, by new guardian James Cahill Jr., are the first detailed allegations of wrongdoing. "Additionally, there remain serious questions about other checks written by Emani Taylor that are the subject of a continuing investigation," he wrote. The petition, which was signed by Justice Michael Pesce, demands Taylor be stopped from spending any funds or selling any buildings that may rightfully belong to Phillips. In the filing, Cahill also notes that $81,000 that was placed in escrow for the sale of one of the judge's buildings was never transferred into his account once the closing took place. "The location of those escrow funds remains unknown at this time," Cahill wrote. He said another $696,000 from sales of the judge's property is unaccounted for. Taylor did not respond to a request for comment. In previous conversations with The Post, she has denied wrongdoing and said she was overwhelmed by the amount of work the guardianship created for her. Phillips was declared incompetent in 2001 and his estimated $10 million in real estate holdings - including two theaters - were placed in the care of Taylor's predecessors as court-appointed guardians, following a motion by a prosecutor in the Brooklyn DA's office. Critics of Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes believe his office made the motion to take Phillips, a possible candidate to challenge Hynes, out of commission. The DA's office has repeatedly said it acted to protect Phillips' properties from swindlers. Once the proper funds can be allocated, Phillips should be able to leave the nursing home and live under the care of a niece, Symphony Moss. But given the disarray the judge's funds appear to be in, that could take time. "Maybe if this was done properly, he could be living in the lap of luxury instead of just trying to get released from a home," said Moss' lawyer, Ezra Glaser. "He saved all this money through the years, he had multimillion dollars in assets. We assume this is for his retirement years and he has been living in absolute poverty. Why?" Judge's Guardian Out By Alex Ginsberg An embattled court-appointed lawyer accused of mismanaging the assets of an elderly and incapacitated ex-judge was removed from the case yesterday. Emani Taylor, the legal guardian of former Judge John Phillips' holdings, said she requested the removal because the strain of the massive legal work was taking its toll on her health. "I would just say that it's an overwhelming case," said Taylor. Phillips, 82, a former Brooklyn Civil Court judge, has been confined to a Bronx nursing home and forbidden to receive unauthorized visitors for the past 20 months. Friends and supporters of his have complained to the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct, alleging that Taylor and Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Michael Pesce have squandered the judge's considerable real-estate holdings, selling them off at far below market value. 'Prisoner' Judge Bids for Liberty By Alex Ginsberg A former judge, who has been confined to a nursing home, made a dramatic appearance in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday, as lawyers representing his relatives proposed plans to lift the court order keeping him at the facility. "I'm a lawyer," said ex-Judge John Phillips. "I've been a judge for 17 years. How does something like this happen to me?" Phillips, 82, looked and sounded healthy, but also repeated himself several times, and when asked, wasn't sure of the date. The former jurist and his supporters claim there's no medical reason why he should be kept at the East Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. They've filed a complaint with state officials, alleging that his assets, which once included 10 buildings and two theaters in Brooklyn, are being sold off at below-market prices by his court-appointed guardian. But yesterday, Justice Michael Pesce expressed confidence that Phillips' finances were being handled properly by the guardian, Emani Taylor. And he welcomed petitions from a niece and a nephew of the former judge that laid out what sort of care each could provide if Phillips were released to their custody. "I do favor Judge Phillips going back to live in the community," Pesce said, but added that Phillips was not competent to look after his finances.
By Alex Ginsberg
The former judge, John
Phillips, 82, wears a monitoring wristband and cannot leave or
receive telephone calls at the East Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center — but spoke to The Post via a tape recorder carried by a
friend during a visit. "It's lousy what they did to me," Phillips told The Post. "I've got to get out of here and get back to Brooklyn. They're stealing from me. I'm going to get my life back. I've got no business being here." Phillips has been an involuntary guest at the home since December 2004. Court-appointed guardians have looked after his multimillion-dollar estate since 2002, when a judge ruled that he was not mentally competent. All records in connection with his case have been sealed. But a lawyer retained by a niece of Phillips' said the judge is barred from leaving the facility by a court order. "I still don't understand how the judge is at the nursing home," said the lawyer, Armani Scott. "But once he was put in, the court said he can't get out until they say so." Scott said he's unaware of any specific treatment the ex-judge is getting at the home. A nursing-home official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Post that Phillips did require monitoring and care — but also said the situation would be better if the ex-judge lived with a relative. Of particular concern to both Phillips and loved ones is what's happening to his estate, which includes at least 10 buildings and two theaters. Earlier this month, a committee formed by friends of Phillips' filed a complaint with state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to look into the management of his finances by his court-appointed guardian, Emani Taylor. Taylor did not return a call seeking comment. Relatives plan to attend a Brooklyn Supreme Court hearing today in hopes of persuading Justice Michael Pesce to release Phillips and relieve Taylor. Meanwhile, Phillips is outraged that his properties are being sold. "They are stealing my theaters and everything," Phillips says on the tape. "I want to get out of here . . . I'm gonna tear their asses up when I get out."
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A
beloved former Brooklyn judge says he's a virtual prisoner in a
Bronx nursing home where he has been confined by a court order for
more than a year while his appointed guardian sells his assets.
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A Feast
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