County to add manager to ID ‘high risk’ cases

Position comes in wake of scandal involving ex-guardian Fierle

Orange County commissioners approved nearly $50,000 in federal funds last week for the Ninth Judicial Circuit to hire a court guardianship manager who will identify cases involving incapacitated people who pose “a high risk for criminal exploitation.”

The new position comes in the wake of a months-long scandal involving Rebecca Fierle, a former Orlando guardian who is under criminal investigation after the death of a client.

Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Donald Myers Jr. said guardianship filings have increased by 33% over the past five years, with an estimated 450 to 460 cases filed in 2019. Myers wouldn’t say if the request for a new case manager was related to Fierle and the firestorm of criticism surrounding Florida’s guardianship program.

“It was a response to where we see the need,” Myers said.

The $47,482 allocated for the guardianship case manager came from a U.S. Department of Justice grant for $359,322 awarded to Orange County. Aside from identifying guardianship cases that are at risk for criminal exploitation and neglect of wards, the case manager will provide “intensive court supervision to ensure that the interests of the ward are being protect,” according to a Oct. 14 memo to commissioners from Yolanda Martinez, the county’s director of health services.

Orange County currently has 3,500 guardianship cases that remain under the supervision of one judge, Myers said. The case manager will help identify “potential fraud or abuse” by reviewing annual accountings filed by court-appointed decision makers for their incapacitated clients, according to the chief judge.

Myers said after Jan. 1, a judge will be moved from the 9th Circuit’s civil division so there will be two judges handling probate, guardianship and mental health cases. The division is being split into one section for probate and trust litigation and another for guardianship and mental health cases.

“We’ve determined the probate and guardianship areas have now exceeded the capacity of a single judge to handle, so we made that decision to reallocate,” he said.

The chief judge said the 9th Circuit is looking into monitoring technology used in Pennsylvania and the 15th Circuit in Palm Beach County that requires guardians to input the amount of money they’re managing for incapacitated clients and other data.

“[The software] can trigger the need for further review,” Myers said.

Fierle resigned from all cases after one of her wards, 75-year-old Steven Stryker, died at a Tampa hospital because staff were unable to perform life-saving measures due to a “do not resuscitate” order Fierle filed against his wishes and refused to remove. Two probes found Fierle was profiting from her work handling the affairs of vulnerable adults in arrangements not approved by a court, including a nearly $4 million financial relationship with AdventHealth.

She is not currently facing charges.