By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

Emma France wants to be out from under the supervision of Rita Hunter, Jasper County public administrator.

In fact France, who is 95, doesn’t want a guardian at all, including her daughter, Delores Forste.

“We’re just going to be mother and daughter,” France said in her first interview since her case became public. She spoke recently at her attorney’s office in Springfield.

France said she just wants to go “home,” referring to the senior citizens complex in Needles, Calif., near Delores and her husband, Steve Forste.

“I like it. There’s lots of rocks and sand and places to walk around,” France said. “I can walk all over and I can walk to the (senior) center and eat if I’m too lazy to cook.”

France answered questions in detail about being hospitalized and made a ward of the county — she alleges against her will and without her participation — and then accompanying her daughter and son-in-law to California. That’s where Delores Forste was arrested and jailed for two weeks before being returned to Jasper County on charges she kidnapped her own mother.

When Delores Forste, 67, was arrested on Nov. 20, France left Needles for a while with Steve, 71. The county issued an arrest warrant for Steve as well, charging him with kidnapping, too. The couple also were charged with financial exploitation of the elderly and interference with custody.

After being returned to the county via a three-day cross-country trip in a prison van, Delores Forste didn’t have to appear for a Feb. 21 preliminary because the county elected to defer prosecution. Delores bonded out on Dec. 8 and spent Christmas with Steve’s relatives, who live in Golden City, while Steve and Emma remained behind in California. Steve never was arrested.

France and the Forstes have been back together about a month.

Asked if the experience had shaken her confidence in government, France giggled and answered, “Don’t ask me, I’m incompetent.”

France was referring to the probate court decision that made her a county ward.

France and Delores Forste have filed lawsuits against the public administrator and the office’s attorney. Motions also were filed this week asking the court to set aside a ruling that made France a ward of Hunter.

France is spending some of her time in her former home in Carthage, but the law firm representing her and Forste also is seeking an order that would allow France to stay in Golden City until the guardianship issue is settled. That request is to be heard March 26.