Rita Hunter, the public administrator, has refused comment on the lawsuits and did not return telephone calls for this story.

‘I wasn’t sick’

France said she was walking near her apartment in Carthage last May when she was stopped by Hunter, along with an office worker and two Carthage police officers.

“She said we’re going to the hospital for a checkup, but I told her I wasn’t sick,” France said.

She said they put her in the van against her will and took her to McCune-Brooks Hospital in Carthage, where she stayed for two weeks. France was taken to McCune-Brooks just after a May 16, 2007, court action that resulted in Hunter being appointed her guardian.

A temporary order had been approved April 26 after Hunter said she had been asked to serve as France’s guardian by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services because France was “unable to care for herself physically or financially.”

France also had been hospitalized at Freeman Health System in Joplin for two days in December 2006 at the request of the state.

“The hospital (in December) found her healthy and well-nourished, but a little depressed,” said Lynn Myers, an attorney for the firm representing France and Forste. “She scored 28 of 30 in questions about how oriented she was; that’s why they said she was depressed, but didn’t say anything about dementia.”

France said she had to pay a cab $35 to get back to Carthage after she was released from Freeman.

Forste said she had difficulty tracking her mother down during that brief hospitalization in December.

“When I called the hospital trying to find her, they told me she volunteered to go because she was depressed,” Delores said.

But France said she never agreed to go to the hospital either time and Myers said the physician specified on a report from the December visit that the admission was “involuntary.”

Lottery scams

In addition to dementia, county filings cite monetary losses of more than $40,000 as a result of France falling victim “to lottery scams.”

Those losses were noted in a report by the Missouri Division of Senior Services filed with the probate court on April 16, 2007. That report recommended “guardianship” for France. The state report cited what it described as “impaired judgment” and depression in France as a result of the losses.