May 07, 2008 05:28 pm
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Emma France can go back to California after David Mouton, Jasper County probate judge, on Wednesday set aside orders that made the 95-year-old former Carthage resident a ward of Rita Hunter, the county public administrator.
Mouton made the ruling based on attorneys’ arguments and without ever hearing testimony from France or from Hunter during a two-hour court hearing.
R. Lynn Myers, France’s attorney, contended orders making France a ward of the county should be void because France was not allowed to appear or speak at the hearing in which the ruling was made, and her daughter, or other relatives, were not notified of the court proceeding in which she was put under county control.
Matthew Miller, attorney for Hunter, said motions on behalf of France should be rejected, because they should have been filed within 60 days after the May 16, 2007 orders that made her a ward of the county. He said France instead should have filed to terminate guardianship, or Delores Forste, France’s daughter, should file to become her mother’s guardian.
Forste was in the courtroom along with husband Steve Forste and other relatives. Kidnapping charges were filed against the pair after they took France, at her request, home with them to Needles, Calif. Delores Forste was arrested at her home and spent two weeks in jail before being returned to Jasper County. The county deferred prosecution on the kidnapping charges earlier this year.
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