By Susan Redden
news@joplinglobe.com
JOPLIN, Mo. —
Attorneys on Tuesday gave two different versions of events leading to the arrest of Dolores Forste in the first day of a trial in which the California woman is suing Rita Hunter, former Jasper County public administrator.
Forste is arguing that she was the victim of malicious prosecution by Hunter when she was arrested in November 2007 after taking her mother, Emma France, home with her while France was a ward of the public administrator’s office.
Positions of the opposing sides were outlined in opening statements by Springfield attorneys Lynn Myers, representing Forste, and Doug Harpool, representing Hunter, her former deputy Charlene Kelly and the county’s insurance carrier.
Testimony in the jury trial started with Myers questioning Hunter on operations of the administrator’s office and actions that made France a county ward that later were voided by Probate Judge David Mouton.
Myers said Forste learned that her mother had been hospitalized in May 2007 after being unable to reach her by phone. After calls to Carthage police and others, she found out that her mother was in the hospital and had been made a ward of the public administrator’s office. Myers said Forste and her husband traveled from California to see France, found her to be upset and decided to take her to visit grandchildren in Colorado. He said they left on a Friday night, and that Forste called the public administrator’s office the next Monday to tell personnel of the trip.
Myers said Kelly called police the next day, said Forste had taken her mother home with her and suggested that Forste should be charged with interference with custody. Myers also said allegations were made that Forste and France went to the Social Security office, and that Forste tried to try to get her mother’s Social Security check.
The report taken by Carthage police from Kelly was sent to the prosecutor’s office, and a special prosecutor was named because John Podleski, attorney for the public administrator, also is an assistant prosecutor. Myers said the special prosecutor sent a “courtesy copy” of the charges to Podleski. Podleski’s records of billings to France’s estate showed charges for a telephone conversation with the special prosecutor, Myers said, and Hunter’s records showed that France’s estate was billed for calls to the sheriff’s department in Needles, Calif.
Myers said France’s ownership of investments in the Pioneer Fund became an issue to Forste because the account was not shown on her mother’s financial inventory filed by the public administrator, even though the office knew of the investments. Forste was a joint tenant on the account, he said.
He said Forste was charged with kidnapping, interference with custody and financial exploitation of the elderly.
Myers detailed Forste’s weeks of incarceration in a California jail, and a 78-hour trip back to Missouri in a prison van, shackled to other prisoners, before she could post bond.
“Then the court decided her (France’s) rights had been violated, so the guardianship proceedings were void,” Myers said. “A void judgment can’t be enforced, so they finally dismissed the charges, and she (Forste) was free to go home with her mother.”
Guardianship
Harpool, Hunter’s attorney, said she was charged by the court to serve as France’s guardian and conservator.
“The Department of Health said Emma France needed a guardian, so Rita Hunter filed the papers,” he said.
Bank employees and others were concerned because France was giving away money to scam artists, Harpool said, adding that state workers had raised the concern with Forste. The guardianship would ensure that France was cared for and that her money was not misused, he said.
Harpool said Forste wanted the Pioneer Fund account and that Hunter refused, saying France would need the money. He said Forste also suggested using the money to take her mother on vacation. He said that when Forste took her mother, she told the administrator’s office that she did not know when they would return and refused to put France on the phone, saying her mother did not want to talk with anyone from the office.
“She (Forste) knew she (France) was in county custody and just took off with her,” Harpool said. “When she talked to the police, they warned her there could be criminal charges. Rita Hunter and Charlene Kelly reported this, but they didn’t decide what charges should be filed; they’re not cops or prosecutors.”
Harpool said charges were not filed for three months after France and Forste left Carthage.
“It was only after she was arrested that she decided to come back and ask that the guardianship be dissolved,” he said. “She could have done that earlier. All she had to do was follow the legal process.”
Under questioning by Myers, Hunter said she did not know that children are supposed to be notified when guardianships are sought, saying she depended on her attorney for those types of issues. She said she was told that France had a daughter “who didn’t want to be involved,” but she didn’t have the daughter’s name and didn’t try to find it out.
Regarding the Pioneer Fund account, Hunter said an office worker failed to list the fund on the earlier inventory, but agreed that it was an official document submitted to the court that she signed. She said an office worker sent a letter to the Pioneer Fund saying Forste was going to be charged with custodial interference.
“I never saw the letter before it was sent,” Hunter said.
Presiding
Circuit Judge David Dally is presiding at the trial in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin.
