This is a story of how Pinal County killed one of their own senior residents by not allowing her to stay in her home as she wished. Without regard to any of her wishes or desires, Pinal County removed Margaret from her home, placed her in a group home, and left her there to die. 4 months after placement she reluctantly submitted to their wishes and died. She died because no one cared for her anymore. If she was allowed to stay in her home, as she wished, she would most likely still be alive today. She would not have been relegated to being just “somebody else”, as she was in the group home. This story details just how Pinal County Fiduciary office murdered Margaret Dempsey. I always knew that state-sanctioned murder took place. I just never though it took place in America, today. But, it does.

This is a story that everybody should pay attention to if they want their estate to transfer to whomever they list as their heirs. This is a story of how a government agency can and will take your home away from you, sell it, move you into a group home, and leave you there until you die. The worst thing about this is, they will wait until you can’t do anything about it.

If you value your estate and you want to make sure that it goes to your heirs, DON’T BE A RESIDENT OF PINAL COUNTY  WHEN YOU DIE.  YOU DON’T WANT TO BE ANOTHER STATISTIC

Actually you shouldn’t even spend your golden years in Pinal County.  They can and will liquidate your estate against your wishes if that’s what they wish to do. It doesn’t matter what your last will and testament states. They’ve already done it to one of their most respected senior citizens of over 40 years. (Margaret moved here from Chicago 41 years ago.) The evidence is in the action they took and if they can do it to one person, they can do it to anyone, including you.

All Margaret ever wanted, was to stay in the home she and her husband had built, to live their golden years in. Pinal County, however, didn’t allow Margaret to do that. Even though she wanted to live her last days in her own home, Pinal County wouldn’t allow Margaret her last wish. Because of their callous action, Margaret had to die completely alone, without love in an assisted living home she had no wish to live in. She was forced to die the way Pinal County wanted her to die, cold and alone.

First I need to lay down some groundwork;  I first met Margaret at East Mesa Baptist Church. I was taking Alfred there 3 times a week, twice on Sundays, and on Wednesdays. Margaret always came with Charlie and Zuli but only on Sundays. I think because she couldn’t drive to church herself even though her church, St George’s Catholic Church, was only 3 blocks away from her house. I, being a Methodist, was a bit out of my normal routine, making sure Alfred made it to a Baptist church. But, never-the-less, we got there three times a week for the 3 years that I took care of Alfred. It was on a Sunday in the summer of 2001, after a service when I said to her, “If you ever need any help with anything, give me a call” and she asked for my phone number. So I gave her it to her. It was about a year later when she first called me. She asked for a ride to a doctor’s office for an appt she had. This would be the first time I helped Margaret.

A little background on me should be laid out here. I come from a family of people who like to take care of other people. Even though my family moved around most, all of my childhood, my parents almost always had become the go-to people in whatever neighborhood they moved to. My parents have always had this innate quality that enables them to help other people, regardless of where they lived. It seemed that a lot of other kids and even their families in whichever neighborhood we moved into would befriend my parents and end up being the beneficiaries of my parents’ help. But then, my parents just call it “being good neighbors”. As they moved into their retirement years, they found themselves being “good friends” to more and more people from church, and the mall where they walk every morning, and even next-door neighbors. They had to nurse some of their friends from their church or neighborhood, quite often until their death, simply to make life easier for them. My sister takes in disabled and handicapped children who have nobody else to take care of them. She’s been doing this for the last 25 years. I take care of people who can’t take care of themselves because I can understand what it’s like to be disabled because I am myself. I’m disabled due to a severe closed head injury that I received when a drunk driver ran a red light and t-boned the car I was riding in, at the end of 1984.

December 24th, 1984 shortly after midnight I was taken by helicopter to St Joseph’s hospital in Phoenix. I was unconscious as a result of this severe closed head injury that I received in that car accident that happened when the drunk driver ran the red light at the intersection of Mill and Southern in Tempe. I remained in a coma for 4 weeks and when I woke up, all I knew was that I had to get out of the hospital, because, at that time, I couldn’t stand to be in a hospital. I was thirty years old and trying to start my own construction business. So it didn’t help that I didn’t have insurance, nor did the man who hit us. Fortunately, my fiancee had, uninsured motorist, on her $30,000 policy, but the hospital got that to cover my $84,000 hospital bill. When I came out of the coma, I tried getting out of bed, but I couldn’t stand. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I couldn’t stand because my right side was paralyzed due to the two strokes I had while I was in the coma. I still live with residual partial paralysis on my right side even to this day. Having lost most of my abilities, due to this tragedy, I know what it’s like to live with a disability. My brain damage has caused me numerous problems. Just one of those is with my memory. This is what gives me an advantage when dealing with people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. I know what they go through not being able to remember what they need to remember, to get through the day. Because I have to live with it myself. I just always figured that God gave me these disabilities, so I can help other people that experience the same thing that I did and still do. Knowing what it’s like to have problems with your memory, can be very advantageous when dealing with people who have Alzheimer’s and dementia. I can more than empathize with them, I can understand why they think like they think.

I also figured that was why God didn’t take me 30 years ago. So I can help people who have trouble remembering what they’re supposed to do when they’re supposed to do it. It’s how I ended up taking care of Margaret as well Alfred, Frank, and David, and too many others to list when I was working at the Pavilion Guest Home. I also have the privilege of taking care of people who don’t have dementia or Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, their problems are worse. Robert for example is dealing with cancer, deep vein thrombosis, and one kidney. They removed one if his kidneys because they found cancer in it. He knows better than anyone what I’ve had to go through to take care of Margaret because I’ve done most of that while helping him, which started in 2007.

Probably because Margaret came from a socialite background, (her parents were very wealthy prior to the stock market crash of 1928 and the ensuing depression) she has always had a set of very special needs. She is allergic to a host of foods that she can’t eat as well as certain medications. These medications will make her deathly ill or will outright kill her if administered. At one time we compiled a list of these foods and medications that have any kind of impact on Margaret’s health. We tried to keep the list updated as best we could. Margaret was brought up to be quite particular as well, which is just another way of saying picky. I learned, over the years, that is was probably innate to this age of women who were brought up in the manner Margaret was at the time Margaret was reared. It was said by her primary care doctor that Margaret’s social circle was her doctors as she has and always has had many medical problems. Just one of those is type 2 diabetes. Since I’ve known her she has always controlled it with oral medication. Margaret also has numerous idiosyncrasies like her inability to sniffle. No matter where she is or what she’s doing if her nose starts to run she has to use a Kleenex to blow her nose, even if she’s sitting at the dinner table eating. The habit may be disgusting but Margaret was brought up this way, never to sniffle the mucus back into her nose. My guess is, she does this to be a lady because she was taught, it’s unladylike to sniffle unless she’s crying.

All the help I’ve given Margaret, I’ve done while helping other people at the time and without compensation except for an occasional dinner afterward. Robert can tell you how many times I’ve had to abandon him to go out to help Margaret. But then Margaret had little ways of making you feel guilty if didn’t go out to help her. This could possibly be why Margaret decided to put me in charge of her estate when she dies. Because I have known Margaret for over 13 years and I am the only person that’s taken care of her for most of those 13 years.
Charlie and Zuli used to help her out quite a bit, but they had their own financial problems (some of which Margaret has helped bail them out of) and hadn’t always been able to be there when she needed them. They used to be the first people Margaret called, but they often had something else they had to do when Margaret needed their help, so Margaret called me to help her out. It wasn’t long until I became the first one she called, because she started turning to me before she asked anybody else for help. But then she knew that I would always be there to help her.

At first, it started out just taking Margaret to a doctor’s appointment, or to get her hair done or do some shopping. These appointments were every two or three months apart, but that changed over time to two or three appointments a week. It soon became a daily experience where I would have to go out and help Margaret on a daily basis, without compensation with the exception of a dinner out. Once in a while, she gave me money for gas, but nothing else. In return for all this help, she wanted me to leave me her estate when she died because she felt that I knew her better than anyone else and that was the reason why she wanted to leave everything to me. She may have wanted to do this because I was the only one who ever cared about her when nobody else did.

In order to allow me to keep helping Margaret, I have needed help from Margaret from time to time, mostly in the form of auto repairs, to keep my truck on the road so I could keep helping her. Two or three times that I can remember, she’s given me the money to fix my truck so I could continue helping her. Actually 75% of the miles that went on my truck, were put on it so I could help Margaret. I would probably have a hundred thousand miles less on my truck right now if I didn’t have to drive out Margaret’s house on a daily basis for close to six years in a row to help her. This is probably why she sold me her car for $1, 4 years ago. It seems that since she sold me that car, though, she’s expected a lot more from me. I was happy to provide it, but it has interfered with some of the help I would provide others and sometimes, they had to do without, simply so Margaret could get a light bulb put in or something else that she wanted, like taking her mail to the post office since she would never use her own mailbox for fear that her mail would be stolen. On a side note; whenever I took Margaret to the post office to send her mail out, she wouldn’t let me drop it in the drive-through box as she still didn’t trust that either, she made me take her mail inside to drop in the box inside the post office. I only say this to give you an idea of how hard it was to help Margaret out as she wasn’t always happy with just helping her; she wanted me to help her in ways that not only inconvenienced me but also others, without regard. I kept telling myself that it wasn’t my place to judge Margaret. That’s God’s job.
Five years prior to my moving in with Margaret, I made daily trips out to her house to check on her blood glucose, to see she how was doing and take her out to dinner. While she appreciated this, she seldom gave me money for gas, and never gave me anything for my time. This was taking me away from my duties with other people that I help and often those who depended on me had to do without, simply so I could help Margaret. But then Margaret was the oldest of all of them and they were all nice and understanding enough to allow me to help Margaret.

Two years prior to my move in with Margaret I was helping Frank, who was dying of pics disease and I had to schedule my time carefully, to help Margaret. Pics disease is another form of dementia that makes the patient very angry. Susan, his wife, thought at the time I came to them, that I was a godsend simply because of my ability to work with difficult patients. Even though Frank got upset with me many times I was always able to calm him down. This is something that other caregivers had a lot of trouble doing, due to what Pic’s disease does, to make you very angry.

It’s a type of dementia that eats up the memory but it changes the personality first and it changed Frank’s for the worse. It made him more hostile toward everyone he didn’t know, and sometimes toward those he did know. Frank also didn’t have use of his legs as he had been wheelchair-bound for several years and even simple tasks like helping to stand Frank up or sit him down would set Frank off and he would get really angry for no reason. But because I have an understanding of what it’s like to live without your memory and a lot of other abilities, it was easier for me to work with Frank than it was for many of his other caregivers. Frank’s disease took him in the spring of 2012. It was shortly after that when Margaret’s doctor said that she had to have 24/7 care and since I was available to move in to take care of Margaret in the summer of 2012, I moved in with her in September, one month after I had my hip replaced.

Although I started helping Margaret in 2002 or 2003, I really started helping her right after Alfred died in 2004. At first, it was just a trip to a doctor, for Margaret had many doctors. Her primary care doctor says that Margaret’s social circle was her doctors. I got to take her to most all of them, not just her primary care doctor, I took to her podiatrist, her ophthalmologist, her cardiologist, Chiropractor, orthopedist, and physical therapy when she needed it. Every week I would take her to her hair appt, often to church, and shopping. These trips would grow over time probably because she used up her other resources (other friends who would give her rides), or she would lose their help when they passed away. Over the years, I found myself helping Margaret more and more, to where after just a few years it became daily help, even just to check her blood glucose. During this time, I got to know Margaret intimately, as well as all of her doctors. I can take you to the doctor who injected her knee with so much prednisone that all the blood vessels in her eye burst and made her completely blind for 2-3 days. The only reason, we could figure, was that he failed to see that she was diabetic when he injected her with the prednisone. I can take you to Dr. Park, the doctor that gave her a portion of her eyesight back with injections directly into her eyeball. She may have gotten back 5% of her sight, but no more than that.

It was then that my duties really picked up with Margaret’s care. I then started taking her shopping whenever she needed it, as well as to her hair appt every Friday, to the post office almost every day since she wouldn’t put her mail in her mailbox for the postman to pick up because she didn’t trust it to stay there until the postman came. She always thought someone would steal it. I eventually learned that it was her need to have someone help her, which drove her to call me on a daily basis, to take her to the post office or shopping. It was always something that she didn’t have to do, she just wanted to, regardless of who else it inconvenienced. She just wanted to be with someone. Yet all this time she still wanted to live in her house.

She had previously asked me to move in with her but I refused. 3 times I refused but when Dr. Lawson said she had to have 24/7 care, it became evident to me that God wanted me to move in with her to take care of her. Her greatest desire was to stay living at home. She never wanted to be put in a group home. We had already looked at some group homes and even though they were nice, she didn’t want to be placed there. She just wanted to stay home. Needless to say, this is something that never happened after Adult Protective Services stepped in, issued me with a restraining order, and moved me out of her house. Moreover, they expected me to move out everything I own in two hours. It took me two weeks to move everything in. I still had a major portion of my belongings in her house when it was put on the market with the description that said, “buyer must remove contents. Again, needless to say, I wasn’t able to retrieve anything. 90% of everything that was mine along with everything that was going to be mine was sold without my or Margaret’s consent. I call that theft……..theft by, a government agency. What would you call it? They did it to Margaret and me, who’s to say, they won’t do it to you?

I was trying to change her diet to foods that would allow her to live that to 100 years old, whereas her other caregiver (Helena) didn’t think I should take these certain foods out of her diet. This was simply because she (Helena) liked them. It didn’t matter that these foods were killing her; all that mattered was that she liked them. That is the inherent problem with the foods I was trying to limit in Margaret’s diet, they’re addictive, and it’s very difficult to say no to them. Margaret and I discussed this more than once. Actually, we discussed it on many occasions. Margaret knew what these foods were doing to her yet when they were placed in front of her to eat, she ate them, forgetting what they were doing to her. This was evidenced the last time I saw her in court. She looked 8 years older than when I was living with her. This is something even Jacqui can even attest to. She mentioned last winter when she came out here that Margaret looked like she could live to be 103 or 104 years old. The way she looked when I saw her last, gave me the impression that she wouldn’t live throughout the year, a very drastic change from last winter.

My only goal when I moved in with Margaret was to see her to her 100 birthday and hopefully more, but that goal has been eliminated by the restraining order that was placed on me in regards to Margaret and worst of all, the removal of Margaret from her home.

I was initially told that Margaret would be allowed to stay home, but I see now, that this is something that couldn’t possibly happen. Keeping Margaret in her home is very expensive. I know because of the money it was costing me to help keep her there. I was relieved for their action of removing me from Margaret’s care at first until I realized, that although it may have been the best thing for me, I can see that it wasn’t the best thing for Margaret and I wouldn’t have been surprised if she didn’t last until the end of the year. She didn’t. October 19, she died. Alone, lonely and in a strange place, feeling that nobody cared. As far as I’m concerned, it would be nice to know who is responsible for removing me from caring for her and ultimately cutting her life short.

4 months after having my power of attorney removed and Margaret placed in a group home; the house was on the market for sale with a notice whoever buys the house has to remove the belongings inside the house. The problem is those belongings inside the house belonged to me, not the owner who was a complete invalid at the time of my removal. Adult protective services and Pinal County Fiduciary Office sold something that they had no right to sell, the house that was supposed to become mine, as per Margaret’s wishes. I think, that they thought they were doing this simply under the premise that they were protecting Margaret, which they obviously weren’t.

Margaret was put in a strange environment where she couldn’t see, she could hardly hear, and she knew nobody in her new world. This is not the way Margaret wanted to die. She wanted to stay in her home until she died.

 

 

 

 

Because of this, those responsible are guilty of murder. Those responsible are Geraldine Role, Ernie Appel, and Judge Lawrence A. Wharton who ordered the action, without proper investigation, to remove me. All of these individuals are, in my opinion, are guilty of murder and should be removed from office and held accountable for their actions.

This is how Pinal county murders its own residents. They’ve already done this to Margaret. Nobody can prove that they won’t do it to your family. Not even you!

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