The fight continues.

In May of 2020, the publication Alabama Today caused a firestorm with the incredible and shocking audio recordings of a Balch & Bingham attorney Amy Davis Adams and Jefferson County Conservator Greg Hawley talking with 88-year old Joann Bashinsky, known as Mrs. B.

Ridiculously claiming Mrs. B could lose her home, run out of money, and have to fire her staff, Adams’ comments appear to have been an attempt to take control of Mrs. B’s affairs, a woman worth $218 million.

Hawley went ahead and appointed Balch’s Adams even though Mrs. B said no, according to Alabama Today. Days after the audio files were released, Probate Judge Alan L. King, who approved the guardianship of Mrs. B, abruptly quit.

Then, weeks later, the Alabama Supreme Court unanimously tossed out the temporary and emergency guardianship.

Mrs. B sadly passed away in January, but the fight, unbelievably continues.

Landon Ash, the heir and grandson of Mrs. B, is courageously fighting the perpetrators and instigators who appear to have used and abused the judicial system against his beloved grandmother.

As commentator Kimberly Guilfoyle wrote earlier this month:

In neighboring Alabama, the family of deceased heiress and philanthropist Joann Bashinsky is still fighting a legal battle with her court-appointed guardian over five months after her death. It’s difficult to fathom why Judge Lee Tucker, who has jurisdiction in the case, hasn’t dismissed it by now – after all, the person supposedly in need of the court’s “protection” is no longer alive. In this case and so many others, based on my years as a prosecutor, something certainly doesn’t smell right.

More importantly, having worked closely with the U.S. Department of Justice for two decades, we, the CDLU, believe investigations of elderly exploitation cases are occurring now, intensely, behind the scenes, and have become a priority for federal investigators, especially after the Netfix series Dirty Money exposed the deep problem of court-appointed guardianships in an episode titled, “Guardians, Inc.”

Last week, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Prim Escalona recognized World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, stating, “Our seniors are vital members of our community.  Unfortunately, they are often among the most vulnerable. Prosecuting those who prey on this vulnerable community is a top priority, and we remain committed to pursuing justice for the seniors in Northern Alabama.”

And we know Mrs. B made the horrors of her exploitation known, not only to the media but law enforcement.

“It feels like I’m nobody, like all my rights have been taken away,” Mrs. B said during an interview with AL.com in 2019. “I feel like I’m a prisoner in my own home.”

Balch & Bingham ought to be ashamed of their alleged misconduct.

And federal investigators should conduct a forensic audit of each and every “guardianship” Balch stuck their fingers in.

And Landon should demand so, too.

We begin the new year with tremendously sad news. Joann Bashinsky (Mrs. B), the widow of the founder of Golden Flake Foods, has died of a heart attack according to news reports.

Balch & Bingham was a central figure in an explosive report last May of an alleged elderly exploitation scandal that led to the abrupt retirement of Jefferson County Probate Judge Alan L. King hours after secret recordings made by Mrs. B were published by Alabama Today.

The multi-part investigative series by Alabama Today about the Elderly Exploitation Racket exposed the outrageous fees manifested by insiders who appear to be gaming the system for their own pockets while dwindling assets of estates. The scheme involves declaring wealthy individuals “incompetent” to handle their own affairs and then have insiders take over the estates as guardians where they quickly sell assets to pocket generous fees.

In the explosive recordings, Balch & Bingham attorney Amy Davis Adams suggested that Mrs. B would lose her home and have to fire her staff if she continued to manage her own affairs.

The problem with Adams’ suggestions was that Mrs. B was worth $218 million and the home was paid for.

Sources tell us criminal investigators are looking into the matters at hand because numerous family members of alleged victims of the scheme have come forward.

Some observers allege that Mrs. B may have suffered a heart attack because of all the stress caused by the alleged Elderly Exploitation Scandal.

Even after the Alabama Supreme Court threw out (in a unanimous 7-0 decision in July) the temporary and emergency guardianship over Mrs. B, two individuals involved in the fight to allegedly control Mrs. B’s assets continued the insidious litigation against her, including issuing subpoenas last month.

Balch has allegedly refused to investigate or even reprimand partner Amy Davis Adams for her alleged egregious conduct.

In a unanimous 7-0 decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, the temporary and emergency guardianship over Joann Bashinsky (Mrs. B) was tossed out yesterday. Mrs. B is worth $218 million and the widow of the Golden Flake Foods founder.

The alleged elderly exploitation scandal has shaken the probate courts of Alabama and the embattled law firm Balch & Bingham.

Alabama Today, which broke the story of Mrs. B’s plight and the questionable actions of Balch & Bingham partner Amy Davis Adams, writes:

[Alabama Today] heard from others whose cases eerily track with the same M.O. used by Judge King and the same conservator of her case, Greg Hawley. These individuals show up to court with lawyers of their own only to have King disqualify them, and Hawley being given a conservatorship “temporarily.” As in her case, the temporary orders lasted well past the 30-day limit the court intended. There were also emergency petitions granted when no emergency existed.

The Alabama Supreme Court ripped Judge Alan L. King for his unfairness and trampling of Mrs. B’s constitutional right to due process, writing:

[T]he manner in which the probate court handled the issue of the motion to disqualify Ms. Bashinsky’s attorneys — granting the motion and then choosing to proceed directly with the hearing on the issue of Ms. Bashinsky’s competence — created an unnecessary complication that was highlighted by the probate court’s subsequent scheduling of a hearing in January 2020 to discuss how Ms. Bashinsky’s new attorneys were to be selected. That is, because the probate court disqualified Ms. Bashinsky’s attorneys and then declared Ms. Bashinsky to be incompetent, it raised the specter that she cannot enter into a contract to hire new counsel to represent her interests in this matter. This complication would have been avoided if the probate court had followed basic procedures of due process and fundamental fairness with respect to Ms. Bashinsky.

Ms. Bashinsky’s constitutional and statutory rights of due process were also violated through a deprivation of counsel and a lack of opportunity to present evidence and argument before the probate court.

King  retired in late May just hours after Alabama Today published audio recordings of County Conservator Greg Hawley’s and Balch partner Adams’ conversations with Mrs. B.

We, the CDLU, reached out to federal investigators yesterday asking them to probe The Birmingham Triangle, writing:

“We believe now is the time for the FBI to probe all transactions, track wealth building, and  conduct a forensic audit of all conservator estates and the personal finances involving Judge Alan L. King, Balch & Bingham’s Amy Davis Adams, and JeffCo Conservator Greg Hawley.”

Coincidently, at the conclusion of their decision, the Alabama Supreme Court mandated the following:

“We… require the temporary guardian and conservator to account for all of Ms. Bashinsky’s funds and property….”

Even the seven Alabama Supreme Court justices can read between the lines, and understand that liquidating assets and pocketing fees and commissions under phony “emergency” orders appears to be more important to some than defending or truly protecting the elderly.