Albuquerque Journal

Since 2016, the Albuquerque Journal has emerged as a leading voice in exposing guardianship abuse. Diane Dimond’s groundbreaking work has been followed by continued investigations by Colleen Heild and the engagement of the editorial board and readership.

Richard Eisenberg of Next Avenue, in an interview titled How to Fix America’s Broken Guardianship System (September 21, 2023), spoke with investigative reporter Diane Dimond after publication of her book We’re Here to Help: When Guardianship Goes Wrong (2023). Eisenberg prefaced his conversation with a quote by Dimond:

“‘When I first heard about guardianship, it was brand new to me and intrigued me: What am I hearing about that takes away people’s civil rights and takes over their life and their finances? I really didn’t think that could happen in America,’ she told me.”

In the fall 2013, Dimond learned that her childhood friend’s father, Dr. Jack Herrmann, a respected physician and philanthropist, had been stripped of his civil rights by an Albuquerque judge. Dimond chronicled in her book (2023, ch.1):

“I figured that if I checked court records, that would surely shed some light on what had happened. Much to my surprise, I discovered that New Mexico judges who heard guardianship cases routinely sequestered the proceedings.At that time, all aspects of these cases were kept sealed and secret. Gag orders were in place and everyone involved in guardianship cases was instructed to keep quiet about developments or face contempt charges and hefty fines. It was an unexpected layer to the process that, effectively, blocked me — or anyone else — from learning how it all worked.”

Dimond’s experience is underscored by Léonie Rosenstiel in Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp (2021, disclaimer):

“Many relatives of people under guardianship and conservatorship live the rest of their lives under gag orders or non-disparagement agreements.Furthermore, they might also be denied any documentation or refused the right to publish it, due to court-ordered secrecy, and so might be unable to prove that what they say is true.”

In late 2015, a private investigator brought a case to Dimond’s attention: Elizabeth Winstanley, a 94-year-old Pennsylvania resident enduring similar circumstances. Dimond reports (2023, ch. 1):

“However, unlike the closed and secretive New Mexico justice system, I was able to learn many details about the procedures that Pennsylvania courts used to keep Mrs. Winstanley (and her money) in the state against her will. With plenty of court documents at my disposal, help from a dedicated lawyer representing Mrs. Winstanley, and interviews with the major players, I was finally able to start publishing stories about this mysterious and exploitative court system called guardianship.”

In 2007, Dimond began writing a weekly crime and justice column for the Albuquerque Journal. Creators Syndicate syndicated her column in 2008, bringing her work to newspapers across the country. Dimond’s first series on guardianship began with the investigation of Elizabeth Winstanley’s case:

• Elder Guardianships — A Shameful American ‘Racket’ (February 20, 2016)

• The Nationwide Problem of Court-Sponsored Elder Abuse (February 27, 2016)

• Plundering Grandma’s Estate Via Court-Ordered Guardianships (May 7, 2016)

• Remembering Betty (August 5, 2019)

Continuing her conversation with Richard Eisenberg Dimond chronicles,

“Then my email box and telephone blew up with people calling and writing me from all over the country saying: ‘Please, please come and cover my brother’s, father’s, mother’s, sister’s story.’ So, I just started collecting cases.”

This launched Dimond’s decade-long nationwide investigation into guardianship, with a five-year focus on New Mexico. In 2016, the Albuquerque Journal published Dimond’s five-part, front-page series, “Who Guards the Guardians?”

• Part 1 — System designed to protect the elderly can tear families apart(November 27, 2016; A1)

• Part 2 — Cottage industry of guardians, conservators and caretakers can quickly drain estates(November 28, 2016; A1)

• Part 3 — One family says it was forced to watch helplessly as its aged mother’s $5 million estate was nearly drained dry by court-appointed guardians and conservators it didn’t want. (November 29, 2016; A1)

• Part 4 — Family members lament helplessness as court appointees take control. To one woman, the process is “barbaric and corrupt.” (November 30, 2016; A1)

• Part 5 — Deck stacked in favor of system insiders; dissident family members feel steamrolled as estates disappear (December 1, 2016; A1)

Dimond subsequently wrote Fixing a well-meaning but flawed guardian system (December 4, 2016; A1), and Art imitates life: Insidious world of elder guardianships (February 27, 2021). In Columnist sends holiday best wishes, bye for now (December 24, 2021), Dimond wrote:

“For nearly 14 years, I have written this crime and justice column. I believe it is the only weekly column dedicated to those two issues, which affect all of us. I write today to say so long, for now…I have been engaged to write a book about my deep-dive findings. A sabbatical is in order since I don’t think I can diligently write a weekly column and a book simultaneously.”

“Despite heated denials by many within the system that anything was wrong, Journal Investigative Reporter Colleen Heild continued to probe complaints of abuse and misconduct,” observed the Journal’s editorial board (July 5, 2020). Heild, an investigative reporter at the Albuquerque Journal since 1985, covered guardianship starting in 2020. With four decades at the Journal covering crime, legal issues, and government actions, Heild brought a depth of knowledge to this critical area of guardianship. Heild’s reporting includes:

• Ayudando guardian sentenced to 6 years in federal prison (June 11, 2020)

• New Mexico guardians get a new watchdog (June 25, 2020)

• 2,300 guardianship cases were mislabeled, inquiry finds (July 28, 2020)

• Guardian reforms bring more oversight (May 8, 2021)

• Accountant: Ayudando served as a ‘family ATM’ (July 17, 2021) One of several articles on this case.

• Lawyer disputes son’s claims (November 27, 2021)

• ‘They have the ability to do this’: Son’s battle to free mom puts focus on emergency guardianship (November 27, 2021)

• Reforms to protect most vulnerable people sought (December 25, 2021)

• Judge in high-profile guardianship case criticizes son, media (February 26, 2022)

• Lawmakers close loophole in guardianship system (February 19, 2022)

Readers and the Journal’s editorial board also contributed:

• Editorial: Who guards the guardians? By the Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board (July 5, 2020)

• Lessons to be learned from Gabby, Britney media circuses “From Journal readers” (November 20, 2021)

• Editorial: NM has made strides to rein in bad conservatorship actors, but new cases show there’s so much more to do. By the Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board (December 5, 2021)

• Guardianship corruption continues in N.M. (“From Journal readers,” December 12, 2021) Written by Rick and Terri Black, co-directors of the Center for Estate Administration Reform, and others.

• Editorial: Lawmakers add new protections to guardianships. By the Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board (March 3, 2022)

• Permanent guardianships need safeguards to prevent exploitation “From Journal readers” (March 24, 2022) Written by members of the New Mexico Family Guardianship Conservatorship Coalition; co-directors of the Center for Estate Administration Reform; and the founder of Kasem Cares.

• Protecting NM’s incapacitated is a team endeavor “From Journal readers” (December 2, 2022) Written by Judge Daniel E. Ramczyk.

• All vulnerable New Mexicans must be protected “From Journal readers” (April 23, 2023) Written by members of the New Mexico Family Guardianship Conservatorship Coalition.

• Opinion: Continued crisis in NM’s guardianship system not helped by disinterested officials (February 11, 2024) Lorraine Mendiola, Member, New Mexico Family Guardianship Conservatorship Coalition

Guardianship reform in New Mexico progressed following Dimond’s 2016 reporting. Starting on July 1, 2018, “new rules and forms were approved for use by the Supreme Court for adult guardianship and conservatorship cases.” with changes to Article 14 — Guardianship and Conservatorship Proceedings(New Mexico Rules of Civil Procedure for the District Courts).

In their 2024 study, Seize the Data: An Analysis of Guardianship Annual Reports, Joanne Tompkins and colleagues examined annual guardianship reporting procedures in each state. Their findings reveal, “The annual report forms vary greatly in style and length, from one page with just a few general questions to 20 pages with detailed multiple-part questions (Arkansas Judiciary, n.d.; New Mexico Courts, n.d.).”

Effective in 2020, the New Mexico State Auditor’s Office now permanently oversees the nearly six thousand cases where state district courts have appointed guardians and conservators to manage the affairs of individuals deemed incapacitated. This followed a one-year pilot project led by State Auditor Brian Colón, during which auditors identified 194 ‘risk factors’ in annual reports filed by conservators in over three hundred sampled cases. As reported, Justice Shannon Bacon stressed that the courts would take action to implement measures “to give auditors open access to guardianship and conservatorship cases.” (June 25, 2020)

New Mexico House Bill 234, Strengthen Guardianship Provider Oversight, became effective on July 1, 2021. The bill is:

“An Act relating to guardianship; strengthening Office of Guardianship legal and professional services for income-eligible adults; establishing a Working Interdisciplinary Network of Guardianship Stakeholders [WINGS]; requiring the Office of Guardianship to publish an annual report; establishing the Office of Guardianship Volunteer Court Visitor Program; requiring consideration of less restrictive alternatives to guardianship; establishing the Court Visitor Pilot Program.”

The Supreme Court of the State of New Mexico, on August 3, 2021, established a Working Interdisciplinary Network of Guardianship Stakeholders (WINGS, modeled after the American Bar Association’s WINGS), “to provide ongoing evaluation of New Mexico laws, services and practices related to adult guardianship and conservatorship.” WINGS NM is working to address ongoing initiatives and concepts that may be approved and recommended to the Supreme Court for implementation through statute, court rule, or even constitutional amendment. 

Discussions include:

• Expand the Administrative Office of the Court’s Alternative Dispute Resolution program in the Magistrate Courts, starting with a pilot project, to include District Courts and guardianship cases.

• Expand and extend statewide training for all new guardians and conservators appointed, with training modeled after the Second Judicial Court Elder Disability Initiative (EDI) at the Second Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County.

• Review and recommended action on provisionally approved Rule 1–145 — Conservatorship proceedings; professional conservators; procedures and time limits for filing reports and financial statements.

• Procedures upon the death of a protected person and death of a guardian

• Supportive decision-making

• Endorse a larger funding request in the next legislative session

• Recommend a “Protected Person’s Bill of Rights”

The non-enforcement of existing laws, the denial of constitutional rights, and the failure to address financially motivated transgressions are significantly hampering these efforts.

Dimond’s initial query — “What am I hearing about that takes away people’s civil rights and takes over their life and their finances?” (September 21, 2023) — remains relevant today. A brief overview of both civil rights and financial concerns is provided below.

To reiterate David Godfrey’s observation: Guardianship is a court system, “that too casually removes rights without proper accountability” (ABA WINGS Briefing Paper; 2020, 8).

The NM WINGS Oversight Subcommittee has centered its work on developing a “Bill of Rights” for individuals under guardianship, potentially through court rule implementation. After a presentation on April 12, 2024:

“Network members discussed feasibility of granting, through a “Bill of Rights” the right of protected persons to have their own lawyers. In general, members agreed that state funding to pay for attorneys did not currently exist, and that it was unlikely to be available in the short-term; rather, a more practical approach, and one that would not create an unfunded mandate, would be to note the difference between a guardian ad litem and a lawyer who would represent a protected person, and then to express the right of a protected person to retain his or her own counsel.”

The very discussion of a bill of rights for individuals under guardianship underscores the urgent and undeniable reality that fundamental constitutional, civil, and humanitarian rights are routinely denied to this vulnerable population. The Associated Press addressed the routine denial of rights almost 40 years ago, yet without action, informed by investigative journalism, this issue will continue to harm generations to come.

Upholding (elder) justice requires a foundation of rights and trust. Evaluating how society approaches guardianship and other protective arrangements becomes the critical test of how well we realize justice, as detailed in Strengthening Elder Justice: A Strategy for Evaluation (Philip C. Marshall; July 8, 2024).

In desperately trying to help my grandmother, I was not sure what to do. I sought advice from several trusted people including a sage high-school friend in New Mexico whose own family had been through similar circumstances. He advised, “Philip, follow your heart, first — then, follow the money.”

The lack of transparency in court proceedings and records hinders financial oversight in guardianship cases. Crucially, all states lack adequate, independent audits of guardianship assets. The risk of asset mismanagement highlights the urgent need for such oversight. To prevent conflicts of interest, guardianship assets must be kept entirely separate from the guardian’s personal finances, particularly when the guardian is not a family member.

As reported by Joanne Tompkins and colleagues (2024), in Seize the Data: An Analysis of Guardianship Annual Reports, in the United States, “Approximately 1.3 million adults and $50 billion in assets are managed under guardianship or conservatorship; however, these numbers are likely underestimated due to inadequate reporting.”

“Baby Boomers [born 1946–1964] hold half of the nation’s $140 trillion in wealth.” (Talmon Joseph Smith and Karl Russell; May 14, 2023). Estimates range from $30 trillion to $53 trillion (Cerulli Associates) to $78 trillion(Federal Reserve), depending in part on transfer years. (Estimates do not include the Silent Generation, older Americans born before 1946.) Baby Boomers are set to pass down a staggering amount of wealth to their heirs, marking the largest intergenerational transfer in history. Some money — inheritance to heirs, bequests to charities, and federal and state taxes — will never make it to intended recipients due to estate trafficking by the courts through guardianship.

Federal earned entitlements (“The new property,” Reich 1966) — Social Security, Medicare/Medicare, and Veterans benefits — are also at risk while persons subject to guardianship are alive. Yet too many persons subject to guardianship abuse die prematurely.

“Both elder self-neglect and abuse reported to social services agencies were associated with increased risk of mortality,” conclude XinQi Dong and colleagues (2010). “Studies have shown that victims of elder abuse are at increased risk for death, after adjustment for any chronic illness they may have,” reiterate Mark S. Lachs and colleagues (2015).

Guardianship may disempower and isolate persons as it “results in the removal of an individual’s legal rights and restricts their rights to make their own decisions.” Abusive guardians “use isolation tactics” (U.S. DOJ Elder Justice Initiative).

Guardianship can create a profound sense of isolation, affecting both the individuals subject to them and those who try to break through that isolation and silence. Such persons desperately seek to advocate for their loved ones, such as family members or friends, and to raise awareness of the potential for abuse within the system.

Despite her failed attempts to help her friend, Dr. Jack Herrmann, Diane Dimond’s diligent investigation shed light on numerous other cases over the past decade. While desperately trying to save her mother from guardianship, Léonie Rosenstiel was subjected to a gag order imposed by a judge. Rosenstiel recalls (2021, 342),

“After the gag order, I withdrew, in fear, from most social activities, particularly those in which there was even the remotest possibility that anyone present might think I had said something that could be reported back to the defendant’s side of the case as a negative comment about them or about their profession.”

Rosenstiel, with the support of the press and journalists, successfully challenged the court’s gag order and secured the release of her mother’s records, as chronicled in Agenda: Quarterly Newsletter of National Federation of Press Women (Winter 2024, Vol. 87, №2, p. 5):

“More than $1 million in legal costs and five years invested in court action finally got my mother’s records released, so I could speak freely and use the documents. The Albuquerque Journal had filed an amicus brief that helped to lift the gag order. Journalist Colleen Heild and the Journal’s editorial board also helped to enforce the public’s right to know.”

As vice president of New Mexico Press Women, Rosenstiel chaired a panel, Creating a Multi-media Guardianship Community, for the 2025 NMPW Annual Conference held on March 21–22, 2025. The hybrid panel considered “the problems now experienced in adult guardianship and how the press can facilitate progress toward solving them.” Joining Rosenstiel are Jack Canfield(founder and chairman of the Canfield Training Group and author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series), Jay Newton-Small (executive editor and vice president of the Albuquerque Journal), and Michael Brasher (general manager of KANW, a NPR affiliate, and chair of the board of KNME). Rosenstiel conducted a 2024 interview with Newton-Small. The NMPW conference will feature Jay Newton-Small as its keynote speaker.

In her interview with Eisenberg for Next Avenue, Dimond observes:

“I do believe there is an element of organized crime within the guardianship system. I know that sounds a little harsh, but I discovered over years of investigating thousands of cases that the lawyers, guardians, conservators, nursing home operators, hospitals and real estate agents — everybody who has a vested interest and awards property and money — operate within this cocoon.

They’re not accountable to anyone but the judge.”

A 2023 New Mexico house bill, coincidentally numbered HB234, was introduced to address organized retail crime (ORC) and racketeering. Organized retail crime (ORC) is a sophisticated criminal enterprise involving organized networks and coordinated efforts. These networks aim to steal merchandise from retail stores for financial gain. These networks bear a striking resemblance to what happens in courts that handle guardianship.

Investigative reporting must expose guardianship as a form of social harm impacting adults of all ages, from 18 to 81 and beyond. Adults lose their self-determination, independence, and fundamental rights when courts determine them incapacitated — and then fail to adequately protect those rights in guardianship cases. Investigative reporting must document and expose how guardianship abuse and exploitation constitute state-sanctioned white-collar crime, potentially rising to the level of racketeering.