An update on a Contact 13 Investigation about the private, for-profit guardian we caught double-billing clients.
April Parks was appointed by the court to protect our most vulnerable seniors. She's now telling the court she's broke.
Our investigation led to reform efforts of the guardianship system; a system that's supposed to protect people.
Families say their loved ones were isolated, homes and assets were sold without court approval and entire life savings were drained on fees paid to guardians and their lawyers.
Nevada's Supreme Court created a Guardianship Commission following our reports which met Friday at UNLV.
Chief Justice James Hardesty told members he expects them to have a final report by June 30 and submitted to Nevada's judiciary.
"My expectation of the Commission is to make recommendations on best practices. If there's a fiscal note, so be it," said Hardesty. "Then it is up to the legislators and the county commissioners to look the citizens in the face and say, 'We're not going to fund this. We don't care, even though we care.' Well if you care--then step up."
While that effort is underway, families who had loved ones under Parks' control want answers. They claim she isolated family members, drained their life savings and she admitted to critical mistakes in her accountings.
We reported that court records show she's leaving Nevada and we've now learned she's filed for bankruptcy in a Pennsylvania court.
"Her bankruptcy is a problem because she had quote 'prepaid' herself fees," says attorney Adam Woodrum who represents former clients of Parks.
"It's not necessarily unlawful or illegal to prepay yourself fees. The scale on which she did it though left a lot of people without any estate including a lot of personal property that she got rid of, cars that she got rid of."
We've tried reaching out to Parks but the phone number to her business is no longer working.
