Woman in California conservator case that led to legal reform dies

Helen Jones, a thrifty Yucaipa widow whose legal case came to highlight the failings of the state’s conservatorship system, died Tuesday of pneumonia and other complications, according to relatives. She was 88.

Jones fled her impoverished Nebraska upbringing for the promise of a better life in California, eventually building a nest egg of more than $560,000 by ferreting away wages from a series of blue-collar jobs.

“She lived a good, long life,” said her stepgrandson, Mike Tomazin. “It’s just sad that the last four years had been so miserable.”

Jones became entangled in the state’s conservatorship system in 2002 when a good Samaritan sought to get her housekeeping and other help and recommended Jones to the Inland Empire’s largest for-profit conservator, Conservatorship and Resources for the Elderly Inc., also known as CARE.

At the time, Jones lived alone, was nearly deaf and had trouble walking long distances. She had trouble getting to the grocery store and her home had become cluttered and unkempt. But acquaintances, neighbors and legal professionals said her mind was sharp.

The head of CARE, Melodie Scott, filed emergency court papers to become Jones’ conservator and was quickly awarded control of her finances. Jones had signed a one-paragraph document that she thought signed her up for a low-income utility plan for seniors called CARE. Instead, it named Scott as her conservator.

Jones’ involvement with Scott’s firm — and her subsequent quest to regain her independence — were featured in a Times investigative series in November 2005.

Conservators take control of the lives and finances of the elderly and infirm when they lose the ability to make their own decisions.

In its series, The Times reviewed more than 2,400 cases and described a largely unregulated system in which for-profit conservators swiftly took control of adults’ lives, often without their knowledge or consent.

In repeated interviews, Jones said she neither wanted nor needed a conservator. For four years, she watched as Scott’s firm spent her money on legal fees and household appliances and repairs she did not want. She tried for months to free herself from the conservator’s grasp, to no avail.

Scott finally resigned as Jones’ conservator after The Times located her in-laws and Tomazin, her stepgrandson, petitioned the court to replace Scott. He was named her conservator in March.

Tomazin and the live-in aides he provided said the change in her outlook was remarkable.

At the same time, her health began to suffer. She had been diagnosed with pneumonia several times in the last year, Tomazin said. In December, she fell and broke a hip.

“She looked at me in the hospital and said: ‘Well, this wasn’t in the plan,’ ” Tomazin recounted.

Jones had been recovering in a rehabilitation center when she was transferred to Redlands Community Hospital on Monday with breathing problems. Doctors found various other ailments, Tomazin said.

Last weekend, she told a family friend to look for an envelope under her dresser and give it to Tomazin. Inside was her will, leaving everything to his mother and uncle, and about $140,000 in savings bonds that she had never turned over when she came under conservatorship.

Barbara Seifritz, a senior advocate with the nonprofit Inland Counties Legal Services who followed Jones’ case closely after the elderly woman appealed to her for help in 2003, visited her Tuesday and found her comatose.

“I told her goodbye and thanked her for having been willing to fight the good fight,” Seifritz said.

After the newspaper series, reform advocates often cited Jones’ saga in their appeals for the state to better protect elderly and disabled people under conservatorships.

Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento), no relation, spearheaded those efforts in the Legislature and mentioned Jones several times last year during debates. “The story that she told and the indignities she suffered at the hands of a professional conservator was a major impetus for the legislation,” Jones said Wednesday.

The result was the most comprehensive changes to the state’s conservatorship system in three decades. Earlier this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger included more than $17 million in his proposed budget for the courts to increase their oversight.

Seifritz told Jones about the reforms during a visit days ago. “Then,” Seifritz said, “she said with a smile, ‘Well I guess my work is done here.’ ”

A graveside service is planned for 10 a.m. Friday at Desert Lawn Cemetery in Calimesa.