To Be Held Accountable

Statistics show that the death of an elderly wealthy person is often expedited-but often not before they suffer some form of physical abuse and financial exploitation that drains most, if not all, of their savings and/or investments. The crimes are usually committed by someone they trust and most often by a family member. This is the story of a woman who suffered such a fate. The death certificate states she died of natural causes, but the medical records describe it differently. Some would now call it death by euthanasia; others may call it terminal sedation. Many will call it murder. In one of the more shocking accounts to which you will ever bear witness, Judith Maksym Roughton takes us on a shocking, deeply disturbing journey for justice as she fights to have her mother's death duly investigated. For the past nine years, Roughton has been investigating the events and circumstances surrounding her mother's death and during this time she uncovered an elaborate and sophisticated scheme of financial exploitation and corruption that transcends all conceptions of a caring, benevolent society. Hers is a story of financial advisors and brokers of Morgan Stanley cooperating in the exploitation of her mother's wealth, of a bank president failing to check her mother's accounts for unusual transactions even after receiving a request to do so, of the local police's dereliction of duty in investigating competently a complaint of elder abuse, of the unethical committees who are supposed to look into complaints of lawyers' malfeasance rather than standing by impotently, of a Public Integrity Unit that doesn't know what "integrity" means, of judicial corruption in the surrogate court and corrupted officers of that court-including a Chief Deputy Clerk who removed, altered, and replaced court records, and of a District Attorneys' Office who opened an investigation by issuing subpoenas of bank and medical records for a Grand Jury-only to later deny there ever was an investigation. Why did they conspire to conceal the truth of Hilja K. Maksym's estate? People don't jeopardize their careers-unless they are somehow compensated. Expensive vacations, setting up a business practice, retiring comfortably, political contributions, donations to favorite charities, etc. What is the going price for favors, or scratching ones' back? How could they be so positive they would not be discovered, so positive they risked their careers, reputation, and that of their families. So positive that they did not even consider there would be consequences and they would be responsible of their actions? So positive that they would not be discovered, so positive they would never be held accountable? What was it, or who was it that made them so positive, how far up the ladder did it go? It is a story of violence within the family, corruption within the system, and an elaborate plan of deception so well planned it took nine years to uncover. And the most harrowing part of it all is that To Be Held Accountable is a true story.