PORTSMOUTH ? About $300,000 in a will, left to police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin by an elderly resident whose competency is being challenged, should legally go to her grandson, said attorney Paul McEachern.
The resident, Geraldine Webber, died in December at age 94, seven months after she endorsed a new will and trust that names Goodwin as the beneficiary of her riverfront home, stocks, a bond and a Cadillac. Webber?s 2012 estate plan put all of her assets into a trust, including the $300,000 in her will, with Goodwin named as the trustee, according to probate court records.
A prior will Webber endorsed in 2009, through attorney James Ritzo, names Webber?s disabled grandson, Brett Webber, as a $25,000 beneficiary. But in the 2012 will and trust Webber endorsed through attorney Gary Holmes, her grandson is not named.
McEachern, who plans to challenge the latest will and trust, on the grounds that Webber was incompetent when she endorsed them, said because the grandson was named in the 2009 will, then excluded from the 2012 estate, he?s a ?preterminated heir,? or ?an heir who should?ve been listed.?
McEachern said that under probate law, Webber?s grandson should have been named in the 2012 will and trust, even if it was to say Webber was leaving him nothing.
?As a preterminated heir, the assets in her will would go to her grandson under the law as I read it,? he said.
McEachern is representing several people who were named in Webber?s 2009 will, then excluded from the 2012 will and trust. He said he planned to represent Webber?s grandson, but after reading both estate plans and concluding that Brett Webber should inherit everything in his grandmother?s will, he now has a conflict of interest because he?s challenging the will and trust.
McEachern said he?s got about six months to file paperwork with the county probate court on behalf of his clients. He said he watched a video recording of Webber signing the 2012 estate documents and said he?ll challenge her competency, as well as ?undue influence? Goodwin is alleged to have exerted over Webber before she changed her estate plans.
Ritzo previously alleged Goodwin ?romanced? Webber by taking her to casinos and out for drinks. He alleged in probate court records that Goodwin ?shopped? Webber?s will around to ?at least four? lawyers before Holmes took the case. Ritzo has also said he was Webber?s lawyer for years and her wishes remained consistent until she asked him to change her estate so she could ?leave everything to Aaron.?
Goodwin provided Seacoast Media Group with the following statement: ?The allegations that I exploited a member of our community are completely untrue.? With that response, he also attached letters from the state Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, dated June 12 and Sept. 19, 2012, stating that two investigations into complaints of elder exploitation by him regarding Webber were conducted and both were concluded as unfounded.
Joanne Peterson of Florida is Webber?s daughter-in-law and mother of the grandson McEachern thinks is entitled to the $300,000 in the will. Peterson said her son is 45 years old and has brain damage, as well as speech and hearing impairments. She said her family will get him a lawyer to challenge his grandmother?s estate.
?He?s her only living relative,? she said.
In a written statement dated March 6 and provided to SMG, Peterson said Webber ?had dementia? in her last years and that ?anyone who talked to her would have known it.? Peterson also wrote in her statement that Webber?s financial support for her grandson ? a small monthly interest check on a certificate of deposit ? ended when Webber met Goodwin.
Before she died, Webber told SMG during a 25-minute interview that she first met Goodwin when he responded to her home after she called police to report ?members of the nation?s gang? were on her property.
?You bet he is,? she said when asked whether Goodwin was a beneficiary of her will and trust. ?It?s my money and my house and I?ll do as I (expletive) please.?
Also named as a beneficiary in Webber?s latest will and trust is police Capt. Mike Schwartz for $25,000.
Ritzo has asked the court to award him a $65,000 payment from Webber?s estate for the quarter century he said he worked as her lawyer, but was not paid.
Before Webber?s trust was amended by Holmes, the terms of the will Ritzo wrote for her bequeathed $240,000 to Braintree (Mass.) High School for a scholarship in memory of Webber?s late son, Bruce. The new trust leaves the high school $25,000.
The will Ritzo wrote for Webber also stated her assets would be sold and, after her bills were paid, one-fourth of the money would be given to the Sloan Kettering Cancer Research Clinic in New York, one-fourth given to the Shriners Hospital for Children-Boston, and the other half split between the Portsmouth police and fire departments.
The new and disputed trust gives those parties $25,000 each, about 90 percent less.
Ritzo said he believes Webber?s stocks and bonds are worth $700,000 and her home, which features boat docks and an in-ground swimming pool, is assessed for $805,000.
Attribution:
Woman?s fortune should go to grandson, not police sergeant, says lawyer
Elizabeth Dinan
April 15, 2013
Seacoastonline.com
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20130415-NEWS-130419852
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