Bagging a sick old man and taking his property because he made the mistake of
being in Corrupticut. Now not only has he lost everything, he is a
prisoner, is drugged up, and not allowed to contact his family.
A few weeks ago Daniel Gross passed a hastily scrawled note to a visitor.
"I am being incarcerated against my will and I need a good lawyer to
represent me," Gross wrote in the uneasy script of an 86-year-old man slowly
slipping away.
In another illustration of our renegade probate court system, Gross - a New
York state resident - has been locked in a dismal Waterbury nursing home
since last September.
Dan Gross' money and freedom have been snatched from him. Outside visitors
and calls, even from family, are blocked. At times he is heavily medicated,
according to his daughter and his own court affidavit.
Is it too much to ask of our probate courts that Gross be allowed to live
his last days with a shred of self-respect?
Probate court Judge Thomas P. Brunnock - whose jurisdiction consists of
Waterbury, Middlebury and Wolcott - has ordered this retired oil burner
repairman from Long Island held against his will since September.
Gross didn't even know about the hearing at which a couple of local lawyers
were handed control of his life.
While visiting his daughter Dee King last summer, Gross became ill and ended
up in Waterbury Hospital. As his health deteriorated and Dee and her sister
bickered, the hospital and family turned to the probate court. Big mistake.
The man appointed by the court to represent Gross, Jonathan Newman, argued
against Gross' wishes in urging that a conservator be named to take control
of his finances.
"Daniel Gross could benefit from a conservator of his estate and person due
to his physical and mental deficiencies," Newman told the court.
It's hard to see how Gross has collected any benefit, drugged and locked in
the Grove Manor nursing home. Perhaps Newman overlooked the court system's
own standards.
"The attorney is to represent the client zealously," the rules state,
"vigorously supporting the course of action chosen by the client."
Dan Gross' wish is to live in New York.
"It's a horrendous situation. It's taking away his rights and everything
else," said Norman Grossman, a Levittown, N.Y., neighbor who has gone to
state court in New York to try to force the tiny Waterbury probate court to
release his friend.
In order to pay the $165 per hour lawyer bills that have piled up, Gross'
savings of nearly $20,000 have been emptied.
His Levittown, Long Island, home recently was ordered sold to pay more of
Newman's bills and those of Kathleen Donovan, the Naugatuck lawyer appointed
as conservator for Gross.
Daniel Gross went to Levittown in 1946 and the young vet built a life. With
his wife, he raised three kids and paid off a home on Sparrow Lane where
Gross thought he'd live out his days.
His wife died a decade ago. The Sparrow Lane house fell into disrepair. The
kids drifted apart, with his daughter Dee picking up most of the burden.
"I've been the person his entire life who has helped him. I've always made
sure he is safe and secure," King told me.
"He wants to stay in New York. My father had a life. He walked. He talked.
Then they take him and lock him up like an animal."
Daniel Gross sure does need a good lawyer, one willing to take on a shameful
probate court where paying the bills of lawyers looms more significant than
the dignity of a man at the end of his life.
Rick Green's column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at
rgreen@courant.com