Rita Hunter venue change overruled, dismissal ruling due next week

Motion for venue change overruled in lawsuit against Rita Hunter
Judge to decide on arguments for dismissal
Susan Redden
August 27, 2010
The Joplin Globe
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x636912763/Motion-for-venue-change-overruled-in-lawsuit-against-Rita-Hunter
JOPLIN, Mo. — A lawsuit filed by the daughter of a former county ward against Rita Hunter, former Jasper County public administrator, will take place in Jasper County if the matter goes to court.

Judge David Dally on Friday overruled a defense motion that the trial should take place in another county.

The judge said he would rule early next week on defense arguments that the case should be dismissed or should be continued to a later date.

A Sept. 7 trial date is scheduled for a jury trial in which Dolores Forste is suing Hunter for damages after Forste was arrested when she took her mother Emma France out of Jasper County and home with her to Needles, Calif.

Forste, then 67, was arrested the day before Thanksgiving in 2007 and was held in jail in San Bernardino  County, Calif., then transported back to Jasper County where she was freed after posting bond in early December. Arguments on her behalf contend she was the victim of false arrest and malicious prosecution. A later court ruling voided actions that made France a ward of the county, after finding that no attempt was made to notify relatives and that France was not allowed to be at the hearing.

Defense attorneys told the judge Hunter could not be held responsible for Forste’s arrest, which they say was the result of actions by police and a local special prosecutor. They also argued that the case should be continued because they have not been able to get access to some documents they need from the public administrator’s office during that time because office files are in Kansas City and unavailable due to a federal investigation of operations of the administrator’s office during Hunter’s tenure.

Motions argued in lawsuit against former administrator
Susan Redden
July 28, 2010
The Joplin Globe
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x547240184/Motions-argued-in-lawsuit-against-former-administrator
JOPLIN, Mo. — Judge David Dally promised a ruling next week after motions were argued Wednesday in a lawsuit against Rita Hunter, former Jasper County public administrator, and St. John’s Regional Medical Center.

The lawsuit was filed by Kenneth Hall, now of Monett, who contends that Hunter and St. John’s acted improperly in actions that made him a ward of the public administrator’s office.

Attorneys for Hunter and the hospital contend that the suit in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin should be dismissed.

Lynn Myers, a Springfield attorney who is representing several plaintiffs in actions against Hunter, said Hall was declared incompetent in 2006 after a probate court hearing of which relatives were not notified and that Hall was not allowed to attend.

“They could have contacted his relatives; phone numbers for his mother and his daughter were in his pocket,” Myers said. “He was appointed a guardian without prior notice at a hearing held without his presence and without him having the opportunity for a jury trial.”

He said the facts of the case are similar to those involving Emma France, whose guardianship was declared void by Probate Judge David Mouton after he ruled that provisions of state law were not followed in actions that made her a county ward.

After Hall, who was 39 at the time, was made a ward of the county, he was placed at Magnolia Manor, a nursing home in Purdy in Barry County. His case was transferred in 2007 to Barry County for supervision by the Barry County public administrator. He is now independent, after his guardianship was ended in August 2009.

Myers said St. John’s was named in the case because the hospital, while Hall was a patient, petitioned to have the public administrator named as his guardian. Myers contended that the hospital erred by including a medical certificate describing Hall’s condition as part of the open court file.

Joplin attorney Jason Higdon, representing St. John’s, said the hospital should be dropped from the case because Myers’ filing failed to show that the hospital “conspired with the public administrator to deprive (Hall) of his civil rights.”

“They must show there was a meeting of the minds, and we don’t believe the petition comes close,” he said.

Both he and Doug Harpool, a Springfield attorney representing Hunter, said the case should be declared moot because the guardianship had been set aside.

Harpool also said Hunter was not responsible for any legal deficiencies.

“If there were legal problems, they weren’t the fault of Rita Hunter,” he said. “She’s not a lawyer. There were two lawyers and a judge in the courtroom. It’s not fair to hang it on her.”

Myers is asking for a declaratory judgment ruling that Hall was improperly made a ward of the county, and for the return of money spent from his estate during that time. Damages also are being sought.

Investigation

The state started an investigation into operations of the Jasper County public administrator’s office after Rita Hunter left at the end of 2008 and took all the office files with her. Federal agencies took over the probe several months later.