For the past year, the ABC Action News I-Team has reported on the way professional guardian Kathy Johnson has handled vulnerable adults under her care.
She was removed from dozens of cases after audits revealed she exploited people and mismanaged their assets.
Now, the state is taking action to make sure she never practices as a guardian again.
“At best, this is mismanagement. At worst, it’s something more,” said Collier County Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Krier at a hearing in February.
She removed Kathy Johnson as the professional guardian in 34 Collier County cases at that hearing.
WFTS“I also am not going to allow these wards’ money to be flushed down the toilet for another minute,” Krier said.
Auditors found irregularities in Johnson’s cases, including claims… which the auditors disputed… that her wards lost $85,000 because of “hacker activity.”
An audit report also included concerns that one ward’s Mercedes Benz didn’t appear in an inventory and another ward’s bank account shrank by nearly $609,000 in two years.