NAPLES, Fla. — The ABC Action News I-Team previously introduced you to Karen Federighi, whose former guardian Kathy Johnson was suspended following a scathing audit.
In a follow-through investigation, we’re digging deeper into Federighi’s ongoing attempts to get her rights restored, which was accomplished with help from strangers... including the daughter of a world-famous icon who also ended up in a court-ordered conservatorship.
“Ms. Johnson may not accept appointment as a guardian in any case in Collier County,” Judge Elizabeth Krier said at a hearing in late February.
Johnson was suspended last week from 34 cases after an audit uncovered evidence that she may have violated Florida's guardianship law.
One of the cases auditors examined was Karen Federighi’s.
“I got a knock on the door"
Federighi now lives in another state and vows never to return to Florida.
We interviewed her by Zoom.
“Totally destroyed my life,” Federighi said, when we asked her about her experience when she spent more than a year under guardianship.
“I got a knock on the door one day in January 2016 telling me I was a ward of the state with no civil rights,” Federighi said.
Federighi was a registered nurse, employed at a hospital and living in a condo community when her stepfather died and left her an inheritance.
Her sisters in Illinois petitioned to put her into guardianship at age 56, alleging she couldn’t take care of herself.
Kathy Johnson was appointed by a judge to be her guardian.
In this role, Johnson controlled Federighi’s assets and made life decisions on her behalf.
Karen secretly recorded a conversation with Kathy about nine months into the guardianship.
“I was employed. Two jobs," Federighi said to her guardian.
“That was before your sisters did all this,” Johnson responded.
Karen was determined to be incapacitated by a panel of three professionals who she said only spent a few minutes examining her.
A retired Hospice nurse conducted a brief evaluation in a Naples McDonalds restaurant.
“And then the other two individuals to evaluate me were a retired 80-year-old OBGYN and an activities director at a skilled nursing facility,” Federighi said.
They found her to be incapacitated and recommended that a judge remove all her rights.
Those include the right to vote, marry, enter into contracts, make medical decisions and choose where she lives.
“I'm totally capacitated. And how come you haven’t advocated on my behalf?” Federighi asked Johnson in the secretly recorded video.
“I tried my best to get you to go see the psychiatrist and this could all be over with,” Johnson said. “That’s what the courts have told me.”
Federighi was living independently at a LaQuinta Inn, but Johnson had control of her money.
Johnson charged her $90 an hour for opening mail, making phone calls and taking her to buy groceries or pick up prescriptions.
Federighi said a generic medication she needed monthly cost $4 a month, but she ended up paying nearly $100 because Johnson billed her for the trip to the pharmacy.
Federighi said she filed requests to the court called a “suggestion of capacity”, asking to be reevaluated, but she was not able, under Johnson, to get her rights restored.
At last week’s hearing, Judge Krier questioned how Johnson’s other wards were evaluated, after identifying issues in reports.
“I want a real capacity evaluation,” Krier said. “I'm not convinced that anybody’s seeing anybody in terms of these capacity evaluations.”
Help from a famous name
“It was an illegal mini-mental exam done by a gynecologist, which should never have been accepted in court,” Kerri Kasem said.
Kasem founded a non-profit called the Kasem Cares Foundation.
“Karen called Kasem Cares and she needed help,” Kasem said.
Kerri Kasem founded the organization to honor her late father... legendary DJ and media personality Casey Kasem.
She fought to free her father from a California conservatorship initiated by her stepmother.
In Karen’s case, Kerri connected her with resources to help her get out of guardianship.
“I gave her an angel donor. Somebody who helps people like this. And she got out of the state of Florida. Got a flight and she’s here in California,” Kasem said.
Living on the lam
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office sent out a flyer, referring to Federighi as a missing person.
A Florida judge issued something called a “Writ of Bodily Attachment”, which was essentially a warrant instructing police to pick Federighi up and have her returned to her guardian.
“And then I was hunted down like I was some horrible criminal,” Federighi said.
“Why would you give a bench warrant to somebody who’s incapacitated?” Kasem said.
When officers showed up at a motel where Federighi was staying, she got a lucky break.
“The cops got another call, but they told me not to leave the hotel room. But the minute the cops left, I did. And I literally lived on the lam for nearly a year using burner phones and cash,” Federighi said.
Eventually, Federighi got her guardianship transferred to California, where it was converted to a conservatorship case... California’s version of guardianship.
The same judge who overturned Britney Spears’ conservatorship heard the case and restored Federighi’s rights.
“Everything I worked my entire life for is gone”
She did an interview the next year with our sister station Fox 4 in ft. Myers.
“I wouldn’t want the people who did this to me, I wouldn’t want this to happen to them. It's just beyond cruel,” Federighi said.
“When you don’t have the money to fight this and you don’t have a last name that anybody cares about, you’re stuck. It's almost impossible to fix it,” Kasem said.
Federighi contacted the ABC Action News I-Team last week to tell us that her former guardian Kathy Johnson would appear in Collier County court.
When we attempted to interview Johnson, she didn’t respond.
The judge suspended Johnson from 34 cases amid allegations of missing records and missing money.
“All my assets, everything I've worked for my entire life is gone,” Federighi said.
But Federighi counts herself lucky to now have her freedom.
The judge gave Johnson until this week to provide hundreds of missing records, before determining whether to refer the cases to law enforcement.
If you have a story you’d like the I-Team to investigate, email us at adam@abcactionnews.com
