An excerpt From the Hearing on 3-13-09

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The court: Very well. Thank you. Is there anyone else here in the

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courtroom today that wishes to be heard with respect to these petitions for allowance?

Mr. Landis: I have a request to be heard.

The court: Does it concern these petitions?

Mr. Landis: It concerns this whole business.

The Court: Mr. Landis, we are here today just on the basis of the petitions for allowance of these fees and costs as to whether they are reasonable. We’re not here today to address other general matters and the guardianship in general.

Mr. Landis: This is to address the integrity of the system. I have here some documentation. You were a prosecutor at one time and –

The court: Yes.

Mr. Landis: -- you had prosecuted a case against me. I have documentation of that.

The court: I was not aware of that.

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Mr. Landis: May I give this to you?

The court: Certainly.

Mr. Landis: Would you like to read this? There is also a police report in there, Your Honor. That police report was from a visit that I went to go over and visit with my grandmother the day after our last court hearing on the 24th (should have been the 26th) At that time, I was threatened and the police were told about the threat. I was not allowed to visit with my grandmother.

Mr. Jaskowiak: Your Honor, just let the record reflect, I don’t know about Mr. Shelly, but I have not been provided with any documentation prior to today, so I have not had a chance to review anything.

The Court: All right. I will just note for the record that, Mr. Landis, you’ve handed me a document headed Commonwealth versus Richard F. Kramer in which apparently in 1980 as an Assistant District Attorney perhaps I was present at a proceeding where there was a placement of someone on ARD as well as a guilty plea.

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And how is this relevant to this matter?

Mr. Landis: This would be my concern about continued punishment from you, because I was punished for coming over to visit with my grandmother and we had correspondence where I wrote you a letter, and our correspondence in trying to follow proper procedure and let you be advised on what was going on as Mr. Jaskowiak had indicated in the last hearing that I needed to follow proper procedure.
I was trying to follow proper procedure so I contacted you in requesting for protection from abuse from my stepmother and you told me that my contact with you was inappropriate, and then I had subsequently later realized or became aware of the fact that you had been this prosecutor and now you’re the Judge on this case.

The Court: All right. Now, your particular case, as I mentioned, the Court sheet that I see says Commonwealth versus Richard Kramer, but I do see a related case involving Gary Landis, again, from apparently

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1980.

Mr. Landis: That’s correct. It was a long time ago.

The Court: Yes. For the record, I will state that certainly when this case came before me I had no recollection of you or having prosecuted you at all, and certainly do not – certainly that was not relevant to any of my actions in this case.

Mr. Landis: At this time, Your Honor, I was required to testify guilty or take a guilty plea. On account of the people that I was running with, they had convinced me that what we were doing was legal and I was so convinced that I got one of my friends to come along with us.
Lying seems to be a big part of the problem between that then and this here today.
When Rosemarie put my grandmother into LifeQuest Nursing Home she had told lies. There were other issues that have come up that I’ve testified to that revealed that something wasn’t right, and when I cam over

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to visit my grandmother, Rosemarie asserted that she had guardianship and wouldn’t allow me access to visit with my grandmother.
We come up to today. Mr. Jaskowiak had sent me notification of your decision from November 28th –

The Court: Yes.

Mr. Landis: -- when he filed for the petition for this hearing. I had no idea that that decision that you had made on the 28th was made. I have been waiting to hear contact about what the ruling was on that previous Court hearing, and now here we are and I’m trying to reveal to you that, you know, it looks like the integrity of the system might be compromised.

The Court: Well, again, I have stated that certainly I still am not clear from this record whether I was directly involved with you or your case. Again, this was 29 years ago apparently and did not recognize you as someone who had crossed my path some 29 years before in the course of my duties as Assistant District Attorney.

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Mr. Landis: In the process of that case you were dealing with my legal representation, my lawyer, Mr. Roeger, of, I believe, Roeger, Walker and Bahls. I’m not sure, but at that time my gather had provided for me legal representation, and I’m sure that I didn’t even realize that our first hearing in September that you were there. I didn’t understand until I looked into the case file and saw that myself, and I went oh, wait a second. This doesn’t look right.

The Court: Well, I understand what you are saying, and in that neither one of us in the context of this guardianship case was aware of one another, that we had ever had any prior contact, I certainly, you know, do not believe that it is – there’s any conflict of interest here. And I was not even aware that you had been convicted of any crime when I was dealing with you prior in this case. (UHmmm? Mention of Federal court case and judicial injustice? September 24, 2008 transcript page #32 and November 25th Transcript page #35 both transcripts reference an injustice that I suffered. On page #39 of the November transcript I mention filing a Federal Court Case.)

Certainly with respect to these petitions for allowance, it is important that these monies be allocated today, so I am inclined to grant these. If there are any

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Further proceedings in this case and you wish, again, another Judge to hear any further proceedings in this case, then certainly you may request that, but as of today, what I am going to do is sign – is allow these expenses, in that they are reasonable expenses, and I think guardians have to do their work here in Lenore Berger’s best interest. And certainly you may – if there’s anything you wish to address with respect to this case such as vacating the guardianship order or something, that can certainly go in front of another Judge.

Mr. Landis: Just one more thing. There was a second document in there, the police report of the incident that happened on November 26th (Yea, I got it right that time) when I came to visit my grandmother, and in requesting protection from abuse or making sure that no harm is going to come to my person – in the process of my father’s suicide, I know that it was very important for Rosie to get access to my father’s – to the weapon that my father used to commit suicide. And, in fact,

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It was more important for her to get access to that weapon than to turn over the suicide note that she had taken time to show me. I believe within two months she had picked up the weapon from the suicide that was back in December of ’07, so by the end of January she had picked up the weapon, and in September when we started this process she still held onto the suicide note, but that was never given over to the local authorities.
I’m going over to visit my grandmother and she’s telling the police that she wants to kill me. I feel threatened.

***Ms. Landis: Did you tell him why? (Admission of threat to harm)****

The Court: Wait. Wait. Let’s not have a conversation.
Certainly, Mr. Berger (sic), if you have a safety issue, you are always – you should always contact the police if you believe abuse is taking place and can pursue your rights through the local police department.

Mr. Landis: If I come over to visit and I get hurt it’s a little late if I’m feeling fearful that abuse may be about to

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take place.

The Court: Well, abuse –

Mr. Landis: I’m trying.

**The Court: -- orders may be based upon threats, so you certainly – if you wish to file anything, and I’m not certainly making any finding here today, but if you wish to contact your local police department and have them investigate whether you are in danger or have been threatened, you certainly may do that.

Mr. Landis: I was of the understanding that I had to come to a Judge to get that protection from abuse, and so you hearing this case and this matter being directly related with my grandmother, I was hoping to come to you.
The police did not want to file a complaint against Rosemarie for her threat. She made a threat to kill me and said that if I come in the house that she couldn’t be responsible for her actions, and I was only there to visit.
She complained that it was because of my testimony at the last Court hearing

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That she was so angry at me, and when I was about to leave the police officer questioned me about why I didn’t feel it ws appropriate that my grandmother should go into an Alzheimer’s institution.

The Court: I see.
Certainly, you know, no one should be threatening anyone in this particular case and you should have reasonable access to your grandmother, and so certainly, again, as long as that access is peaceable and not disruptive, that should be permitted.

Mr. Landis: I would appreciate that. Thank You

The Court: The guardians have heard what I have said with respect to that. That is that.
Now, again, Mr. Landis, we are here on these petitions for allowance matters.
Counsel, do you have anything you wish to say having heard the discussion with Mr. Landis?

Mr. Jaskowiak: Your Honor, a lot of that comes as news to me. I have nothing further to add.

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I would just ask the court to take into account the testimony and what is contained in all three petitions and that Your Honor rule accordingly so that Ms. Berger can continue to get the best care that she can.

The Court: Very well.
And I do today, again, it is important – yes.

Mr. Landis: One last final thing.

The Court: Yes.

Mr. Landis: The court does recognize that I have offered to step in the place of what Rosemarie is doing and I would not charge the fees that Rosemarie is requesting.

The Court: I see. Thank You. Very well.
Mr. Landis -- and, again, this has been informal discussion where you have not been under oath, but -- again, so that is your position, that you would be able to provide the services rather than Rosemarie Landis for a fee?

Mr. Landis: Right.

The Court: And you are Gary Landis for

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Record purposes?

Mr. Landis: Next of kin, yes.

The Court: Very well. Well, again, I understand your position there.
At the present time, however, I think we do have to make sure that appropriate services are offered to Ms. Berger, and, therefore, I will grant the petition for allowances at this time and sign the orders which have been – form of orders which have been provided.

That concludes this matter.


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