<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFrom August 2017 to December 2018, checks totaling at least $340,000 were signed by LaDonna and made out to Maw, his wife and a business entity he had created, according to a review of cleared checks that were obtained through a subpoena and provided to NBC News by McCasland, the longtime friend of the Davises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Maw said in court documents that he used the $50,000 check from LaDonna to cover labor costs on her properties and also to buy and sell hot rods on her behalf. But an email in response to questions from NBC News said he didn\u2019t need money from LaDonna; it was LaDonna who needed financial assistance from Maw.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During this period, the city of West Covina had been made aware of troubling activity at the Davises\u2019 homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friends had been calling police to report unfamiliar people at the house on Holt Avenue and a second one the couple owned on Vincent Street, according to a letter report by Amis, the code enforcement officer, that was based on contemporaneous notes chronicling his visits to LaDonna\u2019s home from 2017 to 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officers visited the properties and spoke to the squatters, who claimed they had permission to live there and also to sell the vehicles that had accumulated in the backyards. When officers spoke to LaDonna, she seemed unaware of what was going on, Amis wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the police were in a bind. Since LaDonna told them the people on the property had permission to be there, there wasn\u2019t much they could do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In July 2018, St. James, 75, died of cardiopulmonary arrest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was once one of the most famous people in West Covina, yet there was no obituary, memorial service or news story about his death. Some of the Davises\u2019 friends didn\u2019t find out until several days later, which they now suspect was exactly how Maw wanted it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One month before St. James died, McCasland went to check on LaDonna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCasland, a real estate agent, had been a family friend of the Davises since 2002. He acted as the couple\u2019s spokesman after the chimp attack and Moe\u2019s disappearance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey were like an older brother and sister to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCasland showed up at LaDonna\u2019s house after he tried to call her but got a message saying her phone was disconnected. When he arrived, a disheveled LaDonna told him she never wanted to see him again, McCasland said, leaving him stunned and confused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I knew there was a serious problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCasland had previously been named the successor trustee of a Davis family trust that held their two properties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the days after he went to check on LaDonna, a new living trust was created that named Maw as the successor trustee. The trust also named a beneficiary: Maw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maw was also given the authority to \u201cconduct any business with any banking or financial institution with respect to any of\u201d LaDonna\u2019s accounts, according to a power of attorney document that she signed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaw ingratiated himself with LaDonna and gained her trust,\u201d McCasland said in a July 2018 court petition that sought to void any legal agreement between Maw and the Davises and to recover any money or property that was under his control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCasland\u2019s filing accused Maw of exerting undue influence over LaDonna and also of selling off the couple\u2019s valuables. It included a copy of an online ad for a $200 \u201cvintage Nascar gas can\u201d in which Maw\u2019s first name and photo appeared in the section denoting the seller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have hotrod parts, plowers, tools and of old things,\u201d read the ad, which included a typo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In court filings, Maw denied the allegations. He said that he had stepped in to help the couple with their basic needs after McCasland failed to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maw also accused McCasland of taking advantage of the Davises in a 2016 real estate deal, alleging among other things that he sold the property to a personal friend at a discounted price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(McCasland denies the claim, and the buyer told NBC News he in fact had never met McCasland. The buyer also said he paid more for LaDonna\u2019s property than for two larger buildings on the same street.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the legal case dragged on, the situation at the Davises\u2019 homes turned more chaotic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fights broke out among the squatters. Calls to 911 multiplied. Code violations piled up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Los Angeles County Adult Protective Services opened an investigation, which found that LaDonna was languishing in nightmarish conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a home visit in April 2019, workers found her in a room with spider wasps buzzing through the air and hundreds of rabbit feces covering the floor, according to a report by Diana Homeier, then-medical director of the Los Angeles County Elder Abuse Forensic Center, which includes representatives of Adult Protective Services and law enforcement agencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LaDonna was unable to state her age or the year, and many of her valuables were missing, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe appears to be a victim of financial abuse,\u201d Homeier wrote. \u201cShe clearly does not have the capacity to make decisions about her living situation, finances or personal care. Additionally, she is not able to see that she is being taken advantage of.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At some point, the Holt Avenue property was taken over by members of the Mongols motorcycle gang who forced Maw out of the home, according to the report by Amis, the code enforcement officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A representative of the Office of the Public Guardian needed a police escort to visit the property because of the presence of the Mongols, LaDonna\u2019s court-appointed lawyer later wrote in court papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have had, in the past, no problem going \u2018head to head\u2019 with the Hell\u2019s Angels,\u201d he wrote. \u201cNeedless to say, they are not paying any rent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maw called 911 repeatedly to report that LaDonna was in danger. When officers responded, they found no evidence of such, but it was clear LaDonna was in a precarious position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
People in the house who described themselves as LaDonna\u2019s caretakers told police they couldn\u2019t administer her medication or bring her to doctor appointments because Maw \u201chad all of the information and was keeping it to himself so he could \u2018weasel\u2019 his way back into LaDonna\u2019s life,\u201d according to the report by Amis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May 2019, a large contingent of police officers, Adult Protective Services workers and fire department personnel descended on the home. This time, LaDonna agreed to leave the premises in an ambulance and be taken to a hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That LaDonna was finally in a safe place after a year of wellness checks came as a relief to Amis, but he was frustrated by how long it took. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have so many damn services, but we had this lady who was being taken advantage of right here, right now, and no one was coming to fix it,\u201d Amis said in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With LaDonna now in the hospital, Maw opened a new legal front to maintain control of her money and properties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He filed court papers in June 2019 seeking to become LaDonna\u2019s conservator, a court-appointed guardian who would manage her finances and make health care decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As is standard practice in conservatorship cases, the court appointed an attorney to advocate for LaDonna. The lawyer, Piro, visited her in the hospital and then filed a report to the court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked if she \u201cconsented\u201d to Maw becoming her conservator, LaDonna replied: \u201cDefinitely not,\u201d according to Piro\u2019s report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it was also clear that she wasn\u2019t all there. LaDonna insisted that Maw was in jail and that the West Covina police chief had personally delivered the news to her, the report said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A judge appointed Brett Hitchman, a professional fiduciary, to be the temporary conservator of LaDonna\u2019s person and estate, but Maw kept up his quest to become her permanent conservator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Piro filed additional reports to the court, raising concerns about the money withdrawn from her accounts and checks written out to Maw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have advised her about the hundreds of thousands of dollars that supposedly she took out,\u201d Piro told a judge at a hearing in October 2019. \u201cAnd she\u2019s adamant that, if that was done, it was done through forgery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LaDonna attended the hearing, as did Maw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By then, two additional trusts had been created that named Maw trustee and beneficiary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cListen, Min used to work for me, and so did the gentleman behind him,\u201d LaDonna told the judge, according to a court transcript, referring to another man in the courtroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how they think they can take things over from me. I never signed any paperwork over to them. If they have paperwork to that\u201d effect, \u201cit\u2019s because they falsified my signature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t owe him anything,\u201d LaDonna added, referring to Maw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moments later, Maw\u2019s attorney, Juan Dotson, said his client would end his bid to be LaDonna\u2019s conservator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dotson noted that he had filed a document that showed Maw had spent $275,000 of his own money to maintain LaDonna\u2019s properties. (Four months earlier, Maw had said in court papers that he spent $70,000.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attorney for McCasland, the Davis friend who initially accused Maw of taking advantage of LaDonna, told the judge that Maw\u2019s accounting document raised more questions than answers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of the $275,000, less than $2,000 was used for her care, said the attorney, Michael Ebiner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe rest of the $275,000 is for, apparently, repairs, maintenance, cars,\u201d Ebiner said. \u201cThere\u2019s a $13,000 item that says \u2018ask my accountant.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge, Gus May, appointed Hitchman as conservator of LaDonna\u2019s estate, ruling that there was \u201cclear and convincing evidence\u201d that LaDonna \u201cis unable to care for her personal or financial affairs and is subject to undue influence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LaDonna was still in the hospital, but her insurance was running out and there was no money available to her in any of her accounts, according to court filings by her lawyer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Hitchman ultimately discovered that she still had $440,000. The cash had been held in a Bank of America trust account that Maw had been administering and that the bank closed after it was flagged as \u201csuspicious or subject to fraud,\u201d Hitchman said in court filings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hitchman also sold the Davises\u2019 homes for roughly $2 million, providing her a sizable nest egg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LaDonna, now 80, was moved from a hospital to a facility that specializes in caring for people with cognitive issues. The legal battle over whether to void the new trusts carried into late 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maw maintained that he had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money on LaDonna\u2019s properties and for the storage of cars that he moved off of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Maw was previously sanctioned by the court in the amount of $1,225 for failing to produce receipts or any other documents to support his contention that he had spent $275,000 of his own money. Maw said in court filings that the documents were stolen from LaDonna\u2019s house.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A settlement was reached in November 2022. It granted Maw $175,000 in cash and all of the vehicles purchased by LaDonna \u201cand\/or funds belonging to LaDonna that are currently in his possession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The settlement avoids the \u201csignificant expense of further litigation\u201d and secures LaDonna\u2019s assets, Hitchman wrote in court papers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hitchman declined to comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ebiner, the lawyer who represented McCasland, said Maw had leverage in the mediation talks because it would be difficult to prove both that LaDonna didn\u2019t understand she was giving him control of her finances and that he had exerted undue influence over her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amis, the code enforcement officer, was shocked when I told him about Maw\u2019s payout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you serious?\u201d he said breathlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elder abuse experts say it\u2019s not uncommon for cases to end in settlements because of the high costs of ongoing litigation. And prosecutors are reluctant to bring charges because cases involving a mentally compromised victim tend to be difficult to win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really frustrating,\u201d said Dr. Stacey Wood, a clinician with Adult Protective Services in Los Angeles and a professor of psychology at Scripps College. \u201cIf somebody kicked in a door, took a bunch of stuff and left, the police would have no trouble charging him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not prosecuting the fraudsters has serious consequences, Wood added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt leaves the criminals free to look for new victims.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I reached out to Maw on a Thursday afternoon. He called me back the next day, and we spoke for over an hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a bewildering conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maw described himself as someone who came to the rescue of two elderly people and got caught up in a system he didn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI saw that they needed help, and I tried to help,\u201d Maw, 64, said. \u201cThat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said it was the Davises who pushed the idea of him taking over their trusts even though they had known each other for less than a year. \u201cI don\u2019t know about trusts,\u201d Maw said. \u201cI\u2019m an Asian guy. We don\u2019t have that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he didn\u2019t want to sign the documents, but LaDonna insisted. Then he tried his best to take care of the couple and help to clean up and secure their property, only to get drawn into an extended legal battle that hurt his finances and damaged his marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when I asked pointed questions, Maw\u2019s answers were convoluted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why was there a $9,500 check written out to your wife?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a motor T, a motor T or something,\u201d he said. \u201cI explained everything. Here this is right here and this is what she paid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I noted that he was evicted from his home around the same time he met the Davises \u2014 he hadn\u2019t paid his rent \u2014 Maw at first blamed it on an unkempt garage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was doing the garage over there and it was dirty,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the issue. They already know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He kept talking, veering from his daughter getting into medical school to his time working overseas for a German company \u2014 \u201cI lived hotel to hotel. I\u2019ve been jumping around everywhere in the world\u201d \u2014 and ending with him saying he could give me a list of all his landlords over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can call,\u201d he said. \u201cHow many times I\u2019m late and how many years I lived there? You can find out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maw also promised to send me all the receipts documenting how LaDonna\u2019s money was spent, paperwork showing all the jobs he missed out on during this period and his correspondence with banks and various people involved in the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I never received any of these things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After I followed up with him, the situation only got stranger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I received a text message from his lawyer, Harold W. Dickens, saying he heard I was planning to publish a story about Maw that \u201ccontains falsehoods\u201d and that if I did so they would file a lawsuit seeking \u201cmaximum damages as well as punitive damages for your bad faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGovern yourself accordingly,\u201d read the final line of the text message. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sent a list of questions to Dickens via email. A week later, an unsigned email landed in my inbox from justice4Ladonna@gmail.com. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were brief answers to my questions and a link to a Google Drive folder that included selected court filings, a letter from a LaDonna \u201ccaretaker\u201d praising Maw\u2019s treatment of her and two cellphone videos of LaDonna criticizing McCasland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The videos were taken while she was at home and Maw was still overseeing her finances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one of the clips, LaDonna denounces McCasland for doing unspecified \u201cbad things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs anybody forcing you to do this? To say this?\u201d an unseen man asks her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019m doing this of my own free will,\u201d she replies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the video cuts off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whoever sent the email didn\u2019t include any evidence, like receipts or bank statements, that showed Maw spent his own money on LaDonna or that explained why he had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The name of the email account \u2014 justice4Ladonna \u2014 jibed with how Maw had portrayed himself and LaDonna as victims in our conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He lamented that he had been cut off from communicating with her and that she had been taken to a facility and had her homes sold without her consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about money,\u201d Maw said. \u201cThat\u2019s what this case is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The old woman was missing her left thumb. A thick layer of dirt covered her arms and legs. And when the police officers and social workers got close, a foul smell filled their nostrils. It was July 2018, and the authorities had showed up at the house in West Covina, California, after receiving reports that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[30796,30797],"class_list":["post-33364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-california-couple","tag-chimpanchimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33366,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33364\/revisions\/33366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}