In 2017, Jeff Owen filed a grievance with the Washington State CPG Board which oversees the Certified Professional Guardian program in Washington.

From their website at https://www.courts.wa.gov/guardianportal/index.cfm?fa=guardianportal.cpg is the statement:

“To achieve the greatest protection for the estates and affairs of incapacitated persons in Washington State, the Certified Professional Guardian Board adopts and implements regulations governing certification, minimum standards of practice, training, and discipline of professional guardians.”

Jeff Owen’s grievance was filed after a drawn-out series of vicious attacks against him by his sister Kristi Ernsberger and Certified Professional Guardian Kristyan Calhoun.  Ironically, Jeff had filed the original guardianship petition to protect his parents from the violent outbursts of Kristi and her attempts to gain access to his parents’ bank accounts.

In January of 2020 — over 2 years from the original filing of the grievance, the CPG Board dismissed the grievance, citing a lack of evidence.  After the original grievance was filed in early August of 2017, Jeff was told that any allegations he made needed to have evidence to support them.  Jeff spent countless hours gathering information and provided the CPG with hundreds of pages of evidence.  Ms. Calhoun apparently did not have the same burden of proof and her letter and false statements were taken at face value.

The original grievance can be read here.  What follows is a breakdown of each complaint, along with the Standard of Practice violated, the response of the CPG, and a list of evidence provided from both parties in support of their statements.  Evidence containing private information is listed but not provided including copies of the Sealed Guardian ad Litem Report.

At any time a person can request these records from the CPG by completing a records request at: https://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/publication/AdministrativePublicRecordsForm.pdf.   This is grievance 2017-066.  The CPG Board Investigation Report can be found here.

Failure to pay bills and cost of care:

Standards of Practice can be found on the Washington State Courts page here.

Allegations:

• Failed to pay utility bills (phone, electricity)
• Bounced check to assisted living facility
• Allowed commercial liability insurance on rental property to lapse twice due to non-payment.

Standard of Practice Violated: SOP 409 — Financial Management.

409.1 The guardian shall assure competent management of the property and income of
the estate. In the discharge of this duty, the guardian shall exercise the highest level of
fiduciary responsibility, intelligence, prudence, and diligence and avoid any self-interest.
The management of the estate shall be documented by means of accurate and
complete records of all transactions.
409.1.1 The guardian shall meet with the incapacitated person and gather
information from family, friends and other collateral sources, as soon as
practicable after appointment, to determine the current wishes of the
incapacitated person and to obtain historical information about the incapacitated
person’s prior management of financial affairs.

Response by Ms. Calhoun (original here):

“Mr. Jeff Owen was receiving bills at his home address and Mrs. Kathryn Owen was also receiving bills at her assisted living. There were several issues involving Mr. Jeff Owen dropping bills off at my office which were already past due, or close to it. As this was a temporary guardianship I did not have authority to marshal assets and debts.

I believe that one of the primary issues in this case for Mr. Jeff Owen is his desire to own the family cabin. The family cabin is owned by Mrs. Kathryn Owen, and there has been a settlement agreement with a purchaser of the property by Mrs. Kathryn Owen’s attorney, Marcus Fry. The temporary guardianship was filed regarding property sales. I did not pay the annual power bill for the cabin at the direction of Mrs. Owen. I have taken direction from Mrs. Owen from the beginning of my appointment. Mr. Jeff Owen has had sole access to the cabin for many years. He was paying the taxes, utilities and insurance for the cabin from his parent’s funds. I had paid the taxes and insurance at the direction of Mrs. Kathryn Owen but did not pay the power bill. This was shared with Mr. Owen’s prior and present attorney.

Regarding bouncing a check to the assisted living facility, I did do this. I did not realize that the auto pay agreement would go into effect within that time frame. On May 19,2017, I began the transition to SEM EMS guardianship software to alleviate a bill payment error from occurring again. I did also contact that attorneys involved in the case, as well as told Mrs. Owen what had occurred. I also made a staff change, switching staff tasks.”

Evidence provided by Calhoun in support of statements: None.

Evidence provided by Jeff Owen in support of allegations and refuting the misstatements by Calhoun in her response:

• Email from Kristi Ernsberger indicating that Keith and Kathryn Owen’s mail had not been picked up at the assisted living facility and they found a disconnection notice for the phone due to non-payment which they (not Jeff) would deliver to Ms. Calhoun.
• Evidence of address change filed by Ms. Calhoun December 28, 2016.
• Evidence that the lapsed insurance bill was mailed to Ms. Calhoun starting in January of 2017, at time of address change.  This document shows Ms. Calhoun’s mailing address as listed on her letterhead, the address the bills were sent to, as well as payments made to the insurance (sporadically) with failure to pay in July of 2017.
• Emails from other family members (Kristi Ernsberger, Tom Ernsberger, Kimberly Tanner) who used the cabin and utilities without Jeff’s being there or involved in any way, demonstrating he did not have sole use of the cabin or the utilities.  This speculative red herring argument provided by Ms. Calhoun has no bearing on the allegation nor basis in reality.
  • Tom Ernsberger
  • Kristi Ernsberger
  • Kristi Ernsberger
  • Kristi Ernsberger
  • Kimberly Tanner
• Evidence of the bounced check in the amount of $5890 against a balance of $1840.71 on June 13, 2017
• Evidence that the auto pay agreement had been in place since January of 2017, with drafts to the account made on 2/13/2017, 3/13/2017, 4/11/2017, 5/11/2017 and the NSF check on 6/13/2017 (billing statements from Highgate House).
• Evidence that Jeff had to initiate a review into the check that was drafted against his joint account with his parents, Kristyan did not.
• Evidence that Calhoun did allow other family members access to the joint account held by Jeff and his parents.
  • November 2016
  • April 2017
• Email from Ms. Carla Montejo at the CPG office that the evidence had been received.
• Follow-up letter to Ms. Bowman responding to Ms. Calhoun’s letter, with all evidence as in this post.

Decision by CPG “Unsubstantiated”:

“The grievant provided no evidence of unpaid bills or lapsed insurance.
The CPG provided a persuasive explanation regarding any irregularities
in paying utility bills. She explained that there was one returned check
for payment of cost of care that was caused by her lack of
understanding of the auto pay procedures. She also explained that she
took steps to rectify this situation. It apparently was a one time error. In
addition, the CPG explained how situation involving the insurance on
the rental, and that the rental was under the names of the grievant and
his deceased father, the husband of the IP. The CPG advises that
when counsel for the IP instructed her to pay it out of community assets
that she did so.
There is no evidence of any significant, ongoing mismanagement of bills
and financial obligations of the IP.”

Allowed some family members access to the IP’s finances

SOP 409.4 The guardian shall manage the estate with the primary goal of
providing for the needs of the incapacitated person.

Allegations:

• Allowed unauthorized access by Kristi Ernsberger to a joint account which Jeff held with his parents.

Response by Ms. Calhoun

“I have no knowledge of any family members accessing Mrs. Kathryn Owen’s finances. Kathryn did take funds out a few times, for small amounts and withdrew funds to purchase a suit for her husband to be buried in. She had full access to her funds.”

Evidence provided by Ms. Calhoun: None.

Evidence provided by Jeff Owen:

• Email November 2016 regarding access by Kristi Ernsberger to a joint account held by Jeff Owen and his parents.
• Email April 2017 regarding access by Kristi Ernsberger to a joint account held by Jeff Owen and his parents.
• Email April 2017 regarding risks identified with Kristi Ernsberger’s numerous secretive attempts to access Keith and Kathryn Owen’s finances.  We’d been trying for months to be extricated from all financial accounts and activities because of the risk posed by Kristi and by Calhoun.  Our attempts at setting up a meeting with Calhoun (via our attorney) were stonewalled.
• Also, statements in the original GAL Report (sealed) which specifically called out Kristi’s “secrecy” and “coercion” which put Keith, Kathryn, and Jeff at risk.  (The CPG Board, as a program of the Courts, did have access to this as listed in their report here.)

Decision by CPG: Unsubstantiated: 

“There is no evidence that substantiates that the CPG allowed anyone to access the IP’s resources and assets for their own use. The CPG
denies it, and provides a persuasive explanation.”

Wrongful Death of Keith Owen due to not receiving a pneumonia shot

Allegations:

• Numerous attempts by family members to have Ms. Calhoun get Keith his pneumonia shot, a vaccine he’d regularly gotten for years prior.  Keith died of pneumonia in June, 2017.

Response by Ms. Calhoun

“I have received calls from Tracey Williams of APS (509) 568-3731 regarding allegations against Kathryn’s daughter, Kristi Ernsberger. I received a call Lucinda Vautour, Complaint Investigator with DSHS (509-225-2805) who had no concerns regarding Mr. Owen’s access to care. I was actually commended, as was the facility at how quickly we acted to have Mr. Owen seen by his primary care clinic. I was told by both investigators that they would notify the complainant. Jeff Owen knew that outcome of those complaints before he made this complaint.”

Evidence of pneumonia shot provided: none.

Evidence provided by Jeff Owen: none as he has no access to Keith’s vaccine records.

It should be noted however that Ms. Calhoun insists that Jeff made a complaint.  Complaints are meant to be anonymous to protect the party from retaliation.  She further states that Jeff knew the outcome of the complaint before filing his grievance.  If it were true (which it wasn’t), how could she have known?

Included in Jeff’s letter to the CPG in response, Jeff wrote:

“This was a complaint that was brought against Kristyan by another family member. When the person came to me about it I asked them not to do it, fearing that Kristyan would retaliate, however I told them it was up to them. They later let me know that they went ahead with it. I received no further updates until after this grievance against Kristyan was filed. The main concern with the wrongful death complaint is that the family repeatedly asked Kristyan and her staff to get Keith’s various medical needs met — pain shots for his hip, eyeglasses, and flu and pneumonia shots. I am attaching our email about the pneumonia shots — we did not receive any information about whether he received the shot or not, and he passed of pneumonia. I will be in contact with that family member to find out the outcome of that complaint, as I have no knowledge. The emails pertaining to this issue are “Keithwrongfuldeath.pdf” and “Keithwrongfuldeath2.pdf”

It is unclear to me why the allegations against Kristi Ernsberger are in any way related to the wrongful death of Keith Owen, but Kristyan states “l was told by both investigators that they would notify the complainant. Jeff Owen knew that outcome of those complaints before he made this complaint.” This is false as the complaint against Kristi Ernsberger was made after this grievance against Kristyan. I received no follow-up from Tracey Williams regarding the complaint until late August. I was not the complainant on the wrongful death grievance and so received no update. This kind of accusation from Kristyan hopefully will not distract your attention from the matter at hand — Kathryn’s care an Kristyan’s misconduct. However, I hope that this does raise a red flag as to the integrity of Kristyan’s character and lack of trustworthiness.”

Decision by CPG: not addressed

Harassment of family members, including prohibiting family to talk to the
IP regarding finances.

SOP: RCW 11.92.195
(1)Except as otherwise provided in this section, an incapacitated
person retains the right to associate with persons of the
incapacitated person’s choosing. This right includes, but is not
limited to, the right to freely communicate and interact with other
persons, whether through in-person visits, telephone calls,
electronic communication, personal mail, or other means.
403.1 The civil rights and liberties of the incapacitated person shall be
protected. The independence and self-reliance of the incapacitated
person shall be maximized to the greatest extent consistent with their
protection and safety. The guardian shall protect the personal and
economic interests of the incapacitated person and foster growth,
independence, and self-reliance.

Allegations:

• Ms. Calhoun forcibly restrained family members by grabbing their arms and pushing them, forcibly pushed Kathryn into a chair and told her not to get up, made false statements about family members in such a way as to isolate Keith and Kathryn Owen.
• Even in Ms. Calhoun’s response to the grievance she simply ignores facts and invents stories meant to harm Jeff, his reputation, and his relationships with local professionals and his family.
• Ms. Calhoun insisted that Jeff not discuss financial matters with his mother, which he had not done since the guardianship had been put in place in November, 2016, as this was the main reason he’d filed the petition for guardianship was to protect himself from financial entanglement.

Calhoun’s Response regarding harassment:

“I have never allowed myself to be alone with Jeff Owen. I do not believe I have been alone with anyone involved in this case other than Kathryn. I have recently invited, Caela Bianchi, the facility administrator to be present when I am planning to discuss any pertinent issues with Kathryn. I don’t want to be perceived as influencing Kathryn in any of her decisions. I am aware of the past family allegations and feuds and would not put myself in a position to be accused of this. ”

Evidence provided by Calhoun: none

Evidence provided by Jeff Owen: list and contact information for family members witnessed and/or targeted by Ms. Calhoun.

Calhoun’s response regarding isolation and discussion of finances:

“My request that Jeff not speak to his mother about finances stemmed from a situation related to a TV. Caela Bianchi, assisted living administrator, and I were visiting with Kathryn. Kathryn commented that she had not been able to watch TV in a long time due to her vision. She had a small 20” TV close to her chair so that she could listen to it. I understand Kathryn’s field of vision and asked her if she would like a larger TV so that she could watch it. Kathryn thought that this may work. My staff purchased a very large TV and stand. Kathryn was able to watch TV again.

She loved the TV. 

During my next visit, Kathryn and her caregiver stated separately that Jeff had come to visit and was quite upset that there was a new TV. He told her that he hoped she liked it because he paid for it. Kathryn was very upset. One other issue is that Kathryn had 1:1 agency caregivers for a time due to health complications. Jeff told her that she did not need the care and that it was too expensive.”

Evidence provided by Calhoun: none.

Evidence provided by Jeff Owen:

• Email from Kristyan Calhoun dated 4/21/2017
• Email to Tyler regarding finances reprimand
• Text message from Shelley (Jeff’s sister) dated 4/25 that there was no t.v.  This demonstrates that the TV story fabricated by Calhoun has no basis in reality because there was no t.v. to discuss on 4/21.  Jeff never discussed any t.v. with his mother.
• Email from Tyler Farmer discussing finances with Calhoun on 4/11 on Jeff’s behalf

 

Decision by CPG: Unsubstantiated

“There is no evidence in the record of the guardian harassing any family
members, or unlawfully interfering with the IP’s right of association. The
guardian explains that she did ask the grievant/son not to talk to the IP
about money because he was criticizing her appropriate purchases,
frequently due to his objection to her spending her money. These
requests to the IP were consistent with the guardian’s duty to protect the
IP’s right to self-determination.”

 

FAILURE TO PROTECT THE IP FROM ABUSIVE FAMILY MEMBERS

403.1 The civil rights and liberties of the incapacitated person shall be
protected. The independence and self-reliance of the incapacitated
person shall be maximized to the greatest extent consistent with their
protection and safety. The guardian shall protect the personal and
economic interests of the incapacitated person and foster growth,
independence, and self-reliance.

Allegations:

• Physical abuse of Kathryn Owen by Kristi Ernsberger in the presence of Caela Bianchi and numerous others (including myself)
• No history of abuse by Jeff Owen
• Physical attacks on other family members by Kristi Ernsberger in the presence of Keith and Kathryn Owen in their own home
• Secretive and suspicious activities by Kristi Ernsberger as identified in the sealed report by the Guardian ad Litem to which Kristyan Calhoun had access.

Response by Ms. Calhoun:

“Jeff is the only person that Kathryn has stated that she is fearful of. She has been clear and consistent of this fact with myself as well as my staff. She has articulated her concerns to her attorney, Marcus Fry, as well as the Guardian Ad Litem, Amy Clark. Kathryn has also seen a mental health counselor for many months. She has been visited many times by the long-term care ombudsman, Lisa Kromerii. Kathryn had not wanted a VAPO against her son. She has not wanted him to “get in trouble”.”

Evidence provided by Ms. Calhoun:  none

Evidence provided by Jeff Owen:

• The sealed Guardian ad Litem report for Kathryn Owen
• Statement by the victim of Kristi Ernsberger’s physical attack.

Decision by CPG: Unsubstantiated

Evidence Relied On: There is no evidence that any of the IP’s family members were abusive.
The CPG says that the only member of her family that the IP was afraid of was her son, the grievant. The CPG indicates that she did
discourage the son from making critical, controlling remarks to the IP about her expenditures.

The icing on the cake

As a final parting shot, Ms. Calhoun makes the following statement in her response to the CPG Board.  If the above doesn’t convince you of the extent of her misstatements and slander, this is the proverbial “icing on the cake”.  By casting further financial doubts, making careless statements about anyone who would attempt to hold her accountable, she seems to successfully sway the masses.  Ironically, the CPG held in its hands the very evidence that utterly refuted the below statement: the Guardianship Appointment signed by Kristyan Calhoun on November 16th, 2016, listing the below account in question.  Even by her own admission she never included the account in her inventory of the estate — a requirement of her job, and an evasive tactic often employed in hopes of squirreling away funds from unsuspecting families.

Even worse, she perpetuated this narrative to anyone within earshot, including Jeff’s mother.  This naturally upset Kathryn, who had relied on Jeff for over a decade to assist her with her finances, and she went to her grave believing that her son had stolen over $100,000 from her.  (Calhoun then went on to hire a relative of hers and spend upwards of $10,000 of Kathryn’s funds to prove Jeff had stolen from his mother, an exercise that never bore fruit.)

Ms Calhoun states:

“This complaint was made on August 3, 2017. On August 2, 2017, I picked up statements from Yakima Federal Savings and Loan for a CD that was in Keith Owen’s name. I did not know about the CD at the time of my initial inventory. I had filed the inventory and Jeff Owen received a copy of the inventory and attended the court hearing on the inventory. I only found out about the CD by accident after the hearing, as a bank teller told me that there was an account listed in Keith’s name only. I went to the bank to ask of a printed statement for Keith and Kathryn’s account. Jeff Owen is also on this same account and has been since I was appointed. The initial value was $147,000 in 2009. The current value at the time I found the account was $7,000. Jeff Owen has online access to the checking account and I believe that he saw the charges for those CD statements and then made this complaint. “

Here is the Order Appointing Calhoun as temporary guardian, identifying the CD account and specifying that Ms. Calhoun manage the account.  Signed by Calhoun on 11/12/2016.  This file is of course part of the CPG Board’s documents listed in the Investigation Report.

The CPG Board didn’t fail.  The CPG Board did something much, much more sinister and harmful.  It took the evidence and the truth, and cast it aside to perpetuate a system of abuse.  Our vulnerable are voiceless, and the CPG Board is holding the gag.

Perhaps a more appropriate statement on their page would be:

“To achieve the greatest protection for corrupt guardians in Washington State, the Certified Professional Guardian Board ignores regulations governing certification, minimum standards of practice, training, and discipline of abusive guardians.”