In the months before Geraldine Webber signed a last will and trust, leaving most of her $2.7 million estate to police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin, her doctor warned that Webber was incompetent to endorse estate plans and had called state officials to say she needed protection.

Her physician, Dr. Ira Schwartz, made those statements during a Sept. 4 deposition at the law office of Shaines and McEachern. Attorney Paul McEachern is representing several parties disputing Webber’s last will and trust while alleging Goodwin exerted undue influence over her, while she was impaired by dementia, to inherit her wealth. Several other parties are making the same allegations in challenges to Webber’s last will and trust in the Rockingham County probate court.

During his deposition earlier this month, Schwartz said he’s been a physician in Portsmouth since 1981 and Webber was his patient for "many, many years." He described her mental health and weight as declining at the end and said even her “filthy” jokes had diminished in the years before her December 2012 death at age 94.

“For many years, up to the last several years, she would come to the office and tell me a filthy joke every time she came in, a filthy joke,” Schwartz said. “She lost that ability over the last several years.”

Schwartz said his records show he was notified on Jan. 28, 2011, that Goodwin would be the contact person for her. That same month, Goodwin went to a bank with Webber and introduced himself as her friend who would be assisting her with financial affairs, according to a previous deposition by a Portsmouth bank executive.

Several lawyers disputing Webber’s last will and trust allege Goodwin met Webber three months earlier when he was dispatched to her home for a call about a prowler. Portsmouth attorney Jim Ritzo, who wrote Webber’s 2009 will, said she called him two weeks after meeting Goodwin, asking to change her will to leave Goodwin her riverfront house, but he told her no because she had dementia.

Schwartz said in his deposition that a Feb. 24, 2011, psychiatric evaluation of Webber at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, by someone other than him, stated: “She clearly had no understanding of the seriousness of her condition and her ability to make informed medical decisions was considered absent. Recommended that a guardian be applied for to help with her financial and medical affairs.”

Schwartz said he made a note in his files on Feb. 26, 2011 saying, "We have known for quite some time that she has cognitive impairment.“ Webber’s medical records note that on March 4, 2011, that she “has cognitive impairment,” that Schwartz could not rely on her taking her blood thinner medication appropriately and that she had a large bruise on her leg.

On Feb. 29, 2011, Goodwin and Webber went to her Portsmouth bank and had her safe deposit box drilled open, according to the bank executive’s deposition.

Webber’s doctor said Hampton attorney Gary Holmes met with him in February 2012 for a "discussion concerning Geraldine's mental status and her ability to make out a will."

"I recall a statement I made that was something like this, not only do I consider her unable to make an informed decision, but I believe she was judged to be that way by psychiatrists during a prior admission," Schwartz said. When Holmes asked why that wasn’t in Webber’s medical file, Schwartz said, he told the lawyer, “I think you can probably get it from the hospital.”

Also in February 2012, according to Webber’s doctor, she fell, fracturing a wrist and a foot. The doctor said he called the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services several times and left messages saying “this lady needs protection.”

Webber’s weight had dropped to 140 in 2012, from 177 in 2009, according to the doctor’s records. He said he had called BEAS multiple times to say she could not care for herself and needed protection.

Three months later, Holmes assisted Webber with signing the new estate plans that left Goodwin her house, stocks, bonds and a Cadillac. The signing was video recorded and shows Webber speaking about Goodwin in a sexual manner.

In November 2012, according to Schwartz’s deposition, he wrote that she “had cognition issues for multiple years” and was unable to remember that she had fractured her hip, in spite of being told that several times.

Goodwin’s power of attorney was invoked and she went to a nursing facility, Schwartz said. According to Webber’s doctor, he received notice on Dec. 7, 2012, from a hospice organization requesting her medical records and a list of her medications.

Webber’s doctor said he had not received information about her going to hospice, was “entirely unaware of her discharge” from a nursing home and was unaware of her having only six months to live -- a requirement for hospice.

She died Dec. 11, 2012, and her primary cause of death was listed on her death certificate as starvation.

Under questioning from Holmes’ lawyer, Ralph Holmes, Schwartz said he thought Goodwin was concerned about her welfare and that he “was pleased that he was checking in on her.”

Schwartz was asked if Goodwin ever said anything to “indicate his motivation for being involved in her medical care and checking in on her daily was anything other than affection for her and a genuine concern for her welfare.” The doctor’s answer was “no.”

Schwartz also said he was unaware of anyone else taking care of Webber, other than paid professionals, between January 2011 and May 2012. McEachern alleges local police filed complaints against Ritzo and one of Webber’s longtime friends that estranged them from Webber.

Retired Judge Stephen Roberts was selected by the Police Commission earlier this month to lead a three-person panel to conduct an independent investigation into Goodwin’s disputed inheritance and the relationship between Goodwin, Webber and the Police Department. His choice of the other two panelists is expected to be announced this week.