A prominent New York attorney is caught in the middle of apparent abuses of the elderly and allegedly pilfers their estate during the guardianship process, according to relatives of victims who hope to bring exposure that will stop her actions.

Mary Giordano is a partner with the New York State law firm, Franchina and Giordano, and among her duties is that Giordano is routinely chosen by the Nassau County Superior Court system to be a guardian for elderly guardianship cases.

But two relatives involved in cases in which Giordano was a guardian say their relatives were forcibly removed from their homes, their assets plundered, and their family members had the life sucked out of them until they died depressed and isolated.

Diane Wilson found her mother Dorothy Wilson lying on the floor at her home on December 8, 2008. Advised due to long standing family disputes to enter her mother into guardianship, Wilson said by March, 2009, at the order of then Nassau Supreme Court Judge Joel Asarch (pictured above) she was removed as guardian and instead Asarch appointed Giordano as the court appointed guardian.

As Wilson’s guardian, Giordano was given power over nearly every decision in Wilson’s life including how her money was spent, where she lived, and her medical care.

Giordano ordered a reverse mortgage be placed on Dorothy Wilson’s home which netted about $275,000 and along with Wlson’s pension of about $2,300 month, Judge Asarch claimed in court the money would last for five years.

But it only lasted two years, and Diane Wilson told RebelPundit that proper accounting of the expenses were never provided by Giordano.

Worse yet, in November 2010, Wilson was tricked and forced to move out of her home and into a nursing home.

“Dorothy Wilson is currently placed in the Bristal, an assisted living facility in Massapequa. She was taken there on November 3, 2010, on the pretense of having lunch, by her daughter, Candice Bruder,” Diane Wilson said in a complaint to the New York State Unified Court Grievance Committee. “After she was there, she was told she was moving in there and her clothes were brought later that same day. She is not allowed to leave the Bristal at all, including Thanksgiving. The family is only permitted to go there and visit.”

The elder Wilson, who was 87 at the beginning of the process, was miserable and felt like a prisoner her entire time at Bristal.

“On November 15 (2010), after placing three phone calls during a 3 ½ hour period, I was finally able to speak with my mother. During the entire phone call her “caseworker”, Tracy, sat next to her while my mother begged me to come and pick her up and take her home. She had no privacy. When I went to visit her in the evening, she cried the entire time, begging me to take her home, asking me over and over again why I never came, why no one visited her, why no one called,” Diane Wilson said the same complaint.

Wilson was force to stay in the facility for thirty days at a cost of $53,000, and Giordano never provided a line by line breakdown of why the costs were so high.

On August 22, 2011, on the direction of Giordano, Dorothy Wilson was again moved to Meadowbrook Care Nursing Home in Freeport, New York again against her will

On September 2, 2011, Giordano again moved Wilson into another nursing home Maria Regina Nursing Home in Brentwood, NY. Giordano also attempted to sell Wilson’s house.

What followed was a series of furious court maneuvers until on October 18, 2011, Giordano resigned as guardian but still Judge Asarch kept Dorothy Wilson in the nursing home. She died there on October 23, 2011.

Throughout the process Dorothy Wilson sent a series of letters to the judge begging to be allowed to be cared for by her daughter.

“It’s very strange that my daughter Diane is not allowed to go into my house.” Dorothy Wilson said in a letter dated October 20, 2011. “She is the only one I trust.”

Dorothy Wilson also made a series of You Tube videos begging to be released.

“I hate it here. I want to go home.” Dorothy Wilson said while holding back tears in one You Tube video. “I feel like I’m locked up in a jail.”

A call to Giordano’s law firm was left unreturned.

Kevin Kelly told Rebel Pundit he experienced something very similar with the guardianship of his grandfather, Richard Maass, which also started when a family dispute introduced guardianship directed again by the combination of Judge Asarch and Mary Giordano.

Kelly said his story started in 2008 when he was living in a home his grandparents owned since 1951, and helping to take care of his grandfather who had Alzheimer’s after his grandmother’s death in 1998.

After a dispute between Kelly and one of his cousin’s, Judge Asarch brought in Giordano to be Maass’s guardian, and the nightmare began, Kelly told Rebel Pundit.

Asarch decided that Kelly wasn’t “immediate family” and forced him to move out of the home which Kelly did moving to an apartment near the home in March 2009.

In September 2009, without telling Kelly, Giordano had Maass moved out of his home and into a nursing home.

Kelly said that Giordano never produced an inventory of Maass’s personal property and personal items were missing in the days immediately following Maass’s forced removal from his home.

Kelly said in a follow up visit he noticed items missing: all of the artwork on the walls, grandfather clock, the entire crystal and china collection, two antique end tables, all of Maass’s clothing, an air conditioner wall unit, a mattress, lamps, a therapeutic/massage recliner and most of the assorted knickknacks accumulated by his grandparents over six decades.

Kelly said Maass was forced to live out the rest of his life in a nursing home for Jewish people even though he was Christian. He said his grandfather repeatedly expressed a desire to move back into his home but that Giordano never allowed it.

According to court documents, Maass’s estate was in excess of $600,000 at the time guardianship began, however at the time of his death on February 28, 2011, Kelly never received a final accounting of his grandfather’s assets and he isn’t sure how much if any money was left.

Worse yet, Giordano changed the date of Maass’s funeral at the last minute forcing the family to scramble as many people were coming in from all over the country.

A former employee, Janet Bergen, who assisted Giordano with Wilson’s case, died in her forties of cancer in 2012.

Another former employee of the firm who asked to remain anonymous said that Bergen repeatedly asked to be taken off the case and felt extremely stressed over the way it was being handled.

RebelPundit has confirmed that Giordano is currently being investigated for her handling of the estate of Joan Bebry, a wealthy woman who died in March 2014.

According to David Brooks spokesperson for the New York State Unified Court System discipline is done by that entity’s Grievance Committee and he was unaware of any malfeasance by Giordano.

Diane Wilson filed a formal complaint with the Tenth District’s Grievance Committee. According to a representative of the Grievance Committee, Giordano hasn’t been disciplined.

Giordano’s law partner, Emily Franchina, has been on the Grievance Committee in that district since 2000.

Judge Asarch died suddenly at 60 in 2013, and according to the New York State Judicial Commission, which is in charge of discipline for judges, Judge Asarch’s record is also clean, though Wilson also filed a formal complaint with the New York State Judicial Commission.

Giordano continues to be assigned cases as a guardian.