Gets $35 an hour to open mail, make and receive phone calls, and pay bills which are, many times, in arrears.

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... The VA's fiduciary program is in shambles.  Three years ago the VAOIG reported, "The fiduciary program continues to be at significant risk for abuse and fraud," and nothing has changed in that time.  So, while the fiduciary should be watching out for the veteran ... who's watching the fiduciary?  Use our search engine for more about veterans who have been assigned fiduciaries.

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Guardian holds veterans fate in her hands every day

BY LAURA GIRRESCH
News-Democrat

Archie Sorth can't buy food or go to the doctor without asking for money from his court-appointed guardian, Sharon Mehrtens.

Sorth, 76, wakes before 6 a.m. most days in his downtown Belleville apartment above the Oregon Trail Roasting Co. coffee shop. He helps his landlady, owner Andrea Cox, by pulling chairs off tabletops and sweeping the sidewalk.

A former steamfitter and welder and a U.S. Army veteran, Sorth walks to Belleville pantries for food, Cox said, and does odd jobs for small amounts of money.

Mehrtens declined to discuss Sorth's case specifically, citing confidentiality. But, when speaking generally about her cases, she said, "When you have people with mental illness, you can't hand them cash."

Sorth slept on an old mattress on the floor beneath a leaky roof and sort of came with the building when Cox bought it in 2007.

Cox said that after she submitted a complaint to the Southwestern Illinois Visiting Nurse Association, Mehrtens brought him a bed. She said Sorth's teeth were rotting, and that needed dental work was done only after calls and e-mails to Mehrtens.

Cox said she believes guardians should care for their wards the way parents do their children.

"Because Archie's 76, people don't care," she said. "The point is, whoever is the guardian needs to do the job. The state said Archie isn't capable of taking care of himself."

Mehrtens, who handles the roughly $7,000 Sorth gets each year in interest income and his "old age pension," charges $35 an hour to open his mail, make and receive phone calls and pay his bills. His $430 per month rent is often late, Cox said, adding Sorth's utility bills often are past due, resulting in late fees.

Sorth said he has a card with Mehrtens' phone number on it, but he doesn't have a telephone and doesn't want to call her anyway because he's afraid she'll charge him for the call.

Sorth has been under the guardianship of Mehrtens, former St. Clair County's public guardian and now a professional guardian and estate administrator, since 1995. A judge appointed her to receive Sorth's veterans benefits check and manage his finances and personal care after a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs doctor determined he was mentally ill, and a county probate judge deemed him incapable of handling his own affairs.

Mehrtens hasn't communicated with the court about Sorth for three years other than to seek payment of fees for herself and her attorney, which total an average of $2,000 a year, and to tell the judge that she needed to move some of his belongings into storage because he had too much junk, according to court documents.

Her previous financial reports to the court often were vague and a month or more late.

Mehrtens said she sometimes files reports late because even though the current judge requires annual reports, previous judges had her on a three-year filing schedule, and she forgets when a report is due until the court sends her a late notice.

Sorth hasn't been the ideal ward.

According to a 2002 News-Democrat story, he ran from Mehrtens and police when a Belleville landlord evicted him from his apartment for hoarding too much trash. Mehrtens told him he would have to go to an assisted-living center, so he lived on the run for 16 months and refused to contact her or collect his Social Security checks.

Sorth's brother, Dan Sorth, of St. Louis, said Archie Sorth has always had trouble getting along with people. Dan Sorth said he hasn't talked to his brother in years. He and their other brother worked to have Mehrtens appointed guardian because Archie frequently gave his property away.

When Mehrtens put Archie Sorth's property in Bourbon, Mo., up for auction, he tried to burn it down, said Dan Sorth's wife, Martha.

Sorth spends most mornings at Oregon Trail, where he draws detailed cartoons, many of which portray a love story. He spends his evenings in his apartment, where he reads, listens to the radio, and roots through his massive clutter for forgotten treasures.

Sorth said he doesn't want Mehrtens to be his guardian anymore, but he hasn't complained to a judge because he doesn't think it would do any good.

"She's permanent, for life," he said.

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, veterans fiduciary, guardian