More details have emerged in the case of a Missouri estates attorney who has been charged with shooting her father and then murdering him through the forgery of the father’s health care power of attorney, and law professors are weighing in on the case.
"It really does come down to murder by legal form," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. "A fascinating case. I've never seen one like it."
“If this is all [prosecutors] have to go on, it’s pretty thin,” countered Rod Uphoff, a law professor at the University of Missouri.
As ElderLawAnswers reported in September, William B. Van Note, 67, and his longtime companion, Sharon L. Dickson, 59, died from gunshot wounds they received inside Mr. Van Note’s Sunrise Beach, Missouri, home in October 2010. Mr. Van Note survived the shooting and remained conscious long enough to call for help and try to revive Ms. Dickson. He was placed on life support at a hospital and survived for four days, until life support was withdrawn on the strength of a health care power of attorney produced by his daughter, Susan Elizabeth Van Note, a Kansas City estate and small business planning attorney.
Ms. Van Note was taken into custody September 7, 2012 – nearly two years after the deaths -- and charged with forgery and the first-degree murder.
An indictment charges Ms. Van Note with shooting her father in the head and then, when he survived the shooting, forging his health care power of attorney so that life support would be withdrawn. She has pleaded not guilty and is being held in lieu of $1 million cash bail. Two alleged accomplices have also been arrested and charged with second-degree murder and forgery. No charges have yet been filed in relation to Ms. Dickson's murder.
Death Occurred During Key Estate Tax Year
Mr. Van Note had a troubled relationship with Ms. Van Note, his daughter with his first wife according to a detailed account of the case by the Kansas City Star published on the Web site LakeExpo.com. Mr. Van Note planned to marry Ms. Dickson, which would have changed the distribution of his reputed $10 million estate.
Following her father's death, Ms. Van Note, his only surviving child, was named executrix of his estate. According to the will, he bequeathed three rental properties to her, as well as other assets including his jewelry, cars and life insurance proceeds. Mr. Van Note’s cash, retirement accounts and three homes were to go to Ms. Dickson if she survived him. A judge has suspended Ms. Van Note’s authority as executrix until the criminal case is resolved, and “a legal battle is already well under way” concerning the estate, according to the Star. The stakes are particularly high because Mr. Van Note died in the one year when decedents did not have to pay any estate tax.
The prosecutor alleges that Ms. Van Note's preparation of the health care power of attorney and presentation of it to her father’s medical team shows the premeditation required for first-degree murder. He charges that Mr. Van Note died not from the gunshot wound but from being removed from life support.
Ms. Van Note's attorney acknowledges that she produced the health care POA without his signature, but that she did it only because she could not locate the one her father had signed.
As quoted by the Kansas City Star, Turley, the George Washington University law professor, says expert medical witnesses could prove pivotal in a trial. If a jury finds that Mr. Van Note would have survived if life support had not been withdrawn, the forged document becomes critical.
"Even if he would have died the next day, it's still murder," Turley told the Star.
“If this is all they have to go on, it’s pretty thin,” said the University of Missouri's Prof. Uphoff, who in a career as a public defender represented Terry Nichol after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
“Maybe the prosecution’s got more. But, by itself, it seems they’ve got a lot of work ahead,” he said.
Ironically, in 2005 Ms. Van Note’s mother was imprisoned and ordered to pay restitution for forging her own mother's name on a financial power of attorney in order to obtain money from a trust fund. In recent years, according to the Star, she has worked with Ms. Van Note at her law office.
For an ABAJournal article on the case, click here.
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