Prosecutors Now Say Forged POA Did Not Kill Father, But Charge Estates Attorney With Second Murder

Susan Elizabeth Van Note

The Missouri estates attorney charged with shooting her father and then murdering him through a forged health care power of attorney has now been charged with the murder of her father’s girlfriend.  At the same time, prosecutors have dropped murder charges against two alleged accomplices to the forgery after learning that a doctor did not rely on the document.

As ElderLawAnswers reported in 2012, 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  He was placed on life support at a hospital and survived for four days, until life support was withdrawn, allegedly on the strength of a health care power of attorney produced by his daughter, Susan Elizabeth Van Note, a Kansas City estate and small business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, who advertised her "compassionate representation of clients" and expertise in end-of-life issues,  was taken into custody September 7, 2012, nearly two years after the deaths.  She was charged with shooting her father and then, when he survived the shooting, forging his health care power of attorney so that life support would be withdrawn. 

Since that time, analysis of Ms. Van Note’s computer records has revealed that the power of attorney actually was created days before Mr. Van Note and Ms. Dickson were attacked, according to court documents.  Prosecutors have since dropped all charges against a couple who had witnessed the allegedly forged document and who were believed to be Ms. Van Note’s accomplices.  A doctor treating Mr. Van Note in the hospital testified in a deposition that he did not rely on the power of attorney.  The cleared couple’s attorney says that Ms. Van Note “tricked them into signing the document and misrepresented it to them.”  They told police that Ms. Van Note brought the document for them to sign after her father was shot and hospitalized, according to court records.

Mr. Van Note planned to marry Ms. Dickson, which would have changed the distribution of his multi-million dollar estate.  Ms. Van Note filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

Prosecutors have now charged Ms. Van Note with first-degree murder in Ms. Dickson’s shooting death, in addition to forgery and the murder of her father.  Ms. Van Note, who was expected to be released after posting a $250,000 cash bond, continues to maintain her innocence.

For an ABA Law Journal article on the new developments in the case, with links to local coverage, click here.

Update: In February 2017 a jury acquitted Van Note in the deaths of her father and his girlfriend.  A wrongful death suit against her by the girlfriend's son is pending.  For details, see: https://www.examiner.net/news/20170216/lees-summit-lawyer-acquitted-in-killings-of-dad-his-girlfriend