My Brother’s Keeper
Regarding the exploitation of Anthony Krischel by his brother William. Standard blog posts can be seen here.
I started this blog on a very personal note, sharing the news of my wife and I expecting a child. Since then, on and off, I’ve mostly made very short comment on news stories of interest to me, and spent a little bit of time fighting the good fight for civil rights against racial separatists in Hawaii. But this entry is much different, and something difficult to share - but for the sake of my uncle Anthony Krischel, I feel that this story must be told.
This is the story of William Solomon, once William Joseph Krischel, my biological father who disappeared from me and my brother’s life when we were children. This sad man has spent the last several years of his life avoiding his children and grandchildren, frittering away his mother’s fortune, and since his mother passed away he has been stealing from his elder disabled brother Anthony Alonso Krischel, who was born with cerebral palsy and is legally blind. Allowed to continue unabated, my uncle will become yet another grim statistic of elder abuse, left homeless and lost.
A few facts - in April of 2003, my grandmother had over $150,000 dollars in People’s Bank in my uncle’s name. In April of 2004, my brother Jon Kauhane returned from a tour in Iraq, and checking in on our family found that $50,000 of it had gone missing, taken by William Solomon. In March 2006, my brother was tricked by William Solomon into putting his name on the account, in hopes of protecting the last $15,000 left there. After our grandmother’s death on March 19th, 2006, William Solomon, abusing his power of attorney, overdrew the account, and my brother was held liable for $1400.
My grandmother bought and paid for two houses in Connecticut, one which she rented, and the other which she lived in with my uncle for the past four decades. In 2003, she allowed William Solomon to sell the rental unit, which gave him $170,000. William spent this on his divorce, a $20,000 Rolex watch, expensive jewelry, guns, tattoos, an RV, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a timeshare in Palm Springs, and today, there is nothing left.
In April 2007, William Solomon’s house in Minnesota burnt to the ground. Days afterward, he traveled to the Philippines. The house had at one time been completely bought and paid for by my grandmother, but over the past years William Solomon had re-mortgaged it several times. It sits now, a burnt out husk, and thanks to William Solomon’s failure to keep his insurance current, it is a total loss. William Solomon since then has moved in with his brother, and has continued his mistreatment of him as well as his exploitation of him. Recently, Anthony had to be hospitalized for an ear infection, since William Solomon was unwilling to purchase the required antibiotics for him. As of May 2008, William Solomon was once again in the Philippines, and had managed to get a VA check due to Anthony put in his name.
And how did this series of unfortunate events come to pass? Its genesis is in the misguided love of a mother for her son, and the hope that if given responsibility, one may rise to the occasion. William Solomon has utterly failed in that respect, and unfortunately still retains the tools of destruction in his power.
Juana Alonso Krischel loved her sons dearly. She cared for and supported her first-born son Anthony, ravaged by cerebral palsy, for over 50 years. When William Solomon got married to my mother, she bought them a house. When William Solomon started a small business and went bankrupt in Minnesota, she bailed him out. When William Solomon remarried in Minnesota, she bought him another house. And despite years of repeated failure by her son William Solomon to be a responsible and upstanding citizen, at the end of her life, in a vain hope that he would become a better man, she trusted him with power of attorney over her finances and named him the executor of her will.
From this final act of hope has come endless pain. With the power of attorney, William Solomon has had unchecked and unfettered access to embezzle every last cent my grandmother ever saved. As executor of the will, William Solomon has placed himself in a position where he is now able to steal the last bit of his brother’s security. To this day, William Solomon has proceeded without any sort of reckoning.
My brother, Jon Kauhane, has spent the past year looking for help for my uncle Anthony. He has sent letters, talked to lawyers, begged social service agencies - but there is no sign of any consequence for William Solomon yet. In many cases my brother has been advised to retain an attorney, but neither he nor I have the resources to fight this battle on our uncle’s behalf. Others have indicated that they could help, if only our uncle was 60 years old. Now that he has turned 60, we are contacting the agencies and people who indicated that they might be able to help him if he was 60 years old.
If someone, anyone, could initiate an investigation of this case of elder abuse, perhaps William Solomon could be prevented from stealing the last shreds of security from my uncle’s life. He has already stolen his entire inheritance, continues to mistreat and neglect him, and has taken further steps to embezzle his government benefits. If it is possible to remedy this injustice, I beg anyone out there to please help.
My brother and I will be submitting this letter to our congressional representatives, Minnesota and Connecticut newspapers, any Attorney Generals who might be appropriate, and to any law firms who might take on this case pro bono. I’ll keep this post updated as events unfold.
UPDATE 1, 5-30-2007: Got an interesting document regarding some specifics about how William Solomon embezzled his mother’s money from 7/25/2005 - 1/24/2006.
UPDATE 2, 6-3-2007: Found a recent tax document from the City of Bridgeport, indicating that my grandmother’s house is still in her name, even though she is deceased. According to her will, the house should have been transferred to Anthony Krischel. The tax bill is odd though - it lists interest amounts and lien fees, but does not seem to include them in the final total of $0.67 tax due.
UPDATE 3, 6-10-2007: Designation of Executor and Last Will and Testament for Juana A. Krischel scanned in. This will, the only legal one to my knowledge, was written and executed on October 23, 1984. It states:
Last Will and Testament,
I, Juana A. Krischel of the Town of Bridgeport in the County of Fairfield in the State of Connecticut, being of lawful age, of sound and disposing mind, memory and judgement, do hereby make, publish and declare this to be my last Will and Testament, hereby revoking all previous wills and codicils by me made.
To Anthony, my son, my home at 65 Brooklawn Place, Bridgeport, Connecticut, all its contents, my personal property - jewelry, car, one-half of my interest in my land investment in Los Angeles, California, and all other unassigned assets.
To my son, William Joseph Krischel, (William Solomon) my real estate property at 510 Laurel Avenue, Bridgeport, Connecticut, one fourth of my land investment in Los Angeles, California.
To my grandchildren Jeremy Krischel and Jonathan Krischel, to be shared equally, one-fourth of my land investment in Los Angeles, California.
William Solomon sold the 510 Laurel Avenue house on January 27, 2003 before my grandmother died, and took the approximately $170,000 and has since spent it all with no regard for anyone but himself.
The land investment she speaks of was actually in Lancaster, California, and her original $30,000 investment was worth around $13,000 in 1999 and was assessed at $7200 in 2006 (AIN: 3302004019). According to Los Angeles County, it is in Tax Defaulted status with 290.07 due as of June 10, 2007.
UPDATE 4, 7-1-2007: According to the City of Bridgeport, the taxes on my grandmother’s property, 65 Brooklawn Place, are past due for 2005 to the tune of $6962.90, and $3038.44 for 2006. I’m not sure what the laws are, but it seems to me that my uncle is in danger of losing the house to the government for back taxes.
UPDATE 5, 6-4-2008: As Anthony has recently turned 60, we’re once again contacting various agencies for him, now that he qualifies.
8 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI
Frances said,
June 26, 2007 @ 2:28 pm
My adopted brother has just done the same thing to my adopted mom in Ridgefield Ct. to the tune of $2 million +. I am very frustrated with the difficulty in persuing this matter legally. No one really seems to care. Meantime my 85 year old adopted mother is wheelchair bound and had been left with about $200,000 to live on only because I wrested control of an investment account in Sept., 2006 when I found out about all of this. My adopted brother won’t even release financial info so that my mother’s taxes can be paid for 2005 and 2006.
I feel for you and what you are going through. I have talked to many others who have experienced similar terrible things. I hope things work out better for both of us. Hang in there.
jere said,
June 27, 2007 @ 8:17 am
Thank you for your kind words Frances. I think the hardest thing for me to understand is why anyone would feel entitled to victimize their family - I cannot fathom what depths of rationalization someone must go through in order to justify stealing millions from their elderly parents, or disabled siblings.
Good luck with your mother, and keep us posted on any progress!
jere said,
October 30, 2007 @ 7:59 pm
Minor update - Today, William Solomon called my brother (actually, he had our uncle call), to ask for a copy of the will. Apparently, although he was designated as the executor of my grandmother’s will, he misplaced every copy he had of it. Lucky for him, it is presented on this website, for his reading pleasure.
From what I heard, the conversation ranged far and wide, with particular venom from William Solomon regarding this very web page. Unfortunately for him, it is only libel and slander if it is not true.
So essentially, after the fire which burned down his house in Minnesota, he’s moved to Connecticut to live with my uncle Tony. Odds are that by this time next year, either Tony’s house will be sold and the proceeds wasted again by William Solomon, or court action will finally catch up with William Solomon, and he will be prosecuted for his misdeeds regarding fulfilling the responsibility of executor of my grandmother’s will.
In the end, there probably isn’t a happy ending to this story. Tony will see his last scraps of security stolen away, either through malice or incompetence, and will become a ward of the state. It is my hope, and my brother’s hope, however, that before William Solomon reaches the end, he learns to accept his sins, and repents for the suffering he has caused to his family.
Guys down the block... said,
January 31, 2008 @ 10:01 am
In brief, we know Tony well, as our business has been in the same neighborhood location for more than 40 years. Our shop is a regular stop on Tony’s cans-and-bottles pickup route. We have watched with concern, without knowing details, his condition over the past years, especially after the loss of his mother. His recent need for medical care (an uncared for ear infection that may require surgery), his home’s recent loss of heat and hot water due to lack of heating oil, and Tony’s brother seeming to do nothing to help him or the situation…these caused us to do a bit of searching on the web and we found your site. Shocked is not a strong enough word for our reaction. We are in the process of distributing copies of this information to a few lawyers and any others that might seem appropriate.
jere said,
January 31, 2008 @ 10:26 am
Thank you for your comment, and for your help spreading the word to appropriate authorities. The story just keeps getting more and more sordid - I was recently contacted by someone who told me a story of being molested by William Solomon while her father worked for him in a Lakeville Minnesota sporting goods store. While not making any claims as to the veracity of the story, it certainly doesn’t seem impossible. The wake of destruction and pain left by William Solomon is frightening.
MARK WEBB said,
January 31, 2008 @ 11:50 am
JUST WENT TO PROBATE COURT IN BPT.NO WILL HAS BEEN FILLED AND NO APPOINTMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE.TONY JUST PICKED UP SOME MEDS I BOUGHT HIM FOR HIS EAR,HE SAID NO ONE KNOWS WHERE THE WILL IS! IF YOU HAVE A COPY AND CAN SEND IT TO ME(EMAIL,FAX,MAIL)I’LL HAVE MY LAWYER SUBMIT IT TO PROBATE
jere said,
January 31, 2008 @ 12:11 pm
I’ve sent you an email regarding the copy of the will we have scanned here: http://krischel.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/19841023will.jpg
http://krischel.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/19841023executor.jpg
Thank you so much for your help!
Maria said,
March 5, 2008 @ 3:28 pm
Jere, forgive me, I am just reading this for the first time. I am shocked at what you and your wonderful family have been going through. I will speak with my sister tonight and get some advice from her - she is worked in the field of social services and with the court system for many years. I will get in touch with you by regular email.
Anyone who just happens upon this page, Jere and members of his family are known to me. They are terrific people and on meeting them for the first time, I felt completely at ease with them. This is so painful to read. I want to do all I can.