Amy Sallas, (Husband)Dean Sallas- Illinois
Dean Sallas is an honorable veteran who served in the US Army with the Combat Engineers and in the Army Post office from 1960-66. He’s been denied visitation with his wife of fifty years through court appointed guardianship. Dean, in his own words…
“My wife and I are both in our 80’s. We were successful in our careers and 57-year marriage together in Illinois. My wife was an educator and taught 5th grade, a very sought after teacher. I was a real-estate agent, property manager with multi-million dollars in assets. We lived on our investments and earned income. We raised a son and daughter and put them through university with no loans.
At the beginning of 2006, a year before her retirement, while mentoring 3 other teachers, my wife suffered a cranial aneurysm, a stroke. She had enough sick leave days to last through the end of the school year in 2007. She survived an operation and at retirement she applied for her pension and so did our children. The Illinois teachers’ retirement system said too many people applied, stopped the pension, and suggested a guardian to determine where the pension should be sent. This landed us in the hands of the Probate court. Our son went to court to be her guardian. In 2010, the judge appointed one of their own as Public Guardian. My doctor suggested we should go for mental and physical evaluations, which we did. My wife went to two doctors, a PhD in psychological testing, and a psychiatrist MD. They found her competent and in no need of a guardian. I went to court and applied for her restoration, to free her from guardianship. We had a trial Oct 30.
Dec 2018: Even though I had been adjudged fully qualified through a PhD and Psychiatric testing, and people from discussion groups, her computer mastery class, and others who interacted with her within the community testified to her competence, neither my son, daughter, nor myself were appointed by the court, and she wasn’t restored, though each mental health professional had tested, and found her competent twice, a year apart. We lived in our home under their control for thirteen years. They found it to be acceptable living conditions. During this time, I retired and ran out of savings. The court controlled our monies, received the bills and agreed to pay our mortgage and utilities out of her $7,000.00 monthly retirement funds. Every year since 2010, they came every three months to check on the smoke detectors and furnace.
Once, when we were away, they came and said the refrigerator had rotten food and a toilet wasn’t working properly. We had several refrigerators, freezers, and toilets, all operational. That afternoon, we were told they’d gotten a court order to remove my wife from the house. This upset her so badly she checked herself into the hospital. A week later they showed up with a court order and removed her. My lawyer, my son and I weren’t allowed to know where she was. She was temporarily moved to my daughter’s house. I was allowed to call for a couple months. Then, she was moved to an assisted living facility with no visitation. They stopped paying our mortgage and utilities. Our house of fifty years was foreclosed on, losing more than half a million in equity. Everything we owned was gone. I believe the court was in violation of several laws including Illinois Statute. 755 ILCS 5/11a – 22.
I’m an 88-year-old veteran suffering emotional trauma, missing my wife, fighting to be reunited. Stay away from guardianship! A foundation recently put me up in a motel for three months. They stopped paying. I’m living in my current home, a 2005 Toyota minivan, for over three years in the summer heat and winter snow.