Settlement returns women's Cloverdale property to heir; defendants deny wrongdoing
$2.1 million payout in elder abuse case
November 2, 2008
By L. A. CARTER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
November 2, 2008
The sole heir of a 98-year-old Cloverdale woman and her mentally disabled daughter has won a $2.1 million settlement after a four-year legal battle in what's being called a major financial elder-abuse case.
The settlement includes the return of the two women's Cloverdale Boulevard property, valued at $1.1 million, and money that had been taken from them in a series of financial schemes before their deaths in 2001 and 2003, said Santa Rosa attorney Jeffrey Allen, who represented the heir, Daniel Shafer of Seattle.
Allen said the women, Jeannette China, and her daughter, Mona China, 67, were taken advantage of by their caretaker-neighbors, Charlotte McManus and her husband, Michael, a retired Sonoma County sheriff's deputy.
The McManuses' attorney, Steve Barbose, denied his clients took advantage of the Chinas. He said they settled because they didn't have the financial resources to continue fighting Shafer.
Other defendants, including a trust company and a lawyer, echoed that sentiment, saying the costs of going to trial outweighed a settlement. The defendants admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement.
Abridged
SOURCE: Santa Rosa Press Democrat
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