Dallas News Blog

I remember watching this video back when the stories ran in the DMN. It was truly disturbing. I don't know how that lawyer, that videographer, and those two frauds can look themselves in the mirror every morning.

Ive run into these guys in my neighborhood a couple of times, Ive seen mark and justin walking around the neighborhood with their dogs accordingly. I have no respect for them, as they knowingly stole property and money off an elderly person, which is about as low as you can get in my book. These two pieces of walking feces should be totally exposed on a national/international level for what they are, thieves of the lowest order.

Sharon Boyd,

Then you were there? Looking after her? Have you ever taken care of an elderly infirmed in the final years of their life?

Boyd, where do you get off making a judgement like that? No offense, but these "men" screwed a nearly 90 yr old woman out of her property and money. It makes me ill that it appears you seem to side with these two individuals accordingly. Ive offically lost respect for you today...

Sharon, crawl back into your hole and find a new cause to demagogue. This one is no good for you.

Burgess's personal bankruptcy was just dismissed. Deco-Dence's chapter 11 case is close to dismissal or conversion. His properties are about to be foreclosed. His criminal trial is set for later this year or early next. His former lawyer (involved in the thievery) was disbarred.

Burgess is circling the bowl; his demise cannot happen fast enough.

McCay and Burgess are a couple of scumbags that saw an opportunity and jumped on it like a duck on Cheeto's, but Sharon's got a point. There was a void in Ms Bendtsen's life... and those guys took advantage of it.

I wonder if Sharon is a pal of Justin and Mark?

Lakewooder summed it up best: "McCay and Burgess are a couple of scumbags that saw an opportunity and jumped on it like a duck on Cheeto's"

As someone currently going through a very similar situation with my headstrong, brilliantly independent and amazingly iconoclast 95-year-old Grannix, I can say with all certainty that the vultures can and will come out. You never know just how many 'loving' friends and family a person has until they're dying, dead or mentally incapacitated.

*shudder*

Sharon Boyd, if Mary Ellen Bendtsen had lived a couple of blocks away in a one-bedroom apartment on Sycamore Street instead of a Swiss Avenue mansion, do you think for one minute that these two men would have attended to her in the same manner? You know the answer is NO.

Regardless of what you think of her daughter (your snide "where was the loving daughter when her mother was desperately lonely?" tells us your opinion), you cannot in any way justify what these two men did. They set her up to be fleeced, they hired an attorney to make it happen, and they attacked her at her most vulnerable, even video recording their dastardly deed. If this is not evil, then evil does not exist.

And by supporting this evil deed, Sharon, you become a part of it. Evil.

Don't these bastards live in a house on Matalee they "inherited" from another elderly couple?

It's fitting that they claim to be full of parasites due to fecal matter running under their building. Kinda like karma.

@cp--I did not say that no people are kind enough to spend time with poor elderly people; I said that these two men showed by their actions that they were not spending time with Mary Ellen Bendtsen out of the kindness of their hearts.

When I first heard about this story, as the details came out, I thought that her daughter ignored her shamefully, and did not deserve much of my concern. I still probably feel that way to some extent.

Initially, I also thought that these two men were selflessly taking care of her as she became less and less able to care for herself. Perhaps that was their initial motivation (although the other cases in which they "befriended" elderly people and ended up with their property are at least disquieting).

But when you look at the subsequent unfolding of events, culminating in that gruesome video of the signing of her will, it is crystal clear that these two men are being called greedy and mean, because they ARE greedy and mean. Even if her daughter was absent, uninvolved, unloving, neglectful, however you wish to characterize her, Mary Ellen Bendtsen did not deserve to be manipulated and victimized as she was.

Whether her daughter was a saint or a sinner does not matter--what matters is whether these two men are guilty of crimes against Mary Ellen Bendtsen. If they were, they should pay the full price for their deeds.

@cp--I re-read Sharon Boyd's comment, and I still think that she was deservedly jumped. By stating only that these two men were "the only people who had time for Msry Ellen in her final years" yet omitting the clear evidence of their wrongdoing, she inferentially justifies their claim to Mary Ellen's property. How dishonest of Ms. Boyd.

She then attempts to deflect the scrutiny of the two men's actions by pointing out what a bad person Mary Ellen's daughter was. What in the world does that have to do with whether Mark and Justin abused the relationship that they cultivated with Mary Ellen to a criminal degree? Nothing--it just changes the subject.

Why is Sharon Boyd so willing to overlook or apologize for the acts of Mark and Justin. She claims that "more than once Mary Ellen told" her her feelings about these two. If so, then Ms. Boyd clearly had some sort of relationship with her. And if she did, why did SHE not intervene when Mary Ellen's life started crumbling around her?

I don't mean to make this discussion about Sharon Boyd, but I am astonished that she stands up for these guys. I agree with her that the issue of neglect of elderly people (poor or not) is a serious one and a difficult one, but excusing the type of abuse demonstrated her destroys whatever credibility she might otherwise have claimed.

P.S. I forgot to make a point. As a gay man many of my older friends have died and left things to people who were NOT their family by blood but their family members of choice. Mark and Justin were loved by Mary Ellen very much I forgot to say that. Also when I asked her if she wanted them to have her house had she answered me "the boys" I would be on their side today. This didn't happen, she was of far sounder mind at the time and she was adamant her daughter was to receive her share. Francis Anne had had to give her Mom money over the years to keep that old place up and Mary Ellen wanted her paid back.

@bob: While i agree with your other points, Mary Ellen's daughter did not "ignore her shamefully" and there is absolutely nothing to indicate that whatsoever. She lived out of state. Talked to her mother a couple of times a week by phone, flew down for Mary Ellen's doctors visits, and Mary Ellen traveled to see her family during the holidays or vice versa. So then are all children of elderly parents who live out of state ignoring their parents shamefully? For years and years she tried to get her mother out of that house. Mary Ellen would not budge. After Frances moved back to Texas, she wanted and planned on Mary Ellen living with her. Mary Ellen did not want to do this.
Trying to convince a women, attached to house, to move out and live in a different environment where she would have to relinquish independence does not go over well. And it did not go over well and it caused friction, understandably. Her identity was in that house, and come hell or high water she wanted to stay in it regardless of whether it was falling down around her. And hell certainly came. Short of dragging her out kicking and screaming, what would have been the solution? This is the "void" that allowed these "people" to creep in. And, man, the list of hangers-on an dubious characters is seemingly endless.
Frances was very involved in her mother's life. Plain and simple. Not "absent, uninvolved, unloving, or neglectful."
Interesting how a few pages in a newspaper makes every reader an expert into the lives of a family they know nothing about.

The internet is a wonderful thing. People can sign on anonymously and spew the most base type of vitriole - maligning others whether through vindictivness or just plain ignorance. And I have NO DOUBT these creatures would be as gutless as they are anonymous if their identities were revealed. Now - Is ANYONE interested in the TRUTH here?

The Dallas Morning News wasn't. Nor was former Dallas DA Bill Hill. Or current DA Craig Watkins. Or Assistant DA Dick Zadina. Nor the courts (so far) and evidently ABC and 20/20 who, judging from what I've seen, have prepared a complete hatchet job against Messrs. McCay, Burgess and Olsen.

Find a comfortable chair, pour a glass of your favorite beverage - and if you want the TRUTH - of which none of the above are seemingly interested - READ ON:

In 2000, I had a radio show on 770 KAAM. Sunday nights I did a big band request show and I recall many a Sunday night when Mark McKay would call me at the station with requests, enjoying cocktails and the company of the Grand Dame of Swiss Ave. Mary Ellen Bendtsen, as well as his business partner Justin Burgess on the porch of 4949 Swiss, while listening to my radio show. Over time, we became friends.

Similarly, I met Edwin Olsen at one of the venues where my Big Band was performing in that same year - we also became friends.

From time to time, I would be invited to various social functions by Mark & Justin and often Mary Ellen would be in attendance. At one such event, a house- warming Mark & Justin invited me to attend at a friend of theirs, I was told by Mark we'd be rendezvous-ing at Mary Ellen's Swiss Avenue mansion and going on to the party from there. He told me that he and Justin had a late afternoon client, and I should go on ahead early because Mary Ellen was most anxious anyway to show me around.

When I arrived, Mary Ellen was there to greet me - fully made-up and impeccably dressed - and showed me around the first floor. I was immediately impressed with the grandeur of it all. In particular, two things struck me during my first visit:

(1) Both Mary Ellen & the mansion seemed indelibly linked. She was a part of it and the mansion was part of her. It was her security - the essence of her identity.

(2) She showed me family photos in the parlor to the right of the main entrance. She pointed out pictures of her daughter Frances Ann and her grandchildren, whom she told me then (in 2001) she hadn't seen in a long time. I got the impression it had been years. I remember her remarking - and this was the only time her voice and face registered sadness - that she never heard from the grandkids - not even on holidays.

I got the impression that she and her daughter were not on the best of terms. Mary Ellen didn't elaborate - and I was too polite to ask.

In 2002, my wife and I hosted our annual Oscar night party, and among the guests we invited that year were Mark & Justin, and Edwin and his girl friend (later wife).

Mark asked me if he & Justin could bring Mary Ellen along. My wife and I, knowing of her history & connection with Fair Park, were thrilled. It was at that party where they all met for the first time.

Sometime later, Edwin became Mark and Justin's personal & corporate attorney on a myriad of legal matters - representing them in cases that would occasionally arise from being in as specialized a business as Art Deco furniture sales and restoration.

In the fall of 2004, Frances Ann and her husband Richard Giron moved from the east (I believe they lived in Connecticut) to Plano. Sometime that fall, Frances Ann invited Mary Ellen up for a visit for what she believed was a weekend and wound up being six weeks. Mary Ellen repeatedly told Frances Ann she wanted to go home and Frances Ann refused, making her mother a virtual prisoner. Finally, Frances Ann returned her mother to her home on Swiss sometime after Christmas 2004.

In January 2005, I received a frantic call from Mark. At some point early in that month, after icy, rainy conditions, Mary Ellen slipped, fell and hit her head on her way out of the house to pick up her mail. She was discovered by a neighbor and the neighbor called an ambulance - and Frances Ann. Mary Ellen was taken to Baylor.

This is the only part of the story of which I have no first-hand knowledge. Somehow, Mark found that she was admitted to Baylor and he (& I assume Justin) went to see her.

Mark told me (& this was confirmed later by Mary Ellen herself to me)that Frances Ann planned to put her in an assisted care facility & liquidate the property at 4949 Swiss. She (Frances Ann) told Mary Ellen that if she did not agree, she would go to court if necessary to have her declared legally incompetent and get herself appointed guardian over Mary Ellen's affairs.

Mary Ellen begged Mark & Justin and others for help. Other friends, concerned but not wanting to incur Frances Ann's wrath, demurred. Mark & Justin stepped up to the plate. At Mary Ellen's behest they contacted Edwin Olsen to represent her.

Mark & Justin - looking out for their friend - contacted everyone of Mary Ellen's friends they could reach to see who would be interested and available at Mary Ellen's competency hearing in Judge Price's court room, to help Mary Ellen stay in her beloved home and continue to make her own decisions. After all, she just slipped and fell and hit her head - it could happen to anyone - OF ANY AGE.

There were 2 or 3 court appearances in all. On Mary Ellen's side at any given time were 2 dozen friends and supporters perpared to testify on her behalf - and more to the point - to bear witness to the growing estrangement between Mary Ellen and Frances Ann.

On Frances Ann's side was her attorney, her husband Richard, and also her nephew Henry, I think.

In Judge Price's court room, witnesses who testified were Frances Ann, a psychologist hired by Frances Ann, a structural engineer hired by Mark & Justin to inspect 4949 Swiss and Mary Ellen.

The engineer, under oath and on the record in Judge Price's court room testified that while the mansion was in a state of disrepair, was still safely inhabitable.

Under cross examination by Edwin, the psychologist was largely discredited when it was brought to light that he only observed Mary Ellen in the hospital one night around midnight for about 15 minutes and woke her up from a sound sleep to ask her questions.

Also, under cross (and again this is a matter of court record) Edwin got Frances Ann to admit - under oath - that she had forged a Change of Address form for her mother - from 4949 Swiss to the home in Dallas where she and Richard had been living. Forged Mary Ellen's signature with the U.S. Postal Service, without Mary Ellen's knowledge or approval - a federal offense.

When Mary Ellen finally took the stand, though frail from her ordeal, in her testimony she was clear and lucid. She testified she wanted her daughter to leave her alone and that she just wanted to go home and recuperate from her fall. By the time she finished, Judge Price had heard enough, denied Frances Ann's motion and Mary Ellen was allowed to return home.

And, in order to aid her while she was recuperating Justin & Mark arranged for a live-in care giver - AT THEIR EXPENSE - to stay with her and help her around the house as needed. It was Friday, January 28th, 2005.

The reason I remember the date was because many of us who had been there at court in her support went to 4949 that evening for an impromptu combination celebration and homecoming party for Mary Ellen. I made a big pot of turkey chili in her kitchen and we all sat in her dining room and had a wonderful evening.

It would be the last party Mary Ellen would ever host at 4949 Swiss.

That evening - Mary Ellen, Justin and Edwin were concerned because Friday, January 28th was the deadline for paying the property taxes on 4949 Swiss. Now here's the part of the story the DMN and everyone else conveniently obfuscate:

Mary Ellen wrote the check and Justin took it down to the main branch on Sylvan in Dallas and mailed it to the County Tax Assessor to insure its postmark by midnight.

About a week later, the check bounced. This was confusing to Mary Ellen because she had $65,000 in her interest-bearing checking account and the property taxes were a mere fraction of that. By then, Mark McKay had been designated by Mary Ellen with a power of attorney and was able to call the bank to find out what the problem was.

He and Justin discovered that Frances Ann - also a signatory on the account - withdrew the ENTIRE SUM. Prior to her doing this, I remember asking Mark why he didn't close out that account and open a new one with just him and Mary Ellen being the signatories - since I thought leaving it in that account with Frances Ann as a signatory - something like this might happen.

He said he discussed it with Mary Ellen and since she had opened that account several years before, it was earning a much higher rate of interest, than she'd get with a new account, they decided to leave it where it was, NEVER thinking that Frances Ann would stoop so low.

The news that now - thanks to her daughter -Mary Ellen was broke, destitute - panicked, depressed and angered her almost beyond words.

Edwin, (who after a month of court appearances and meetings with Mary Ellen) had yet to be paid a dime, vowed that he would go to court and get the money back, but he told Mary Ellen it would take time.

But for someone who grew up during the depression, and who would, while putting on the best face, as with many other seniors, lived on a fixed income, stealing her money was like stealing her identity - her very soul.

According to the care giver they hired, Mary Ellen became increasingly depressed and worried, not knowing when - or if - she'd ever see her money again. She had trouble sleeping - and would roam the halls late into the night.

Everyone who knew Mary Ellen was concerned about her dilemma. Many would drop by and visit her to see how she was doing. Mark and Justin were there as much as they could be, but they had a business to run. I stopped by on a Friday night, a week or two after her daughter had drained her account.

We sat in her kitchen and Mary Ellen told me she was done forever with Frances Ann. She said she never knew what she have ever done to her to cause her to hate her so. She told me - and we were alone in kitchen -there was no one around to 'coerce' her -that she would have Edwin draft a will and in it she would be leaving her property - and her money (assuming she'd ever get it back) to "the boys".

I asked her, "So you're not leaving your daughter anything?"

And she replied, "Except the rocker I used to rock her to sleep in when she was a baby, to remind her of how much she'd lost."

It would be the last time I saw her.

About two weeks later, she had a stroke. The care giver Mark & Justin hired, called them and the ambulance and Mary Ellen was back at Baylor.

After the stroke, her doctor at Baylor asked her if she wanted to sign a DNR. She indicated yes. If her Baylor doctor determined she was competent to sign a DNR, then legally she was competent to draft a will.

Many who read this and are familiar with this case have seen the video of Edwin and Mary Ellen as he executes her Last Will and Testament.

What you may NOT be aware of is that it was at Edwin's OWN INSISTENCE that the Will execution was video taped. As an officer of the court, knowing the law, but craving that extra amount of transparency, he readily made it available to all interested parties after Mary Ellen's death.

As an officer of the court, shortly after Mary Ellen died, Edwin probated her will. Again, he was merely discharging his fiduciary resposibilities to his deceased client, under the law. That's when the fireworks really began.

Since that time in early 2005 to now - nearly five years later - Mark, Justin and Edwin - have gone through virtually every kind legal Hell John Grisham could ever devise in one of his novels.

The Dallas DA (Bill Hill at the time)knows that 95% of all elder abuse is at the hands of a family member. Yet no one has seemingly investigated her for the role she has played in her Mother's demise. This isn't conjecture - the record is there for anyone to read in the transcripts of Judge Price's courtroom of January 2005.

Judge Joe Loving is another matter. Even though at subsequent appearances Edwin informed Judge Loving of the $65,000 theft, and Judge Loving ordered Frances Ann to return the money to the estate, she never did, and he never followed through with sanctions.

After Edwin filed Mary Ellen's last will, Frances Ann filed a Florida will, which a hand writing expert later agreed to testify, was a forgery. Nevertheless, Judge Loving evidently weary of all the legal wrangling back and forth, found in favor of Frances Ann making her the Executor over Mary Ellen's Estate, and throwing out her last will on a signatory technicality. Not Mary Ellen's signature - one of the witnesses.

In the interim, determined to destroy Mark, Justin and Edwin, Frances Ann hired attorney Bill Dunleavy to file a wrongful death action against Mark, Justin & Edwin. Also named in the wrongful death action was Baylor Hospital!

A Grand Jury was also impaneled, at the behest of Dallas DA Bill Hill, to indict Justin, Mark & Edwin in attempted theft in excess of $250,000.

What the public at large may not be aware: Grand Jury proceedings are sealed. Those being investigated are not notified usually, nor are they given notice to reply. The proceedings are conducted solely by the DA - that is THEY ALONE determine what evidence or testimony the Grand Jury hears. Further, the Grand Jury is to determine only if there is sufficient evidence for an indictment.

Mark, Justin & Edwin, were not even aware there was an investigation, until one morning when all three were arrested.

Along the way, Lee Hancock wrote those heavily slanted series of articles for the Dallas Morning News and now ABC and 20/20 have join the rest of this lynch mob ready to nail Mark, Justin and Edwin to their respective crosses.

Because of everything Frances Ann has done to them, with the help of the DA and the Dallas Morning News, Justin's, Mark's and Edwin's VERY ability to earn a living has been monumentally damaged. In the case of Justin and Mark, sales have dried up thanks the irresponsible reporting of Lee Hancock. There have even been death threats.

Edwin has been disbarred. He's working on an appeal - in the meantime he has no way to earn a living. He's now divorced due to the strain this has caused on his marriage.

And all this time, I've wondered - why?

Here's what I KNOW:

The attempted theft indictment would be laughable if they couldn't wind up in prison. Mary Ellen didn't HAVE $250,000 in cash or assets! How can they steal what she didn't have?

The house? 2/3 of it is owned by other family members. If Mary Ellen's will HAD been declared vaild, if the other family members refused to sell to them, there share in the will would be worthless.

In actuality during mediation, Justin was able to secure the financing to offer in excess of $700,000 to Francis Ann and Ann McClamrock. They turned it down. Why?

I've heard from sources close the situation (NOT Mark or Justin) who have specualted that Frances Ann turned them down because she didn't want to sell the property to homosexuals. But I suppose it's just as likely she didn't want to sell to them. Only Frances Ann knows for sure.

Mark and Justin NEVER took a dime from Mary Ellen. Every dinner or event they ever took her to, they paid for everything. They also paid ALL expenses those last few weeks of her life at 4949 Swiss.

Similarly, Edwin Olsen has yet to be paid a dime from Mary Ellen's estate and likely never will.

Frances Ann Giron emptied Mary Ellen's bank account - all $65,000 - all the money she had. She did this within days of losing her bid to get her mother declared legally incompetent. After her death, Frances Ann was repeatedly admonished by Judge Loving to return the money to the receivor of the estate - she never did.

After being weakened from her fall less than two months prior, I'm convinced it was the stress of losing her money that caused Mary Ellen to suffer the stroke that killed her. Many of her friends believe this as well.

Also, many of her friends, including me, recall Mary Ellen as healthy as a horse, within 6 months of Frances Ann moving back to Dallas, Mary Ellen was dead.

There have been allegations that Mark McKay preys on the elderly. Absolutely NOT TRUE! What many miss here is that Mark is in love with a era. That's why he's an Art Deco dealer. He loves that period of fashion, buildings, music, etc. He seeks out people who can bring him closer to that bygone era. Mary Ellen was his touchstone for those times - I know he misses her more now than the day she died.

As to the house they live in the M streets, that house was purchased by Mark from a surviving relative who wanted Mark to have the house in the first place. No one was swindled out of anything.

Mark and Justin have many friends, from all walks of life, in all conditions - and all ages. And they treat all their friends with deference, respect and love. I have known them well since 2001, AT NO TIME did I ever see them mistreat or abuse Mary Ellen or anyone else. They treated her as if she still had relevance - which she did.

And speaking of 'many friends', I must confess I've never met Jeff Martin - ever. As I've indicated, I knew Mary Ellen, Mark and Justin since 2001. I knew many of Mary Ellen's friends, especially during and after the competency hearings in January 2005, and I don't recall meeting him, Mary Ellen or anyone else ever mentioning him in conversation. He claims, "He was there when all this was going on."

No you weren't. But no matter, your 15 minutes will be up soon enough. case in point, Mary Ellen in the last month of her life, made it abundantly clear to several people what her intentions were. If you HAD been around you'd know that. But go ahead and keep drinking the Kool-Aid.

As for the rest of you who've written on this blog, except for Sharon Boyd, all of you chose to spew your hatred and ignorance anonymously. I'll just consider the source(s).

At no time, did I ever hear from ANYONE - Mark, Justin, Mary Ellen or Edwin that Mary Ellen was ever coerced in writing Mark & Justin into her will. For one thing, Mark and Justin knew she didn't own the house outright anyway - so what would be the point of writing them into her will?

No, Mary Ellen wrote them into her final will - not for the many kindnesses over the years - but because of the final betrayal of her daughter.

Elder abuse is the final social taboo, really. Homosexuality, inter-racial marriage, date-rape, child abuse, spousal abuse et al, have all been addressed to great extents in our society.

No,No No, - It's easier to believe that a couple of gay, non-familial predators took advantage of an elderly woman. No one wants to believe that a cherished child would become a monster as an adult to abuse a parent. It's our own, personal worst nightmare - that that cute sweet baby sleeping soundly in her crib will one day grow up to be a vile human being who steals your money, robs you of every thing else you hold near and dear and is a dissappointment so colossal that you wish you'd had your tubes tied when you had the chance.

There's the truth - hope you could handle it.

Cary Richards

WHY DON'T ALL OF YOU PIOUS PEOPLE THAT SEEM
TO HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS SIT DOWN AT YOUR
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RICHARD JEWELL

THIS IS THE MAN THE PRESS, POLICE AND PROBABLY
EVERYONE OF YOU BUSY BODIES THOUGHT AND I SAID
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HE WASN'T . MORAL OF THE STORY? DON'T
JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS, MY FRIENDS UNTIL YOU
KNOW ALL OF THE FACTS.