Part 1: Kimi Cooper, diagnosed as severely mentally disabled as a child, illegally used as a pawn for abuse and corruption to occur at Probate Court of Cook County, IL

Part 1: Severely mentally disabled child served as a vessel to facilitate alleged abuse and corruption in Cook County Probate Court System: Kimi Cooper, from birth to age seven

In my previous at TribLocal, I recounted a scenario in which Beverly Cooper of Highland Park was removed from her duly appointed, court-appointed guardianship; a Guardian ad Litem was appointed through deceptive measures by Probate Judge Lynne Kawamoto to replace Cooper; after which Beverly Cooper described how her court-appointed guardian, working in collaboration with her attorney, Karen Bowes, and Bowes’ associate attorney, Bruce Lange, Judge Lynne Kawamoto, and the nursing home in which her mother was placed — owned by Morris Esformes, cousin of attorney and on-call Guardian ad Litem Miriam Solo — proceeded to drain the life savings from her mother’s account.

By the time Alice Gore died in February of this year, an estate worth over a million dollars had been depleted. Annuity checks went missing and still are missing, and an inventory and accounting of how and for what checks were written for the care of Alice Gore has yet to be addressed by the Cook County Probate Court, despite repeated requests made by Beverly Cooper. Alice Gore died a pauper. She lay six days in a morgue before her body could be claimed. To add insult upon insult, the Coopers had to pay for the burial of Bev Cooper’s mother, Alice Gore.

Recently I sat down for another interview with Beverly and Ken Cooper. Both are responsible, community-minded and long-time citizens of Highland Park, IL.

Beverly Cooper is a past member of the Highland Park Rotary Club. Additionally, Beverly Cooper is the host and producer of “North Shore Live ‘Coopers’ Corner” Comcast weekly Wednesday program out of Highland Park, IL, which is then videotaped and shown to surrounding collar counties on community public TV stations following its live Wednesday night production and may be seen at this link: http://northshorelive.blogspot.com/

So far Beverly has featured ten individuals on her weekly TV program all having similar stories to tell of alleged fraud and abuse experienced in their dealings with the Cook County Probate Court System. There are more scheduled for future weeks. DVD’s can be obtained by contacting Beverly Cooper.

Ken Cooper is a member of the Medinah Shrine and Decalogue Masonic Lodge.

Ken also serves as the “schoolmaster” for ProbateSharks.com, and can reached through this email web address to report alleged abuse and corruption. ProbateSharks .com assists, educates and enlightens families of the dead, the dying, the disabled and the aged to better understand their rights in order to protect themselves from the excesses of the Cook County Probate Court.

This question was posed to the Cooper’s: There are laws preventing a court-documented mentally disabled individual from being appointed guardian. How could your daughter, Kim Cooper, have been appointed as guardian of her grandmother, Alice Gore, who at the time was 95 and bed ridden, by Probate Judge Lynne Kawamoto to supercede her mother’s role.

Noteworthy background information about Kimi: At age eight during a Lake County Juvenile Court hearing, Kimi was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. In a letter dated September 2, 198l, sent by consulting psychiatrist Sydney B. Eisen, M.D with an office located on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Kimi was diagnosed with border-line personality disorder, psychotic behavior, suicidal ideations, and adjudicated as a threat to herself and others.

Sydney B. Eisen, M.D. 664 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 606
September 2, 1981
With Respect to: Kim Cooper

Diagnostic Impressions
A.P.A. – D. S. M. – III 0 301.83 – Borderline Personality Disorder Early loss in object relatics, the impulsivity, the episodes of sudden shifts in behavior (as reported at school), the guardedness, the report of self-damaging acts, all come together to describe a youngster suffering from a Borderline Personality Disorder.

Recomendations
It is my recommendation that this youngster be maintained in Residential Treatment for an extended period of time. I feel that she is in a “honeymoon” phase at the moment and will, very soon, begin to show the symptoms of manipulative, quick changes in moods, possibility suicidal behavior, hostility, impulsiveness, etc., that she has shown before. It is my recommendation that she be placed in a classroom for emotionally disturbed children where there is as high teacher-to-pupil ratio, and that she be maintained in individual psychotherapy. I also recommend that any contacts she has with her family be monitored so that any manipulative behavior can be picked up early and the family be helped to deal with it.

Respectfully submitted
Sydney B. Eisen, M.D.
Consulting Psychiatrist
SBE:pc
9-15-81

This is typed verbatim from Dr. Sydney B. Eisen’s diagnosis letter September 2, 1981.

The narrative revealed to me by the Coopers is one that involves unbelievable alleged collusion and fraud in the Probate Court Systems of both Lake and Cook Counties that can best be understood if Kimi Cooper’s life is examined from her time of birth in May of 1973 until she testified falsely against her mother in front of Probate Judge Lynn Kawamoto on April 24, 2006.

Kimi Cooper was the fourth of seven children born to Ken and Beverly Cooper. As a high risk pregnancy, Beverly was confined to bed to during the final six months leading up to Kimi’s birth.

Strange abnormal behavior was noticed by the Coopers immediately after Kimi’s birth. Instead of enjoying being cuddled like normal infants, Kimi would push herself away. She was finicky over everything. She slept little, perhaps one hour in twenty four, crying during the day and night. Kimi would also pull her diapers off for no apparent reason.

Unlike most small children, Kimi never sought out her mother for comfort. She was conniving and manipulative in setting her brothers up to take the blame for whatever disruption and destruction occurred in the Cooper house.

As far as treatment for Kimi’s abnormal behavior, there was no specialized medical treatment from age one to three other than the advise the Coopers received from Kimi’s primary pediatrician.

Kimi’s behavior went drastically down hill when she reached the age of three. On one occasion Kimi purposely bumped into her grandfather while he was shaving with a straight edged razor causing him to cut himself. Kimi’s reaction to her grandfather’s injury; she laughed. On another occasion Kimi unlocked a door allowing the family’s German Shepherd to attack a rabbit nest. An expression of glee followed the mutilation of the baby rabbit by the family dog.

Kimi was also a danger to herself and others. At age five Kimi ran into a pond on Halloween night in an apparent attempt to drown herself. An older brother, although unable to swim, saved Kimi.

It was while Kimi was five years of age that she was taken by her parents to a specialist, Dr. Robert Zirpoli, a child/adolescent psychiatrist from St. Francis Hospital in Evanston. Dr. Zirpoli diagnosed Kimi with childhood schizophrenia.

To be noted: From the onset doctors blamed the Coopers for Kimi’s behavior. Bev and Ken were accused of being bad parents although they already had three boys. Three more children were to follow Kimi’s birth.

To further complicate matters, Kimi Cooper was beautiful, a Shirley Temple-like child in her outward appearance, with blond hair, blue eyes and dimples. She looked like the perfect child.
When it came time for kindergarten, the Illinois Highland Park School system had no place for Kimi’s mental disabilities. The principal at the time, John Mason, requested that the school psychologist, *Janet Freund, subject Kimi to a battery of tests. The Coopers were never allowed to see the results of these tests, but were only told that all were normal (Unknown to the Coopers at the time is that Janel Freund was on the board of directors of an adoption agency.).

*The Coopers later found out that Janet Freund had received her diploma certification as a physiologist through a fee paid of $1,500 to a fly-by-night outfit in Florida. The outfit was later investigated by the Feds in what was called the “Dip Diploma Scam.” Notwithstanding, the IL Highland Park School District paid Janel Freund the salary commensurate with that of a legally licensed and degree certified psychologist.

Kimi’s kindergarten attendance was far from a daily experience. When not in kindergarten Kimi was in and out of facilities for children with mental disabilities. One such facility was the Childrens’ Memorial Hospital. The Coopers later found out that Children’s Memorial Hospital was putting out feelers and photographs for Kimi’s adoption as a way to remove Kimi from her parents, despite an incident demonstrating Kimi’s manipulative behavior while living at the facility.

Kimi accused a worker, John Cooke, a psychiatric social worker at the Children’s Memorial locked psychiatric facility, of taking nude photos of her and of talking her down to the basement to molest her. These allegations were later found to he false, but John Cooke had already been fired.

When living at home with her parents and able to attend kindergarten classes, Kimi would throw her lunch away, informing her kindergarten teacher that her mother hadn’t packed her a lunch as she had for her three older brothers. Kimi also tattled to her teacher that her mother wouldn’t buy her mittens and a hat to wear on cold days.

Throughout Kimi’s time in kindergarten, no concern or interest was shown by either principal John Mason or so-called psychologist Janet Freund over Kimi’s mental disabilities. Both wanted Kimi removed from the Highland Park School System so they wouldn’t have to deal with the financial expense of residential placement for Kimi. *With this goal in mind, John Mason and Janet Freund continued to gather information on Kimi so a cause would exist to put Kimi up for adoption, which was likewise the unstated goal of the Childrens’ Memorial Hospital.

*Adoption agencies use schools to find viable children to offer up for adoption. Psychologist-in-name only, Janet Freund, in her dual role as a board member for an adoption agency, saw Kimi as the ideal adoptable child because of her race and Northshore background.

When attending the first grade, the Coopers received a call from the Highland Park Police Department on January 16, 1981, telling them that the Department of Children and Family Services had removed Kimi from school (Kimi had been relating fabricated stories of how she was being abused and neglected at home to her principal, John Mason.).

By the time the Cooper’s reached the police station Kimi had already been moved to the Baptist Childrens’ Home in Lake Villa, Illinois. The Cooper’s narrowly escaped arrest for child abuse after they denied the child abuse claim put forth by the DCFS. Furthermore, the Cooper’s attorney advised the police that the Kimi had already been placed previously in two mental institutions, a fact that the school and DCFS conveniently neglected to convey to the police.

Kimi was taken from home at age seven never to return home again.

When Kimi was eight, during a juvenile court hearing a judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation. A psychiatric evaluation followed: Kimi Cooper was diagnosed, as related earlier, with border-line personality disorder, psychotic behavior, suicidal ideations, and adjudicated as a threat to herself and others by Consulting Psychiatrist, Sydney B. Eisen, M.D.

END OF PART ONE.