The Brief

In 2019, Orange County settled a years-long legal battle that marked a turning point in the way the county addresses homelessness. In the years since, there has been significant progress on the number of shelter beds and standards of care at those shelters. But those signs of progress are accompanied by more troubling indicators.

The shift started in 2017 when county officials sought to clear out a large homeless encampment that had become a health hazard and an embarrassment for public officials. Advocates for people experiencing homelessness sued, arguing that because of a dearth of shelter beds — and appropriate beds for people with disabilities — there was no place that people experiencing homelessness could sleep without violating the law.

The result: What's come to be known as the Catholic Worker settlement (Orange County Catholic Worker was one of the plaintiffs), which is actually a group of similar settlements involving more than a dozen O.C. cities.

Four years later:

• People sleeping on public property have to be assessed by outreach workers and offered appropriate shelter before law enforcement can enforce anti-camping rules. 
• There are more emergency shelter beds. But often with more restrictions on who can use them. 
• Shelters have to adhere to standards of care and there's an appeal process when disputes arise. 
• There's more permanent supportive housing. But not nearly enough to meet demand. 
• Federal emergency housing vouchers have helped fill the need for affordable housing. They expire in 2030. 
• There are no longer massive encampments in places like the Santa Ana riverbed. But there are still more than 3,000 people without shelter on any given night, many of them in encampments that are more hidden and, advocates say, likely more dangerous. 
• The number of unhoused people dying annually in Orange County has more than doubled in the last five years — to some 500 people last year.

The pre-pandemic lawsuits that led to many of these changes are similar to ones currently playing out in Los Angeles. LAist talked to officials, lawyers, homeless service providers, and people experiencing homelessness in Orange County about what's unfolded over the past several years.

From riverbed encampment to permanent housing: One woman's long journey

Kathy Schuler was living in a tent next to the Santa Ana River channel in central Orange County when I met her in early 2017. Eventually, an estimated 800 to 1,500 people ended up in the sprawling encampment, including Schuler's adult son and daughter.

It stretched for about two miles behind Angel Stadium and the Honda Center. Advocates sued each time county officials tried to clear the encampment.

[Read: The Court Case That Forced OC To Stop Ignoring Its Homeless]

During a survey of the encampment in April 2017 with Judge David Carter — the same federal judge who oversees several big cases on homelessness in L.A. — Schuler showed off the homey details of her tent, including a framed photograph of her with her kids and their bevy of dogs. The area in front of Schuler's tent was neatly swept and decorated with potted plants.

Kathy Schuler in front of her tent next to the Santa Ana riverbed in central Orange County in 2017.

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The following year, in February 2018, Schuler and everyone else in the encampment were told they had to leave. The county promised motel vouchers and help finding permanent housing as part of a deal between advocates and county officials brokered under Judge Carter's watch.

A line of people experiencing homelessness at the Santa Ana riverbed.

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On a sunny February morning, Schuler and her encampment neighbors packed up their things and waited for buses to take them to their assigned bed.

Six years later … 

I visited Schuler, now 66, and her dog Freeway this spring in their one-bedroom apartment in Tustin, where they've lived since 2021. The apartment is in a breezy, well-kept complex.

Schuler's walls are covered with jigsaw puzzles she's finished and mounted. Her patio is filled with plants, including a few she's been caring for since her time at the riverbed encampment.

Kathy Schuler and her dog, Freeway, in their patio in Tustin.

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LAist

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What she likes most about her apartment: "Mine," she giggled, a smile spreading across her face. "Mine."

But it took Schuler more than three years of shuffling through motels and shelters to get her apartment, and only with a lot of help from advocates.

"How long is it gonna take?" Schuler remembers thinking on many occasions. "I'm glad I had people helping me out that know what's going on, you know," she said. "Because I had no clue."

Schuler's adult son and daughter still don't have permanent housing. Her daughter lives in a motel that's been converted into interim housing, part of Project Homekey. Her son and his girlfriend live in their vehicle, Schuler said.

Carol Sobel, a lawyer who's been involved in many of O.C. and L.A.'s most consequential cases on homelessness, said Schuler's too-long road to housing is "not a success."

"How many years to get them stability?" she asked of Schuler and other plaintiffs in the riverbed eviction case. "It is a constant battle."

What the data shows

There is some evidence of positive changes around homelessness in Orange County. There are also much more somber signs.

Point-in-time

The latest point-in-time count, from 2022, found nearly 17% fewer people experiencing homelessness on a given night compared to the previous count in 2019. Still, there are more than 3,000 people who sleep outside or in their vehicles with no shelter.

The 2022 count also revealed stark disparities: The share of the unhoused population identifying as Black or Native American was much higher than their percentage of O.C.'s total population.

Additionally, the percentage of the unhoused population considered chronically homeless (for more than a year) rose from 19% in 2017 to 42% in 2022.

Housing inventory

The county's inventory of short- and long-term housing available for people experiencing homelessness has increased substantially since 2017, according to annual data submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Orange County "Housing Inventory Count" for people experiencing homelessness, 2016-2023.

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Orange County Homeless Management Information System, http://ochmis.org/housing-inventory-count-hic/

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The county has added close to 1,000 emergency and transitional shelter beds to its inventory since 2017.

Available rapid rehousing, which provides short-term rental assistance, and permanent housing have both doubled since 2017, according to county data. Much of this increase is thanks to emergency housing vouchers provided by the federal government as part of the pandemic-induced American Rescue Plan.

Funding for those extra vouchers runs out in 2030.

People living off of Beach Boulevard in Garden Grove regroup during a break in the rain and after a raid on the encampment that periodically sprouts up here.

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Despite these gains, a recent county report shows the county has failed, year after year, to build enough permanent supportive housing for chronically unhoused individuals, despite pledges to do so in Carter's courtroom. And there's no improvement in sight, by the county's own estimates, given the steep rise in construction costs in recent years.

In 2018, the county projected this type of housing with built-in social services would cost $344,444 per unit. The report notes that the real, average cost per unit of developments funded between 2018 and 2022 was nearly 45% more — $497,570.

"If current development cost trends continue, it is projected that the average per unit cost for supportive/affordable housing in Orange County will be approximately $550,000," the report reads. Nearly 60% of that total is construction costs.

In the absence of permanent housing, homeless service providers told LAist that people are staying in emergency shelters much longer than intended. Data show the average length of stay in shelters here is more than five months. The data also show that more people return to homelessness after a shelter stay than move on to permanent housing.

Deaths of people 'without fixed abode'

Perhaps the starkest contrast to O.C.'s improvements in addressing homelessness comes from a committee convened by the sheriff's department to review deaths of unhoused people. The committee's report, released earlier this year, found that deaths doubled between 2017 and 2021. They've only increased since then — to some 500 people last year.

COVID-19 seemed to claim a relatively small number of the deceased — 17 people in 2021, according to the report. The main causes of death were drug overdoses — especially fentanyl — heart disease, and getting hit by a vehicle.

[Read: The Explosion In Unhoused People Dying From Fentanyl And Meth Is A Wake-Up Call For LA, Service Workers Say]

In defense of the Catholic Worker settlement 

Brooke Weitzman is a lawyer with the Elder Law and Disability Rights Center, one of the groups that initially sued the county. She worked closely with Sobel on the case and has a more optimistic view of its success.

For one thing, she said, people living on the streets are getting assessed for and offered, when possible, shelter and treatment options before they're ticketed for sleeping or loitering in public spaces.

"In the areas that are a part of the settlements, we aren't seeing anti-camping enforcement anymore," Weitzman said. "Certainly law enforcement is still enforcing other non-poverty related crimes like substance use or theft. But … being unhoused, sleeping in the park, those we're really not seeing tickets for the way we did before the litigation."

Weitzman said suing officials over homelessness was never going to solve the housing crisis, but forcing cities to build more temporary shelters has also made them realize just how hard it is to move people into permanent housing.

"Coming out of the cases, no city in Orange County can honestly tell you they don't have a problem with access to housing," she said.

Doug Becht, who oversees homeless services for the county, said he's proud of the progress since the lawsuits, especially of the standards of care to which all county-funded shelters now have to adhere.

"So regardless of what shelter either an individual or a family go in, they are assured that their service and the atmosphere and the environment and the care that they receive will be high," he said.

The county's legal settlement also establishes a grievance and appeal process — for example, if a shelter or treatment program wants to kick out a participant — and the right to appeal disputes all the way up to Judge Carter.

A volunteer with Wound Walk OC takes the vital signs of a man sleeping in an underpass in central Orange County.

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But Becht said a lack of housing options remains a major challenge, along with limited capacity to act quickly.

“When someone’s ready, and interested in help and is interested in working towards ending their homelessness, we gotta be there and ready to receive that," he said. "And in a lot more cases than ever, we are. But we’re still not able to do it for everyone at every point and that’s where we want to be.”

What critics say

David Gillanders, executive director of the homeless services organization Pathways of Hope in Orange County, questions how much positive change came out of the riverbed lawsuits.

"It has not resulted, I don't think, in enough people getting housed," he said. "But what I do hope it's done is stimulate some conversation around what homelessness is, how homelessness actually works, why people go homeless."

Without a right to housing, which doesn't exist in the U.S. or California constitutions, Gillanders is skeptical about how much progress on homelessness can be accomplished through the courts.

"The ultimate lawsuit is one that makes housing a human right literally," he said, "not just as a slogan that we sometimes say, but actually makes it an entitlement. Short of that, there's nothing that will solve homelessness."

Sobel, after more than two decades of suing elected officials to force them to open shelters, told LAist she no longer believes it's an effective strategy.

"I think we've fallen into this trap about this being a solution when all the evidence around is it hasn't worked and it doesn't work because at the end of the line, there's no housing," Sobel said.

The O.C. Catholic Worker case has served as a template for a federal lawsuit filed by a business group against the city and county of Los Angeles over the lack of shelter and mental health treatment for people experiencing homelessness. The city of Los Angeles settled their part of the case last year.

L.A. County is currently appealing a ruling by Judge Carter rejecting its settlement. The judge said he wanted to see more beds and more court oversight in the settlement.

Despite Sobel's doubt about fighting homelessness through the courts, she doesn't plan to stop.

"I think about how much worse it would be if we weren't doing this," she said. "You just have to keep fighting and you have to hope that one day, somebody's going to say, 'Look, this is not making sense.'"

Topline:

Cost-of-living: Latinos favored Democrats by 34% when it came to the question about who's better handling cost-of-living. “ It is the economy, cost of living and affordability that is, by a far measure, the issue driving Latino voters and Latino sentiments,” said Mike Madrid, Republican political consultant and founder of the Latino Working Class Project.

More support for Dems? No. This does not mean Latino voters are completely satisfied with how Democrats are running things in California.  "They are just as unhappy with Democrats,” said David Binder, founder of David Binder Research, which helped conduct the poll.

What this means for the gubernatorial race: An overwhelming amount of Latino voters are supporting Xavier Becerra over Steve Hilton, 72% to 24%.  ”If Xavier Becerra wins the election in November, it'll be incumbent upon him to prove that he is also working on behalf of Latino voters and all working class voters to help bring down costs and make things more affordable,” Binder said.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Four weeks ago, Matt Johnstone received a call from the board-and-care facility in North Hollywood where his 89-year-old father lives. Health Net, the insurance company that pays for his care, was eliminating its assisted living benefit, meaning he would have to move out soon.

Johnstone panicked. His father has dementia and needs around-the-clock care. Neither Johnstone nor his brother can afford the roughly $6,000 per month the facility costs, and with health problems of their own, they can’t safely meet his needs at home either. Without insurance coverage, their father could end up on the streets, he said.

“He’s declining, and I just don’t know what’s going to happen if the program ends,” Johnstone said. CalMatters is not publishing the father’s name because Johnstone fears the plan will target him for speaking with media.

Health Net, one of the largest Medi-Cal insurers in the country, is canceling assisted living benefits for members at the end of the year, according to documents obtained by CalMatters and interviews with providers. Approximately 3,500 Medi-Cal patients like Johnstone’s father rely on Health Net to pay for assisted living costs. Most are elderly, and many have cognitive issues like dementia, senior advocates say. Medi-Cal is the state’s public insurance program for low-income Californians and people with disabilities.

CalViva Health and Community Health Plan of Imperial Valley, which contract with Health Net to provide services, have also notified the state of their intent to discontinue assisted living benefits.

Health Net's decision has been shrouded in confusion with little public information. Senior advocates and family members of assisted living residents fear people will become homeless or be shuffled between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.

A disaster in the making?

Pauline Shatara, deputy director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, said a few assisted living facilities have already confirmed to her organization that residents have been dropped off at emergency rooms.

“This is going to be a disaster,” Shatara said.

Senior advocates also say the state did not include enough consumer protections to ensure patients stay housed if plans decide to terminate coverage. State regulators dispute that characterization.

The assisted living support is an optional Medi-Cal benefit, meaning plans can opt-into offering it to members and decide annually whether the program will continue. Assisted living support is part of CalAIM, California’s broad effort to improve Medi-Cal services and save money by stabilizing high-cost users who often end up repeatedly in emergency rooms. It pays a majority of the 24-hour service costs at board-and-care homes, memory care facilities, or larger group settings, while residents cover room-and-board fees.

The average nursing home, which offers a higher level of medical care, costs upwards of $10,000 per month, while an assisted living facility costs between $5,000 to $7,000 monthly.

The state created the benefit in part to relieve pressure on a separate assisted living program for low-income patients managed directly by the state, which has an 18,000 person cap and a three- to four-year waitlist.

Health Net operates Medi-Cal plans in 10 counties: Amador, Calaveras, Fresno, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare.

In an unsigned statement, a spokesperson for the company disputed the assertion that patients would be left without services and would end up unhoused. Affected members will receive care through their individual authorization date, and could be transitioned to nursing homes, back home with in-home supportive services, or to other programs, according to the statement.

“We are working closely with members, providers and care management teams to develop individualized transition plans based on each member's clinical needs and eligibility for other available programs and services,” the company statement said. 

The statement also said internal data showed the assisted living program “has not led to better care” in terms of fewer emergency room visits or days hospitalized.

Matt Johnstone helps his dad Jim put on his shoes while he sits at the edge of his bed in his room at an assisted living facility in North Hollywood on Aug. 13, 2026.

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Ariana Drehsler

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Health Net told state regulators its decision was fueled partly by an increase in members moving from home to assisted living rather than from nursing homes, a trend that costs the plan money instead of generating savings, according to a termination notice sent to the Department of Health Care Services. The plan also blames regulators for changing program guidelines that had previously allowed Health Net to limit community transitions.

“The guidance raises concerns regarding program integrity and long term viability,” the notice reads.

The Department of Health Care Services, which oversees the program, refused an interview request. In an emailed statement, officials said the department would communicate with Health Net to “ensure member protections and continuity of care”

Health Net’s decision follows a similar one last year to terminate a separate CalAIM benefit with a provider in L.A. County, affecting hundreds of people in temporary medical housing.

“Their position is it’s less costly to offer no services than some services,” said Hagar Dickman, director of long-term services and supports for Justice In Aging.

No information sparks confusion, 'rumor mill'

When Johnstone first heard about Health Net’s decision, he searched the company’s website for information about the change: Nothing. Then, he picked up the phone.

“When I called into Health Net customer service, they didn't even know what the program is,” Johnstone said. He has not received a letter notifying him of the upcoming termination.

Jennifer Horcasitas-Glenn ran into the same problem. Her 75-year-old mother-in-law, Jacqueline Glenn, has dementia and Alzheimer's. Horcasistas-Glenn and her husband spent nine years caring for Jacqueline at home until recent hospitalizations made it impossible to continue. She has been in a memory care facility since May.

Horcasitas-Glenn said she was also notified of the change by a third-party provider, not Health Net, and hasn’t gotten answers from the insurer. Horcasitas-Glenn said she spent days bouncing between customer service representatives and supervisors who had never heard of the program before being transferred to a Health Net social worker who was aware of the changes but had no further information.

“I told her I have a plethora of questions I need answered. She said ‘I think you should forward all of your questions to this email,’” Horcasitas-Glenn said. To-date she has not received answers.

The health plan notified some major contractors that services would be terminated Oct. 7, according to providers interviewed by CalMatters. But Medi-Cal enrollees themselves have not been notified of changes by Health Net, according to advocates and multiple families interviewed for this story.

One of the biggest sources of confusion is when services will actually stop. Many of the plan contracts end in October, but the plan has an obligation to continue services until the end of the year, Dickman said.

“The question is, what's Health Net going to do after October 7? They don't have contracts with these facilities, so how are they going to provide?" said Jonathan Istrin, chairman of Libertana, one of the groups whose contracts were terminated. Libertana subcontracts with hundreds of assisted living facilities in California, Istrin said, and Health Net doesn’t have the infrastructure to pay those places directly.

Health Net must notify members of termination 30 days before the service end date. Providers aren’t certain whether notices will go out at the end of September or beginning of December. For some, the notices may come after members are already evicted, Shatara said..

“Right now it can feel like a rumor mill and nobody knows what they should do because Health Net has not been giving anyone any information,” Shatara said.

Matt Johnstone, left, and Russell Granger, right, help their father Jim get up from his bed at an assisted living facility in North Hollywood on Aug. 13, 2026.

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On Aug. 10, Horcasitas-Glenn said she received a letter from Health Net stating that approval for her mother’s memory care facility would be revoked a month early “at the request of the provider.” The provider told Horcasitas-Glenn that they had not requested an early termination and had instead asked Health Net how to accommodate patients who have a right to services until the end of the year. CalMatters independently confirmed this information.

“This is baloney. They’re not being transparent about anything, and they’re lying on documents,” Horcasitas-Glenn said. Customer service still doesn’t know what program she’s talking about when she calls.

According to state regulators, Health Net members are entitled to services until Dec. 31 as long as it is “clinically appropriate.” If the authorization for a member’s assisted living expires before the end of the year, they should request an extension.

State offers few consumer protections

Other than the 30-day notice, advocates say, the state has very few protections for patients when services are terminated.

Health Net has not given patients transition plans, and the state cannot guarantee patients will receive the same level of care elsewhere, Shatara said. Advocates and providers told CalMatters the Department of Health Care Services and Health Net have mutually referred questions to the other organization, offering no clear answers.

The Department of Health Care Services in an email argued its patient notification requirements are adequate, stating “Medi-Cal members have strong protections.” Some patient protections include the right to appeal or file a grievance with the plan, access to alternative services, and continuity-of-care requirements. The state also places responsibility with Health Net.

According to the termination notice filed with the state, Health Net members “will be transitioned to alternative care settings, including home, as appropriate.”

Jim smokes his pipe outside an assisted living facility in North Hollywood on Aug. 13, 2026.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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Pictures of Jim’s sister, Jim with puppies, books, a stuffed animal and a first-prize award for a motorcycle show sit on a nightstand in his room.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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For most patients, home is not an option, Shatara said. Many live on fixed Social Security incomes and give up their primary residence in order to pay room and board fees at care facilities that Medi-Cal doesn’t cover. Their needs are also too acute for family members to meet. The only other appropriate alternative care settings, Shatara said, are nursing homes and hospitals, which may not be able to handle the influx.

“It’s inevitable that people will end up in ERs and on the streets,” Shatara said.

Some families like Horcasitas-Glenn are contemplating switching to another Medi-Cal insurer that still provides the benefit, but have been told other plans don’t want to approve these expensive long-term services for new patients. Others, like Johnstone, are at a loss.

Johnstone’s dad turned a lifelong love of motorcycles and racecars into a successful autobody repair and restoration business in Southern California. Eventually, in his later years, undiagnosed dementia would trap his mind 20 years in the past, Johnstone said, causing him to make poor business decisions and take on enormous amounts of debt and work he could no longer perform. A terminal cancer diagnosis for Johnstone’s mother would also wipe out all of the family’s savings.

“There is nothing else,” Johnstone said.

Worried your loved one will be affected by changes to Medi-Cal services? Send tips to health@calmatters.org.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

For more than six years, a Los Angeles-area fiduciary altered bank statements and fudged court reports to steal more than $6 million from his clients, the California Attorney General’s Office claims, setting up what it called a “Ponzi-style” scheme to rob people who can’t take care of themselves.

In May, state prosecutors filed grand theft charges against Gregory Oveross and his accountant, Faranita L. Corvalan, alleging what would be one of the largest fiduciary thefts in California history.

Oveross and Corvalan pleaded not guilty and have been released on bond, awaiting trial.

Prosecutors say Oveross misled his clients and the probate court. But court and other public records reviewed by CalMatters show that court officials and the state Professional Fiduciaries Bureau missed red flags years before Oveross was charged, highlighting our ongoing reporting into the state’s weak oversight of fiduciaries, who have the power to control people’s finances and basic aspects of their lives.

For example, in one case Oveross allegedly wrote himself 19 checks totaling $670,000 over the course of a year from one client’s accounts. Even though the state accounting form asks for check numbers for every expense, Oveross left that column blank.

Still, Superior Court Judge Deborah L. Christian approved the financial report.

“Not having check numbers would be a big red flag,” said Judge Sandra Bean, the supervising judge for probate court in Alameda County. “It’s all very practical. If something smells bad, it probably is.”

In response to past abuses, lawmakers in 2006 passed a law that required fiduciaries to turn in more detailed documentation to account for how they spent their clients’ money. By forcing fiduciaries to list check numbers, the courts would ostensibly be able to spot if check numbers were missing and stop fiduciaries from writing hidden checks.

In a separate case, the Attorney General’s Office said Oveross never paid a $1.7 million inheritance to beneficiaries after the court appointed him to manage a deceased person’s estate.

Records do not indicate that Los Angeles Superior Court ordered a hearing to ensure the money had been distributed. State law does not require courts to automatically schedule such a review, creating a hodgepodge of rules across California counties.

The courts in some counties automatically set up such a hearing. Others, such as Sacramento, San Joaquin and Santa Clara counties, do not.

During the time of Oveross’ alleged thefts, the Los Angeles Superior Court did not automatically schedule such hearings. The court changed its rules in January 2026, automatically scheduling follow-up review dates after approving the final distribution, said Rob Oftring, a spokesperson for the court.

Additionally, public records obtained by CalMatters show that Oveross omitted from his annual statement a case in which he’d been accused of wrongdoing. The statements, which are supposed to give the public and the bureau a window into fiduciaries who’ve been in trouble, are based on the honor system. Fiduciaries sign the statements under penalty of perjury.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 2021 law that would have required courts to notify the bureau when judges punished fiduciaries for abusing their licenses. However, that requirement was to go into effect only if lawmakers funded it. They haven’t.

In 2022 and 2023, Oveross submitted statements to the bureau that didn’t answer a question about whether he had settled any complaints, records show. The bureau still issued Oveross a valid license each year, according to its website. The bureau declined to answer any questions about Oveross, citing the pending criminal case.

The state Professional Fiduciaries Bureau was established two decades ago to protect consumers after a news investigation showed that judges were not preventing abuse and conflicts of interest by fiduciaries. However, CalMatters’ reporting this year has found that some of the same issues remain.

The bureau says it depends on courts to police fiduciaries, and the courts often depend on the bureau, creating a loop of blame and little accountability.

Oftring said an attorney reviews fiduciaries’ accounting and confirms that “all required information and supporting documentation are provided, that financial activity is clearly explained, and that the accounting is accurate and balanced.”

When asked why the court approved Oveross’ accounting, he said judges and court staff are “prohibited from publicly commenting on any pending or impending proceeding in any court.”

In the arrest declaration, the Attorney General’s Office said Oveross had a “systematic and pervasive pattern of asset misappropriation, discrepancies, unauthorized fund diversions and non-compliance with probate court mandates.”

Attorneys for Oveross and Corvalan didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.

Oveross kept his license for years while under investigation

Jean C. Elbert had dementia. Her extended family was far away, and her closest relative, her brother, was battling Alzheimer’s. Elbert’s family asked the court to appoint a fiduciary to handle her care and finances. The court appointed Oveross, a longtime fiduciary, in August 2018.

Oveross managed Elbert’s conservatorship for about a year. During his time as her conservator, prosecutors say, Oveross wrote 19 checks to himself and didn’t include any of them on the financial report he filed with the court.

After Elbert died in August 2019, Oveross told the court that he had $1.8 million to distribute to her heirs, and the court ordered him to deliver the money.

Oveross did not send $764,000 owed to Elbert’s brother, according to court filings and state prosecutors.

The brother’s son sued for his father’s share of the inheritance, court records show. The son’s attorney discovered that Oveross had taken money from the conservatorship and estate, according to the court filings, and that he had used money from other clients’ accounts to eventually pay Elbert’s brother his inheritance.

In May 2024, the two sides entered into a settlement agreement, but state records show the fiduciary did not report it on his 2025 annual statement, as is required.

All told, the fiduciary made $1.3 million in unauthorized payments from Elbert’s accounts, according to court filings from the Attorney General's Office.

In another case, Oveross was in charge of Guadalupe Rodriguez Diaz’s $2 million estate after she died in 2019.

After paying the bills, Oveross told the court that Diaz’s estate had $1.6 million left for her beneficiaries.

The Attorney General’s office says Oveross opened “a secondary set of accounts” and made “unauthorized” transfers to himself and Corvalan, and to another trust he managed. In court filings, they say Oveross spent nearly the entire estate on himself and his associates.

Diaz’s heirs, prosecutors say, never got a dime from the accounts.

“Notably, no transactions related to heir distributions were observed within these accounts,” prosecutors wrote in court records.

The criminal case was launched after Elbert’s nephew and one of Oveross’ clients filed complaints to the bureau in 2023, according to court records. Shortly afterward, the bureau investigator forwarded the case to the California Department of Justice.

As the criminal investigation played out, Oveross was allowed to work with a valid fiduciary license for more than two years.

His license was suspended less than two weeks after he was arrested. In its order prohibiting Oveross from practicing, the bureau asked him to turn over a complete list of all matters in which he serves as a fiduciary.

Those are details the bureau should have had. The bureau requires its fiduciaries to accurately report them every year on their annual statements.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.