Judge John Phillips Ordered Released

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle continues its excellent coverage of the heart-breaking story of retired judge John Phillips, who has been held captive in a distant Bronx nursing home for two years, during which time a slew of court-appointed attorneys sucked his estate dry.

According to the Eagle's latest report, Judge Phillips will soon be released from his cramped, foul-smelling room in the bleak Bronx nursing home. If all goes as it should (which can not be guaranteed in this case), he may be transferred to an assisted living facility closer to his Brooklyn home (the one that burned down in a mysterious fire).

In any senior's nightmare scenario, the once-wealthy Judge Phillips was involuntarily incarcerated in the nursing home under a "no visitors" policy, and with no medical justification. An electronic monitoring bracelet was placed on his ankle, by order of the court-appointed property manager Emani Taylor.

Taylor was recently held in contempt of court by State Supreme Court Justice Michael Pesce after she admitted to misappropriating at least $187,000 from Phillips’ estate (said to be worth originally over $10 million). Other court-appointed property managers failed to keep records, failed to report the sales of Phillips' buildings and -- oops! -- forgot to pay his taxes.

See the whole Eagle story here. A couple of past Eagle stories in this series here, and here.

A McBrooklyn correspondent writes in to ask readers to sign a petition to save the Slave Theater (on Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy), one of the historic properties Judge Phillips may lose due to the nonpayment of taxes by his court appointed guardians. The petition is here.

Past McBrooklyn postings on this subject here.