Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 23, 1994                   TAG: 9404240011
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: HALLANDALE, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

WIDOW WINS FIGHT TO CONTROL HER OWN LIFE

A professional guardian, who has been trying to have the wealthy Hallandale widow declared incompetent and placed under her control, agreed Thursday to retreat.

The about-face ends months of heartache for Donohue, who faced losing her right to vote, handle her own money, decide where she lives and even pick her own friends - all because she made a $20,000 gift to a young stockbroker.

``Those guardian people are worse than termites,'' Donohue said. ``At least termites you can see every once in a while and you can slap them down. But these people, I wasn't allowed to touch. They cost me money and sleep.

``To make me go through this for such a long time, it's a disgrace to the state of Florida.''

Donohue had been preparing to defend her sanity in an incapacity hearing in May, a prospect she found humiliating and unnecessary.

Instead, the Coral Springs company that initiated the court proceedings, Guardianship Management Inc., filed a ``notice of voluntary dismissal'' Thursday in Broward County Circuit Court.

``It's over,'' Donohue said jubilantly. ``I have cried myself to sleep for the last night.''

Judge Jack Musselman signed a court order Thursday accepting the company's withdrawal. That effectively ends Donohue's ordeal, but doesn't decide who pays the legal bills she has incurred fighting to retain control of her money and her life.

According to Musselman's order, Guardianship Management Inc. may have to pick up the tab if the court determines, at a future hearing, that the company filed its initial petitions seeking control of Donohue ``in bad faith.''

Carol Whitton, president of Guardianship Management Inc., consistently has argued that she acted in good faith when she sought to have Donohue declared incapacitated, and only wanted to help and protect the widow. She declined to say why she was dropping efforts. She referred inquiries to her attorney, Wendy Seidlin, who did not return telephone calls from the Miami Herald.

Donohue's attorneys said Whitton and Seidlin retreated because they realized they could not win their case, and feared being stuck with Donohue's legal tab.

Last week, one of Donohue's attorneys, James Pearson, petitioned the court to make Guardianship Management Inc. pay for the cost of taking sworn statements from Donohue's supporters.

More than a dozen friends and neighbors were ready to swear that Donohue - who earned most of her money through shrewd stock deals - is still sharp and doesn't need a guardian.

``Finally, they just folded,'' Karen Faulkner, Donohue's court-appointed attorney, said of Guardianship Management Inc. ``I think they realized they couldn't win. The law and the evidence were against them.''

``If every elderly person who was conned out of money, and therefore exercised bad judgment, was adjudged incapacitated, then South Florida would be absolutely filled with incapacitated elderly people living under guardianships,'' Faulkner said.