Scathing lawsuit filed against EBR Council on Aging and Director Tasha Clark Amar

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BATON ROUGE- Ten months after the WBRZ Investigative Unit exposed a questionable will from which Council on Aging Director Tasha Clark Amar stood to benefit handsomely, Clark Amar is being sued for her role in it. Clark Amar stood to gain more than $100,000 from Helen Plummer's estate, but backed off after the Investigative Unit reported on her questionable activities.

Today, Helen Plummer's daughter, Jaquelyn Antoine, sued The East Baton Rouge Council on Aging, The East Baton Rouge Metro Council, The Governor's Office of Elderly Affairs, Southern University, Dytasha Clark Amar and Dorothy Jackson.

Antoine alleges in her lawsuit, "through fraud and deceit, Dytasha Clark Amar began taking (Plummer) to her local bank to examine records of her accounts."

It was during that time the lawsuit says, Clark Amar and Dorothy Jackson used the Southern University's Elder Law Clinic to draft the questionable will.

The lawsuit states, "Dorothy Jackson, used her position as a member of the Board of the East Baton Rouge Parish Council on Aging and her position as a supervising attorney for the Elder Law Clinic at Southern University to personally enrich herself by naming herself as the attorney for the estate, by filing the estate and billing the succession for services that she has rendered privately."

Antoine's lawsuit claims Jackson knew Plummer did not qualify for free services at the clinic based on the value of her estate, but managed to do the will anyway without any supervision by Southern University.

The lawsuit notes, "The East Baton Rouge Council on Aging was negligent in the supervision of its Executive Director and employees by allowing them to manipulate their aged constituents and inducing them to enter into legal documents for their personal profit and failed to enact policies and procedures that would prevent the employees and management of the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging from taking advantage of elderly clients for their own gain and profit."

Antoine is requesting a jury trial and says she is still having to expend substantial amounts of money to contest the "negligent and illegal activities of the above named defendants."

The lawsuit also says the State and Metro Council were negligent in failing to establish policies that would prevent employees from using their influence to obtain personal profits from those they are supposed to serve and protect.

WBRZ's Chief Investigator Chris Nakamoto is working on this story and will have reactions tonight at 6 p.m.

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