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Family members urge Oakland County commissioners to review alleged misconduct in probate court
Summary
Speakers Jody White and Jeff White told the board they believe court-appointed fiduciaries and a probate judge facilitated the dissipation of an estate and asked commissioners to help secure court videos and review files.
Jody White and Jeff White used public comment at the Oakland County Board of Commissioners meeting to urge the board to review what they described as long-running misconduct in the county probate court.
Jody White said the probate court receives nearly $9 million in the county budget to run 55 staff positions that administer estates and trusts. She said tax dollars intended to protect beneficiaries and execute wills and trusts instead have been used to support, in her view, "a criminal enterprise" related to the handling of the John Sterling White probate estate. She asked the board to help obtain court hearing videos and said she wanted to provide materials to the Judicial Tenure Commission.
Her son, Jeff White, described the probate estate once valued at about $1.8 million and alleged the court-appointed fiduciary Thomas Fraser (identified in public comment as Thomas Brendan Fraser) and other attorneys "systematically depleted" the estate through excessive fees and mismanagement. "Judge O'Brien appointed Frasier from the court's preferred list, placing him in multiple positions of trustspecial fiduciary, co-trustee, personal representativegiving him near complete control over my father's estate," Jeff White said. He referred to the statutory provision cited in his remarks as "m c l 617 o 1, paragraph c" and said it provides mechanisms to hold attorneys accountable for neglect and violation of duty.
Why it matters: The speakers urged county oversight because they said the probate court's actions have deprived beneficiaries of rightful assets and because, they said, the county provides significant funding to the probate court. Jeff White said one family member, David White, has been convicted and sentenced to prison for his role in the case, and that he wants court-appointed professionals who he says facilitated asset dissipation to be investigated and removed from the court's preferred list of attorneys.
The commissioners did not record a formal referral or vote on the requests during the meeting. Speakers asked for help obtaining hearing recordings and for the board to review judicial conduct in the probate files.
