This is Mondo’s story. You’ll find it unbelievable, but it is all true. It is a story of greed, elder abuse, Chumash Casino money, abuse of the legal system, legal malpractice, and corruption. If someone told me this story, I wouldn’t believe it myself, but I’ve lived it and I have the proof behind all of this.
Background
Armando “Mondo” Perez is an 85-year-old man of Chumash decent, he is an Elder in the San Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, known as the Chumash Tribe. Mondo was 66 when the Chumash casino was launched. With the casino revenues the tribe could distribute money to tribal members, but Mondo didn’t like the control they tried to exert over him, so he avoided the reservation and kept his distance from the tribe.
The Chumash have a very successful casino north of Santa Barbara in San Ynez. The casino throws off a lot of money that is distributed to the tribal members. This firehose of money, distributed unevenly among tribal members, creating a separation between the haves and have-nots. This creates a jealousy among tribal members. The have-nots look for ways to get money from the haves, this is the background to this utterly astounding true story.
Mondo, with a 200-acre cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo County and an estate valued at $10M was an ideal target for Chumash have-nots to target. His poor physical health and dementia meant the human buzzards circling his failing mind and body had to move soon…and they did.
Cast of Characters
Armando “Mondo” Perez: Chumash elder, he is paid a lot by the tribe. He is suffering from at least moderate dementia and pending a medical review may be deemed incompetent very soon. He has long been afraid that his niece Virginia and her husband Allen would kill him for his money. We have affidavits from a retired police officer, and from Mondo’s half-brother Ted stating that Mondo told them repeatedly that Virginia and Allen would kill him for his money. He also suffers from narcolepsy and cannot drive.
Patricia (“Patty”) Perez Hogan: Developed a friendship with Mondo, then started driving him because of his narcolepsy. Their friendship developed to the point where Mondo, in thanks for diagnosing his heart condition and saving his life, decided to adopt Patty. In 2016, after an extensive mental competency exam, Mondo adopted Patty as his daughter and sole heir.
Virginia Garcia: Mondo’s estranged niece who has strong-armed Mondo in the past to setup savings accounts with his money for her, her husband Allen and her children.
Theodore “Ted” Perez: Mondo’s half-brother who lives in Long Beach with his wife Teresa.
Richard Wideman: Attorney who has worked with the Chumash Tribe. Wideman claims that Mondo is his client, yet he is on the record describing Virginia Garcia as his client (oops a little conflict of interest there).
Christina Gutierrez: Mondo’s estranged second cousin who lives on the Chumash Reservation and cares for at least one elderly Chumash member, for which she is paid, I believe, $5,000.00 a month by the Chumash Tribe.
Jason Dominguez: A lawyer with experience as a tribal judge for the Chumash Tribe and now the court appointed conservator for Mondo, both person and finances…but we’ll get to that later.
Like many, Mondo had a very difficult time during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. It took a toll on his mental state and his health. According to Mondo’s doctor, he suffers from blockage in his carotid arteries. This reduces the blood flow to the brain. It reduces the oxygen to his brain. This combined with the social isolation of lockdown, and general old age, has caused Mondo to slip into dementia. His loving daughter, Patricia Perez Hogan (Patty) took excellent care of him, but you cannot stop the hands of time. This is where the truly shameful tale begins…
April 6, 2021: Mondo and Patty visit Mondo’s doctor where they discuss an urgent surgery to improve blood flow to his brain. The surgery is scheduled for April 13. On their way back Mondo and Patty visit another Tribal Elder (Dickie Romero). When Mondo mentioned his upcoming surgery, Dickie pushed him to get his $2,000,000 death benefit (like life insurance) offered for free by the tribe. Mondo responds: “Hell no, they’ll kill me for it.” At Dickie’s insistence, Mondo and Patty contact the tribe and arrange to pick-up the death benefit forms the next day.
April 7, 2021: Mondo and Patty visit the Chumash Tribal Hall and pick-up the death benefit documents. While on the Reservation, they visit Mondo’s cousin Grace Pacheco and her daughter Christina Gutierrez. Christina asks what brings them to the Reservation and perks-up at the mention of the $2,000,000 death benefit, and how Mondo planned to make Patty the beneficiary. One might speculate that Christina informed her relative Virginia Garcia about Mondo’s death benefit, based on her actions the next day, but we have no proof of that. Christina repeatedly asked where Mondo and Patty were staying that night. Not trusting Christina, they refused to tell her they were staying in a hotel in Lompoc, since the Lompoc house is uninhabitable. The next day Patty had to leave the Lompoc property to go home, the Willow Ranch, to feed their cattle.
April 8: Virginia Garcia sneaks up on Mondo’s Lompoc ranch, taking the much longer way to avoid being seen. Virginia waits for Patty to leave to feed the cows and then hustles Mondo out of the house. When Mondo says he wants her to bring him back, she assures him she will, she later refuses to do so according to Mondo. The Garcias hold Mondo a virtual prisoner in their home for months. This was the first abduction of Mondo…more to come.
April 9: The Garcia’s, Virginia and Allen, take Mondo to his bank (Coast Hills Credit Union) to get his $2,300,000. The Garcias are giving Mondo orders to get the money. The banker asked Mondo about his upcoming surgery and Virginia responded: “He doesn’t need any fucking surgery.” Apparently, Virginia’s priority was the money and not Mondo’s health. Mondo’s banker had never seen the Garcias, so she asks where Patty is. She asks Mondo whether he really wants to take out all his money in the form of a cashier’s check. He’s confused and cannot answer basic questions.
The banker, believing this was Elder Financial Abuse, refuses to give Mondo’s millions to the Garcias and calls the police. Once they leave, the banker files an internal Elder Financial Abuse report at the Bank.
Unknown Date: After his abduction, tribal attorney Richard Wideman was “hired” by Mondo to redo his trust and estate documents…how convenient. They take a feeble old man suffering from dementia and redo his entire estate planning? It was clear that his daughter Patty was a threat to the attempted theft of Mondo’s estate, so Wideman also files “for Mondo” a restraining order against her to keep her from her father.
Wideman also, in Mondo’s name, fires his long-time attorney Lana Clark and charges her with legal malpractice. Wideman also replaced Mondo’s Power of Attorney and Medical Power of Attorney, which gave these powers to his daughter, to instead give them to Mondo’s estranged niece Virginia, the one Mondo was afraid would kill him for his money and the one who is now holding him a virtual prisoner with now access to his daughter and caretaker Patty. Then he threatens to sue Mondo’s surgeon, ensuring that Mondo’s surgery would not go through. Of course, when Virginia took Mondo, she left behind the medications Mondo was taking prior to his surgery. Again, priorities…
Note: We speculate that Virginia had herself designated as the beneficiary of Mondo’s $2,000,000 death benefit and as heir to his considerable estate. This we cannot yet prove…yet.
April 13: After going to 3 different Coast Hills branches and getting assistance from Wideman regarding the new trust documents, the Garcias successfully empty Mondo’s accounts. They leave the bank with a $5K debit card and $2.3M in a cashier’s check. This money is deposited in a new bank account with Virginia listed as the cosigner, according to the bank who told Mondo this over the phone. According to an employee of Mondo’s prior bank, the trust documents Virginia provided in order to empty Mondo’s accounts indicated that Virginia was Mondo’s new heir. We cannot prove this because even after repeated attempts, they have not provided the trust documents.
At this point Mondo is still a virtual prisoner of the Garcias. Mondo exhibits a trait common among dementia sufferers, clinging to the person he’s with and doing and saying whatever they ask because he is confused and dependent upon them.
To tighten their control over Mondo, the Garcias also changed Mondo’s address with the postal service, the Tribe, and others to Mondo’s Lompoc property, instead of his beautiful 200-acre cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo. This kept Patty from getting information about Mondo and it moved any legal proceedings to Santa Barbara County where the Chumash Tribe is based and has considerable influence. We believe the Garcias also routed Mondo’s substantial monthly Casino check to the bank account they control.
During this time, Patty is defending herself against the restraining order. In a deposition Virginia and Wideman each admit that Wideman is representing Virginia. This is a clear conflict of interest, because this is the woman he helped take Mondo’s bank account, trust, and ongoing casino checks. Patty will be looking for a good malpractice attorney when this nightmare is over.
During this time Patty also filed a conservatorship in San Luis Obispo Court. She claims that Mondo needs the doctor ordered emergency surgery. The judge ruled, contrary to the Doctors determination, that it was not an emergency. Patty then asked for a competency evaluation which the Judge would not order said to change the Conservatorship reason to incompetency which was done. A judge said if Mondo is found to be incompetent, then Wideman taking him on a client would be illegal and the trust and will documents he created would be null and void. So, they bring Mondo to the tribal doctor who uses a very basic test and determines that Mondo is one point above incompetent…how convenient. This is proven false later by an expert.
September 11: Mondo’s half-brother Ted and his wife Teresa called in a wellness check through San Luis Obispo Sherriff Department. Two San Luis Obispo Sheriffs go with Ted Perez and a friend to the Garcia’s house and the Sheriff asks Mondo to step outside which he does. While they are there, Ted and Laura walk up and ask Mondo to go to lunch with them. He agrees. At this point, the Garcias could not stop Mondo because they have been insisting that Mondo is competent and can make his own decisions to the Sheriff on a previous visit. Once Mondo is with Ted, he take his brother to his home in Long Beach California. While this was done for Mondo’s own good, and with his agreement, we refer to this as the second abduction of Mondo.
After Ted and Teresa took Mondo, Wideman filed an Elder Financial Abuse case against Patty. I guess it was OK for them to try and steal Mondo’s estate and death benefit, but he didn’t like the idea of Patty undoing their plot.
September 24: Mondo, now with Ted and Teresa, decides not to show up for the restraining order hearing against Patty and the restraining order is dropped. In this hearing Wideman explains that Mondo will sign anything put in front of him. Thank you for the self-incrimination there “super lawyer”. During the hearing, Mondo once again tried to fire Wideman as his attorney, telling him he’s fired. Like herpes, Wideman apparently never goes away. At this hearing, Commissioner Foley, the judge, read the history of the case and responded: “I think this is a struggle over Mr. Perez’s funds illustrated most clearly by the transfer of over $2,000,000.00 the very next day after Mr. Perez left Ms. Hogan-Perez’ care. And the other thing that is a fact is that, you know, Mr. Perez chose Patricia Eileen Hogan Perez and adopted her through a court proceeding, and so when all of us get older, we do have to make choices at some point, hopefully before we lose capacity. It appears he made a choice and the other relatives don’t like that choice.”
After the restraining order was dropped, Ted and Teresa brought Mondo back to his daughter Patty. They meet at Mondo’s Lompoc property as Ted and Teresa don’t want to drive the extra hour to Mondo’s home in Santa Margarita. While at the Lompoc property, Christina Gutierrez, close friend of Virginia, attempted to abduct Mondo for a third time. Like Ted and Teresa, she called in a wellness check on Mondo and while the Sheriff was there, she tried to take Mondo. Christina keeps yelling at Ted and Mondo that he was supposed to be at the hearing this morning and Mondo replies that he didn’t want a restraining order against Patty and he is fine go away and leave him alone. The Sheriffs have to explain to Christina that Mondo said he is fine and does not want to go with her so she must leave. Crazy, right…it gets even crazier.
September 27: After Patty explained to Mondo that Wideman changed his will and trust and assisted Virginia in emptying his account of $2,300,000, while charging Mondo for services rendered, Mondo becomes livid. He didn’t know anything about this. He demands that Wideman be fired and that he get the documents he was forced to sign. They draw up a letter terminating Wideman and Mondo signs it. They send it to Wideman. Wideman refuses to provide the documents and insists, illegally, that he see Mondo alone in his office. Patty was afraid this was a set-up for the Garcias to steal Mondo again by sneaking him out the back of Wideman’s office, so she refused this demand by Wideman. To this date, Wideman has not delivered the documents as instructed and continues to represent himself as Mondo’s attorney. He is also probably billing Mondo for services, we don’t know, I’m sure his true client does. How do you fire your attorney in writing, on the phone, and in open court, and he refuses to accept it and continues to represent himself as your attorney? Since when must a client meet with their attorney in private in order to fire him?
September 28: Patty tries to get Mondo an attorney to actually represent him and get rid of Wideman. That new attorney meets with Mondo and declares him “clearly incompetent” and therefore cannot take him as a client. Instead, he recommends Mondo get a court appointed attorney.
Patty gets Mondo evaluated by an expert who finds him clearly incompetent. This is not the sort of thing that evolves in 6 months, he has been incompetent for a while.
While visiting Mondo’s small ranch in Lompoc, there is another APS wellness check called on them. Clearly the Garcia clan will not stop until they get Mondo back in their control. Patty fends off this latest abduction attempt. Fearing for their lives now, Patty takes Mondo to her sister’s home in Northern California to hide and nurse Mondo back to health. The court case below forces them to return to San Luis Obispo.
October 25: Christina Gutierrez, Mondo’s estranged second cousin, filed a conservatorship case in Santa Barbara County Court, where the tribe has more influence. The Santa Barbara Court moved much faster because Judge Tana Coates in SLO refused to hear the case, simply delaying long enough for Christina’s case in Santa Barbara to be heard first. At the Santa Barbara hearing, Christina proposes Jason Dominguez as conservator. Jason is not a fiduciary. We see no evidence in his background that he has ever been a conservator. But he has served as a tribal judge to the Chumash Tribe. You would think that the case in San Luis Obispo would take precedence because it predated this filing. You would think that his daughter, who has legal priority, would be able to select the conservator. Apparently not. Judge Staffel of Santa Barbara Court determined that Mondo needed to be conserved and made Jason Dominguez his temporary conservator. Judge Staffel must not have realized that he was putting the fox in charge of guarding the hen house.
The Reign of Jason Dominguez: Mr. Dominguez told Patty that she was doing a great job with Mondo and that he wanted Mondo to stay in her care. He told Patty’s attorney (Michael Pick) and Mondo’s Public Defender (Mark Saatjian) similar things. He was here to help Patty and Mondo, or so he claimed. His actions tell a completely different story. Mr. Dominguez immediately started documenting against Mondo’s daughter in filings to the court. Messrs Pick and Saatjian were stunned to see that Mr. Dominguez was playing them both, telling them one thing but doing the exact opposite.
Mr. Dominguez was initially given a $10,000 budget for Mondo’s expenses, later increased to $50,000. Despite requests for funds submitted with bills, including planting hay and providing feed for the cattle, Mr. Dominguez has not provided a single penny to Mondo’s household. It appeared that he was starving Patty and Mondo out. Literally starving them because he would not pay for their food either. Yet he said such nice things to them both and to their respective attorneys. This went on for weeks, not a single penny went to their food, utilities, ranch maintenance, or livestock feed. By now the cattle are starving, an obvious case of animal abuse. After spending her own money on feed for 10 months since Mondo was first taken by Virginia Garcia, Patty is ready to ask the Humane Society to take them so they don’t die of starvation. Patty has been forced to spend her money to feed Mondo and the animals.
There are numerous other examples of Mr. Dominguez’ failure to perform his court-ordered medical and financial duties, where Patty was forced to compensate, but we’ll just focus on the big one. On January 4, 2022 Patty took Mondo to his Primary Care doctor, Dr. Mathis who said Mondo need IV hydration so Patty took him to French Hospital ER for the IV. At French Hospital Mondo was diagnosed with Covid-19 and sent home. Patty was treating him at home and providing updates to Mr. Dominguez and the court-appointed investigator. She was checking his oxygen saturation, managing his medications, and taking excellent care of him. January 13 Patty contacted Dr Mathis, Armando’s Primary Care physician, but he was out with Covid, so she made an appointment with an associate Dr. Birch for January 15, 2022. But when Mondo refused to eat or drink, Patty took him to the French Hospital Emergency Room on January 14, 2022. At the hospital, they diagnosed Mondo with Covid-19 and a secondary viral pneumonia.
Patty stayed with Mondo in the emergency room with Mondo until he was seen and ultimately roomed at the hospital. She naturally put herself as the medical Patty stayed with Mondo in the emergency room with Mondo until he was seen and ultimately roomed at the hospital approximately 18 hours. She naturally put herself as the medical contact, listed Dr. Mathis as his primary care physician, and put the address of their 200-acre cattle ranch as his home. Patty, thinking Mr. Dominguez had Mondo’s health and welfare as his top priority, informed him that Mondo was at the hospital.
Mr. Dominguez’ subsequent actions demonstrate that his true master is neither the law, nor the court, but is in fact the tribe and the Wideman-Garcia group. Mr. Dominguez had Mondo’s hospital records changed. He insisted that they no longer communicate with Mondo’s daughter, who was worried sick about his health. Instead, they were to only communicate with Mr. Dominguez AND Virginia Garcia, whose phone number was added to the record. That’s right, the one who abducted Mondo, took his money, is collecting his casino checks, and forced him to sign over his estate to her. It gets worse. In the middle of a legal challenge over Mondo’s residence and resulting legal venue, Mr. Dominguez changed his home address from the 200-acre cattle ranch in SLO to the uninhabitable Lompoc property. At this time, Mr. Dominguez had not even visited Mondo’s home as ordered by Judge Staffel. Mr. Dominguez also changed Mondo’s primary care physician to tribal doctor Dr. Chang again. Do those actions tell you who he really works for?
Mr. Dominguez then had Mondo discharged to his custody and took him somewhere but refused to tell Patty where Mondo was and when she asked to speak with him, Mr. Dominguez said that he did not want to talk with her. This series of actions follows point-by-point the playbook originally executed by the Wideman-Garcia group in the first abduction. We later found out through Mondo’s court appointed attorney Saatjian, that Mondo was residing at the Garcias house again. That’s right, the third abduction and all done with court issued powers!
Now, at this point, one might try to argue that Mr. Dominguez was attempting to do what was in Mondo’s best interests. But this last fact shows that too is a lie. When Mr. Dominguez had Mondo discharged from the hospital the medical record states the following: “Asked Jason if he obtained the O2 concentrator and he stated ‘I am Not worried about that i need help caring for Armando.” Mondo is an 85-year old man suffering from Covid-19 and secondary viral pneumonia and the man charged by the court with ensuring his health is not worried about the doctor ordered supplemental oxygen? The hospital staff was so shocked that they documented this with Mr. Dominguez’ actual quote, probably to protect themselves against a subsequent lawsuit for malpractice.
Needless to say, Mondo’s health declined. Of course it did, he I think they did get oxygen, was in a strange and stressful place and away from his loving daughter Patty. As a result, Mondo is now in Cottage Hospital getting treatment again. Of course, once again, Mr. Dominguez has given the hospital strict orders not to talk with Patty or allow her to visit Mondo.
The Wideman-Garcia-Dominguez group still has one problem, Mondo’s daughter and sole heir (until Wideman-Garcia changed it all), Patty Perez Hogan. They need to legally eliminate that threat. In the original abduction, they used the restraining order and the still-to-be-adjudicated Elder Financial Abuse claim. Now that they have Mondo, they will no doubt press the Elder Financial Abuse case that would have otherwise been dropped. But Mr. Dominguez needed more. He needed to document for the court that Patty was unstable and a threat.
After abducting Mondo, Patty went into a panic that she would never see her father again. He was suffering from Covid and pneumonia and Mr. Dominguez had him discharged. In the process of discharging him, Mr. Dominguez showed the same callous disregard for his health that Virginia had shown previously. Patty has cared for this man for 16-years 24 hours a day. In fact, Mr. Saatjian, Mondo’s attorney, has asked for a nurse to help with Mondo so Patty could get some rest, and Mr. Dominguez instead suggested institutionalizing Mondo. Then after abducting Mondo, Mr. Dominguez refused to allow Patty to see or even speak with her father. Clearly she was at the breaking point. To Mr. Dominguez, this presented an opportunity to push her over the edge and document it for the court. He carefully planned and executed this final piece of the puzzle to keep Patty from Mondo for the rest of his short life.
Mr. Dominguez had informed Patty and her sister that she was to drop off Mondo’s clothes and medications at the tribal hall, read into that location what you will. Patty’s sister suggested that Mr. Dominguez fulfill his court-ordered responsibility to visit Mondo’s home. He did not confirm this plan. Instead, he showed up at the 200-acre cattle ranch unannounced with 2 sheriff deputies on Sunday January 16 and demanded entry. Patty, now emotionally distraught, was out tending to the starving cattle. Mr. Dominguez brought two sheriff’s deputies as witnesses and his phone to document with video, Patty’s reaction. Mr. Dominguez, unable to reach Patty on a ranch that has poor cellular coverage, called Patty’s sister and threatened to cut the lock on the gate if she did not open it for him. This combative approach was designed to set Patty off. When Patty unlocked the gate and let Mr. Dominguez and the sheriffs on the property, Mr. Dominguez started taunting Patty to elicit the response he was there to document. He told Patty that it was Mondo’s ranch and she had no right to stay there. He told her that he would not tell her where Mondo was and also that Mondo didn’t want to talk with her. Unfortunately, Patty, who was already emotionally distraught and physically drained, gave Mr. Dominguez the performance he had come to record by getting very upset. This was the final piece of the puzzle Mr. Dominguez needed to keep Patty from ever seeing her father again. In yet another example of Mr. Dominguez’ disregard for Mondo’s health, he left only with a few sets of clothes, leaving Mondo’s medications at the home. Clearly, the urgent need to collect Mondo’s medications was a false premise.
January 27, 2022: The cabal has moved furniture into Mondo’s Lompoc ranch house, which was not in a condition to be lived in. They are doing this in order to support their claim that Mondo lives in Santa Barbara County, where the tribe has more influence, instead of his real home in San Luis Obispo County. They also want to keep Patty away from Mondo. Patty and Mondo’s brother Ted show up while the movers are putting the furniture in the house. Supposedly “neutral” conservator Jason Dominguez then claimed that Patty verbally assaulted the movers. Unfortunately for Mr. Dominguez, we have a sworn declaration from Ted to the contrary, AND we have a video of the encounter where Patty asked the mover: “Excuse me, what is your name?” and when he provided it, she said “Thank you.” Apparently, to Mr. Dominguez that qualifies as verbal abuse.
Mr. Dominguez has abused his duties to the court and to his conservatee, Armando Perez. He has made a mockery of the court by using his court-ordered powers to abduct Mondo for the third time in 10-months. By removing Mondo’s daughter from the medical chart and replacing her with Virginia Garcia, he has shown that he is not working for the court, or for Mondo, he is working for the Garcias. Changing Mondo’s residence and primary care doctor in the exact same way as the Garcias did when they originally abducted him, simply cannot be a coincidence. The fact that Mr. Dominguez has no interest in Mondo’s health, having him discharged from the hospital, not getting him supplemental oxygen as ordered by the doctor, and then leaving behind Mondo’s medications at his home, shows a wanton and callous disregard for Mondo’s health. We ask that the court remove Mr. Dominguez from his position as conservator and replace him with someone who can put Mondo’s health and welfare first. But most importantly, we beg the court to have Mondo returned to the care of his loving daughter and his real doctor before it is too late.
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Contact Us: Justice4Mondo@protonmail.com
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