Reporter
Jake Pearson is a reporter in New York where he has conducted metro, campaign finance and national political investigations for ProPublica since 2018.
He previously worked for the Associated Press, NBC News and the New York Daily News. His work has prompted criminal prosecutions and oversight hearings. He has been recognized with various journalism awards.
Judicial leaders in New York created two new oversight positions as they work to reform the state’s guardianship system. The personnel additions follow a ProPublica investigation that spotlighted lax monitoring of court-appointed guardians.
A new bill asks Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators to overhaul New York’s broken guardianship system. It cites a ProPublica investigation that found the elderly and infirm living in dire conditions while under court-mandated oversight.
New York Guardianship Services had billed Judith Zbiegniewicz $450 a month for court-ordered care, but a judge found the company provided “minimal services, if any” for years, including at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Judges allowed one of New York’s most prolific guardians to engage in apparent self-dealing as she transferred $1.5 million of her wards’ money to her own company.
New York’s system for caring for the sick and elderly is in shambles, experts say. But while lawmakers in other states are overhauling their approaches to guardianship, New York only budgeted $1 million to address its deep-seated problems.
As legislators negotiate a budget worth hundreds of billions of dollars, advocates wonder whether Albany will approve $5 million for reforms to the state’s troubled guardianship system.
From public funding for guardians to more scrutiny of nonprofit providers, experts say policymakers could take several actions to bolster the state’s foundering system for caring for its most vulnerable.
Unchanged diapers. Fees collected for care never given. New York Guardianship Services is often tasked with caring for the "unbefriended," but records show more than a dozen cases where it failed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable.
Judith Zbiegniewicz lived in squalor, yet every month, her legally appointed guardian was paid $450 from her bank account. She is one of the thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers left stranded by a system meant to protect them.
A jury found New York City liable for NYPD rights violations in a case city lawyers fought for years. Critics say the hardball approach helps perpetuate a cycle of police misconduct.
Decades of costly settlements have prompted some elected officials to question whether the city enables bad policing by aggressively defending against misconduct claims instead of demanding changes to NYPD practices.
For 11 years, Karl Ashanti represented New York City cops in civil-rights cases. Then he was charged with a crime he didn’t commit.
George Floyd’s caught-on-camera murder prompted massive social justice and police reform protests. But a spike in violent crime shifted the narrative around public safety.
City agencies were aware of misconduct claims against Sgt. Ed Mullins, the powerful leader of the NYPD’s sergeants union, but did not investigate. Years later, his home and union headquarters were raided by federal agents.
After prosecutors flagged hundreds of cops caught fixing tickets for friends and family a decade ago, the officers’ work was supposed to get an extra level of scrutiny. Some cases fell apart anyway.
The FEC’s inspector general has called for the agency to review its policies and internal controls after ProPublica revealed a key employee’s undisclosed ties to Trump.
Bill de Blasio once pledged powerful oversight of the police. Then he became mayor. Insiders reveal what happened next.
A little-known labor contract provision obligates New Yorkers to help pay officers’ legal bills in lawsuits that city lawyers won’t defend.
Caroline Wren, a Trump fundraiser, is listed as a “VIP Advisor” in a National Park Service permit for the Jan. 6th rally at the Ellipse. Text messages and a planning memo show the title downplays the active role she played in organizing the event.
Here’s ProPublica’s running list of Joe Biden’s picks to run the federal government.
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