DECLARATION OF DR. DEAN 5. EDELL
l, Dr. Dean S. Edell, do hereby declare and certiry thatl
My name is Dean S. Edell M.D., and my wife is Sharon Johnson
Edell PhD. Sharon is the current trustee
of the Zylo Marshall Special Needs Trust. My wife and I have
alternated as trustees since becoming
trustees in 199g. ln 1g75, for a fuw mcnths, I lived next door
to Zylo, (who was less than a year old atthe time), his father, and
his mother, in Guerneville, California. I had not seen nor heard
from Zylo againuntil 1997 when he asked me to take over the
trusteeship from his aging graMfather' My wife and Iagreed to serve
as trustees, and we have never charged (nor plan to charge) the
trust for any trusteefees despite the hundreds of hours we have put
in over the years, our main concern being the welfare ofZylo and
the limited amount of funds in the trust. Our interest in this
document is to briefly offerinformation regarding the trust's
history ln the hopes of clarifoing certain issues before the
court.
Mr. Allan Haymes, Zylo's grandfather, was the forrner trustee
and we communicated with him duringand after the transition to our
trusteeship. Zylo had a near fatal automobile accident at 9 months
of age
which caused considerable neurological damage. Zylo suffers
certain mental and physical disabilities asa result of has
traumatic brain injury. At age 14, in 1989, he witnessed the murder
of his mother Denise,Lois Haymes, sister. The perpetrator, her
ex-husband, killed himselfat the scene and an insurance policy
of approximately S100,0(D was transferred to the special needs
trust referenced above. The value of thetrust today is S11,00O.
Zylo lives on 5900 a month from disability, social security and
other government
stipends. He has held Various jobs, tone to community coltege,
completed Job Corps, gotten a realestate license and attempts
diligently to make a living. His inability to drive, his seizures,
and cognitivedeficits make employment difficult. His fianc6e
Josephine is pregnant at this time expecting a childaround Sept 5.
Last year they experienced full term birth of a still born child on
May 31, 2013.
It is our wish that if any monies are realized from this case
for the benefit of Zylo, they should be placed
in his special needs trust, and not given to him personally.
During the transfer of the trusteeship and afterwards I have
spoken on the phone with Mr' Haymes' My
last conversation with Mr. Haymes was 5/241A8. He stated at that
time that Zylo was in his will and
"wouldn,t ever have to worry as he would be taken care of." He
asked that Zylo not contad him or hisaunt Lois as it upset her, and
giyen that she was his only care8iver, he desired peace- He did say
that he
enjoyed his last visit txith Zylo, which he described as
"pleasant, and just a grandfather and a grandson."He asked for my
phone number but after a few attempts was unable to write down even
the area code.
I am a licensed physician in Califomia and I suspected, without
the benefit of any clinical information
that he was suffering from symptoms of Parkinson's dementia"
I hav spoken to Zylo's aunt Lois on many occasions, including
but not limited to the following dates:
6llLl}8,]i}fiyas,n/4la8,and],,;/t4/o8,. lfelt we had a Sood
phone relationship- She did expressappreciation to us for trying to
help zylo despite the obvious enmity between her and her nephew'
on
these occasions Lois stated that she and her father wanted Zylo
to get professional help and there was
money set aside to pay for this. ln addition she asked that Zylo
not contact her or contact or visit Mr.
Declaration of Dr. Dean S. Edell 1'
\{eiY(\sHaymes at all. \F*rco stated there was money set aside
in the estate to take care of Zylo upon Mr.
with these wishes. not contact or see his aunt or his
grandfather from then on. At their specificrequest, we did find him
a specialist in traumatic brain injury. Zylo saw this doctor
regularly and becausethe remnants of Zylo's trust held devalued
stocks, we paid SgOOn for Zylo's therapy from our own
funds,expecting the promised reimbursement from Mr. Haymes. When I
brought this up again with Lois,instead of providing the direct
reimbursement, she told me to take it out of the trust, which was
alreadygreatly depleted. During mediation, only one hatf of the
funds we expended were offured inreimbursement to us and we
accepted, and gifted this money to Zylo's trust, . Just after Mr.
HaymeJdeath I received a call from an attomey in Mr. Donoff s
office that Zylo was disinherited and that I wasto communicate that
news to Zylo. As expected it was not well received.
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State
of California that the foregoing is true andcorrect.
Signed this 19th day of March,2014, at Mendocino, California
.itr*J-&uzfiDEAN S. EDELL, M.D.
