Please contact Orange County Adult Protective Services about Yoel's situation. Yoel Friedman has endured many hardships in life due to developmental disabilities. Nevertheless, he has worked hard to support himself and lived a quiet life until August 2018. He had a job, two businesses, was happily living with his wife, Sarah, and their two kids. Shortly after that, everything changed. At the age of 37, after getting by on his own for years, Yoel’s freedom and dignity were savagely torn from him when his own brother filed a petition with the court to declare Yoel an incapacitated person and completely took over his care. After being declared Yoel’s guardians in September 2018, his brother, Yehudah, and sister, Faigy, proceeded to neglect their duties of care while leaving Yoel in an increasingly restricted position to meet his own needs. They cut off his access to other forms of aid and Yoel’s wife Sarah was also threatened with potential guardianship. Wanting to stay out of trouble, she kept quiet, remaining distant. For Yoel, the situation became unbearable, and he could not find the support he once had. In his own words, Yoel felt he was left with no means to survive. What kinds of people would do this to another person? Was it indeed malintent or simply a misguided attempt to aid a family member who was so different from the rest of society? “In order to force me to surrender…to their full control and direction, they must destroy any accomplishments or help I got [or] will get without them,” Yoel said of the situation. Where was the justice? What of his human right to autonomy and the ability to live life on his own terms? What follows is the remarkable story of Yoel Friedman’s imprisonment. Many details of Yoel’s situation and the evidence used in his court cases have been classified, made not even available to his family. The lack of details available in his case allows the injustice to live on unchecked. This page was established to expose the evil scheme against him with the hopes of raising awareness of the injustices he and others like him have faced. Background
Yoel Friedman has, from a very young age, never received help to develop and function correctly and was incapacitated about how to communicate with others as a result. Nonetheless, he could minimally function on his own to earn a living. Around March 2004,Yoel married Sarah Friedman, had two children, and they lived together until September 2018, when he was kidnapped, and his minimal function was destroyed. No one ever made an effort to get a professional opinion about Yoel’s incapacity. As a result of childhood incapacitation, Yoel struggled to earn a living until January 2010, when he managed to find employment as a kindergarten teacher at Vayoel Moshe Religious Elementary School in Monroe, NY. He was employed there until September 2018. In March 2014, Yoel bought an apartment in Monroe, NY, where he resided with Sarah and their two children. With assistance from his brother Ben, around January 2016, Yoel successfully developed two separate businesses, Mung Beans USA and Friedman’s Real Food, producing and marketing various specialty whole foods and shakes in the Kosher market in New York. He operated this business until September 2018. Yoel was always able to manage and pay his bills and expenses on time and entirely by himself until September 2018. Yoel’s incapacity required educative help to teach him how to communicate with others. Still, Yoel was never in a situation that required, in any way, someone to be guardian over his finances. On that day in 2018, Yoel was told that he must surrender and submit to other people’s control, something they labeled as “help.” When Yoel refused, he was told that since he was incapable of understanding this by himself, they must force this (purported) “help” on him against his will. After that, in late August 2018, Yoel’s brother Yehudah filed a petition with the Orange County Supreme Court to declare Yoel an incapacitated person and be appointed as guardian for Yoel. On September 11, 2018, before the court made any ruling, Yehuda forcibly removed and kidnapped Yoel from his apartment, seized all of Yoel’s belongings, assets, money, property, IDs, banking, other documentation, and took away Yoel’s independence. Yoel had lost all control of his life. State Court Judge Robert Onofry, though notified, still allowed this to happen and continue, despite the evident and illegal plot. In early January 2019, Judge Onofry granted Yehuda’s petition to appoint him and his sister, Faigy Tyrnauer, as guardians. That order provided, among other things, for the guardians’ exclusive power of controlling Yoel’s monies, assets, payroll checks, business, and any other income and bill payments. Yoel’s payroll checks went to the guardians. He could not apply for public assistance since he no longer possessed his IDs. Yoel is constantly in need and must beg others for food, shelter, and other basic necessities. In late July 2019, the court replaced his sibling guardians with Sarah’s brother, Joel Teitelbaum. The guardianship orders the guardian must provide and care for Yoel, including shelter, a place of residency, food, clothing, medical care, and all other basic necessities. To date, Yoel has received zero assistance whatsoever, no shelter, food, maintenance, funds, clothing, transportation, medical healthcare, or any and other basic life necessities, let alone religious and cultural needs. Since August 2018, Yoel has communicated numerous times with Judge Onofry’s office and Orange County Adult Protective Services (APS) to inform them that his basic needs are not being provided for and he feels wholly neglected and ignored. While the introductory provisions from the court order have been neglected by his guardians, Yoel is still restricted from taking care of these needs himself. On the one hand, the proclaimed “helpers” declared Yoel as incapacitated and disabled while simultaneously refusing to provide the life necessities that any other disabled person would get. Yoel has been blocked access to the court. The county, APS, and the court all turned a blind eye and refused to hear his pleas for help.
