AFFIDAVIT

STATE OF LOUISIANA

PARISH OF SABINE

BEFORE ME, the undersigned, an officer duly commissioned by the laws of Louisiana, on this ____ day of _______________, 19____, personally appeared BRANDT BAXTER, who having been first duly sworn deposes and says:

I visited my father, August C. Baxter, on Sunday, June 20, 2004. My father has had two strokes which have left him with severe visual and auditory deficits as well as a significant short-term memory impairment. Other cognitive abilities remain intact, including a sense of humor, but he is easily confused because of his sensory deficits and inability to always remember things that just happened. He has great difficulty reading and comprehending because of the memory deficit. To date he has not been interdicted and has no legal guardian although he has reportedly signed a document appointing Robert Lewis his guardian if he should be interdicted in the future.

When I entered the room he immediately asked if my brother, Eric Baxter, had come with me and whether we were going out for lunch as we had discussed earlier. I explained that the plans for lunch had been changed and that Eric had dropped me off, but couldn't come in because he had been forbidden (by letter dated June 24, 2002). However, he continued to repeat his question concerning Eric's failure to visit him. Later there was discussion with the "caretakers" regarding the letter forbidding Eric entry. The self-proclaimed caretaker, Senneca Peters, insisted he could come in if he asked and received permission from her. I explained that according to the legal opinion given Eric, the law did not allow exceptions once he had been forbidden to enter the premises. Father may not have fully understood the discussion but he was clearly confused and upset at the notion that Eric was not being allowed on his property. He had no memory of the letter although he appeared to have signed it. (My father and Eric had always had an unusually close father-son relationship, partially due to their many mutual interests and the fact that Eric had chosen to live with my father during his teen years while my mother attended graduate school. The idea of my father forbidding Eric to come on his property is ludicrous. During this discussion, Senneca made comments about both Eric and my mother, that they were liars and deceitful when, on the contrary, they are the opposite.

Father was delighted with the Father's Day gifts and his face lit up when he saw the $50 Eric had enclosed with his card and said "This is just what I need. I only have $7.00." He then stood and put it into his wallet. Later he took it out again and counted the bills correctly saying, "I only had $7.00, now I have $57, I wonder where it came from." I reminded him that Eric had given it to him.

He liked the picture my mother sent him of the four of us taken on his birthday in January, 2004, the only occasion we have been permitted to be together since my stepmother's death in June, 2002, even though we were closely "chaperoned". He apparently was able to see the picture as he commented that mother was one of the few women he knew that got better looking as she got older. He then started telling me in low tones so the "caretakers" couldn't hear that he needed to meet with my mother as he had something very important to discuss with her. He wanted to meet with the three of us for lunch and "talk over important things." He said he wanted my mother to have the house because "she had it built and she should have it if she wants it." "If she doesn't want it, she should be the one to say what is to be done with it." He apparently was remembering that my mother had designed the house and had it built while he was in Thailand. However, my mother was paid for her share of the house when my parents were divorced and she has no interest in accepting property she feels should go to my father's four children.) He further said "they (motioning towards the caretakers out of earshot at the end of the room) think it's for them, but it's not." He went on to explain that "Senneca was Lou's (his wife) granddaughter, but now she's not anything." He apparently meant that since the relationship with step-family members is terminated upon the death of a spouse, that Senneca was no longer a member of the family. He also said that mother should have anything in the house that she wants. (He may have been remembering that most of my mother's property which she had left with him for safekeeping had been stolen by the Lewis family immediately following my stepmother's death.)

At one point my father asked me to go with him to the study, which I did, and he shut the door behind him, the first and only time I had been allowed to speak with him in privacy. He said he wanted Senneca and her husband to "go home" or go anywhere away from him. He expressed this in very strong terms, repeatedly. "They don't do anything for me that I can't do for myself." He said they will not take him anywhere he wants to go. The only time they go anywhere is to a certain store and back home. He further stated that "they only cook one meal a day and it takes about 15 minutes." I had noted before that dinner at night was usually some form of pasta with sauce from a jar. I looked in the pantry and there was no food there other than spaghetti sauce. I had dinner with them tonight and we had pasta with canned sauce and garlic bread. He has lost a great deal of weight and has a severe tremor in both hands. I am also concerned that Senneca said he "loves sweets" as he never did before. Now, she said if they bring home a container of ice cream he "will eat the whole thing" and "he will eat a whole box of cookies." It doesn't seem to occur to her that he is probably just hungry. (When we took him out for his birthday in January he ate everything placed in front of him, including salad, soup, entree, and desert. He even finished his meal with a cup of coffee, which he doesn't usually drink.)

His only activity had been mowing the lawn with a push mower, but it is now broken and he complained that they won't get it repaired for him.

He is very angry with Bob (Robert Lewis) who has control of his bank accounts and finances. He said he had no money in his bank account in Natchitoches and that his checks (about $5,000 monthly) "were going to Bob somewhere in Kansas and I don't know where it is going." While I was there he demanded that the "caretakers" call Bob, but they kept putting him off, saying they would call him after dinner, but then telling him they would call Bob after I left. He was obviously angry and demanded that they call Bob, but he was basically ignored. (He cannot make calls himself as his long distance service was discontinued by Bob and he does not have access to a cell phone. He couldn't use a cell phone even if he had access to one. Also, some time ago he complained that his private telephone book had been taken away and he didn't have our phone numbers any more.)

He was very clear about a number of other things he wanted, but was most unhappy about his money and where it was going. Bob had stopped the bank statements from going to my father and, instead, was sending him a monthly "statement" that Bob compiled.

All during the visit he kept insisting I look around the house and take what I wanted. Since most of his valuables had already been stolen by various Lewis family members there was not much left, but I saw the large portrait my mother had insisted he have made in full dress uniform which was leaning against the wall. On my last visit I had found it stuck behind a sofa and I had pulled it out and leaned it against the wall. I told him I would like to have the portrait since it had been taken down from the wall and stuck behind the couch. He immediately told me to take it. Then, Senneca stopped me and said she "would rather check with the rest of the family" before I took it, because "its been written into the will and I don't know who it has been left to." It is strange that she should know what is in his will since I, his oldest son, do not. Several times my father asked me why I wasn't taking the portrait when I left.

Since Eric was picking me up and because my father was so disappointed when he didn't come in with me and so insistent about seeing him, I asked Senneca if father could walk to the gate with me to see Eric. She refused to let him go.

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WITNESS: ________________________

Sworn and subscribed before me this ____day of ________________A.D. 2004.

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NOTARY PUBLIC

NOTE: The most remarkable aspect of this visit was the change in my father's attitude about his situation. He had originally expressed many of the same complaints when he first learned about the arrangements that had been made for him. He was particularly unhappy when he learned that the granddaughter and her husband were moving in, but he was resigned to the situation, having been told that his only option was to have them or he would have to go to a nursing home in California. Following his last stroke, Bob had insinuated himself into my father's affairs and had convinced him that he had nobody else to turn to, a classic strategy of Undue Influence. Consequently, my father had developed great faith and trust in Bob although in the past he had always spoken of him with contempt and referred to him as that "dumb jockstrap." It was a stunning revelation when I learned how the interloper had so influenced my father to the point where he believed he was "lucky to have Bob."

On past visits, although he expressed minor dissatisfaction with various things, he had never before expressed such a strong desire to get the granddaughter and family out of his house. The previous summer he had a near physical confrontation with the husband and he did not want him around. On this visit he never said he wanted Bob out of the picture, but it was clear he was very dissatisfied about how his money was being handled, which is a recent development. He has become increasingly aware of his exploitation and now appears to understand that his money is being used to support the granddaughter's family. When previously asked how much he was paying them, he had responded, with great surprise at the question, "Nothing!" He further thought that "since the kids are living here, Bob is paying for the groceries." Previously he did not know a contract had been drawn up paying them $2,500 a month plus other expenses, and may not know it to date. He still does not know how his signature got on the document forbidding Eric to enter his property. In a taped conversation he expressed great distress when he recognized his signature on it and could not believe anyone could draw up a document so totally contrary to his wishes. He has no idea his prenuptial agreement with his wife was deliberately ignored by Bob and the attorney when they rewrote the wills on his wife's death bed, or that his money was used, contrary to the prenuptial agreement, to pay his wife's debts. He doesn't know that the Lewis' attorney claims to represent him. He does not remember how Eric had to fight to keep him from being committed to a nursing home following his last stroke, or how Eric assumed total legal responsibility for him in convincing the hospital staff to let him go for walks outside the psychiatric ward where he was hospitalized after his last stroke. He has forgotten that Eric and I were the only ones of all his children and step-children to visit him in the hospital

He has no idea that he signed a document stating that Bob was to be designated his guardian should he be interdicted in the future. He does not know that Bob plans to have him buried in Natchitoches when he dies instead of returning him to Ashland, Ohio, to be buried with his parents as he has made clear to us that is what he wants. He was never informed that one option was to have Eric live with him and care for him at no expense to him. (As a science researcher, Eric works largely at home, has his own income and his father could spend all his money any way he would choose. Before learning that we would not be taking over the care of our father, Eric had researched the best treatment for strokes, worked out a treatment plan, contacted various experts in the field, and planned a recreational/exercise program for him. Because father had always wanted to return for a visit to the little Italian town he had been instrumental in rebuilding following WWII, Eric had called the mayor of the town and arranged for his father's visit.)

In the beginning, my father had been aware there was much going on that he did not clearly understand and that he was signing documents that he "didn't understand a third of what I signed" as he told anyone who would listen . He asked Eric to review all the documents and explain to him what he had signed "because you are the only one who can explain things so I understand." Bob had said it wasn't necessary so father was deprived of information that he should have had.

One thing that disturbs me greatly is that my father was apparently "brainwashed" to have some very strange ideas, totally inconsistent with the truth I have heard him say things related to my mother and to Eric, mostly about paying for their education, when mother always worked to pay her own way and Eric always had financial support in graduate school. Although he never said it to me, I have heard that he has made comments to others that he has had to support Eric all his life. I can only believe his wife must have put such notions in his head and I have sometimes wondered if this is the basis for his former stepchildren's animosity towards Eric. To me he has only expressed his great pride in Eric and his many talents and accomplishments.