Daughter accused of dealing father a 'death by forgery'
LIBERTY, Mo. - The golden years were shaping up nicely for accountant William Van Note. The 67-year-old retiree had several boats and a waterfront vacation home at central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks. He could jet off to a winter getaway on Florida's Gulf Coast, and had plenty of money in the bank after a career preparing taxes and renting out office space in Liberty, a country town north of Kansas City.
And soon, after 20 years together, he and companion Sharon Dickson were going to wed, hoping the union would be a new start after previous failed marriages.
They never got the chance. In October 2010, an intruder shot the couple in their lake home, killing Dickson and leaving Van Note critically injured. He died four days later, after his daughter told doctors he would rather die than be kept alive by medical intervention.
What happened next set the stage for a unique legal case: Van Note's daughter, Susan, was accused by prosecutors of pulling the trigger and forging her father's signature on the document doctors relied on to end his treatment. The case, which essentially accuses her of "death by forgery," has captivated the small Missouri community since her September arrest. Legal experts say it has little, if any, precedent.
"He died as a result of them removing life support, not as a result of the gunshot," Camden County prosecutor Brian Keedy said. "If you commit a felony, and somebody dies as a result, there is a criminal responsibility for that death."
Susan Elizabeth Van Note, 44, who goes by Liz, is a lawyer who specializes in end-of-life issues, and advertised herself as offering "compassionate representation of clients." She is jailed on a $1 million cash bond, facing charges of felony forgery and first-degree murder.
She has pleaded not guilty, and if convicted could face a lengthy jail term or the death penalty. She has not been charged in the death of Dickson; prosecutors say they are pursuing the cases separately.
Friends of both victims and the suspect describe a troubled father-daughter relationship weakened by the divorce of Susan Van Note's parents three decades ago. The couple had two children, but William Van Note's son and namesake died as a teenager.
The relationship between father and daughter appeared to have recovered somewhat, at least enough that Van Note felt comfortable letting his daughter handle some of his affairs. Liz Van Note, who lived with her mother and teenage son in the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit after a 2006 divorce, helped her father manage his commercial rental properties on Liberty's historic downtown square, said floral shop owner Brenda Toates, a Van Note tenant.
Van Note built his payroll and accounting businesses from modest beginnings, said Joseph Frederick, a retired airline mechanic in Kansas City who started getting his taxes done by Van Note more than four decades ago, when Van Note's office was in a basement. Van Note's jovial demeanor didn't fit his profession's buttoned-down stereotype, according to Frederick.
Van Note had sold several of his businesses years ago, but continued to work during tax season when not vacationing, Toates said.
His daughter, meanwhile, was struggling to make ends meet. Records reviewed by the Associated Press show that Liz Van Note filed for bankruptcy in federal court in September 2009. She listed $254,938 in assets and $374,072.86 in debt owed to 10 creditors, including American Express, Wells Fargo Bank, and a children's hospital. She'd worked for Merrill Lynch before attending law school, and listed a monthly income around $3,300.
Prosecutors have also declined to discuss specific evidence about the shooting. But they have said that Liz Van Note enlisted a high school classmate and her spouse, Stacey and Desre Dory of Shawnee, Kan., to act as witnesses to the forged documents. The Dorys were indicted on felony forgery and second-degree murder charges; their attorney, Milt Harper, says they are "going to be vindicated."
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