Court filing: Attorney forged documents to deny father treatment after shooting

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A court filing claims a Kansas City law firm owner used a forged legal document to deny her father life-sustaining medical treatment after he was shot.

The indictment was released Monday, the same day 44-year-old Susan Elizabeth Van Note was to be arraigned in Boone County on charges of forgery and first-degree murder. Two others have been charged with second-degree murder in the case.

Read the indictment: http://bit.ly/TCZG8T

Court documents show prosecutors believe Van Note forged her father’s power of attorney for health care to deny him vital treatment, in other words a do not resuscitate order.

On her law firm’s website, Van Note boasts that she teaches classes and seminars in estate planning including "power of attorney for health care" -- the very document she is charged with forging. She also advertises classes on "end-of-life options" and "caring for aging parents."

Van Note's 67-year-old father, William Van Note, was shot in October 2010 along with his 59-year-old girlfriend, Sharon Dickson.

Dickson died in the shooting at their Sunrise Beach home at the Lake of the Ozarks in Camden County. Van Note died four days later at a Boone County hospital.

It wasn't immediately clear where the defendants were being held or if they had attorneys.