* Wright removed some wards from their own homes, then housed them in Smiling Acres, a Pompano Beach boarding home she operated -- even though state laws prohibit that kind of conflict of interest. Wright chose not to renew her license to operate the home in 1992 after state regulators cited the facility for fire hazards, insufficient food and other deficiencies.

"Everything was just filthy," said Nikki Gwynn, whose family owns the house where Wright ran the boarding house and who was present when Wright moved the elderly residents out of the house two years ago. "The rooms were all pissy. The residents had been sitting there pissy for days."

Although the boarding home is long closed, it is the last address Wright lists for some wards in public records. She declined recently to say where she has moved them.

"She gave them all to different people," said Wright's adult daughter, Deborah Peterson, who sometimes helps care for her mother's wards.

The applications Wright submitted to the Broward County probate court, seeking work as a guardian, contain spelling and punctuation errors and show scant qualifications. She listed her work experience variously as maid and nurse's aide at Colonial Palms nursing home, which she spelled "nuse aide" and "Coloney Palms." Her record-keeping was also sloppy. Court personnel repeatedly warned Wright and her attorney that legally required progress reports on her wards and their assets were overdue.

None of this stopped Broward judges from appointing her as guardian of 12 people -- one mentally ill young man and 11 elderly -- between 1990 and 1992, and authorizing her to pay herself $30 an hour with her wards' money.

Many of the elderly people Broward judges placed in Wright's care were extremely frail, confused and had no close relatives to help them. They belong to a fast-growing population that is straining South Florida's public social services and fueling the growth of a private guardianship industry.

Luftig, the retired furrier, came to the attention of state social workers and the courts because he used to wander from his Margate condo, fall and lie face down for hours until someone rescued him, according to court documents.

Gene Cross, Wright's former friend and business partner, said Wright told him it was easy for guardians to use their wards' money. One of the ways was not to report some of the old person's assets to the court at the start of the guardianship, Cross said.

"She had told me she could do a lot of things with people's money -- spend their money," said Cross, 59, a heavy-equipment operator who sings gospel with the Smiling Jubilaires in his spare time.

"She didn't tell me specifically she took it from the old people. She mentioned it to me what she could do. She said people do it all the time. . . . They report what they want, and the rest they put it in their own bank accounts."

Wright and Cross entered into a business agreement in 1991 to buy a bus for $35,000, as well as a bulldozer, an eight-ton trailer, a Mack truck, and other costly vehicles, according to a 1993 lawsuit Wright filed against Cross after their relationship soured.

Wright paid for the vehicles but wanted Cross to title them in his name alone, her lawsuit says. The vehicles were to be leased for profit and the proceeds shared by Wright and Cross, according to the suit.