Erika Pearsall, Princess Pearsall, Not Such a Fairy Tale Life, Teton Village Wyoming

The continuing saga of Princess Pearsall and Needy Ned Jannotta Jr.

At first glance, Erika "Princess" Pearsall boasts about her philanthropic endeavors and lives a life seemingly without reproach. Dig a little deeper, though, and you uncover the alleged ugly truths surrounding her, documented by public court records.  

According to the website, worldwildlife.org, she’s one of their leaders, and has quite the range of interests in Jackson, Wyoming. According to them, she serves as the chair for the Youth Philanthropy Program and was formerly the chair of the grants committee. She’s involved with the Jackson Hole Community Foundation, served on the board of Jackson’s regional theater, was a producer of two independent films … idyllic-sounding, right? 

Well, when you start to look at the lengthy court documents involving husband Edgar (Ned) Jannotta Jr.  a different picture emerges. There’s quite a background of lititgation going on. As I scour through thousands of pages of documentation (yes, thousands of pages) from federal court records, the picture-perfect life is painted much gloomier. 

In one case -- Case No. 1:2004cv01858, Edgar (Ned) Jannotta Jr. was named as a defendant. Barnhill, attempting to enforce terms of his employment agreement with TransHealth Inc. (THI), allegedly named Jannotta Jr. in four counts for fraud, misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, aiding and abetting, and civil conspiracy. The outcome wasn’t clear, but the case was settled.

In approximately 30 federal cases that I researched, Jannotta Jr. has been a defendant in about 25 of them. Jannotta Jr. was managing principal of GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm managing some $10 billion in capital, and through several shells and proxies, allegedly controlled THI. THI operated the nation’s largest nursing home empire. GTCR contracted to provide management services to THI. These companies restructured to transfer liability to what amounted to be a shell company while stripping it of all worthwhile assets. Negligent actions amounted to judgments totaling more than $2.31 billion. Yes, that's billion with a B.

As a reminder to Princess Pearsall, perhaps she should take some time and read a case from the Florida middle district bankruptcy court -- Case No. 8:2014ap00424. It was a case resulting from the neglect of an elderly patient, who showed sores and infections as a result of the negligence. THI agreed to a $7 million judgment, but no monies allegedly were ever paid to satisfy the judgment. 

At the heart of it, Princess Pearsall has built a foundation for this phony life of hers based on the misfortunes of others.