Contested Guardianship Fl/ny

(posting on friend’s account) Location: NY/FL

Backstory facts: My 75 y/o mother has fairly bad dementia. She lived in NY her whole life. She’s a retired teacher with a great pension and savings. Enough to afford a nice memory care facility. (Total estate approx 1 million). My sibling is POA.

My mom’s 69 y/o brother (my uncle) flies in after not seeing my mom in NY for years. He immediately drives her to the bank and adds his name on her bank accounts, and takes copies of all her financial documents (investments, pension, house deed, etc).

My sibling, who is my mom’s main caretaker and POA, shows up to my mom’s house that evening and the uncle is on the phone with my dementia-affected mom instructing her to not open the door, and he even calls the police. (He’s back in Virginia at this point so not even present.) He works for military intelligence, but soon retiring.

The next week the same uncle flies back into NY and abruptly puts my mom on a plane to Florida, leaving her unlocked car at the train station and all her belongings behind.

Upon arriving in Florida, my mom’s 80 y/o sister - a retired bookkeeper - immediately takes my dementia-affected mom to an attorney and signs a new Florida POA, listing herself (and my uncle) as POA’s. They then proceed to liquidate some of my mom’s investment accounts and transfer my mom’s NY bank money (approx 200k) into a new shared Florida account, with my aunt’s name on it along with my mom’s. They transfer my mom’s pension to the new Florida bank account and forward her mail to Florida. My aunt applies for Florida residency for my dementia-affected mom, and sticks her into an assisted living facility with a DNR (do-not-resuscitate) order. All this done without the consent of any of my mom’s adult sons/daughters. My uncle claims he did this to “protect” my mom from my sibling’s theft of her assets, which is a baseless accusation against my sibling, but there’s enough “smoke” to create a false narrative.

My sibling, of course, fights this, but my uncle and aunt dig in, hire attorneys, and the issue goes to Florida guardianship court. My aunt/uncle and sibling have nastily opposed each other in court for months. The result being now a random, court-appointed guardian is fully in charge (temporarily) of my mom’s care and finances.

Here’s where I come in: I’ve been on the sidelines the whole time, caught in the middle, as I hadn’t been close to my family - not estranged, but just not involved in daily affairs. I’ve minded my own business and just lived my own successful life, assuming everyone in my family was happy, healthy, and sound. But now I feel if I remain on the sidelines, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I feel what’s happening to my mom is morally wrong.

This week, I told my aunt/uncle I will apply for sole guardianship and bring my mom back to NY, where my siblings and I live. My aunt and uncle said they oppose this, and want to keep my mom in Florida with a court-appointed guardian (of their preference) in control of my mom.

Any advice how to proceed? My legal options?