ALZ and the law

Marytheoldest

My father was served with a court filing against him for trespass on private residential property. He has moderate ALZ and believes that people want him to visit them. Will his doctor's notes be admissible in court as a defense?

SusanB-dil

oh gee! It doesn't seem to end, does it… and welcome to 'here'…

I would check with a lawyer. I am certainly not, but seems that if he has a diagnosis, the papers would explain a lot.

harshedbuzz

@Marytheoldest

Hi and welcome. I am sorry for your reason to be here, but pleased you found this place.

Does someone have POA for your dad? If so, I would call the attorney who created the documents and run this by them.

I have seen dementia factored into a criminal case locally recently.

https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/southeastern-pa/charges-dropped-against-montco-man-who-had-been-accused-of-beating-killing-wife/article_636a4ee0-da79-11ee-ad2b-a78bb359c558.html

Does dad live alone or did he elope on his caregiver? I would anticipate APS involvement if he's living alone or left unsupervised.

HB

Quilting brings calm

I don’t think that’s going to get him out of it totally. More likely that APS will get involved if you can’t show that you’ve taken appropriate steps to keep him from trespassing - or wandering if it was unintentional.

He cannot be allowed to keep going onto their property uninvited intentionally or not. They have the right to decide who is on their property ( and who they want to associate with). There’s also the matter of liability if he got hurt on the property.

Think about it this way: Someone can plead temporary insanity or lack of capacity in a criminal proceeding. It might keep them out of prison- but it normally then requires them to be treated as either an in-patient or an out-patient until they are deemed not a danger to themselves or others. Their condition isn’t a free pass to continue to behave however they want.

housefinch

In a child, this would be supervisional neglect and an open child protection case. In an adult with dementia? I don’t know. Whatever the outcome, it sounds like he needs a 24/7 supervised living situation. Especially if his neighbors respond to him like this. Who knows what they might do next time?

MN Chickadee

I can see the doctors letters keeping him out of a punitive sentence, but may lead to the state intervening on his care/guardianship. He needs 24/7 supervision so be ready for placement. If nobody holds POA there may be a guardianship process in front of you. No matter what you will need a good attorney, both for his court case and elder law attorney for what follows.

In my state a PWD hit a pedestrian with his car last year and injured the person. The court deemed the PWD incompetent to understand the charges and ordered to live at a local memory care facility for "treatment" which we know there is no such thing, until such time as he may be able to be deemed competent to stand trial which will never happen with the progressive nature of dementia.