Disability Rights: When Is Taking Your Mother to Lunch a Felony?
Full article at above link. This case posted with permission of Patty Reid:
Nor were there any legal repercussions when a Florida guardian put Corinne Bramson, an elderly Florida woman, into hospice with no terminal diagnosis. Bramson was given heavy doses of morphine and expired within ten days.
It is not news to those in the disability rights movement that such abuses are going on. So when Patty Reid’s son, Landon, who had been blind since birth but did not have any documented mental incapacity, was ordered by Judge Speiser in Broward County Court (Florida) to be remanded into an institution, Reid felt the cold chill of potential undesirable futures for her son emerge. She had custody of Landon and had been his caretaker since birth, so she did what other mothers have done when faced with the prospect of an unnecessary institutionalization – she fled the jurisdiction with her son.
In April of this year, Patty Reid was arrested and her son taken from her. She is being charged with “custody interference,” which holds a potential sentence of five years in prison. In an interview last week, Reid stated that she does not know where her son is and has been denied any contact with him since her arrest. She states that the charges make no sense as she has always had custody of her son.
While still a minor, Landon had been appointed a guardian, South Florida Guardianship. “They handled the money,” stated Reid in a recent interview, “and I took care of my son.” Landon, age 19, is no longer a minor and Reid states she cannot understand why the guardianship has not been legally terminated.
Reid’s lawyer, Sue Ann Robinson, is concerned about the legality of Reid’s arrest. According to Robinson, the probable cause affidavit, used as the official document to launch Reid’s arrest, is inaccurate. “The document says that Patty Reid missed a hearing in June, 2016,” says Robinson. “That is two months before she was arrested. You cannot arrest someone for doing something in the future.”
Reid is currently out on bail.