She is considered a dependent adult, which means yes, he has a legal obligation to seek help for her equivalent to what he would be obligated to for a child. You don't leave someone in that kind of state and not seek help. Clearly she was not in her right mind. This isn't a matter of 'her own choice' anymore than coughing up blood is the 'choice' of someone with TB.
There is no such thing as legal obligation to seek help for anything for anyone who is not in your legal care... this was a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship and last I check my girlfriend isn't sitting at home waiting for me to change her diaper. Unless he signed documents that he would accept legal responsibility for her, then he could have left the place and never come back and they couldn't do a lickin thing to him. Added: checking on information about Dependant Adult, all I see are things for choosing a proper guardian, and what to do about elder abuse.
There's such thing as a moral obligation, but that is not legal... and that is all there is here unless they prove he was her legal guardian... and if he was her legal guardian, then someone somewhere royally screwed up and they should be the ones charged, not him.
If I wanted to be an evil bastard, and I seen some old lady getting beating by a bunch of punks, I may feel I should call the police and report the crime and maybe help the lady..... but I have no legal obligation to help and I could just walk away and do nothing.
And just because the Sheriff claims she's a "Dependant Adult" doesn't actually make it so. There's tests and proceedures for those sort of things.
"
Whipple asked the county attorney to charge McFarren for mistreatment of a dependent adult. The prosecutor did not return phone calls seeking comment.
"The unfortunate thing is this truly is a case of two people, in my opinion, with diminished mental capacity," Whipple said."
So once again, if by his profound expert opinion on mental illnesses, that they are both subjective to dimished mental capacity, then how the hell does he think he can charge him for her stupidity, when he was the one who actually called to get help in the first place?
Why didn't she?
Once again.... where are the parents of these two, or better yet.... any of their families to leave these two together with their "diminished mental compacities?"
There are plenty of people who have plenty of phobias, such as leaving the house, eating a certain food, talking to certain type of people, and the sort..... many people with these problem can and usually will live their entire lives with these conditions, will refuse any help, and continue to stay in their homes probably for the rest of their lives.
The boyfriend seems to be getting the flack for just being there.
Seriously, if he didn't live there, or they just were not together in the first place, she lived on her own (as it seems like nobody else was around to do anything) then when someone finally went to come for collections on overdue bills and mail piling up, and find her putrid corpse hanging off the seat of the toilet..... who's to blame?
If the Sheriff claims they both have deminished mental capacity, then I'd have to also say they're both Dependant Adults of the same nature.... so who permitted him to be responsible for her care? Who put them both up in this place and how did their lives start off? I'm pretty sure he didn't snatch her off the street to make her a pet.
