While Leon Toney lay in a coma at a Tacoma rehab facility, the state invalidated his marriage.
The move draws into question whether the women he married, Rene, can continue as his guardian and make key decisions about his medical care.
She was given the role in May after a court battle with Toney’s aunt, Charrene Robinson, who moved to Tacoma from California to help take care of him. Robinson said she plans to redouble her challenge now that the state has voided the couple’s marriage.
Rene, who has largely stopped working to be at Toney’s bedside, said that she was going to fight the revocation.
"I don’t know why we all can’t get along and heal Leon. I’ve been in this man’s life. He called me his wife. I called him my husband. Now they’re trying to twist everything around. He’s going to wake up and be like, ‘What happened?’"
To make matters more complicated, if Toney awakens, the state Department of Corrections has claim to him. The 31-year-old was incapacitated in September after trying to hang himself with a sheet in an isolation cell at McNeil Island Corrections Center.
Toney was sentenced to 28 years for shooting a man in the stomach. He had served 12 years.
Problems with Toney’s marriage were found by a Washington State Patrol detective who was investigating his suicide attempt at the Corrections Department’s request. Based on the detective’s findings, the state voided the couple’s marriage license.
Full Article and Source:
Guardianship fight centers on inmate in coma
The move draws into question whether the women he married, Rene, can continue as his guardian and make key decisions about his medical care.
She was given the role in May after a court battle with Toney’s aunt, Charrene Robinson, who moved to Tacoma from California to help take care of him. Robinson said she plans to redouble her challenge now that the state has voided the couple’s marriage.
Rene, who has largely stopped working to be at Toney’s bedside, said that she was going to fight the revocation.
"I don’t know why we all can’t get along and heal Leon. I’ve been in this man’s life. He called me his wife. I called him my husband. Now they’re trying to twist everything around. He’s going to wake up and be like, ‘What happened?’"
To make matters more complicated, if Toney awakens, the state Department of Corrections has claim to him. The 31-year-old was incapacitated in September after trying to hang himself with a sheet in an isolation cell at McNeil Island Corrections Center.
Toney was sentenced to 28 years for shooting a man in the stomach. He had served 12 years.
Problems with Toney’s marriage were found by a Washington State Patrol detective who was investigating his suicide attempt at the Corrections Department’s request. Based on the detective’s findings, the state voided the couple’s marriage license.
Full Article and Source:
Guardianship fight centers on inmate in coma
4 comments:
This is yet another example of the state having its big nose in the citizen's business.
A wife should trump all others as caregiver, even a beloved aunt.
They must figure out a way to work together.
Guardianship victims have less rights than convicted murderers.
I never gave a thought to a prison inmate also being a guardianship victim.
That said, I think because he is an inmate, he will receive better treatment than the usual victim.
Rene Toney and Charrene Robinson have to sit down at the table and work it out.
A "side effect" of guardianship abuse is that it can divorce people - either figuratively or literly.
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