Friday, October 7, 2011

Dementia Sufferer Divorced From Reality

The man’s name is Frank LaCon and I visited him at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital a few weeks ago.

He has been diagnosed as having frontotemporal dementia, a progressive and incurable condition not unlike Alzheimer’s disease except that it hits younger people. LaCon is 51.

Besides being unable to speak or care for himself, LaCon suffers from psychotic episodes and sometimes he has to be strapped to his bed.

He is also going through a divorce and has been for six years, which is why I am here.

His family believes that he is getting a raw deal from the Common Pleas Court system in Delaware County.

Last April, while he was in the psych ward of the Delaware County prison for allegedly violating a protection-from-abuse order taken out by his estranged wife, Judge Linda Cartisano finalized a divorce decree at a hearing attended only by LaCon’s wife and her attorney.

LaCon’s family is trying to get the case reopened because they believe he needs and deserves spousal support. After years of wrangling over a property settlement, suddenly last spring, Mrs. LaCon and her attorney, Dolores Varga, sought to enforce an agreement that the two parties had been fighting over all that time.

And while Mr. LaCon was incarcerated and incapacitated and in need of a new lawyer of record, Cartisano approved the decree.

Full Article and Source:
Spencer: Dementia Sufferer Divorced From Reality

4 comments:

  1. Very interesting case.

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  2. Interesting? Something unusual about a corrupt judge who forgot the meaning of due process of law?

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  3. I understand there is a book being written about this case.

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  4. I googled this case. There isn't any new news listed about it. How is this man? Was there an appeal? This same judge recently did something equally reprehensible to members of my family. I'm trying to gather those of us who were treated unfairly by this woman together so we can take action. Help!

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