Interesting story, I hope the judge rules in the husband's favor.
Dana
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----- Original Message -----
From: Randy Alexander
To: 'Bob Kafka' ; Stephanie Thomas
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 2:27 PM
Subject: missed the real story!
WARREN -- It started as a kidnapping case, but authorities now think
84-year-old Joseph Perez may only be guilty of loving his wife.
A 37th District Court judge on Monday released Perez from the Macomb County
Jail, where he was incarcerated since being charged last week with
kidnapping his wife, Helen.
"You're going home tonight to see Grandma," Perez's granddaughter, Bethany
Scribner, told him after Monday's court proceedings. Perez smiled.
Judge John Chmura on Monday reduced Perez's bond from $100,000 to a personal
bond, which means no money must be posted in order for him to be released.
He remains charged with kidnapping, for which he could face up to life in
prison, but authorities hinted the charges may be dropped.
"Let's put it this way: Everybody's going to have a merry Christmas,"
Assistant Macomb County Prosecutor John Latella said.
Perez and his wife, Helen, 81, have been living in Titusville, Fla., since
November 2005, when he took his wife away from the Murray Nursing Center in
Center Line on the pretense of taking her to a dentist's appointment. The
couple lived undetected in a Florida duplex until last month, when they
applied for a Medicaid claim, Macomb County prosecutors said.
Helen Perez suffered a stroke in 1994, and her husband cared for her in
their Warren home until she injured her finger in a door in October 2005.
Authorities thought the injured finger was a sign of possible abuse, so they
inspected the couple's house and determined Joseph Perez was not properly
taking care of his wife.
Helen Perez was sent by the Michigan Family Independence Agency to live in
the nursing home -- but she hated it, relatives said.
"She was begging to get out," Scribner said. "My grandfather tried to make
it as comfortable for her as possible. Every week he'd pay for a hairdresser
to come to the nursing home and do her hair. But she wanted out -- so they
cooked up this scheme to spring her from the nursing home and move to
Florida."
Latella agreed to having Perez's bond reduced.
"It's not our intention to incarcerate Mr. Perez, nor is it our intention
for him to spend another day in jail," Latella said.
Perez's attorney, Jerome Sabbota, praised prosecutors for rethinking their
position on the case.
"It's their job to see that justice is done, and in this case, they saw that
putting Mr. Perez in jail would not be justice," Sabbota said.
Scribner on Monday was named Helen Perez's legal guardian in Macomb Probate
Court. She and her husband recently quit their jobs in Los Angeles and moved
to Michigan. Scribner said she and her husband will live with her
grandparents and take care of them.
Scribner said when authorities originally inspected the Perezes' home last
year, they mistakenly determined that the house was uninhabitable.
"It wasn't dirty; there was just a lot of clutter," she said. "My
grandmother won't throw anything away, and if she wanted something from the
Home Shopping Network, my grandfather would buy it for her."
When Joseph Perez married Helen, he was 20 and she was 16. "They got married
right before he took off to serve in World War II," Sabbota said. "Since he
was put in jail, it was the longest they've been apart since he served in
the war."
You can reach George Hunter at (586) 468-7396 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Free Our People!
www.mcil.org
Randy Alexander
1633 Madison Avenue
Memphis TN 38104
(901) 726-6404
NATIONAL ADAPT MAILING LIST - Adapt MiCASA List http://www.adapt.org
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