An attorney is claiming a hasty call to social services from personnel at a Villages Health System facility led to a 77-year-old Villager’s wrongful arrest.
Janie Wong Minier of the Village of St. James is facing a charge of domestic battery following her arrest Jan. 3 at the The Villages Health System Brownwood Care Center.
Minier had gone with her husband to the health care facility on Brownwood Boulevard where staff noticed her black eyes.
An attorney for Minier, in a motion filed in Sumter County Court, claims a misunderstanding led to Minier being arrested and her husband of 53 years being turned over to the Florida Department of Children and Families’ Adult Protective Services division.
Minier was later released on her own recognizance, but the court barred her from having any contact with her husband, who suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease.
Minier’s attorney is arguing that the no contact order that has been put in place is a “severe hardship” for the couple.
The husband has been placed in a memory care assisted living facility. The attorney said in the motion there is no one else to care for him. The couple in 2012 purchased their home in The Villages.
Minier has no prior arrests.
A status conference in the case is set for Feb. 18 in front of Judge Paul Militello.