Originally Posted - December 16, 2006

return home

CENTER LINE, MICH---Dec. 25 will be his 85th birthday but it's questionable if Joseph Perez will be home for Christmas.

He sits in jail, charged with the kidnapping of his wife from a Michigan nursing home and taking her to Titusville, Florida.

Perez and his 84-year-old wife lived together in Florida for nearly a year until a Medicaid claim tipped off police as to their whereabouts.

Authorities had placed the woman in the Father Murray Nursing Center in Center Line after making a determination that Perez wasn't adequately caring for her. He took her from the nursing home in January, presumably for a dentist's appointment and instead moved to Florida.

Officials had claimed that Perez hadn't kept his house clean enough. After his wife injured her finger in a door, authorities claimed that Perez, who has no teeth and wears broken dentures, had bitten her.

Perez had guardianship of his wife until the finger injury was reported. He was then removed as her guardian and she was placed in the nursing home.

Perez's attorney has been sharply critical of the prosecutor's office, saying that they have excessively charged him but they claim that they're only looking out for the woman's best interests. She suffered a stroke more than a decade ago and is on a feeding tube. He says he just wanted to be with her.

She says was miserable in the nursing home and didn't want him to leave when he came to visit her.

The elderly man has been jailed in lieu of a $100,000 bond. He faces a preliminary hearing in 37th District Court in Macomb County, Michigan Wednesday on federal charges of kidnapping. After Macomb County officials conducted an investigation when learning of the Medicaid claim, they brought Perez back to Michigan.

His wife is living in their Michigan home and is being cared for by relatives.
12-16-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette