Colorado residents may have heard that long time radio icon and the voice of Scooby Doo’s beloved Shaggy, 82-year-old Casey Kasem, is struggling with the devastating effects of Parkinson’s disease. His family is concerned about his health and safety and petitioned the court for a temporary conservatorship of their father.
According to the petition, Kasem, who retired in 2009, may be afflicted by “early onset Parkinson’s dementia.” According to information and belief, there is reason to believe that Kasem was taken out of the country by his wife, Jean Kasem, or might be living on an “Indian Reservation.”
This week, the judge in the case appointed one of Kasem’s daughters as his temporary conservator pending a June hearing. The judge also ordered that the whereabouts of Kasem be disclosed.
In 2013, another judge denied a request for a temporary conservatorship by the Kasem adult children, ruling that the elderly man was being taken care of sufficiently by his wife. In 2007, Kasem signed a health care power of attorney, giving one of his daughters the legal right to make medical decisions on his behalf if he were unable to make them on his own.
The previous conservatorship petition alleges that the radio star was “isolated from his daughters, friends and other family” by Jean Kasem, his wife of three decades.
In her successful rebuttal, Jean Kasem accused the Kasem children of shattering their father’s life, along with the lives of his wife and their daughter together. Mrs. Kasem accused her stepchildren of “engaging in uncalled for public demonstrations and personal attacks in the media,” according to court documents.
According to one daughter, the situation worsened in December of last year when they were no longer able to visit their father weekly. Kasem lost the ability to speak as the disease progressed and could no longer communicate by telephone with his children.
Attempts to visit their father at the home he shared with his wife resulted in one of the daughters being escorted off of the property. His son is concerned that they will never be able to see their father again.
Colorado residents who wish to avoid similar situations with medically fragile or elderly family members should speak to a Colorado estate planning attorney about petitioning the court for a conservatorship for their loved one.
Source: CNN, “Where is Casey Kasem? Family members, judge concerned” Josh Levs and Jane Caffrey, May. 13, 2014