Texas man detained in a psych ward, nursing home without due process

"I tried to get out of Methodist and they locked the door. They wouldn't even let me out."



Charlie Fink says he was locked in a psych ward against his will.

RICHARDSON, TX — A man says that after he drove himself to a hospital for a surgery, social workers detained him against his will and he was then put into a psychiatric ward, and ultimately a nursing home. In a wild exhibition of state power, the man has been a prisoner without due process and no way to free himself.

On February 21st, Charlie Fink, of Arlington, Texas, drove himself to Methodist Richardson Medical Center for a scheduled hernia surgery. Fink, 85, was scheduled to leave three days later. But to his dismay, he was locked in a room against his will and told he may not leave.

With the government complicit in his abduction, he went to the media to help him.
“I tried to get out of Methodist and they locked the door… [APS] told me I wasn’t never coming home.”

“They put me in a mental institution Monday night,” Mr. Fink told MyFoxDFW.

Fink’s friend and neighbor, Kenny McIntosh, received a distressed call from the hospital. “He called me and said, ‘I haven’t left yet; Adult Protective Services lady came in here and told me I wasn’t never coming home,’” said McIntosh.

“I tried to get out of Methodist and they locked the door,” said Fink. “They wouldn’t even let me out.”

In secret, social workers held an emergency “protective” hearing and claimed Mr. Fink was a threat to himself. That allegation is all the state needs to nullify all of the man’s freedom and autonomy. Fink was soon transferred out of the psychiatric ward and over to a nursing home in Arlington.

Mr. Fink says he has no mental illness or dementia, and was afforded no opportunity to defend his freedom in court. The whims of Adult Protective Services (APS) were all it took to make him a permanent prisoner.

Fink expressed his frustration to reporters, saying, “I just don’t think they should have a law like that… it should not be allowed to be.”

APS got involved based on an anonymous tip that Mr. Fink could no longer take care of himself. And that’s just about all it takes to void out the independence of Charlie Fink and millions of other elderly or incapacitated individuals.

“Give him one more chance,” said his friend Kenny McIntosh. “That’s all I’m asking. Give him one more chance and bring him home and let us take care of him.”

But the state doesn’t have to give him anything once he is placed in its captivity. If the temporary guardianship is turned into permanent guardianship, Fink will not see another day as a free man. He will be locked up, forcibly medicated, and controlled in every way until he dies.

Cases of forcible medical detention have been receiving some much needed coverage recently. A teenage girl in Massachusetts named Justina Pelletier has endured over one year of forced drugging in state captivity after her parents were deemed to unsuitable guardians because they disagreed with the psychiatrists at Boston Children’s Hospital. Another detainee, 26-year-old Bret Bohn of Anchorage, has been turned into a permanent ward of the state because the government believes that federally subsidized psychiatrists care more about his well being than his own parents.

No one’s freedom is secure as long as people can be turned into medical prisoners in such a cavalier manner.