RIVERDALE, Ga. — A Clayton County woman with severe Alzheimer’s disease is behind bars after scratching her daughter during a confused episode, even though her daughter didn’t want to press charges.
Pamela Reynolds says she has been fighting to get her mother, Annie Reynolds, out of the Clayton County Jail since Friday after she says her mother was falsely arrested.
“She kept saying she didn’t want to go,” Pamela Reynolds told Channel 2′s Ashli Lincoln.
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Police were called to the Reynolds home near Hwy. 138 and Taylor Rd. in Riverdale on Friday afternoon after 69-year-old Annie wandered away from the home and towards a busy intersection.
After finding her mother incoherent and irate because of the Alzheimer’s, Pamela Reynolds says her mother scratched her and left marks on her arms.
“I know she’s feisty, I know she doesn’t understand,” she explained.
She says Clayton County police saw those marks and, when paired with her mother’s erratic behavior, decided it was best to remove Annie from the home.
“He said it was out of his control. He said the law states, when a person put their hands on you, they have to go to jail,” Pamela Reynolds explained.
Pamela Reynolds added that officers offered to take her mother to a hospital, but when she refused, jail was the only other option.
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The Alzheimer’s patient was then booked into the jail charged with injuring her daughter.
“Alright, Ms. Reynolds, you’re charged with one count of battery, family violence,” a judge can be heard saying in video recording of her arraignment hearing, in which Annie Reynolds appears visibly confused.
Pamela Reynolds says she has tried bonding her mother out of jail, but because she’s listed as the victim, she has not been allowed to.
“They won’t let me see my mom. Her bonding conditions is that she don’t come near me. How can you do that? I’m her caregiver,” she told Lincoln.
Channel 2 reached out to the Clayton County Police Department for a statement. They told Lincoln that they are looking into it.
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Lincoln did find a Georgia law that backs up the officer’s decision to take Annie Reynolds to jail.
In Georgia, a person can still face charges in a domestic-related incident, even if the victim doesn’t want charges filed.
Pamela Reynolds says that in spite of this, because of her health conditions, the Clayton County Jail is the last place her mother needs to be.
“You didn’t have to take her to jail. They didn’t have to take her, they could have gave her to me. We begged and begged to just release her to me,” she said.
Annie Reynolds does have another hearing on the Clayton County court docket where her daughter is hoping the charges will be dropped and she can come home.
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