UPDATED: Couple Charged After Woman Claims She Was Neglected

UPDATE: 

All charges against Lawrence and Kelly Brown were dismissed in January 2014. 

Original Story:

A couple has been charged with neglecting a bedridden woman who depended on them for care, police said.

Lawrence Brown and Kelly Brown are accused of neglecting  he woman, who said the couple is her daughter and son-in-law, inside their Adams Drive mobile home in the Breezy Acres Trailer Park. The neglect was discovered in late May after the Levittown-Fairless Hills Rescue Squad and police were dispatched after a neighbor called police after hearing the bed-bound woman calling for help, according to court papers.

The woman told first responders she was in pain and wanted to go to the hospital. Police said she also told them she was being abused by the Browns.

The woman suffers from Guillain-Barre syndrome and stayed in a bed in the living room portion of the trailer, police said. The placement of the bed was reported to have restrict space.

Here’s what the Mayo Clinic says Guillain-Barre syndrome is:

A disorder in which your body’s immune system attacks your nerves. Weakness and tingling in your extremities are usually the first symptoms. These sensations can quickly spread, eventually paralyzing your whole body. In its most severe form, Guillain-Barre syndrome is a medical emergency requiring hospitalization.

Police said the woman told them that a few days before a neighbor heard her screamed and summoned authorities she was sprayed with a hose by Lawrence Brown because she was angry and refused to talk to the couple. “You don’t want to talk to us?” Lawrence Brown asked her, according court papers. He then reportedly went outside and used a garden house to wet her from “head to toe” through a screen window.

When she was sprayed, the woman knocked over her bed pan, which spilled urine on the floor. The woman told police she was splashed with urine on the face and body when Lawrence Brown picked up the bed pan. She claimed that she laid there “soaked with water and pee,” according to court paperwork.

Kelly Brown is accused of watching the whole incident.

The woman also claimed the Browns would become angry when the bed pan spilled onto the bed sheets.

“They became furious that the sheets kept having to be washed, so they took them off and wouldn’t put them back on,” the woman is quotes as saying in court papers.

The bed did not have a sheet on it and the woman claimed a crack in the plastic mattress was raised and would tear into her skin, police said. Despite her complaints, she claimed the Browns refused to fix the problem.

The woman said she was denied her money, new clothing, a shopping trip and even a cup of tea, court papers say, adding that her cell phone was taken away by Kelly Brown.

Under the care of her daughter and son-in-law, the woman claimed she felt “sad, lonely and hopeless all at the same time.”

The Browns told police the did not abuse the woman and that she suffered from dementia.

The woman has not been diagnosed or known to suffer from dementia or any other brain ailment, police said.

The Browns have been charged via mail summons with misdemeanor neglect of care. Lawrence Brown is also charged with simple assault and harassment.

 Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.