Former Dyer woman to serve out last year of sentence for attacking father

A former Dyer woman with an alleged history of mental illness will serve the remainder of a 5-year sentence for attacking her late father.

Darlene Wozniak, 56, pleaded guilty, but mentally ill in July to level 5 felony domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury in the Dec. 13, 2018, incident.

She was accused of attacking her father with a pair of scissors, trying to cut off his penis. The man, Carl Wozniak, 78, died on Dec. 29, 2018, of unrelated causes, lawyers said.

Judge Samuel Cappas sentenced her Friday. Since she’s been in custody since her December 2018 arrest, she has about 300 days left on her sentence, her attorney, Herb Shaps, said.

Ideally, Shaps wanted her to be sent to the Evansville State Hospital for mental health treatment. That wasn’t possible to arrange, because she had been declared competent to assist her defense by county experts, he said.

Her plea agreement notes she has been on Social Security since age 35 for physical and a mental bipolar disorder.

Wozniak was prescribed Depakote for a bipolar depression and mood disorder diagnosis, documents state.

Shaps said the jail has “really gone above and beyond” to make sure she is properly medicated, receiving counseling and getting the structure she needs.

Around the time of the attack, she was “overmedicated,”, Shaps said.

At one point, she was prescribed as many as 27 pills per day. Her sisters would not be able to care for her, he said.

“I know I’m doing well,” Wozniak said in court. “I can’t say what I did was right. I am sorry for what I did. I accept what (sentence is given).”

Shaps said he would file a petition to reexamine the sentencing arrangement if he could later find a suitable placement for her.

Cappas said he “will entertain” it, noting it was in the best interest for her and society to get intensive mental health treatment.

Shaps filed for a mental health competency evaluation in 2019. Two doctors concluded Wozniak was competent in November 2019, according to court records. However, the report by Clinical Psychologist Gary Durak said Wozniak has a “serious mental illness,” according to court records.

Dyer Police were called Dec. 13, 2018, to the 800 block of Harrison Avenue for a reported stabbing, charging documents state. Wozniak’s father and his wife were both lying on hospital beds, while he was screaming in pain.

Her father told police she lunged at him, punching him several times, then took scissors and tried to cut off his penis, charges state.

Wozniak was originally charged with aggravated battery, a level 3 felony, which would have risked 3 to 16 years in prison.

She was accused years earlier of attacking her son and a neighbor in Highland.

Wozniak admitted she went to her neighbor’s house on Jan. 23, 2005, after her 11-year-old son had sought help from them when his mother choked him and hit him on the head with a telephone. Wozniak swung a knife at the neighbors and cut the wife. Highland police arrived and arrested Wozniak, who had not taken her medication for mental illness.

Then-Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. ordered her in November 2005 to serve two years in an alternative sentencing program following her guilty plea to attempted battery and battery.

Her other charges were dropped — aggravated battery and domestic battery by means of a deadly weapon.