Crown drops charges against woman whose mother died in her care

HAMILTON— When Hamilton police found Rose Dobrasyan sitting on a couch in her living room, the 90-year-old was wearing a very dirty T-shirt and diaper; she could barely lift her head and spoke in a whisper.

“As one officer spoke to Rose, he watched a cockroach crawl out from her shirt and go out her neck area,” assistant Crown attorney Amber Lepchuk said, reading from an agreed statement of facts in court earlier this month.

The home smelled like feces and rotting garbage. There were piles of garbage and other items blocking hallways. The fridge was broken and filled with rotting food. A rat ran across the kitchen floor. There was nothing to eat or drink.

In contrast, Rose’s daughter Sonya Dobrasyan — the only other person in the house — was dressed in clean clothes, had clean hair, had makeup on and had a recent tan.

Yet as police spoke with Sonya she did not appear to understand the severity of the situation, Lepchuk said. A bug crawled on her neck and she didn’t seem to notice. This was Aug. 4, 2017. Rose died in hospital six days later.

These are some of the details revealed in a Hamilton courtroom where Sonya agreed to a peace bond earlier this month. She was originally charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life, but criminal charges were withdrawn in exchange for Sonya’s promise to keep the peace for two years and to not be anyone’s caregiver.

“The Crown takes elder abuse and elder care very seriously,” Lepchuk told the court. But these were “unique circumstances.”

Sonya’s lawyer, Asgar Manek, noted that his client had a degree in psychology at McMaster University, but never worked because of depression and other issues.

She lived with her parents in their Barton Street East home. It was after the death of her father that hoarding began.

Manek presented a report from psychiatrist Dr. David Dawson not to contest the upsetting facts of the case, but to show “context” for Sonya’s behaviour.

“I do not believe this was a situation of wilful neglect and/ or elder abuse,” Dawson wrote. “This sad situation grew out of a codependent mother/daughter relationship, each suffering from anxiety/depression, each relatively isolated from the external world, each harbouring some fear of the external world.”

Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman called the facts of the case “disconcerting,” noting that he had initially thought to say more, but decided against it because the letter from Dawson “explains a lot.”

Goodman encouraged Sonya to seek counselling and wished her good luck.