Has anyone ever heard of a dementia patient being arrested for aggressive behavior? Is it common?

Because the local police should be alerted to the fact that there was a person with diminished capacity on those premises. If you don't tell the local precinct, then they assume that the assailant is in their right mind and arrest him/her. If they know that there is a person with a mental illness/dementia, etc at that address, they might, at least in my city, send out a special team and the elder would be in a secure facility with good medical/ psych care, not jail without meds. That's why.

Regarding alerting the local police precinct - I would encourage anyone living with an elderly person with dementia and also for people with disabilities. My son is severly autistic - completely non verbal and doesn't understand a lot of what is said to him. He is also about 6'2" and 185 lbs. At a glance Rainman looks "normal". The police in my city have itchy trigger fingers and are well known to "shoot first, ask questions later". Rainman would never respond to "stop and put your hands over your head". There are actual forms for registering with the police for the disabled - I'm sure someone with dementia would be able to use that same form.

I don't know if you are the caregiver/wife or not. I will tell you that my elderly aunt was beaten black and blue by my uncle with Alzheimer's for years before their kids got wise to it and had him placed in a lovely facility. She died of a massive heart attack a couple of months after he was placed; he lived for several more years, blissfully happy in his memory care/AL facility.

It's sad, but I believe it. Recently in a nearby town a dementia patient who was living in a group home was arrested for murder when she stabbed her roommate! I was shocked, but she's in jail.(Louisburg, NC) I suppose her attorney will try to explain that she is mentally incapable of forming an intent to kill. Still, it's a horrible thing for a dementia patient to go through.

That's why it's so important to ensure that the dementia patient is protected. They could get hurt trying to hurt someone else. It's one reason that aggressive and unpredictable dementia patients are at risk when cared for in the home. They can turn on a caretaker and get hurt themselves by police.

luludesevilla - sad situation that's for sure! I'm not a "jump on the band wagon" kind of gal and have always tried to support law enforment officers - a tough job to be sure, but there have just been too many police shootings and death by excessive force in my city in the last several years for this not to be a very real worry for me. I also have a small decal on my car windshield that says "This car my contain an occupant with Autism and who may not understand or respond to verbal commands". I swear if it was legal I'd chip him like my pets for fear of him wandering off while out with a companion! We can't prepare for everything when it comes to our sick and disabled loved ones, but we can do what we can do.

http://preventelderabuse.blogspot.com/2006/10/perpetrators-with-dementias.html The above is an interesting blog about a case from 10 years ago, where an elderly man with dementia killed his wife with a knife; apparently everyone saw it coming. Cases like these are most likely the reason that elders with dementia who become, or seem to become violent, are being treated as domestic abuse perpetrators.

I had an elderly aunt and uncle who lived alone; he had dementia. He turned out that he was beating her black and blue to get the house keys from her, because he liked to go out and wander along the highway. She died of a heart attack shortly after he was placed in Memory Care. Would have been better if someone had figured this out. There is no doubt that the stress of caring for him and keeping this "secret" from her children and church family was a contributing factor in her death.

Most women would rather not call attention to the fact that they are being beaten. They assume that somehow, it's their own fault. Usually the abuser, demented or not, is telling the victim just that.

lulu, it is more common than you think. The husband should have been committed to a facility when the violence started. When that is not done, the violence escalates and somebody lands in jail. They end up homeless or in a motel that takes a voucher, a very temporary voucher.

Maybe contact the local DA? Local media? The apparent conflict of interest angle should appeal to the media ("bonus" money for domestic abuse cases leading to excessive behavior - good muckraking stuff). Sadly the threat of bad publicity can sometimes elicit better behavior than an appeal to sanity.
Since this is a progressive disease your friend DOES need to come up with a long-term solution for her husband though.
In defense of the The problem with domestic abuse is that MOST of the time the situation needs a victim willing to cover for the abuser, which looks pretty much identical to someone explaining dementia.

Had the local police been alerted to his condition prior to this incident?

They knew. They had been informed prior to going to the house and arresting him. They decided to arrest him anyway. I am a friend who helps them out. I recently had to place my mother in a locked facility due to violent behavior (Lewy's) She attacked both myself and my sister several times. Threats were a daily, if not hourly occurrence. My sister once sought medical attention and we were never threatened with arrest. She'd get out of the house, run down the hill to the police station and tell them we were trying to steal all her things and kill her. They would kindly pack her up and bring her home. Never once did they accuse us of hurting her or her hurting us. No one was ever arrested. Is it because we were all women? I think they arrested him because he's a man and the County gets Federal grant money to prosecute domestic violence cases. I just worry this is a going to become a trend among cash strapped prosecutors offices. Even in this extremely rural area I know of 4 women who are caring for ailing husbands and two men caring for their wives. They are all very concerned what is happening here and they could be next. I will let all of them know to officially notify the local authorities of their situations. I see Rainmom's point. This too is a shoot first area. The message may not get down to the cop on the beat but at least it will be officially recorded so if something like this does happen they will have a fall back in Court. It really says something when we spend so much time protecting our loved ones from harm. Harming themselves, harming us and other family members, now we get to protect them from the police too. Like things aren't complicated enough already. But so far with the exception of the death involving room mates I can find no other cases of a patient being arrested for assaulting a caregiver related or not. This can't be a one off. If it is, that in it's self is helpful information.