Pasadena Police Find Man With Dementia Who Went Missing Over One Month Ago

Pasadena police arrested a 62-year-old South Los Angeles man with dementia for vagrancy only to discover he had vanished a month ago after being dropped off by California Highway Patrol officers on the night of Nov. 5 in West Carson following his brother’s arrest on suspicion of DUI.

Douglas James was a passenger in a car being driven by his twin brother, Donald, on Nov. 5, when they were stopped by the CHP and Donald was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, according to City News Service.

“He was sleeping in (a) dental office,” Lt. Sean Dawkins of the Pasadena Police Department told NBC4. “It’s fortunate for us that we ran him for all types of any wants or warrants and it came up as a missing person.”

KTLA reported Lt. William Grisafe said Pasadena officers found Douglas James when they responded to reports of a man sleeping in the lobby of a pediatric dental office in the 1100 block of East Green Street.

James was arrested on an outstanding warrant, Grisafe told KTLA. Online booking records show he was booked Wednesday morning on a felony and is being held without bail.

Attorney Mark Ravis said that James will be released from Los Angeles County jail this morning. He will be reunited with family at a news conference at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles at noon, when more details about his case will be released, according to City News Service.

Ravis told KTLA that after the November traffic stop Donald James was taken to a CHP station and held for about 10 minutes before being cited and ordered to appear in court in February.

Donald says he called CHP and was told officers left his twin at an Arco gas station on Sepulveda Blvd.

The family filed a missing persons report with Los Angeles Police on November 7.

The California Highway Patrol said in a November statement that its officers were not aware that Douglas James suffered from dementia when its officers dropped him off in a public “safe place.”

“It is our understanding Douglas James communicated with the officers freely and logically and exhibited no indication he was unable to care for himself. However, in light of these recent statements we are reviewing the actions of the officers involved in this incident.”