South Florida woman alleges conspiracy in Baker Act: Lawsuit

A South Florida woman is taking legal action after she says she spent nearly two weeks in mental health institutions for no legitimate reason. 

Demoree Hadley claims in a recently filed lawsuit it was all orchestrated by her own mother and says others who should have protected her failed her. 

Hadley shared body camera video and dozens of pages of her medical records, she says, support her case. 

‘YOU’RE BEING BAKER ACTED’

“Legally, I can’t go home?” she asks Broward Sheriff’s deputies on the body-camera video she shared with NBC6 Investigates.

“No, you cannot. Because you’re being Baker Acted,” one deputy responds. 

The video shows the moments in a Dania Beach parking lot when BSO deputies encouraged Hadley to get into a gray pickup truck with people, she says, she didn’t know. Earlier in the video, they identified themselves as a mobile crisis unit. 

“I can’t drive with you and you guys take me?” she asks the deputies on scene.  

“You’re going to be in handcuffs, the dog is not going to be able to come,” a deputy answered, referencing Hadley’s dog, which she was holding in a carrier. 

“I don’t want to be in handcuffs,” Hadley replied. 

“Ok, we are going to take you to their vehicle,” the deputy said. 

 Demoree says they took her to a Memorial Regional Hospital for a mental health evaluation after a doctor at the scene signed paperwork saying she was a risk to herself. 

“What he told me was we received a call from your family that you tried to OD the night before,” she explained, adding she had never met that doctor before.

That doctor was Daniel Bober, the chief of psychiatry at Memorial Regional Hospital, who also runs a private practice.

“I spoke to your mom,” Dr. Bober tells her in the video, “I spoke to your aunt.”

LEGAL FIGHT 

According to Demoree, it’s her own mother who is behind the incident. 

In a lawsuit, she claims her mother, Desiree Perez, “used unlawful means” to have Demoree “falsely detained under Florida’s Baker Act and Marchman Act.”

“She’s the CEO of Roc Nation, which is a company that she owns along with Shawn Carter, the famous rapper Jay-Z,” Demoree said. 

The complaint alleges a conspiracy, saying Perez used her “money, power and influence to tear apart” Demoree and her husband Javon Hadley. And “created an enterprise of individuals to effectuate her plot.” 

“To essentially try to separate me from my husband and to falsely accuse him of domestic violence,” Demoree said.

Perez has repeatedly denied these allegations in court filings. A month before Demoree filed her complaint, NBC6 Investigates found Perez filed her own lawsuit against Demoree’s husband Javon, citing evidence Perez says shows he has abused her daughter for years, something the couple has denied in court records. 

In that lawsuit, Perez says she moved to Baker Act her daughter, “Fearing she was at risk of suicide and abusing prescription drugs.”

“I haven’t seen anything in my entire 20 years of practicing law that it is so clear that someone did something wrong,” said attorney Hilton Napoleon II. 

Napoleon is representing Demoree in the lawsuit, which also claims Perez harassed the couple for years, including making unfounded claims to get Javon arrested on multiple occasions for battery and domestic violence, charges prosecutors didn’t pursue.  

“The (Miami-Dade) State Attorney’s Office wrote an eleven-page scathing closeout memoranda, which basically said that her mother made false allegations to the police,” Napoleon said.  

 In a closeout memo, a prosecutor with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office cites Demoree’s “lack of cooperation” and raises concerns about some of the evidence and how it was obtained. 

 The prosecutor also wrote Demoree was ‘wrongfully baker acted’ last year, something Perez’ attorney disputes in a letter challenging that and many of the memo’s other conclusions. 

A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade State Attorney told NBC6 the office stands by their memo. 

“I have three different collateral sources of information that say she’s been acting psychotic,” Dr. Bober says on the body camera recording, “That she threatened to overdose yesterday.”

Demoree’s lawsuit alleges her mother conspired with Dr. Bober, a prominent psychiatrist, and others to have Demoree committed for a mental health evaluation. 

 Bober cites supporting evidence from her family in the Baker Act form and diagnosed Demoree with an “unspecified psychosis.” He ordered Demoree be taken to Memorial Regional Hospital. 

Results from drug tests taken upon admission were negative, according to records Demoree shared with NBC6 Investigates.  

“They told me your tox screens came out negative. And I go, ‘I know. I don’t do drugs,’” Demoree says. 

A representative for Dr. Bober told NBC6 that he is unable to do an interview following the advice of his attorney, adding he was not compensated in connection with Demoree’s case.  

She also shared a statement from Dr. Bober’s attorney, which said Demoree “was placed under the Baker Act due to the potential risk of imminent harm she posed to herself. After meeting with Ms. Hadley and speaking with her mental health provider and members of her family, the decision was made to initiate the Baker Act in order to ensure her safety. This action is consistent with Florida law, which aims to protect individuals experiencing a crisis. Failing to take appropriate action and provide necessary care for Ms. Hadley would have been a breach of Dr. Bober’s ethical and professional obligations.”

Demoree and her attorney dispute her doctor supported the decision to Baker Act her.  

In her lawsuit, Demoree also alleges her doctor “wrote a letter disputing Demoree’s supposed need for treatment or hospitalization.”

Demoree’s doctor declined to discuss the case, citing the law that protects patients’ privacy. 

TRANSPORT TO SECOND FACILITY

While Demoree was at Memorial, Perez further petitioned to have her transported to a different facility under Florida’s Marchman Act, claiming again in court records that Demoree suffered from severe drug abuse. A judge granted that petition. 

“They ran the test. They knew that she had no drugs in her system, and she was not abusing drugs,” said Napoleon, “And the fact that you can’t do anything about it is scary.”

Demoree was sent to a treatment center in Deerfield Beach called Life Skills, where Dr. Bober serves as medical director. A representative for Dr. Bober told NBC6 that he evaluated Demoree for 38 hours as part of the Baker Act process and had no involvement in the decision to transfer her to Life Skills or her care afterwards.

“Where are the people that are supposed to protect me from this happening?” Demoree asked during the NBC6 interview.

According to her lawsuit, Demoree requested a hair follicle test at that facility called Life Skills, which detects drug use for at least the past three months, and which showed “no drugs had been in Demoree.”

Demoree was held at Life Skills until April 8. The discharge paperwork shared by Demoree cites the Marchman Act’s dismissal in court and lists the diagnosis of “persistent depressive disorder,” which she disputes. No medication was prescribed. 

Court records show Demoree was able to leave that day after her mother voluntarily dismissed the case. 

But Demoree says the damage has been done. And she feels a system designed to keep people safe, failed to protect her. 

“Money, influence, and power should not be something that’s used or abused to hurt innocent people,” she said. 

Perez has filed a motion to dismiss Demoree’s complaint, asserting that the Baker Act and other legal proceedings she has undertaken were “rooted in legitimate concern” for her daughter’s safety.  

Memorial Healthcare says they can’t speak about Demoree’s case because of the pending lawsuit. 

Emails sent to Life Skills South Florida inquiring about this case have not yet been returned. 

According to BSO, the incident involving Demoree is now internally under review.