Relatives of a successful lawyer who abandoned his family and career amid a mental health spiral during Covid have spoken of their devastation after he found himself on the streets of Los Angeles.
Two years ago, Rob Dart, 44, was an award-winning attorney and devoted father living in a $2 million home in South Pasadena.
He had overcome a mental health crisis a decade earlier, following the end of his marriage which saw him tormented by voices in his head.
At the time, Dart still had the means to turn to his family for support and he managed to recover at home in his childhood bedroom before moving out and reinventing himself as a high-flying lawyer. flight.
But in 2022, his life began to unravel again with the advent of the pandemic, which saw him spend hours working from home.
Rob Dart, 44, was an award-winning lawyer and devoted father until a mental health crisis during Covid sent him into a downward spiral
The once-successful lawyer slipped into psychosis that left him living on the streets of Los Angeles.
His mental health problems began when he was 35, during his separation from his ex-wife, but he managed to get them under control and start again.
Dart stopped his therapy and medication and quickly lost contact with his family as well as his job.
He didn’t pay his rent, his car was impounded, and shortly afterward his phone was cut off.
“I got on a plane,” her mother Sherry Dart told the Wall Street Journal. “I thought I was going to find a dead body.”
When she finally caught up with her son, he was almost unrecognizable and furious.
Dart allowed his mother to greet her grandson for a short while, before taking him away. He then ignored his mother’s repeated phone calls over the next few days.
It was a similar story for Dart’s sister Jennifer when she tried to visit him in July, weeks after his deportation.
Jennifer looked around the area before finding her once clean-cut brother, with matted hair and in disarray at a Starbucks.
“The only thing I could recognize was his eyes,” she said, describing a similarly hostile reaction.
He returned to Southern California to this $2 million home and forged a career as an award-winning lawyer.
But in 2022, the advent of the pandemic caused him to work from home more and he stopped his therapy and medication, which caused his mental health to plummet, causing him to become homeless.
Dart was among millions of Americans whose mental health problems were exacerbated by the pandemic due to interruptions in treatment, routine or other reasons.
During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25%, according to a scientific study published by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dart’s family had hoped that California’s stricter laws on detaining people with serious psychotic disorders would provide the safety net he desperately needed.
In 2022, CARE Court laws gave judges the power to incarcerate people with mental illnesses in facilities if their family members file a petition with the courts.
In most states, there is little relatives can do to access treatment on behalf of patients without their consent.
However, Dart’s moments of lucidity and his legal training allowed him to often argue his way out of incarceration.
One such event occurred after he was persuaded to be hospitalized in December 2022 after neighbors called his mother to report he had become hysterical.
A panicked Sherry immediately called the police who sent mental health specialists who were able to get her into treatment.
Sherry flew to California the next day and was devastated by what she found in her son’s apartment.
Dart’s mom Sherry (left) and sister Jennifer (right) both tried to contact him multiple times. Pictured: Family in happier times
Dart was able to escape his confinement in psychiatric institutions on several occasions thanks to his legal training and his flashes of lucidity.
Opening the door, she was hit by a rancid smell and the sight of wild engravings in notebooks describing how Dart had heard the voice of Satan.
His paranoid ramblings included that he was John Lennon, “St. Nicholas Cage”, “the invisible Obama” and that people were trying to steal from him.
Dart was released from the hospital and showed up in irregular condition on his ex-wife’s porch on December 28.
His condition alarmed her and she refused to allow him access to her son, prompting Dart to file a court motion accusing him of breaking the custody agreement.
The judge was convinced by his articulate arguments and agreed to a hearing. However, when the extent of his depression became known, the courts granted him an order of protection.
Over the next few months, Dart’s family desperately tried to contact him, without much success.
Things took an even scarier turn in September 2023 when he was shot in the leg on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Dart was trying to “meditate” down the stretch when he was hit by a stray bullet.
Sherry spent all her savings trying to keep her son safe, with limited success.
In a terrifying incident in September 2023, Dart ended up being shot in the leg and had to be hospitalized. Pictured: Dart in healthier times
He initially refused to be hospitalized, but was later persuaded to go there by a friend.
Once there, a psychiatrist tries to have him committed. However, Rob used his legal training and flashes of clarity to get through it again.
The next few weeks were marked by trips to and from area hospitals, but never for long.
His family continued to try to support him, funding Airbnbs, hotel rooms and a few meals on DoorDash. Sherry spent all her savings to keep her son safe.
On Dec. 27, Dart posted on Facebook looking for a place to live.
“Hey guys, I’m looking for a place to stay in LA. It’s because I’m homeless. If anyone has space in their apartment or anything, PM me. Thank you, he said.
At this point, Dart had become one of 46,000 homeless people on the streets of Los Angeles.
The next time his family heard from him was three months later, when he asked that they leave him alone.
Dart’s sister, Jennifer, flew to California on her brother’s 44th birthday to try to locate him and eventually found him disheveled in a Starbucks. Pictured: Dart’s siblings before the breakup
Dart maintains he is not sick and that taking his medication is making him worse
For his part, Dart maintains that he is not sick and that stopping his medication has improved his life.
“I wanted to leave the hospital and I didn’t want to take medication,” Dart told the Wall Street Journal.
“It made me more afraid, less assertive, less confident. Who wants to feel that? You realize you’re kind of the same person,” Dart said. “You just know more about yourself.”
But for his family, it already seems too late because all they have left is the memory of who he was.
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