Less than a month before Baltimore police fatally shot a 70-year-old West Baltimore woman who was experiencing a mental health crisis, one of her family members began the legal process to take over her medical and financial decisions — only to be stymied when the court denied his request to waive a filing fee.
Court records show that the woman, Pytorcarcha Brooks, was the subject of a guardianship proceeding that began on May 30 in Baltimore City Circuit Court. The case never proceeded any further, however, after a judge declined to waive a $165 fee required to file the petition for guardianship.
Guardianship is the legal process where a judge appoints a person to make decisions for an adult who cannot care for themselves because of an illness or disability. It is commonly used for elderly relatives and adults with disabilities, and can allow another person to make medical or financial decisions for the adult, depending on what type of guardianship petition is filed.
Baltimore police went to Brooks’ home in the 2700 block of Mosher Street early Wednesday afternoon in response to a 911 call for a welfare check and a second call for a woman “attempting to stab the caller” at the house, according to a preliminary investigation by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office’s Independent Investigations Division, which probes fatal police shootings.
Officers entered the home and encountered Brooks, who was holding a knife and appeared to be suffering from a mental health crisis, the office said. Officers repeatedly instructed Brooks to drop the knife and deployed a taser when she did not comply. When one officer tripped and fell to the ground as he tried to retreat, Brooks allegedly advanced toward him with the knife, prompting a second officer to shoot her, according to the preliminary investigation.
Brooks was pronounced dead soon after, and an officer who was injured during the incident received treatment at a local hospital and was released, the AG’s office said.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said this week that police had received about 20 calls for behavioral health issues at the house this year.
The man who filed the guardianship case shared the same address as Brooks, according to court records, and is identified as a relative in a 2018 obituary for Brooks’ brother. The Beat is not naming the man to protect his privacy.
Publicly available court records show the man intended to seek guardianship over Brooks’ person and property. When granted, guardianship of the person generally means that the adult has been deemed incompetent to make the basic decisions of daily living, said Ferrier Stillman, a family law attorney in Baltimore.
“In most instances, guardianship of the person refers to someone needing decision-making over health care because (the adult is) not competent to do so,” Stillman said. The person who is the subject of a guardianship petition gets appointed a lawyer during the process.
Guardianship of the property comes into play when an adult is found incompetent to handle their finances. A failure to pay rent case filed against Brooks earlier this year suggests that she was also struggling financially — the property management company of the Mosher Street home wrote in court papers that Brooks had failed to pay about $1,900 in rent as of mid-March.
A judge granted a request to evict Brooks on April 10, court records show, but it appears the case never proceeded further. It is not clear why.
The guardianship records are even less clear because they are not accessible to the public. But from the docket that is available on Maryland case search, it is possible to determine that the man who initiated the guardianship case filed a “Request for Prepayment Waiver” on May 30. The filing fee for guardianship cases is $165. A judge can waive that fee, but the person requesting the waiver is required to provide information about their finances to determine if they qualify.
The case docket shows a judge denied the fee waiver in Brooks’ case on June 3, four days after the request was filed. The man did not file any additional papers in Brooks’ case after that, according to the docket.