Judge Declares Maple Leafs Ballard to be Incompetent

Harold Ballard, the ailing owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and once one of the key figures in the NHL, was ruled to be mentally incompetent by a district court judge today.

Judge Donna Haley made her decision after reviewing reports from two doctors and two psychiatrists who examined the 86-year-old Ballard in his hospital room in Miami.

“I’m satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Harold Ballard should be declared incompetent,” she said of the multimillionaire, who also owns Maple Leaf Gardens, his team’s home arena.

The judge backed an application by his three children, Bill, Harold and Mary Elizabeth Flynn, that a guardian be appointed to manage his personal affairs.

The Flynns’ lawyer, Charles Scott, recommended in court that Ballard’s longtime companion, Yolanda Ballard, should not have any control over him.

The Maple Leafs owner checked in to a hospital in the Cayman Islands last month and was later transferred to Miami Baptist Hospital suffering from kidney failure.

A Florida court appointed a guardian last month to handle Ballard’s affairs until he is well enough to return to Toronto.