Man, 92, Who Eloped With 84-Year-Old Is Allowed Visits

Charles Barnes, the 92-year-old Glendale man who was barred from seeing his 84-year-old sweetheart, has won the right to visit her at will.

Barnes had eloped with Constance Driscoll and brought her to his home in Glendale. He was cited for contempt for violating court orders that she not be moved from a residential care facility in Northern California.

Although conservators for Driscoll, now in a residential care home in Pasadena, continue to try to have the marriage annulled, they have dropped their opposition to visits by Barnes.

The court-appointed conservators have also dropped their bid to have the contempt finding against Barnes enforced, which could have resulted in a short jail term and fines.

“Mr. Barnes is now able to visit [Driscoll] whenever he wants, in private,” said Stan Mandell, a conservator. “But the visits are still restricted to inside the facility where Driscoll is staying. Beyond that, I shouldn’t comment until all this is worked out.”

The contempt citation will be dismissed at a hearing scheduled for next month unless Driscoll’s niece objects, according to court documents. Mandell has agreed to drop the contempt allegations, he said.

Said Barnes: “This has been so ridiculous.” He said he is not out of the woods yet, but in the meantime, he said, he will spend as much time as he can with Driscoll.

Lawyers for Barnes and the conservators have agreed to hire a psychiatrist to examine Driscoll and determine whether she was mentally competent at the time of the marriage.

Driscoll, who is described in court documents as suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, has been in three residential care facilities in the past year. The first home, in Chico, Calif., was where Driscoll’s niece brought her to live.

Barnes won a decision from a Los Angeles judge revoking the conservator status of the niece, Kathy Foster, who lives in Chico.

Court-appointed conservators took over the role of administering Driscoll’s affairs, but were taken by surprise when Driscoll disappeared from the Chico home in September. She turned up less than a week later in another home in Glendale, where Barnes had placed her after secretly marrying her.

The conservators then placed Driscoll in her third group home, this one in Pasadena, and had required Barnes to obtain their permission before visiting Driscoll.

Mandell had earlier alleged that Barnes was primarily motivated by a desire to obtain Driscoll’s $800,000 estate. Barnes called the allegation “hooey,” asserting that his net worth is larger than hers.