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Bond was set today for a Brookfield man who is accused of failing to obtain proper medical care for his bedridden wife who suffered from long-term dementia and died as a result of ongoing medical neglect, according to the Office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

Joseph Duffy, 50, is charged with two counts of Criminal Abuse or Neglect of an Elderly Person or Person with a Disability, a Class 2 felony charge.  Duffy, who is unemployed, is accused of collecting and spending his wife’s disability checks while the ailing woman was left to sleep on a cot in her own filth as her condition slowly deteriorated over the course of several years.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Geary Kull set Duffy’s bond today at $75,000 at the 4th District Cook County Courthouse in Maywood.  His next court date was set for July 19.

According to prosecutors, Duffy and his wife lived together in a condominium located in the 8800 block of West 45th Place in Brookfield.  Mary Jane Duffy suffered from hydrocephalus which led to the onset of dementia in 2005. Due to the victim’s condition she was left bedridden and unable to care for herself.  The victim was retired and received monthly disability checks from her former employer as well as Social Security.

Due to her condition, the victim received in-home nursing care that escalated to the point that she required assistance 7 days a week in the last year of her life. When a nurse first came to work for the victim she found she was sleeping on an army cot without even a pillow in filthy conditions.  The nurse repeatedly asked the defendant to purchase his wife a decent bed to sleep in but he refused. Eventually the nurse purchased Mary Jane Duffy a pillow with her own money.

Though the nurse helped care for the victim, Joseph Duffy was responsible for purchasing her food and caring for her when the nurse was away.  When the caretaker returned to the Duffy’s home she would consistently find the victim had been unattended with the defendant having ignored any instructions she had left for him. The defendant even refused to buy his wife bandages for the severe bed sores that she had developed.

Eventually in August of 2011, Joseph Duffy was finally convinced to contact a hospice to care for the victim.  When a nurse from the hospice arrived to assess the victim she was in a severely emaciated condition, had numerous bed sores, and had stopped eating.  The hospice company then reported Mary Jane Duffy’s condition to authorities.  Brookfield Police then responded to the Duffy home and convinced the defendant to have his wife taken to a hospital. As his wife was being taken from the home Duffy remarked to one of the officers, “Great, now I am going to lose her social security and pension check.”

When she arrived at the hospital medical personnel found that the victim had 13 bed sores about her body and was significantly underweight, almost skeleton-like.  The victim was immediately placed into in-patient hospice and she died nine days later.

The public is reminded that charging documents contain allegations that are not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial at which the state has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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