Man, 37, Sentenced for ‘Imprisoning’ Woman, 98

SANTA ANA —  A West Hollywood man was placed on probation Thursday after he was convicted of illegally taking his former companion--a 98-year-old Alzheimer’s patient--from a Mission Viejo nursing home.

Rory Paul Rael, 37, said he was in love with Edna Mohi and felt compelled to comply with her wishes to leave the nursing home last year. Rael and Mohi had lived together for several years before she moved into the home.

Mohi’s relatives, however, said the elderly woman did not possess the mental capacity to consent to leaving the home on Aug. 27, 1992, and believe Rael was only after Mohi’s estate.

Prosecutors originally accused Rael of kidnaping Mohi. But after reviewing evidence in the case, Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald convicted Rael of a misdemeanor charge of unlawful imprisonment and violation of a court order restricting Rael’s visits with Mohi.

Mohi, now 99, was gone from the home for two weeks. She was not harmed during that period and is now back in a nursing home.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rosanne Froeberg said Mohi often gave her unemployed companion large sums of money. While there was no force or fear used to remove Mohi from the nursing home, Froeberg said she does not believe that Mohi was in the position to give proper consent to leave.

Froeberg said Mohi’s family was frantic after learning she was missing from the home.

“I think only Mr. Rael can say what his true intent was,” Froeberg said. “But this was about taking a 98-year-old woman to God-knows-where without telling her family.”

Deputy Public Defender Sharon Petrosino said her client was not interested in Mohi’s money. Rael lived with and cared daily for Mohi for about five years, Petrosino said.

“He just wanted to be with Edna,” Petrosino said. “He never intended her any harm. He always said, ‘Anyone else can be conservator of her estate. I just want to take care of her.’ I don’t think anyone can dispute they love each other.”