(WKRC/KTRK/CNN Newsource) - A Texas woman says she's being held in a memory care facility against her will.
Her attorney alleges her confinement is related to her relatives trying to control her multi-million dollar fortune.
Freedom and nearly $40 million are on the line for Monique Mandell.
"I just want this nightmare to be over," she said.
Her lawyers say a Harris County probate court allowed her guardian and three police officers to show up at her home and get her while she was sleeping.
The 54-year-old has been at an assisted living facility for four months now.
Randall Kallinen has been working to get Mandell back home.
"There's no reason for her to have a guardian. The main one, according to experts, there's nothing wrong with her. She's competent," said Kallinen.
A court-appointed psychiatrist considered Mandell incompetent, however, shortly after an inheritance case related to the death of her husband.
"She's the golden egg that they've been looking for," said one of Mandell's attorneys, U.A. Lewis. "She has multi-millions available for them to try to exhaust and the only way they can do that is if they maintain possession of her."
Her guardian is an attorney appointed by the court.
"They want to fight, I'll fight them tooth and nail. I won't give up," Mandell said. "What they are doing is wrong. I don't know these people from Adam."
Judge Jason Cox would not talk specifically about this case, but says the court is not motivated by money in any way.
He added that the sole concern of the court is what's in the best interest of people like Mandell.
"We are challenging this judge to issue an order and stop laying on the request to send her home," Lewis said.
Mandell's husband, Bill, passed away in 2019.
By CNN Newsource
