Relatives of a brilliant lawyer who abandoned his family and career amid a mental health spiral during Covid have spoken of their devastation after he ended up living on the streets of Los Angeles.
Two years ago, Rob Dart, 44, was an award-winning attorney and loving father living in a $2 million home in South Pasadena.
He had overcome a previous mental health crisis a decade earlier, following the end of his marriage, which saw him plagued by voices in his head.
Back then, Dart still had the means to turn to his family for support and managed to recover at home in his childhood bedroom before moving out and reinventing himself as a high-profile lawyer.
But in 2022, his life began to fall apart once again with the arrival of the pandemic, which forced him to spend hours working from home.
Rob Dart, 44, was an award-winning lawyer and loving father until a mental health crisis during Covid sent him into a downward spiral.
The once-prosperous lawyer fell into a psychosis that left him living on the streets of Los Angeles.
His mental health problems began at age 35 during his separation from his now ex-wife, but he was able to control them and start over.
Dart stopped therapy and his medications and soon lost contact with his family, as well as his job.
He lost his rental, his car was confiscated, and his phone was cut off soon after.
“I got on a plane,” his mother Sherry Dart told Wall Street Journal. “I thought I was going to find a body.”
When he finally reached his son, he was almost unrecognizable… and furious.
Dart allowed his mother to greet her grandson for a moment, before leading him away. He then proceeded to ignore his mother’s repeated phone calls over the next few days.
Dart’s sister Jennifer’s story was similar when she tried to visit him in July, weeks after he was evicted.
Jennifer scoured the local area before finding her once clean-cut brother with matted hair and in total disarray in a Starbucks.
“The only thing I could recognize was his eyes,” he said, describing an equally hostile reaction.
He returned to Southern California to this $2 million home and built a career as an award-winning attorney.
But in 2022, the arrival of the pandemic caused him to work more from home and he abandoned therapy and his medications, causing his mental health to plummet and him becoming homeless.
Dart was one of millions of Americans whose mental health problems were exacerbated by the pandemic due to disruptions in treatment, routine or for other reasons.
In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a whopping 25 percent, according to a scientific report published by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dart’s family had hoped that California’s stricter laws on detaining people with serious psychotic disorders would provide a much-needed safety net.
In 2022, CARE Court laws introduced powers for judges to commit mentally ill people to facilities if their relatives applied to the courts.
In most states, loved ones can do little to access treatment on behalf of patients without their consent.
However, Dart’s moments of lucidity and his legal experience meant that he could often argue his way out of the engagement.
One of these events occurred after he was convinced to be hospitalized in December 2022 after neighbors called his mother to inform her that he had become hysterical.
Panicking, Sherry immediately called the police, who sent mental health specialists who were able to convince him to receive treatment.
Sherry flew to California the next day and was devastated by what she found inside her son’s apartment.
Dart’s mother Sherry (left) and sister Jennifer (right) have tried to contact him numerous times. In the photo: The family in happier times.
Dart has been able to emerge from confinement in mental institutions on several occasions due to his legal training and flashes of lucidity.
Opening the door, she was hit with a musty smell and saw maddened writings in notebooks describing how Dart had heard Satan’s voice.
His paranoid rantings included that he was, John Lennon, ‘St. Nicholas Cage’, ‘the invisible Obama’ and that people tried to steal from him.
Dart left the hospital and appeared in an erratic state on his ex-wife’s porch on December 28.
His condition alarmed her and she refused to allow him access to their son, prompting Dart to file motions with the court accusing her of breaking the custody agreement.
The judge was convinced by his articulate arguments and agreed to call a hearing. However, when the full extent of his crisis became known, the courts granted him a protective order.
Over the next few months, Dart’s family desperately tried to locate him, invariably with little success.
Things took an even scarier turn in September 2023 when he was shot in the leg on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Dart had been attempting to “meditate” on the stretch when he was hit by an errant bullet.
Sherry has spent her life savings trying to keep her son safe with limited success.
In a terrifying incident in September 2023, Dart ended up being shot in the leg and required hospital treatment. Pictured: Giving yourself healthier times
He initially refused hospital treatment, but was then tricked into attending by a friend.
Once there, a psychiatrist tried to admit him. However, Rob used his legal training and flashes of clarity to successfully defend his departure.
The next few weeks were marked by trips to and from area hospitals, but never for long.
His family continued to try to support him, funding Airbnbs, hotel rooms and the occasional meal on DoorDash. Sherry has spent her life savings to try to keep her son safe.
On Dec. 27, Dart posted on Facebook looking for a place to stay.
‘Hey guys, I’m looking for a place to stay in Los Angeles. That’s because I’m homeless. If anyone has some space in their apartment or something, PM me. Thank you,’ she said.
By this time, Dart had become one of 46,000 homeless people on the streets of Los Angeles.
The next time his family heard from him was three months later, when he submitted an application they left him alone.
Dart’s sister, Jennifer, flew to California on her brother’s 44th birthday to try to locate him and eventually found him disheveled in a Starbucks. In the photo: The brothers before the Dart collapse.
Dart maintains that he is not sick and that taking his medication made him feel worse
For his part, Dart maintains that he is not sick and that stopping his medications has improved his life.
“I wanted to get out of the hospital and I didn’t want to take the medications,” Dart told Wall Street Journal.
‘It made me more afraid, less assertive, less confident. Who wants to feel like this? You realize you’re pretty much the same person,” Dart said. “You just know more about yourself.”
But for his family, it seems too late, as they are simply left with the memory of who he was.
