LOS ANGELES (CNN) — A Los Angeles judge ordered doctors to resume water, nutrition and medication infusions for Casey Kasem on Monday.
The decision came during a hearing in which a lawyer for the iconic radio host’s wife accused Kasem’s daughter of denying food, water and medication to her father to hasten his death.
Monday’s hearing was the latest in a series of court battles over control of health decisions for Kasem, 82. He suffers from Lewy body dementia, which has no cure, according to court documents.
The retired “American Top 40” host is in critical condition at St. Anthony Hospital in Kitsap County, Washington, where his wife, Jean Kasem, took him last month amid the legal dispute with her stepchildren.
Kasem “won’t be with us much longer,” Danny Deraney, the representative for daughter Kerri Kasem, said Friday.
Jean Kasem’s lawyer Steve Haney called Kerri Kasem “a godless woman” after Monday’s hearing, referring to his contention that she is a member of the Church of Scientology.
Deraney denies that Kerri Kasem has ever been a Scientologist, adding, “She loves studying religions. Jean picked out the most controversial one to distract from what’s really going on.”
Haney told reporters outside the courthouse that Kerri Kasem’s motive for speeding up her father’s death was financial.
“She’s in a pretty serious economic situation that would be dramatically improved as the result of her father’s death,” Haney said. She “could cash in immediately” on her share of a $2 million life insurance policy when he dies, he said.
Kerri Kasem was in Washington with her father Monday and not at the hearing, but her lawyer defended her. “I think Kerri has conducted herself in a way that demonstrates she’s solely concerned about the health of her father,” attorney Troy Martin said.
Martin attacked Jean Kasem for ignoring court orders and removing her husband from a Los Angeles nursing home “where he had no bedsores, where he had no infections, and took him on a road trip, over a thousand miles, to a place that wasn’t his home, and didn’t give him proper medical care.”
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Murphy will reconsider at a hearing Friday who should make medical decisions for Kasem: his daughter, wife or a neutral party. He ordered Kasem’s court-appointed lawyer to travel to Washington to assess his medical condition and try to communicate with him.
“He’s not a vegetable. He can communicate,” his wife’s lawyer told Murphy. But the daughter’s attorney told the judge that was false.
CNN’s Matt Carey and Jane Caffrey contributed to this report.
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