By Once a successful attorney and devoted father living in a $2 million South Pasadena home, Rob Dart’s life has taken a heartbreaking turn.
The 44-year-old now finds himself living on the streets of Los Angeles, grappling with a mental illness that has left his family devastated.
Two years ago, Dart had seemingly overcome a previous mental health crisis that followed the end of his marriage a decade earlier.
With the support of his family, he had managed to recuperate and reinvent himself as a high-flying lawyer.
However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022 triggered a new spiral, as Dart spent long hours working from home.
Dart’s mother, Sherry, recounted her desperate attempts to reach her son after he quit therapy, stopped taking his medications, and lost touch with his loved ones.
“I got on a plane,” she told the Wall Street Journal. “I thought I was going to find a dead body.” When Sherry finally caught up with Dart, he was nearly unrecognizable and furious, allowing only a brief reunion with his grandson before ignoring his mother’s subsequent calls.
Dart’s sister, Jennifer, faced a similar experience when she tried to visit him in July, weeks after his eviction.
She found her once clean-cut brother disheveled and hostile at a local Starbucks. “The only thing I could recognize were his eyes,” she said.
As Dart’s mental health deteriorated, he missed rent payments, had his car impounded, and had his phone cut off.
In December 2022, he checked himself out of a hospital and appeared in an erratic state on his ex-wife’s porch, demanding access to his son.
Despite his articulate arguments in court, a protective order was granted when the extent of his breakdown became apparent.
Dart’s family desperately tried to support him, funding accommodations and meals, with Sherry spending her life savings to keep her son safe.
However, their efforts were met with little success. In September 2023, Dart was shot in the leg while attempting to “meditate” on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, initially refusing hospital treatment.
Though later tricked into attending, he successfully argued his way out of commitment.
By December 27, Dart had become one of the 46,000 homeless individuals on the streets of LA, posting on Facebook in search of a place to stay. Three months later, he delivered a request to his family to leave him alone.
Dart maintains that he is not sick and that quitting his medications has improved his life. “It made me more afraid, less assertive, and less confident. Who wants to feel like that? You realize you’re kind of the same person,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “You just know more about yourself.”
For Dart’s family, the memory of who he once was is all that remains as they navigate the heartbreaking reality of his current situation.
Credit: DailyMail.com
