Fred Blake Perkins, an attorney from Emmetsburg, in the US state of Iowa was appointed to represent a man who was arrested in December 2024 and later convicted of various charges.

After a judge rejected Perkins’ request to withdraw from the case in September 2025, he renewed the application, claiming he could no longer conduct legal research properly and was experiencing symptoms of dementia. He told the court he recognised the “early warning signs” from watching his 81-year-old father’s decline and feared his “lapses in mental acuity” could affect his representation of the defendant.

The Iowa Supreme Court’s Attorney Disciplinary Board later concluded the claims were false.

According to the board, Perkins admitted he had become “desperate” to persuade the judge to release him from the case and had “started throwing every option” at the court. A subsequent medical assessment found no cognitive impairment affecting his ability to practise law.