A woman with a history of mental health problems has been acquitted of stabbing her father at their Minneapolis home last summer.

A Hennepin County judge found that Maria A. Palen, 38, did kill 78-year-old Joseph Palen on Aug. 11 in their home in the Lowry Hill neighborhood, but said she was mentally ill at the time and therefore not guilty of second-degree murder.

The defense "has proven by a preponderance of the evidence that ... she was laboring under such defect of reason as to not know the nature of the acts constituting the present charge, and laboring under such defect of reason as to not know her acts were wrong," Judge Carolina Lamas wrote. "Therefore, the court finds the Ms. Palen is criminally not liable for her acts."

Lamas said Palen will remain under a previously ordered civil commitment for mental health treatment at HCMC. That runs until at least Feb. 8, when there will be a progress review.

Court records show that Maria Palen has been civilly committed for treatment of bipolar disorder three times in the past nine years.

In April 2021, she punched her father in the leg as he slept and expressed fears that her parents were trying to drug and hypnotize her, one court filing read. Emergency medical providers quoted her as saying her parents "were going to die tonight."

A petition from HCMC for an order of commitment, filed on March 15, 2023, noted that she was admitted to HCMC and was described as "acutely psychotic, paranoid and in a disorganized state. [She] poses a substantial likelihood of physical harm to self or others."

That petition for commitment, however, was resolved nine days later by HCMC and Palen with conditions that she take her medications as prescribed, follow her treatment plan, cooperate with her case manager and not engage in any violent or threatening behavior.

On the day of the stabbing, another of Joseph Palen's daughters called 911 and said she went to the home to check on her father because she had not heard from him that day. She said she found him slumped over on the couch. She put her father on the floor "to attempt life-saving measures," the criminal complaint read.

Police arrived to find Joseph Palen had been stabbed in the chest. Close by was a large butcher knife with blood on it and bloodied scissors on the couch.

Officers found Maria Palen on the ground in the backyard. She started running but police apprehended her. She told police that her father "has always been very controlling, and he just won't let me go off on my own."