Expert: Jennifer - 12/3/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hello, I happened upon your service and your history and I am interested in your input regarding a horrible situation that involved my daughter who has been very ill will bi-polar(?) since July 09 leaving college in Jan 09 after her first semester to hide away in her room and write 1000 pages before having a psychotic break.
After two hospitalizations july-aug 09 and again in oct 09 - after deciding to fast and refusing to eat or drink for many,many days, she stayed in bed for most of winter and spring 2010.  In May 2010 she started seeing a guy her age who had been in a lot of trouble for DWI they were both 20 years old and since he no longer drove and lived in the neighborhood and was lonely he was coming to our home with beer and weed, when my husband told him we would have to call the police if he continued she would go to his house-(she had lost all her many friends due to her illness).   Well one day in June while I was at work the young man had his mother drop them off on the 'other side of town' During this afternoon they were drinking with someone who was described as a streetwalker who led them to a porch which she told them was where she lived - she then took $40 promising to go pick up something and bring it back but never returned. The boy taking my daughter along with him decided to go into the house - which did not belong to the streetwalker) through a window. He later sent her a note from jail (he was already in jail on another charge) telling her he was sorry and that he was fully responsible (to bad its not that easy).

About a week after this event a detective phoned our home.  This detective first spoke to my son who told him that he could not speak to his sister without our knowledge because she has mental illness.  The detective later spoke to my husband and convinced him that my daughter was not in trouble he only wanted info about the boy.  She was to show up at the police station at a specified time and my husband and I accompanied her.  When the detective came to question her I explained that she was not well enough to be questioned and his response was that if she was well enough to be on the south side she was well enough to be questioned I explained to him that she was not well enough to be out that day but had gone out anyway, I was adament that she should have a lawyer.  The detective procededed to convince my husband that if he didn't get to question her without a lawyer he was going to arrest her, my husband went along with him and I felt helpless and when I told him that he could not question   her alone he insisted and my husband agreed to it. After at least an hour the detective came out with my daughter and informed us that when he charged her it would be no big deal and he would be sure that she was let out on her own recognisence.  I collapsed in the hall.

We are in the process of moving to another state where I was caring for my in-laws so I was out of town when the detective told my husband to bring my daughter in, she did not need a lawyer -we assumed it was going to be a citation.  Well, my husband met him at the magistrates -not the police station and when she went before the judge when the judge asked her her name my daughter said "I'm not giving you my name, I didn't do anything"  the judge proceeded to throw the book at her and sent her directly to jail on $75,000.00 bail even though the detective told the judge that she had been committed twice in the last year.
We spent $15,000.00 for a lawyer in a state of panic and it took 10 days to get a bail reduction hearing after the bail reduction hearing we had to come up with another $7,500.00 to get her out.  When we picked he up she had gone from 100 pounds down to 90 pounds and was delusional, she still states that at night they ate the meat from her bones and served it for breakfast the next day.  She laid in the bed the whole 10 days.  This all happened in July, the attorney has worked out a reduction in charges from a felony to a misdemenor and it should have been done today (Dec.2) but four days ago after the police had so many calls from her and about her wandering around the neighborhood they finally took her to the hospital -where she needed to be - she never came back to the level of normality she had obtained to after her breakdown since the expierence in jail.
Thank-you for giving me the opportunity to document this and my question is if her civil rights were denied with the detective and the judge having so much information about her illness and  sending her to jail instead of a mental health facility. I believe the detecctive had no business betraying honest trusting people and reading my daughtetr her rights after refusing to let her have an attorney by saying he would make things worse for her.  Our whole savings was wiped out by this event and our daughter health has digressed.
I have not persued any action as of yet because we are from a relatively small town and the law enforcement, judges and attorneys seem to have and understanding about working together.  I would like to call attention to what has happened and even though my daughter was involved in a crime I believe she was denied her rights.

I am looking forward to your input.  Thank-you, Mel

ANSWER: In most U.S. jurisdictions the courts have ruled that law enforcement personnel may lie to a citizen they are investigating, as long as it can't be proven that if not for extreme pressure exerted on a person by the officer to commit a crime which they wouldn't ordinarily have done without the 'undue influence' in cases at risk for dismissal on the grounds of entrapment. And you'd better believe they aren't tossing and turning every night with the (non-existent) guilt weighing heavy on their consciences when they're lying to anyone and everyone that seems like they can make a case against, communities want to hear from their politicians that law enforcement is keeping things safe for everyone - making it about how many criminals have been taken off the streets along with their illegal street business and how many millions of dollars worth in narcotics, weapons, and related inventory that the latest raid by the police successfully prevent from hitting the streets.

If you feel that the local regulations and department policy were ignored by the detective and because of this your daughter was deprived of her civil rights (or prisoner/inmate rights, you can make a formal complaint with the policing agency community liaison, though there's not much that can be done about getting your savings back regardless of how long things took, what was supposed to happen and what actually happened, and how unfair it has been. In cities and towns both large and small, courts don't step out from that thin blue line to rule against those who stand behind it with them unless there's a mountain of evidence and documentation proving the defendant suffered damages so great that they required a substantial amount of cash to be made whole and that the department or local government was responsible for what took place. However, you might want to consider starting a community group that wants to keep law enforcement personnel on the right side of the law while encouraging both sides to do their part and make law enforcement chief of staff inclined towards governmental transparency. Check into advocacy groups and ask around to find people who have dealt with similar problems in the past, and find out the statutory laws your jurisdiction has enacted to address these matters.

Let me know if there's anything else I can answer or if you need more clarification on any part.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank-you for the quick response to my email. Of course I would like to be able to get all the lost money back when my daughter should have been given an opportunity for a lawyer appointed to her since she has absolutely no money.  The detective had no clue about working with someone who is mentally ill there was no reason for him to assure us she would be released without any issues since she had been so cooperative by helping him. He turned a family who has done nothing but try to bring up good honest children who were already suffering unbearable anguish the living nightmare of your child loosing their mind into an even worse horror.  

I will file a formal complaint when my daughter is safe and out of that community and I would do more to advocate in that communtiy but this all happened during our move to another state - this situation postphoned the move by many months and even more now that she ended up in the hospital during the court date.  We only can hope that she has the sense to not do anything that stupid again even if she believes the person she is with will harm her if she doesn't - she will not even have the option to have the charges dismissed due to mental defect, we have to go along with the lawyer and we are paying for the network he has established and isdworking with.  It is horrible that in addition to her illness she will always have a criminal record.      Thank-you again,  Mel

Answer
Even though she may have to deal with having a criminal record, depending on the rules in the jurisdiction where she's at, there's a good possibility that she can later have her record expunged and hopefully continue to move on with her life in a positive manner.

I'd like to encourage you to consider taking on advocacy for those who are dealing with a mental illness in the state you're planning on moving to. It can often be very healing for family and loved ones, and it can really make a difference for individuals who often fall through the cracks to see that there are people out there who are concerned for them. Many of those with bipolar disorder and other serious conditions have a difficult time maintaining relationships and struggle to keep ties with family members who are having problems of their own when it comes to coping with the person's diagnosis. However, just because someone has been diagnosed with bipolar doesn't mean that their life is over or that they cannot go on to lead as close to a normal life as anyone - with strict compliance on the right medication therapy and people in their 'support system', so many great things can be accomplished. Good luck to your daughter and yourself, please let me know if there's anything I can help with in the future.