Fwd: NEWS: Jury Awards Psychiatric Survivor for Forced Drugs, Lock Up

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Wed, 14 Jan 2004 11:36:15 -0800

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NEWS: Jury Awards Psychiatric Survivor for Forced Drugs, Lock Up

 

 

NEWS: Mind Your Freedom - 14 January 2004

http://www.MindFreedom.org - please forward

 

Robert Lee Marion, Psychiatric Survivor, Wins

$975,000 Jury Judgment After Being Locked

Up in Psychiatric Unit and Forcibly Drugged.

 

Today's _Newsday_ Article on Victory is Below.

 

How You May Congratulate Plaintiff, Attorney

& the Unique Legal Clinic that Won the Victory.

 

Robert Lee Marion went to a hospital for diabetes.

But he was held because he was considered

" mentally ill, " and force injected with psychiatric drugs.

 

A law clinic took up Marion's cause, and now a

jury has awarded him nearly one million dollars

(see today's _Newsday_ article below). Prof.

William Brooks at the Touro Law Center directs

the mental disability law clinic.

 

Brooks said: " The award sends a message to

psychiatric hospitals and doctors that you

can't routinely admit someone and label them

dangerous ... and inject them with

mind-altering drugs because you have a

desire to treat them. "

 

MindFreedom director David Oaks said, " As

someone who has been forcibly injected myself,

I celebrate this victory with Mr. Marion and the

law clinic that helped him win. We encourage

supporters to congratulate these champions! "

 

The plaintiff, attorney and law clinic

can be written here:

 

Robert Lee Marion

c/o Prof. William Brooks

Touro Law Center

300 Nassau Road

Huntington, New York 11743 USA

 

e-mail: WilliamB

 

PLEASE FORWARD this news to educate

the public and mental health system!

 

For more information on campaigns to

resist forced psychiatric drugging

see http://www.MindFreedom.org.

 

BELOW is an excerpt from today's

_Newsday_ article:

 

~~~~~~~

 

_Newsday_ 14 Jan. 2004

 

'Liberty' for the Mentally Ill

 

When Robert Lee Marion went to Bellevue

Hospital in Manhattan for a minor medical

procedure, he hadn't planned on a six-day

stay there -- against his will.

 

In December 1998, Marion, then 59, of

Manhattan, went to the emergency room,

saying he needed the surgery because of his

diabetic condition. But when doctors told

him there was no surgery scheduled for him,

Marion, who was unemployed and has a history

of mental illness, became very upset.

 

He grew loud, saying the government was

trying to systematically kill poor people.

After two brief interviews with doctors,

Marion was involuntarily committed and

injected with a potent psychiatric

medication.

 

Under state law, doctors have the right to

keep patients hospitalized against their

will on an emergency basis, if they appear

to be a danger to themselves and others.

 

Marion claimed in a lawsuit filed in 2000

against Bellevue and the doctors who treated

him that his behavior didn't warrant

confinement. During the trial in federal

court in Manhattan, his lawyer, William

Brooks told jurors that while Marion wasn't

acting normally, his behavior had not

crossed the legal threshold that would

require him to be locked up.

 

Instead, Brooks -- a professor at Touro Law

School in Huntington -- argued that doctors

committed Marion because they felt he needed

treatment for mental illness and illegally

deprived him of his freedom. Marion, who had

no history of being hospitalized, was

released six days later, only after a

hearing at Bellevue.

 

" This case is quite frankly pure and simple

about liberty, " Brooks told jurors last year

during opening statements, according to a

transcript. " It's about one's liberty to

come and go when one wants, without

interference from the government. And it is

also about ... the freedom to have one's

thoughts, no matter how off-beat or

off-center or ... even radical, without

being labeled mentally ill or crazy or

dangerous and then being shut off to a

psychiatric hospital because physicians,

upon the most cursory evaluations, believe

you are mentally ill. "

 

Lawyers for the New York Health and Hospital

Corporation in Manhattan, which runs

Bellevue, had a different view. According to

the court transcript, in her opening

statement, city attorney Nancy Botta told

the jury, " ... the plaintiff was aggressive.

He was getting close to people. He was

getting in their faces. As he pointed and

waved his finger, he was loud and

threatening ... the plaintiff was actively

manic, he was psychotic and he was

delusional. "

 

Bellevue doctors who committed Marion

determined that he was " not only mentally

ill, but that he was a danger to himself and

a danger to the community, " Botta told jurors.

 

After a four-day trial, the jury awarded

Marion $750,000 in damages for his

confinement and $225,000 for the injections

-- one of the largest awards nationally in

cases involving the involuntary commitment

of the mentally ill, experts said.

 

It's also an extraordinary verdict because,

in most cases, people like Marion don't have

the means or the opportunity to bring their

case to court. ...

 

Marion was referred to Brooks' legal clinic

at Touro that specializes in cases involving

the mentally ill. Brooks and several students

had worked with Marion since 1999.

 

The clinic filed the suit in January 2000,

asking for unspecified compensatory and

punitive damages. Over the years, different

third-year students and a staff attorney who

is a recent Touro graduate worked on it,

along with Brooks.

 

U.S. Magistrate Douglas Eaton dismissed

Marion's claim for punitive damages. The

city has asked him to reduce the award and

to set aside the verdict, arguing that it is

contrary to the weight of the evidence. But

Brooks said, " It's a major victory, even if

the award is reduced. "

 

He added: " The award sends a message to

psychiatric hospitals and doctors that you

can't routinely admit someone and label them

dangerous ... and inject them with

mind-altering drugs because you have a

desire to treat them. "

 

Stephanie Muick, a former Touro student said

the experience of doing research on the case

shifted her career focus from criminal

defense law to legal advocacy for the

mentally ill. " It really had an effect on

me, " said Muick, 23, who is now at home in

Pittsburgh studying for the bar exam. " When

Professor Brooks called me and told me about

the verdict, I was in shock. "

 

Another former student, Melodie Shuler, 26,

of Washington D.C., said working on the case

piqued her interest in public interest law.

Shuler, who worked mostly on motions during

the discovery phase, said, " I thought we had

a very strong case. They had no right to

confine him ... I felt it was also great

because it gave me confidence that good

things can happen in the legal system. "

 

Brooks and the students took no portion of

the award, although the city will have to

pay Touro for their legal fees, which will

go back to the clinic program.

 

Marion could not be reached for comment. But

Brooks said his client, although pleased with

the verdict, thought he deserved much more.

" He believes, " Brooks said, " he is entitled

to billions. "

 

2004, Newsday, Inc.

 

- end -

 

~~~~~~

 

PLEASE FORWARD to all appropriate

places on and off the Internet. Educate

the public and the mental health system!

 

~~~~~~

 

Forwarded by:

 

MindFreedom Support Coalition International

 

United Action for Human Rights in Mental Health.

 

http://www.MindFreedom.org

 

To join/donate go directly to:

 

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

 

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