Police officials in Virginia have reached a settlement with a man they jailed for being sick.
Gordon Goines of Waynesboro suffers from cerebellar ataxia, a neurological condition similar to multiple or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
It causes loss of balance, an unsteady walk and sometimes slurred speech.
But police didn’t take any of that into consideration when he went to a station to complain a neighbor had tapped into his cable service and was stealing from him.
They just concluded he was having mental health problems and locked him up in a psych ward for almost a week.
This is according to the Rutherford Institute, which fought on his behalf in court.
The settlement, the details of which were not disclosed, came after a federal appeals court said the officers who arrested and handcuffed Goines were not entitled to qualified immunity for their actions.
“This cases epitomizes everything that is wrong with the nation’s system of law enforcement. Here is a man who turned to police for help when he had a problem, he didn’t resist when they handcuffed him to a table, he didn’t protest when they strip searched him, and despite the fact that he had broken no law and committed no crime, he still ended up locked away for days,” said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute.
“Thankfully, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recognized the need to balance the scales, but this issue will not be resolved until better protocols are in place to ensure that police do not abuse the power to unilaterally declare individuals mentally ill and detain them against their will – whether or not they suffer from mental illness.”
WND reported earlier this year when the appeals court returned the case to the district court judge.
“The facts as alleged in the complaint … provided no reasonable basis for the officers to have concluded that [Gordon] Goines was a danger to himself or others. Goines alleged that he went to the police ‘because he did not know how the neighbor would react’ to a confrontation with Goines and ‘he did not want to ‘get in a fight’ with the neighbor,” the 4th Circuit panel’s opinion said.
“Goines, though having speech and other physical difficulties, exhibited no signs of mental illness and made no threats to harm himself or others, but instead sought the help of the police to avoid confrontation and potential fight with a neighbor who had spliced into Goines’ cable line.
“Under these facts, the officers lacked probable cause for an emergency mental-health detention, and Goines’ complaint therefore alleges a constitutional violation,” the ruling said.
“Goines’ complaint tells the story of police who assumed from Goines’ physical difficulties that he was mentally ill and never actually listened to what Goines was telling them,” the appeals court found.
The Fourth Amendment lawsuit explained that it was on May 15, 2014, when Goines had difficulty with his cable service. He called the company, and a technician told him a neighbor had spliced into his service, suggesting Goines call police.
He walked across the street to the Waynesboro Police Department to report the theft, and one responding officer said Goines was having “mental-health issues.”
The officers asked him if he wanted to talk to someone, and Goines, thinking they were referring to the cable theft, agreed.
Instead of addressing the theft, the officers handcuffed him and took him to the Augusta County Medical Center, where he was interviewed by a screener who was not a licensed medical professional, clinical psychologist or social worker.
He then was taken to the Crossroads Mental Health Center, where he was held until a later hearing found he had no mental illness.
Mental health screener Jenna Rhodes of the Valley Community Services Board was dismissed from the lawsuit, in part because her information for making a decision was based on the officers’ contention that Goines was suffering from mental health issues.
