Friday, June 12, 2020

Good news or just more repression?

Elgin Mental Health Center is offering COVID19 tests for all patients on a voluntary basis. That's a good thing. But of course, it has to be done in the context of a slave plantation mentality to ruin the whole picture.

To date there has been less of a corona virus disaster in Illinois forensic mental health facilities than might have been expected. I predicted a real shit show, and it hasn't happened. Apparently there have been handfuls of cases here and there, or even less than a handful at Elgin. Somebody deserves credit for that.

I'm told that a meeting was held on N Unit announcing to patients they could get tested. One of the guys I advocate for spoke up with the audacious opinion that all staff should be required to be tested. This is a very reasonable idea, whether or not it's completely practical given union concerns, etc.

The patients are easily monitored and their possible exposure to the virus is totally controlled, because they don't go anywhere. They've been on lockdown for months. Almost all activities and "treatments" (other than drug dispensing) have been cancelled. But the staff leave every day, and no one knows with whom they are in contact, whether they social distance, etc. Anyone concerned about an epidemic inside the facility should have their attention on the staff first and foremost.

I can't see how my client's suggestion at the meeting about testing was anything but logical, and in the obvious interests of just about everyone. The only people whose interests are contrary to that suggestion are those who want to say that my client is subhuman, lacking any right to speak up about staff at all under any circumstance, necessarily irrational, and badly behaved from his "mentally ill" brain that needs constant drugging.

There were a couple such people at this meeting, and they just jumped all over my client. His completely reasonable suggestion was considered to be "hostility" caused either by: 1. his bad brain, or 2. his association with me. (Good luck with charting that, guys, or alleging it in court!)

As to 2., yes! Of course the patients on N Unit appear hostile to staff due to their association with me. By association with me, they derive some hope of freedom from psychiatric slavery. The staff would allow them no such hope, that's the design of the system.

Dr. Vikramjit Gill, the N Unit psychiatrist, has been very reasonable in my opinion, in a number of cases. He definitely helped Sean Gunderson get his conditional release. He knows I am not quite so dogmatic about psychiatric drugs as some of his colleagues may think. He and I have had a fairly cordial relationship and some interesting conversations.

Now Dr. Gill tells this particular "patient" that he has changed for the worse, and maybe it's all because he's been talking to me.

Gill has to say that, he is required to think that, by a boss somewhere who can threaten his job and even his professional reputation if he doesn't toe the forensic psychiatric mafia line.

It will get worse for a while, but when abolition is final, Gill will be free, too.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Chicago Read MH Center: Dr. Sobut vs. honest staff

Dr. Robert A. Sobut is the Plantation Master at Chicago-Read Mental Health Center, where Marci Webber is held. I attended (by teleconference) a monthly staffing today. Sobut struck me as kind of a "gang leader" personality, straight out of some TV show like "Narcos".

That's not, by the way, because he's part of a psychiatric drug-pushing institution (Chicago Read of course is -- if laughingly -- licensed as a "hospital" and Sobut is an M.D. with prescribing privileges), but really because of the way he tries to threaten, intimidate and control everyone around him, and apparently believes he's entitled to do that. Let me explain....

Sobut is one of six signatories at the bottom of a 24-page "90-Day NGRI Treatment Plan Report" sent to the DuPage County Circuit Court for docket # 2010-CF-002643, regarding Marci Webber, dated 5/13/2020. I've never seen a 24-page 90-day report. It actually seems not only unnecessary for such a report to be that extensive, but stupid from the perspective of the people who put it together. When it's that long, it is almost certain to contain something that is provably false.

When somebody signs such a report they are effectively swearing under oath that everything in it is true. The court depends upon these reports as valid "medical records" that are admissible pursuant to the rules of evidence. If something in the report is proven to be false, then somebody may have committed perjury, and the signers, of course, are the first suspects.

Generally the social worker (in this case, Vera Hosely, MA) has the administrative responsibility to word process and get the treatment team's collaboration on the final draft of a 90-day report which is sent to the court. However there are various approval lines. In this case, Dr. Sobut certainly would have had to give his OK. Quite possibly, Timothy Cummings, Anatoiley Pyslar, Adebisi Olasimbo and Sabi Kolath all had some familiarity with this report on Marci before it was finally sent. There may have been somebody higher up the bureaucratic food chain, too. James Patrick Corcoran, perhaps?

There is a paragraph on page 20, which reads:

"It should be noted that frequent behavior management incidents continue to be reported on Ms. Webber by the treatment staff of B-South. For example, on 5/12/2020, she reportedly threw a cup of water at the DD peer with whom she frequently engages in disputes...."

This comes at the tail end of 11 pages, describing about 75 supposed incidents blamed on Marci, said to have occurred between 2/11/2020 and 5/12/2020.

The trouble is, it didn't happen. Somebody just made it up. There is no report of this by the treatment staff of B-South. I don't know how many of the other incidents are equally false, but this one at least provably is. One of the reasons Marci's judge granted her a conditional release last fall was because he had enough evidence that the people saying she needed to stay locked up were liars.

During the staffing today, I had a bit of a confrontation with Robert A. Sobut. I only had two questions. My questions were: 1. Who word-processed or assembled or OK'd the text of the final draft of the 5/13/2020, 90-day report on Marci Webber? and 2. Who added the item on page 20, about Marci throwing a glass of water on 5/12/2020? 

Sobut more or less threw me out of the staffing for insisting on answers to those two questions, although I promised I would shut up and just listen politely for the rest of the time, if he would only answer them. He even asked me to repeat the questions precisely, so he could write them down. Then he just flat-out, arrogantly, refused to answer and refused to even admit he was refusing to answer. That's when I left (hung up).

But the best part came next. People who know they are acting unethically actually try to get caught.

Marci eventually walked out of the staffing, but she stood by the open door and listened. The remaining meeting participants did now know she was there. Vera Hosely, the social worker, immediately protested very anxiously, that she was not the one who put the false report on page 20 about Marci throwing a glass of water. Dr. Pyslar looked uncomfortable and nervously muttered something useless, as he frequently does.

Then Dr. Sobut told everyone: Do not talk to Mr. Kretchmar. Do not tell him anything! This was clearly an order from the boss: obey, shut up, stonewall any investigation, or you'll be in big trouble!

Chicago Read Mental Health Center sure seems to be run by Robert Sobut in the style of an organized crime group. So do all the other facilities run by the Illinois Department of Human Services. So does "forensic mental health" just about everywhere it exists.

And that's because... well, they are organized crime groups!

More on Marci Webber's appeal

The following is an excerpt from pages 44-45 of the appellate Reply filed by Marci's attorneys. This case effectively documents the utter corruption of what the public presumes (because it's been sold to them) to be medicine. The point is, coercive psychiatry is NOT medicine. It never was and never will be.

     "The trial court’s September 2019 opinion also supports that Marci had good reason to distrust Dr. Malis and DHS generally. The judge found it troubling that Elgin Mental Health Center falsified Marci’s records at Dr. Malis’ direct request, and as the trial court noted, the State did not rebut this evidence. (C. 783). Specifically, when a nurse, Terry Nicholas, wrote a positive progress note in Marci’s chart, Dr. Malis “was not pleased with this charting and did not want pleasant things regarding [Marci] reported as it would harm his intent to petition the court to obtain an order for forced medication on [Marci].” (C. 783, R. 2880-2882). In this appeal, the State urges that this Court “not consider [Terry Nicholas’] biased testimony.” (Pl. Brf. 45). In doing so, the State is improperly asking this Court to reweigh the evidence and conduct credibility determinations, while also ignoring the fact that it did not present evidence to contradict Mr. Nicholas’ testimony. Moreover, Dr. Malis admitted that he continued to consider ordering involuntary medication for Marci, and his testimony made clear that his basis for considering such an order was not a concern that Marci was dangerous, but as a means to help Marci cooperate with DHS’ rules and expectations. (R. 2710). Such a purpose does not meet the legal standard necessary for court-ordered involuntary medication. 405 ILCS 5/2-107.1(a)(4).

     "The trial court was understandably further troubled by these events at Elgin Mental Health Center in the context of evidence he received at the 2017 conditional release hearing, which amplified serious discrepancies in Marci’s treatment reports from Chicago Read Mental Health Center. (C. 783-784). Marci’s psychologist at the time, Dr. Jock, testified at the 2017 hearing that Marci did not meet the criteria for any mental illness, she did not exhibit suicidal behavior or dangerousness towards others, and inpatient treatment was no longer necessary. (R. 844, 846, 849). Likewise, Marci’s social worker, Dr. Menezes, similarly testified at the 2017 hearing that Marci did not have a mental illness, was not a danger to herself or others, and did not require inpatient treatment. (R. 801, 805, 807). Yet, both professionals signed Marci’s treatment plan reports that stated she continued to require inpatient care due to her mental illness. (C. 521). Despite this very troubling evidence, throughout its brief the State characterizes Marci’s distrust of DHS as “paranoid” and “delusional.”

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Amanda Bradley, the latest would-be torturer

Marci Webber has now been back at the Chicago Read slave plantation for almost six months. When she learned last December of a bench warrant for her arrest, she reported there on her own, to wait out an appeals process. Why that process was ever started will be a fascinating story when the truth comes out, which it surely will.

I have an odd vested interest in Marci remaining on the plantation, and I almost have to resist it, it's so perversely real. The same was true of Sean Gunderson, prior to his conditional release from Elgin last fall. When a "patient" is smart enough and strong enough, they find and report information to me from the inside which is extremely helpful. My partner and I have five federal lawsuits which would never have happened but for this.

Meanwhile, the latest cruel overseer who makes sure Marci gets psychologically whipped at every slightest opportunity is a low level Mental Health Tech named Amanda Bradley. Amanda has a Developmentally Disabled "patient" named Antoinette whom she ostentatiously favors with smiling, "I-love-you-I-love-you" blown kisses across the room, even while she snarls to Marci, "Shut the f--- up!" in the same breath.

Of course, Amanda and other staff are not supposed to use the F word aggressively against patients that way. It's quite strictly prohibited, probably not because it hurts patients very much (that's the job for psychiatric labelling, drugs and shock), but more likely because it tends to reveal the "hospital" as what it really is: a plantation. Unfortunately for Amanda, this particular incident was witnessed by another staff, whose name I have.

And unfortunately for Amanda (not to mention the higher-ups who really pull the strings), Marci has some friends. Most of them are very timid and don't want to stick their necks out right now. Dr. Anatoiley Pyslar is one example. He's a psychiatrist, and he knows perfectly well that Marci should not be a slave any longer, he tells her so to her face. Once upon a time Pyslar had a more important job than he has now, so his future as a master has probably dimmed a bit.

Other staff, well-intended human beings, are also on Marci's side, if secretly, against the people who mistakenly believe they can beat her down and wear her out. The good people will probably come out of the woodwork to incriminate the Marsicos, Sobuts, Malises and Corcorans, once Marci wins her appellate case and demonstrates that she can be successful back in the community. All the lies and all the years of cynical manipulation and harassment will come back to haunt these so-called "mental health professionals" who cannot help anyone, and who merely insult medicine, science and law.

Amanda Bradley's sweet DD friend Antoinette is a 5'10" tough girl, who constantly threatens and physically intimidates Marci. Amanda runs her, puts her up to that on purpose, and somebody higher up than Amanda even made sure Antoinette was Marci's roommate, just to make the terrorizing proceed at the highest possible intensity. Maybe they want to provoke a suicide.

Anyway, I tell Marci don't talk about suicide, don't think about suicide. I think she's too tough, and too dedicated to the cause of emancipation of all psychiatric slaves. She'll hang in there to see Atlanta burn.