Dr. Vikramjit Gill, N Unit staff, and all IDHS mental health clinical employees: you need to take careful note of federal and state criminal law.
18 U.S.C. 79, Section 1621, Perjury generally, states:
Whoever--(1) having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true; or (2) in any declaration, certificate, verification, or statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under SECTION 1746 OF TITLE 28, United States Code, willfullly subscrices as true any material matter which he does not believe to be true; is guilty of perjury and shall, except as otherwise expressly provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. This section is apllicable whether the statement or subscription is made within or without the United States.
And Section 1622, Subornation of perjury, further states:
Whoever procures another to commit any perjury is guilty of subornation of perjury, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more that five years, or both.
Section 1623, False declarations before grand jury or court, also states:
(a) Whoever under oath (or in any declaration, certificate, verification, or statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under SECTION 1746 OF TITLE 28, United States Code) in any proceeding before or ancillary to any court or grand jury of the United States knowingly makes any false material declaration or makes or uses any other information, including any book, paper, document, record, recording, or other material, knowing the same to contain any false material declaration, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years or, if such proceedings are before or ancillary to the Foreign Intelligence Surveilance Court or the Foreign Intelligence Court of Review established by Section 103 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveilance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1803), imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
(b) This section is applicable whether the conduct occurred within or without the United States.
(c) An indictment or information for violation of this section alleging that, in any proceedings before or ancillary to any court or grand jury of the United States, the defendant under oath has knowingly made two or more declarations, which are inconsistent to the degree that one of them is necessrily false, need not specify which declaration is false if--(1) each declaration is material to the point in question, and (2) each declaration was made within the period of the statute of limitations for the offense charged under this section. In any prosecution under this section, the falsity of a declaration set forth in the indictment or information shall be established sufficient for conviction by proof that the defendant while under oath made irreconcilably contradictory declarations material to the point in question in any proceeding before or ancillary to ant court or grand jury. It shall be a defense to an indictment or information made pursuant to the first sentence of this subsection that the defendant at the time he made each delaration believed the declaration was true.
(d) Where, in the same continuous court or grand jury proceeding in which a declaration is made, the person making the declaration admits such declaration to be false, such admission shall bar prosecution under this section if, at the time the admission is made, the declaration has not substantially affected the proceeding, or it has not become manifest that such falsity has been or will be exposed.
(e) Proof beyond a reasonable doubt under this section is sufficient for conviction. It shall not be necessary that such proof be made by any particular number of witnesses or by documentary or other type of evidence.
In light of the foregoing federal criminal statute, here's a serious question based on two decades of my own experience in state-operated mental health and developmental disabilities facilities:
Could a psychiatrist or other clinician be prosecuted for subornation of perjury when he tells a court or leads a court to believe that a patient is willingly taking psychotropic medication, when he has also told that patient to merely say he will take it to obtain release or placement in a community facility, while knowing that the patient intends to stop taking the medication, or encouraging the patient to believe he may stop taking it, as soon as the court has ordered his release?
In Illinois, 720 ILCS 5/31-4, Obstructing justice, states:
(a) A person obstructs justice when, with intent to prevent the apprehension or obstruct the prosecution or defense of any person, he or she knowingly commits any of the following acts:
(1) Destroys, alters, conceals or disguises physical evidence, plants false evidence, furnishes false information...
In Illinois, 720 ILCS 5/8-2, Conspiracy, states:
(a) Elements of the offense. A person commits the offense of conspiracy when, with intent that an offense be committed, he or she agrees with another to the commission of that offense. No person may be convicted of conspiracy to commit an offense unless an act in furtherance of that agreement is alleged and proved to have been committed by him or her or by a co-conspirator.
(b) Co-conspirators. It is not a defense to conspiracy that the person or persons with whom the accused is alleged to have conspired: (1) have not been prosecuted or convicted, (2) have been convicted of a different offense, (3) are not amenable to justice, (4) have been acquitted, or (5) lacked the capacity to commit an offense.
In light of these Illinois statutes, here's a second serious question based on two decades of my own experience in state-operated mental health and developmental disabilities facilities:
Could clinical and administrative staff be prosecuted for obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and conspiracy to suborn perjury, if they follow a common institutional practice or procedure of telling or inducing a patient to lie about his willingness to take psychotropic medication merely to obtain placement by a court in a community residential facility, while knowing that the patient intends to stop taking the medication as soon as possible?
I believe such criminal prosecutions are viable. In fact, I intend to do my best to convince State's Attorneys and Justice Department officials to investigate these crimes and indict people for them. I know at least one "patient" at EMHC who was recently, explicitly, told by his psychiatrist to just pretend he will take Abilify for long enough to get accepted for a placement and enable conditional release; then he can refuse the drug or stop taking it once he's out of EMHC. In fact, the same psychiatrist has occasionally joked with me about his supervisors and superiors committing this kind of obstruction of justice by prescribing psychotropic drugs off-label or in subclinical dosages for patients who only present symptoms which the "doctors" admit will not be effectively treated by the "medication" (eg, personality disorders).
I told a patient today, and I have told many clients for decades: DON'T conspire in perjury or obstruction! Be honest about the meds. If meds help you, fine, I have no necessary problem with that.
But DON'T LIE! Let the slave masters and the overseers do the lying, they surely will. They will also try to make their "patients" lie. But by whatever steadfast recalcitrance or cunning contrivance, resist invitations to such conspiracy.
Psychiatrists have no valid diagnoses or successful treatments. They MUST lie just to keep their jobs.
Psychiatria delenda est!
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