You hear people sayting that they are "depressed" or "anxious." You also hear others saying things like "John Doe is insane." Well, I had the chance to look insanity into it's eyes, and it was unlike any of the "insanity" that has been bantered around in the workplace. It brought forth in me more terror than I had ever known or imagined.
I had to represent a client once who was off her medication. It was said that she was "bi-polar," in in reality that may have been a kind diagnosis. I was called to the local jail to meet my new client who had been arrested on the very minor charge of disorderly conduct in a department store. The client had been moved from the general detention jail to one which is more secure. I found that puzzling. Then when I met her, it was clear why. Sitting behind steel and glass, I must have been as nervous as Jodie Foster in the Silence of the Lambs. Over a period of two hours I was able to get the basic information I needed for a defense. In general, these types of conversations take about 15 minutes. During the conversation I found out the client had been off her anti-psychotic drugs for about a month.
Between the times in which I got answers to my questions, I heard of shadow governments, aliens, hidden bible messages, the new messiah, and even more things I cannot even explain. Even in shackles, she jutted around the small room, hit the glass, screamed, and did a variety of other disturbing actions.
The magistrate had denied bond due to my client's behavior at her first appearance. She was unable to post bond, not because she didn't have the 15% for the bondsman, but because she had nobody to put up collateral for her release. Thus, she was to stay in detention until her court date which was about three weeks later.
As an attorney, you have a duty to "zealously defend your client." In this case, I felt the defense would require more than that. It required taking an active role in having the client treated medically. This was not as simple as I thought. As a defense attorney trying to help a mentally ill client, it was assumed I was looking to have her declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. This was the exact opposite. I was looking to have her mentally competent.
By working through the system, my client eventually got the appropriate drugs. As time came closer to the court date, I eventually had meetings in a single room with my client unshackled and uncuffed. A new person was my client. When the court date came, the judge accepted a plea and my client was sentenced to "time served." By lunchtime that day she was out. I made sure she got into a taxi and sent her on her way home.
She still keeps in touch. She continues to take her medicine and has a better understanding of the consequences of being unmedicated. She goes to her job, drives, enjoys the company of friends, and has a normal life. To think that less than a month before this I had stared insanity in its eyes - and I blinked.
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