Sunday, September 14, 2014

Psychiatric Crisis: Sergio Robles Killed a Police Officer

Pictured above is Sergio Robles, a Texas inmate who was deprived of his psychiatric meds for 14 days while incarcerated on a DUI charge. Sergio was beaten before being released and taken to the hospital for medical help. He then killed a police officer who was standing in his mother's doorway pointing a gun in Sergio's direction about 13 hours after Sergio was released from jail in a psychiatric crisis. He has been incarcerated for roughly 5 years for the shooting and was sentenced to 40 years on a plea deal. Sergio suffers from paranoid schizophrenia that is not perceptible when he is on his medication, but the jail refused to dispense his meds during his DUI arrest. That is why the police officer is dead. Both Sergio's family and the police officer's family qualify to be complainants in AIMI vs. USA. Sergio's family already joined as Claimants for this action in International Court. Visit our blog for the lawsuit at "AIMI - Human Rights" http://aimi-humanrights.blogspot.com/

Sergio had a history that included police brutality because of his mental illness. The video below captured a police beating that occurred when Sergio was only 21 and had just learned that his father died. He went into a psychiatric crisis and was walking down the middle of the street. Police beat him viciously and arrested him. See YouTube video  http://youtu.be/dSUxzB3G1vw . Sergio mother had to pay $1,500 for Sergio's bond, because he was charged with disorderly conduct.



DESCRIPTION: Officer Eric Bruss from the Santa Fe Police Department is caught on tape here beating an unarmed Hispanic man. Eric Bruss has been in the news various times for his conduct as a police officer. This Hispanic man was given $125,000 for taking the beating in this video.

Many people complain about FOX broadcasts, but I find FOX to be a reliable source of information about abuses to the mentally ill and minorities in America. Videos usually become unavailable after I feature them in "Dog Justice for Mentally Ill" blog. Hopefully, this FOX video will not disappear.

The victim's cousin wrote: "This is my cousin Sergio Robles. He is doing time in prison right now for accidentally shooting an officer in the face and killing him, but my cousin was scared for his life and has had plenty of encounters with the police. This video shows two officers beating my cousin almost to death, and he wasn't even resisting. if you know people who have been in situations like this, please share my cousin's story. He wasn't doing anything wrong; he is a wonderful person inside and out. Please share the story. Thank you and God bless everyone, and God bless my Aunt Olga for being a strong, wonderful mother for her son. I love you, Aunt Olga." 

Hear what happened during Sergio's fatal encounter with police, which happened just hours after Sergio's release from Harris County Jail in psychiatric crisis and physical pain from a police beatdown he reportedly received before jail release. His family spoke about Officer Hamilton's last moments on HUMAN RIGHTS DEMAND broadcasts, as they joined Claimants of "AIMI vs. USA," the planned International Court action to be filed in 2015. 
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/08/30/release-the-innocent
HUMAN RIGHTS DEMAND conducted an earlier interview with Olga, Sergio's mother. Hear it: [I must find that Blogtalkradio tape. Prison investors are apparently hiding it.]

Both interviews and Sergio's photo were apparently surreptitiously removed from the Google+ community for "Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill" at
https://plus.google.com/communities/108448922585036678747


Sergio's family has apparently experienced persecution for being related to a so-called "cop killer," and Sergio continues to report abuse from behind prison walls. He is in a facility far away from his family, which strains their ability to visit him. As far as the family knows, no action was taken against jailers for refusing to give Sergio his meds while incarcerated for two weeks, and no action was taken against Academy Sporting Goods' owners for selling Sergio the gun, a man with a history of severe mental illness. The fact that Academy Sporting Goods sold Sergio a gun and police withheld the psychiatric patient's meds seem to be violations of Sergio's human rights, his family's human rights, and the rights of Officer Hamilton's survivors. 

After Sergio's violent police encounter in 2006, which is captured on the film above, he remained faithful to his psychiatric treatment program. He was doing well three years later and in barbering school. Sergio was also in love and had a 9-month-old son. Sergio turned himself in before taking his barbering test. He wanted to get his two-week sentence for DUI behind him before beginning his new profession. But Sergio's next psychiatric crisis resulted in Officer Hamilton's death and a 40-year prison sentence. Life may never return to normal for anyone who loved Sergio or the police officer who died. 

Olga Garcia-Verastegui reports that 19 jail inmates contacted the media when Sergio was arrested for the murder of Officer Hamilton. They told what they knew about Sergio's state of mind the day he was released from Harris County Jail -- the day before Officer Hamilton was killed. It was reported that when Sergio was booked into Harris County Jail, none of the other inmates could even tell that he had mental illness. Sergio had been loyal to his psychiatric treatment and faithfully took his medication for years to avoid having a psychiatric crisis like the one on the news video. But the jail refused to give Sergio his medication while he was incarceration. After a few days, Sergio felt himself slipping into psychosis. He reportedly begged corrections officers for his psychiatric medications, but they refused.

Inmates reported that on Sergio's last day of incarceration (14 days after his arrest for DUI), Sergio was beaten by police or corrections officers. The beating was reportedly so severe that they took Sergio to the hospital for treatment before releasing him. By the time of Sergio's release, he was in physical pain as well as mental anguish. This time, it backfired on police. This time, they lost one of their own.

Sergio Robles was mentally ill, which put him at great risk for police brutality or even wrongful death. His understandable fear of police officers after the violence captured on the FOX News video above plus deprivation of his psychiatric medications for two weeks and another police beating (according to inmates' reports) caused Sergio to kill Officer Hamilton. Although Olga Garcia-Verastegui has her son's power of attorney, Sergio was not allowed to have a trial as his mother wished. Sergio, a chronic mental patient, was induced to sign a plea bargain for 40 years incarceration, when his family felt strongly that he should have stood trial, pleading "not guilty for reason of insanity." This happens regularly to many mentally ill offenders in America. Sergio was kept for two years in jail, surrounded by Officer Hamilton's coworkers, before agreeing to plea bargain.

Visit Ms. Garcia-Verastegui's Facebook page at 
https://www.facebook.com/olga.garciaverastegui

*****
Thank you for joining AIMI's fight to decriminalize mental illness in the 
United States of America.
Mary Neal, Director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI")
Phone: (678)531.0262 or (571)335-1741
Wrongful Death of Larry Neal 
MaryLovesJustice Articles and Radio Broadcasts
Mary Neal is also known as "MaryLovesJustice"

It would be illegal to keep a dog in a tight space 23 hours a day and gas or Taser him for barking. It would be illegal to put a dog in deadly restraint for control. That happens to mentally ill people routinely in the nation's correctional facilities. What happened to Larry Neal?



Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally. Please advocate for your congresspersons to pass H.R.3717 - The "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act." Try to elect people who support human rights and justice for all, not prison investors who have a conflict of interest in voting to decriminalize mental illness in the United States of America, an equal opportunity nation.

6 comments:

Diana Beth said...

This takes the cake. These officers are WAY out of bounds here. Thank the Lord they didn't kill him.

Diana Beth said...

Oh my GOD have mercy! Then it happened again? This man is no doubt suffering from PTSD also from the first beating and gassing that be took! smh

MaryLovesJustice Neal said...

Yes, this is indeed very sad, Diana Beth. Ms. Garcia spoke about her son to my mother today when they were both guests on "Human Rights Demand" broadcast on Sept. 14, 2014, at Blogtalkradio. Listen to the archived tape at the link below:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/09/14/human-rights-for-prisoners-march-w-hattie-neal-91-mom-of-larry-neal-deceased

Please tell us how Mark Bowles is doing. I understand that your son is so concerned about being sentenced to prison for having an epileptic crisis (which should not happen) that he did self-mutilation, is that correct?

Diana Beth said...

Yes Mary Neal. My son is set for sentencing in 4 days, for crimes he never committed. He has been in the hospital after attempting to kill himself several times since he was wrongfully convicted in June. He isn't doing well at all. His ability to talk is almost completely gone now. The brain atrophy, damage from the beating he took, and the epilepsy with all of this stress are taking a toil on him. God bless you for the work you do to help us tell the world the truth about this broken, abusive systematic torture that the mentally ill and their loved ones suffer through daily.

alia52nalie said...

I really think he is a physo else no normal person would have done that. The whole department is going to be after you if you touched anyone of them. He has even a DUI charge. My cousin who works with a Los Angeles DUI attorney thinks he is going to behind the bars for many years to come.

Inane in the Membrane said...

As someone who is a diagnosed and unmedicated bipolar, he didn't "accidently" shoot the officer. The shot was fired with intention, and if he is so bad off that without medication who is capable of unknowingly killing someone, he needs to not be allowed in public, and the fact that he has ALREADY killed someone during an episode, means to me he is exactly where he belongs, both for his own safety as well as the safety of everyone else.

No one has the right to put anyone at risk because they forgot to take, chose not to take, or couldn't get access to, medication that keeps them from killing someone else.

Sorry, not sorry. If I were ever put in that situation where I knew I had the potential to be so dangerous, I'd be begging someone to lock me away from others.