Story

This is in response to the May 4th article in the St. Cloud Times regarding second degree charges of assault on a St. Cloud Police officer by Justin Lee Otremba stating the officer was stabbed in the face with a pointed weapon.

On May 3rd our son was clearly in a psychotic state of mind. Justin is diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. He was doing very well up until October, 2001 when his psychiatrist left her position and was no longer seeing Justin. With the terrible events of 9/11 and the 25% reduction of his anti-psychotic medication with no replacement medication by Dr. Kent Davis, a psychiatrist at the Central Minnesota Mental Health Center in St. Cloud, Justin became more ill. Because Dr. Davis would not increase his meds I took him to see Dr. Ann Kooiker from the Behavioral Health Center at the St. Cloud Hospital. She not only kept the same reduction of his anti-psychotic medication but she also refused to talk to me even after I told her I was his mother and had a lot of issues we needed to talk about.

On 2/6/02 Justin called 911 to get help. The St. Cloud police transported Justin to the St. Cloud Hospital. Knowing he was very ill, staff released Justin saying he could attend their Partial Day Treatment Program. On 2/25/02 Justin went to this program only to be turned away two days later because his issues didn't fit their program. However, Dr. Terri Gerdes did increase his anti-psychotic medication after I had written a letter to her explaining that I was seeing Justin becoming more psychotic and angry with society.

On 4/3/02 Justin again called 911 for help. The St. Cloud police brought Justin to the emergency room where he was admitted to the hospital for 4 days. Dr. Kent Davis, Dr. Ann Kooiker, and Dr. Makkar again reduced his anti-psychotic medication. When I went to pick Justin up from the hospital I could see he was no better than when he went in but I was told he was discharged.

On 4/10/02 he was taken to the Crisis Center at the Mental Health Center in St. Cloud because he did not feel safe. Even with pleas from his counselor, Mike Simpson, and his social worker, Karen Andrews, the St. Cloud hospital refused to admit him on the grounds that he did not fit their criteria to be admitted. The criteria being, " He was not an imminent danger to himself or others."

On May 3rd Justin was in need to be hospitalized. His social worker as well as Justin's Dad and myself could see he needed help. I called 911 thinking that the police would take Justin to the hospital for help since the hospital refused to admit him on our pleas. Officers Aaron Stellmach and Stacy Gohman arrived at our home about 5:00 pm. My husband, Jim, and myself talked with Officer Stellmach saying that Justin was psychotic and needed to be taken to the hospital. Officers Stellmach and Gohman, according to the police report, discussed with each other what charges they could get Justin on even if it was a misdemeanor so they could arrest him. Justin was patted down by Officer Gohman and she discovered a ball point pen in Justin's pocket but did not view it as a weapon, therefore she did not take it from him. Justin was placed in the police car. Officer Stellmach talked to Justin's Dad as to what they were going to do. Halfway through a sentence he stated, "Justin would be going to jail and there he would get his first taste of reality!" When Officer Stellmach opened the car door and told Justin he was going to jail, Justin struck out at him. The pointed weapon stated in the news article in the St. Cloud Times turned out to be a ballpoint pen and the substantial injury stated in the police report was a quarter inch puncture to Officer Stellmach's lower face which required 7 stitches. Officer Stellmach pulled his pistol and within a distance of approximately 3 feet he aimed at Justin's chest and almost shot him after Justin had dropped the pen on the street and had his hand up in the air. I shouted, "Don't Shoot, Don't!" Lori Long, a ride along that day with the police, and is a City Council member, was standing next to us on the front lawn, witnessed this and gasped as he drew his weapon. Jim said, "That came out awful fast!" and she agreed saying, "Yes it did!" Justin was pulled to the pavement, handcuffed, and placed in the police car.

In Officer Gohman's statement she states that she thought Officer Stellmach had pulled pepper gas but then realized that it was his gun instead so she let go of Justin's arm and stepped back. Soon the street was filled with 7 police cars and the Gold Cross ambulance. Justin was then taken to the Benton County Jail. All this action and not one officer or paramedic asked how Jim and I were. Traumatized by almost seeing our ill son shot to death in front of our eyes we were only informed someone would be around later to take our statements. This did not happen until 9:00pm.

In the St. Cloud police department manual on the use of force, 130.12 Subd. 1 Rules Threatening the use of Force, states " An officer may if reasonable, announce to another his or her intention to use only the type and degree of force which is reasonably necessary in the situation." Officer Stellmach did not communicate his intention to Officer Gohman. In her own statement she thought he had drawn his pepper gas.

Sect. 130.12 Subd.2 states "Officers are specifically prohibited from actions that unreasonably escalate an incident to a situation requiring the use of force." In our opinion, Officer Stellmach escalated the situation by not listening to us in regards to Justin's state of mind. His only intention, in our opinion, was to make an arrest.

Justin was then taken to the Benton County Jail where he was questioned about what happened then booked. Justin was not given legal counsel until May 7th just before his first hearing. Justin was in such a psychotic and traumatized state that he should not, in our opinion, have been questioned without legal counsel. He states he was told to "Shut up and get in your cell!"

The public defender, Mark Hanson, moved for a Rule 20 evaluation. The examination of a Rule 20 includes the following: A psychological examination and evaluation of the defendant, diagnosis of the mental condition of the defendant, if the defendant is mentally ill, his capacity to understand the proceedings against him and to proceed in his defense for a statement of the factual basis on which the diagnosis is based, whether, because of mental illness or deficiency, the defendant at the time of the commission of the crime charged was laboring under such a defect of reason as to not to know the nature of the act constituting the offense or that it was wrong, whether or not the defendant is dangerous to himself or others. Bail was set at $50,000.00 and Justin sat in jail until a date for an evaluation at St. Peter Medical Facility could be set.

Two weeks went by and there was no word of a date being set. On May 15th after a call to the Benton County Courthouse we were told it could take up to 2 months to set a date. We then called Senator Wellstone's office to see what was taking so long. When a representative from Senator Wellstone's office called the County Attorney's office he was told that a date had just been set.

Jim and I filed a complaint on May 21st regarding excessive force used by Officer Stellmach on our son. We asked about what training the police force had regarding crisis situations especially in mental illness issues. This seemed to be a touchy subject for Sergeant Michael Gohman. When we asked what training Officer Stellmach had he would not tell us. Sergeant Gohman added after statements from us were taken that the complaint would go before a Citizen's Review Board of 9 people, 3 of whom are in law enforcement. The final decision would be made by the Chief of Police. How fair do you think this is when 1/3 of the board are in law enforcement? On June 24th we got a reply from the Chief of Police, Dennis Ballantine, that " On June 20th, 2002 your case was reviewed by the Citizen's Review Board. After careful consideration of all the evidence and facts surrounding the incident the Citizen's Review Board allocated a disposition of exonerated for the allegation of Racial Profiling against both Officer Stellmach and Officer Gohman. The Citizen's Review Board assigned a disposition of unfounded for the allegation of unsatisfactory performance for Officer Stellmach and Officer Gohman." If this was careful consideration why did they think this was a case of racial profiling when all those involved were white? Since the Chief of Police was making the final decision don't you think he could have at least read what he was signing?

On July 3rd we received a letter stating that there was an error in the final paragraph. How much careful consideration of a citizen's complaint against the police is given? Is it just verbiage to pacify the general public?

Meanwhile Justin was sitting in the Benton County Jail waiting for the results of the Rule 20 mental evaluation. Justin was put on a suicide watch for weeks. We learned that the doctor medicating our son was Dr. Clifford Stiles, a retired family practitioner. When I asked him what meds he was giving Justin he said he had doubled his anti-psychotic medication and had taken away his anti-anxiety medication because he said it was considered a narcotic and narcotics cannot be used in jail. However, Dr. Stiles did reinstate the anti-anxiety medication 3 weeks later despite it being labeled a narcotic. Justin, in my opinion, was starting to show signs of Tardive Dyskinesia, a side effect of some anti-psychotic meds, which can be serious or irreversible. The big problem we saw was a family physician prescribing psychiatric drugs without ever seeing Justin. According to the DEA, Drug Enforcement Agency, doctors who don't know a patient cannot prescribe drugs unless the patient is seen. Justin was never seen by Dr. Clifford Stiles. This was told to us first by Dr. Clifford Stiles then by Dawn, the nurse at the Benton County Jail, and by Justin. When I called Sheriff McMahon and told him that Justin said he never was seen by Dr. Clifford Stiles the Sheriff said to me, "Who is going to believe someone who is mentally ill?" If the law states that a doctor has to see the patient before prescribing a medication why then was Dr. Clifford Stiles able to prescribe psychiatric medications without ever seeing our son? Why is this tolerated in jail? Are the people in jail not given the same medical rights as the general population? I was told by Dr. Clifford Stiles that "He was going to prescribe the same medications as long as Justin was in jail!"

Because we felt Justin was not getting a proper defense we hired an attorney from St. Paul. The first time the new attorney, Kyle White, saw Justin he remarked what a vulnerable adult Justin was. A court date was set by request of our attorney to have the bail lowered so we could get Justin out of jail to take him to the hospital for treatment. Motion was denied even though the assistant county attorney, Krista Majerus, was informed by Justin's lawyer that he had spoken with the evaluator from St. Peter Medical Facility and he would file that Justin was indeed mentally ill and not responsible for his actions on May 3rd. She refused to accept that finding so Judge Buchanan refused the reduction.

We bailed Justin out that afternoon. We have never seen more of a pathetic situation as we saw when our son walked out of jail. For human beings to put another person through such an ordeal just because he suffers from a biological brain disorder called mental illness is beyond all forms of comprehension. Seven long weeks Justin suffered in the Benton County Jail where we feel he was denied proper medical treatment, was treated harshly by some deputies in the jail, and was left to become more mentally ill as the days passed. Is this justice?

On June 19th we took him down to Minneapolis to admit him into Fairview Hospital to get the help he so greatly needed. He was scheduled to go back to a hearing on July 16th. Meanwhile, the Rule 20 evaluation came back like the doctor had told Justin's lawyer before the bail reduction hearing. The State of Minnesota dismissed all charges based upon the results of the psychiatric evaluation. There was insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The county attorney, Robert Raupp, didn't have the professionalism to contact Justin's attorney, Kyle White, or us about the case being dismissed. Raupp left a message on the social worker, Karen Andrews, message machine on July 5th stating that the charges were dropped. When she called us on July 8th and told us our reaction was one of anger. All the suffering that Justin went through for nothing when it was so clearly obvious that from the start, Justin was in need of hospitalization.

When we called Justin's attorney, Kyle White, to tell him he did not believe it because he had never seen this happen before where an assault charge against a police officer was just dropped. He called the court and the case still showed on the court calendar so he proceeded to continue to gather information on the case. It was not until Friday, July 12th when he called Robert Raupp that he was told it was dismissed. Kyle then called the court to see if it was indeed taken off the calendar and it was.

This whole entire case was nothing but a botched mess starting with the assault and the arrest on May 3rd by, in our opinion, police officers poorly trained in mental illness. By a criminal justice system that prosecutes people with mental illnesses as criminals, but does not consider that these are people who have a serious illness. Because of this Justin suffered in jail for 47 days and we put up a considerable amount of money for his defense and bail to get him help. We have definitely lost our respect and our faith in most of the mental health professionals in this town as well as the law enforcement and criminal justice system in this community. Shame on all those who can smile in our faces thinking that they have served justice. We can only hope that this does not happen to anyone else. That they will not face the same heartache that we have suffered. This is a modern day tragedy! One in four families have someone with a mental illness and the numbers of people with mental illness is increasing every day. Some day these same individuals that have dealt with this case in a callous and inhumane manner may have to deal with the heartaches we feel today. We only hope that they will never forget.