Psychiatric Miranda Warning

Polozker wrote:

epthe wrote:Before the attorney got there the lady came there and my Mom talked to her and agreed to pay for the damages to her car and she agreed not to press charges, and they released me. Because I never spoke to them other than saying "I take the 5th to remain silent" my mental illness never came up.

I have no doubts it would have been much worse if I had started talking to them.

Epthe, just watch this and bless god if you trust him that you were born in the US, because such things as Miranda law doesn't work in another places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08fZQWjDVKE

Thanks, I watched it.

In my case it was a prank that got terribly out of hand and did collateral damage to a neighbor's car on her private property. Fortunately even without me saying anything (my friends were talking to the cops and the neighbor and explaining it) they could see I had not intended to even involve her in the prank and it just went terribly wrong. I've since stopped pranking my friends at all.

Here's another video that has some good advice about what to say and notice how little this guy says. I don't drive, but it still has good advice for passengers, and mainly about how not to fall for cops tricks...

https://youtu.be/eDJrQBwJpqk

The problem is that you don't have a right to refuse to get a psych evaluation. I know a guy who was ordered to have one and his lawyer told him to tape all the conversations. But they still were able to get him committed. I didn't have the tape option because they put me in the hospital after a misdemeanor simple assault charge. I wanted to talk to a public defender but no one at the office would return my calls for a week. Finally a secretary told me to cooperate. The forensic shrink lied and told me that I could reject his evaluation and get another one if I didn't like his. I finally got to talk with a lawyer after 80 days of my 90 day evaluation, but she wouldn't help me get another evaluation. I was found incompetent to stand trial and then ruled insane.

The other week, I noticed that my neighbor's truck had a parking ticket under the wiper, the next day his truck was still unmoved. I mentioned to my wife that I thought that I better check on him.
His post box was overflowing and I tried the doorknob. Thankfully the door was unlocked, so I opened it a bit and called his name.
I was thinking the worst, but then he answered from the other room. He was laying naked on the floor and told me that his apartment was broken into by 4 guys and they had taken his wallet.
The apartment was in order and I found his wallet intact with money still in it. This is a fairly safe neighborhood and I began to doubt his recollection of events. He wasn't making sense.
I picked him up off the floor and began dressing him. He said that he had been laying there for 3 days, had not eaten and NOT to call 911. I got him a glass of water. I had suggested that it would be good for him to get checked out, but he was resistant.
My wife (ex-nurse) stopped by and she was the one who called 911,
The cops and EMT showed up and he still didn't want to go with them. The cop said that it would make a lot of paperwork for him if he had to make a mental hygiene arrest and that he really would get more upset if he had to do more paperwork.
The cops know how to make people listen to their point of view without really raising their voice or forcing the issue.
My neighbor relented and went with them which was probably for the best. He was hospitalized for 3 weeks after that and is now being placed in supportive living. He has really lost the ability to care for himself.
In cases like this, I am glad that public safety is available. The cops and EMT personnel see these scenarios play out every day and can usually handle it satisfactorily.
My neighbor had done nothing criminal, but needed help.

Parador wrote:The problem is that you don't have a right to refuse to get a psych evaluation. I know a guy who was ordered to have one and his lawyer told him to tape all the conversations. But they still were able to get him committed. I didn't have the tape option because they put me in the hospital after a misdemeanor simple assault charge. I wanted to talk to a public defender but no one at the office would return my calls for a week. Finally a secretary told me to cooperate. The forensic shrink lied and told me that I could reject his evaluation and get another one if I didn't like his. I finally got to talk with a lawyer after 80 days of my 90 day evaluation, but she wouldn't help me get another evaluation. I was found incompetent to stand trial and then ruled insane.

I just wonder what would have happened if that guy had had his lawyer with him during the psych evaluation. They probably wouldn't allow it, but since his freedom was at stake, he should have had the option under the Constitution, but as we know, the Constitution sometimes doesn't apply to us, and that is something worth fighting for, to change.

Public defenders are almost worthless, in fact sometimes they're even malevolent because they advise their client to do things that are not in their best interest.

I think one simple thing that could be done to the current system without any major changes would be for the government to properly fund the public defenders so that there would be enough of them to properly represent all their clients, and pay them enough to attract high quality lawyers. Having to wait a week to get a return call is so typical of them. A private attorney gets back to you the same day. And then they wouldn't help you get another evaluation. And the next evaluation should be with a private psychiatrist not associated with government. I've been very naive about it, but it is very obvious that it really comes down to money. If your family has enough money to hire a high quality private attorney and a private psychiatrist, then they can get you off. Otherwise, you're at their mercy, and they aren't very merciful. I'm sorry about what happened to you.