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Zyprexa Documents Case
by Jim Gottstein

New York Times Pieces

Fallout from the Subpoena and Release of the Sealed Documents

Case XX

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights' (PsychRights) mission is to mount a strategic litigation campaign against unwarranted court ordered psychiatric drugging around the country.  At the end of June PsychRights won what has been called the landmark Myers decision holding the existing Alaska statutory forced drugging regime unconstitutional:

We conclude that the Alaska Constitution's guarantees of liberty and privacy require an independent judicial determination of an incompetent mental patient's best interests before the superior court may authorize a facility like API to treat the patient with psychotropic drugs. . . . [W]e hold that in future non-emergency cases a court may not permit a treatment facility to administer psychotropic drugs unless the court makes findings that comply with all applicable statutory requirements and, in addition, expressly finds by clear and convincing evidence that the proposed treatment is in the patient's best interests and that no less intrusive alternative is available. (emphasis added).

Expecting that all that was going to happen was those two statements were going to be added to the other pro forma statement in the sham forced drugging proceedings (See, Wetherhorn I case), PsychRights always intended to pursue whatever follow-up cases follow-up case might seem need as set forth in its strategic litigation plan as developed for Alaska.  In fact, the Wetherhorn I case seeking to establish people's right to have attorneys appointed who would actually work on their behalf in fighting forced drugging was filed well before the Myers case was decided.   On November 30, 2006, PsychRights became aware of the opportunity to subpoena secret Zyprexa documents and needed a case from which to issue such a subpoena.  Doing so would potentially advance the national strategic agenda.

Because of the confidentiality rights of people facing these types of cases, on Thursday, November 30, 2006, I wrote to the Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API), the Alaska Attorney General's Office, the Public Defender Agency and the Court System requesting that people currently facing such a proceeding be notified of PsychRights' availability.  In this letter I pointed out that the Public Defender Agency can only be appointed if the defendant can't afford a lawyer and since PsychRights was willing to represent them the court was without authority to appoint the Public Defender Agency without determining whether they might want PsychRights to represent them.  Since normally 5-10 commitment hearings are held on Fridays (and Tuesdays) , starting at 1:30 and ending by 4:30, I also informed them I would be at API starting at 11:00 the next day, Friday, December 1st, to meet with potential clients for the day's hearing(s) and stay there until the hearings were over.

When I arrived, I started handing out the letter to visitors in the hope that someone would take it through the locked doors and give it to someone who was going through a forced drugging hearing that day.  At about 1:00 pm I was handed a letter, which indicated the day's hearings had been canceled.  In an attempt to intimidate me, the letter also accused me of a couple of ethical violations including direct solicitation of clients.  Since it is specifically allowed for public interest law firms like PsychRights to solicit, it was not an ethics violation.

I don't know why the hearings were canceled, but one can only hope the court system is taking people's right to counsel of their choice more seriously than API.  It is a very serious matter to deprive someone of their right to counsel of choice when the state is in court wanting to lock someone up and forcibly drug them.  The Myers case last summer showed the Alaska Supreme Court certainly finds forcible drugging a serious matter.

Over the weekend, I and a couple of volunteers handed out flyers trying to get visitors to let people locked up and facing a forced drugging hearing of PsychRights availability to represent them.

API's previous attempt to intimidate me being unsuccessful, on Monday, I received an e-mail from Ron Adler, CEO of API prohibiting us from distributing the flyers, citing a state facilities management policy that he interpreted as allowing him to ban me from continuing to hand out the flyers. 

I e-mailed him back that now he was not only violating people's constitutional right to counsel before being locked up and forcibly drugged, but now violating free speech rights and that  I was inclined to come by and not only hand out the flyers tomorrow morning, but post them as well.

Mr. Adler responded by e-mail, on December 5th, first directing that I only communicate with his attorneys and then saying, "Of the 1,452 admissions we had last fiscal year, API utilized the Court Ordered Medication process on 57 occasions" and that  "it doesn't get much better than that!!!"

I responded that I wished that were true, but my conclusion was API, aided and abetted by the Attorney General's Office, "has constructed a legal subterfuge to evade the Myers decision of last June."

We were able to start running Public Service announcements and I heard from someone in the hospital who wanted to talk to me.

I went out to talk to him and API staff would not give him any of his legal paperwork and said he could not sign a "Release of Information" for authorizing the hospital to give it to me because he had a guardian (Steve Young) and the guardian had to authorize it. I informed the staff he had the right to his paperwork and that API should consult with the Attorney General's Office. 

I  e-mailed Mr. Young to allow his ward to obtain his own records and sign a release of information. 

Assembly-line involuntary commitment hearings seem to have resumed Tuesday, December 5th, without any response from the Presiding Judge about the systematic deprivation of people's constitutional right to choice of counsel. 

On December 6th, someone locked up at API and being forcibly drugged was able to get to me and PsychRights took his case. 

On December 7th it appeared that API is filing for guardianships to subvert the Myers decision with the Office of Public Advocacy (OPA), the public guardian, granting "consent" to the forced drugging.  I wrote the head of the Public Guardian Section of OPA stating that what they were doing is illegal and requesting that he stop it.

On December 8th, I was informed API is not filing guardianships on people in order to be able to forcibly drug its inmates.  I have been informed virtually everyone at API is being drugged so from my perspective how API only filed petitions to obtain court authorization to forcibly drug its inmates only 57 times out of 1,45 admissions is a mystery.  

On January 8, 2007, former API employee Dorothy Pickles wrote to the Palin Administration about what is going on.

 


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