Lawyers on this list: does this sound like she has grounds for an appeal?
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2006/05/uppity_clevelan.html
>Uppity Cleveland woman carted to psych hospital by police and ordered
to a psych unit by judge
>For as long as we have had some kind of mental health system, women
who "behave incorrectly" have been ordered to undergo its treatments.
At one time or another, feminists, suffragists, menopausal women, and
women who question authority in any way have been sent to institutions
so that they could recieve "help." The latest woman to get such help
is Carol Fisher of Cleveland. Fisher is on the staff of Revolution
Books, and on January 28, while she was putting Bush Step Down posters
on telephone polls in Cleveland Heights, she was ordered by a police
officer to take them down or face a fine. When she complied, she was
asked for her ID, which she did not have on her. He then grabbed her
by the arm, pushed her against a store window, and knocked her face
down onto the sidewalk. He was joined by another officer, and they
both pressed their feet against her back until she could not breathe.
Her chin was pressed down into the concrete; Fisher has
osteoradionecrosis in her jaw from radiation treatments for cancer.
>Fisher was handcuffed and shackled. During this time, Fisher yelled
out to everyone who passed what the posters were about. One of the
police officers then told her, Fisher says, to "Shut up or I will kill
you! I am sick of this anti-Bush shit! You are definitely going to the
psyche ward."
>She was then threatened some more and taken away in an EMS truck. At
the hospital, Fisher was asked to undress in front of the police
officers, which she refused to do. The officers refused to leave, so a
nurse attempted to shield her while she undressed. Fisher says she was
then cuffed to the bed, given an IV of some sort, and made to wait
hours for a psychiatrist to interview her. By this time, members of
her World Can't Wait group were in the emergency room having a
confrontation with the police, who refused to let them see Fisher.
Someone called the news media, who never made an appearance.
>Fisher was eventually released and sent home. On May 2, she went to
court and was found guilty of two counts of felonious assault of two
police officers. The prosecution's "witnesses" had not seen the
alleged assault; rather, they claimed that Fisher lacked respect for
authority. It took a jury more than eight hours to find her guilty.
According to a letter to the editor of The Free Press, the prosecution
misquoted Fisher's testimony and gave the jury incorrect information
about the city's arrestable offenses. When asked to clarify the law,
the judge refused.
>As part of the pre-sentencing procedure, the judge, Timothy McGinty,
had Fisher undergo a state psychological exam. He had already surmised
publicly that Fisher must be mentally unstable to resist arrest.
McGinty then declared her "delusional," and on May 9, ordered her to
be incarcerated in a psychiatric unit of the Cuyahoga County Jail in
downtown Cleveland, where she now sits and waits; she could face a
three-year prison sentence. According to Mark Crispin Miller, who has
spoken with Fisher by telephone, Fisher has also been placed on
suicide watch, has had her eyeglasses taken from her, and--if she
refuses to take the psych exam--she will be sent to North Coast Mental
Institute for a 20-day evaluation.
>Posted by Diane E. Dees on 05/12/06 at 04:03 PM |
The Letter to the Editor Referred to: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/10/2006/1950
The organization Fisher is volunteers for: http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1534&Itemid=61
-- Please note: Personal messages should be sent to [garlpublic] followed by the [at] sign with isp of [comcast], then [dot] and then an extension of net