Posted on 08/27/2006 8:11:33 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Millions Sought By Parents Who Claim Officers Ignored Daughter's Mental Illness
(AP) CHICAGO -- Kathy Paine knew her 21-year-old daughter was in trouble.
Officials of the Chicago Police Department told her they had just released her from a women's holding facility into an unfamiliar neighborhood at night. Paine also knew her daughter's cell phone was dead, that she suffered from bipolar disorder and wasn't taking her medication.
"That whole evening I had some horrible visions. I pictured her getting kidnapped, raped, beaten to death," Paine told the Chicago Tribune, recalling the night of May 8 when she and her husband, both at home in California, tried to understand why police released their daughter despite their repeated warnings about her mental illness. "... And what happened was worse than anything I imagined."
Rick and Kathy Paine have filed a $100 million lawsuit against the city and the police department alleging officers ignored their pleas to help their daughter, Christina Eilman, get on a flight home. Eilman plunged seven stories from a Chicago building shortly after being released by police.
She now is under treatment in the brain-injury unit of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the Tribune reported in its Sunday editions. An alleged gang member is charged with sexually assaulting her and holding her against her will.
Eilman is not expected to fully recover from injuries that included a crushed pelvis, fractured vertebrae, collapsed lungs, a shattered ankle, massive internal bleeding and bleeding on both sides of her brain. No one knows whether she jumped or was pushed from the seventh-floor window.
The Paines have moved into a temporary apartment so they can be close to their daughter. They agreed to talk to the Tribune in hopes their story will lead the police to change how it deals with mentally ill people, they said.
The Chicago Police Department is conducting an internal investigation of the 29 hours Eilman was in their custody. She was arrested on a train platform at Midway International Airport on May 7 for causing a disturbance.
The Paines believe their daughter was trying to get on a flight home they had booked for her. She recently had dropped out of college at UCLA and the Paines said they don't know how she got to Chicago.
Police declined to comment on details of the case because of the ongoing investigation and lawsuit.
"Litigious matters can be complicated," said police spokeswoman Monique Bond. "We wish her continued progress in her recovery."
The newspaper also interviewed women who were in cells adjoining Eilman's on May 7 and 8. They described Eilman's distress and said guards told her to shut up.
"I heard that girl screaming for her life, `Take me to the hospital. Call my parents,"' said Tamalika Harris, 26. "The way she was screaming and kicking on the bars, I knew something was wrong."
They could have done a 24-hold for eval..it happens all the time...Baker Act her.
Sorry...I forgot this was in Chicago so I am not sure of their law...had this been in Florida..she could have been Baker Acted...and at least prevented from release for her own good until family or a doctor could get her on meds.
It is the fault of our laws, not the PD. I had a nephew with bipolar disorder. No person nor any law could control him. He died in a fiery head on crash, and he was burned to a crisp, and injured two other people.
There is NO law that can make people take their medicine.
Why the sarcasm? Your comment seems prophetic to me.
Involuntary institutionalization wasn't always the near-impossibility that it is today. It was deemed cruel and a violation of human rights, back in the mid-80's. That's when our "homeless" problem began in earnest.
Read the article.
thanks, in part, to past Speaker of the House, Jim Wright, and his "successful" fight to release mentally ill people from institutions to the streets, etc., back in the '80s.
Since when is the Police Department a taxi or bus service to the Airport?
Why wasn't the woman at home with her parents?
If my daughter had her brains in a basket I wouldn't let her out of my sight.
"There is really no safe place for the mentally ill in today's world."
Politics is a safe bet.
"Mentally ill GIRL falls seven stories"
The person in question was twenty one.
No bias in that headline, none at all.
Ya think?!!?
But then they wouldn't be able to sue anybody!
I ask myself... If I had a mentally ill daughter, would I allow her to go to college across the country?
If there is something bout this story that is disgusting, it is those so-called parents.
They "pleaded" for everyone else in the country to help their daughter, but couldn't fire enough brain cells at one time to motivate themselves off their fat butts!
"Ya think?!!?
But then they wouldn't be able to sue anybody!
I ask myself... If I had a mentally ill daughter, would I allow her to go to college across the country?
If there is something bout this story that is disgusting, it is those so-called parents.
They "pleaded" for everyone else in the country to help their daughter, but couldn't fire enough brain cells at one time to motivate themselves off their fat butts!
"
AMEN! I love the line how the parents were sitting at home (on their fat butts) when they got the call. If it was me, and I knew someone from my family was in jeopardy, I would have been on the first plane over!
What is wrong with people? Why don't they take care of their own anymore? Every bum ("homeless") on the street has parents, or a brother, a sister, something. Why don't they take care of them?
And why is her last name different from theirs... Weird... Poor girl, bless the poor thing.
Could they have, legally? Quite unlikely, without "due cause", and a ruling from "a black robed high priest" (judge...) As someone else has already stated, there is little that can be done these days about such unfortunately mentally ill people, until the situation becomes drastic, and even then, any help forthcoming may well arrive too late, such as in this case...
the infowarrior
No airline is going to permit a screaming bipolar to board.
I don't know how Chicago handles these matters, but in California, if the police reasonably believe someone is "a danger to himself and others," he can be held in a locked psychiatric unit for up to 72 hours pending determination of his fitness for discharge.
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