He Called for Help; They Called the Cops

Let’s get right to it: Why is San Clemente High School teacher Frank Gardner in jail without bail and facing criminal charges, rather than in a mental-health facility?

After the proverbial bad day at work last Friday, Gardner drove himself to a hospital, said he was harboring dark thoughts and might want to kill himself and others. Why, when he asked for help at the hospital, did officials instead call the cops?

The vexing whys and wherefores are familiar ones in a society often deficient when mental-health issues and the criminal justice system converge.

This much is certain: The path that led Gardner to the Orange County Jail is well worn.

A week ago, Capistrano Unified School District officials notified Gardner that an allegation of verbal sexual harassment was going in his personnel file. A district spokeswoman won’t specify the allegation but says the district didn’t contemplate further action.

Upset, Gardner left. “So he leaves school, and what do you do if you’re a good person having these thoughts?� asks his attorney, Stephen Klarich. “You check yourself into a psychiatric hospital for observation.�

Gardner drove to South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach--the only facility in South County with psychiatric care. Klarich says Gardner had quit taking his antidepressant medication in recent weeks.

“He felt the world was caving in on him,� Klarich says. “He starts feeling bad and claims he’s having bad thoughts. He’s feeling depressed and there was an issue that he may want to do harm to himself and others.�

Any statement to that effect, says a mental-health official not involved in the Gardner case, would have justified under state law an involuntary commitment in a secure facility--if not at South Coast, then somewhere else.

However, what Gardner said prompted South Coast to call police, who in turn notified sheriff’s deputies.

Rick Massimino, director of a Garden Grove foundation that provides mental health services and rehabilitation, says if a facility had a bed and (as South Coast does) a secured area, there would have been no need to call police.

If it didn’t have an available bed, it would have been logical and appropriate to call police, who then should have found such a place for Gardner, Massimino says.

Jailed Without Bail for Bad Thoughts

But those scenarios often don’t happen.

Sometimes, people are turned away for lack of space or lack of insurance. Sometimes, it’s because officials just don’t want to bother with the problem.

South Coast officials won’t shed much light on this situation. A spokesman says he can’t comment on the matter or even confirm whether Gardner was ever a patient at the hospital.

My calls to the Sheriff’s Department were unreturned.

Gardner’s no-bail status seems even stranger when you consider that bail for Peter Solomona has been set at $250,000. Solomona, convicted of fatally shooting a youth over a Halloween prank, remains in jail although his conviction was recently overturned. He awaits a possible new trial.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Henderson notes that by the time she entered the Gardner case, she had only the police report to go on.

The report indicated, she says, that Gardner’s actions fit the definition of a terrorist threat. Without disclosing what he allegedly said, Henderson says his threat involved great bodily injury or death, was meant to be conveyed to potential victims and caused them to be fearful.

What was she supposed to do? Not file charges? Run the risk that a man of unknown stability might carry out his threat?

Henderson argues, with some persuasiveness, that a prosecutor can’t always determine to what extent mental instability plays a part in an alleged offense--except in an obvious case where, for example, a clearly demented older person commits a petty theft.

So someone like Gardner ends up in jail while the system decides if he committed a crime or merely described to a nurse a manifestation of his depression.

Last year, a state watchdog organization known as the Little Hoover Commission reported that California’s mental-health system needs significant repair.

In a letter to the governor and Legislature, commission Chairman Richard Terzian wrote that California spends “billions of dollars dealing with the consequences of untreated mental illness, rather than spending that money wisely on adequate services. We pay for jail space and court costs that we incur because mental health clients do not receive care and treatment.�

The result, Terzian wrote, is that California “has, in effect, criminalized mental illness.�

Nobody is saying Gardner’s threats should have been dismissed.

The question is, who should have addressed them: a doctor or a cop?

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821; by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626; or by e-mail at [email protected].