We have posted here in the past on similar cases, which you can read about at the following links:
Ruling spotlights problems for developmentally disabled in CA prisons
Update on developmentally disabled man caught in prison system
In this case we'll let you read Virginia's appeal and story in her own words. This is a letter we received regarding her brother Wilbert:
On July 10, 2011 I would have never guessed my life would be completely turned upside down late at night I received an hysterical call from my parents they were at the Merced County Sheriff’s department and continued to explain to me that my mentally handicapped little brother had been arrested; I jumped out of bed like this is a nightmare how could this happen and they explained to me that Wilbert had been taken advantage of by an older cousin Angel who has been deemed 5150 and locked in Marie Green mental institute for holding his older brother at gun point then locking himself in the bathroom threatening to harm himself. He was arrested by the Sheriff’s department and locked up in Marie Green but for some reason released after about a week.
My parents explained to me that Angel threatened Wilbert’s life and had him drive him to Pep boys to buy flares then he had him drive to a few different locations and he shot his flare gun and set 9 grass fires in the middle of nowhere then had my little brother drive back to the ranch and said if he told on him he would kill him. My little brother does not have his license but my dad has taught him how to drive like tractors etc to help on the ranch and my parents did not want to come to terms that my little brother is mentally handicapped they sheltered him his whole life so he has not been socialized and his comprehension level is that of a small child. At the time he did not know how to read and barely knew how to write his name, he didn’t even know his abc’s.
With my parents in denial about my little brother being mentally handicapped they went to the store and left him alone and that is when this all occurred. Late that evening Cal Fire shows up at my parents' home and asked to search the property. My dad said sure, not even being aware of the situation that had occurred and then Cal Fire felt the hood of his work truck and said this truck has been driven and my dad was like ok and??? My dad’s work truck has the logo all over his truck and a contact number so this isn’t the smartest vehicle to take if you are going to commit a crime. At this time Cal Fire asked to question Wilbert and my parents were like that’s fine but we need to be with him because of his mental handicap and Cal Fire gave them a direct order that they would be arrested if they didn’t back up. At this time he separated Wilbert from my parents because he stated in his cross-examination that he wasn’t getting the answers he wanted well hello any person who meets Wilbert can tell within minutes my little brother is mentally handicap and isn’t comprehending what Cal Fire is saying and has a speech problem he stated he could not tell Wilbert was mentally handicap which I find hard to believe.
Cal Fire stated my little brother was not free to go so he entrapped him and my little brother was already traumatized and the next thing we know my little brother is being handcuffed and arrested. The Sheriff who was there assisting Cal Fire was to transport him. When they questioned Angel, he had the flare gun and burn marks on his pants and they arrested him. My parents were hysterical at this point and followed the sheriff's car to the jail where my little brother Wilbert spent the night. Then without notice, he was loaded on a bus early in the morning and shipped off to Sandy Mush, which is more like a prison facility and is severely overcrowded and known for its gang violence.
I called Sandy Mush and made the staff aware as well as the Warden that my little brother was mentally handicapped and to not release him into general population. But the staff and warden could care less and stated they have to do their own test to determine that and I made them aware hey look this kid has been in special needs classes his entire life he has the comprehension level of a small child. He still wets his bed!!!!! I begged them not to put him in general population because that is like putting a small child in with hardened convicts and they ignored me and put him in general population where he was beaten severely by two other inmates then they just moved him to another cell with whites not into a cell by himself where when he went to the yard the two inmates who beat him stated that he snitched and that they were going to shank him. The inmates had to fill out Wilbert’s visiting papers because he can’t write. They even brushed his hair for court it was scary because they were molding him into one of them and my little brother had no clue he thinks these are his friends he is so trusting they would dial the phone for him and he would cry and cry and begging me to come take him home it tore me apart.
At this point I am in Merced and continue to stay in Merced fighting to get my little brother out instead of celebrating my 2-year wedding anniversary with my husband. We hired an attorney and are baffled that my little brother, the victim, is wrongfully incarcerated and being treated like a criminal. We pay our attorney $10,000.00 and it drains all of our savings. We go to court asking the judge to release my little brother and he refuses the first few times until my little brother was beaten. Then he was released to my custody for his own safety. But here is the kicker - they put him on a bracelet to monitor him, which made no sense because the judge ordered he be in my presence at all times so he is not on house arrest. The bracelet people were like why is he on this monitor when he's allowed to go anywhere with you because of his mental handicap? I was like I don’t know but we are stuck paying $135.00 a week once again treating him like the criminal even though our family doctor even wrote a letter to the judge stating hey this kid has not an ounce of malice in his body and stated he was willing to testify on his behalf that Wilbert was the victim and wrongfully incarcerated. The judge and DA could care less. Wilbert came to live with me and I enrolled him into Sonoma County reading literacy program so he could learn to read as well as North Bay Regional Program. We continued to go to his court dates hoping to get this thrown out. I was submitting documentation after documentation to the lawyer. I told the lawyer here is the psychologist's report from North Bay showing his mental comprehension level, etc. and he ignored it. The courts nor the attorney never requested a comprehension test. They did not have a psychologist evaluate my little brother. Our attorney never subpoenaed the sheriffs dept records showing Angel’s 5150 showing he is a danger to society and has threatened others' lives showing Wilbert told the truth and was the victim and have this thrown out.
Instead this nightmare turned into a horror story the DA was charging my little brother Wilbert with 9 felony strikes!!! And burning down structures and forestry land. There were 4 exact locations the fires were set but each spot fire was considered a felony even though it was on the same property. The kicker is they are charging him with structures burnt but NO STRUCTURES were burnt even when Cal fire was questioned on cross examination he stated no structures were burnt in any of the fires and no bodily injury had occurred and that nobody was in direct danger because there weren’t any houses for miles and that these were just grass fires. Our attorney stated then why is he being charged with burning forestry land when merced county has deemed this agriculture he said grass can be considered forestry land which is ridiculous. Our Attorney never challenged nor motioned to get these charges dropped he just kept telling us let him do his job and that he knew what he was doing. He kept continuing our court dates half the time he would never show up he would have the opposing attorney stand in for him which made me feel uneasy. I started to get fed up and my calls to his office went unanswered, he only responds by text and my parents aren’t tech savvy and every time they would request a meeting with him he would never be available and his secretary would tell my parents to text him and my parents told her sorry we don’t text we don’t like what’s going on and this bracelet is becoming financially draining.
My emails continued to go answered I started contacting other attorneys for a second opinion and they were upset with the way Mr. Tenebaum had handled our case he charged us $10,000.00 and had done nothing but prolong this case that should have been thrown out along time ago. They even contacted him at no charge to let him know what he was doing was wrong. We later found out he is a public defender as well which really upset us. He would refuse to go over the case with us and we asked to meet with him before court several times and he always was too busy and would meet with us like 2 mins to tell us keep doing what we were doing and keep it up then he would say gotta run bye leaving us so confused. At this point we realized we had hired a lemon who just took our money. I made him aware look Mr. Tenenbaum this is my little brothers life we are talking about we need to know what’s going on and he still never met us. A year goes by and now we have paid almost $7,000 in payments to the bracelet monitoring place, which is getting harder to pay $135 each week. It’s not fair, but we are stuck. It's either pay or my brother goes to jail and it has been hell dealing with this bracelet monitoring place they even threatened to throw him back into jail after I told the new worker look I am not on the bracelet and do not have to be on a schedule he wanted to set unreasonable schedules for me and I have a baby which I am not rushing home and getting into a car crash because these people want to put me on a schedule I made him aware of my little brothers mental handicap and he could care less and continued to threaten me stating probation wanted him on a schedule which I knew was a lie because my little brother is not on probation nor even given probationary terms so I asked him for the officer's name which he refused to give me because he was lying then he asked why do you need that and I stated because I need to speak with that probation officers supervisor because probation has nothing to do with this yet and he has not been convicted plus this is court ordered by a Judge that he be with me at all times so I made the worker aware that I will only answer to a judge and that he was in direct violation of a court order. Mr. Gruhler the worker was very upset with me I told him look you guys have a copy of every minute order and he stated he could not find it so I told him I would scan over a color copy of mine which he refused I was so upset being treated like trash. I asked for his supervisor and he gave me his fellow employee ,which he said was his supervisor. I spoke to this gentleman thinking this was his supervisor and then this gentleman stated he couldn’t find the copy so too bad. I was so upset I told them look I can’t do your job for you. I will scan the copy over immediately since they misfiled it. They thought they hung up the phone but I was still on the phone and listened to them call me very derogatory names and collaborate a cover up and state that they are going to send my brother to jail. They made fun of my mentally handicapped little brother and laughed about how he got beat up in jail. A lot of this was hard to hear but I stomached through it. After being on the phone for about 20 minutes I finally spoke up and stated Mr. Gruhler I am still on the phone and have heard everything you said. Please do not contact me, my attorney with contact you for misconduct!!! And I hung up the phone only to find out that the other gentleman was not his supervisor because I received an apology letter and phone call from his supervisor at BI shortly after our attorney sent them a misconduct letter. This situation could have been avoided if our attorney had done his job. He kept making me do everything from investigative work to getting files, which he never presented.
Our attorney never made the courts aware Wilbert was a member of North Bay Regional he never even contacted North Bay Regional. They have been trying to contact him by cell and his office and their calls go unreturned as well.
These last few court dates the DA’s supervisor had to be called in a they had a meeting in the judge’s chambers where they offered my little brother 2 strikes, 5 years felony probation, register as an arsonist for the rest of his life and pay $20,000.00 restitution our attorney said sorry Virginia the DA won’t budge we need to take the deal and I stated you are out of your mind my little brother was the victim and has never been in trouble in his life no prior record and we are supposed to take this deal or take the 9 strikes this is not right you are going to ruin this kids life. He stated well if we go to jury trial Wilbert can finally tell his story and I was like we shouldn’t have had to go to jury trial you should have done that since the beginning! We have tried to fire our attorney but we don’t have anymore money to get another attorney and if we get an public defender our attorney works as a public defender as well so it’s a conflict of interest it’s a very sad predicament. We return to court on 8/27/12 which the courts want us to make a decision to take the 2 strikes or 9 strikes. I have applied for my little brother's conservatorship to be able to be his voice because I am his primary care provider. He receives SSI for his mental disability and in home care services. I am his payee and handle his finances as well. I am his power of attorney, which holds no grounds in court. The judge told me to sit down, you are a power of attorney not an attorney. They are railroading my little brother and this is not right. I called the DA Mr. Egan and made him aware of my little brother's mental handicap and I even submitted the psychologist report from North Bay but he could care less so he and the judge are aware of this and should be ashamed of themselves.
Angel took the 2 strike deal but has not been sentenced because his attorney wants to find out what we are getting which is ridiculous and they are using him as a key witness he states Wilbert did all of this but he is deemed 5150 and was found with the flare gun and burn marks on his pants he even admitted to doing it so this case is not that hard but his statements should not be able to hold up in court this is not fair at all. Our lives have been on hold this whole year we are unable to take family trips for example to Tahoe because he is on the bracelet and the judge says no and we didn’t even go to the fair because we don’t want to explain to the cop doing the metal detector why he has an ankle bracelet but can be out and not on home arrest and risk him going back to jail because it is unheard of not to be on house arrest if you are on the bracelet. Wilbert can’t continue with his becoming independent program and faces getting kicked out because if he is a convicted felon he can’t be in their program. And I face not being able to be a 4H advisor ever again because you are not allowed to have a felon living with you. And I have to explain to my daughter why there are cops tearing up our house doing felony probation search on a 2 striker.
If you are one of those people that believe this could never happen to me well I am proof it can and does happen. At times I cry myself to sleep thinking how can we be caught in the system and why isn’t anyone listening we are good law abiding citizens? I have contacted hundreds of numbers to try and get help I even contacted the disability rights advocates with high hopes because thinking they are disability rights advocates RIGHT well that wasn’t the case it was let down after let down and they stated sorry we don’t get involved with criminal cases so I said what and they told me they only handle housing situations, help with job discrimination so I said who can help me and they sent me a 5 page packet with a list of lawyers that defend criminals that are incarcerated obviously they weren’t listening to me because my little brother is not incarcerated and these lawyers wanted to charge me $15,000.00 which I do not have. I contacted North Bay Regional and they are going to look over the case but aren’t sure they can get involved they referred me to the disability rights advocates but I told them I have already called that number and they said they can’t help so they gave me the number to Area four and they again told me sorry this is a criminal case we can’t help. Becoming independent advised I call the disability rights advocates as well and I told them I have already called it’s a dead end. I finally was referred to PHA where I talked to Kathleen and PHA was the only one willing to listen and lend a hand as well as advise me on what to do next because I was so lost I have never gone through this situation and am sure there are many other people in my situation feeling completely helpless as I did. PHA helped me get my little brothers conservatorship so that I can step in and be his voice because nobody was listening it made it able for me to request medical records from when my little brother was assaulted, it allows me to finally get answers from the courts as to why this is happening and why they never requested a psychologist report nor the records from North Bay. PHA is shedding light on this case which it desperately needed from an outside agency. PHA helped me get a lawyer to assist in my conservatorship paperwork and guide me on what steps to take next it was like a breath of fresh air.The court date is coming up and we need help more than ever to overcome this corrupt system in Merced County or my little brothers life is lost forever just because the DA and Judge are not educated on mentally handicapped kids. They are treating my little brother like a normal 22 year old adult. I looked up previous cases of arson in Merced county and there was this gentleman who burnt down his restaurant three times to collect insurance and he still got less than my mentally handicapped little brother and this was a gentleman who was fully aware of what he was doing so please explain to me how does this happen that they are making an example of a victim and my attorney tells me Virginia well the DA feels that your little brother should have told Angel to get out of the truck REALLY!!! with his comprehension level. I wouldn’t even be able to ask a 5150 patient to get out of my vehicle if he threatened my life this guy is scary and very strong he is on anti -depressants. And the sad thing is we asked the judge to release Wilbert off the bracelet and he stated no this is too harsh of a crime but the next day Angel’s attorney asked that he be released on his own recognizance because his bail was due and the judge who is friends with the attorney said yes even though they are being charged with the same crime so now there is a 5150 individual running lose around Merced County and they won’t be happy until he kills someone and my little brother is being treated like the criminal still on a bracelet monitor paying $135 a week and I have to email every minute he enters and exits my house which is about 30 times a day and we have to keep track and email where we went all today.
Thank you PHA,
Virginia
Praying for a Miracle
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