Her prescription for Ativan had been cut off, so she picked up the phone and dialled 911.
The young woman told the dispatcher she was having thoughts of self-harm. Kevin Crosby, her support worker from the Pandora Assertive Community Treatment team, rushed to help and after making sure she was fine, he left.
Minutes later, she phoned Crosby, but during the conversation hung up and dialled 911 again.
Victoria police arrested her and she spent the next four days in police cells.
That led to the woman’s appearance in Victoria’s integrated court, established in 2010 to address street crime with an integrated approach to mentally ill and drug addicted chronic offenders.
“It’s a concern when police and ambulance resources are being wasted, particularly at this time of year,” Crown prosecutor Barb Penty told the court. “I’m really hoping she thought long and hard about what happened.”
The woman in question has been doing better now than in the summer when she was arrested almost every day, said her lawyer Stephen Suntock, and Crosby said his organization can provide support. “All in all we’re hopeful,” he said.
Victoria provincial court Judge Adrian Brooks sentenced her to time served and wished her good luck.
“In recent years, the number of mentally ill people that I act for has gone way up,” said lawyer Roland Kuczma, who has practised law for 38 years. “In many, many cases, they have drug and or alcohol issues too. I think between 60 to 80 per cent of my clients have both of those.”
Inside Courtroom 101, the roll call continued.
A woman, who had walked from Tillicum Road to the Victoria courthouse in a pair of plastic Crocs, took her seat before the judge. She hadn’t completed community service that had been assigned.
“How do you feel you’re doing?” asked Brooks.
“I’m doing quite well,” she replied. “My bike’s broken, but I’m not getting manic. I’m sort of getting a little depressed. I haven’t been drinking. Last time, I told the judge that I had been drinking with my mom and she told me to be the strong one … but I was drinking with my mom because she was depressed.”
The woman started to cry.
“There’s a lot of drugs going on in my building now. I’ve been tempted. I haven’t gone to do my community hours because I don’t really know what’s going on right now with me. I don’t know where I belong some times.”
Brooks suggested that the hours of community work might get her out of the building and help her feel better.
“When I had my bike I was really happy. They have all these new bike lanes so I was going around the Gorge. I even went into a church and danced with some people.”
The woman will return to court in a few weeks for a review.
“It’s Christmastime,” yelled the next prisoner as he was escorted in by the sheriffs. The methamphetamine addict, charged with theft from Value Village, pulled at his hair and banged the microphone, drawing a caution from the sheriffs.
“Who wrote this s--t?” he shouted, as the Crown told Brooks about the nuisance calls Victoria police had received about his behaviour.
“Just be quiet, will you please, sir?” Brooks said gently.
Through repeated outbursts, his defence lawyer Richard Schwartz soldiered on, trying to make a case for his release. The man, who has fired Schwartz twice in the last three weeks, was not seeing the world through a completely clear lens, said Schwartz. He is banned from shelters. A treatment bed has been arranged but is not available. For now, he will spend time in jail.
Brooks presided over another bail hearing for a young man charged with assault causing bodily harm to his psychiatrist.
The patient, who has been held at Eric Martin Pavilion for several months, allegedly banged his doctor’s head against the wall and dug his thumbs into his eyeballs. His grieving mother sat in the courtroom, listening to her son’s explosions of anger against his doctor. The young man was detained and will remain at the hospital at least until his next court appearance early in the New Year.
There was a bright moment in the proceedings when a happy, healthy, pony-tailed young woman told the court she was crocheting, colouring and watching movies with her dad to help her sobriety.
“You clearly know what you need to do to stay healthy,” said judicial justice Brenda Edwards. “You’re doing a great job. Hang in there.”
Kuczma said the young woman, now 23, had been in the court system since the age of 12. She had been a chronic heroin user and lived in tent city which had made her situation 10 times worse, he said.
“She got out of addiction because she started to think about taking her future seriously,” he said. “A year ago, she inquired about drug treatment and did a lot of work, but didn’t carry through when she was released. She did it again and really did a lot of work, planning her release to the minute, and didn’t carry through.”
This time, her attitude has changed dramatically and she is willing to go into treatment, said Kuczma.
“Integrated court is a bit up and down, but there is progress,” he said.
