Monday, March 31, 2014

A follow up to my witnessing of a crime last year.

In the process of cleaning up my recyclable papers, I came across a subpoena from last year -- one of several for the same case -- on this incident from last January, to which I was a witness of, just about 75 feet away in the wee morning hours.  I'd stopped getting subpoenas late last Summer, which would have been attributed to one of several outcomes: plea deal settlement, the guy disappeared or died, or the case was dropped.  Upon seeing the old subpoena, I was curious to discover the outcome, so I did an online search.

It turns out he pleaded guilty in return for a probationary sentence, which appears to be a mental health probation.  I doubt it'll work, though.  He'd been in trouble with drugs for the last 15 years, according to his record, starting just 5 months after he reached 18 years of age.  If he was mentally ill -- schizophrenic -- before the drug use, he's most certainly worse off today and his brain effectively altered.

If drug use triggered his schizophrenia, there really isn't much hope, now is there?  First off, the reason why he got into trouble -- officially categorized as criminal mischief -- was because he admittedly stopped taking his anti-psychotic meds, so the DA explained later on.  This is not uncommon, for many reasons.  But because of his drug addiction -- the root of raised dopamine levels -- he is stuck in a feedback loop.  One consequence of high levels of dopamine: onset of schizophrenia.  So it would seem that he's at a very high risk of recidivism and may be a lost case.

Oh, and one final point: His drug of choice was marijuana.

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