Major Study Reveals ADHD Drugs Were Never Proven Safe Or Effective

A recent study led by researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital, the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and several other institutions, concludes that the clinical trials for drugs approved as treatment for so-called ADHD were not designed to assess adverse events or long-term safety and effectiveness.

According to investigative journalist Kelly Patricia O’Meara, researchers identified 32 clinical trials used to obtain approval of ADHD drugs and found the following:

  • Eleven drugs (55%) were approved with less than 100 participants.
  • The median length of time that the drug was tested prior to its approval was only four weeks.
  • 38% of the drugs were actually approved with participants studied less than four weeks.

Drug regulatory agencies in eight countries have issued 44 warnings that ADHD drugs/stimulants cause harmful, even life-threatening side effects, including abnormal heart rate/rhythm, depression, hallucinations, homicidal ideation, insomnia, irritability, hostility, mania/psychosis, seizures, stunted growth, stroke and sudden death.  These drug warnings can be accessed through CCHR International’s psychiatric drug side effects search engine.

With no medical tests to prove the existence of ADHD, leading neuroscientists have stated that “ADHD” is no more than a description of behaviors, not a true medical disease requiring drugs to treat it.

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue psychiatric drugs is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a competent medical doctor because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

If you or someone you know has experienced harmful side effects from an ADHD drug, we want to talk to you. You can contact us privately by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225.  All information will be kept in the strictest confidence. We welcome your comments on this article below.

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Psych Drug Found In Home Of Cañon City Murder-Suicide

 

By Malis [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Image by Malis [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
A retired Cañon City police officer who shot and killed his wife before taking his own life had been prescribed a psychiatric drug with known side effects of severely abnormal behavior, emotional changes, and disturbing thoughts or behavior that could involve suicide or harm to others.

In a crime that shocked this small community, Daniel Samento, who served 30 years on the police force before retiring, shot his wife, Priscilla, a Cañon City police dispatcher, in the head with a handgun while she slept, then fatally turned the gun on himself.

According to the police report of the incident, the antidepressant Wellbutrin, prescribed to Daniel Samento for depression, was found in the home.  The drug, which takes about 4½ days to leave the body, was not found in his body at the time of the autopsy.

We do not know the details concerning any use or discontinuation of the drug by him, and we will never know how his problems may have affected his mental state.

But we should not overlook a possible link with the psych drug prescribed to him, whose known side effects could be viewed as consistent with the characterizations in the police report of Mr. Samento quickly going into a downward spiral, acting schizophrenic-like at times, and threatening suicide.

According to online drug reference website RxList.com, depressed patients treated with Wellbutrin have had a variety of neuropsychiatric side effects, including delusions, hallucinations, psychosis, concentration disturbance, paranoia, and confusion.

A search of “Wellbutrin” in CCHR International’s psych drug side effects search engine shows that in recent years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, and Health Canada all ordered stronger public warnings about serious side effects of this drug, including abnormal behavior, emotional changes, aggression, violence, depressed mood, and impulsive or disturbing thoughts that could involve self-harm or harm to others.

These kinds of serious behavioral changes can also become evident when a dose is adjusted up or down, or when the drug is discontinued abruptly.

Psychiatric treatment and psychiatric drugs are a common denominator in a growing number of shootings and other acts of violence – events which are soaring right along with the soaring use of psych drugs. 

Only by reporting adverse drug reactions will the harm being done by psychiatric drugs be known.  MedWatch is the federal reporting system for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  Please report adverse drug reactions to MedWatch by clicking here.

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue psychiatric drugs is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a competent medical doctor because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

If you or someone you know has experienced violence or other harmful side effects from a psychiatric drug, we want to talk to you. You can contact us privately by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225.  All information will be kept in the strictest confidence. We welcome your comments on this article below.

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Psychiatry’s Role in Military Suicides Exposed

Today, with the military around the world awash in psychiatric drugs, 23 soldiers and veterans are committing suicide every day.  More soldiers are dying from psychiatric “treatment” than on the battlefield.

CCHR’s powerful new documentary, “Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry’s Covert Agenda,” is the first to fully expose the decades-long history of psychiatry’s use of military personnel as guinea pigs for experimentation.  The documentary also details the link between the now-widespread use of mind-altering psychiatric drugs in the military and the growing epidemic of military deaths – especially suicides.

“We have never drugged our troops to this extent and the current increase in suicides is not a coincidence.  Why hasn’t psychiatry in the military been relieved of command of Mental Health Services?  In any other command position in the military, there would have been a change in leadership.”
— Lt. Col. Bart Billings, Clinical Psychologist U.S. Army Reserve, Ret.

Featuring over 80 interviews with soldiers and experts in a number of related fields, this penetrating documentary reveals how psychiatry is destroying our world’s militaries from within.

Here are some of the chilling facts contained in this documentary:

  • Officially, one in six American service members is taking at least one psychiatric drug.
  • Since 2002, the suicide rate in the U.S. military has almost doubled.  From 2009 to 2012, more U.S. soldiers died by suicide than from traffic accidents, heart disease, cancer and homicide.
  • Combat stress has been a fact in the military since ancient times.  But in 1980, psychiatrists created a new label for it: “post-traumatic stress disorder,” or “PTSD,” and later claimed, without any evidence, that it was a brain disorder.  Today, 37% of recent war veterans have been labeled “PTSD,” and 80% of them have been given a psychiatric drug for it.

 

Your help is needed to save lives. 

  • First, view the documentary yourself.  You can view the DVD online at no charge at the CCHR International website by clicking here.
  • If you are an active-duty member of the military, veteran, member of a military or veteran support group, or family member or associate of an active-duty member of the military or veteran, you can order a free copy of this DVD from CCHR International by clicking here.
  • Sign CCHR’s Petition for a Congressional Investigation into the Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Military Suicides and Sudden Deaths by clicking here.
  • Please help us get this powerful documentary into the hands of military personnel, veterans, and those who are responsible for their care.  Contribute what you can by clicking here. Donations to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights® of Colorado are tax-deductible charitable contributions for U.S. income tax purposes.
  • See for yourself what the harmful side effects are, for the drugs being prescribed to the military personnel and veterans you know.  Warnings from international regulatory authorities and research studies on the harmful side effects of psychiatric drugs can be accessed through CCHR International’s psychiatric drug side effects search engine.

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue psychiatric drugs is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a competent medical doctor because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

If you know an active-duty member of the military or a veteran who has been harmed by psychiatric drugs or other mental-health treatment or experimentation, we want to talk to you.  You can contact us privately by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225.  All information will be kept in the strictest confidence.  We welcome your comments on this article below.

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Colorado Springs Psychologist Settles With U.S. Attorney’s Office Over Allegations of Improper Insurance Billing

 

Image by Pictures of Money
Image by Pictures of Money

A Colorado Springs psychologist has agreed to pay $86,675.68 to settle allegations that he wrongly billed TRICARE, the United States military health insurance program, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado also entered a consent judgment against the doctor, David Hatfield, age 48, and his company, Development Behavioral Health, Inc. (DBH) in the amount of $1,283,027.04 based on this conduct.  If Dr. Hatfield does not make the payments based on the settlement agreement, the government can enforce the consent judgment, which would result in Dr. Hatfield having to pay the entire $1.283 million judgment.

TRICARE is the United States military health insurance program.  It pays for, among other things, therapy services to developmentally disabled children who are children of military members.  While TRICARE pays for this type of therapy, it does not pay for administrative services.

While Dr. Hatfield billed the TRICARE program for therapy services provided to developmentally disabled children, the United States alleged that from 2008 through 2013, Dr. Hatfield and DBH also improperly submitted hundreds of claims to the TRICARE program for administrative services.  In particular, Dr. Hatfield and DBH improperly collected substantial payments from TRICARE on claims for such things as time spent filling out timesheets, time spent for cancelled appointments where no therapy was provided, or time or money spent on supplies or food.

If you know about any improper billing by a mental health professional or mental health facility, we want to talk to you. You can contact us privately by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225. All information will be kept in the strictest confidence. We welcome your comments on this article below.

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ADHD Expert Claims Disorder is ‘Not a Real Disease’ and EVERYONE Fits At Least Two of the Criteria Used for Diagnosis

Daily Mail – March 30, 2014
By Sophie Borland

A second world-renowned scientist has come forward to support claims that ADHD is not a real disease, but a description of symptoms.

Dr Bruce Perry said most people displayed signs of the condition at some point in their lives.

He also said psychostimulant drugs, such as Ritalin, used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may have long-term adverse effects.

It comes after US neurologist Dr Richard Saul claimed ADHD did not exist, in a book serialised by the Daily Mail.

He said treating children’s hyperactivity with drugs was similar to giving a heart attack patient painkillers – it ignores the cause of the problem, which could be as simple as an iron deficiency.

Dr Perry, a neuroscientist at the ChildTrauma Academy in Houston, Texas, will meet Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith today at a lecture he is giving, hosted by charity the Early Intervention Foundation.

Some 2 to 5 per cent of children are thought to have ADHD. Symptoms include short attention span, restlessness and fidgeting.

Dr Perry said: ‘It is best thought of as a description . . . any one of us at any given time would fit at least a couple of those criteria.’

He said ADHD was a label for a set of symptoms, adding: ‘It’s a description rather than a real disease.’

Read the rest of the article here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2592641/Expert-claims-ADHD-not-real-disease-fits-two-criteria.html

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Irregular Bedtimes Linked To Children’s Behavior Problems

Children who do not have fixed bedtimes are more likely to experience behavior problems, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics.

Image by Homero Nunez Chapa
Image by Homero Nunez Chapa

What’s more, as children progressed through early childhood without a regular bedtime, their behavior continually got worse.

The good news is that these effects are reversible.  Children who were changed to regular bedtimes showed definite improvements in their behavior.

Researchers at the University College London analyzed data collected from more than 10,000 British children at the ages of three, five and seven.  They found a clear, statistically significant link between the lack of regular bedtimes and behavior difficulties, which included hyperactivity, problems getting along with other children, mood swings, and other conduct problems.

“What we’ve shown is that these effects build up incrementally over childhood, so that children who always had irregular bedtimes were worse off than those children who did have a regular bedtime,” said lead author Yvonne Kelly, professor of life course epidemiology at the College.

The message to parents:  Schedule a specific bedtime, and then get the children to bed on time to help ensure good behavioral development.

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Behavioral Problems in Young Children Are Linked to Soft Drinks

Image by MALIZ ONG
Image by MALIZ ONG

The reason young children fight too much or can’t pay attention could be found in the pop they drink

A new study published in The Journal of Pediatrics finds that aggression, attention problems and even withdrawn behavior in young children are all linked to the consumption of soft drinks.

Prior studies had established the association between soft drinks and adolescents’ aggression, depression, and suicidal thoughts, but young children had not previously been evaluated.

Researchers at Columbia School of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Vermont studied nearly 3,000 5-year-olds.

Their conclusion:  any amount of soft drinks consumed by children makes them more likely to be aggressive.

Not surprisingly, aggressive behavior increased right along with the number of soft drink servings children consumed per day.  Children who consumed 4 or more soft drinks a day were more than twice as likely to destroy other people’s belongings and physically attack others.

Based on these findings, eliminating sugary beverages could be a wise decision for parents searching for an all-natural, drug-free solution to their children’s behavioral problems.

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No Surprise: Psych Drugs Found in Apartment of Aurora Theater Shooter James Holmes

Two psychiatric drugs with known links to violence, homicidal thoughts, and homicide were found during a police search of the apartment of James Holmes, charged with killing 12 people and injuring 58 others in a shooting spree at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater on July 20.

According to newly unsealed court documents, the prescription drugs found in Holmes’s apartment included the antianxiety drug clonazepam and a generic version of the antidepressant Zoloft (sertraline).

Clonazepam and Sertraline Are Linked to Violence and Homicide

A drug study published in December 2010 concluded clonazepam and sertraline are two of a relatively small group of drugs linked to violence, homicidal ideation and homicidal actions.

The authors of the study reviewed 1,937 cases of violent drug side effects reported to the FDA from 2004-09 and found that 31 drugs, among them clonzepam and sertraline, accounted for 79% of all reported cases of violence.

Twenty of the 31 drugs are psychiatric drugs, including 11 antidepressants, 6 sedative/hypnotics, and 3 drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The specific cases of violence reported to the FDA included homicide, homicidal thoughts, physical assaults, physical abuse, and other violent acts.

The authors concluded, “These data provide new evidence that acts of violence towards others are a genuine and serious adverse drug event that is associated with a relatively small group of drugs.”  (Thomas J. Moore, Joseph Glenmullen, Curt D. Furbert, “Prescription Drugs Associated with Reports of Violence Towards Others,” Public Library of Science ONE, Vol. 5, Iss. 12, Dec. 2010. )

The Canadian drug regulatory authority also issued a warning on clonazepam in 2007.  Health Canada advised consumers that clonazepam can be habit-forming within a few months of use, and its side effects can include hallucinations, delusional thinking, confusion, loss of memory, and depression.  (“Sleep Supplements Found to Contain Habit-forming Drug,” Health Canada Advisory, June 14, 2007.)

In dozens of cases of mass murder or random acts of senseless violence, the perpetrators are known to have been under the influence of psychiatric drugs that have been documented by international drug regulatory agencies as causing adverse effects that include mania, psychosis, aggression, violence, and homicidal thoughts. 

International regulatory authorities have issued 22 drug warnings on psychiatric drugs causing hostility, aggression, mania/psychosis, homicidal thoughts and harm to others.  These warnings have been issued in the United States, European Union, Japan, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. 

The Citizens Commision on Human Rights has renewed its call for a federal investigation into shootings at schools, malls, and workplaces and any other acts of senseless violence for links to the mind-altering psychiatric drugs the shooters have taken.

Please click here to read and sign CCHR International’s petition calling for this investigation. 

If you or someone you know has experienced violent side effects from psychiatric drugs, we want to talk to you.  You can contact us privately by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225.  All information will be kept in the strictest confidence.   We welcome your comments on this article below.

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Centennial Man With A History of Psych Drugs Allegedly Poisoned His Mother

Part of the ongoing series: Killers On Psych Drugs –
Psych-Drugged Accused Or Convicted Killers


In yet another bizarre act of violence with a link to psychiatric drugs, a man with a long history of mental-health treatment allegedly murdered his own mother.

Ari Liggett, 24, appearing in Arapahoe County District Court Friday, was arrested last October and accused of poisoning his mother, dismembering her body, and driving around the state with her remains in the backseat of his car.

Liggett’s father said Ari had been prescribed numerous psychiatric drugs in many combinations over a long period of time.

While it is not known what psychiatric drugs Ari Liggett was on or in withdrawal from, if any, at the time of the alleged murder, it is well-known that the adverse effects of psych drugs include aggression, mania, violence, homicidal thoughts, and suicide.  Psychiatric drugs are a prescription for violence.

Psychiatric treatment and psychiatric drugs are the common denominator of the growing number of shootings and other acts of violence, which are soaring right along with the soaring prescribing of psych drugs. 

CCHR International is asking the public to sign its petition calling on U.S. lawmakers to immediately open an investigation into the role of psychiatric drugs in school shootings and similar acts of violence, given that data supporting this link has to date been ignored by the U.S. government and mental health agencies.

Research studies and warnings from international regulatory authorities on the links between psych drugs and violence can be accessed through CCHR International’s psychiatric drug side effects search engine.

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue psychiatric drugs is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a competent medical doctor because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

If you or someone you know has experienced violence or other harmful side effects from a psychiatric drug, we want to talk to you. You can contact us privately by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225.  All information will be kept in the strictest confidence. We welcome your comments on this article below.

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Patient Allegedly Kidnapped by State Hospital Staff

Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed in Denver Federal Court

A lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Denver alleging that a woman languishing in legal limbo at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP) was kidnapped by CMHIP staff and forcibly transported to a Denver area hospital to undergo a surgical procedure against her will.

Gabriele Gundlach, 57, of Boulder, was found incompetent to proceed by Boulder County Court in October 2011 in cases involving minor traffic-related offenses and was sent to CMHIP.         

While there, physical conditions requiring that she receive medical treatment were detected, including possible breast cancer.  Gundlach, who has never been found incompetent to make decisions concerning her own body, researched treatment options and medical facilities.  She arranged to receive treatment at Rose Medical Center and lined up funding to cover the cost.

However, Gundlach was told by CMHIP staff that University Hospital was the only facility to which CMHIP patients can be taken for medical treatment, and that patients are treated there at state expense.  These are “bare-faced lies,” according to the complaint filed in the district court by Gundlach’s lawyer, Boulder civil rights attorney Alison Ruttenberg.

Gundlach told CMHIP staff she would not consent to undergo treatment at University Hospital, explaining that for continuity of care reasons, Rose Medical Center would refuse to treat her if she received any part of the treatment for her condition at any other facility.  It also would not meet federal guidelines for funding her long-term care.  She also explained she had chosen a less invasive treatment option available only from a doctor at Rose.

In direct opposition to Gundlach’s wishes, CMHIP staff allegedly scheduled a surgical procedure for her at University Hospital without her consent or knowledge.  When Gundlach was finally informed, she cancelled the appointment.  Ruttenberg called CMHIP Assistant Superintendent Beverly Fulton, who allegedly assured the attorney that CMHIP would never transport Gundlach to a medical procedure she did not want.

But that is exactly what happened on the morning of January 3, 2013.  According to the lawsuit, CMHIP charge nurse Pamela Jones forced Gundlach to get out of bed and prepare to be transported.  Gundlach was driven under guard and against her will to University Hospital for a surgical procedure that had been cancelled and that, if administered, would have destroyed her chance to receive her preferred treatment from her chosen doctor at Rose Medical Center and to receive federal funding for her long-term care.

Because the CMHIP staff had no court order or other authority to transport her against her will, the civil rights complaint asks the U.S. District Court for damages from those responsible for kidnapping her and unlawfully seizing her body (under the color of law) for the purpose of having a surgical procedure performed that she did not want or consent to.  Color of law refers to an act done under the appearance of legal authority, when in fact no such right exists.  It further asks the court to declare it a violation of her Fourteenth Amendment right to be free from unlawful seizures of her body without due process of law.

Gundlach alleges she suffered enormous emotional distress.  She also says she was informed at University Hospital that she would have had to pay for the procedure herself if it had been done there.

According to Ruttenberg’s civil rights complaint, “Ms. Gundlach has a Constitutional right to refuse any medical procedure she does not want, and the bullies at CMHIP have no right to force her to undergo invasive surgical procedures that she refuses, for their financial convenience or otherwise.”

The complaint continues: “She has the capacity and ability to make an informed decision regarding what is going to happen to her body and who is or is not going to have the privilege of cutting into it.  Her decisions regarding the course of care for the suspected breast cancer are reasonable, rational and hers alone to make.”

When Gundlach arrived back at CMHIP, her psychiatrist, Myra Kamran, M.D., allegedly threatened Gundlach with having a guardian appointed who would agree to Gundlach being forced to have the medical procedure either at University Hospital or on-site at CMHIP.

(Myra Kamran is not currently listed on the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies website as a licensed physician or listed under any other licensed profession.  The Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Colorado has asked the Colorado Medical Board to investigate the matter.)

Again in violation of Gundlach’s rights, the medical procedure was scheduled to be performed on-site at CMHIP.  According to the lawsuit pending in Boulder County Court, on the morning of Monday, January 7, 2013, the charge nurse allegedly told Gundlach to get ready to be taken to the CMHIP clinic for the procedure.  Gundlach was left with the clear impression that she would be put in restraints to receive the procedure if she refused to cooperate.

It was only cancelled by last-minute intervention by a member of the Colorado chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, who called the Superintendent’s office to draw their attention to the civil rights lawsuit that had been faxed to the Superintendent the previous Friday evening.

The legal complaint alleges that the psychiatrist for Gundlach’s ward at CMHIP, Thomas Ingraham, M.D., admits Gundlach is not gravely ill, is not a danger to herself or others, and that he is not treating her for any illness or condition.

It further alleges Gundlach’s continuing, unlawful confinement at CMHIP is not only a violation of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, but is also life-threatening, and asks the court to order the woman’s immediate release.

Troubles Began with Minor Traffic-related Offenses

Gundlach’s troubles began when she was arrested in Boulder in 2010 and charged with minor traffic-related offenses after allegedly being involved in an auto accident. 

After telling Boulder County Court she did not want to be represented by the public defender with two large black eyes and a large lump on her forehead who visited her in jail, she was not provided with another public defender and subsequently represented herself pro se in court proceedings.  The lawsuit alleges that she never was properly advised of the charges against her or her right to a new attorney. 

In September 2011, the Court ordered a competency evaluation.  Based on a CMHIP psychiatrist’s report, the Court found Gundlach incompetent to proceed in her court cases and sent her to CMHIP in October 2011.

Six months later, during which time Gundlach refused psychiatric drugging, another evaluation at CMHIP found that Gundlach was competent to proceed and had a good understanding of her legal situation.

Inexplicably, however, her Boulder County public defender asked for yet another competency evaluation to be done.  Gundlach refused this and all subsequent attempts to re-evaluate her because she already had received a finding of competency.

Nevertheless, two subsequent competency reports, one by a psychiatrist and the other by a licensed psychologist at CMHIP, were sent to Boulder County Court, each concluding Gundlach was not competent to proceed.  According to the lawsuit, neither doctor ever interviewed or even met with Gundlach, who continued to refuse to be re-evaluated.

In October 2012, a third Boulder County public defender moved to terminate all criminal proceedings against Gundlach.  The motion was denied in December in Boulder County Court when the Boulder District Attorney wrongly represented to the Court that Gundlach was no longer refusing treatment, including medications, at CMHIP.

Not only was Gundlach continuing to refuse to be medicated at the time, but CMHIP in November 2012 sought a court order to forcibly drug Gundlach against her will.  The lawsuit alleges that the list of drugs Gundlach’s psychiatrist wanted to give her were variously at a dangerously high dosage, meant for mental or physical conditions for which Gundlach had never been diagnosed, or prescribed solely for the purpose of patient control, which is a violation of  ethical standards for physicians.  The motion for a hearing in Pueblo County Court on the issue of involuntary drugging was eventually withdrawn.

During this time, Gundlach contacted the Colorado chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which started an investigation of her complaint, following which three legal pleadings were filed in separate actions by Ruttenberg.

A petition filed in the Colorado Supreme Court for Gundlach’s immediate release was denied, apparently on jurisdictional grounds.

A renewed motion to dismiss charges against Gundlach is currently pending in Boulder County Court.  This motion additionally challenges the constitutionality of the state law [C.R.S. 16-8.5-116(1)] that permits a defendant to be incarcerated at the state hospital up to the maximum amount of time the person could be sentenced if convicted, when in actual practice a maximum sentence would not be imposed on each of multiple charges and would not be imposed consecutively.  Therefore because Gundlach is being held as mentally ill, CMHIP is interpreting the law to allow them to involuntarily incarcerate her for 33 months, which is from 21 to 30 months longer than for someone who is not held at CMHIP.

Gundlach’s plight has been made worse by the fact that neither she nor her attorney have been given access to legal records relating to her court cases.  The civil rights complaint pending in U.S. District Court in Denver cites Debra Cross, Clerk of the Boulder County Combined Courts, for her unconstitutional policies of denying Ruttenberg, as Gundlach’s counsel of record, access to any portion of Gundlach’s prior court file, and asks the court for relief.  It further asks the court to declare that Crosser’s refusal to ensure that Gundlach’s legal mail is sent to her at CMHIP instead of her prior home address, then throwing it into the court file when it is returned as undeliverable, violates Gundlach’s constitutional rights to due process and access to the courts. 

The complaint pleads that Gundlach’s “continued incarceration at the CMHIP without due process, without a hearing, given the fact that she is competent, is not only unconstitutional, it is life-threatening.”

If you or someone you know has experience with the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, we want to talk to you. You can contact us privately by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225. All information will be kept in the strictest confidence. We welcome your comments on this article below.

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