Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Even in my post-eviction, followup visit, medical records show I made no mention of having a firearm or threatening to use one against law enforcement


Burrell Behavioral Health
Two Missouri mental-health workers claim in a 911 call that I threatened to shoot any sheriff's deputies who attempted to evict Carol and me in September 2015. Specifically, the 911 callers claim I made such a statement during an appointment with my health-care provider on 8/4/15, roughly five weeks before our scheduled eviction. Medical records from that visit make no mention of such a threat from me. Medical records from my followup visit on 11/13/15 make no mention of such a threat, either.

What were Joshua Davis and "Whispering" Kathryn Mays, both of Burrell Behavioral Health at the time, thinking when they placed a 911 call that: (a) Violated my medical confidentiality; (b) Was patently false, according to their own patient records; and (c) Was based on information from my brother-lawyer David Shuler, with whom Burrell had no permission from us to communicate -- and Davis and Mays admit that in their 911 call?

I don't have an answer to that question, but it raises all kinds of concerns about privacy, public safety, and the intersection between mental-health care and law enforcement. It's especially important because deputies at the scene of our eviction repeatedly cited the 911 call (which they claimed I had made) as the reason they arrived with 6-8 officers, multiple assault weapons, and more handguns than we could count. Without the 911 call (which, of course, actually came from Davis and Mays), the officer who broke Carol's arm likely would not have been on the scene.

Here is a question that remains at the forefront of my mind: Why did Davis and Mays concoct a fairy tale in their 911 call that differs radically from the notes of my health-care provider, psychiatric nurse Matt Charles? (Video of 911 call is embedded at the end of this post.) We've already shown that Charles' notes from the 9/4/15 appointment don't say anything about me threatening to shoot anyone. Now we know that Charles' notes from my followup visit, on 11/13/15, make no mention of a threat either. The following is from medical records re: my November visit:

Patient has not been present in the clinic since early August. He reports that since that time, he and his wife were evicted from their home. He states, "They broke Carol's arm during the eviction." He states that she was severely injured and required emergency surgery to correct this. He states, "She will be lucky to get 75% of her function back."

Evidently, Greene County Sheriff's Office was present during the eviction, and he claims that the Sheriff's Deputy assaulted her when she tried to go back into the home to remove property. Since this eviction, the patient's brother has petitioned for legal guardianship of Roger. Roger is frustrated regarding this, stating, "There is no basis for it."

He states that he and Carol have been living in a pay-by-the-week hotel, stating, "I like it better than the place we lived at before." He reports his mood has been good; despite all these issues, he has been sleeping well. He denies suicidal or homicidal thoughts. He denies anxiety or panic. He continues to be fixated on being harassed by the legal system and police and denies other hallucinations."

Any mention in that of a gun or my intent to use one? Nope.

As noted in a previous post, I generally believe Matt Charles presents a fair assessment of my visits, but the medical-records process apparently is far from perfect -- and his notes sometimes include items that aren't accurate, that I don't agree with, or sound just plain goofy. For example, Charles states: "He continues to be fixated on being harassed by the legal system and police and denies other hallucinations."

A literal reading of that statement, at least to my eyes, says Charles considers my statements about being "harassed by the legal system and police" are "hallucinations." Of course, it's a matter of public record that we were unlawfully evicted and cops broke Carol's arm. Charles could have checked the record or viewed X-rays of Carol's injuries, including all the hardware required to piece her arm back together -- and I think that would have answered any questions he had about "hallucinations."

In reality, I suspect Charles did not mean that sentence to come off the way it literally is written. While some points in his notes are unclear, it's very clear that I never claimed to have a gun or threatened to use one. That makes you wonder why two of Charles' co-workers called 911 with a tall tale that ran wildly contrary to notes in my medical records.





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