An abrasive Price wouldn't settle down, though, and it didn't take too long before the Municipal Court judge decided he had had enough. "Sorry," he said to the defendant, "I told you three times." He motioned three attending marshals into action. They took Price out into the corridor, stuffed white cloth into his mouth, and secured the gag with tape. Then they returned him to the courtroom and cuffed him to the defendant's chair. For the rest of the hearing, Price sat bound and gagged, a de facto hostage of the legal system.
Yes, Holifield had restored order to his court, but the issues he raised through his heavy-handed response are far from settled. Price, who has a history of mental illness, is a unique case. As the judge knew, Price had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Most people are familiar with the typical problems the mentally ill present for the criminal-justice system. How well-trained are the police at making safe arrests? How can the jails deal with the mentally ill who clog the system? Holifield's aggressive move raises another matter. How do judges deal with mentally ill people who act up in their courtrooms?
The judge says he can't talk about the incident, which occurred last month ["Order in the Court," Phil Campbell, June 15], because the case is being appealed in Superior Court. Price's public defender, Sandra Widlan, wouldn't comment either. The Stranger pieced the story together through court records and an audiotape of the fateful hearing.
Price, 32, was in court because of a domestic violence charge (he had threatened to pour a pan of hot grease on his mother's face). Court records show he had a history of mental illness, and that in May, Holifield had sent Price to Western State Hospital for further psychiatric evaluation.
By the June 6 hearing, Price had already been convicted and was awaiting sentencing. As he sat through the testimony of the arresting police officer, he started to grow restless. He began to mumble. Then he got louder. "Your discrimination is a violation of my basic rights," he told Holifield. Then he announced that he was firing attorney Widlan. Price tried to stand up, but Holifield ordered him to sit back down. A short while later, the judge had the unrepentant Price bound and gagged over Widlan's objections.
Binding and gagging a criminal defendant is an extreme measure. Opinions vary widely, however, about whether a judge should be allowed to do so if a defendant is acting out.
Sherry Storms, the ombudsman for the mentally ill in King County's criminal-justice system, is sympathetic to the problems judges face. "I'm not saying never bind and gag a defendant, but we need to be sensitive," she says. There are two types of mental illness to look out for, according to Storms: paranoid schizophrenia--Price's condition--and post-traumatic stress disorder. If people with these conditions are not adequately medicated, they may have paranoid hallucinations. For example, a defendant could start screaming because the judge may suddenly look like an evil Martian.
Others draw similar conclusions. Yale University professor and psychiatrist Howard Zonana wants judges to ask a basic question: "You have to determine whether the mental illness was playing a role in [Price's] outburst," he says. Records from the Price hearing, however, give no indication that Holifield took Price's mental illness into account when he decided to bind and gag him.
In fact, not everybody is willing to give judges so much latitude. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), an advocacy group in Washington, D.C., is opposed to the idea of binding and gagging. "I've certainly heard stories like this before," says Ron Honberg, NAMI's legal director. "Every judge differs in terms of his or her understanding of mental illness.... Some judges have absolutely no sympathy. They rule with an iron fist. They won't tolerate any deviations from what's expected in their courtrooms.
"Judges are not used to accommodating people who appear before them," he adds, "but mentally ill people need accommodation." Justice, it turns out, has to be not only fair, but sensitive, too.
