AS person gets in trouble because he didn't take his meds ..

Post Reply New Topic

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man- ... s-21582336

Mitchell Munro Taylor of Seattle was arrested Thursday night, two days after Mayor Ed Murray's staff found more than 20 threatening, anti-gay postings from the man's account on Murray's Facebook page, court documents said.

A 32-year-old man accused of threatening Seattle's openly gay mayor and a socialist City Council member in Facebook postings was ordered held in jail Friday on $600,000 bail.

Another post on the mayor's page said "death to socialist council member." Kshama Sawant is the first socialist City Council member in Seattle's modern history. While she was not named directly, police said they think she was the target of that post.

On Friday, defense lawyer Eric Lindell told King County District Court Judge Arthur Chapman that his client has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. He said his client had been off his medications and asked that bail be set at $10,000. Deputy Prosecutor Gary Ernsdorff sought $1 million bail.

Those words are so dangerous.

That is BS. It scares me. That is why I don't really talk about my diagnosis with people. Nobody understands.

What kind of medication was he taking? Risperidone? Other anti-psychotics? None of those treat the core symptoms of this man's condition. Either way, forgetting to take it shouldn't explain this man's terrible behaviour, and he should charged to the fullest extent of the law.

actualy,anti pyschotics such as risperidone do help with a lot of autism isssues,although am on a different part of the spectrum to him was on risperidone for direct and indirect autism issues prior to being swapped to halperidol last year and for the first time in life was giving people eye contact,less anxiety around change,less agression, less self harming, more aware of other people around self.

it is very wrong theyre using his aspergers as an excuse for no doubt causing a man great distress,its possibly a reason towards why he may be so obsessed but it isnt an excuse,he shoud be put in a forensic hospital and rehabilitated,prison will just make him worse and probably cause more of a cost to the state than a forensic institution placement woud.

people are getting away with far to much abusive bullsht online via social media and forums,and its great this guy can now live his life without threat,hope he has not had his mental health affected by it, severe long term bullying from a sockpuppeting wrong planet member is why am now still recovering in the community after being discharged yesterday from spending four months sectioned in hospital.
there are currently two 'trolls' in the UK that have been found guilty with doing death threats amongst other things towards a female who campaigned to get a woman on a money note and theyre getting sectioned this week,the woman they targeted has had her mental health affected greatly,its disgusting.

He could have been a Poe.

Last edited by Stannis on 24 Jan 2014, 12:35 am, edited 4 times in total.

This is stupid. He's an Aspie and so without meds he's a mad, threatening, potential murderer or something?

Wonderful.

Lindell needs to be denied the right to practice law.

How many here are on meds (for Asperger's)? How many here would be mad terrorists without being on meds?

I suppose a case could be made that this guy is VERY extreme with regards to his "special interest", but come on!

I guess I should probably start building that secluded shack in the middle of the state forest that I was thinking about making, when it gets a little warmer here. If we get another tragedy like Sandy Hook, I'm probably going to need a place to hide, in order to avoid being persecuted for being on the spectrum. I could stock up the shack with a bunch of canned foods, and install a wood stove to keep warm in the winter. I'd also bring a radio with me, to keep myself entertained and listen for developments on the war on autism. It'd be a lot of work, but maybe my friend, who's also on the spectrum, would be willing to help me. Me and him have built stuff in the woods before, but never something as complex as a building. Even if we never have to use the shack, it'd still be a good project for us.

And then you'll be arrested for trespassing and defacing public land.

Please don't. The notoriety isn't needed.

Only if I got caught. I'd try to build it at least a few miles from the nearest road, so that it'd be a hard to find. It'd be kind of tiring to carry all of the supplies that far on foot though.

Lindell shouldn't be denied the right to practice law. He is Munro's defense lawyer and as such is doing exactly what he should be doing. He is trying to get his client eiither exonerated completely or get the charges reduced. That is what defense lawyers do and they are supposed to use everything they can to do it. It's how American justice is set up. A defense lawyer who didn't bring up his client's Aspergers and medication would be a terrible defense lawyer and shouldn't practice. This guy was doing it exactly right.

Lindell seems to be trying to build a case in his client's defense that this is just a special interest gone out of control. He is introducing Aspergers and (lack of) meds as a mitigating circumstance. Notice how he tried to get the bail reduced.

Last edited by Janissy on 23 Jan 2014, 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

Mitchell Munro Taylor of Seattle got in trouble because he posted anti-gay threats on Ed Murray's webpage, not because he 'forgot' to take his medications.

I forget to take my meds sometimes; but that is no excuse for anti-social behavior. Asperger's Syndrome is not a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

Exactly. It is now up to the prosecution to prove that having Asperger's and not taking your meds is not acceptable as a mitigating circumstance. But I don't fault the defense lawyer for bringing up Aspergers/meds. It is the job of a defense lawyer to bring up every single thing that could concievably be a mitigating circumstance and if there is nothing that is a plausible mitigating circumstance they need to bring up implausible things, or somehow prove their client didn't do it. What is not acceptable in the U.S. justice system is for a defense lawyer to just agree with the prosecution that their client is guilty. People forget this when seeing the various defenses that defense lawyers come up with. It is their job to come up with absolutely anything, plausible or not. This is not an excuse so much as the defense lawyer's best strategy. I would do the same thing if I were the defense lawyer.

Fact correction: Respiridone was found not to have any effect on the core indications of AS in clinical trials. Its efficacy for use in regulating aggression and irritability has not been properly studied, and it is being used off-label, probably as a result of anecdotal data. The evidence for efficacy of this drug is probably down to the placebo effect.
http://www.drugs.com/monograph/risperidone.html

The defendant is probably going to be on weak ground if the prosecutor tries to challenge the behaviour-medication link.

I don't think Asperger's would cause this kind of behaviour per se. He may have other issues on top for which the medications were for?

There is no medication for Aspergers.

Many people with ASDs take medication for comorbid conditions, though being a bigot isn't one of them.

The lawyer could have brought up the medication for the actual thing it treats, rather than "Aspergers."