A Marine veteran’s civil lawsuit over his involuntary detention at a mental hospital last year is tentatively set for trial in January, but a federal judge said Friday that he wants to expedite a decision on key elements of the case.
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One component of the complex case deals with the legal threshold of taking custody of a presumed mentally ill subject versus someone who has committed a criminal act.
“The allegations made against him were baseless,” argued William Hurd, one of the lawyers representing Raub, referring to the grounds for arrest that existed at the time Raub was taken into custody. “There has to be some indicia of something more” than intemperate political rants, he said, to establish probable cause.
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“It was appropriate and prudent for (police and mental health workers) to have acted pursuant to Virginia mental health statutes to seek prompt care and treatment for Raub for the protection of others,” states a legal brief that was filed by the Chesterfield County Attorney’s office.
However, attorneys for Raub and the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville, which is supporting Raub’s case, are alleging that Raub was targeted for his political speech and was hospitalized in a mental unit to silence him. Hurd argued Friday that Raub had no prior history of mental issues.
“What’s going on here is political psychiatry,” he told the court.
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Hudson is being asked to dismiss key defendants from the case, generally because they are immune under state law and were acting appropriately in their respective roles as police officers or Chesterfield mental health employees or employees of John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell.
