Whipped Cream Difficulties

There seems to be no question that Lieu Tran had problems. Specifically, bipolar disorder.

Mr. Tran was a math teacher at a local high school. In April of 2011, he was told his contract wasn’t going to be renewed. This sent Mr. Tran into a downward spiral; he contacted a friend and told that friend he’d been having “scary thoughts about shooting his supervisors”. The friend gave him a ride to a mental hospital.

At the hospital, Tran repeated the thoughts to an admissions nurse, who testified that Tran cried, got into the fetal position and punched himself in the head during her interview with him. The nurse said she called an Austin police officer.

Mr. Tran engaged in a discussion with the APD officer later that day. He spent a week in the hospital, “having his medication adjusted and participating in group therapy”.

After he was released, he was arrested by APD and charged with “retaliation”, based on what APD considered to be his threats to “buy a firearm, tying up [Assistant Principal Sheila] Reed and [Principal Daniel] Garcia, shooting them in the arm and leg and making them watch him kill their families”.

The case went to trial this week. Today, the judge threw out Mr. Tran’s statements to the police officer:

[State District Judge Mike] Lynch ruled that because of Tran’s mental state, the statements to the officer could not be used against him at his trial, citing a Texas law that requires such statements be given voluntarily.

Without the statements, the state had no case, and the prosecution dismissed the charges.

That seems like the right thing to do. Now. But the right thing to do a year ago would have been not to bring charges.

Look, I understand Tran’s behavior might have been scary. But he sought help. He didn’t act on his impulses. He knew he had a problem and voluntarily committed himself. What were the APD and the Travis County DA thinking when they brought charges against a man who did the right thing? And did they even think about what impact this would have on other people facing similar situations?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Clippings, Cops, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.