Long Island woman loses case after being locked in mental facility for telling the truth about Obama following her on Twitter
Kamilah Brock says she was held against her will and put in a psych ward after she told police -- truthfully -- that Barack Obama follows her on Twitter. But her lawsuit was unsuccessful
A Long Island, N.Y., woman who sued after an eight day ordeal in a psych ward suffered an agonizing courtroom defeat Wednesday when a jury determined doctors reasonably believed she was mentally ill in September 2014, the New York Daily News reports.
Kamilah (Kam) Brock filed a lawsuit against the City of New York, a police officer and doctors at Harlem Hospital after she landed in a mental facility and was deemed psychotic for truthfully saying Obama is her Twitter follower. The 36-year-old banker wound up under psychiatric surveillance for it and decided to litigate because she says she was unlawfully held against her will and forced to take antipsychotic drugs.
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The jury, however, decided that she the context of her lock-up was critical and she was perhaps experiencing an episode of “mania” as the doctors had determined.
“That’s not the first thing I’d say to somebody — that Obama follows me on Twitter,” juror Jerry Rella, 55, said. “It’s the way she’s saying it — that she’s important — the grandiosity.”
The traumatic event all began when Brock went to an NYPD stationhouse to get information on how to retrieve her vehicle, which had been impounded. Her car was taken by police after she had been pulled over on suspicion that she was high on marijuana. The substance was never found in her car. When she went to the police about her auto, she admits she was emotional, but insists she is not “emotionally disturbed.”
She told them that she follows politics, helped to make hip-hop videos and has the former president as a follower of her Twitter account — there were no lies in what she was saying. Obama follows more than 600,000 people on Twitter and in actuality, Brock is one of them.
Jurors determined that she was less credible than the three doctors, Elisabeth Lescouflair, Zana Dobroshi and Alan Labor and NYPD Officer Salvador Diaz, all who determined that Brock needed some mental health help.
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Also etched in jurors minds was the fact that Brock’s legal team failed to call her father or sister to the stand who had previously made mention to Harlem Hospital staff that Brock had been acting erratically.
“We view this verdict as a total vindication for the defendant officer and doctors who sought to help Ms. Brock through her troubling episode. The jury rejected any notion that the actions of these officials was anything but appropriate under the circumstances,” a Law Department spokesman said.
Brock cried as the verdict was read.
“It’s reasonable for them to diagnose me with bipolar [sic] even though I’m telling the truth?” Brock said through tears.
“What am I supposed to do? I’m crazy because of this verdict.”
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