Q: 22 y/o son with developmental disabilities and mental illness was taken to ER after a suicide attempt & then arrested.
5 Security rushed towards our son & he picked up a plastic chair and held over his head because he thought he was in danger. He has PTSD from abuse and trauma background. They tackled him and chair came down on security guards head. He pressed charges against our son for assault and use of deadly weapon.
At admission, Police told me he put our son on a hold. and I as guardian asked them to place a hold for psych admission and evaluation. Hospital records show inconsistencies on whether or not he was on hold. Social worker miss quoted me from our phone conversation.
Our son accepted a deal from DA so basically admitted to a crime he didn't commit, misunderstanding the bigger picture and consequences of that being on his record.
There is video proving guard was at fault.
Can the case be reopened? Can our son sue security guard and or hospital. He was left in jail for over a week until I bailed him out. Being in jail was Emotionally stressful for our son and family.
A:
I would check with the attorney who handled the case to see if there is a way to undo the plea. Generally, it is difficult to undo a plea once the plea deal is done.
Our law firm's policy is not to accept police misconduct cases on a contingency fee basis if a person pleads guilty. That doesn't mean there is not case. It just means the case is too high risk for us to accept. We could take such cases on an hourly basis but most clients are going to be angry with us if we lose a high risk case after they pay us thousands of dollars. Thus, we tend not to even want to accept high risk cases on an hourly basis.
If he wants to preserve his rights, he needs to get in tort claim notice within 180 days. We charge a flat fee to get the tort claim notice done if a person needs time to find other counsel. Tort claim notice protects Oregon rights since Federal claims are often disqualified due to qualified immunity.
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