Star Tribune
Mental health advocates push for more in-person civil commitment hearings
Several mental health advocates sent a letter to Minnesota court administrators Monday raising concerns over a policy that holds civil commitment court hearings virtually instead of in person, which the letter’s authors say is exacerbating an already-confusing legal process for people with severe mental illnesses.
The letter, sent to State Court Administrator Jeff Shorba, also says the virtual policy may be limiting a person’s chance to meet with their attorney during before these hearings, diminishing their ability to present a defense.
“It is not uncommon for individuals to meet their attorney for the first time at the hearing, and in a remote setting these communications are impossible,” reads the letter, signed by leadership for National Alliance for Mental Illness Minnesota (NAMI) and Mental Health Minnesota, along with Andrea Strobel-Ayres, a state ombudsman who oversees civil commitment training. “Individuals should be provided with the best defense and have the right to representation and the right to work with their attorney on such things as testimony, exhibits, and treatment options which may be unfairly limited in the remote setting. Families also worry that in a remote hearing the judge might not see the symptoms or distress as clearly if they were in-person.”
Minnesota courts started using remote hearings during the COVID-19 pandemic, initially as an emergency measure designed to keep the courts moving during a time of mandatory isolation.
In March 2023, Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie S. Gildea signed a court order to keep certain hearings virtual unless under special circumstances determined by a judge. Among them is civil commitment — the legal process for committing a mentally ill person to involuntarily treatment.
“It needs a bigger discussion, honestly, that involves including people who advocate for people with mental illnesses,” Sue Abderholden, executive director of NAMI Minnesota, said in an interview Monday.
The letter says holding these hearings remotely could be negatively affecting people going through this system. Some don’t believe they have an illness, the letter says. Others don’t understand the court system as a result of their illness. “Additionally, family members may be extremely concerned about their loved one’s health and safety and cannot be in the room with the individual to offer comfort or advice if the individual wants that support.”
“Having talked with many people who have been committed and their family members, we have seen the impact of being in court in person,” the letter continues. “Hearing the information that is presented and understanding the ramifications can at times lead to voluntary treatment. You don’t always perceive that same gravity through a video conference.”
The letter’s authors say they support telehealth as an option, but they believe that people should be given the choice to appear in person or virtually “when some of their civil rights are potentially being taken away,” suggesting the court adopt an “opt-in” model versus making it presumptive.
Shorba planned to forward the letter to a committee that’s reviewing in-person, remote and hybrid hearings, said district court spokesman Kyle Christopherson. He said the committee plans to make recommendations to the courts in June.
This story is developing and may be updated.
Star Tribune
Aunt IDs 3-year-old who was fatally shot in Minneapolis home, speaks about what happened
A close relative on Tuesday identified the 3-year-old boy who was fatally shot this week in his family’s northeast Minneapolis apartment a day earlier.
Woods said police have told the family that Jajuan got ahold of the gun and it went off.
“Someone left a loaded gun [in the home,” said Woods, who has started an online fundraiser for her sister, Charlotte Williams. “He got ahold of it thinking it was a toy.”
Woods said her nephew, who went by Junior, “loved trucks and dinosaurs. He was just so silly and goofy. He was a momma’s boy.”
Jajuan suffered a gunshot wound to the top of the head, a source with knowledge of the incident told the Star Tribune. Paramedics rushed the toddler to HCMC, where he died a short time later.
Woods said she did not know who owned the gun.
Police spokesman Trevor Folke said Tuesday evening there have been no arrests and had no update to share in the “active and ongoing investigation.”
Bergman is championing efforts to boost literacy and invest in early childhood programming, and getting there, she said, requires financial sustainability, and that may mean closings and mergers. She attended last week’s finance committee meeting — as she’s done on a regular basis — and described the mention of “opportunity” as another rosy way of avoiding hard truths.
The district is spread too thin, she said. Some schools could take more students. Yet in others, class sizes are huge and caseloads so large that educators can’t build relationships with students and families, she said.
“I just fundamentally believe, and it’s been one of the objectives of my campaign, to be someone out in the community talking about this moment, listening to reactions, and listening for the places where families could get on board with the possibility of their beloved school having to close,” she said.
A way to get there, Bergman said, is by consolidating buildings, and in turn, expanding programming — perhaps not far from the school left behind.
Callahan argues that the mere mention of closings is causing families to leave the district: “This is not something that should be talked about so flippantly,” she said.
She said she would entertain the idea only if there also are plans to stabilize and recruit students, plus answers to three questions: How much money is being saved by closing a building? How many students will be retained if the school closes? And how many new students have to enroll to keep it open?
State environmental regulators are suing the Lake County Planning Commission to try to stop a developer from building 49 new cabins at a century-old fishing resort on an entry lake to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said that the planning board ignored local and state shoreline protection rules to allow the Silver Rapids Resort on Farm Lake to build the cabins. The project would accompany an extensive remodel and renovation to a motel and restaurant on the site that would also increase the size and number of docks.
The agency asked a district court judge in a suit filed Oct. 3 to throw out the resort’s permit for the construction. A hearing is scheduled for November and no work will be allowed to start while the case is pending. A group of homeowners in the area opposed to the project filed a separate lawsuit that also seeks to overturn the resort’s permit.
Alex Campbell, the environmental service specialist for the planning commission, declined to comment on ongoing litigation. Commission member and Lake County Board Chair Rich Sve did not return phone calls seeking an interview. Sandy Hoff, one of the site’s developers, did not return messages seeking comment.
Silver Rapids opened in 1919 as a fishing resort on a stretch of shore where White Iron Lake meets the western edge of Farm Lake. The Boundary Waters begins on Farm Lake’s eastern shore a couple miles from the resort. It has 12 small cabins on site, an 11-room motel, a restaurant and 21 campsites.
Developers asked the county planning commission for a permit to allow an $45 million expansion that would include a remodel of the restaurant, the installation of a tiki bar and the building of 49 new cabins that would each be sold to up to four owners apiece and rented out when those owners aren’t using them.
The expansion would increase the total number of dwelling units on the site from 13 to 62 and add 12 new docks with space for 75 boats.
But the county’s shoreline protection rules, which were written in the 1990s, allow the resort a maximum of 29 dwelling units and docks that could fit a maximum of 14 boats, the DNR argued in its complaint.
