Guest post by Joe Hoft at JoeHoft.com – published with permission
Republished with permission from AbleChild.
In a quiet Georgia courtroom, a father and son face justice for a murderous act that devastated their community. Fourteen-year-old Colt Gray sits before a judge, accused of taking four lives at Apalachee High School. A grieving family watched in silence as the teenager faced four counts of first-degree murder, with the possibility of life in prison.
Colin Gray, 54, followed his son into the courtroom and was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and child cruelty. If convicted, Colin could face up to 180 years in prison. As cameras capture the proceedings, father and son are assigned public defenders. After a brief break, the teenage shooter was called into the courtroom. The judge, realizing the need for clarification, formally advised the juvenile that state law prohibits the death penalty for juveniles,
So now the legal stage is set and it’s anyone’s guess where the case will go. There are many factors to consider, starting with whether father and son will plead guilty or fight the charges. If the latter path is pursued, the defense will focus on Colt’s mental health history, his mother’s drug addiction and rap sheet, or his father’s domestic abuse. In the case of the father, will the defense focus on a barely literate person trying to raise a teenage son with limited financial and emotional resources? It’s anyone’s guess.
Of course, if this case is anything like the others before it, most people will be lucky to have the mental health data of everyone involved. Of course the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services is already in heightened defense mode, as many questions will surround the state agency’s oversight of this family, especially fourteen-year-old Colt.
The mental health history, including prescription medication, of the defendant is key to understanding this broken family dynamic. Unfortunately, all too often, the prosecution, and even the defense, downplay the importance of the shooter’s mental health history and the adverse effects associated with prescribed medication.
In the case of Nikolas Cruz, the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, he pleaded guilty and, therefore, was given only appointed representation in state court during his sentencing hearing. Although the Florida State Department of Children and Families provided mental health services to Cruz from the age of seven, the court did not consider this to be a serious conflict of interest. Unfortunately, Cruz’s defense “team” had no understanding of the cocktail of mind-altering psychiatric drugs administered to Cruz and, therefore, underestimated the potential effects of these drugs on violent behavior.
Of course, if Gray’s case goes to trial, there are other factions that don’t care about mental health history and will focus heavily on attacking the gun lobby and manufacturers. This worked well for the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting who succeeded in winning a suit against the gunmaker, Remington, to the tune of $73 million.
In Tennessee, where Audrey Hale shot and killed six at Covenant School, the legal landscape surrounding psychiatric treatment recordings is evolving, with new challenges centered on copyright claims. This emerging strategy appears to offer a new layer of protection for behavioral health providers and pharmaceutical companies. By asserting copyright on treatment records and drug formulations, these entities create additional barriers to accessing sensitive mental health information and proprietary drug data. This approach has sparked a debate about the balance between patient rights, medical transparency, and corporate interests in the mental health sector.
On the other hand, in the case of father and son Gray, there is another entity that could be the key to reveal how the system failed this family and, in particular, this fourteen-year-old. An in-depth examination of the role of family services and law enforcement adds new dynamics. Consider that Georgia State Police and the FBI contacted the father and son just a year ago when allegations arose that the thirteen-year-old had threatened to shoot up an unknown high school.
The FBI cannot prove the allegations that appeared online in 2023. However, the FBI must solve it Threat Triage and data Collection the form, which is rarely complete, includes information about the suspect’s mental health history and the treatment prescribed. If the FBI makes this threat assessment publicly available, it will explain why the federal agency failed to act in 2023.
As the growing number of children are being given mind-altering psychiatric drugs as “treatment” by state family services, it is an obvious goal to gather all the information about what role the Georgia State Department of Family Services is playing in response. obvious neglect in this family. How did Family Services handle the Gray family and what state behavioral health interventions did they use for the children? Did Family Services ever recommend that children be removed from a broken home and did any of the state behavioral health experts in charge of the family deem fourteen-year-old Colt to be a danger to himself or others? Were the warning signs ignored or ignored that could have led to this tragedy?
If fourteen-year-old Colt has a competent attorney, mental health information should come out during the trial. While it may not be enough to keep the shooter from spending the rest of his life in prison, it may reduce the amount of information to consider. But those barriers make mental health records and psychiatric medication information publicly available. The defense will be full of pharmaceutical health industry and behavior that would be happier if this information would not be seen in the light of day.
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