TRI In The News

Raub Detention Case Needs Examination, Critics Say

From The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Original article available here

RICHMOND, Va. --
The state office responsible for investigating complaints about mental health procedures is being asked to examine why a Chesterfield County man was involuntarily committed and held against his will in August.

The Rutherford Institute, a First Amendment advocacy group, on Friday asked the inspector general for the state's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to investigate its allegations that Brandon Raub was victimized by improper use of the state's involuntary commitment process, denying his right to free speech.

The Charlottesville-based group said procedures used to hold Raub, 26, against his will "represent a due process problem in need of systemic correction."

Inspector General G. Douglas Bevelacqua said Friday that he is reviewing the request, which follows a request this month by a state delegate asking the Attorney General's Office to authorize a state police investigation of the Chesterfield police department for its role in the case.

The Attorney General's Office said state police do not need authorization to begin an investigation of another police force.

Raub, a Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was honorably discharged, was taken into custody Aug. 16, held under an emergency protective order and then transferred by a special justice to a veterans hospital in Salem for further evaluation and care. Attorneys for the Rutherford Institute gained a court order from a Hopewell Circuit Court judge freeing Raub a week after his initial detention by police and subsequent commitment; the judge found that the petition committing Raub was "so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy."

Raub supposedly aroused suspicion because of alleged anti-government statements he posted on Facebook, and he was confronted by federal agents and Chesterfield police. According to the Rutherford Institute, he was taken into custody and committed under a process that was flawed on multiple levels, including alleged violations of statutory time frames, the need for specific psychiatric findings and protections providing for independent medical findings.

Raub appeared after his release in a videotaped interview, projecting an image of a clear-thinking and rational person.