TRI In The News

Raub's Lawyer Petitions Court for Illegal Detention

From The Washington Times 24/7

Original article available here

The attorney for the former Marine who was forced into a psychiatric ward for anti-government Facebook postings filed a petition Wednesday claiming law enforcement did not uphold Virginia laws for involuntary detentions.

“The law requires that within four hours of detaining someone, you have to have a magistrate write a petition for a temporary restraining order,” said John Whitehead, an attorney with the Rutherford Institute, the Virginia-based civil rights firm that is defending the ex-Marine. “They didn’t do that. That didn’t happen.”

Brandon Raub, 26, was taken into custody at his Richmond, Va., home Thursday, Aug. 16, by FBI and Secret Service agents and Chesterfield County Police. He has yet to be charged with a crime; he was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle and transported to the police department. From there, he was admitted to the John Randolph Medical Facility in Hopewell for a psychiatric evaluation.

His crime?

Officially, nothing.

“They did not charge him with anything,” Mr. Whitehead said in an interview Wednesday with Times247.com. “He was in his underwear, in his living room, he sees a group of police, FBI agents walking up, he talks with them, he’s asked about some Facebook postings, they handcuff him.”

The Facebook postings — the biggest clue so far to the reasons for his detention — were part of a private chat, inaccessible without an invitation, and included anti-government sentiments and warnings of revolution.

“This was a closed group, not public, not a posting on a wall,” said Cathleen Thomas, Mr. Raub’s mother, in a Wednesday morning interview. “They had to hack in to it to see it, then they took the comments out of context. But agree with him or not, agree with his comments or not, the bigger question is, why is the government checking on postings in the first place? The point is, he has a right to free speech.”

Mr. Whitehead said the postings were part of an Internet game and stemmed from song lyrics. Regardless, Mr. Raub has still not been charged with any crime — or even officially arrested, Mr. Whitehead said. He has been transferred to a facility four hours from the family, however, for up to 30 more days of psychiatric evaluation.

“I got a call saying he arrived last night about 10 o’clock at the VA hospital in Salem,” Mrs. Thomas said. “They’re doing intake on him now.”

The intake evaluation will decide whether Mr. Raub will be placed in the psychiatric ward, and for how long, Mrs. Thomas added.

“We’re going to file to get him out. That’s the ultimate goal,” she said. “Driving four hours to see him, that’s going to be completely inconvenient. But that’s what we’ll do.”

Mr. Raub is a decorated Marine who served as a combat engineer for six years in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mrs. Thomas said. His second tour in Afghanistan ended in March 2011, and he left the military with a sergeant’s rank and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, she said. Mrs.Thomas said her son received an honorable discharge and was not taking any medication either during or after service.

He lives with his brother and two roommates two miles from Mrs. Thomas’ home.

“I spoke to him almost every day. I had day-to-day contact with him,” she said, noting nothing in his demeanor or behavior that would suggest law enforcement’s treatment of him was justified.

“We’re just a very politically active family," Mrs. Thomas said. "We keep our pulse on that, on the Constitution, we’re commanded to do that, actually, by the Founding Fathers.”

Mrs. Thomas suggested it was this outspoken political activism that drew the attention of the government. Mr. Whitehead suggested the same thing.

“The biggest thing [about Mr. Raub] in his profile is he’s a 9-11 truther,” Mr. Whitehead said. “He’s a Ron Paul libertarian. But so what? Thomas Paine would have been put into an institution" by that standard.

"I find this to be very dangerous and bizarre," Mr. Whitehead said. "If you can be taken away without being charged with a crime … this is a scary scenario.”

The hearing to contest Mr. Raub’s detention — which is still not backed by the required magistrate’s order, Mr. Whitehead said — will take place Thursday at District Court in Hopewell.

“We will appeal” if the hearing does not lead to release of Mr. Raub, or to a written order explaining his detention, Mr. Whitehead said.

Mr. Whitehead is also challenging the transfer of his client to a remote facility and fighting to bring him back to the Richmond area, he said.