Bizarre Behavior/Self-Mutilation Antidepressant 27/04/2010 Canada Man Changes From One Antidepressant to Another: Goes Berserk
Bizarre Behavior/Self-Mutilation Antidepressant 2010-04-27 Canada Man Changes From One Antidepressant to Another: Goes Berserk

http://web.archive.org/web/20130202072959/http://ssristories.com/show.php?item=4158

Summary:

Paragraph 13 reads:  "His defence lawyer, Mike Woogh, told the judge that his client's anti-depressant medications were being changed around the time of the incident, and  'he had been somewhat off his meds for a few days'."

"He also disclosed that the red-haired woman Manuel had been with earlier that day was his mother."



http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2551927


Man gets jail, probation following bizarre behaviour

Posted By SUE YANAGISAWA, THE WHIG-STANDARD

Posted 11 hours ago
A 23-year-old Kingston man who got himself into trouble while championing his mother, and then escalated matters with some bizarre behaviour, has been sentenced to 15 days in jail and placed on probation for 24 months.

Kalen A. Manuel, 23, was also prohibited for five years from possessing weapons after he pleaded guilty in Kingston's Ontario Court of Justice to carrying a knife for a purpose dangerous to the public peace, vandalizing a window inside Hotel Dieu Hospital and disobeying a previous court order that barred him from possessing weapons.

Crown attorney Bruce Griffith told Justice Rommel Masse that Manuel was arrested in late March after a Nelson Street resident called Kingston Police to report that a young man in the company of a red-haired woman was having a heated exchange with another man in one of the nearby houses on the street.

The caller observed that the man standing in the street -- Manuel -- was holding a knife by his leg with a blade estimated to be five inches long, at the same time yelling at the house for the other man to come outside.

Manuel was gone by the time police arrived but using the caller's description, Masse was told, patrol officers subsequently located Manuel walking alone on York Street.

When they pulled up to question him, however, Griffith told the judge Manuel approached the cruiser announcing: "I don't care, shoot me."

By then, he'd ditched the knife on property through which he'd passed on York Street, but officers recovered it after he'd been taken into custody.

Following his arrest Manuel began self-mutilating: Griffith said he dug a thumbnail into his wrist at police head-q uarters gouging until he bled and scratched deeply into his own torso, carving an X into his chest with his finger nails.

Officers drove him to Hotel Dieu Hospital for assessment, but when he was pronounced fit to return to a cell at police headquarters, shortly before 6 p.m., Griffith said Manuel again became agitated. Masse was told that after he was returned to the cruiser for the drive back he banged his face into the safety cage until he opened up a large laceration on his forehead.

Officers then took him back into the hospital, according to Griffith, and placed him in a locked holding room where he banged his head against the plexiglass door until it broke, causing $400 damage.

He ultimately required 14 stitches to close the gash he'd created and was held overnight at the hospital for observation.

His defence lawyer, Mike Woogh, told the judge that his client's anti-depressant medications were being changed around the time of the incident, and "he had been somewhat off his meds for a few days."

He also disclosed that the red-haired woman Manuel had been with earlier that day was his mother.

Woogh said his client had been yelling at someone his mother had met in a narcotics addiction group who had been bothering her. Mother and son just happened upon him while walking down the street, according to the defence lawyer, who told Masse that neither Manuel nor his mother had known before then where the man lived.

Woogh also claimed that it was his client's mother who initially yelled for someone to call police, because "the other man was calling Kalen on," he said, and "she could see things were getting out of hand."

Woogh told the judge that Manuel is being followed by Frontenac Mental Health Services, but they're still trying to determine the exact nature of his mental health problems and he doesn't have a diagnosis.

Manuel spent 15 days in pretrial custody before entering his pleas, but Masse told him he was going to give him a little more jail time, just to make him think about what he needs to do to rein in his temper.

"You've got to learn to control your anger," Masse said, at the same time ordering Manuel to abstain from alcohol, street drugs and weapons.

"Absolutely no weapons," Masse emphasized.
Article ID# 2551927