Stranger at door under cover of night needs more help than anyone else has given him – Orange County Register

It was dark and late when a woman I had never seen before entered our fenced yard, far off the beaten path. It was a warm night, so the top of our Dutch door was open.

She leaned into the house with what looked like an armful of flowers. A delivery guy, and at almost 9:30 p.m.? I rushed to the door while my three dogs went crazy. The “flowers” were actually a long palm frond full of berries, petals and leaves that she must have picked along the way.

“I’m all about peace and love,” she said.

My husband held back the attacking dogs. She told us her name and said she wanted her cats. Her father was here and she wanted to see him. And this was her house.

That's when it started to feel a little scary. If I had known then what I know now, it would have felt like much scary: Multiple assaults with a deadly weapon (though not a gun). Harassment complaints and restraining orders. Arrests for meth and drug charges. Robbery and assault – including on a police officer just days earlier. Her run-ins with the law date back to 1996.

“She wouldn't leave my house… she ransacked my office and probably stole things and she was verbally abusive to me,” a 2020 restraining order application in Los Angeles County states. “She pushed me and took my phone away from me because I wanted to call 911. She grabbed my arms and held me the whole way out, scratched my face and screamed at me the whole way out that I killed her father and worked for the government killing people for money!!”

With that thick, heavy feeling like walking through water, I asked her what she had taken and if I could help her. She assured me she was sober and erupted into insults and name calling, calling us racists, using profanities and so on. We said she had to leave. She refused. We announced we were calling 911 and dialed the number while she watched – and she retreated through the gate, spitting venom, and disappeared into the darkness.

Laguna Beach police said they came the evening of August 11 but found no one. We waited, but no one came to ask us questions. I wish we had done things differently — but more on the lessons learned in a moment.

Injured

It turned out that the woman had broken into a nearby house. According to my neighbor and the police, she spent the entire night destroying the house – shredding pillows with kitchen knives, smashing dishes and artwork, ripping up photographs, throwing everything in the trash, turning on faucets to flood the house, and dressing herself in my neighbor's clothes and jewelry.

The next day, she went to the larger house on the same property where my neighbor's grandchild was spending one of his last summer vacations. She said she was a friend who would be there to babysit him. He wisely retreated to a bedroom, locked the door, and called 911.

The woman managed to urinate on beds before the police arrived and was arrested again.

When I say “again,” I mean: On August 5, she “unlawfully damaged and tampered with a vehicle and its contents and broke into and removed parts of a vehicle without the owner's consent,” according to a misdemeanor complaint filed by the district attorney's office.

On August 7, she “intentionally and unlawfully used violence against Julie R.” (bodily harm).

On August 8, she “intentionally and unlawfully used force against Officer Meyer, a peace officer in the execution of his duty” (assault on a peace officer).

But there she was on August 11, in front of (and in) our door.

The criminal complaint filed by the district attorney for the alleged Aug. 12 offenses includes six counts — three felonies and three misdemeanors. They are first-degree residential burglary (“with intent to commit theft”); vandalism (“maliciously and unlawfully defaced, damaged and destroyed with graffiti and other inscribed materials, floor, pillows, frames, real property and personal property” valued at over $400); grand larceny (unlawfully took and obtained money and personal property, labor and services” valued at over $950); more vandalism (“maliciously and unlawfully defaced, damaged and destroyed with graffiti and other inscribed materials, bed covers, real property and personal property” valued at over $400); trespass – squatter occupation (“with intent to dispossess the owner”); and petty theft (intentionally and unlawfully stole, took, carried, carried and drove away the resident's “personal property”).

She pleaded not guilty and was still in jail on Friday.

The point is…

Obviously no one was physically injured. It could have been much worse. But my neighbors are traumatized, we are scared and – did this really have to happen?

The problems have been public knowledge for decades. She was beaten and held against her will; she won a large sum of money and filed for bankruptcy. A lawyer filed for relief from representing her in 2020, arguing that she refused to consider legal advice and could not avoid verbal abuse.

We're not mentioning her name because, given everything she's been through, it probably wouldn't be helpful to mention her name here. But this whole episode is an infuriating summary of our failure to protect and care for people who can't seem to care for themselves — or the public.

It's no secret that, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, nearly half of the prison population (44%) and almost as many inmates (37%) suffer from a mental illness.

“Too often, prisons and jails provide mental health care that often falls short of the needs of those with mental illness,” the National Alliance on Mental Illness said in a statement.Although incarcerated persons have a constitutional right to medical and psychiatric care, nearly two-thirds of mentally ill people in prisons and jails receive no psychiatric treatment.”

And as we at the Southern California News Group have been reporting for years, the kinder, gentler, less expensive, more effective, community-based mental health care system that was supposed to replace those horrific institutional psychiatric camps never materialized – at least not on a scale that even came close to meeting the need.

Californians have approved a $6.4 billion bond and other changes to address these failings, but it won't happen quickly. In the meantime, what do you do when someone who appears to be seriously mentally ill shows up at your door?

Action plan

Calling 911 is an obvious first step, but our mistake may have been leaving it at that.

“There are several services available for people with mental illness in our county system, and the best way to start is to call OCLinks – 855-625-4657 – which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” Ian Kemmer, director of behavioral health for Orange County, told us via email.

“If the individual is experiencing a mental health crisis, OCLinks can dispatch our mobile crisis team to evaluate the client and make the appropriate referrals so the individual can get the help they need. Additionally, our outreach and engagement team can be called during business hours at 800-364-2221. They will come to the individual to meet them, find resources and work with them to get treatment. The main goal would be to have a mental health professional engage with the individual so they can get the treatment they need.”

We could have called. The police could have called. But she was “missing” and clearly not violent. Mental health teams are not on call 24/7 for emergencies and this did not appear to be a crisis situation. Still, I wish I had called and spoken to someone experienced in this area. Perhaps OC Links could have sent their outreach and engagement team here the next day to look for her and try to get her into treatment.

I also wish I had called 911 again that night. The police came after our first call, but found everything quiet, the officers said. That was it. If I had called again an hour later, maybe they would have snooped around a bit more, maybe heard the noise when my neighbor's house was destroyed? We spoke to officers who said that was unlikely, it probably looked like a light was on in another house. But if you squeak, you get greased, and if you're uncomfortable, you squeak.

Police can also place people in 5150 arrests if they feel it is warranted, OC's Kemmer said. “They can call OCLinks and many do. We've worked to make sure police departments have that information readily available.”

The county is preparing to launch a multi-faceted OCLinks awareness campaign to make people aware and ensure they know who to call for themselves or someone else in the event of a mental health crisis.

I'll be sure to remember that number. I have no idea how she would get along in this area, but I'm sure she'll come by often.

“Her father died in January 2017 and around May 2017 she started calling me, leaving notes on my doorstep, accusing me and my family of stealing from her father and that I killed him,” a distant relative's 2020 restraining order filing states. “One time she showed up at my house and my husband was there… We tried to understand what she was trying to tell us, but we couldn't!… She was irrational the whole time!”

We have now installed cameras and additional locks. Also highly recommended: dogs. Big, loud and numerous. Without them, she would definitely have marched straight into our house.