MILWAUKEE — Brenda Wesley says the recent million-dollar settlement her family received from Milwaukee County is a relief, but the work to get there was far from easy.
“It's been a very long journey that we have been on to hold people accountable for not providing care for those that live with a significant mental health disorder,” said Wesley.
Her son Omar was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when he was 21 years old.
She says he didn't find stability with his illness until he started taking a daily antipsychotic drug while hospitalized in Madison.
“You can see the light in his eyes, that he was coming back to himself. He had a smile again,” said Wesley.
In 2016, Omar was arrested for attempted bank robbery. He was found not guilty due to mental disease or defect.
While in custody, his lawyers say he wasn't given his medication consistently.
“You're not supposed to stop this medication cold turkey and he was not given that medication, which as a matter of fact, it impacted the brain again, and it made his symptoms just come roaring back,” said Wesley.
A calendar provided to us by his attorneys shows multiple weeks during his time at the jail where he didn't get his full dosage.
"I trusted the jail and the people that work within the jail to keep him stable,” said Wesley.
Attorneys Craig Mastantuono and Mark Thomsen handled Omar’s case.
“It's incredibly frustrating because, really, there's in many ways, no more vulnerable of people in our community than people that suffer from mental illness. Bring those people into congregate settings, into carceral settings like jails and prisons, and they become even more vulnerable,” said Mastantuono.
“This was completely preventable. All they had to do was give Omar, a human being, the medication for his mental illness. That would have been it,” said Thomsen.
Brenda says her son is doing much better. He's been at a mental health facility for the last 7 years, taking daily medicine.
She hopes to use money from the settlement to care for him long-term when he comes next year.
Brenda says she wanted to share her family's story to highlight the issues in the criminal justice system when it comes to mental health and encourage others to fight for change.
“When you put your loved one's life in someone's hands, like a doctor or anyone that's supposed to provide care, and they don't provide that care and it impacts them, then that's disheartening and we need to do better,” said Wesley.
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