Jailed After Psychotic Break: California's Mental Health Care Nightmare Becomes Mother's Reality

REDONDO BEACH, CA — Sara Feldman, a wife and mother of three, lit a blanket on fire in the bathtub of her condo. The blanket, a 35-year-old wedding present from her husband Eric Feldman, was embroidered with the date of their anniversary. As smoke began to billow out of the bathroom window, she walked outside, calmly handed her dog over to a confused neighbor, and left.

When Feldman, a former optician, returned to grab her bags, she was met by law enforcement who then restrained her and placed her in custody. To everyone’s surprise, Feldman, who suffers from mental illness, ended up in jail for four months awaiting transfer to Patton State Hospital — which has housed a variety of mentally ill patients including mass murderers David Attias and Edward Allaway. Sara is one of many who, despite a consensus that she doesn’t belong in jail, spent months languishing in a jail cell due to lack of resources for mental health treatment.

Now in custody at Twin Towers Correctional Facility, Sara’s assigned public defender deemed her incompetent, according to court documents, and the case was diverted to mental health court Department 95 within the Los Angeles Superior Court.

“Given her state of mind at the time I could tell she wasn’t thinking straight,” Redondo Beach Police Sergeant Michael Martinez said. “When the charges were filed by the District Attorney I was a little bit surprised given her mental state at the time, but they filed based on what the Fire Department found.”

Within a day, she was charged with two felony counts of arson and one misdemeanor.

“I spent tens of thousands of dollars, if you added it up, probably up to $100,000 in legal fees,” Eric Feldman said. “I just wanted to do what was best for Sara. I was willing to do whatever it took.”

In Department 95, Sara was declared “incompetent”: she was unable to participate in the hearing in a meaningful way and might not understand the charges placed against her. She was ultimately moved to the Century Regional Detention Facility, also referred to as “Lynwood,” for “space reasons,” Eric Feldman said.

Sara Feldman had a history of what she thought were neurological problems. After battling anxiety and depression for years, in 2003 she began to have intense, painful body spasms. Three years later, the Feldmans moved to California, and she had a grand mal seizure.

These episodes were often followed by bouts of intense emotions, which Eric Feldman now identifies as cycles of depression and mania. Sara Feldman always thought the spasms and seizure were related to neurological problems such as epilepsy or myoclonus, not mental health issues such as the psychotic break she was experiencing when she started the fire.

“So now you have a 57-year-old middle class woman, who’s never had anything other than a parking ticket, locked up in Lynwood,” he said. “Lynwood is probably the worst place on earth.”

Trials and Tribulations

In order for Sara Feldman to stand trial, competency had to be restored. In order for her to be declared competent, she would have to transfer from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department to a psychiatric hospital.

The problem? Sara had to wait four months in jail for an available bed to open up at Patton State Hospital where her competency could be restored, according to Eric Feldman. While she was in custody, psychiatrists gave her medication, including a mood stabilizer and an anti-psychotic. Living in a jail cell, the only treatments Sara received were prescribed medications.

“I could only visit her once per week on the weekends, separated by a glass partition,” he said. “She was a mess the first couple of weeks, but by the third week she was back to her mild-mannered, sweet, unassuming self in a jail with rapists, drug addicts and murderers. She was scared to death.”

Because of the delay (which social workers described to Eric Feldman as “typical”), Patton State Hospital was issued an order to appear in court because it had failed to move Sara Feldman to the hospital. This stimulated some action, and a bed “became available,” Eric Feldman said. By the time she was transferred to Patton, “she was fine,” he said.

Sara Feldman remained in Patton State Hospital for a month and was declared competent to stand trial for a preliminary hearing in Torrance on the two felony charges. That’s when Eric Feldman hired Jonathan Mandel, a lawyer who specializes in mental health cases.

Mandel argued that Sara Feldman was not guilty by reason of insanity.

“She’s not guilty by reason of insanity, because there was really no reason for her to set the blanket on fire,” Mandel said. “There was an irrational act, she wasn’t taking her medication.”

The district attorney reviewing Sara’s case was “not very accommodating,” according to Eric Feldman. In California, arson cases are taken very seriously due to the collateral damage they cause, Mandel said.

With the help of Mandel and her husband, Sara Feldman was able to plead no contest, and the judge delayed sentencing for three years on one condition: every six months, she has to bring doctor’s statements to court to “prove that she’s OK, she’s still visiting her doctors and taking her meds,” Eric Feldman said. After three years, the charges will be dropped.

A New Beginning

Mandel credits Sara Feldman’s “quick” healing to the support she’s received from her family. Eric is “totally devoted” to her, and Mandel said he’s “never seen anything like it.” Support from family, he said, has incredible benefits.

“You can always measure the success of someone with mental illness by how many people are around them that aren’t paid to be around them,” he said. “A family that cares for you is essentially a buffer. If they care about you and have resources, it can really benefit you.”

On Christmas Eve of last year, Sara Feldman was released from jail. Months went by, and the Feldmans experienced small steps of success and happiness with each other. In early April, she started to have uncontrollable seizures.

The seizures triggered another psychotic break.

“She was talking about people coming out of the ceiling, people hiding in the bathrooms,” Eric Feldman said. “She knew who I was but thought she was back in the 1990’s.”

A neurologist at UCLA finally led to an answer to her episodes of seizures: “pseudoseizures” caused by suppressed childhood trauma. This trauma, although deeply suppressed in her mind, had been “exacerbated” by her time in the Los Angeles County jail system, Eric Feldman said. It was repressed for so long that it “threw her brain into a psychotic loop,” he said.

A Call to Action

After three weeks at UCLA, her doctors strongly recommended that she stay in a long-term inpatient psychiatric treatment facility that specializes in trauma. Inpatient treatment would allow Sara to develop strategies to not suppress memories anymore in order to prevent seizures, Eric Feldman said.

Sara Feldman is now a patient at the PCH Treatment Center, which “provides a caring, safe, and therapeutically intensive environment for individuals with psychological problems,” according to the PCH Treatment Center website.

“The way they explained it to me is that they have to tear her down to the bone psychologically to get at these problems, and then build her back up for lasting results. You can’t do that in a month,” he said.

The problem for the Feldmans now, is how to pay for her treatment, deemed necessary by health care professionals. Although Eric Feldman has excellent federal retiree insurance due to his CIA background, it won’t cover long-term treatment at any of the psychiatric facilities, he said, and the bills are adding up. The first month at PCH Treatment Center cost $38,000, and then the next month was $29,500, he said, so it averages around $30,000 per month.

“I’d already taken out a home equity loan for all of the legal fees and took out the max loan from my 401K,” he said. “So at this point, it’s like what the hell else can I do here short of selling my house?

Lately, mental health issues have received increasing national attention. Last Thursday, a Virginian man was executed via lethal injection even though the jury on his case said he wasn’t able to separate delusion from reality, according to Vice.

The GOP health care bill has also been a contentious topic, with a new version of the bill that was released Thursday. Within the bill, a provision proposed by Senator Ted Cruz allows insurance companies to offer “stripped-down” low-cost health care plans that don’t comply with Obamacare regulations to cover certain health benefits — including mental health and addiction services, according to Reuters.

In an attempt to save their mother, Eric Feldman’s children came up with the idea to crowdfund Sara Feldman’s treatments. They set up a YouCaring Compassionate Crowdfunding Site for Sara, hoping that if strangers saw that there was a family in need for mental health treatment it might resonate with people, he said. Throughout the turmoil, work proves to be a good distraction for Eric, although there are days where he simply can’t do anything.

“The uncertainty of it is driving me crazy and I’ve been without my wife for nine out of the last 12 months,” he said. “Just when I start to feel sorry for myself, I realize that my wife is the one going through all of this pain. She’s the most courageous person I know.”

Money for Sara Feldman’s treatment is still in the midst of crowdfunding. While the Feldmans have raised more than $39,000 thus far, they are still far from their goal of $92,000.

If you would like to learn more about Sara Feldman’s story or donate to the Feldman family for her treatment, please visit their YouCaring page.

Photos provided by Eric Feldman