Subscriber Comments for
A mother of one of David Attias's five victims clarifies som...

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

LIZTISH340	2012-06-19 08:36 AM
Good for this mother for speaking out. She really cleared up some questions I had concerning Attias' medication and testing. How could anyone think it would be okay to let him out into society again?
COMMENT 289289P	2012-06-19 09:25 AM
Nick Welsh is correct in discussing Mental Health's budget and the District Attornery's budget. The money comes out of the same limited pot. One budget is at the expense of the other. The point I see Welsh making is that had Attius' disease been treated sucessfully early on, the tragedy that night a decade ago would never have happened.
COMMENT 289307P	2012-06-19 09:46 AM
Attias' disease may well have been treated successfully before the tragedy, as he was apparently given Depakote before coming to UCSB. The problem is that he stopped taking his meds, and then used recreational drugs as well. That is a major issue in the treatment of severe mental illness - patients tend to stop taking their meds when they feel better, and then symptoms return. There can also be horrible side effects that make people want to stop taking meds as well.
COMMENT 289329	2012-06-19 11:26 AM
It's a shame that only 11 years after the carnage the families of the victims have to relive the horror all over again while dealing with the uncertainty of whether the system is going to release from close custody a still very mentally-ill person who still has no true meaningful sense that he's done anything wrong. Further, the likelihood of Attias staying on the medication regimen that keeps him under control is low, and he already has a history of taking recreational drugs. If the mental health experts think Attias is no longer insane, then he should be serving a long, long prison sentence. He should be locked up until he's so old that he's no danger to anyone, including himself. Judge Adams, you allowed this travesty of justice to happen. Shame on you.
COMMENT 289335	2012-06-19 11:58 AM
What's crazy is that he will spend more time locked up than many folks who kill people while drunk driving. Not that I think he should be let out but it makes it all the more putrid that people driving drunk get less time behind bars and they are perhaps even more culpable.
COMMENT 289355	2012-06-19 12:59 PM
It is very simple to me - his actions caused devastating harm - his actions forfeited his freedom. It was good to read the opinions of one of the parents - I appreciate the clarity she put forth - and she was very correct in her statements. She is very brave.
COMMENT 289378P	2012-06-19 02:40 PM
Unfortunately, the voters of California, chose to close almost all the mental hospitals and leave it up to the mentally ill to decide whether to seek treatment. The laws make it impossible to take preventative action and hospitalize someone before a tragedy occurs. Many seriously mentally ill people are unable to understand that they are truly ill. They also self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. So, they are bound to run afoul of the criminal justice system. When that happens, we choose to see it as an issue of personal character. We've criminalized mental illness and, as taxpayers, are paying many more dollars in societal costs than if we'd kept the mental hospitals open. Unless the laws are changed to force people into treatment, then these tragedies are the price we're going to continue paying for our "free" society.
COMMENT 289488P	2012-06-20 01:23 AM
378P it was not the voters of California. You can thank the ACLU for this travesty. They have fought for the mentally ill's right to choose their own treatment or lack thereof and won. It is nationwide - not just California.
COMMENT 289686	2012-06-20 01:33 PM
This "clarification" totally misrepresents Dr. Hagen, who is an unqualified crank who wrote a terrible book because of her self-professed "personal outrage" at the fate of her brother in court. Nick Welsh is correct that paying her $10,000 was a gross misuse of taxpayer funds and actually endangered the prosecution's case.
COMMENT 289771	2012-06-20 04:23 PM
Once a dog has tested positive for rabies, we don't release it back into public to commit more murder and mayhem. A rabid dog simply cannot coexist with others without attacking, biting, and spreading the disease. David Attias is a rabid dog. The only way to treat his illness, is with him locked up, and required to take the medications prescribed by the psychiatrists. He has proven that he cannot be trusted to continue taking those medications that MIGHT keep his aggression and violence under some vestige of control, meaning that with him released back into society, future horrific sociopathic acts against completely innocent victims, are a HIGH PROBABILITY, not a remote possibility, as his public defender would have us all believe. If ever there was moral justification for forced frontal lobotomies, Attias provides it in spades. Don't let this rabid animal loose!
COMMENT 289908P	2012-06-20 11:24 PM
@ 771 - As you very eloquently point out, once a dog has tested positive for rabies, we don't release it back into the public to commit more murder and mayhem. I like that. It may apply to David Attias, and perhaps it doesn't. I really don't know that much about Mr. Attias. But I can tell you from years of first hand experience - as a citizen of this city - that it DOES apply to Joyce Dudley. As you point out, a rabid dog simply cannot coexist with others without attacking, biting, and spreading the disease. I couldn't have characterized Ms. Dudley better myself. And I believe Joyce should be taken off the streets of this town, via civil impeachment to protect the innocent. David Attias may well be rabid dog, but so is Joyce Dudley. Mr. Attiss' crime stemmed from his innate mental illness - Ms.Dudley's does too. He is is likely bipolar or schizophrenic...she is most likely narcissistic and suffering from delusions of granduer. One is no better than the other.
ANIMALLISTNER	2012-06-21 02:23 AM
PLEASE keep this menice to society locked up. So many people from every aspect of this case, are still very traumatized.

58% of comments on this page were made by Edhat Community Members.

EDHAT COMMENTS POLICY