Felony fees had been dismissed Monday in opposition to a Falls girl whose expertise on the Bucks County Correctional Heart two years in the past make clear the remedy of inmates experiencing energetic psychological sickness and misery in jail.
In a short courtroom listening to, Bucks County Decide Wallace Bateman Jr. dismissed misdemeanor fees of easy assault and terroristic threats and a abstract cost of stalking filed in April 2020 in opposition to 30-year-old Kim Stringer. . The case has continued a number of occasions since 2020.
Stringer’s lawyer, Brian Schuster, instructed the decide his consumer’s psychological situation has deteriorated and a physician has been unable to evaluate his psychological competence as a result of he has been in a “catatonic” state since late 2021.
The sufferer Stringer was accused of beating instructed prosecutors he understood the case might need been dismissed due to Stringer’s psychiatric issues, prosecutor Colin Jenei stated. It was not clear if the sufferer attended Monday’s listening to.
A second sufferer who was threatened wished the case to go ahead, however Jenei stated she was unable to contact the particular person within the days main as much as the listening to. The second sufferer didn’t attend the listening to.
Stringer’s mom, Martha, stated the dismissal of the fees will enable her daughter to give attention to her ongoing psychological well being remedy.
“It’s a nice aid to know that these fees are now not hanging over her head and that she will be able to proceed her restoration course of,” added Martha Stringer.
Stringer had an extended historical past of psychological sickness, together with bipolar dysfunction, earlier than his arrest on April 14, 2020, on misdemeanor fees of beating up a neighbor and threatening one other. Her dad and mom have stated that her habits was the direct results of paranoia induced by her psychological sickness.
Stringer was jailed 65 days earlier than being transferred to Norristown State Psychiatric Hospital in Montgomery County in what her dad and mom stated was catatonic and unable to speak.
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Her alleged mistreatment got here to gentle days earlier than she was transferred to Norristown State, and after different inmates involved about her deteriorating situation had been in a position to contact the Stringers. The accusations had been later revealed within the information.
Kim Stringer’s remedy, in addition to that of different inmates experiencing psychological anguish at Doylestown Jail, has been the topic of ongoing reporting by this information group because the revelations about Stringer grew to become public in June 2020.
An investigative report revealed final 12 months revealed particulars of six incidents during which bodily power was used in opposition to Stringer, which his dad and mom stated the county by no means shared with them.
![Martha Stringer rests her hands intertwined next to a portrait of her daughter, Kim Stringer, taken in 2009. [MICHELE HADDON / PHOTOJOURNALIST]](https://i0.wp.com/www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/09/02/NBCC/1118ef5a-3b3a-4687-9b84-ff57bbc8e342-kim_stringer_senior.jpg?w=900&ssl=1)
The historical past of Stringer’s remedy in jail prompted the county to create a brand new psychological well being diversion courtroom and take different steps to higher preserve critically mentally in poor health defendants out of the jail and legal justice system.
Earlier this 12 months, Martha and Paul Stringer filed a lawsuit in opposition to the county and 10 corrections officers, alleging that their daughter was subjected to extreme bodily power after displaying signs of her psychological sickness.
The Stringers preserve that the county misled them throughout Kim’s incarceration, which occurred in the course of the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, about his bodily and psychological situation in jail.
A Bucks County District Lawyer’s investigation in 2020 discovered that corrections officers adopted county coverage of their remedy of Stringer.
Use-of-force incident experiences obtained by this information group by means of right-to-know requests included paperwork displaying officers forcibly inserting Stringer in a restraint chair 4 occasions; pepper spray her twice; and bodily restraining her earlier than she was forcibly medicated.
The investigation additionally discovered that Bucks County Corrections doesn’t use separate use of power. insurance policies for inmates displaying indicators of psychological misery, who specialists say could also be unable to regulate behaviors which are symptomatic of their sickness.