From a Grio article posted Feb. 14, 2019:Â
Long Island woman loses case after being locked in mental facility for telling the truth about Obama following her on Twitter
A Long Island, N.Y., woman who sued after an eight day ordeal in a psych ward suffered an agonizing courtroom defeat Wednesday when a jury determined doctors reasonably believed she was mentally ill in September 2014, the New York Daily News reports.
Kamilah (Kam) Brock filed a lawsuit against the City of New York, a police officer and doctors at Harlem Hospital after she landed in a mental facility and was deemed psychotic for truthfully saying Obama is her Twitter follower. The 36-year-old banker wound up under psychiatric surveillance for it and decided to litigate because she says she was unlawfully held against her will and forced to take antipsychotic drugs.
The jury, however, decided that she the context of her lock-up was critical and she was perhaps experiencing an episode of âmaniaâ as the doctors had determined.
âThatâs not the first thing Iâd say to somebody â that Obama follows me on Twitter,â juror Jerry Rella, 55, said. âItâs the way sheâs saying it â that sheâs important â the grandiosity.â
The traumatic event all began when Brock went to an NYPD stationhouse to get information on how to retrieve her vehicle, which had been impounded. Her car was taken by police after she had been pulled over on suspicion that she was high on marijuana. The substance was never found in her car. When she went to the police about her auto, she admits she was emotional, but insists she is not âemotionally disturbed.â
She told them that she follows politics, helped to make hip-hop videos and has the former president as a follower of her Twitter account â there were no lies in what she was saying. Obama follows more than 600,000 people on Twitter and in actuality, Brock is one of them.
Jurors determined that she was less credible than the three doctors, Elisabeth Lescouflair, Zana Dobroshi and Alan Labor and NYPD Officer Salvador Diaz, all who determined that Brock needed some mental health help.
Also etched in jurors minds was the fact that Brockâs legal team failed to call her father or sister to the stand who had previously made mention to Harlem Hospital staff that Brock had been acting erratically.
âWe view this verdict as a total vindication for the defendant officer and doctors who sought to help Ms. Brock through her troubling episode. The jury rejected any notion that the actions of these officials was anything but appropriate under the circumstances,â a Law Department spokesman said.
Brock cried as the verdict was read.
âItâs reasonable for them to diagnose me with bipolar [sic] even though Iâm telling the truth?â Brock said through tears.
âWhat am I supposed to do? Iâm crazy because of this verdict.â