DA's office meets with mental health group after rape victim jailed

HOUSTON – The executive director of a mental health advocacy group praised the Harris County District Attorney's Office after a meeting about how to treat mentally ill crime victims.

"We commend the District Attorney's Office for its sincere commitment to develop new answers that represent best practices in mental illness," Glenn Urbach, of National Alliance on Mental Illness of Greater Houston, said. "We look forward to working side by side with them to accomplish this."

Urbach and members of the DA's office met Wednesday. He called the meeting a good first step in working to make sure mentally ill people have options other than jail.

"The District Attorney's office acknowledged that the jailing of a rape victim living with mental illness reflects both systemic deficiencies and a lack of knowledge within the criminal justice system on how to work with witnesses who are experiencing a mental health crisis," the statement said. "Based on our experience helping individuals and families cope with mental illness, NAMI identified some options that could be pursued in a similar situation in the future. We plan to work with the District Attorney's office to identify additional procedure changes, training and policy changes – whether at the local level, or on a broader level -- to fix the loopholes that allowed this to happen."

 

Anderson did not attend Wednesday's meeting, but other high-level people from the office did, Urbach said.

File: NAMI statement on meeting with DA's office

Urbach asked for a meeting with Anderson in a letter July 22 after a Channel 2 investigation into a rape victim who was put in jail following a mental breakdown on the witness stand.

That letter was the subject of Channel 2 coverage Monday. Anderson's spokesman, Jeff McShan, said Thursday that Anderson's office requested the meeting.

A woman named Jenny had a mental breakdown while testifying against her attacker last December, and was then put in jail by a prosecutor who worried she wouldn't come back to testify, KPRC 2 News first reported.

Jenny is suing the Harris County prosecutor and the Harris County Sheriff, among others.

Jenny, who is in her 20s, was the star witness in rape trial of Keith Hendricks after he violently raped and choked her. Hendricks was eventually sentenced to two life sentences for raping women.

Jenny, who suffers from bipolar disorder, couldn't continue her testimony on Dec. 8.

Court transcripts show she was incoherent, broke down and ran from court saying she'd never return.

After a brief stay in St. Joseph Medical Center, Jenny was handcuffed, put in the back of a patrol car and taken to jail, her attorney, Sean Buckley, said.

Anderson has defended the way her office handled Jenny's situation.

Sheriff Ron Hickman said he was shocked to learn Jenny was in his jail and said he worked to get Jenny released from jail.

If you have a comment about this story, or a tip for investigative reporter Jace Larson, email or text him jlarson@kprc.com or 832-493-3951.