In a story so full of wrong it’s
hard to fathom, Latrice Brewer, a Long Island, New York woman who admitted to
drowning her three children because she feared the effects of voodoo on them,
then tried to kill herself twice (by drinking cleaning products and then by
jumping off a two story building), is in a maximum security mental institution
in New York. She was found not guilty of
killing her children by reason of insanity.
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| Latrice Brewer and two of her drowned children |
By the way, being found not
guilty by reason of insanity is not some technicality that lets a person
walk. They get sent to a maximum
security mental institution where they are kept under guard and given
treatment, for their sake and others.
That part of the story is wrong
enough. Then it gets worse. While locked
up in a secure facility, she has given birth to a fourth child. The facility will not say who the father is,
citing patient confidentiality. They
also may be citing CYA as the only way she could have become pregnant (besides
divine intervention) is that a guard had sex with her, another inmate had sex
with her (which the guards are not supposed to let happen), or someone from the
outside was allowed to have sex with her (again, not supposed to happen).
The attorney who represents two
of her deceased children called her pregnancy “outrageous.”
More outrageous to folks is that Brewer is
now seeking a cut of $350,000 won by the fathers of her children in wrongful
death lawsuits. This begs a few
questions: (1) where did the money come from
– not her, and (2) how does a lawyer (she is insane, so she clearly can’t file
a lawsuit for herself) think he can get the money for her?
The first question, where the
money from the wrongful death lawsuits came from, the county. The father’s of Brewer’s children sued the
county:
Newsday reports: Innocent
Demesyeux, the father of two of the children -- Michael Demesyeux, 5, and
Innocent Demesyeux Jr., 18 months -- settled a lawsuit against the county in
2011 for $250,000, claiming that social service caseworkers could have done
more to save them. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the estate of the third child,
Jewell Ward, 6, was settled in 2012 for $100,000.
This means that there’d obviously
been prior reports or a history of mental illness and social services had been
called and not responded appropriately.
Second question, how does Brewer’s
attorney think he can get a cut of the money?
All States (I’m not aware of one that doesn’t) have laws that keep
criminals from profiting from their crimes.
Criminals, while serving time, cannot profit from writing books about
their crimes, or can’t gain from wrongful death lawsuits against homeowner’s
insurance policies or life insurance policies – all for obvious reasons. But, Brewer was found not guilt (though by
reason of insanity). It will still be a
very hard case to win, because she admitted to causing the death of the
children – though she was not criminally culpable for it, due to her mental
health, not due to something like accident or even negligence. But, she won’t get a cut anyway. As Newsday
reports:
Even
if Brewer is successful in her quest, she cannot keep the money because the
state holds a $1.2 million lien on her assets to cover the cost of her
treatment and board at the psychiatric facility.
Full story and photo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/11/leatrice-brewer-baby_n_4086211.html?1381518933
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