ST. LOUIS – A detainee has been forced to take psych medications during a 6-year pre-trial lockup.
“My husband gets four different types of anti-psychotic medications injected into him every month,” Keayona McDonald said about her detained husband. “He can’t do anything about it.”
Lamar McDonald has been locked up for about a third of their 17-year marriage. He’s been awaiting trial for more than 6 years on one federal charge of conspiracy to distribute meth.
The long wait for trial is partly because of this battle over medicine. “The fact they can force medicate him is ridiculous,” McDonald said.
The courts demand it, even after McDonald’s attorney appealed.
Attorney Justin Gelfand said, “What’s particularly unique about this situation, and what we litigated, is that Mr. McDonald, and this is all in the public record, has certain underlying health issues that we believe put him in danger for forced medication.”
The courts believe him to be incompetent without the medications.
“He says he’s not sick,” Keayona McDonald said. “It’s to further their benefit. He stares off into space and I have to get his attention to come back.”
Attorney Gelfand added, “At its core, this is a drug allegation—no more and no less—the idea that we would even possibly put a criminal defendant’s physical health in danger by forcibly medicating him when he does not want to take those medications—that to me tramples on somebody’s constitutional and civil rights.”
This latest court date was called an evidentiary hearing, the type of hearing McDonald’s attorney says you would have expected long ago and likely in the first year of the criminal process.
“My husband is definitely not dragging out this process. He wants to be over with it,” Keayona added.
The prosecutor’s office pointed out that a couple years of the delays were due to McDonald’s previous defense attorney, who first questioned competency.
Keayona said, “That idea did not come from my husband. It came from his previous counsel, which we ended a relationship.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office added “We are as interested as Mr. McDonald in resolving the case while at the same time ensuring that his rights are protected and that he is competent to understand and participate in the process.”
The judge said she wants to see a trial date as soon as possible.