The psychiatrist Jorge Monforte was acquitted in a case that had high national impact. This is the death of police officer Juan Pablo Roldán, stabbed by psychiatric patient Rodrigo Facundo Roza. That Monday, September 28, 2020, both the inspector officer and the psychiatric patient ended up dead as a result of the incident. Roldán for the stab wounds; Roza, due to Roldán’s shots. The accusation against Monforte was very serious: that he had not cared for his patient as he should –abandonment of person followed by death— and that led to the homicide of the policeman. The prosecution and the family requested effective prison sentences for the professional and long disqualification, for the responsibility for the two deaths. However, Monforte was acquitted in a ruling that, according to his defender, Vadim Mischanchuk, “represents a before and after in psychiatric care.” Judge Carlos Rengel Mirat evaluated that it was a case in the middle of the pandemic, that even so Monforte treated Roza in person several times, that the patient stopped taking the medication and that on the weekend of the crisis he even managed the intervention of a psychiatric emergency service – there are private and SAME psychiatric ambulances – But Roza calmed down for a few hours and the next morning he came out shouting “I have to kill because they offend the gods.” In other words, a psychiatrist cannot be held responsible at the time of the crisis, when emergency services must intervene. The ruling was confirmed by the Court of Cassation.
A dramatic case
Monforte began treating Roza in 2014 and diagnosed “paranoid schizophrenic disorder.” The treatment was quite regular for years and the family itself declared that Facundo – as they called him – had improved a lot in 2019. But then the pandemic came and everything got worse.
For the family, the process was very hard. Facundo had no history of violence of the severity of that Monday in September. He recorded having gone to the United States embassy twice, once in Canada, in 2011, and again in Argentina. He showed up shouting and delivered letters addressed to Barak Obama and Donald Trump. On one of those times, he did it naked. Other than that, there was pushing, insults, shouting, but not the use of a knife.
Not only did it kill covid
In 2020 everything became more difficult, first because the psychiatrist, Monforte, had heart surgery in January and then came the restrictions on circulation. And, furthermore, the psychiatrist contracted covid in August. Despite this situation, Monforte attended to Roza in person several times during the pandemic, including an in-person consultation on September 18, ten days before the tragedy.
On the weekend of Sunday the 29th and Monday the 30th there was a sharp worsening of the situation. It happened that Roza had stopped taking the medication and was in a kind of rage, which was very difficult for her mother – who lived with him – to contain, an elderly, widowed person with health problems. The judge considers it proven that Monforte spoke several times by phone with the family, insisted on medication and offered to start the prepaid procedures so that, if necessary, they would hospitalize him. “The ruling states that a psychiatrist, who treats a patient sparingly, cannot be held responsible when there is a crisis,” explains defense lawyer Vadim Mischanchuk. In that case he has to intervene the emergency service. And, furthermore, he cannot be admitted just like that. The judge himself maintains that the law requires two professionals to decide. When there is a crisis, the issue turns to the prepaid service or SAME, which have psychiatric ambulances.”
What the judge said
Roza’s family requested ten years in prison for Monforte and a long disqualification, while prosecutor Sandro Abraldes reasoned that there was no intention in the psychiatrist’s actions, but there was recklessness. Abraldes requested three years of suspended prison and disqualification for eight.
The judge acquitted Monforte with the following arguments:
* There was no abandonment of person or recklessness or negligence. The psychiatrist intervened at all times and could not ignore the law regarding hospitalization when it does not have the patient’s consent.
* The psychiatrist has no responsibility for the patient’s compliance with taking medication. “He cannot be present every time he must take a pill,” summarizes the magistrate
* The hospitalization did not depend on Monforte, it is subject to a team. The psychiatrist could activate the order and did so by contacting the prepaid company. The family members, on Sunday night, stopped the hospitalization process, because they saw Facundo calmer.
* It was not essential for Monforte to be present that Sunday night, because the crisis situation must be handled by the emergency service. Furthermore, Facundo had left the house and it was not known where he was.
* It is clear that the professional cared for the patient during the pandemic.
* ”Before the unfortunate event – says the judge – there was no indication of such violence. Undressing, shaking your head, saying incoherently or pushing cannot be considered violent antecedents.”
The ruling of the trial judge, Rengel Mirat, was confirmed last week by Gustavo Bruzzone and Pablo Jantus, of the Chamber of Cassation. They considered that Roza’s family failed to refute the magistrate’s position. A striking fact is that Judge Rengel Mirat considered that the complainants – Facundo’s mother and her brothers – should be exempt from paying the costs of the process “because the dramatic situation that led them to make the claim is understandable.”
Rengel Mirat closes with the following decision: “leave to the Public Ministry the communications to the health authorities that it considers relevant about the shortcomings and irregularities of the health system referred to by the witnesses.” In a word, relatives are forced to carry out procedures that delay the intervention of ambulances – an insufficient amount – when minutes are decisive and mark the difference between life and death.
