http://magicvalley.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/evaluator-man-held-in-twin-falls-on--million-bond/article_87cb79b0-c4bc-52fd-93ab-24d290d58de2.html
Evaluator: Man held in Twin Falls on $100-million bond shows 'no evidence of mental health issues'
ALEX RIGGINS Nov 22, 2016
TWIN FALLS — A mental health evaluator found that a Salt Lake City man being held in custody on $100-million bond is likely having translation issues, not mental health issues.
Mulugeta Zemu Mana, 32, has been in custody at the Twin Falls County Jail since he was charged with felony battery July 29. A judge set his bond at an astonishing $100 million after prosecutors asked that his bond be set at $1 million and Mana responded by saying he didn’t care and the judge “can even make it $100 million.”
Mana, a refugee who’s likely from the African horn nation of Eritrea based on the Tigrinya language he speaks, is accused of attacking a fellow refugee outside a Twin Falls home July 28. Mana told arresting officers he traveled from Salt Lake City to attack his victim, Samuel Gebreegziabher, because Gebreegziabher and two others ruined his life.
Mana was set for a preliminary hearing in August, but the public defender representing him, Ben Andersen, asked that Mana undergo a mental competency evaluation, telling the judge he didn’t think Mana was fit to proceed.
But a licensed clinical social worker from the Department of Health and Welfare who evaluated Mana last month said she doesn’t believe Mana has mental competency problems.
“The evaluation found no evidence of any delusions or mental health issues,” evaluator Chelsea Lee wrote in a letter to 5th District Magistrate Judge Roger Harris. “It appeared that many of the concerns voiced in the initial … report may directly correlate to misinterpretation of Mr. Mana’s reports from the first translator and/or cultural differences.”
The evaluator went on to write that “jail staff also corroborated that they had not witnessed or observed any behaviors that alluded to a mental illness during the time of Mr. Mana’s incarceration.”
The Department of Health and Welfare planned to conduct another evaluation earlier this month, Lee wrote in her letter to the judge, and then the department would review the evaluations and make a recommendation to the court on whether Mana is mentally fit and competent to proceed.
A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Dec. 9.
Received on Tue Nov 22 2016 - 12:28:22 EST