>>SLO County man was on a mental health hold. Cops said his soft arm cast was a deadly weapon

One day last June, officers picked up Joseph Perez after a concerned citizen reported he was walking down El Camino Real in Atascadero, talking to himself.

Perez, who suffers from schizophrenia, was placed in a mental health hold at Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, where he got in a scuffle with police that ended with him facing criminal charges — for assault on an officer with a deadly weapon.

The weapon in question, however, was not something you’d typically associate with a life-threatening attack.

It was a soft cast wrapped in an Ace bandage around his injured wrist.

Perez, a 36-year-old Atascadero man, was arrested following an incident that occurred while he was in mental health crisis — and it set off a cascade of events and has him waiting in limbo between getting mental health treatment or entering the criminal court system.

On one occasion about a month later, tensions ran so high that a responding officer drew his gun on Perez while he was in the midst of an episode.

Then two weeks after that, Perez was arrested a second time by the Atascadero Police Department for allegedly throwing a rock in the direction of his parents. That incident placed Perez in the San Luis Obispo County Jail for about six months.

Lisa and Chuck Kania, Joseph’s parents, told The Tribune they feel abandoned by local authorities and the county Behavioral Health Department when it comes to protecting their son.

“They don’t really want to deal with him,” Chuck Kania said.

Perez experienced severe delusions in the lead-up to his mental health hold

According to a police report obtained by the Tribune, Perez was experiencing a crisis that fit the criteria for a 5150 mental health hold that day, June 22, 2021.

A 5150 hold is meant for adults experiencing severe mental health episodes who are determined to be either a danger to themselves or to others. It consists of a mandatory 72-hour stay in a psychiatric hospital where the person is supposed to receive necessary treatment to help them stabilize.

Atascadero police already knew Perez might be having problems because the day before, he called the department twice in a delusional state, telling them he thought the FBI was after him, according to an email exchange between Atascadero Chief of Police Robert Masterson and Lisa Kania that was shared with The Tribune.

On June 22, the first Atascadero police officer to respond to the scene was Zachary Yeaman-Sanchez.

Yeaman-Sanchez knows Perez as someone with mental health disorders that cause him to “be loud, boisterous, have sporadic thoughts and be non-compliant with lawful orders from officers,” according to the police report.

The Kania family knows Officer Yeaman-Sanchez, too. He has responded to their home when they called for help with Perez’s mental health crises on numerous occasions. Lisa Kania believes the officer does not do enough to deescalate situations.

“I felt as if he was a danger already to our family,” Kania said. She added Yeaman-Sanchez could be a trigger for Joseph because of traumatic previous incidents.

In fact, Kania said Yeaman-Sanchez drew his gun on the family about a month later when responding to another one of Perez’s mental health crises.

As a result, Kania emailed Masterson asking that only police officers who are trained in crisis intervention respond to calls involving Joseph.

“I said, ‘I don’t want this young man responding until he’s trained.’” Kania said.

Yeaman-Sanchez has participated in Crisis Intervention Training, according to Atascadero Police Department records.

The training is meant to teach officers how to deescalate situations where someone is experiencing a mental health crisis.

The Atascadero Police Department refused to answer any questions specifically about Perez’s interactions with the department or Yeaman-Sanchez.

Perez is deemed a danger to himself and others, hospitalized — and arrested

After the initial contact on June 22, another officer arrived at the scene and called the San Luis Obispo County Mental Health Evaluation Team to check Perez, the police report said. The team found that Perez met the criteria for a 5150 hold and transported him to the Twin Cities Emergency Room.

When Perez arrived there for treatment, he demanded distance from Officer Yeaman-Sanchez, according to the report.

“Perez began yelling statements similar to ‘Stay away from me!’ and ‘Don’t touch me!’ While yelling this, Perez held his left arm in front of him in what I believed (was) an attempt to range how far I was away from him,” Yeaman-Sanchez said in the police report.

When responding to a person dealing with a mental health crisis, Masterson said police officers can expect “a lot of talking” in an effort to deescalate a situation.

“That is more or less an impromptu counseling session from the officer finding out what’s going on and trying to deescalate the situation,” Masterson said.

Yeaman-Sanchez then took a step toward him, the police report said. Then Perez assumed “a fighting stance” and told the officer not to touch him.

Perez pushed a telemetry machine toward Officer Yeaman-Sanchez, which the officer then pushed back at Joseph, the report said. Yeaman-Sanchez then pushed Perez with both hands on his chest, causing Perez to fall onto his back on the hospital bed.

Yeaman-Sanchez attempted to restrain Perez’s left arm while Perez yelled, “Let me see your badge number.” Perez’s right arm was in a soft cast because he had recently had surgery on his wrist.

Perez kicked the officer and hit him with his right arm — the one in the soft cast. He was eventually restrained, but continued to try to break free from the restraints.

Perez was experiencing a clear mental health crisis, his parents said, but the result of the altercation was that he ended up in jail before the 72-hour hold had barely begun.

“It just blows our minds how a person can be taken off of a 5150 hold to be arrested,” Lisa Kania said.

Masterson said Perez being hospitalized on a mental health hold does not excuse him from violent behavior toward a police officer. He suggested that the family try for mental health diversion, according to an email exchange between Kania and Masterson.

Yeaman-Sanchez said in the police report he had pain on the left side of his face and head and thought he would lose consciousness after he was punched. The police report does not say whether the injuries needed treatment, but it did say there was no bruising or reddening.

Perez was ultimately charged with assault on an officer with a deadly weapon and resisting an officer.

In the police report, Yeaman-Sanchez characterized the soft cast as a deadly weapon because it “increased the force and striking damage when Perez struck me.”

Instead of Perez being charged with a felony, Chuck Kania said he should have remained on the mental health hold.

“’The potential to hurt others’ is there. Instead of throwing a felony on him, it should be under the 5150,” Chuck Kania said. “He should be cared for to get the medical assistance he needs instead of saying, ‘OK, let’s put him in jail.’”

Roughly half of Atascadero police trained to respond to crisis

While the Atascadero Police Department won’t discuss Perez’s case, the chief did explain how his officers are trained for situations such as this.

Out of 32 officers, 15 are have crisis intervention training (CIT), according to Masterson and Police Department records obtained by The Tribune.

These CIT-trained officers are paired up with county mental health workers on the community action team (CAT) team, Masterson said, to better respond to calls where someone is in crisis.

“Handling a call where you’re dealing with a person in a mental health crisis is generally a prolonged, protracted call,” Masterson said.

All officers do “receive basic evaluation criteria in the academy and then on their field training” in the event that a CIT-trained officer is not available for a call, he said.

He said officers with crisis intervention training will typically start by evaluating if a person in a mental health crisis is eligible for a 5150 hold. He added that 5150 is a form of detainment.

“In essence, we’re arresting people for a mental hold,” Masterson said.

“It’s a tough topic, and it’s probably one of the most difficult ones law enforcement deals with.”

Perez still in limbo between treatment and criminal court

Two months after the June 2021 incident, Perez had another incident of erratic behavior, this time at home.

He was arrested by Atascadero police while in the throes of a mental health episode after allegedly throwing a rock in the direction of his parents and tossing a broken figurine at his mother.

Kania declined to press charges against her son that night, according to a police report. But it didn’t matter, he was incarcerated for six months and held on a $50,000 bond, Kania said.

He was held at the San Luis Obispo County jail for half of a year until he was given access to his psychiatric medication. After getting medication, he was considered stable enough to attend a hearing and released on bail.

He’s now trying to enter a diversion program that could eventually lead to the charges being dismissed.

Meanwhile, the arrests are taking a toll on the family’s mental well-being and finances, Kania said.

“When he’s in jail, we’re all in jail,” she said.

This story is a part of an ongoing series covering the mental health and behavioral health systems in San Luis Obispo County. If you wish to contact the Tribune with a news tip, please email [email protected] and [email protected].