Former Department of Corrections officer Thomas Aquino Cabrera Camacho was found to have a delusional disorder and was sentenced Wednesday in Superior Court to 353 days of time served and one year of suspended sentence for two criminal cases.<\/p>\n
It means that the 55-year-old Camacho will be released from the Department of Corrections on Sunday, May 8, 2016.<\/p>\n
At the sentencing hearing, Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho expressed concern as there appears to be no meaningful way to provide mental health care to defendants with mental illness and\/or disability in the CNMI criminal justice system.<\/p>\n
Judge Camacho said the court is faced with putting a mentally ill person in prison without the proper mental health professionals or a hospital that releases a patient with a history of violence.<\/p>\n
At the hearing, Judge Camacho inquired if DOC and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. are equipped to handle defendants with mental illness and\/or disability.<\/p>\n
Assistant public defender Matthew Meyer, counsel for Thomas Camacho, stated that DOC does not have the mental health personnel or doctors to administer the proper medications.<\/p>\n
Meyer said CHC will not take any mental patients who have violent behaviors so simply releases mental health patients if they become violent.<\/p>\n
Thomas Camacho, through counsel Meyer, and assistant attorney general Matthew C. Baisley, counsel for the government, signed a plea agreement.<\/p>\n
The defendant pleaded guilty to illegal possession of controlled substance in one case, and assault and battery in a separate case.<\/p>\n
According to the factual basis of the plea deal, Thomas Camacho struck Police Officer David Rabauliman with a baton on April 9, 2015, in Chalan Piao. The officer did not seek medical treatment.<\/p>\n
The defendant illegally possessed crystal methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d at Naked Fish Bar and Grill in Susupe on May 11, 2015.<\/p>\n
As part of the plea deal, the parties agreed to dismiss the remaining charges in the two cases.<\/p>\n
Meyer and Baisley signed and filed their justification for plea agreement, stating that with proper counseling at the Community Guidance Center, defendant Thomas Camacho is not a danger to himself or the community.<\/p>\n
The parties disclosed that Dr. Martin Blinder diagnosed the defendant as having delusional order.<\/p>\n
The parties said Blinder states that absent delusional disorder defendant Thomas Camacho would not have committed the offenses he is charged with.<\/p>\n
Blinder conducted a mental evaluation on the defendant last Feb. 23 because at the time of his arrest on both cases, he was talking about being a secret agent for the Central Intelligence Agency.<\/p>\n
Judge Camacho said it is not clear in Blinder\u2019s report if the use of methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d was the cause of the mental illness.<\/p>\n
The Office of the Attorney General did not contest Blinder\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
Judge Camacho sentenced the defendant to 353 days of time served for illegal possession of controlled substance and one year of suspended sentence for assault and battery.<\/p>\n
The defendant was placed on one year of supervised probation and required to perform 300 hours of community work service, and pay $25 court costs and $100 probation fee.<\/p>\n
The defendant was ordered to immediately report to certified substance abuse counselor Crispin M. Sablan for an initial drug assessment.<\/p>\n
Sablan will provide a drug rehabilitation plan to the Office of Adult Probation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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