Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Two mornings ago my son attempted to take his life. I woke up to a nightmare; rushed him to the nearest hospital (Mercy Methodist) and prayed for him to be okay.During the entire time we were at this facility we were accompanied by a security guard who was assigned to keep an eye on my son. We were transferred to U C Davis when it was determined that they could serve his needs better due to his self inflicted injury.

Long story short, at some point an orderly came in to my son's room (at U C Davis ER) and detached all the heart monitors and other wires hooked to him, he said he needed to take my son to x-ray (which seems strange as my son had x-rays at Mercy). It was a mistake on the orderlies part to take my son out of the room and about 30 sec later brought him back saying it was the wrong patient. The orderlie left all the wires unattached and didn't let anyone know what he had done, in addition to lowering the bed to the lowest position making it really easy to reach the floor.

Within less than two minutes of this occurring, my son turned to me and say something like "I wonder how this is" and bolted from the bed; which I understand a suicide is usually waist restrained-- my son was not. He bolted from the bed and not having any wires to encumber him he streaked down the hall. He had passed the nurses station, and it was a complete shock to me. (if i could have I would have grabbed him... but it happened too fast) I yelled "grab him".. and he rounded the corner and some officers from your unit were there and tried to stop him.

He had a burst of adrenaline or something when he took off running and he didn't stop when the UC Davis officers attempted to intervene. My son had to be tackled down by four or five officers while he was trying to grab one officer's gun, perhaps thinking he would finish what he had started with his suicide attempt. In the course of this total disaster, which I believe with all my heart was preventable, one officer suffered an injury, and I believe another might have had some other injuries. It was just a nightmare, basically.

Now my son has been charged with assaulting an officer. I have been told there are three charges, and regardless of his mental state, he will be incarcerated at the Sacramento county jail psychiatric unit on these charges. If this had been prevented my son would not be in custody and possibly being taken to county jail, charged with crimes he would never have committed if he had been in his right mind. If the necessary precautions (just the basic precautions) had been taken by the staff in the emergency room, my son, if things had been handled as they were at Mercy never would be in this current situation and no one would have been harmed.

So now I am basically told that it is a "black out" in terms of information to me. They won't tell me how my son is doing mentally or physically. They say they can take him to county jail as soon as the Doctors give the physical okay that the mental doesn't matter due to there being a psychiatric unit in the county jail. I am extremely distraught. Is there anyone you can recommend for legal help or to advocate on my behalf or my son's?

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