​​​MHCAN of Santa Cruz

Mental Health Client Action Network

1051 Cayuga ​831-469-0462

The Only Mental Health Peer-Run Organization

in Santa Cruz, CA

Debra

I have been labelled 5150 the first time I was taken to the Santa Cruz county jail 20 years ago.

I was a young girl then just barely out of my teens.

I had been out to a party one night.  I think someone slipped me a Mickey in my drink.  I walked from Portola all the way to downtown Santa Cruz.  My family drove around looking for me all night long.

When I arrived home they were waiting for me in the living room.  I spoke to everyone and went straight to my bedroom. There I started to trip out and I threw my purse up in the air and it hit the window and broke it.

The next morning my mother discovered the broken window and called the Santa Cruz police. I jumped in the shower and put on a black karate gee.  When I came out of the bathroom a policeman was waiting for me in the living room. My mother told the police man she thought I used drugs the night before.  He pushed me down on the couch and said he wanted to talk to me.

I immediately pushed the policeman back and we started to roll around on the floor.  I am not sure what happened but I ended up with his baton. When I gave him the baton back he choked me.  That was my 5150.