Best Defense for Christopher

As many of you know, Christopher Gerzeli has been struggling with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues for over three years, and it only worsened after the death of his beloved grandmother Thelma Whitaker in November of 2014. As of November of 2015, he had been off his prescribed medication and was self-medicating for several months.  Due to his drug abuse, his behavior became out of control and on Thanksgiving evening of last year is when it all came to a head.

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His uncle, Johnny Whitaker, frustrated and with no more patience for Chris’ self-destructive behavior thought that Christopher needed some tough love and hopefully to be scared straight.  On Thanksgiving evening Chris and Johnny had a confrontation which escalated to the point that Johnny decided to call 911, hoping that by calling the authorities Christopher would be forced into drug rehabilitation.

Christopher left the house to cool off before the police arrived and when the officer in charge asked Stephen and I and Johnny and his aunt Laurie, if we wanted to press charges against Christopher, we all stated, “NO” as we believed he was not a dangerous criminal but instead a very sick and drug-addicted young man who needed psychological/mental health support. We were told by the officer in charge that they would take him to the local hospital and place Chris on a 51/50 (a 72 hour hold) at the psychiatric ward for evaluation and detox.

Unfortunately that did not happen. Although promised by the officer in charge, they did not take him to be evaluated as they told us they would, but instead arrested him and ultimately charged him with two felony counts of Assault with a Deadly Weapon, which could mean two strikes charged against him!  (In California we have a three-strike policy, which means one more strike and it’s 25 years to life in prison).  Johnny and I spent two entire days at the San Fernando Court on Chris’ behalf to work with the mental health advocate at the court and his Public Defender. Even the D.A. agreed that Chris could not survive jail and that this episode was the result of both drug use and mental illness.

After spending almost a month at the Men’s Central Jail in downtown LA, we THOUGHT we made verbal agreements with the Deputy D.A. for Chris to be sent to a drug rehab program and to drop the charges to a misdemeanor. However, on December 21, 2015 when we appeared at the court for this plea hearing no one with authority from the D.A’s office to confirm the plea was there. The associate who was there had not spoken with her colleague regarding the deal we had agreed to.  The best Chris was offered was to plead guilty on one charge and serve 2-5 years in prison and they would drop the other felony charge, thus “rewarding” him with only one felony strike!! Of course, that was absurd and completely and totally unwarranted, undeserved and unnecessary, as this was a first offense for Christopher. 

  

Since no one with the authority to strike a deal was present, it was made clear that Chris would have to remain in custody for the duration of the holiday season. Fortunately, his own public defender and mental health advocate both admonished us to do whatever we could to get Christopher out of jail, since it was becoming a very dangerous place for him to be. He was being threatened with bodily harm. We paid his bail, which placed a huge financial burden on us, but it had to be done. Two days later Chris voluntarily chose to enter a 90-day drug rehab program.

December 23, 2015 was the beginning of his treatment.  He has learned a very difficult lesson and his experiences have definitely scared him sober.  He is now almost 11 weeks clean and sober, and this is the first time in almost 4 years that his mind has been completely clear from any kind of drugs and alcohol, and we may be finding that his psychiatric problems may all have been caused by drug induced psychoses.

We were able to see first-hand just how broken, lopsided, unfair and prejudicial our justice system is to the middle class and the poor.  We watched those with serious charges be released into the public to await trial simply because they had paid legal representation. Chris didn’t and would have been remanded to the authorities. Jail was not a solution for him.

Christopher is looking forward to a fresh and sober start. His father has told me that Chris’ mindset is clearer than it has been in over a year.  However Chris is anxiously fearful of what the District Attorney’s may do. Please understand that Chris’ uncle’s intentions were never to destroy or harm Christopher’s future, but to hopefully scare him into sobriety. Jail time scared him into sobriety, but unfortunately the justice system has now victimized all of us. Stephen and I knew that even though Chris’ behavior was out of control, he was never going to hurt us.  We can only surmise that the D.A. wants to make an example of Chris by pressing forward with the charges, which we believe will ruin Chris’ chances for a successful future or fresh start.

Unfortunately, we can no longer put trust in our legal system, even the Public Defender has never seen this type of reaction by the D.A. against someone like Chris.  We believe, after consulting with a number of defense attorneys, Christopher’s chances of having the current charges lessened is for us to hire a private defense attorney for him.  Time is of the essence. Chris completes his rehab on March 23rd and his next court date is set for March 28th.

His dad has spoken with Christopher, and he is doing great in rehab, and he got Chris’ permission to set up an online fund raiser for his legal defense and he is 100% supportive of this venture.

After meeting with several attorneys, we believe we have found one from a local law firm here in Santa Clarita. He was a former prosecutor in San Bernardino.  He is very familiar with how the prosecutors think and act.  He has agreed to take on Chris’ case for $7,500 which is a lot less, usually $10,000 per charge.

We are reaching out to all of our family, friends and colleagues for any assistance you may have no matter how little or how big so we can raise the money necessary to hire the best defense for Chris. 

Thank you all for all of your love and support!! 

Kindest regards always,

The Gerzeli and Whitaker families (Dora, Stephen, Johnny, Laurie and Bill)

For more information please visit www.fundedjustice.com or click here