Mass. Gov. Neglecting Mentally Ill Man After Criticizing Trump

On April 9th, 2018, George A. Baron was having a bad day – and that was before he was shot twice in the chest, once in the thigh, once in the belly, and once through the wrist.

Speaking about it now, more than 4 months later, George still has 2 of the rounds in his body and the port in his abdomen which was surgically implanted to connect his colonoscopy bag has prolapsed 3 times. There is a serious risk of fatal infection.

George is bipolar with a history of depression and psychotic episodes. He takes anti-seizure and anxiety medications. Back in April, his mother had just passed away and George started drinking.

The local police in Brockton, Massachusetts know George. They transported him to the hospital when he tried to commit suicide with pills.

So, when George picked up a knife and started threatening to kill himself, his girlfriend called 911. But instead of getting help, George got shot 5 times as a neighbor looked on, horrified.

“There was no need to shoot him!” exclaimed witness and neighbor Judith Candelora after the event.

The Plymouth, Massachusetts District Attorney Timothy Cruz seems to disagree with Ms. Candelora’s assessment and that of George’s girlfriend, but there’s serious reasons to doubt Cruz’s credibility.

“Officers responded to that address and encountered Baron brandishing a large knife. Baron advanced on and lunged at the police officers and the officers fired their weapons and struck Baron,” Spokesperson for the District Attorney Beth Stone told Enterprise News in a written statement.

George was later arraigned in his hospital bed and indicted on felony charges. If he were to plead guilty to a lesser offense, then it seems George would be released and be able to get proper medical care from private practitioners while the police department and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would save face and potentially avoid civil litigation. But George hasn’t done that. He says that he doesn’t care about getting a financial settlement, but he does care about preventing what’s happened to him and to others from continuing to occur to the mentally ill in Massachusetts. 

When a Superior Court judge saw the video of George’s arrest, he reportedly lowered his bail to $5,000. But that’s still more than $4,000 more than George and his girlfriend can afford on their fixed incomes. Under a new Bail Law and Massachusetts Supreme Court decision, people like George are not supposed to be held on high bails which they clearly can’t make.

Meanwhile, behind bars at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, George’s wounds have literally festered. He has collapsed multiple times, most recently at 3pm yesterday. He and other inmates routinely go without critical medical care at the jail. Some have died. The way that the facility treats many U.S. combat veterans is also profoundly disturbing.

But none of these glaring problems stops Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker from openly criticizing and snubbing the Trump administration over non-life-threatening issues. Saliently, while George has waited for weeks to be transferred to a state prison hospital overseen by Baker’s administration for care that he needs, Baker has allegedly been violating state campaign laws while seeking reelection this November and Baker’s son has thus far been spared arrest despite an allegation that he sexually assaulted a female passenger on a Boston-bound airplane.

The Plymouth County, Massachusetts, District Attorney - Timothy Cruz - whose office continues to prosecute George, also has a checkered past. The Commonwealth recently paid a $2.4 million legal bill to settle a civil claim brought by one of Cruz’s own former assistants who reports that the DA was running a pay-to-play kickback scheme. DA Cruz has also faced scrutiny over his office’s apparent practice of bailing out so-called “snitches”, even when they may pose a risk to the public.

For George, who is scheduled to go back to court in 3 weeks and ask for release out of reasons of medical necessity, Cruz’s bail practices are compounding his injuries with insult.

And the apparent corruption runs still deeper in the Commonwealth.

Seemingly not to be left out, the Plymouth County Correctional Facility where George is being held was featured by Channel 5 News in Boston not too long ago when reporters discovered that one of the institution’s senior employees seemed to be orchestrating an immigration fraud scam revealing Vietnamese immigrants paid $10,000 each for sham marriages to corrections officers. The Obama DOJ apparently decided not to press charges against Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald Jr. though, and his facility still serves as an ICE detention center today.

Allegations of a pay-to-play kickback scam also pepper the walls of McDonald’s jail.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s Office, the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office, and the Plymouth County Correctional Facility all did not immediately return requests for comment on George’s medical care.

Marty is an Obama-era political prisoner. To donate to support him or follow him on social media through his unjust incarceration please go to FreeMartyG.com.