Darrell Brooks sentencing: Judge's decision (part 1) — FOX6 News Milwaukee

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: thank you everyone please be seated we are back on the record and state versus brooks appearances are as they were before I want to give you all a little bit of my roadmap for my remarks here today and what will ultimately conclude with the sentencing I'm going to start with a review frankly of mr. Brooks's NGI plea I didn't wasn't gonna start out doing that but I feel compelled to make a record of certain things in light of many of the statements that were made here today by mr. Brooks and his family following that I'm going to talk about the case the strength of the case the witnesses and evidence that was presented and some of the things that really impacted me throughout that time and throughout the nearly four weeks of trial then I will spend some time talking about the victims their victim impact statements and again things that have stood out here to me I cannot comment on all of the victim statements that have been made but there are a few that I do want to highlight and then ultimately go through the sentencing factors because all of these things I'm going to talk about relate to those factors which in Wisconsin there are three primary factors the seriousness of the offense they need to protect the public and the character and rehabilitative needs of the defendant so I want to start sort of near the end of all of the remarks over the last couple of days and that is with my thoughts on mr. Brooks Brooks and his mental health I'm not here to debate that you have had a history over time of intersecting with the mental health agencies and that you may have in your history trauma emotional pain and things of that nature I have read through not one not two not three but four reports from experts people who are well known in this field of what we call forensic psychology and psychiatry individuals who have an expertise in evaluating a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect because I don't want there to be any doubt in my sentencing here today that I've considered that but I also don't want there to be any doubt that somehow this trial was missing something because the fact is mr. Brooks entered a special plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in the early summer maybe late spring of this year and this court ordered three court ordered evaluations and the state retained an expert to also review the issue whether the defense team at that point ever hired anyone I am they are not required to disclose that I don't know but I have four well-known doctors who have written this court based upon the orders that were made or the person one doctor being retained and these are reports that are thorough one report is 24 pages another is more of a summary it's eight pages another is 26 pages and then another is 12 and they look at the discovery information so police reports videographic evidence things of that nature they have access to any mental health related records from prior stays or things like that they look at a history they do they meet with mr brooks i've referenced this in the past when competency wasn't so much raised by any of the parties here but during the trial there was as attorney opper wanted to make a record one day of mr brooks's competency and i will restate what i stated at that point i have absolutely no doubt that mr brooks is competent i'm obviously well versed in the legal standard but that is not something that this court was frankly ever concerned about at any point in time i know that his attorneys when he had attorneys never raised the issue and it was really only after the trial began that that issue was raised i think by the public based upon what they saw but attorney opper like myself had the benefit of having reviewed each and every one of these examinations and i'm not going to spend a lot of time but i think it's important because it goes also to mr brooks's character which is one of the things that this court must consider along with his rehabilitative needs and i'm going to read parts of these evaluations so that you all understand the information that i have and why it is my opinion that mental health issues did not cause him to do what he did on november 21 of 2021 and frankly did not play a role that's not to say that he wasn't diagnosed with something i've referenced this previously but that's an antisocial personality disorder and this is what one of the reports has to say they've looked at one doctor indicated that there was available evidence to sustain a diagnosis of cannabis abuse intoxication antisocial personality disorder adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct the reports go on to describe what those things are and that they may qualify as an abnormal condition of the mind substantially affecting mental or emotional processes and thus as a mental disease or defect as broadly defined by the wisconsin jury instructions and that's at least as to the adjustment disorder cannabis abuse or intoxication would not the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder and this is what the doctor said reflects converging support of an underlying character logical disorder versus a major mental illness in mr brooks's case i would note his history of disregarding the rights of others and conforming to societal norms including in the forms of multiple acts of violence beginning in his youth contacts with the criminal justice system lack of remorse as indicated by being indifferent rationalizing etc the doctor goes on that it's her understanding that this character logical condition would not qualify as a mental disease or defect as defined by the applicable statute which also specifies that mental disease or defect does not include an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise anti-social conduct goes on to talk about her opinion regarding criminal non-responsibility and the examiner rendered an opinion to a reasonable degree of professional certainty that there was not support for the defendant's special plea that the facts at hand do not sustain a conclusion to a reasonable degree of professional certainty that because of symptoms of a mental disease or defect mr brooks was rendered to lack substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of the alleged misconduct or conform his conduct to the requirements of the law at the time in question in arriving at this opinion the following considerations were significant to this examiner while acknowledging mr brooks documented history of episodic contacts with mental health professionals beginning in adolescence most of the time he has had such contacts or received mental health treatment when in custody in effect there is not a sustained documented history of a diagnosed major mental illness for him predating the alleged offense or otherwise looked at a psychiatric review from april of 2010 at that point the defendant was determined to have no medically determinable impairment on which to qualify for disability benefits the consultant who conducted the review noted that mr brooks claimed mental illness was not quote well established quote that the statements that he made at that point were not deemed credible they were inconsistent and not verified by treatment providers in the community factor number two the defendant's history of violence be beginning years predating the alleged offense is significant he faced multiple prior domestic related charges he was not permitted in his mother's home because of the history of violence to be sure the magnitude and lethality of mr brooks's violence in the commission of the alleged offenses is more severe than what was previously known however the defendant's history of a pattern of violent behavior coupled with other aspects of his history and in this case and this case strongly suggests that his mental state which produced the alleged offenses was most fundamentally formed and fueled by contributions of his underlying characterological dysfunction anger and rage born of his conflict with his girlfriend moments before the christmas parade tragedy the examiner considered mr brooks's episodic endorsement of auditory hallucinations including on clinical interview with the undersigned meaning the examiner and in a couple of recorded jail phone calls subsequent to his arrest he said this i am unaware of any objective corroboration that he presented either in the hours leading up to or following the alleged offenses as internally preoccupied or otherwise exhibiting signs of impaired reality contact or behavioral discontrol to the contrary the defendant's conduct within hours of the onset and moments following the alleged misconduct was organized controlled and purposeful moreover he demonstrated the motivation and capacity to take efforts to evade detection and try to flee the immediate area of the parade carnage she went on i have considered the seemingly inexplicable nature and magnitude of the violence and mayhem wrought by the defendant's conduct on the day in question he has caused six death deaths dozens of injuries and terrorized hundreds of parade participants and thousands of spectators there is no indication in the extensive compilation of records and other information available that at the time of the alleged misconduct he lacked substantial capacity to either control or conform his conduct to the requirements of the law or that his reality contact capacity to appreciate wrongfulness was substantially impaired in the context of rage born of his conflict and altercation with his former girlfriend turmoil the defendant was disinclined to control his behavior or attend to its consequences notwithstanding the magnitude of the violence in this case a mental disease or defect is not defined by the unnaturalness or enormity of the act moreover temporary passion or frenzy prompted by revenge hatred jealousy envy or the like does not constitute a mental disease or defect she goes on to talk about the course of functioning of mr brooks during the day leading up to the alleged offense uh does not suggest that he was behavior behaviorally dysregulated or that his reality contact was impaired he goes on to talk about what he did in the immediate aftermath of the parade including fleeing the vicinity making efforts to evade detection or responsibility and other things went on to discuss other evidence including the videographic evidence of the ring doorbell and being on the porch where he sought to use the phone he had apparently discarded a couple of small bags later determined to contain marijuana and presumably this is the examiner again he discarded items to evade responsibility for possessing them by implication such conduct strongly suggest his capacity to appreciate wrongfulness was then intact when responding to law enforcement officials he followed their commands he lowered himself to the ground we saw that on the recording of his arrest when he was taken into custody and detained none of the behaviors nor verbal remarks at the time of the arrest suggest he was behaviorally dysregulated or that his reality contact was impaired following his arrest and being taken into custody he engaged in an informal series of verbal exchanges with authorities and none of his statements taken at face value suggest he was then actively psychotic or that his behavior controls were substantially impaired she then goes on to talk about the mirandai statements this court personally watched every minute of that interaction with detective carpenter and detective stern along with the one from the night before which was at the hospital within hours and i would concur with the examiner's conclusions that the contact of context excuse me no sorry the content of his initial statements to authorities included multiple efforts to deceive or mislead he changed his story multiple times including he initially denied being in waukesha the prior saturday he initially asserted he traveled to waukesha on the day in question in a tan kia with a friend he initially asserted his mother did not own a vehicle though later acknowledged as much and that he used it from time to time other changes in his story over the course of his statements and the nature of them further suggest that he was making active attempts to evade detection or responsibility by implications such behavior strongly suggest that his reality contact was then intact when he was shown photographs of driving in the suv into the parade route he indicated it was not him this is again the examiner i'm sorry with the police she's noting the police contact it was not until mr brooks was in the booking area of the waukesha county jail that he displayed some emotion and this was to i believe detective stern where he was where he said i didn't mean to kill nobody such a remark indicates an awareness of the consequences of his actions and runs counter to a conclusion of an exculpatory mental disease or defect there's other criteria or other factors i'm not going to read them all that was probably one of the more comprehensive explanations of why that examiner did not conclude that there was support for the special plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect all four examiners shared similar observations certainly their conclusions were that there was not support for the special plea the one examiner talked about again conduct after driving through the parade abandoning the vehicle used in the act altering his appearance by removing his outer layer of clothing clothing altering how he was wearing his hair and then engaging in further efforts to leave the scene by securing transportation via a ride-sharing application this particular examiner went on to say while he essentially meaning mr brooks disclaimed any memory of those actions and could therefore not explain them such behavior strongly suggest an awareness of wrongdoing and a desire to avoid detection another examiner had very similar things antisocial personality disorder with borderline features talked about the cannabis use disorder and full remission in a controlled environment what's interesting about this particular report is the description of an antisocial personality disorder the dsm-5 defines antisocial personality disorder as a pervasive pattern of disregard for a violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years as indicated by three or more of the following failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors two deceitfulness as indicated by repeated lying use of aliases or conning others for personal profit or pleasure three impulsivity or failure to plan ahead four irritability and aggressiveness as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults five reckless disregard for safety of self and others six consistent irresponsibility as indicated by a repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations seven lack of remorse as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt mistreated or stolen from another in addition the individual is at least 18 years old and there's evidence of a conduct disorder prior to the age of 15 this examiner noted mr brooks meets nearly all of the symptoms described above because he has exhibited a long-term maladaptive pattern of behavior involving a disregard for in violation of the rights of others beginning in childhood and continuing through adult life the borderline features reflect a general inability to sustain healthy relationships with others including his domestically violent relationship with victim ppp that examiner goes on with further analysis and conclusions again finding that there is not support the last examiner again made similar conclusions also diagnosing mr brooks with an antisocial personality disorder why is that important there is no doubt that in our criminal justice system today we face a crisis of the mentally ill intersecting in our courts in the last year and a half alone this court has ordered many competency evaluations presided over a number of contested competency hearings and ordered many many evaluations for the special plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and the bottom line is for this court mr brooks does not present as a person who was either not competent or not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect it is frankly heartbreaking to see those individuals who truly suffer from schizophrenia for example intersect in our criminal justice system sometimes they do unspeakable things they hurt other people i'm thinking of one such gentleman who was so schizophrenic and out of control he couldn't even be kept in the courtroom he was too loud he clearly if you've ever been in the room with someone who is suffering from auditory or visual hallucinations it is not something you easily forget it makes an impression even on someone like myself who's not an md or a doctorate level psychologist i've been in the room with an individual who was when i did defense work and he was accused of killing someone near and dear to him it's a very very different presentation it's heartbreaking it's heart wrenching do the mentally ill sometimes commit atrocious crimes they do this is not one of those situations we've heard mr brooks's family talk about mental illness and bipolar you know in addition before i get to that i've also had over my 11 years on the bench of coming face to face with evil on occasion there are many times many times good people do bad things but there are times when evil people do bad things there is no medication or treatment for a heart that is bent on evil child trauma bipolar indifference physical abuse of a child or even childhood trauma did not cause daryl brooks to commit the acts for which he will be sentenced here today it is very clear to this court that he understands the difference between right and wrong and that he simply chooses to ignore his conscience he is fueled by anger and rage some people unfortunately choose a path of evil and i think mr brooks you are one of those such persons as a mom my heart breaks for your family for your mom and for your grandmother the son that she raised the grandson that your grandmother knew the hopes and dreams they had for your life they're gone and i think it's perhaps far easier for them to blame a mental illness than to perhaps come to grips with their son did very very bad things due to very bad motivations one of the things ultimately that will happen when you are in prison sirs at the department of corrections they are statutorily responsible for your care and your well-being including your mental health i do not have any authority to dictate to them where you go or how they treat you that is far different than when there is support for a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect because then the court has available what is called treatment facilities and a commitment to such a treatment facility that is something that is simply not on the table and again for evaluations not even my own assessment but for evaluations from licensed professionals say otherwise even in the face of your family saying that and even in the face of you claiming that i'm not even here to say that some of those things can't co-exist and you might not have some of your own mental health issues whether it be bipolar childhood trauma or things of that nature but the bottom line is none of that caused you to do what you did on november 21 of 2021 i want to next turn to the trial in this case i think it's important that the sentence here today focuses on your conduct on november 21 of 2021 and the moments leading up to that tragic and fateful decision of yours to drive through the waukesha christmas parade and of course the moments after i of course through my sentencing remarks and ultimately what i do here today i can't answer all the questions i can't address all of the issues including the why perhaps the one question that will remain unanswered why why did you barrel down white rock avenue why did you not stop why did you keep going many of us in this courtroom sat through the entire trial and what we learned is that very early on in the afternoon of november 21 starting at around 1 pm the police got ready for the parade the staging area was set up and that was all along white rock avenue signs were put in place ultimately barricades were put up at a number of locations on main street and surrounding that we know because we heard from sergeant warner about what he had done and he had right before the start of the parade had driven down the parade route he had it was on his shoulders his responsibility to make sure everything was safe and in order what's important about that staging area sir is we know that that is where the altercation with erica patterson really came to a head we all watched that video multiple videos and we know that even before that you appeared angry and upset two individuals uh testified about you being at that mobile gas station how you turned the wrong way down a one-way street waved your hands in the air roll down your window either exchanged gestures or words with one of the drivers perhaps 30 minutes or so before the start of the parade maybe an hour or so before you drove down the parade route but what's important is the signage even you at one point i believe when you were talking with detective carpenter noted um it was my words my assessment it was clear something was going on i think what you said was a lot of shit was blocked off you'd driven past those signs on the staging area the fact remains they were there sir and the fact remains is you told detective carpenter that the other we then heard from the witnesses related to miss patterson we heard from cory runkle we heard from erica patterson herself my impression based upon erica patterson's testimony who by the way she showed grace and dignity facing you the man who clearly has no regard for her as a mother of one of your children as someone you had a domestic partnership with and a relationship with at one point that's not true we we know and i would say this goes to your character what was shown through that altercation and going up the hill following her slapping her you know the rules don't matter to you not the rules of the road not the rules established by court orders not the rules even of decorum and decency and i'll get to this more fully when i talk about your character and i know you went hard at attorney opera for her bringing these things up but those are legitimate lawful sentencing considerations and when i get to that point i'll tell you the case law that supports that your character your even your pending cases we know at the time of all of this right you were out on bond for two felony cases one involving a handgun one involving the same vehicle and erica patterson and one involving ultimately intimidation of miss patterson we know that you that on november 20th and she was very contrite about this she told you where she was she she invited you out there and that you had contact with her on the 20th there was some physical [00:32:40] Speaker 2: mr brooks this is my time you need to not interrupt mr brooks the state you need to say specifically wrote you your honor and said that they know it was no incident that day mr brooks you want to sit up here do not interrupt me or you will be removed to the other courtroom and now you want to sit up here stop and try to try to add something in that you know for a fact never even happened you want to sit up here and talk about who has grace and all this you're talking about someone with five kids that don't have custody you need to stop right now or you will be [00:33:17] Speaker 1: removed remove me then all right he will be removed he cannot simply stay quiet anyway i don't consent [00:33:25] Speaker 2: to this just like i told you i don't know that he'll be in recess until he's removed i don't even to understand the true nature and cause.