City pays $100,000 to 10-year-old autistic child and his mother to resolve lawsuit
The City of New Bern has made significant revisions to its policies governing involuntary commitments (IVCs) and agreed to pay $100,000 to a 10-year-old child and his mother who were separated from one another last year by New Bern police officers. The payment is the result of a civil settlement reached between the City and Sasha Strayhorn and her son, K.S., a nonverbal autistic child who was seized by New Bern police officer Michael Zak last year at the Twin Rivers Mall. The officer had responded to a 911 call reporting that the child was observed hitting his mother. The settlement was approved earlier this month by Superior Court Judge Hoyt Tessener. The Strayhorn family was represented by attorneys Ian Mance and Jaelyn Miller of Emancipate NC, a Durham-based nonprofit civil rights organization.
On July 30, 2023, Officer Zak took custody of K.S. at the mall and drove the child away from his mother, holding him in his vehicle in a parking lot while another New Bern officer worked to secure Strayhorn’s signature on paperwork directing the child’s involuntary commitment. Before leaving with the child, bodycam depicted Officer Zak asking Strayhorn seven times to involuntarily commit the child, before telling her, “Either you can, or I can.”
After Officer Supharuek Khamrin secured Strayhorn’s signature, Zak attempted to involuntarily commit K.S. to psychiatric custody, admitting him to a hospital where the child was required to change clothes and submit to a blood draw while separated from his family. Doctors quickly determined the child did not require admission and released him back into his mother’s custody.
In response to the incident, the City of New Bern agreed to make significant revisions to City Directive 41.2.7, its policy governing Involuntary Commitments. Among other things, the policy now states that officers “may not detain an individual to allow another officer, family member, or another responsible person to obtain an involuntary commitment order unless other permissible grounds for detaining the individual exists.” The policy requires the “person initiating involuntary commitment proceedings [to] appear before an appropriate clerk or magistrate to execute an affidavit and to petition for the issuance of a custody order.” It also requires that “[o]fficers must have a physical copy of the commitment order before taking an individual into custody.”