By Jason Howerton
Earlier today, 26-year-old former U.S. Marine Brandon Raub was released from a psychiatric facility via a judge’s order, who ruled that the government had no legal grounds to hold him.
Tonight on Glenn Beck’s show on GBTV, soon-to-become TheBlazeTV, John Whitehead, Raub’s lead attorney and president of the Rutherford Institute, gave his first interview following his client’s release to discuss the case.
Whitehead told Beck that he and his organization are planning to sue over a provision in Virginia state law that allows authorities to place a person in emergency custody and hold them for four hours unless a magistrate enters a temporary detention order (TDO). Raub was held under this law, specifically Va. Code § 37.2-808, for days.
“We are getting ready to file a civil lawsuit…because [Raub] has been put through hell for a week,” said Whitehead. But, he explained, “Under the civil commitment law in Virginia, the police can do this.”
From a previous Blaze report:
On August 20, Raub was sentenced to up to 30 days in a psychiatric facility after he was detained by federal law enforcement on August 16 over some Facebook posts that criticized the U.S. government and questioned the official story behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He also referred to “starting a revolution.”
Whitehead said that veterans have since been contacting him from across the country claiming they too were victims of wrongful detention in psychiatric institutes like Raub. Apparently, there are civil commitment laws in other states as well, he said.