• Lori Pilger – May 28, 2024 – Lincoln Journal Star

My cmnt: Of course we’ve all heard of the insanity defense. The issue is not whether so-called experts in mental health and state of mind, typically psychiatrists, deem a criminal defendant not responsible for their heinous actions the issue is whether temporary insanity should be an acceptable excuse for doing bad things to other people regardless of one’s alleged state of mind.

My cmnt: No one can actually know anyone else’s state of mind when they do anything – good or bad. If we know someone well (i.e., close friend or relative) we can decide to show leniency to an offender when they have personally wronged us for any reason or no reason at all. We may say to ourselves that a person we know well has grief issues, or abuse issues, or drug issues, which require us, the intimately wronged, to excuse or defend their behavior. But when the government assumes such a role that is not their legitimate right and beyond their powers to determine regardless, they contribute to the overall general distrust of authorities and the continued breakdown of societal norms and safeguards.

My cmnt: Therefore the only purpose of the justice system is to competently meet out punishments commensurate with the crimes committed and to act as a completely impartial judge ensuring that the law is applied equally and the same for all individuals regardless of class, connections, race, sex or any other distinctive property.

My cmnt: So to give an example of what I mean I present the following. A father is stricken with grief at the death of a beloved child. He then drowns his grief in alcohol and gets in his car and causes a fatal accident. Another father is simply out drinking, gets in his car, and causes a fatal accident. Both men must be treated exactly the same by the justice system. It is not up to the government to apply mercy – only justice. Both men must received the exact same punishment for the exact same crime – regardless of one or the other’s alleged state of mind.

The Killer.

As expected, a Lancaster County judge has found Taylor Bradley — who ran down two men in her Lincoln apartment complex parking lot and tried to run down a third last year — not responsible by reason of insanity of two murders and the attempted murder of a third.

At a trial before District Judge Ryan Post earlier this month, the state and defense both offered reports from experts who had concluded the same.

He took the matter under advisement. 

In an order Friday, Post found that on March 27, 2023, Bradley did kill Ronald Gonzalez-Rivas, 45, and Christopher Karmazin, 42, and attempted to kill Robert Sargent, now 49, and that she had used her car as a deadly weapon while doing so.

He said the state had met its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Bradley had committed two counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and three counts of use of a deadly weapon to commit the felonies.

“The court further finds that at the time of the commission of these crimes the defendant had a mental disease and was experiencing prominent delusions, a manic episode, and psychosis,” Post wrote in the order. “The court further finds that her mental disease impaired her mental capacity to such an extent that she did not understand the nature and consequences of what she was doing and, further, that she did not know the difference between right and wrong with respect to what she was doing.”

Post set a hearing for June 11 to determine whether there is probable cause to believe Bradley remains dangerous to herself or others.

She is likely to face a civil commitment to the Lincoln Regional Center.

Police say that on the afternoon of March 27, 2023, Bradley drove her Subaru into a grassy area near the clubhouse at The Lodge apartments, near South 40th Street and Nebraska Parkway, purposely running over the two men, who died at the scene, and trying to run down a third.

Taylor Bradley listened May 17 as her attorney, Deputy Lancaster County Public Defender John Jorgensen, addressed the court at her bench trial on murder charges. Deputy Lancaster County Attorneys John Schmidt and Jim Rocke sat at the other end of counsel table.Lori Pilger

All three had worked as maintenance employees at the complex, where Bradley lived.

At trial, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Jim Rocke said: “She was actually so delusional on that day that she was proud of what she did.”

At her first court appearance a day later, held by Zoom from the jail, Bradley appeared not to understand what was going on and repeatedly screamed over the judge, before a corrections officer muted her microphone and began to walk away from her cell.

Soon after, her public defender filed a motion seeking a competence evaluation of her.

Since then, Bradley has gotten treatment at the regional center to restore her competence so she understands the proceedings and can help with her defense.

But the question at trial was her state of mind at the time of the crime and whether she knew right from wrong.

“Both experts came to the same conclusion that she was legally insane at the time. So the state understands the position the court’s in,” Rocke said.