Mentally Ill Man Spared Jail Sentence : Courts: Assault defendant was beaten while in custody. He won a $1.75-million settlement, which will pay for his five years probation in medical facility.

A Long Beach judge on Wednesday ended a family’s yearlong battle to keep a mentally ill man out of jail by ordering him to serve five years probation in a facility where he will receive 24-hour medical treatment.

In his ruling, Superior Court Judge William H. Winston turned down a prosecutor’s request for a six-year prison term for Michael Frlekin, 29, whose mental condition worsened after he was beaten by sheriff’s deputies in County Jail last year.

The judge was influenced by Frlekin’s doctors, who said he did not belong in jail and, in the long run, by Deputy Dist. Atty. Ray V. Saukkola, who conceded near the close of testimony that justice would not be served by returning Frlekin to jail.

The judge also took into consideration the Board of Supervisors’ and county counsel’s decision in July to pay Frlekin’s family $1.75 million to settle a federal lawsuit in the jail beating.

Armed with a probation report stating that Frlekin was a danger to society, Saukkola had asked for a six-year prison term. But after nearly seven hours of testimony before Winston, Saukkola said: “The people are not vehemently interested in a sentence to state prison for Mr. Frlekin.”

His mother, Grace Frlekin, said, “I’m just grateful that (the judge) showed compassion. In my heart, I didn’t believe Michael would be sentenced to prison.”

The case illustrates the ongoing dilemma faced by mentally ill defendants in the Los Angeles County criminal justice system. Thousands with severe illnesses have landed in the jails and courts as the county’s system of community mental health clinics has been hammered by budget cuts.

Unlike most mentally ill defendants, Frlekin possesses, because of his court settlement, the financial resources to afford constant medical attention and good legal representation. He will pay for his stay in a supervised facility.

Frlekin has been in and out of hospitals since age 15, when he was first admitted to Harbor/UCLA Medical Center because he was “disoriented and did not know what he was doing,” according to court records. He was later determined to be suffering from schizophrenia.

Beginning in 1987, he was arrested and jailed several times for misdemeanors such as petty theft. He often lived on the streets. In 1989, he was arrested three times and admitted on each occasion to a psychiatric unit for evaluation.

Douglas Otto, Frlekin’s attorney, argued in a statement to the court that Frlekin had been the victim of a system unprepared to deal with his acute mental illness.

“The criminal justice system, functioning as the garbage pail of society, repeatedly treated (Frlekin) lightly without requiring genuine medical intervention,” Otto wrote.

On Feb. 15, 1990, he wandered into his aunt’s San Pedro gift shop. In a moment of rage, he attacked a customer, hitting him over the head with an ashtray and causing injuries that required 30 stitches.

Held at the Los Angeles County Jail on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, Frlekin was repeatedly injured in fights with other inmates that were provoked by his bizarre behavior.

He was transferred to the jail’s overcrowded mental observation units, where he was sometimes drugged and strapped to a cot. Despite a jail doctor’s finding that he was too mentally unstable to be housed with other inmates, he was transferred back to the jail’s general population.

On Oct. 15, 1990, he fought with sheriff’s deputies, who beat him with flashlights and batons. Frlekin lapsed into a coma for 35 days.

Doctors testified Wednesday that as a result of permanent brain injuries suffered in the beating, Frlekin now has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old.

Frlekin sat quietly during court Friday and Wednesday, turning occasionally to give his mother a childlike smile as attorneys and doctors contemplated his fate.