Totalan woman sent to psychiatric hospital for attacking mayor

A WOMAN from Totalan has been sentenced to receive treatment in a psychiatric hospital for three years for attacking the local mayor, Miguel Angel Escaño Lopez.

The woman, who has a bipolar disorder, blamed Escaño for having lost custody of her children. She was acquitted of the charges against her for attacking the mayor due to ‘psychic anomalies’ which annulled her cognitive faculties. The Social Services department at Totalan town hall took away her custody of her children.

In June 2010, she was banned from coming within 50 metres of the town hall or contacting the mayor in any way. Despite this, she went to the local health centre, where he worked as a nurse on August 18, 2010.

She violently entered the nurses’ office when he was seeing to her sister screaming that he had “ruined her life” and grabbing him by the neck.

A doctor had to pull her off him, although Escaño was not injured in the attack. The illness she suffers, a bipolar disorder with manic episodes, prevents her from controlling her actions despite being aware of them. A specialist said “she acts under a pathological motivation which totally annuls her will”.

This, the court considers, prevents her from understanding the illegality of her actions or acting accordingly. During the trial, she claimed she had grabbed the mayor by the neck in self-defense as he had held her by the arm when she entered the room. She is now has a three-year restraining order against her.

By Jennifer Leighfield