Kept On Ice Without Treatment For 230 Days

A 77-year-old man arrested in May 2024 on attempted murder charges after he began fighting with a co-resident of a senior citizen care facility in Hesperia and was held in sheriff’s custody for nearly eight months without release died on January 22 from a cause or causes that have yet to be disclosed.
According to a member of the department working the detention detail, Stanley Eugene Brabant had mental health issues that were apparent from the time of his booking and which were not being adequately addressed or addressed at all while he was under the supervision of department. Both the district attorney’s office and the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health dropped the ball in following through with proper evaluation and treatment for Brabant, according to the individual who saw him on a continuous basis, four to five days per week for months.
San Bernardino County Superior Court records indicate that Brabant languished in custody for months on end and was not given proper medical care and mental health treatment his condition required at least partially because of the discontinuity in his legal processing, as an inadequate concentration of attention to his circumstance attended the suspension of criminal proceedings against him and what ultimately proved to be a drawn-out and unresolved determination of his placement in a facility that could properly deal with his physical and psychological issues.
Over the course of his incarceration and his incomplete processing through the justice system, his case was not overseen by a single judge but rather four, a signal that the San Bernardino County bench found the criminal prosecution of the elderly and mentally incompetent defendant distasteful. Individuals within the district attorney’s office, if not their superiors up to the level of District Attorney Jason Anderson, found having to deal with Brabant in the forum of criminal proceedings equally disagreeable, as a total of four deputy prosecutors were assigned to the case. And members of the public defender’s office found participating in the prosecutorial effort likewise troubling, as that office went through four deputy public defenders during the course of the prosecution of Brabant, who was never given the benefit of a coordinated, cogent or coherently mapped out defense strategy.
As of last spring, Brabant was residing at the Foremost Retirement Community, 17581 Sultana Street in Hesperia. Around 1 p.m. on May 28, 2024, at according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, he became involved in a physical altercation with another resident of the care home.
The call to the sheriff’s department dispatch indicated only that two elderly males at the Sultana Street location were fighting.
“Upon arrival, deputies learned the suspect assaulted the victim and the victim sustained major injuries,” the sheriff’s department said at the time, identifying the suspect as Brabant, while keeping the identity of the individual he had the confrontation with confidential. “The victim was transported to a trauma center for injuries and is currently in critical condition.” The department reported that Brabant, who was described as “a 76-year-old resident of Hesperia,” had been “arrested and booked into the West Valley Detention Center for PC664/187(a)- Attempted Murder and is being held on $1,000,000.00 bail.”
On May 30, 2024, Brabant was arraigned in the Rancho Cucamonga courtroom of Judge Brian Stodghill. Despite there being only 5.1 miles between the West Valley Detention Center, where Brabant was jailed, and the Rancho Cucamonga Justice Center, Brabant was arraigned via video without Judge Stodghill actually being able to see him in person. Present in the courtroom was the prosecutor initially assigned to the case, Deputy District Attorney Kathleen Barreras, and Brabant’s defense attorney, Public Defender William Drake.
On June 4, the county went to the expense of transporting Brabant the 41.1 miles from the West Valley Detention Center to the Victorville Courthouse, where he was supposed to appear before Judge John Wilkerson. For a reason that is unclear, however, Brabant did not appear before Judge Wilkerson but rather Judge Melissa Rodriguez. Representing the People of California against him was Deputy District Attorney Maggie Yang. Brabant was represented by San Bernardino County Deputy Public Defender Jessica Gandara, who had never encountered Brabant prior to seeing him in the courtroom that morning. In her brief exchange with Brabant, Gandara was so unsettled by her inability to have any sort of cogent exchange with her client that she requested an off the record meeting with Judge Rodriguez and Yang in Judge Rodriguez’s chambers. On the record after the in-chambers conference, the parties agreed to holding a preliminary hearing on June 11.
Brabant’s known criminal history within San Bernardino County was a limited one. In 2001, when he was 53 years old, he had an encounter with Chino Police, after which he was charged with resisting arrest. The San Bernardino county District Attorney’s Office originally charged him with felony resisting arrest but reduced that charge to a misdemeanor prior to his entering a guilty plea.
On June 11, 2024, Brabant was transported to the Victorville Courthouse where the preliminary hearing was to be held, this time before Judge Debra Harris. Deputy District Attorney Adrian Verduzco was there to flesh out enough of the bare bones case against Brabant to convince Judge Harris to bind him over for trial. Deputy Public Defender Kole Oswald, who like Gandara before him had no familiarity with Brabant, was equally taken aback as his colleague by his client’s incoherence. During the initial phase of that morning’s proceedings, credible doubt about Brabant’s mental health was suggested by Oswald, which was declared and affirmed by Judge Harris, who forthwith suspended the criminal proceedings against Brabant, and appointed a medical commissioner, consisting of Silverado-based doctor John S. Kinsman, Psy.D., to look into the issue. A hearing was set for July 26, 2024 before Judge Wilkerson for the reporting out of Dr. Kinsman’s findings and report as well as any other relevant medical reports.
The hearing set for July 26 was not held.
There followed a more than two-month delay before Brabant was again transported on October 1, 2024 to the Victorville Courthouse, where he appeared before Judge Wilkerson for a hearing on his placement. For the first time, there was some continuity shown in the personnel assigned to the matter, with Deputy District Yang and Deputy Public Defender Oswalt present.
The court took up the matter of a report relating to Brabant’s placement in a proper medical or mental health recovery setting, one that in the interim had been completed by MHM Services of California, Inc. Judge Wilkerson said he had read and considered report filed by MHM Services, which had recommended an independent evaluation to ascertain the likelihood of whether Brabant could be restored to competency to stand trial. Yang and Oswalt gave differing opinions on the report, and Judge Wilkerson referred the matter relating to Brabant to Dr. Mendel Feldsher, M.D. at Patton State Mental Hospital for his evaluation of the defendant and a report with regard to whether he could be restored to competency.
A hearing on Dr. Feldsher’s report for Placement was set for November 12, with Brabant ordered to appear at that time.
On November 12, due to medical issues he was facing, Brabant was not present for the hearing relating to him presided over by Judge Wilkerson in his Victorville courtroom with Yang and Oswald present. During the proceedings, Judge Wilkerson indicated he had read and considered an email from Dr. Feldsher. Judge Wilkerson then granted Oswald’s request for a continuance until December 17 so Dr. Feldsher could complete the recordation of his findings and recommendation. Criminal proceedings remained suspended.
On December 17, 2024, Brabant was transported to Victorville, at which point District Attorney Jason Anderson had removed Deputy District Attorney Yang from the case and Public Defender Thomas Sone had removed Deputy Public Defender Oswald from the case. In their place to make arguments with regard to Brabant’s placement before Judge Wilkerson were Deputy District Attorney Kathleen Fultz and Deputy Public Defender Michael Mendoza. Judge Wilkerson said that according to the report filed by Dr. Mendel Feldsher, “There is no substantial likelihood for the defendant to be restored to trial competency as his primary barrier to trial competence is due to major cognitive deficits which are not expected to appreciably improve with education or medication.” Judge Wilkerson ordered the San Bernardino County Conservator’s Office to evaluate the defendant to determine the propriety of appointing a conservator. He called upon the San Bernardino County Counsel’s office to update the court prior to next hearing of conservatorship status. The criminal proceedings against Brabant remained suspended.
Judge Wilkerson set a hearing date of February 4 in Rancho Cucamonga Court in Department R-18 for a placement report.
On January 22, 2024, at about 5:50 p.m., deputies at the West Valley Detention Center were conducting hourly safety checks, at which point they found Brabant unresponsive inside a cell. Deputies, followed by jail medical staff made efforts to revive him and provide emergency medical care until the Rancho Cucamonga Fire Department arrived and assumed the lifesaving efforts. Brabant, however, was pronounced dead.
The sheriff’s department’s specialized investigations division was dispatched to the detention facility and assumed the investigation.  During the investigation, detectives learned the decedent had been hospitalized in the weeks prior and was suffering from numerous serious medical conditions. The decedent was transported to the coroner’s office, which is a division of the sheriff’s department, where an autopsy was carried out. The results of that autopsy have not been released.
On February 4, the hearing for the report on Brabant’s placement was held before Judge Stodghill. There was noting in the minutes of the hearing to indicate that those in court, from Judge Stodghill; his judicial assistant, Amber Bouchey; the bailiff, D. Gomez, who is a sheriff’s deputy who coordinates on a regular basis with personnel assigned to the West Valley Detention Center; Marika Mahone, who was assigned to update the court minutes; Deputy District Attorney Yang, to whom District Attorney Anderson once again assigned the matter; or Deputy Public Defender Landon Larkin, who had never personally encountered Brabant, knew Brabant was dead. With regard to Brabant’s attendance, the hearing minutes state merely “Defendant not present – not transported.”
In reporting out the proceedings, referrals and hearings, the minutes state, “Other hearing set for 5/6/2025 at 8:30 AM in Department R19 – Rancho Cucamonga Defendant ordered to appear. LPS Conservatorship Report Due: 05/01/2025 Custody Status Clerk’s Office to: Prepare a Medical Packet and send to Department of Behavioral Health-Conservatorship Investigations Unit.”