A man was wrongfully locked in a state psychiatric ward in Lincoln, Nebraska and walked free after 20 long years.
John Maxwell Montin, 52, was arrested in 1992 after he went to a house at Nebraska and said that he wanted it back as it belonged to his ancestors. There was an 11-hour stand-off that ended with shots fired. Montin was arrested for attempted murder and other charges.
Montin filed a lawsuit against doctors at Lincoln Regional Center for "incorrectly labeling him mentally ill, unnecessarily holding him and subjecting him to treatments he didn't need."
According to The Associated Press, Montin filed the lawsuit Friday in federal court and named 21 former or current Lincoln Regional Center doctors, a program manager and two nurses.
During his 1993 trial, prosecutors dropped most of the charges against Montin and jurors acquitted him of attempted murder and a weapons charge. They also found him not responsible by reason of insanity for false imprisonment and use of a weapon.
Later that year, Montin was sent to the psychiatric ward under the presumptions that he was mentally insane. Doctors had formed this opinion on the basis of police reports rather than the court record.
However, a regional doctor said last year that Montin was delusional only before being committed due to a back medication he was taking, one he went off of before entering the state psychiatric ward. He was released after the regional center doctor found out that Montin was misdiagnosed.
Lincoln's attorney Jon Braaten said the case was an "injustice," and he said Montin that was right from the beginning.
Montin is seeking over $22 million in damages, $760,000 in lost wages and $10 million in punitive damages.
