Judge orders lengthy treatment program for Sacramento woman in July SWAT standoff
A Sacramento judge Friday ordered the La Riviera woman whose shotgun blasts inside her apartment in July led to a standoff with a Sacramento police SWAT team to participate in a two-year mental health diversion program.
The order from Sacramento Superior Court Commissioner Ken Brody came five months after the July 16 SWAT incident at Kathy Miller’s apartment.
The ruling sets the 31-year-old Sacramento mother of three on an aggressive two-year regimen of one-on-one and group counseling; treatment and medication for bipolar disorder; parenting classes for those living with the condition; and monthly court visits to track her progress.
“It’s arguably more difficult than jail. It’s a program where she enters into individual therapy, meets with a psychiatrist, undergoes medical management and group therapy — all in two years,” said attorney Michelle Trigger, who with Shelby Alberts made up Miller’s defense team.
Brody handed down the ruling over the objection of prosecutors, who had argued the seriousness of the crimes made Miller’s case a prime candidate for the county’s mental health court.
Miller’s case fit the criteria for diversion, Alberts and Trigger argued: She suffers from a mental disorder; that disorder played a significant role in the commission of the crimes; and if treated, she will not pose a danger to public safety.
“The court is satisfied Ms. Miller won’t pose a threat to public safety,” Brody said. “I fully expect Ms. Miller to fully comply” with the conditions of her program, the judge added, acknowledging the “absolute seriousness with which I take this and the DA’s objection.”
Miller was at home with her three young children the morning of July 16 when she fired the shots — 11 in all into the ceiling of her family’s apartment, prosecutors said Friday — that brought police to her door. Her children were not hurt, and Miller surrendered to police without incident.
She was charged with discharging a firearm in an inhabited dwelling and child endangerment.
Miller bailed out of jail but was arrested the next day at a Folsom hotel, suspected of inflicting injury on her husband and committing a felony while released on bail. Miller had had no previous contact with law enforcement before the July incidents, her attorneys said, calling the incidents “wholly out of character.”
The back-to-back incidents on July 16 and 17 were later found to be connected to Miller’s bipolar disorder, her attorneys said.
It was behavior that “manifested with really unfortunate triggering events” in the days and weeks before the episode: a break-in at her apartment; the attempted snatching of one of her children from their stroller during an outing; and being struck by a hit-and-run driver, Alberts said in an interview Friday following the ruling.
The July morning of Miller’s episode, she locked her children into a bedroom and fired rounds into the apartment ceiling. After the earlier break-in, Miller’s husband had shown her how to load their shotgun and told her to fire a warning shot into the air to ward off any would-be intruder.
She thought someone was again forcing their way into her apartment, defense attorney Trigger said during the Friday interview. That touched off her mental break, Trigger said.
That Miller sought help for her illness after the twin July episodes helped pave the way for Friday’s ruling, her attorneys said. The treatment regimen ordered in Friday’s ruling will largely be a continuation of treatment she has participated in for months, Alberts said.
Still, Miller’s attorneys had to convince the court that diversion and treatment were the correct options. They had help, from her husband to friends to members of her church and others.
“We had to prove that she can do it and will, that she’s capable of doing the regimen,” Alberts said. “She was having a psychotic break. We said, ‘Is this going to define her life or is she going to get treatment?’”
Miller returns to Brody’s Sacramento courtroom Jan. 10 for an update on her progress.
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