City of New Bern settles $100K lawsuit over unlawful separation between autistic child and mother

New Bern Police to revise involuntary commitment protocols after $100K lawsuit

An eastern North Carolina mother is relieved this week after receiving “some semblance of justice” from the City of New Bern, following a 2023 lawsuit in which a New Bern police officer put her 10-year-old nonverbal autistic son in handcuffs and forcibly separated him from her care. 

The family has received a $100,000 settlement from the City of New Bern, in addition to city officials implementing significant changes to the New Bern Police Department’s policies on involuntary commitments (IVCs).

“We commend the city for making these important revisions to its involuntary commitment policy,” said Ian Mance, one of the attorneys from Emancipate NC, the Durham-based nonprofit civil rights organization representing Sasha Strayhorn and her family. “It was important to the Strayhorns to see something positive come from this difficult experience.”

Cardinal & Pine asked the City of News Bern officials about the settlement, to which their public information officer Colleen M. Roberts said they have no comment.

The incident at the mall

The settlement addresses the events of July 30, 2023, when New Bern police officer Michael Zak responded to a 9-1-1 call, reporting that K.S. was seen hitting his mother outside of the Twin Rivers Mall in New Bern. 

In a WITN interview with the Strayhorns back in 2023, K.S.’s grandmother, Adele Strayhorn, said the reason K.S. was upset because his favorite pizza restaurant at the mall was closed on Sunday, and they were unaware. 

Due to K.S.’s nonverbal autism, Adele said that he occasionally has difficulty coping with changes in routine—which can lead to emotional outbursts that can, at times, become physical.

“The whole meltdown began because he associates things with places,” Strayhorn told WITN. “When we take him to the mall, he knows that means pizza. This just happens to be on a Sunday. He doesn’t know the days of the week.” 

This challenging moment at the mall escalated further when police intervened.

Days after the incident at Twin Rivers Mall, during an Aug. 8 Board of Aldermen meeting in New Bern, Police Chief Patrick Gallagher said it was “not the intention of anyone in the New Bern Police Department—from his office to the officers on the street—to deprive any person of their constitutional rights of their dignity.”

Gallagher defended his officers’ actions during the incident, stating:

“At no time was any other force utilized during this incident. The mother was informed that her son was not arrested and no charges would be filed. The officer offered the mother the option of seeking an involuntary commitment from the Craven County magistrate and had the child evaluated by a doctor at a hospital. The mother elected to obtain the IVC paperwork. A separate officer escorted the mother to a magistrate’s office while the child was transported to the hospital.”

However, a press release sent from Strayhorn’s lawyers painted a different picture, claiming Officer Zak pressured Sasha Strayhorn into signing paperwork committing her son to psychiatric custody, repeatedly telling her, “Either you can, or I can.”

After allegedly securing her signature under duress, Zak detained K.S. in his police vehicle, drove the 10-year-old to a hospital, and admitted him for evaluation. There, K.S. was forced to change clothes and submit to a blood draw while separated from his mother. 

Doctors quickly determined that K.S. did not require psychiatric admission and released him back into his mother’s care.

“Within minutes of encountering him for the first time, Officer Zak announced that K.S.’s medication wasn’t working and that he needed to take him to the hospital to ‘level out his mood,’” said Jaelyn Miller, the other attorney representing the family. “Officer Zak was in no position to second-guess Ms. Strayhorn’s judgment about what her child needed, and he had no lawful basis to seize the child.”

Policy changes aim to restore public trust

The City of New Bern’s City Directive 41.2.7 policy now requires officers to follow stricter procedures before initiating an IVC. Key revisions include prohibiting officers from detaining individuals while waiting for paperwork unless other lawful grounds exist. Officers must also have a physical copy of a custody order before taking someone into custody. These changes were approved in response to the Strayhorn incident, and are intended to prevent similar occurrences.

IVCs are legal processes through which individuals experiencing mental health crises can be detained for psychiatric evaluation or treatment without their consent. Typically, IVCs require documentation from a physician or magistrate, stating that the person poses a danger to themselves or others.

The revised policy additionally mandates that officers initiating an IVC process must appear before a magistrate or clerk to file an affidavit and petition for a custody order. These safeguards aim to protect families and individuals from unnecessary or unlawful detentions.

The Strayhorns’ settlement was approved by Superior Court Judge Hoyt Tessener in June. Miller confirmed that the $100,000 settlement has already been paid by the City of New Bern. Of this amount, two-thirds will go directly to K.S., while the remaining third will be allocated to his mother.

When Cardinal & Pine asked to speak with the Strayhorns, Miller said “unfortunately, Sasha does not wish to make any statement.” 

But speaking on Sasha’s behalf, Miller said the family is relieved that they received “some semblance of justice.”

“It was important to the family that the City make substantive policy changes that would make it less likely this would happen again and the City did that,” Miller said. “So they are happy that something positive came from this and they hope the new policy will protect against this happening to other individuals in the future.”