Tag: mental health

SANTA MONICA—On Tuesday, September 30, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced that the California Court of Appeal granted a petition to overturn a Superior Court ruling that allowed mental health diversion for a man accused of a vicious, racially charged assault in Santa Monica.

Job Uriah Taylor, 27, was arrested on March 3, 2023, after allegedly using a metal pipe to beat a man in an encampment adjacent to the 5th Street Expo station in Santa Monica. The unprovoked attack was the third of three assaults Taylor is accused of committing within the span of an hour.

Two of Taylor’s victims were hospitalized. Christian Hornburg, 64, was beaten with a pipe, and survived, but was severely injured with life-altering injuries.

The first attack transpired on the 1100 block of the beach. The suspect approached a man who was walking his dog. Taylor threatened him with a metal pipe and started yelling racial slurs at him.

Officers nearby and working on a separate project, overheard the attack and intervened. The suspect rode away on his bicycle in an unknown direction. The victim in this attack was not injured.

At around 7:50 a.m., another incident transpired on the north side of the train platform at 4th Street and Colorado Avenue. Taylor was seen attacking a male and female with the same pipe he used to threaten the first victim. While he was beating the victims in the head with the pipe he could be heard yelling racial slurs at them both.

Taylor was charged with attempted murder, three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon (not a firearm), and one felony to count of assault with a deadly weapon with force resulting in great bodily injury. The charges include a hate crime enhancement, as Taylor was heard shouting racial slurs at his victims during the attacks. Following his arrest, the defendant claimed he had been sent to Santa Monica to target Black residents.

On March 12, 2025, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lana Kim granted Taylor entry into the County’s mental health diversion program instead of allowing the case to proceed to trial, where he faced a potential life sentence. The District Attorney’s Office appealed that ruling, arguing that Taylor posed an unreasonable risk to public safety.

In announcing their decision, the Court of Appeal agreed, emphasizing that Taylor’s history of abandoning treatment, had just been released from a psychiatric facility before committing the attacks, and presented an ongoing danger to the community. The Court found that there was no evidence he would follow through with voluntary treatment if granted diversion.

He will now face trial on the original charges, including attempted murder with a hate crime enhancement. Further proceedings/pretrial conference for this case are set for December 18, 2025, in Department 71 of the Airport Courthouse. If convicted as charged, he faces life in prison.

Case SA107988 is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Steve Dickman of the Hate Crimes Unit and is being investigated by the Santa Monica Police Department.

 

By Danny Jones

SANTA MONICA—On Monday, April 7, the Santa Monica Fire Department informed Canyon News via email that it added a new member, Roger, The Support Dog to the team.

The Santa Monica Fire Department launched this week, a new K-9 Peer Support Program, an initiative designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of firefighters and other city employees and community members.

The program’s first K-9 team member, an English Labrador named Roger, is a certified support K-9 trained in providing comfort and companionship. Working alongside a designated peer support team handler, Roger will visit fire stations, attend debriefings after critical incidents, attend community events to interact with the public and be available to firefighters and city employees in need of emotional support.

The program aims to provide comfort, reduce stress and promote emotional resilience for the SMFD, personnel as well as the broader community.

“We are thrilled to introduce this program as a proactive step in supporting the mental wellness of our firefighters and city employees,” said Fire Chief Matthew Hallock. “The presence of a therapy dog has been proven to lower stress levels, improve morale and encourage open conversations about mental health. We believe this initiative will make a meaningful impact on our team.”

SMFD joins a growing number of agencies across the nation bringing on a K-9 support program to prioritize mental health for first responders. Southern California includes Redondo Beach Fire, Orange County Fire Authority, Huntington Beach Fire, Westminster Police Department, Newport Beach Fire and Torrance Fire.

By Trevor

SANTA MONICA—On Monday, January 8, the city of Santa Monica announced that first responders will have access to a dedicated behavioral health team to better assist individuals in need of mental health support, as a result of a partnership between the city and the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

The pilot program, launched on Monday provides a specialized therapeutic transport team that will be available five days a week to assist Santa Monica Police and Fire personnel with 911 and non-emergency calls for service that involve individuals who may be experiencing a mental health crisis. The partnership with the Department of Mental Health (DMH) is part of city’s aim to collaborate with regional service providers for a coordinated, holistic approach to addressing homelessness.

According to a news release from the city of Santa Monica, two Santa Monica-based teams will staff the van for eight hours per day to begin. The three-member therapeutic transport teams include a driver, a peer support specialist and a clinical social worker. During the first month of the program it will involve the team training and integration with first responders.

They will be accompanying first responders and have the ability, if appropriate, to independently handle calls for service. That approach will allow for more targeted and tailored responses focused on behavioral health care, while expanding first responders’ capacity to address other emergency calls.

The team will have the ability to do a psychiatric transport to an urgent mental healthcare facility or hospital, as well as impose a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization, known as a 5150 hold, for any individual who is deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. The team can assist with lower-level needs for someone in crisis. The pilot program will initially focus in the downtown area, with a focus to expanding citywide.

“This pilot allows us to provide a meaningful and appropriate level of response to support someone experiencing a mental health crisis,” said Mayor Phil Brock. “Mental health is a critical community need, particularly when it comes to our efforts to address homelessness, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with our partners at DMH to strengthen and enhance supportive resources in Santa Monica.”

The Santa Monica City Council committed $464,000 to fund the pilot program, and the county of Los Angeles provided $1.7 million for staffing resources. The goal is to expand the program to develop a county behavioral health team, led by a clinical social worker that can be available in Santa Monica 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This new resource builds on the Santa Monica City Council action from 2023 that secured additional funding for community mental health resources.

“Santa Monica’s therapeutic transport program launching this week demonstrates the power of Measure H and Los Angeles County’s emergency declaration for homelessness — a declaration also made by the city of Santa Monica, which has long championed local investments to address homelessness,” said Chair of the Board of Supervisors Lindsey P. Horvath, Third District. “Homelessness will best be solved by scaling solutions just like this one that meet people where they are with care and support from the county’s Department of Mental Health. I’m grateful for city leaders’ resolve to partner, innovate and create lasting solutions for those in greatest need.”

The service will benefit a range of clients, such as a teenager considering suicide, a senior experiencing dementia or a person experiencing homelessness impacted by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Staff are trained to connect people to supportive case management and other recovery-focused interventions, as well as transport them to a behavioral health facility if needed. Santa Monica is the third jurisdiction in Los Angeles County to partner with the DMH to deploy a new approach to responding to mental health needs in the community, and this partnership is set to inform future efforts to deploy behavioral health resources across the county.

“The Department of Mental Health is proud to collaborate with the city of Santa Monica to expand mental health services through this real-time, mobile resource aimed at meeting critical needs on the Westside,” said Director Dr. Lisa Wong. “In the months ahead, we look forward to seeing the results and the impact made by working side-by-side with our partners in the city of Santa Monica.”

For details about behavioral health visit https://www.santamonica.gov/future-of-behavioral-health. For background on Los Angeles County’s Therapeutic Transport Program, click here.

By Trevor