Irvine Junior College Student Filed Civil Rights Lawsuit Against Probation Officer

A probationer filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Santa Ana today alleging sheriff's officials refused to provide him anti-anxiety medication while in custody and that a probation officer is deliberately inducing the man to experience panic attacks.

Shane Miles Wilkey, a junior college student living with his mother in Orange County, was on three years of probation when he was arrested for violating probation with a visit to Las Vegas, according to the lawsuit.

Wilkey initially got into legal trouble when he “met a girl online who said she was 18, but wasn't,'' according to the lawsuit.

Wilkey allegedly had a panic attack while in custody in Orange County Jail on June 6, according to the lawsuit.

“He was taken to a nurse and requested medication (which he has used for his panic attacks),'' according to the lawsuit. “Medication was refused, mental health care was refused; if he suggested suicide, they would put him naked, alone, in a cell with no phone for 48 hours until a medical professional could see him all in violation of federal court orders...'' Wilkey alleged that his probation officer, Rodney Grantham, who is named in the lawsuit, was aware of the man's stress-related panic attacks and “deliberately induced panic attacks by harassing and threatening (Wilkey),'' according to the suit.

Wilkey required hospitalization because of one of the panic attacks, he claims in the suit.

Grantham arrests Wilkey “for his own sadistic pleasure,'' the lawsuit alleges. Wilkey alleges Grantham's “harassment'' is the result of a “vile, mean, psychotic, sadistic bully.''

The lawsuit alleges due process, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment violations. He demands at least $1 million in damages.

Orange County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Mark Stichter, a department spokesman, said his agency has not been served with the lawsuit and declined comment.

City News Service