'Progressive' NY mental health laws led to the murder of an innocent 14-year-old in the Bronx

BRONX, NY - The insanity of the criminal justice system in blue jurisdictions has come under increasing scrutiny in the past several years, as well as the overall mental health system in the United States. A case in New York City is painting how broken the system indeed appears to be. 

The New York Post reports that New York City residents are outraged that it took the killing of a 14-year-old boy to get a psychopath locked away in a psychiatric facility. That man, Waldo Mejia, screamed out, “I’m with Satan!” in a city courtroom after NYPD said he stabbed the teen in the chest, killing him. 

Fourteen-year-old Caleb Rios was walking to school on East 138th Street in the Bronx on Jan. 10 when Mejia stabbed him twice in a completely unprovoked attack. Mejia has a lengthy history of arrests and mental illness, prompting NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to say that “systems…continue to fail us.” 

New York politicians and attorneys told the Post that there is a “dire need to change the state’s involuntary commitment laws,” the outlet wrote. 

“New York City’s criminal justice system–including the ever-evolving bail statutes–is just not equipped to handle people who are clearly indicating advanced signs of mental illness and engage in bizarre and violent acts,” said Mark Bederow, a New York City defense attorney who is not tied to this case. 

“There were all kinds of red flags with this guy from before this terrible incident, and it’s just senseless,” he continued. 

Mejia’s history of violent incidents includes menacing his mother, setting the lobby of his ex-girlfriend’s building on fire, and stabbing a neighbor's doorbell camera, police records and sources said. 

Yet despite that history, Mejia has largely avoided being institutionalized, leading to a slashing of a subway rider in January and then the murder of Rios later that month. 

“He’s doing it in front of us, in front of our own eyes, and our criminal justice system just continues to let this happen time and time again,” said city Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo, a Republican. He has proposed a bill that would automatically force someone into a mental health treatment program if they are arrested for the same crime ten times, which appears to be rather generous. 

After his latest court appearance, a judge finally ordered Mejia to a psychiatric facility where he’ll be held until he’s deemed fit to stand trial on murder and manslaughter charges in the murder of the 14-year-old. 

Last week, Albany Democrats appeared to try to weaken a proposal by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to expand involuntary commitment laws in the upcoming state budget. Instead, they are pushing a weaker measure that would require review panels after incidents where mentally ill people tend to “fall through the cracks” or impose harm on others. 

The Post wrote that a source familiar with budget negotiations in Albany indicated that the Assembly and the Senate leaders discussed Hochul’s proposal in closed-door talks and agreed that something should be done. 

However, sources say that the talks have yet to produce any worthwhile results, and also whether any changes could have intercepted a crazed lunatic like Mejia before he killed an innocent child. 

At a Jan. 10 news conference, Commissioner Tisch railed against the system that had someone like Mejia out on the streets. 

“A brutal, unprovoked killing of a 14-year-old by a career criminal or recidivist over and over again, with [a severe] history of mental health interactions with the NYPD.” 

Mejia has suffered from schizophrenia for years, and in 2015, he voluntarily committed himself at the behest of his family, although his stepbrother said he would frequently stop taking his medication. 

In 2015, Mejia was arrested with a gravity knife he said was for protection, which was the first of at least four times he was taken into custody, law enforcement sources told The Post. 

In 2017, he was arrested for a domestic violence incident where he threatened to break everything in his mother’s home. Mejia threatened her, saying, “I have a gun,” leading her to call the police. 

In 2019, Mejia set the lobby of his ex-girlfriend’s Bronx apartment building ablaze, a source said. He pleaded that charge down to reckless endangerment and was granted a release under the condition he seek mental health treatment, The New York Times reported at the time. 

Last November, he attempted to stab his neighbor’s doorbell camera with a knife, again leading to his arrest. The neighbor also told cops that he had repeatedly harassed him. 

Most of New York’s issues rest in Albany, where progressive Democrats refuse to do anything about the mental health crisis in the state. The state’s bail reform laws allow even serious criminals to go free without bail with limited exceptions. 

In the case of Mejia, his defense attorney said he was going through his history and was unsure whether he had been required to undergo psychiatric intervention in any of his previous cases. 

“That’s the heart of the matter because it’s clearly an individual who has pre-existing psychological issues, is incapable, as we can now understand, of taking care of himself Attorney Patrick Brackley told The Post. “So, somewhere, he was put in a position where he was not being properly medicated. 

Meanwhile, Caleb Rios’ father is forced to live with the fact that his son was senselessly murdered. One of his neighbors, Ideliz Rodriguez, said the boy’s father is “broken” and rarely talks since the murder. 

“He walks with his head down or looks straight ahead when he’s coming into the building,” she said. 

A family friend, Elizabeth Lawson, said Caleb’s father is angry. 

“He’s messed up. He’s upset all the time,” she said. “This should have never happened. They always wait for something to happen in order for them to do something.” 

Friends and neighbors have set up a memorial inside the lobby of the apartment building where Caleb and his father lived. Posters, balloons, and flowers line the walls, and messages of love and calls for justice are scrawled on the walls. 

“Mental illness is not an excuse to take an innocent life!” one note read.