Man Beaten by East St. Louis Jailers had been Diagnosed as Schizophrenic

A 22-year-old man beaten by two jailers last week is a diagnosed schizophrenic police have dealt with numerous times, according to his family. Dionte Mason went to jail last Wednesday night after his mother called police because she was unable to control him. He came back late Friday morning with a swollen face and seven stitches. "He has real bad mood swings and sometimes it is more than I can handle. He was having one of those moments last week when I called for the police to come to pick him up," Dollister Head said of her son. "They know he has a problem and they should have called for an ambulance when they got here. I have had to call them so many times. They know he has a medical problem," she said. Mason said he was in a cell and was taken out and beaten. "They took me into the hallway and tried to get me to stop talking. Then they took me back to the cell and turned the lights off and started punching me in the face," he said. Mason said he doesn't remember what he was saying, but he does remember he was talking and the jailers were trying to get him to shut up. "I wasn't talking to them. I was just talking," he said. Mason said he filed a complaint Monday. Police Chief James Mister said he was unaware whether a complaint had been filed. Mason has a history of trouble with the police. A News-Democrat story reported that Mason accused police of beating him in 2003 outside an East St. Louis nightclub. "My son just has not been the same since that time," his mother said. [more]