By Michael Kelley | BusinessInsider.net

UPDATE: A circuit court judge has ordered that the Marine veteran detained over anti-government Facebook posts be released from a state psychiatric hospital because the original petition contained no facts, Catie Beck of CBS 6 News reports.

ORIGINAL: Brandon Raub’s attorneys have filed a motion to suspend the August 20 ruling that ordered Raub to be involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric ward.

On August 20 the 26-year-old Marine veteran was sentenced to up to 30 days in a psych ward after he was detained on August 16 in connection to Facebook posts that are critical of the official story regarding 9/11 and refer to "starting a revolution."

Raub’s lead attorney, John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, told BI that the August 20 order was "rubber-stamped" and indicative of the corrupt system in Virginia.

"The special justice is very old," Whitehead said. "He had trouble hearing Brandon. He brought into the courtroom a personal cassette player – we tried to listen to it and you can hardly hear what’s being said. This is the so-called judge – he’s a lawyer, not a real judge – it’s like what you would see in a bad movie."

Whitehead said that every year in Virginia more than 20,000 people are committed under similar circumstances and "that means a lot of people are disappearing" under the pretext of mental illness.

"I’m friends with the local police; I could call them right now and probably get you committed if you were in Virginia," Whitehead said. "They can arrive at your door based on somebody’s testimony or your Facebook page and take you away to a mental hospital… There’s a system here that is corrupt. And this guy is caught in it."

In the motion Raub’s lawyers argue that since the initial orders to detain Raub did not follow the Virginia law that the Chesterfield PD cited, Raub’s initial and continued detention is unlawful.

"If they’re honest, he’ll be out early," Whitehead said.

Chesterfield police stated that they "took Raub into custody for evaluation in accordance with Virginia State Code § 37.2-808 Emergency custody."

But according to Va. Code § 37.2-808, a person in emergency custody may only be held for four hours unless a magistrate enters a temporary detention order (TDO) during that time.

Raub’s lawyers argue that since the magistrate entered the order more than eight hours after he was taken into custody, the District Court "lacked any basis (much less clear and convincing evidence) to conclude that Raub (i) has a mental illness, and (ii) that there was a substantial likelihood that, as a result of such mental illness, Raub will, in the near future, cause serious physical harm to others, as Va. Code 37.2-817 specifically requires."


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