A stunning scene unfolded at a Northampton courthouse on Dec. 20, 2005 when an Amherst man, who was being sentenced to a psychiatric hospital, dropped to his knees and begged a judge for his freedom.
"Your honor, have mercy on me. Have mercy. I'm tired of being incarcerated like an animal," Ali N. El-Ghorfi, 23, told Hampshire Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported.
El-Ghorfi made the statement after Rup found him incompetent to stand trial on several charges, including attempted murder. She sentenced him to six months at Bridgewater State Hospital.
El-Ghorfi had to be surrounded by guards and escorted out of the courtroom when he made the statements, the newspaper reported.
He faced charges of attempted murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest.
Police say El-Ghorfi tried to strangle a man he did not know inside Rao's coffee shop in downtown Amherst on March 4, 2004. Rao's is a shop popular with local college students.
According to police, El-Ghorfi said he got upset when he saw a man of Turkish descent speaking to someone who wasn't Arab. At that point, El-Ghorfi allegedly used a belt to strangle the white man.
Customers intervened and used the belt to tie El-Ghorfi's legs together until police arrived.
In court, a forensic psychologist testified that El-Ghorfi is delusional and suffers from schizophrenia, the Gazette reported. El-Ghorfi has been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons about 12 times in the past 10 years.
Court documents indicate that El-Ghorfi's erratic behavior has continued since the March 2004 incident. On Aug. 22, 2005, State Police were called to his mother's Shutesbury home when she claimed to fear for her family's safety after El-Ghorfi was acting bizarre.
El-Ghorfi, who had recently been released from a Greenfield psychiatric center, allegedly began threatening his younger sister, Miriam El-Ghorfi, and his mother, Cecilia Shea.
State Trooper Geraldine Bresnahan, who was a responding officer to the El-Ghorfi home on Aug. 22, said in her report: "[Shea] described that [Ali El-Ghorfi] was acting paranoid, pacing around the house ranting and raving. [She] related that around 10 to 10:30 p.m., 'something set Ali off' and Ali went up to his 15-year-old sister Miriam, who was sitting in a chair in the living room. Mrs. Shea said that she witnessed Ali stand over Miriam and repeatedly swing one of his arms in close proximity to Miriam's face and body as through he was repeatedly punching her. Mrs. Shea described that Ali was 'out of control.'"
In another incident that night, Shea told police El-Ghorfi cornered her in the kitchen.
The report states: "[Shea] indicated that Ali took [a] dagger and pretended to repeatedly stab her with it. Mrs. Shea acknowledged she was in fear of her safety and for her daughter's."
During an earlier alleged incident, Ali El-Ghorfi went into Miriam El-Ghorfi's workplace and told her that their "mother was the devil and that he wanted to kill her slowly."
El-Ghorfi is formerly a resident of 1001 North Pleasant Street, Apt. 10.
Judge Rup told the court the she was convinced El-Ghorfi is a danger to himself and others, is mentally ill and would not be a proper subject for prison, the Gazette reported.
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