Mental-Health &
Crisis Encounters
Direct line: (239) 571-1840 · GregoryGilbertson@proton.me
Attorney and law-firm inquiries only
When the call itself announces a person in crisis, the standards change before the first officer arrives. The analysis examines what dispatch conveyed, what crisis-intervention training the responding officers had actually received, and whether the tactics used (time, distance, cover, containment, and communication) reflected that training or abandoned it.
Three experts. Over 110 years.
Professor Gregory Gilbertson (Ret.), FBI Special Agent Christopher Holland (Ret.), and Sheriff Robert Snaza consult with attorneys nationwide regarding police practices and procedures, use of force, false arrest, police misconduct, criminal, and self-defense casework.
CEO & OwnerThirty-eight years in four uniforms: street cop, soldier, professor, investigator. More than 220 matters in 42 states and D.C. since 2014, with testimony that has not been excluded at trial in any state or federal court.
Full biography
ConsultantMore than thirty-five years in public safety: twelve years and three terms as the elected Sheriff of Lewis County, Washington, and six years a commissioner of the state board that sets peace-officer training standards.
Full profile
ConsultantForty years of investigative casework, from patrolman in St. Louis County to the FBI in Chicago, and on to task forces in Afghanistan and Liberia. His work on the Idaho student murders is examined in Broken Plea, the New York Times bestseller by Christopher Whitcomb.
Full profileNever excluded. Professor Gilbertson’s testimony has not been excluded at trial in any state or federal court.
The Hon. Richard A. Jones United States District Judge“Mr. Gilbertson’s qualifications demonstrate extensive experience in policing. His expansive work as a police officer in Georgia, with assignments as a SWAT team officer, juvenile court investigator, school resource officer, stakeout squad officer, senior patrolman, and patrolman; then a career as a tenured college professor and university lecturer teaching criminal justice courses to degree-seeking students at colleges and universities, and as a licensed private investigator conducting felony pretrial investigations for attorneys in Washington State in dozens of criminal cases, makes him unique in the field of police expert witnesses. The Court finds that, based on his experience, Mr. Gilbertson’s testimony can be expected to have a reliable basis in knowledge and experience of police practices.”
What this covers.
Within this engagement
- Force used in encounters with a person in crisis
- Crisis-intervention training and whether it was applied
- De-escalation, time, distance and cover as tactics
- Dispatch information and pre-arrival threat framing
- Containment and slowing an encounter down
- Requests for specialized or co-responder resources
- Agency crisis-response policy and supervision
The 911 call and CAD narrative, radio traffic, body-worn video from first contact forward, crisis-intervention training records for each responding officer, the agency's crisis-response and de-escalation policies, and supervisory decisions on scene. Clinical questions about a person's diagnosis or condition belong to qualified mental-health professionals, and are deferred to them.
Engagement terms and the published fee schedule: For Retaining Counsel →
Working references for this practice area.
Guides for retaining counsel, written from the same record this analysis reads.
“He engaged with the jury and his testimony was solid. I recommend Professor Gilbertson in any case involving police misconduct.”Patrick Trudell, Attorney at Law · Kirkland, WA
Before the record is sent.
Does this opinion diagnose the person in crisis?
What does retention cost?
Send a crisis-encounter record.
Attorney and law-firm inquiries only. Conflicts are checked before anything substantive, and you will hear about a conflict immediately.
Inquiry sent.
You will hear back directly. If the matter is urgent, call (239) 571-1840.
Conflicts are checked before any substantive discussion. Please do not send privileged material with a first inquiry; after retention the record is exchanged on physical media. Gregory consults for attorneys and their staff only, and does not provide legal advice or attorney referrals to individuals.