Ousted assemblyman’s mother says ‘world knows my son is ill’

By Anjeanette Damon

Tuesday, April 2, 2013 | 12:13 p.m.

Former Assemblyman Steven Brooks “intended to harm no one,” even as he publicly spiraled out of control and everyone from his family to doctors at a psychiatric hospital to his colleagues in the Legislature failed to help him, his mother told Las Vegas journalist Jon Ralston in an interview Monday evening.

Roxanne Brooks said she felt largely helpless as her son succumbed to problems she said she is still unable to identify because of medical privacy laws.

“I’d love to tell you what was going on with my son but, unfortunately, I really don’t know,” she said on Ralston Reports. “I know my son is ill. You know my son is ill. I think the world knows my son is ill at this point. What his illness is, what his diagnosis is, I couldn’t tell you, because I’m not allowed to have that information.”

Roxanne Brooks said she and other relatives tried to get the troubled lawmaker help long before his public meltdown, arrests and ultimate ouster from the Assembly. She had him admitted to a psychiatric hospital, only to find him back out on the street “even worse.”

Shortly after his release from the hospital in January, Steven Brooks was arrested — with a gun in his possession — on a count of threatening Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick.

But Roxanne Brooks said despite her son’s erratic behavior and his threatening comments, he never wanted to hurt anyone.

“He intended to harm no one,” she told Ralston. “If he was going to do it, he had guns. He had rifles. My kids all have rifles. They go out shooting all the time. If he intended to harm anyone, he had knives, he had guns, he had rifles. He could’ve done it.”

Roxanne Brooks said she and others tried to convince her son to step down from office and get help before trying to resume his political career.

That didn’t happen. And the resulting pressure from the media and fellow lawmakers once he arrived in Carson City made his condition worse, his mother said.

“I didn’t want my son to go up there (to Carson City),” Roxanne Brooks said. “I wanted him to get the help he needed.”

But she bemoaned the fact the Assembly voted to expel him, saying the Legislature could have done more to get him the help he needs.

“My sister-in-law was with him every single day in that building,” Roxanne Brooks said. “Not once did anyone in that Legislature come up to her and say, ‘Do you need help? Is there something we could do?’

“They keep saying they reached out. Who did they reach out to? A sick man?”