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OC Man Makes Plea For Wife's Mental Health Care After Breakdown Landed Her In Jail

ORANGE COUNTY (CBSLA.com) — An Orange County man whose wife was arrested this week after having a mental breakdown while behind the wheel is speaking out to get her the help she needs in jail.

Tim Montag says two days ago he watched helpless as his wife of 25 years, Sandra Montag, got into her car and plowed through neighbors' lawns, barely missing people as he tried to stop her.

"My wife was having a hysterical breakdown. I screamed to anyone in the neighborhood call 911 and help," he said.

"She went up and down the sidewalk... She finally let me in the car."

Montag spoke with CBS2's Stacey Butler about the incident. He said he sat in the back of the car trying to calm her down but his wife was out of control.

He hopes a video he shared of the episode will help his wife, arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, get the psychiatric care she's desperately needed after his calls to authorities went unanswered.

"In the last six months I called 911, asked the police to assist me, to help my wife who was screaming in the middle of the street at all hours of the night, and they only wanted to press charges and not help her in her mental health," he said.

Montag says caring for their two special needs kids, her ailing mother-in-law and her husband, recovering from a string of injuries and surgeries and unable to work for five years, took his wife to the breaking point.

"My daughters and kids always say that that's not mom," he said.

Now he's hoping that officials at the Orange County Jail will step in and provide mental health care.

"This is a tragic story about a woman who was taking on all the pressures of five dependents with nobody to turn to," he said.

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