Alleged Bank Robber Requests Care At Mental Hospital

A Cathedral City woman accused of holding up a Palm Desert bank told a judge today that she has mental health issues and wants to spend her jail time in a place she can get treatment.

Bertha Hortencia Rangel refused to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to a felony charge of robbery Monday until the court would hear her request.

"I think you should speak to your attorney first," Riverside County Superior Court Judge Thomas N. Douglass advised Rangel.

She said that her attorney, a public defender, "refuses my wishes," and the judge allowed her to speak.

Rangel told the court that she is a "5150 mental patient."

"I demand to go to a mental hospital to do my time served," Rangel said. "... It's the same punishment as jail. They will will know how to handle me."

Thomas listened to her request and then took her plea of not guilty. The judge set bail at $35,000. He ordered her to return back to court on Feb. 1 for a felony settlement conference.

Before Rangel's arraignment, she told a deputy she felt nauseous, and she was taken out of the courtroom for a breif period of time.

Rangel was taken into custody around 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19 as she was leaving in the 73000 block of Highway 111, according to sheriff's Deputy Angel Ramos.

Rangel, who was not armed, was allegedly carrying a bundle of cash, Ramos said.

She entered the bank, handed a teller a note, and walked out, but deputies arrived shortly after someone activated the alarm, the deputy said.