The wife of embattled filmmaker Jason Russell has urged officials at the charity he co-founded to let her worry about her husband's mental state and continue with their campaign to bring Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony to justice.
Russell, the man behind the hard-hitting Kony 2012 viral video, was arrested for alleged public drunkenness and masturbation in San Diego, California last week (15Mar12).
The father-of-two Russell, who features in the film alongside his young son, was taken in to custody following reports of him allegedly masturbating in public and vandalising cars.
On Friday (16Mar12), Tmz.com reported Russell had been hospitalised on a 5150 psychiatric hold so authorities could assess his mental state.
Ben Keesey, the Ceo of Invisible Children - the charity Russell co-founded, released a statement which read: "Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalized... suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition... He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better. The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday."
And, on Saturday (17Mar12), Russell's wife Danica released a statement to the charity's supporters, adding: "Thank you to everyone concerned with Jason and his health. Jason has dedicated his adult life to this cause, leading up to Kony 2012. We thought a few thousand people would see the film, but in less than a week, millions of people around the world saw it. While that attention was great for raising awareness about Joseph Kony, it also brought a lot of attention to Jason - and, because of how personal the film is, many of the attacks against it were also very personal, and Jason took them very hard.
"He did some irrational things brought on by extreme exhaustion. On our end, the focus remains only on his health, and protecting our family. We’ll take care of Jason, you take care of the work."